Disclosed are jet ink compositions suitable for printing on substrates such as plastics and oil contaminated metals messages having excellent adhesion, for example, scratch resistance. The jet ink composition comprises one or more organic solvents, a rosin resin, and a colorant, and optionally a co-binder resin, e.g., a vinyl resin. Preferably, the jet ink composition is free or substantially free of a cellulose nitrate resin and/or a slow evaporating solvent. The present invention further provides a method for printing scratch resistant messages on a low surface energy substrate comprising projecting a stream of droplets of the jet ink composition to the substrate, controlling the direction of the stream so that the droplets are caused to form the desired printed messages, and allowing the messages to dry.

Ink jet printing is a well-known technique by which printing is accomplished without contact between the printing device and the substrate on which the printed characters are deposited. Briefly described, ink jet printing involves the technique of projecting a stream of ink droplets to a surface and controlling the direction of the stream so that the droplets are caused to form the desired printed image on that surface. This technique of noncontact printing is particularly well suited for application of characters onto substrates such as glass, metal, or plastic containers and packages.
Reviews of various aspects of ink jet printing can be found in these publications: Kuhn et al., Scientific American, April, 1979, 162-178; and Keeling, Phys. Technol., 12(5), 196-303 (1981). Various ink jet apparatuses are described in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,060,429, 3,298,030, 3,373,437, 3,416,153, and 3,673,601.
In general, an ink jet ink composition must meet certain requirements to be useful in ink jet printing operations. These requirements relate to viscosity, resistivity, solubility, compatibility of components and wettability of the substrate. Further, the ink must be quick-drying and smear resistant, resist abrasion, and be capable of passing through the ink jet nozzle without clogging, and permit rapid cleanup of the machine components with minimum effort. In addition, the printed messages must have sufficient adhesion to the substrates.
Plastic substrates, particularly polyolefins, are often used in packaging. For example, oriented polypropylene (OPP) films are widely used as packaging materials such as the over-wraps for cigarette packages and cartons because of their ability to heat seal and provide good barrier properties in maintaining freshness and moisture content of the packaged goods. These and other low surface energy substrates present certain problems with respect to the quality and robustness of the printed message. The messages are sometimes rubbed off or scratched off during normal handling even with relatively moderate force if the adhesion of the message to the substrate is poor. In order to alleviate this problem, the plastic substrates are sometimes provided with a surface pretreatment such as oxidation, carona treatment or plasma treatment, or a coating of a primer. However, such pretreatments undesirably add to the cost of the package manufacturing process.
Further, OPP films often contain slip additives to provide adequate seal release or coefficient of friction. These additives are predominantly migratory fatty acid amides, which bloom to the film surface and provide the slip property. These additives are believed to be contributing factors in the degradation of ink adhesion over time as well as adhesion variation due to the age difference of the films. The presence of such additives makes the ink adhesion on low surface energy films even more challenging.
Some attempts have been made to provide ink compositions for improving the adhesion of the printed message to low surface energy plastic substrates, for example, by the use of certain acrylamides or chlorinated polypropylene resin; see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,430,093 and 5,500,251. However, other approaches are desirable.
The foregoing indicates that there is a need for a jet ink composition that is suitable for printing on plastic surfaces, particularly low energy surfaces such as polyolefin surfaces, messages that have abrasion or scratch resistance in general, and in particular, messages that have fingernail scratch or finger rub resistance.
The invention provides such a composition. The advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.

Jet ink composition for low surface energy substrates


A customized surgical fixture (400) is formed by scanning a body to form a three-dimensional image of the body, and then identifying in the image a target (310) in the body, and mounting points or structures (330) on the body. A model, such as a computer solid model, of the fixture (400) is specified in accordance with the locations of the target (310) and mounting structures (330) or points. The fixture (400) is formed in accordance with the model of the fixture (400), for example using a rapid prototyping and tooling machine. When attached to the body, the fixture (400) can be used to guide a surgical instrument (610) into the body, for example, by using a mechanical guide (600) attached to the fixture (400) or using a remote sensing device (1300) that tracks the relative position of the customized fixture (400) and the surgical instrument.

The invention relates to customized surgical fixtures. Many types of surgical procedures rely on precisely guiding an instrument into the body. This is the case in stereotactic surgery in which a target point within a body, for example, within a brain, is identified in a three-dimensional scanned image of the body. A detailed survey of stereotactic surgery can be found in Textbook of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, P. L. Gildenberg and R. R. Tasker (eds.), McGraw-Hill, June 1997 (ISBN: 0070236046). In a typical approach to stereotactic surgery, a frame is attached to the body prior to scanning. After scanning, the target point in the body is identified in the scanned image with reference to the frame. Then, during surgery, an adjustable instrument guide is attached to the frame. The guide is adjusted to align with the target point. A related approach to stereotactic surgery is described in copending U.S. patent application Ser. 09/063,658 filed Apr. 21, 1998, which is incorporated herein by reference. In that approach applied to brain surgery, an adjustable instrument guide is attached directly to the skull. Once attached, it is adjusted to align with the target point.
These previous approaches to stereotactic surgery require adjustment of an instrument guide in order that the instrument can be driven accurately to the target point within the body.
Adjusting an instrument guide to align with a target point within the body can be complex and time consuming. In some procedures multiple points must be targeted. For example, in spinal sterotactic surgery, multiple targets on different spinal segments are used. In a general aspect of the invention, rather than targeting an adjustable instrument guide, a customized fixture is fabricated for a particular patient, such that targeting is unnecessary or greatly simplified. A fixed instrument guide attached to the customized fixture can be used to guide a surgical instrument to the desired point without adjustment.
In one aspect, the invention features a method for forming a surgical fixture for attaching to a body and providing a reference structure for precisely locating a target within the body, such as a particular point or an anatomical structure within the body. The method includes processing a three-dimensional scanned image of the body, for example a CT or MRI scan. The scanned image includes the target within the body, for example a point or region of the body, and a mounting location of the body. The method also includes determining a structure of the surgical fixture such that when attached at the mounting location of the body the fixture provides a reference structure in a determined location and orientation with respect to the target within the body.
The method can include one or more of the following features.
Multiple mounting points can be identified in the scanned image. The geometric relationship between corresponding mounting points on the fixture and the reference structure can then be determined. The method can further include attaching mounting anchors to the body prior to scanning the body. Scanning markers are attached to the anchors. The identified mounting points are then the locations of the scanning markers in the three-dimensional image.
The mounting location for the fixture can be an anatomical structure on the body. A contour of a surface of the fixture is determined to mate with the anatomical structure.
The method can include identifying the target in the scanned image. Also, a trajectory for reaching the target can be identified. The location and orientation of the reference structure is then determined with respect to the identified trajectory.
The structure of the fixture can be determined in terms of a solid model of the fixture which defines the volume enclosed by the surface of the fixture. The method can then also include fabricating the fixture according to the solid model.
The method can include attaching the surgical fixture to the body and guiding an instrument to the target with reference to the attached surgical fixture.
The method can include attaching the surgical fixture to the body and attaching multiple tracking markers to the surgical fixture. For example, the multiple tracking markers, such a light-emitting diodes, can be attached to a tracking fixture that is then attached to the surgical fixture. The method then includes tracking locations of the tracking markers relative to a remote sensing device, such as a camera array or a laser tracker. The method can further include tracking a location of a surgical instrument relative to the remote sensing device, for example by tracking locations of tracking markers attached to the instrument, and computing a relative position of the surgical instrument to the surgical fixture using the tracked location of the tracking markers and the surgical instrument relative to the remote sensing device.
The method can also include attaching a second surgical fixture at a second mounting location of the body, and attaching multiple tracking markers to the second surgical fixture. For example, the two surgical fixtures are attached at two mounting points on an articulated portion of the body, for example, on two bones coupled at a skeletal joint. The method then includes tracking locations of the tracking markers attached to the second surgical fixture relative to the remote sensing device and computing a relative position of the two mounting locations of the body from the tracked locations of the tracking markers attached to both surgical fixtures. For example, a configuration of a skeletal joint can be determined from the computed relative position of the mounting locations.
The body can include a spine and the mounting location can include a spinal segment. The method can also include forming a model of the spine. The method can further include forming a corrected model of the spine in a corrected configuration. The determined structure of the surgical fixture is such that when attached, the fixture provides a second reference structure in a determined location and orientation with respect to the target in the corrected configuration of the spine.
The method can include selecting a model of a standard fixture and deforming the model of the standard fixture in order to match the standard model to the target and the mounting location.
In another aspect, the invention features a surgical fixture formed from a computer model using a rapid prototyping and tooling technique. The fixture includes multiple mounting sections for attaching the fixture to a body at a predetermined mounting location on a body and a reference structure coupled to the mounting sections for guiding a surgical instrument into the body. When the fixture is attached to the body at the mounting location the reference structure is at a predetermined location and orientation to a target within the body. The fixture can include an instrument guide mounted on the reference structure for driving the instrument into the body.
In another aspect, the invention features software stored on a computer readable medium for causing a computer to perform the functions of processing a three-dimensional scanned image of a body, the scanned image including the target within the body and a mounting location of the body and determining a structure of a surgical fixture such that when attached at the mounting location of the body the fixture provides a reference structure in a determined location and orientation with respect to a target within the body.
Advantages of the invention include avoiding the need for targeting of an adjustable guidance fixture based on the location of target points within the body. This reduces the time required for surgery, and can increase the accuracy and precision of targeting.
Another advantage is that the customized fixture can provide a mounting base in a precise location relative to the body. This avoids a manual registration procedure of stereotactic surgery in which a correspondence between the scanned image and the physical body is established. The manual registration procedure can be time consuming and inaccurate.
Another advantage is that tracking markers, such as light sources or reflectors, can be attached at predetermined locations relative to the body, without requiring that mounting points, such as bone anchors, are in a particular configuration, and without requiring a manual registration step after the tracking markers are attached to the body. This provides flexibility in the choice of where to mount the fixture and reduces the time required before surgery can begin and provides improved accuracy compared to that typically achieved using manual registration and avoids errors inherent in a manual registration step.
Another advantage is that the customized fixture is easily attached to the body, for instance by mating the fixture to a set of anchors attached to the body prior to scanning, or in another instance, mating the fixture to the particular anatomy of the patient.
Another advantage is that the customized fixture can be repeatedly reattached to permanently implanted anchors in the body allowing follow-up or repeated procedures.
Another advantage of the invention is that the detailed fixture design can be based on a desired configuration of a configurable portion of the body, such as the spine, rather than solely on the configuration during scanning. This allows the fixture to be used not only to guide instruments into the body, but when attached to the body, to constrain the configuration of the body, such as correcting a spinal or orthopedic bone deformity or complex fracture.
Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description, and from the claims.


A wireless communication system delivering neighbor information (NBR-INF) and a base station and a wireless communication device thereof are proposed. The wireless communication system includes at least a mobile station and a base station. The base station decides delivering the NBR-INF triggered by events, determines type of the NBR-INF to be delivered and determines a delivery rule of the NBR-INF to be delivered. The mobile station, wirelessly connected to the at least a base station, receives the NBR-INF delivered from the at least a base station, and decides to completely renew or partially update its own neighbor information contents.

Neighbor information (NBR-INF), which is usually transmitted through some control messages such as neighbor advertisement message in IEEE 802.16 standard, allows mobile stations in wireless communication system to know the information of neighboring cells or networks. Thereby, mobile stations can facilitate their neighbor cell scanning, neighbor cell monitoring, cell selection, network selection, handover and so forth according to the information of neighboring cells or networks.
NBR-INF provides details of neighbor cell information to facilitate handover, network selection and network reentry operations. For example, IEEE 802.16 system defines the neighbor advertisement management message, MOB_NBR-ADV, to describe characteristics of neighboring base stations to potential mobile station(s) seeking initial network entry or handover. The characteristics may contain physical layer (PHY) information, handover information, service-supporting information, downlink or uplink channel information of each of neighboring of base stations. NBR-INF is usually broadcasted periodically in a macro-cell deployment. The advantages of periodic broadcast are: the NBR-INF is delivered for possible large amount of mobile stations in a simple procedure on base stations; the NBR-INF is expectable for non-specific mobile stations. However, if there is only a small amount of mobile stations in the cell (e.g., in a femto cell environment or a Home eNodeB environment), and the neighbor topology or the neighbor configurations change seldom, the overhead of NBR-INF will be generated periodically. Moreover, the overhead would be considerable if the size of a NBR-INF is very large due to a lot of neighbor cells. Therefore, it is an important concern to reduce overhead of the NBR-INF and make delivery of the NBR-INF flexible.

Wireless communication system, communication device and base station thereof

Industrial Technology Research Institute


The present invention relates t o a powder-discharging container comprising an air passage and a powder passageway, which are formed on the inside of a stem, so that air and powder can pass through separately, thereby enabling spraying of powder passing through the powder passageway by means of air passing through the air passageway, when a button portion is pressed.

The present invention disclosed herein relates to a powder-discharging container comprising an air passageway and a powder passageway, which are formed on the inside of a stem, so that air and powder can pass through separately, thereby enabling spraying of powder passing through the powder passageway by means of air passing through the air passageway, when a button portion is pressed.
Generally, power has its good wearability when applied on skin and its high water-repellency, such that power is widely being used because a user feels fresh on the skin and get her makeup to look natural.
When applying a power-type makeup, a user usually applies power contained in a container body of a powder container, smearing with a puff that is separately equipped. This type of power container is disclosed in Korean Registered Patent No. 10-1171305. (Hereafter, referred as 'the registered patent')
The above registered patent is to provide a space wherein powder is filled therein, comprising a container body (10) having an upper surface opened and a bottom surface with an air inlet hole(10h); a pumping means (30) having a diaphragm (31), which is an element made of elastic material with a cylindrical shape such that a rim of a lower portion can be folded into a rim of a bottom surface of the container body (10), absorbing air in by a pumping operation and discharging the air into the space wherein the powder is filled outwardly through an air discharging hole (31h) formed at a center thereof, and an opening/closing button (35) which control an opening/closing of the air discharging hole (31h) which is equipped at an upper center of the diaphragm (31); a fixing plate (40) configured to be able to ascend/descend but to be prevented from being rotated in a state that an outer circumferential surface is closely contacted to an inner surface at an upper side of the pumping means (30), comprising a multitude of lower part holes (40h) wherein powder particles pass through; an operational plate (50) equipped to be able to make a restricted rotation to the fixing plate (40), comprising a lower part hole (40h) and an upper part hole (50h) so as to control an opening/closing of the lower part hole (40h); a cap (20) tightened with a screw so as to cover an opened upper surface of the container body (10), and configured for an inner side surface to have a friction contact with an outer side surface of the operational plate (50), thereby connecting the operational plate and rotating when tightened with the container body (10).
The registered patent above has a configuration that when powder is tapped lightly with a puff (60) or pressurized in a state of a cap (20) being opened, powder comes to be discharged and can be applied to the puff (60); however, a user should hold the puff (60) with one hand and then pressurize an operational plate (50) while holding the container body (10) with the other hand, which leads to user inconvenience.
Therefore, for user convenience, it is necessary to develop a powder-discharging container that enables powder to be discharged onto a user's face by simply spraying.


A system and methods of subtraction of a shaped component of a noise reduction spectrum from a combined signal are disclosed. In an embodiment, a method includes identifying a selected frequency component using a corresponding frequency component of a noise sample spectrum. A noise set is comprised of the noise sample spectrum. The method further includes forming a shaped component of a noise reduction spectrum using a processor and a memory based on a combined signal spectrum and the selected frequency component. The method also includes subtracting the shaped component of the noise reduction spectrum from the combined signal spectrum.

A background noise may interfere with a clarity of a speech signal. The background noise may vary over time or due to environmental conditions. A filter may reduce the background noise, but the filter may not correlate with the background noise. As a result, the filter may fail to reduce a part of the background noise. The filter may also reduce an additional part of the speech signal below a threshold tolerance. The speech signal may therefore become distorted or reduced, and a part of the noise signal may continue to interfere with the clarity of the speech signal.

Subtraction of a shaped component of a noise reduction spectrum from a combined signal


After an analysis start instruction is input in a state where a sample is not dispensed to all of reaction containers 104 mounted on a reaction disc 105, before completing an analysis preparation washing process for washing the reaction container 104 to be used in analyzing the sample to be first analyzed, a soaking and washing process for performing soaking and washing during a predetermined period of time is controlled to be started by dispensing a soaking and washing detergent to another reaction container 104 different from the reaction container 104. In this manner, the soaking and washing can be efficiently performed on the reaction container without hindering an analysis process.

An automatic analysis device has a washing mechanism and a washing tank which wash a reaction container for mixing a sample and a reagent or a probe used in dispensing by using water or a predetermined detergent, immediately before use. The automatic analysis device aims to prevent analysis accuracy from being degraded due to dirt adhering to the reaction container or the probe. However, blood or urine as an analysis target sample contains proteins and lipids. Thus, the automatic analysis device is in a situation where the dirt is likely to adhere to the reaction container or the probe. In addition, since the reaction container or the probe is repeatedly used, it is difficult to remove the adhering dirt by only performing washing immediately before.
Therefore, for example, the dirt adhering to the reaction container or the probe is removed by periodically performing maintenance in which the inside of the reaction container or the probe is soaked in a high concentration detergent for a fixed period of time. For example, PTL 1 (JP-A-2008-281454) discloses that the reaction container or the probe is soaked and washed by utilizing a period of time while a device is not used for analysis, such as during standby.


A clip is disclosed for securing a mat to a carpet wherein the clip has a main portion joined to a spike. The spike is inserted into and underlies the carpet such that the main portion is exposed. One-half of a loop and hook type fastener is secured to the exposed side of the main portion of the clip and the corresponding second half of the fastener is secured to the second surface of the mat to permit the mat to be secured to the main portion of the clip.

It is often desirable to place a mat atop a carpet in order to keep the carpet clean and to reduce its wear and tear. Generally, the mat lies freely atop the carpet and, upon the exertion of an exterior force, it is moved away from its initial location, and as a result, the carpet becomes dirty and worn. One method to secure a mat atop a carpet is to sew or otherwise secure one-half of a hook and loop type fastener directly to the carpet and to secure the corresponding other half of the fastener directly to the underside of the mat. See, for example, Richards U.S. Pat. No. 4,012,544 and McLaughlin U.S. Pat. No. 4,671,981. There are problems with this, however. Once the fastener on the carpet wears, it has to be removed and this is not only difficult, but it can also cause damage to the carpet.
Secondly, periodic cleaning of the carpet can wear the fastener and thus hinder its performance.
Additionally, once the fastener is secured to the carpet, the car operator is forced to use mats having a specific size and configuration to correspond to the location of the fasteners.
Patent disclosing the use of metal clips or pins which are inserted through the mat and carpet such that a head of the clip or pin remain above the surface of the mat include Kilmer U.S. Pat. No. 363,399 and VanBuren U.S. Pat. No. 778,287. These metal clips or pins, however, are unsightly since the head of the clip or pin is visible in use. Also, the clips must be completely removed and reinserted whenever the carpet is to be cleaned, thus causing damage to the carpet and mat in addition to inconveniencing the user.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.


The present invention relates to a photonic device including a first device comprising a first set of layers, including at least a first waveguide layer, arranged in a mesa structure, and a second set of layers, including at least a second waveguide layer, formed in a second device region coupled to said first device in a light transmission direction. A cladding layer is arranged on top of the mesa structure, the second device region and the surrounding semiconductor material. A contact layer is arranged on top of the cladding layer, and a first and a second metal contact is arranged on top of the contact layer. The first set of layers, the cladding and contact layers are shaped in etching processes to remove adjacent arranged material. An insulating material is applied around the not etched cladding and contact layer. The invention also relates to a manufacturing method.

Fiber optical communications uses light confined in an optical fiber for transferring information over long distances. For high speed transmission over long distances, an important light source for fiber optical communication is the Distributed Feed-Back laser (DFB-laser).
Two major types of DFB-lasers exist: Buried Heterostructure (BH) and Ridge. These two types are briefly described in connection with FIGS. 1a and 1b. Both have their advantages, e.g. the BH in general gives better performance and the Ridge is simpler to manufacture.
Even better performance may be obtained by adding a modulator to the DFB laser, e.g. an integrated Electro Absorption modulator (DFB-EA), since it introduces less chirp than direct modulation of the laser.
The DFB-EA component is made of a laser (DFB) and a modulator (EA) The device may be manufactured in many different ways and a popular way is to first epitaxially grow the laser material, then etch away all material not needed for the laser part and regrow new material around the laser (Butt Joint) to use for the modulator. Then a Ridge DFB-EA could be made if a contact layer is grown on top of the laser and the modulator material followed by etching the ridge.
This way to manufacture the DFB-EA device would introduce problems with current leakage/recombination in the butt jointed rim around the material forming the laser part due to defects at the interface and only slightly higher bandgap in the surrounding regrown material forming the modulator part. This causes high threshold currents. A typical value for the bandgap energy for the laser material is 0.80 eV and for the modulator material 0.83 eV. It is generally difficult to control the composition and quality of the modulator material close to the laser material due to diffusion of material from the masked region, so called SAG—Selected Area Growth.
These issues may be taken care of by manufacturing a BH DFB-EA laser instead. In this case a narrow mesa (waveguide) is etched down and semi-insulating (SI) InP is regrown around the laser and the modulator waveguide (see FIG. 1a), thus forcing all current to run through the component. The etching may also be done in front of the modulator, hence the regrown SI-InP will create a window some 15-30 μm adjacent to where the device finally will be cleaved. The window is used to suppress the light reflected by the cleaved facet of the chip back into the laser. This is achieved by spreading the light leaving the modulator waveguide material before it is reflected from the cleaved facet (see FIG. 2). The window thus relaxes the requirements on the anti-reflective coating of the facet. However, this method of manufacture of a DFB-EA requires one or two extra epitaxial process steps and hence increases the complexity (and price) of the device. Also, it is well known that the regrowth of the current-blocking layer around the mesa in the BH-laser mate cause reliability problems.
Insulating materials, such as BCB (Benzocyclobutene), has been used in micro chip fabrication for a long time, e.g. see article by R. A. Kirchhoff, C. J. Carriere, K. J. Bruza, N. G. Rondan, and R. L. Sammler with the title "Benzocyclobutenes: A new class of high performance polymers" Science-Chemistry, Vol A28, Nos. 11 & 12, 1991, pp. 1079-1113. The material has been used in a variety of electronics applications ranging from conductive, metal-filled adhesives to high planarizing and insulating layers on silicon wafers.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for manufacturing a photonic device and a photonic device


Disclosed is a disk drive servo system including a "switched-capacitor" digital filter means adapted to attenuate resonant vibration and enhance system stability and position loop control.

In a magnetic disk drive, a position servo system is apt to be shaken by the operation of the head actuator (during "track-seek" and/or "track following" operations), as well as by external forces such as wind. That is, in a magnetic disk drive position servo system, mechanical driving components can exhibit various resonances which de-stabilize, or impair, track following. As a result, servo operation can readily be upset by such vibration, especially at resonance points. Such resonances in the disk drive can cause the servo to become unstable. In general, oscillations can occur which severely impair or even destroy the control functions of the positioning servo loop. An object of this invention is to provide an improved servo loop including a resonance-attenuation filter which stabilizes and otherwise improves the positioning servo system in the presence of known mechanical resonances.
More particularly the invention prescribes a novel "switched capacitor" digital filter means provided in a "multiple-notch-filter" to attenuate resonances. This is preferably used as improved feedback control means and in particular improved filter means to attentuate prescribed band resonances.
In a preferred embodiment, a signal processing filter is taught which may be provided using off-the-shelf "switched capacitor filter" means. In the novel filter "second-order, low-pass" sections are summed with "second order, high-pass" sections to form a "fourth-order, double-notch filter". Such a filter is preferably arranged to have a depth (dB, or gain magnitude) adequate to attenuate one of a group of mechanical resonances which typically appear in a disk drive system. The filter may be set so that its complex poles and zeroes provide for minimum phase shift and maximum attenuation. This is as opposed to conventional filters featuring one or several single notch-filter means, each adapted to address only a single mechanical resonance frequency--being subject to the well known problems of frequency variance or filter variance whereby the filtering action can shift due to temperature and component tolerances.
Without such a filter, workers will appreciate that resonances in a disk drive system can render the servo instable, with oscillations causing the positioning loop to effectively lose control. Thus, our novel filter is characterized as improving the stability of a position servo system in the presence of a band of known mechanical resonances.
As workers know, for these and similar problems, the prior art has used analog filters which required capacitors whose operative values are subject to change with temperature and component tolerances; such are of questionable reliability and stability. Also more than one notch frequency was difficult to implement since component tolerances varied unpredictabley and could have an adverse effect on the phase shift of the filter.
The prior art has used single analog notch filters for each such resonance and these were subject to large tolerance variations; and they not only required multiple OP-amps but also external circuit capacitors to implement more than one notch, whereas with the invention multiple notches are accommodated in a single commercially-available device. Typically, such analog filter systems required one OP amplifier for each "notch"--whereas, with our invention, a plurality of notches can be handled within a single device. Thus, we characterized out invention as a "multiple-notch" filter, operating in a digital rather than analog manner.
As another preferred feature, the subject filter exhibits a local feedback loop adapted to correct any DC offset resulting from the switched capacitor means. As yet another feature, frequency tolerance is determined according to the stability of a master clock source, such as a crystal oscillator.
In sum, the subject filter can be used to attenuate several resonances across a multi-notch band and thus stabilize a closed-loop servo system. Such a filter can provide a prescribed gain reduction (e.g., 10.sup.+ DB or more) in the region of known head-arm resonance frequencies (e.g., about 3 to 5 KH.sub.z). Our filter is designed to provide minimum phase shift at the servo "open loop" gain crossover frequency. Such a filter is preferably implemented as a "fourth-order, elliptic-notch filter" means.
In any closed-loop servo system, one must take care that the filter phase shift does not combine with the phase shift of the overall drive, and thus compromise stability.
Therefore, my desired filter should operate so that its phase shift is a minimum at the open loop gain crossover frequency of the position servo system.


A spectroscopy cell has a body with a central outer sample chamber (6). Within this chamber (6) is a sample cavity (25) as part of a temperature controlled sample probe (23). At one end this sample cavity (25) is delimited by a movable gas connection insert (20) which extends outwardly to a temperature-controlled (e.g. cooled) end plate (8). Gas inlet and outlet tubes (29,30) also extend from the end plate to the sample cavity (25). In use the sample cavity (25) may be at a high temperature so that (a) it is difficult to provide seals for the gas connection insert (20) and gas tubes (29,30); and (b) they are subject to considerable thermal expansion and contraction. Similar problems occur with very low cavity temperatures. Therefore compressible seals (21,31,32) are provided in the end plate (8), remote from the chamber.

The present invention relates to a spectroscopy cell. It particularly relates to a method and means suitable for providing a low volume flow-through cell for spectroscopy, especially for samples at extreme temperatures.
There is a requirement to provide a spectroscopy cell to examine such processes as gas-solid interactions, often required in the field of catalyst research and other research areas. In some such studies the flow of a gas across a solid material must be controlled so that the gas volume is low and so that the flow path is exposed to the optical beam of the spectrometer, often arranged so that the beam interacts with the region of the solid first contacted by the gas. Such arrangements are necessary to enable meaningful time based studies of the gas-solid interaction as a function of temperature and other experimental parameters. A preferred embodiment of this invention provides a method by which the maximum temperature can be substantially increased over methods previously developed and providing much lower volumes than available from methods previously developed while meeting the requirements for a well defined gas flow path. The invention is not restricted to a particular optical range or to a particular optical technique or to a particular sample format or to a specific sample material or gas or fluid.
Rossiter (U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,876) has shown how very high sample temperatures can be achieved in a gas environment with spectroscopic access. But that invention does not address the problem of providing a very low gas volume (less than 10 ml) around the sample region. There are a number of difficulties in defining a low gas volume in the region of a sample to which there is to be optical access and around which a well defined gas flow path must be maintained. The difficulties are compounded by differential thermal expansion and the requirement to maintain gas connections as the temperature of the sample is varied. At the temperatures addressed here (in excess of 300 deg C. or below 0 deg C.), where conventional sealing methods (such as polymeric o-rings) cannot be used in contact with the sample region, yet it is necessary to provide gas connections and define a flow path in this region of high or low temperature.


Disclosed herein are systems and methods for replicating data across deployments in a routing constrained environment. To replicate data, a processor may detect a modification that changes data for a source entity within a source environment hosting a source deployment of an application. The processor may then update a target environment hosting a target deployment of the application to mirror the modification within the source environment. To update the target environment, the processor may generate a mapping artifact that identifies the source entity having changed data and the target entity within the target environment receiving the changed data. The processor may then create a mapping infrastructure including one or more compute instances that replicate the changed data for the source entity in the target entity. To replicate data, the one or more compute instances may execute a mapping script that replicates the changed data from the source entity in the target entity by copying changed data from the source environment and writing it to a database in the target environment.

High traffic websites and/or web applications generally require a sophisticated backend database architecture to operate. For example, a partitioned or shard environment may be used to process a high volume of requests from a large number of clients. A shard environment may distribute data across multiple shards. Each shard may include its own cluster comprising a database server and/or application server and shards may be placed on shared or separate hardware. Shard environments may improve web application performance by balancing loads across multiple clusters, physically locating data closer to callers, reducing table and/or index size, and the like. Shard environments may also enhance security and site reliability by, for example, persisting redundant copies of data, distributing data across separate hardware, hosting data on systems having various independent authentication mechanisms, and the like.
Sometimes it may be desirable maintain multiple deployments of an application. For example, different deployments of an in-production application may serve data requests from users in different countries. Regulations, market demands, and other business reasons may mandate that different application deployments are used to serve customers in, for example, China and the US. Different deployments may also be maintained to serve different user types. For example, one deployment for serving paying users and one deployment for serving non-paying users. Users with admin permissions may also use a deployment that differs from the application deployment used by non-admin users.
Multiple application deployments may also be desirable in pre-production. Before new features, updates, modifications, and the like can be rolled out to websites and/or web applications, they must be extensively tested. Testing ensures that the new aspects work as intended and are interoperable with the existing aspects of the website. The performance and security of the website after the new aspects are incorporated may also be evaluated to maintain a consistent user experience, minimize site downtime, avoid security compromises, sure up any new vulnerabilities, and the like. To facilitate testing new aspects, multiple instances of the web application are deployed across multiple environments, for example, a development environment, a testing environment, a performance environment, a staging environment, and the like. After the new aspects of the application are satisfactorily tested, the updated application may be deployed in a publicly available production environment.

Replicating data across deployments in a routing constrained environment


This invention refers to a suspension for baby pushchairs, characterised in that it has a block that has two suspension elements acting independently, each of which is joined to the support of one of the pushchair wheels. This block is fitted to the chassis of the pushchair. This suspension, of simple and tough appearance, forms a single unit for the two wheels of the baby pushchair, generally the rear wheels, achieving an independent damping for each of them.

Several models of suspension for baby pushchairs exist, based principally on the action of a spring, with the spring being placed, for example between the frame and the wheel bracket, or coupled to a support on one wheel axle. The suspension models currently known are formed by a collection of independent elements for each wheel, generally for the two rear wheels of the baby pushchair.


The present invention relates to novel methods for the preparation of 1,3-benzodioxole heterocyclic compounds of formula (I). The compounds are useful as PDE4 inhibitors.

WO 2011/160632 discloses benzodioxole and benzodioxepene heterocyclic compounds useful as PDE4 inhibitors as well as suitable methods for the preparation thereof.
WO 2008/104175 discloses benzodioxole and benzodioxepene heterocyclic compounds useful as PDE4 inhibitors as well as suitable methods for the preparation thereof.
WO 2008/077404 discloses substituted acetophenones useful as PDE4 inhibitors as well as suitable methods for the preparation thereof.
WO 2015/197534 discloses methods for the preparation of 1,3-benzodioxole heterocyclic compounds.
WO 2017/103058 discloses further methods for the preparation of 1,3-benzodioxole heterocyclic compounds.
Zafrani et al. Tetrahedron 65, 2009, pp 5278-5283, describes a method for the difluoromethylation of phenols and thiophenols.
Sperry et al Org. Process Res. Dev. 15, 2011, pp 721-725, also describes the difluoromethylation of phenols.
Frey et al. Tetrahedron 2003, 59, pp. 6363-6373 also describes the demethylation and difluoromethylation of phenols Zhang et al. J. Org. Chem. 2006, 71, 9845-9848 also describes the difluoromethylation of phenols.
Zheng et al. Chem. Commun. 2007, 5149-5151 also describes the difluoromethylation of phenols.
In the development of new drug candidates, it is highly desirable to have access to alternative methods for the preparation of the drug candidates, as some efficient small-scale synthesis may turn out to be difficult to up-scale to production scale quantities. Also, small-scale syntheses may involve reagents and solvents which are not feasible to utilize at a production scale level.
Hence, it is an object of the present invention to provide alternative methods for the preparation of 1,3-benzodioxole heterocyclic compounds of the type disclosed in WO 2011/160632, WO 2015/197534 and WO 2017/103058, insofar that such alternative methods provide advantages with respect to one or more features like the number of reactions steps, purity, yield, ease of purification, process economy, availability of starting materials and reagents, safety, predictability, etc.
Compared to step (2a) of WO 2017/103058 in step (2a) of the present invention, cheaper reagents and more environmentally benign solvents were used and the solution was heated to reflux and stirred until the conversion was ≥98%.
In step (3), when performing the reaction as described in Example 3 of WO 2017/103058 (Example 5 of the present invention), carbon dioxide is released in equimolar amounts to added amount of sodium chlorodifluoro acetate to the reaction. Upon scale-up gas-release and possible pressure increase in used equipment may turn the procedure into a potential safety issue. Therefore, an alternative procedure was developed in order to be able to control carbon dioxide release over time.
The identification of a by-product in present step (3) has led to new reaction conditions as said by-product is not removed during regular work-up and isolation of the compound. The use of TFA (trifluoroacetic acid) or MSA (methane sulfonic acid) in a polar solvent, at elevated temperature and subsequent removal by treatment with an aqueous base, such as NaOH or KOH during crystallization leads to a purity of >94% of the compound.
The identification of an impurity in present step (4) has led to new reaction conditions. The use of a solvent of DMF/tBuOH and a base of tert-BuOK suppressed the formation of impurity to a minimum, which afforded 70-73% isolated yield. This surpasses the yield of 57% as obtained by the method as in described in WO 2017/103058.
The improved yield, avoidance of potential safety issues, the use of other reaction conditions and the use of cheaper reagents optimizing the process economy of the process of the present invention as compared to the method as described in WO 2017/103058, WO 2011/160632 and WO 2015/197534, are quite surprising.

Methods for the preparation of 1,3-benzodioxole heterocyclic compounds


A connector mechanism for locking together first and second mating connector elements comprises a locking lever geared to rotate a locking rod returned by one of the connector elements. The tip of the locking rod extends into a mating recess in the other of the connector elements. When the rod is rotated, a helical member extending therearound slides along a cooperating arcuate member formed in the recess, locking the two elements together. The actuating rod is rotated by a control lever, enabling one-hand operation of the connector, and providing a readily ascertainable visual indication of the status of the connection. A locking member may be provided for preventing rotation of the lever except when the elements have been correctly assembled to one another.

Multi-pin connectors are used throughout industry for connection of cables connecting electronic equipment. In many circumstances, such connectors are installed only once, that is, at the installation of a given piece of equipment, and thereafter need not be disturbed. However, other sorts of equipment require repetitive connection of cables, which may be required to be accomplished reliably under stressful conditions.
For example, many medical instruments now in use comprise probes connected by flexible cables to associated equipment, e.g., ultrasonic probes for endoscopic examination of patients. Such ultrasonic probes comprise a probe head including a transducer, and an elongated multiple-conductor cable. The cable connects the probe to associated equipment for providing ultrasonic drive signals to the transducer, such that the transducer transmits ultrasonic energy into a patient's body structure to be examined. The associated equipment also comprises signal processing circuitry for processing signals responsive to detected ultrasonic energy reflected from the patient's body structure and for providing a visible image responsive thereto. The probe cable is terminated by a multi-pin connector for connection to a mating connector on the associated equipment, or on an intermediate cable.
Frequently such surgical equipment is required to be connected for use under stressful conditions such in emergency care settings, battlefield situations, or the like. Any improvement simplifying use of this equipment or rendering it more reliable is of benefit; this is true in ordinary use, as well. The present invention is directed to improvements in the connectors used to connect such equipment.
More specifically, the multi-pin connectors used when repetitive disconnection and reconnection are not expected typically require "insertion force"--i.e., the contact elements of one element of the connector are biased so as to be moved upon insertion of the elements of the mating connector. The reliability of such connectors decreases as the number of disconnections and reconnection increases. Accordingly, where repetitive disconnections and reconnections are anticipated, as in connection of electrical equipment used for surgical purposes, so-called "zero insertion force"(ZIF) connectors are commonly used.
In ZIF connectors, the contacts of one of the mating elements of the connector pair, for example, the contact elements of a cable connector, are moved laterally responsive to operation of a control element, in order to engage stationary contacts of the other element of the connector pair. For example, when the cable connector is inserted into the mating connector, and the control element is operated, a control rod retained by the cable connector is rotated. A cam on the control rod moves one or more planar members carrying the contact elements of the cable connector laterally, so as to contact a number of mating contact elements comprised by the mating connector.
Many types of ZIF multi-pin connectors as now commonly used do not provide a simple visual indication whether the connection has been properly made, so that a glance is insufficient to determine whether the connection has been properly made. It is desired to improve available zero insertion force connectors to provide this capability.
At the same time, it is also desired to simplify the operation of such zero insertion force connectors, as commonly used for surgical probes and the like. Presently available zero insertion force connectors require two-hand operation, such that one hand is required to hold the cable connector into the mating connector, and a second hand is required to turn the control element. It would be desirable if ZIF connectors could be operated single-handedly.
It would also be desirable in some circumstances to provide a ZIF connector wherein the control element could not be operated unless the cable connector had been properly inserted into the mating connector, such that, if the control element had been operated, one could be certain that the connectors had been properly mated.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,610 to Oaks et al shows in FIG. 6 a conventional zero insertion force connector. A control element 54 is rotated through an angle to secure the cable connector 20 into the mating connector 52. Typically, the rotation of the control element rotates a control rod, such that a pin at the end of the rod is retained behind a keyhole-shaped opening in the mating connector 56. Two hands are required for this operation. Moreover, the position of control element 54 is ambiguous, i.e., it is difficult to determine by a glance at element 54 whether the control element is in the locked or released position.
Additional prior art generally relevant to the subject of connectors specifically addressing medical uses is provided by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,046,965 to Neese, 5,069,215 and 5,109,851 to Jadvar, 4,952,177 to Drake et al, 4,061,408 to Bast et al, and 4,768,969 to Bauer. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,123,855 to Petersen, 5,147,213 to Funk et al and 4,630,874 to Renn et al relate to zero insertion force connector assemblies. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,315,212 to Peterson and 3,601,759 to Barker show multiple contact connector assemblies wherein cam locking mechanisms are provided.
None of the prior art just mentioned satisfies the needs of the art mentioned above.

Connector assembly having control lever actuation


The method includes inputting first groups of frequency samples to be transmitted over, respectively received from, first and second subsets of subscriber lines at respective first tones and following a first group selection order, alternated with mirrored second groups of frequency samples to be transmitted over, respectively received from, the second subset of subscriber lines at respective mirrored second tones of the first tones, and following a mirrored second group selection order of the first group selection order, to a vectoring processor for joint mitigation of first crosstalk present over the first and second subsets of subscriber lines at the respective first tones and second crosstalk present over the second subset of subscriber lines at the respective second tones. The first tones are common to the first and second transmit spectra. Mirroring is with respect to a folding frequency derived from a reference sampling frequency applicable to the first subset of subscriber lines.

Crosstalk (or inter-channel interference) is a major source of channel impairment for wired communication systems, such as Digital subscriber Line (xDSL) communication systems.
As the demand for higher data rates increases, systems are evolving toward higher frequency bands, wherein crosstalk between neighboring transmission lines (that is to say transmission lines that are in close vicinity over part or whole of their length, such as twisted copper pairs in a cable binder) is more pronounced (the higher frequency, the more coupling).
For instance, in the recommendation entitled "Very High Speed Digital subscriber Line Transceivers 2", ref. G.993.2, and adopted by the International Telecommunication union (ITU) in April 2010 (VDSL2 hereinafter), the transmit spectrum has been broadened from 2,208 MHz (ADSL2+) up to 17,664 MHz with transmit profile 17a and 4,3125 kHz tone spacing. In G.9701 ITU recommendation (G.fast hereinafter), the transmit spectrum goes up to 105,93225 MHz with transmit profiles 106a or 106b and 51.75 kHz tone spacing.
Different strategies have been developed to mitigate crosstalk and to maximize effective throughput, reach and line stability. These techniques are gradually evolving from static or dynamic spectrum management techniques to multi-user signal coordination a.k.a. vectoring.
One vectoring technique for mitigating crosstalk is signal precoding: the user data symbols are jointly passed through a precoder before being transmitted over the respective communication channels. The precoder is such that the concatenation of the precoder and the communication channels results in little or no inter-channel interference at the receivers.
A further vectoring technique for mitigating crosstalk is signal postcoding (or post-processing): the receive data symbols are jointly passed through a postcoder (a.k.a. crosstalk cancellation filter) before being detected. The postcoder is such that the concatenation of the communication channels and the postcoder results in little or no inter-channel interference at the detectors.
Signal vectoring is typically performed at a traffic aggregation point as multi-user signal coordination between co-located transceivers is required: signal precoding is particularly appropriate for downstream communication (i.e., toward customer premises), while signal postcoding is particularly appropriate for upstream communication (i.e., from customer premises).
More formally, an N×N Multiple Input Multiple output (MIMO) channel can be described by the following linear model:yk=Hkxk+zk  (1),wherein the N-component complex vector xk, respectively yk, is a discrete frequency representation, as a function of the frequency index k, of the symbols transmitted over, respectively received from, the N vectored channels,wherein the N×N complex matrix Hk is the channel matrix: the (i,j)-th component Hi,j of the channel matrix Hk describes how the communication system produces a signal on the i-th channel output in response to a signal being fed to the j-th channel input; the diagonal elements of the channel matrix describe direct channel coupling, and the off-diagonal elements of the channel matrix (also referred to as the crosstalk coefficients) describe inter-channel coupling,and wherein the N-component complex vector zk denotes additive noise over the N channels, such as Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) or thermal noise.
Signal precoding and postcoding are advantageously implemented by means of matrix products.
In downstream, a linear precoder performs a matrix-product in the frequency domain of a data vector uk with a precoding matrix Pk before actual transmission over the respective communication channels, i.e. actual transmit vector is xk=Pkuk.
In upstream, a linear postcoder performs a matrix-product in the frequency domain of the receive vector yk with a postcoding matrix Qk to recover the data vector uk (after channel equalization and power normalization), i.e. detection is performed on y′k=Qkyk.
In order to leverage on the expected vectoring gains, the ITU has recently proposed a new VDSL2 transmit profile to provide even higher data rates on short loops. VDSL2 35b transmit profile (a.k.a. vplus) extends 17a transmit profile up to 35,328 MHz while sticking to the same 4,3125 kHz tone spacing, thus doubling the number of available tones from 4096 to 8192. A similar extended transmit profile 212a, which extends 106a/b transmit profile from 105,93225 MHz up to 211,8645 MHz, has been defined for G.fast.
Consequently, one may expect that both VDSL2 17a and 35b transmit profiles will coexist over the same copper plant, and so probably will G.fast 106a/b and 212a transmit profiles. The co-existence of different transmit profiles within a common loop plant may bring about some additional crosstalk that ultimately translates into lower-than-expected data rates.
Indeed, the sampling frequency is typically configured as twice the upper bound of the broadest supported transmit profile (as dictated by Nyquist Shannon theorem). Presently, legacy equipment supporting 17a transmit profile are likely to use 35,328 MHz as sampling frequency for synthesizing the transmit outgoing signal from the IFFT samples or for sampling the receive incoming signal, while equipment supporting new 35b transmit profile are likely to use 70,656 MHz as sampling frequency.
This additional crosstalk is twofold. A first source of crosstalk is caused by the synthesis of the transmit analog signal over the legacy 17a lines with 35,328 MHz as sampling frequency: part of the original transmit spectrum is mirrored with respect to the shannon frequency (aka folding frequency, i.e. half the sampling frequency) into the first alias band spanning from 17,664 MHz up to 35,328 MHz, which mirrored signal then interfering with the useful communication signals on the 35b lines. A second source of crosstalk is caused by the sampling of the receive analog signal over the legacy 17a lines with 35,328 MHz as sampling frequency: communications over the 35b lines causes crosstalk in the first alias band of the legacy 17a lines, and these crosstalk signals are then mirrored back into the 17a communication band after signal sampling. This additional crosstalk can be partly mitigated by the use of appropriate transmit smoothing filters and receive anti-alias filters. Even then, and due to imperfect filtering (cheap low-order filters are typically used at subscriber side), the impairment is still particularly significant for the upper tones nearby the folding frequency, and may completely annihilate the expected vectoring gains for those tones.
This issue has been acknowledged by British Telecom for mixed VDSL2 17a/35b deployments in the contribution entitled "On vectoring with mixed order Fourier transforms" published by the ITU in November 2015 with ref. 2015-11-Q4-049R1, and for mixed G.fast 106a/212a deployments in the contribution entitled "G. fast: On vector groups with multiple sampling frequencies" published by the ITU in April 2016 with ref. 2016-04-Q4-042.
There is seen in FIG. 1 two plots 1 and 2 in logarithmic scale of the applicable transmit Power Spectral Density (PSD) masks over a 106a and 212a line respectively around the folding frequency fk=105,93225 MHz. The actual transmit signal PSD over the 106a line has been depicted as plot 3. As one can notice, the alias transmit signal above 106 MHz starts being filtered. The 'virtual' transmit noise floors 4 and 5 are depicted for two typical loop lengths (receive background noise times the inverse of the direct path loss). The difference between the curves 3 and 4 or 3 and 5 (plus some noise margin) represents the possible vectoring gains over the 106a line (see arrow in FIG. 1).
As one can see a substantial amount of the alias signal over the 106a line just above the folding frequency fK can leak into the 212a line and affect the upper tones nearby the folding frequency. As an illustration, the expected alias crosstalk for the 212a line has been depicted as plot 6 in FIG. 1. This alias crosstalk adds up to the background noise floor 3 or 4, and could possibly annihilate all possible vectoring gains over the corresponding tones. Likewise, a substantial amount of the transmit signal over the 212a lines above the folding frequency fK can leak into the 106a lines, be aliased back and affect the lower tones nearby the folding frequency fK (not shown).
As a first partial solution to this problem, one could re-connect all legacy 17a lines to 35b-capable transceivers at the access node, meaning that downstream transmit and upstream receive 17a signals would be over-sampled at 70,656 MHz. Yet, upstream communications over the 35b lines would still suffer from the alias interference caused by non-oversampled 17a customer Premises Equipment (CPE). Also, such a line re-dispatching would cause service disruption, and would substantially increase the CAPital and OPerational EXpenditures (CAPEX and OPEX) on account of the necessary equipment upgrade and deployment of maintenance staff on the field.
Another way to solve this problems is to switch off some tones above and nearby 17,664 MHz for the 35b lines such that they cannot get affected and such that they don't affect lower tones on 17a lines. However, this solution results in substantial data rate loss.
Some proposals have been made to cancel this additional crosstalk in the vectoring Processor (VP). Current VPs are typically fed with frequency samples in increasing tone order, which means that you need a buffer for each line to remember all tones data below the folding frequency till the tone data above the folding frequency start being fed to the VP. Not only such a solution requires large buffer memory in the VP, which induces a substantial additional cost for the VP, but it also introduces large latency in the data path.

Crosstalk mitigation for out-of-band tones


The present invention discloses a method of operating an internal combustion engine comprising a controllable injector for injecting fuel into a combustion chamber, the injector communicating with a fuel accumulator through which it is supplied with fuel, the method comprising the following steps:                determining a first pressure value of the pressure in the fuel accumulator on the basis of a first pressure measurement,        determining a second pressure value of the pressure in the fuel accumulator on the basis of a second pressure measurement carried out after the first pressure measurement, and        determining an injector opening duration depending on the first and the second pressure value.

In the case of such a method, the injection quantity depends on the pressure in the fuel accumulator and on the injector opening duration. A change of pressure in the fuel accumulator may therefore lead to an undesirable deviation of the actual injection quantity from the target injection quantity, if the injector opening duration remains unchanged.
DE 103 32 213 A1 therefore suggests to continuously monitor the pressure in the fuel accumulator during injection and to execute an integration via the varying injection rate estimated on the basis of the pressure. The injector is then intended to be closed as soon as the integrated injection quantity has reached the target injection quantity. Although the procedure suggested in DE 103 32 213 A1 theoretically leads to a particularly precise control of the injection quantity, it fails in reality due to the real-time demands to be met by the system, since a normal engine control unit will not be able to execute with the necessary velocity the arithmetic operations suggested there.
Therefore, it is the object of the present invention to provide a method for controlling the injector that takes into account the real-time demands to be met by such a system.
This object is achieved by a method according to claim 1. Preferred embodiments of the present invention are the subject matter of the subclaims.
The present invention comprises a method of operating an internal combustion engine comprising a controllable injector for injecting fuel into a combustion chamber, the injector communicating with a fuel accumulator through which it is supplied with fuel, the method comprising the following steps:                determining a first pressure value of the pressure in the fuel accumulator on the basis of a first pressure measurement,        determining a second pressure value of the pressure in the fuel accumulator on the basis of a second pressure measurement carried out after the first pressure measurement, and        determining an injector opening duration depending on the first and the second pressure value.
Due to this course of action, the first pressure measurement is already carried out comparatively early. As a result, the first pressure value is also available comparatively early and can already be used for subsequent time-consuming steps of the method and/or can be determined with high accuracy. Through the subsequent determination of the second pressure value, a high accuracy will nevertheless be achieved with respect to variations of the pressure in the fuel accumulator occurring after the first pressure measurement.
The injector opening duration may be determined in several substeps, which need not necessarily be executed only after the determination of the second pressure value. On the contrary, at least one substep for determining the injector opening duration is executed on the basis of the first pressure value before the second pressure value is available.
According to a possible embodiment of the present invention, the method additionally comprises the following step:                specifying a desired injection quantity,the determination of the injector opening duration being executed depending on the first and the second pressure value and the desired injection quantity. In particular, the injector opening duration is determined depending on the first and the second pressure value, so that the desired injection quantity is achieved.
According to a possible embodiment of the present invention, the method additionally comprises the following step:                controlling the injector on the basis of the previously determined injector opening duration.In particular, the previously determined injector opening duration may be used for specifying the moment in time at which the injector closes.
According to a possible embodiment of the present invention, the first pressure measurement is carried out before the injector is opened. This provides sufficient computing time for an accurate evaluation of the pressure sensor signal for determining the first pressure value.
According to a possible embodiment of the present invention, the second pressure measurement is carried out after the injector has been opened. This means that a current pressure value ascertained during the injector opening duration and thus during the injection process will be available in the form of the second pressure value. It follows that, if the pressure in the fuel accumulator changes between the first pressure measurement and the start of the injection process or during the injection process, this change in pressure will nevertheless be taken into account.
The first pressure value and the second pressure value are generated on the basis of the respective sensor signal by means of signal evaluation.
According to a possible embodiment of the present invention, the first and the second pressure value are determined by different evaluation methods. This allows in particular the taking into account of the different demands on the task run time.
Preferably, a second evaluation method used for determining the second pressure value works faster than a first evaluation method used for determining the first pressure value, i.e. it has a shorter task run time and will therefore run faster on the motor control unit.
According to a possible embodiment of the present invention, at least one of the following method steps is carried out for determining the first pressure value, while the determination of the second pressure value is carried out without this step:                correction of the pressure measurement value with respect to a variation of the supply voltage and/or temperature;        downsampling;        digital filtering.
Alternatively or additionally, the determination of the second pressure value may run on the motor control unit with a higher priority than the determination of the first pressure value.
According to a possible embodiment of the present invention, a first injector opening duration is first determined depending on the first pressure value and, when the second pressure value is available, a correction of the first injector opening duration is carried out depending on the second pressure value.
This means that the determination of the second pressure value can take place even later, since it will not be necessary to determine the injector opening duration when the second pressure value is available, but it will suffice to correct an already provisionally determined first injector opening duration.
Hence, the first injector opening duration is preferably determined before the second pressure value is determined and/or before the second pressure measurement is carried out.
According to a possible embodiment of the present invention, the correction of the injector opening duration depends on the desired injection quantity and/or the pressure in the accumulator. In particular, the correction of the first injector opening duration may have incorporated therein the desired injection quantity and/or the pressure, in addition to the second pressure value and/or a pressure difference between the second and a third pressure value.
According to a possible embodiment of the present invention, the determination of a correction value takes place in a plurality of steps, at least one step being already executed before the second pressure value and/or a pressure difference between the second and a third pressure value is/are available.
According to a possible embodiment of the present invention, the correction of the first injector opening duration is effected by means of a characteristic map, which depends on the desired injection quantity and/or the pressure in the accumulator. The characteristic map may be stored in the engine control unit e.g. in the form of a table and/or in the form of a formula relationship.
Preferably, a correction value is read out from a characteristic map for correcting the first injector opening duration on the basis of the first pressure value. This is advantageous insofar as the correction value can already be determined as soon as the first pressure value is available and thus at a comparatively early moment in time.
In particular, the correction value can be read out on the basis of the first pressure value before the second pressure value has been determined.
Preferably, the correction value, after having been read out, is adapted on the basis of the second pressure value. Such an adaptation can be effected in particular by scaling the correction value by means of the second pressure value and/or a pressure difference between the second and a third pressure value.
The correction value stored in the characteristic map may e.g. correspond to a fixedly predetermined pressure difference and may be adapted, if the pressure difference existing between the second and a third pressure value and actually determined by means of the second pressure value deviates from this predetermined pressure difference.
According to an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the second pressure value and/or the pressure difference between the second and a third pressure value is/are, however, used for correcting the first pressure value.
In this case, the injector opening duration is preferably determined on the basis of the corrected pressure value.
According to a possible embodiment of the present invention, the determination of the injector opening duration is carried out depending on a pressure difference between the second pressure value and a third pressure value. Such a pressure difference allows taking into account changes occurring in the pressure in the fuel accumulator between the first and the second pressure measurement.
In particular, the correction of the first injector opening duration as described above may depend on a pressure difference between the second pressure value and a third pressure value.
According to a possible embodiment of the present invention, the first pressure value itself may be used as a third pressure value. However, if different evaluation methods are used for determining the first and the second pressure value, this will be disadvantageous. Therefore, the third pressure value is preferably determined separately from the first pressure value.
According to a possible embodiment of the present invention, the second and the third pressure values are determined by applying the same evaluation method. Any systematic errors occurring in the determination of the pressure values will thus become part of both pressure values in the same way. This will lead to a compensation or to a minor over- or under-compensation when the pressure difference is formed.
Preferably, the third pressure value is determined making use of an evaluation method which has a shorter task run time than the evaluation method used for determining the first pressure value.
Preferably the pressure difference correlates with the change of the pressure in the fuel accumulator between the first pressure measurement and the second pressure measurement. For this, the third pressure value is determined preferably on the basis of the first pressure measurement or a third pressure measurement, which is carried out in close temporal proximity to the first pressure measurement.
According to a first variant, the third pressure value may be determined on the basis of the first pressure measurement. If the first pressure measurement is used for determining the third pressure value, the best correspondence in time between the first and the third pressure value will be obtained. In this case, however, the additional computing time required for evaluation necessitates that the first pressure measurement must be carried out earlier, and this is disadvantageous as regards accuracy.
According to a second variant, the third pressure value may therefore be determined on the basis of a third pressure measurement, i.e. a pressure measurement carried out in addition to the first and the second pressure measurement.
The third pressure measurement may be carried out after the first pressure measurement. In this case, however, the additional computing time required for evaluation necessitates that the first pressure measurement must be carried out earlier, and this is disadvantageous as regards accuracy.
Hence, the third pressure value is preferably determined on the basis of a third pressure measurement, the third pressure measurement being here carried out before the first pressure measurement.
Preferably, the determination of the first pressure value is carried out immediately after the determination of the third pressure value. As a result, the time offset between the first and the third pressure measurement remains comparatively small.
According to a possible first variant of the present invention, the second pressure measurement and/or the determination of the second pressure value is/are carried out at a moment in time which is fixedly predetermined with respect to the moment in time at which the injector opens.
In particular, this moment in time may be fixedly predetermined independently of a desired injection quantity and may therefore not differ from one injection process to the next. This has the advantage of a particularly simple and reliable implementation.
In this case, the moment in time will preferably be predetermined such that, in the case of the shortest possible opening duration, the final value of the injector opening duration will be available just in time to close the injector at the right time.
According to a second variant of the present invention, the second pressure measurement and/or the determination of the second pressure value is/are carried out at a moment in time which is variable with respect to the moment in time at which the injector opens. This means that, in many cases, the second pressure measurement can take place even later.
In particular, the moment in time may be determined depending on a desired injection quantity for the respective opening operation of the injector.
It follows that, if, for example, the injection quantity provided for a second injection process is larger than that for a first injection process, which will lead to a longer injection duration of the injector, the second pressure measurement and/or the determination of the second pressure value will take place, with respect to the moment in time at which the injector opens, at a later moment in time than in the case of the first injection process.
The method according to the present invention is preferably used for an internal combustion engine comprising a common fuel accumulator for a plurality of injectors, which are assigned to different combustion chambers, in particular in an internal combustion engine provided with a common-rail injection system.
According to a possible embodiment of the present invention, the method is used for an internal combustion engine comprising a plurality of injectors, the injector opening duration being determined for each injector individually.
According to a possible embodiment of the present invention, the internal combustion engine comprises a pump for generating a variable target pressure in the fuel accumulator, the target pressure and a desired injection quantity being specified on the basis of engine operating parameters and/or a user input.
In this case, in particular a change in the target pressure and/or an operation of the pump may lead to a significant change of the pressure in the fuel accumulator, which, however, is difficult to coordinate with the operation of the injector. The method according to the present invention nevertheless allows reliable and precise control of the injection quantity.
Preferably, the injector opening duration is determined depending on the desired injection quantity.
In particular, the first injector opening duration may be determined depending on the desired injection quantity and the first pressure value. The correction by means of the second pressure value will then increase the accuracy of the quantity of fuel actually injected.
In addition to the method according to the present invention, the present invention also comprises an engine control software comprising commands for executing a method of the type described hereinbefore. In particular, the engine control software is programmed to automatically execute the method according to the present invention when running on an engine control unit.
The present invention further comprises an internal combustion engine comprising a controllable injector for injecting fuel into a combustion chamber, and a fuel accumulator with which the injector communicates and through which it is supplied with fuel, and further comprising a pressure sensor for measuring the pressure in the fuel accumulator. The internal combustion engine comprises an engine control unit, which is programmed to execute the following steps:                determining a first pressure value of the pressure in the fuel accumulator on the basis of a first pressure measurement,        determining a second pressure value of the pressure in the fuel accumulator on the basis of a second pressure measurement carried out after the first pressure measurement, and        determining an injector opening duration depending on the first and the second pressure value.
According to a preferred embodiment, the engine control unit is programmed to execute the following steps:                determining a first pressure value of the pressure in the fuel accumulator on the basis of a first pressure measurement and determining a first injector opening duration depending on the first pressure value, and        determining a second pressure value of the pressure in the fuel accumulator on the basis of a second pressure measurement and correcting the first injector opening duration depending on the second pressure value.
Preferably, the engine control unit communicates with at least one pressure sensor for measuring the pressure in the fuel accumulator and evaluates the signals of this pressure sensor.
In addition, the engine control unit preferably communicates with the injector and controls it. In so doing, the engine control unit especially controls, according to the injector opening duration corrected as disclosed by the present invention, the moments in time at which the injector opens and closes.
The method according to the present invention preferably runs automatically on the engine control unit.
Preferably, the engine control unit is programmed such that it executes the method according to the present invention as described above.
The engine control unit preferably comprises a microprocessor and a non-volatile memory area in which an engine control software is stored. The engine control software is executed by the microprocessor. The engine control unit communicates with sensors and evaluates their signals, and controls actors of the engine and in particular the injectors of the engine.
The internal combustion engine according to the present invention may be a 4-stroke engine. The latter may work according to an Otto process and/or a Diesel process.
The internal combustion engine according to the present invention may be an off-road engine. In particular, the internal combustion engine according to the present invention may be used to drive mobile work machines.
Therefore, the present invention further comprises a mobile work machine with a combustion engine of the type described above.
However, it is also imaginable to use an internal combustion engine according to the present invention in a stationary application, e.g. for driving a generator, just as it is imaginable to use it in arbitrary other applications.

Method of operating an internal combustion engine


A first beam radiation is effected by uniformly radiating an electron beam on a vicinity of an underlying mark formed on a sample. The underlying mark is formed of a material with an emission efficiency of secondary electrons different from that of the other part of the sample. Thus, a surface of the sample is charged. A second beam radiation is effected by radiating an electron beam under conditions different from those of the first beam radiation, thereby scanning the mark. Secondary electrons from the surface of the sample are detected to determined the mark position. On the basis of the mark position, an alignment exposure is effected.

The present invention relates to a pattern observation method for performing a pattern observation using a charged particle beam.
FIG. 1 illustrates a technical concept of a conventional alignment exposure using an electron beam.
As is shown in FIG. 1, a sample to be aligned is formed such that an insulator film 102 and a resist 103 are provided on a silicon substrate 101. An underlying mark 104 is formed in the insulator film 102 on a surface of the silicon substrate 101.
An electron beam 105 is made to scan the underlying mark 104 located at a deep position from the surface of the resist 103. Reflected electrons 106 from the underlying mark 104 is detected by a detector 107. Based on a detection signal, alignment exposure is carried out. However, when the energy of the electron beam 105 is low, the range of electrons is short. Consequently, the electrons cannot reach the underlying mark located at a deep position from the surface of the resist 103.
In order to solve this problem, an alignment exposure method as illustrated in FIGS. 2A to 2D has been proposed. FIG. 2A illustrates a technical concept of the alignment exposure. A sample to be aligned is the same as shown in FIG. 1.
An electron beam 105 having a predetermined acceleration voltage is radiated on an underlying mark 104. Thereby, a charged portion 112 created by the electron beam 105 appears on the surface of the sample. A difference between electrostatic capacitances 113 and 114 occurs between a region where the mark 104 is formed at a deep position from the surface of the sample and a region where it is not formed, due to an unevenness or a nonuniformity in material of a pattern. The difference in electrostatic capacitance causes a surface potential difference in the charged portion 112 on the surface of the sample.
The surface potential difference appears as a voltage contrast image of secondary electrons 115 at the time of the radiation of the electron beam 105. The contrast image is detected by the detector 107. Thus, the position of the underlying mark 104 can be detected and the alignment in the electron beam exposure can be effected.
FIG. 2B shows a surface potential of the sample in a case where the sample is charged with positive electricity. A region where the surface potential is high corresponds to the portion at which the underlying mark 104 is formed. FIG. 2C shows a secondary electron waveform based on the surface potential difference of the sample in a case where the sample is charged with positive electricity. A region where the amount of secondary electrons greatly decreases corresponds to the portion at which the underlying mark 104 is formed.
If the same charging phenomenon is utilized, a misalignment measurement in a lithography step of a semiconductor fabrication process can be carried out using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate a technical concept of a misalignment measurement utilizing the charging phenomenon. FIG. 3A is a plan view of misalignment measuring marks, and FIG. 3B is a cross-sectional view of the misalignment measuring marks. In FIGS. 3A and 3B, reference numeral 151 denotes a silicon substrate, 152 a silicon nitride film, 153 a silicon oxide film, 154 an anti-reflection film, 156 a first mark formed on the underlying silicon substrate, and 157 a second mark formed of photoresist. The first mark 156 is formed by removing portions of the silicon substrate and silicon nitride film. The silicon oxide film 153 is formed over the entire surface of the substrate such that the first marks 156 are buried. A top surface of the silicon oxide film 153 is flattened by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). A misalignment inspection is performed by scanning an electron beam across the first mark 156 and second mark 157. A scanning path is indicated by an arrow 158 in FIG. 3A. Thus, a signal waveform of secondary electrons having peaks near the first mark 256 and second mark 157 can be obtained.
The above method, however, has the following problem.
FIG. 2D is a view for explaining the problem with the conventional alignment method utilizing the charging phenomenon. Specifically, FIG. 2D illustrates a relationship between a radiation time and a surface potential of a sample. Assume that the sample is charged with positive electricity. A solid line indicates a surface potential of a region where the underlying mark 104 is not formed, and a broken line indicates a surface potential of a region where the underlying mark 104 is formed. In order to enhance a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) at a position of the underlying mark 104 for alignment, it is necessary to scan the beam over the underlying mark 104 several times and to average and add the detection signals.
However, the aforementioned phenomenon utilizing the charging is a temporally transient one, as shown in FIG. 2D. When the radiation time is divided into time periods t1 to t3, a sufficient surface potential difference is obtained in radiation time period t2 and a mark image with full contrast can be observed in this radiation time period.
In radiation time period t3, the charge is excessively high. As a result, only a small surface potential difference is obtained, and a mark image becomes difficult to observe. By contrast, in radiation time period t1, the amount of the radiation beam is small and the charging phenomenon itself will hardly occur. In this time period, it is difficult to observe the mark image. On the other hand, if the beam current for observing the mark image is too high, excessive charging occurs in a short time and the length of the time period t2 in which the mark image can be observed is decreased. If the beam current for observing the mark image is too low, the length of the time period t1 in which the mark image cannot be observed is increased and quick observation of the mark image cannot be carried out.
The optimal condition for mark detection varies depending on the thickness and kind of the insulator film formed over the underlying mark 104. However, as is understood from the above-described problem, it is difficult, in fact, to set the condition for image observation. The same problem as with the alignment exposure also arises in the misalignment measurement as illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B.
Another problem with the alignment exposure will now be described.
In usual cases, when alignment exposure is performed, an electron beam is scanned in a single direction to detect the mark on the sample. When the electron beam is scanned, all secondary electrons produced by the radiated electron beam do not enter the detector. In addition, where the surface of the sample has been charged with the electron beam radiated immediately before, such a phenomenon occurs that the secondary electrons re-enter, in particular, the surface of the sample. If the detected secondary-electron image is observed, a dark portion appears on a peripheral portion of the pattern. This is due to the re-entrance of secondary electrons.
If this problem is studied in greater detail, it is understood that the secondary electrons re-entering the surface of the sample travel asymmetrically. Specifically, if an electron beam is scanned in a single direction, the electron beam radiated immediately before charges the surface of the sample negatively, on which the electron beam has been radiated immediately before. On the other hand, the surface of the sample, which has not yet been scanned by the electron beam, is less charged. If this phenomenon is left as it is, the detected secondary-electron signal waveform becomes asymmetric, and a read error of the mark position will occur. Of course, this problem applies to the misalignment measurement.
As has been described above, in the conventional alignment method for the electron beam exposure, the mark located at a deep position from the surface of the resist can be made detectable by utilizing the charging phenomenon. However, the charging phenomenon will easily vary with the passing of time, and it is difficult to precisely detect the mark. Similarly, in the misalignment measurement utilizing the charging phenomenon, it is difficult to precisely detect the mark.
In addition, because of the kind of the method of scanning the electron beam in the alignment measurement, the secondary-electron signal waveform becomes asymmetric, and a read error of the mark position will occur.
The object of the present invention is to provide a pattern observation apparatus and a pattern observation method capable of detecting or measuring an alignment mark with higher precision.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pattern observation apparatus for observing a pattern by radiating a charged particle beam on a sample in which the pattern is formed on a substrate and a first film is formed on the substrate including the pattern, the apparatus comprising: a first beam radiation section for performing a first charged particle beam radiation on the sample including the pattern, and charging a surface of the sample; a second beam radiation section for scanning the charged particle beam over the pattern under conditions different from conditions for the first charged particle beam radiation; and an observation section for observing the pattern by detecting secondary electrons from the surface of the sample.
In this invention, the beam radiation step for pattern detection is divided into a first beam radiation step and a charged particle beam scanning step. The sample surface is charged with the first beam radiation, and the charged particle beam is scanned to acquire a pattern image on the sample surface. Thereby, high-precision pattern detection can be performed. Specifically, since the first film surface near the pattern formed on the substrate is sufficiently charged by the first beam radiation, an adequate contrast is produced between the portion on the pattern and the other portion. Accordingly, where the pattern image is obtained by the scan of the charged particle beam, high-precision pattern detection can be performed. In particular, detection of the pattern is not performed in the undesirable condition with a low potential contrast due to deficient charging. The pattern detection according to this invention is applicable to both the alignment exposure and misalignment measurement.
The sample is charged in the following method. FIG. 13 shows an example of the relationship between the acceleration voltage of the electron beam and the emission efficiency of secondary electrons. In this case, the sample is a resist, the abscissa indicates the acceleration voltage, and the ordinate indicates the emission efficiency of secondary electrons from the sample surface. The resist is positively charged with the range of the acceleration voltage between 400V and 1000V so that the emission efficiency of secondary electrons emitted from the surface may exceed 1.
On the other hand, if the acceleration voltage is less than 400V or more than 1000V, the emission efficiency of secondary electrons decreases below 1 and the sample is negatively charged. Specifically, in order to positively charge the sample, the acceleration voltage needs to be chosen from the range of about 400V to 1000V. In order to negatively charge the sample, the acceleration voltage needs to be chosen out of this range. The range of acceleration voltage in which the emission efficiency of secondary electrons exceeds 1 varies depending on samples, but the relationship between the acceleration voltage and the secondary electrons is substantially the same.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a pattern observation apparatus comprising: a table generating section for generating a table in which a scan order is associated with scan positions; a charged particle beam scanning mechanism for scanning, according to the table, a charged particle beam over a sample on which a pattern is formed; a detection mechanism for detecting secondary electrons produced from the sample by the scanning of the charged particle beam, and outputting secondary electron detection signals; an image information generating section for rearranging the secondary electron detection signals in association with the scan positions on the basis of the table, thereby generating image information of a surface of the sample; and a pattern position determination section for determining a pattern position on the basis of the image information.
Thus, even if the charged particle beam is made to scan in any scan order, the image of the sample including the pattern can be acquired, and accordingly the pattern can be observed.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.

Pattern observation apparatus and pattern observation method