A releasable tunnel brace for releasably connecting a first side panel to a second panel of a vehicle is disclosed. One or both ends of the brace include a fastener-receiving aperture. The aperture has a round portion and an elongated slot extending therefrom. The round portion can allow the head of a shoulder bolt fastener to pass therethrough. The elongated slot is defined by a pair of opposed walls. The shoulder of the shoulder bolt fastener can pass between the opposed walls. In the event of a side impact, the brace is pushed vehicle inward and the bolt slides through the elongated slot and into the round portion where it is allowed to be released from its attachment position. The brace provides maximum torsion stiffness while withstanding only a minimum amount of lateral force before it releases and thus minimizes local deflection in the event of a side impact.

Most types of vehicle body structures include a centrally-formed tunnel or passage that extends along the long axis of the vehicle generally from the vehicle's firewall rearward to a point behind the second set or row of seats. Various components, such as the transmission, the drive shaft (in the case of the rear wheel drive vehicle), or conduits may extend through the tunnel.
While typically being a necessary component in the modern vehicle, the tunnel unfortunately too often plays a role in the increase of one or more of noise, vibration or harshness (NVH) within the vehicle. To minimize the NVH a tunnel brace is commonly provided between the opposing floor panels adjacent the tunnel such that the tunnel brace is fitted perpendicular to the long axis of the vehicle.
A typical tunnel brace arrangement according to current design is generally illustrated as 10 in FIG. 1. The tunnel brace arrangement 10 includes a tunnel brace 12 provided to bridge the gap defined by a tunnel 14. As is known in the art, the tunnel 14 is formed between a first floor pan 16 and a second floor pan 18. The tunnel brace 12 is attached at one end to the first floor pan 16 and at the other end to the second floor pan 18. A first supporting cross-member 20 is integrally attached to the first floor pan 16 while a second supporting cross-member 22 is integrally attached to the second floor pan 18.
The tunnel brace 12 is fastened by several nut-and-bolt fasteners or by welding to the first floor pan 16 and to the second floor pan 18. FIG. 2 illustrates a bottom view of an example of a known tunnel brace 12 having two fastener holes 24, 24′ for receiving conventional bolts (not shown).
The addition of the tunnel brace results in increased torsion stiffness and a consequent reduction of NVH. While generally providing a satisfactory result in the reduction of vehicle NVH, the inclusion of the tunnel brace introduces another challenge to designers which is a possible negative affect in the event of a side impact. Since the main purpose of vehicle tunnel brace is to improve vehicle torsion stiffness and thus reduce NVH, the reacting forces on the tunnel brace are vertical whereas side impact forces acting on the tunnel brace are lateral.
In the event of a side-impacting collision, local deflection of the floor pans and their supporting structures is a common result. This local deflection often translates into injury to the occupant. Referring to the prior art arrangement of FIG. 1, the impact on the tunnel brace arrangement 10 following a side impact is shown. In this figure, the second floor pan 18 has become bent and the supporting cross-member 22 has become twisted, largely because of the resilience of the tunnel brace 12 which remains generally intact. Thus the damage caused by the side impact has remained local. Injury is often transmitted to the occupant because of the localized damage. Particularly, due to the stiffness added by the conventional tunnel brace, the vehicle tunnel does not deform efficiently, thus most the deflection of vehicle occurs at the crash side. The extra local crush of vehicle structure leads to severe contact between door trim and occupants at the crash side, thus risking occupant safety.
Side impact events involving automotive vehicles typically include the imposition of dynamic loading to the vehicle body sides. The side impact event imposes severe loading on the structural members of the body. This situation is complicated by the fact that many compact or mid-sized vehicles have low rocker heights that may pass below the bumper of an impacting vehicle, resulting in high door velocities.
Generally two classes of objects that impact the vehicle side are known. The first class includes other vehicles (including other cars, trucks and other moving objects) and the second class includes poles and pole-like objects, such as telephone poles, street signs, and trees. The former class of objects is usually wider than the latter class of objects, and thus the localized damage caused by the pole or pole-like object may create greater localized damage than that caused by the vehicle.
Thus the vehicle tunnel brace may play a role in occupant injury in a side or oblique pole impact. The automotive industry is aware of this situation and has thus established standards (FMVSS 214 in the US and ECE 95 in Europe) specifying safety requirements for pole or pole-like vehicle impacts. In order to more effectively meet and exceed such requirements it is desirable to provide an alternate arrangement for the tunnel brace as is currently used.
Accordingly, as in so many areas of vehicle technology, there is room in the art of tunnel brace design for an alternative arrangement.


A pivoting armrest is configured for mounting on the bottom part of the aisle side of a vehicle seat frame. The armrest may receive a control cable and is mounted on a hub that allows passage of the control cable to the vehicle seat mechanism. The armrest is maintained in position by a lock pin, and a resilient plate controls the lock pin. A handgrip is mounted to a lower part of the armrest for easy grasping by the fingers of a user. The handgrip engages a lower edge of the resilient plate so that a user""s pulling outward on the lower edge of the handgrip releases the lock pin.

This invention relates to the art of passenger seating for vehicles. In particular, the invention relates to an armrest for use on the aisle side of a mass-transit seat and which pivots downward to allow passengers to enter or leave the seat.
Seats used in mass transit vehicles commonly have armrests. When an armrest is located other than adjacent a wall of the vehicle, such as an armrest adjacent an aisle, it must be movable between a use position, where it can be used as an armrest, and a non-use position, in which it allows passengers to enter and exit the seats without obstruction by the armrest.
It is known for aisle armrests to pivot from the use position either upwardly or downwardly. In the typical installation, the armrest is attached pivotally to an upright part of the seat back for upward pivotal movement to the storage position.
In accordance with the invention, an armrest is pivotally mounted to a seat frame such that it pivots downwardly from the use position to a non-use position to facilitate passengers"" entering and leaving the seat. The armrest includes a finger-operated mechanism for a cable that controls one or more known seat mechanisms, for example, a mechanism that controls the orientation of the seat back between upright and reclining positions. The armrest also includes a lock for retaining the armrest in the use position and for allowing it to pivot to the non-use position when released.
In the preferred embodiment, the armrest is mounted for rotation on a hub that is secured to the seat frame. The dimensions of the hub are such that it also accommodates the control cable, which passes through the interior of the armrest, and directs the cable from the interior of the armrest to the seat control mechanism. The hub is preferably cylindrical, and the armrest rides on the outer surface.


A device for pumping a viscous slurry material. In one aspect, the pumping device is dimensioned to be insertable into the space between the side jambs of a standard building doorway. The pumping device is self-propelled and a mixer is removably attachable to the device for movement therewith. The pumping device includes a containment hopper and a swing tube pump having a swing tube with a wiper blade that agitates the viscous slurry material in the containment hopper. The pumping device has a frame assembled from multiple laser cut components. The pumping device is provided with a precision-machined manifold having a plurality of internal passageways directing a flow of hydraulic fluid to various pump components. A removable panel covers an aperture in a side wall of the containment hopper and is removable to provide access to the interior of the hopper for cleaning.

This invention relates to a pumping device and, in particular, to a portable device operative to pump viscous slurry materials and that is readily positionable in enclosed spaces and restricted-access application sites.
Various pumping devices are commonly used in the application, laying, pouring, spraying or placement of viscous slurry materials, such as concrete, plaster, mortar, shotcrete, grout, gunite, refractories and the like. The pumping device is operative for moving the viscous slurry material from a transport truck mixer or other source to the application site. Pumping devices for such viscous slurry materials have been traditionally rendered mobile for transport to and use at the application site by integration with a conventional vehicle or by mounting on a trailer for towing by a conventional vehicle. However, conventional pumping devices are impractical for placing viscous slurry materials in enclosed spaces, remote locations beyond the throw of conventional pumps, or application sites with restricted physical access.
Most pumping devices include a hopper that receives successive supplies of viscous slurry material from the mixer and that holds the viscous slurry material for pumping from the hopper to a supply line that ends at the placement location of the application site. Typically, pumping operations require a mixer operative for providing multiple supplies of the viscous slurry material to the hopper of the pumping device. The mixer must likewise be transported to the job site and positioned in a location proximate to the pumping device.
One common type of pump is an swing tube pump having a pair of movable pistons and an S-shaped swing tube with an inlet immersed in the viscous slurry material and a discharge outlet rotatably attached to a discharge port of the hopper. The swing tube is adapted for unidirectional flow of cement under pressure from the discharge outlet in response to the movement of the rams of the pistons. However, swing tube pumps suffers from a significant deficiency in that the S-shape of the swing tube creates a stagnant volume of viscous slurry material near the bottom, usually s-curved, of the hopper. The viscous slurry material in this stagnant volume is not periodically pumped from the hopper. As a result, the viscous slurry material in the stagnant volume thickens, which hinders the operation of the pumping device and reduces the pumping efficiency.
After the pumping device is used, the hopper and other portions of the pumping device exposed to the viscous slurry material are contaminated with residues. The hopper is thoroughly cleaned with a stream of water that dissolves the residues and suspends particles therein. However, the hoppers of conventional pumping devices lack a convenient means for effectively draining the soiled water from the interior of the hopper. Typically, it is inconvenient or impossible to simply tilt the hopper to permit the soiled water to drain from the inlet opening into which the viscous slurry material is provided from the mixer. Drain ports are typically provided on a bottom surface of the hopper. However, the positions of such ports are not readily accessible for manual removal. As a result, draining the soiled water from the hopper is a non-trivial task.
Conventional pumping devices include a pump that is hydraulically powered and a hydraulic system that routes the hydraulic fluid for controlling the operation of the pump. Such hydraulic control systems rely on multiple hydraulic lines or hoses that interconnect the various components constituting the system. These conventional hydraulic systems have significant disadvantages, including their relatively large size and the relatively large number of hoses required to provide the system interconnections. In addition, large numbers of hoses are difficult to maintain and introduce numerous locations in the hydraulic system at which leaks may develop.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved pumping device for viscous slurry materials that can be positioned in enclosed spaces and restricted-access application sites. Furthermore, there is a need for an improved pumping device for viscous slurry materials that facilitates cleaning of the hopper, that provides thorough mixing in all portions of the hopper, that reduces the complexity and size of the hydraulic system, and/or that better cooperates with mixers.
The invention provides a pumping device for viscous slurry materials that, in one aspect, can be positioned in enclosed spaces and restricted-access areas. The pumping device of the present invention achieves this objective by defining a footprint between opposite lateral sides spaced apart by a width of the apparatus so dimensioned as to be insertable into the space between the side jambs of a standard walkthrough man-door. The pumping device has various components, including a hopper having an upper opening adapted to receive the viscous slurry material and an outlet below the upper opening adapted to eject the viscous slurry material, a swing tube pump adapted to pump the viscous slurry material from the hopper to be ejected out of the hopper outlet, and rolling support members movably supporting the frame. The swing tube pump includes a swing tube in the hopper and a piston pump operatively associated with the swing tube. According to principles of the invention, the components of the pumping device are substantially entirely between at least the opposite lateral sides of the footprint.
By virtue of the foregoing, there is provided an improved pumping device for viscous slurry materials that is self-contained and that is readily movable on the rolling support members including movement, for example, through the space between the side jambs of the standard walkthrough man-door. As a result, the pumping device may be readily positioned into and out of enclosed spaces and restricted-access application sites and, in certain embodiments, the pumping device may provide the motive power to move a releasably attachable mixer into such spaces and sites.
In another embodiment, the invention provides a pumping device for viscous slurry materials that thoroughly mixes the viscous slurry material in all portions of the hopper. The pumping device of the present invention achieves this objective by providing a swing tube with a wiper blade that conforms to the curvature of a concave surface below the swing tube inside the hopper. The pumping device includes the hopper having an upper opening adapted to receive the viscous slurry material and an outlet below the upper opening adapted to eject the viscous slurry material, and the bottom wall below the opening and outlet defining the concave surface in the hopper, and a swing tube pump adapted to pump the viscous slurry material from the hopper to be ejected out of the hopper outlet. The swing tube pump includes the swing tube adapted to move relative to the concave surface and a piston pump operatively associated with the swing tube.
By virtue of the foregoing, there is provided a pumping apparatus that is capable of agitating the viscous slurry material located in the space between the swing tube and the concave surface of the hopper. This provides thorough mixing of the entire volume of viscous slurry material while contained in the hopper and awaiting pumping.
In yet another embodiment, the invention provides a pumping device for viscous slurry materials that has a simpler and physically smaller hydraulic system. The pumping device of the present invention achieves this objective by providing a control unit for the pumping device with a block manifold having numerous internal passageways and various valves controlling the flow of hydraulic fluid to a pump. The control unit is supported on a frame of the pumping device and is operatively coupled to a power unit and the pump. Also supported on the frame is the power unit operatively coupled to the swing tube. The power unit includes a hydraulic pump capable of pumping hydraulic fluid and a power supply operatively coupled with the hydraulic pump.
By virtue of the foregoing, the pumping device for viscous slurry materials is provided with a simpler and physically compact hydraulic system due to the introduction of a manifold that is compact and that requires fewer hoses to establish the requisite external hydraulic connections.
In yet another embodiment, the invention provides a pumping device for viscous slurry materials that cooperates with multiple types of mixers. The pumping device of the present invention achieves this objective by providing a mixer movably supported on rollers so as to be movable towards and away from the frame of the pump. The mixer further includes one or more engagement elements normally at the elevation of any one or more complementary engagement elements of the frame so as to be engageable therewith by moving the pump and mixer together laterally and without providing temporary stilts for, or lifting, the mixer. The pumping device further includes a hopper supported by the frame adjacent to the frame-side engagement elements and having an upper opening adapted to receive the viscous slurry material and an outlet below the upper opening adapted to eject the viscous slurry material, and a pump adapted to pump the viscous slurry material from the hopper to be ejected out of the outlet.
By virtue of the foregoing, the mixer is positionable, when attached to the frame, for providing successive supplies of the viscous slurry material to the hopper through its upper opening. Also when engaged, the mixer is movable on its rollers with the pump so as to be transported about the work site with the assistance of motive power provided from a self-propelled pumping device. The ability to select among various mixers provides versatility and flexibility in matching a particular mixer to the pumping device.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention shall be made apparent from the accompanying drawings and description thereof.

Pumping device for viscous slurry material


A control and method for a cotton module building program for an on-board cotton module builder of a cotton harvester, which utilizes a signal or output from a yield monitor as a factor in determining and varying cotton module building parameters, which can include auger direction and duration of operation, compactor positions and compacting strokes for best compacting a cotton module under the yield conditions. A module complete signal which can be a visual or audio signal, can be outputted when the yield monitor detects a predetermined cotton module weight, for signaling approach of a required unloading of a cotton module.

With an on-board cotton module builder or packager parameters such as, but not limited to, the distribution of cotton within the module building chamber, the number of packing positions, and the number of compacting strokes, are all critical factors in forming a good rectangular module of compacted cotton that can be unloaded onto the ground as a stand alone module of cotton, and subsequently handled for transportation to the gin for processing. As is known, the distribution of the cotton within the module chamber is typically accomplished using augers attached to a compactor frame of compactor apparatus movable upwardly and downwardly in the chamber. During the compacting cycle, the augers are operated in a forward and/or reverse direction for distributing the cotton under the compactor apparatus. The number of packing positions is used to index or move the location of the compactor apparatus up within the chamber as the module is built from the bottom up. This ensures that there is space under the compactor in which to distribute the cotton. The number of packing strokes is the number of times that the cotton is pressed downwardly and compacted and more packing strokes ensures a good tight, cohesive module of cotton. The length of time that the augers run in the different directions, the number of packing positions, and the number of compaction strokes before raising or indexing the compactor apparatus to the next position are typically dependent upon set values that have been written in the electronic compaction program and stored in the compactor controller. These values are based on time, pressure, or both and are dependent on the amount of cotton that is coming into the module chamber. Under what are considered to be high yield conditions, generally three or more bales per acre, the amount of time the augers run forward and the amount of time they run rearward is different than under what is considered to be low yield conditions, one bale per acre. The number of compactor positions and compacting strokes are different in high yield cotton versus low yield cotton. Therefore, all of these values in the cotton compaction program that are used to produce a good rectangular module of cotton are dependent upon the yield that is being harvested.
The use of yield monitors on cotton pickers is common. Typically, yield monitors are used to measure the cotton being harvested and display the results on a monitor in yield, that is, bales per acre, and weight, typically in pounds.
What is sought is a control for a cotton module building process which can vary various parameter thereof, including, but not limited to, the time that the augers run forward or reverse, the number of packing positions, and the number of compaction strokes before raising the compactor apparatus, as a function of yield, to optimize module building and build better modules.

Cotton module program control using yield monitor signal


A multi-band remote unit is disclosed. The multi-hand remote unit includes a number of radio frequency (RF) front-end circuits configured to generate a number of downlink RF communications signals associated with a number of frequency bands based on a number of downlink digital communications signals, respectively. The multi-band remote unit also includes a digital interface circuit and a digital processing circuit. The digital interface circuit is configured to receive an encapsulated downlink digital communications signal and generate the downlink digital communications signals associated with the frequency bands based on the encapsulated downlink digital communications signal. The digital processing circuit is configured to digitally process the downlink digital communications signals before providing the downlink digital communications signals to the RF front-end circuits. As such, it may be possible to share the digital processing circuit among RF front-end circuits, thus helping to reduce cost and/or power consumption of the multi-band remote unit.

The disclosure relates generally to a remote unit(s) configured to communicate downlink and uplink communications signals in multiple radio frequency (RF) bands in a wireless communication system (WCS), such as a distributed antenna system (DAS).
Wireless communications is rapidly growing, with ever-increasing demands for high-speed mobile data communication. As an example, local area wireless services (e.g., so-called "wireless fidelity" or "WiFi" systems) and wide area wireless services are being deployed in many different types of areas (e.g., coffee shops, airports, libraries, etc. Communications systems have been provided to transmit and/or distribute communications signals to wireless devices called "clients," "client devices," or "wireless client devices," which must reside within the wireless range or "cell coverage area" in order to communicate with an access point device. Example applications where communications systems can be used to provide or enhance coverage for wireless services include public safety, cellular telephony, wireless local access networks (LANs), location tracking, and medical telemetry inside buildings and over campuses. One approach to deploying a communications system involves the use of radio node base station that transmits communications signals distributed over a physical communications medium remote unit forming RF antenna coverage areas, also referred to as "antenna coverage areas." The remote units each contain or are configured to couple to one or more antennas configured to support the desired frequency(ies) of the radio node to provide the antenna coverage areas. Antenna coverage areas can have a radius in the range from a few meters up to twenty meters, as an example. Another example of a communications system includes radio nodes, such as base stations, that form cell radio access networks, wherein the radio nodes are configured to transmit communications signals wirelessly directly to client devices without being distributed through intermediate remote units.
For example, FIG. 1 is an example of a distributed communications system (DCS) 100 that includes a radio node 102 configured to support one or more service providers 104(1)-104(N) as signal sources (also known as "carriers" or "service operators"—e.g., mobile network operator (MNO)) and wireless client devices 106(1)-106(W). For example, the radio node 102 may be a base station (eNodeB) that includes modem functionality and is configured to distribute communications signal streams 108(1)-108(S) to the wireless client devices 106(1)-106(W) based on downlink communications signals 110(1)-110(N) received from the service providers 104(1)-104(N). The communications signal streams 108(1)-108(S) of each respective service provider 104(1)-104(N) in their different spectrums are radiated through antennas 112 to the wireless client devices 106(1)-106(W) in communication range of the antennas 112. For example, the antenna 112 may be an antenna array. As another example, the radio node 102 in the DCS 100 in FIG. 1 can be a small cell radio access node ("small cell") that is configured to support multiple service providers 104(1)-104(N) by distributing a communications signal stream 108(1)-108(S) for the multiple service providers 104(1)-104(N) based on respective downlink communications signals 110(1)-110(N) received from a respective evolved packet core (EPC) network CN1-CNN of the service provider 104(1)-104(N) through interface connections. The radio node 102 includes a radio circuit 118(1)-118(N) for each service provider 104(1)-404(N) that is configured to create multiple simultaneous signal beams ("beams") 120(1)-120(N) for the communications signal streams 108(1)-108(S) to serve multiple wireless client devices 106(1)-106(W). For example, the multiple beams 120(1)-120(N) may support multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) communications.
The radio node 102 of the DCS 100 in FIG. 1 may be configured to support service providers 104(1)-104(N) that have different frequency spectrum and do not share spectrum. Thus in this instance, the downlink communications signals 110(1)-110(N) from the different service providers 104(1)-104(N) do not interfere with each other even if transmitted by the radio node 102 at the same time. The radio node 102 may also be configured as a shared spectrum communications system where the multiple service providers 104(1)-404(N) have shared spectrum. In this regard, the capacity supported by the radio node 102 for the shared spectrum is split (i.e. shared) between the multiple service providers 104(1)-104(N) for providing services to the subscribers.
The radio node 102 in FIG. 1 can also be coupled to a distributed communications system, such as a distributed antenna system (DAS), such that the radio circuits 118(1)-118(N) remotely distribute the downlink communications signals 110(1)-110(N) of the multiple service providers 104(1)-104(N) to remote units. The remote units each include an antenna that may be similar to the antenna 112 in FIG. 1 for radiating the downlink communications signals 110(1)-110(N) to subscribers. Notably, each of the remote units may be configured to communicate the downlink communications signals 110(1)-110(N) in one or more frequency bands. In addition, each of the remote units may also be configured to receive uplink communications signals in one or more frequency bands.
No admission is made that any reference cited herein constitutes prior art. Applicant expressly reserves the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of any cited documents.

Multi-band remote unit in a wireless communications system (WCS)

Corning Research & Development Corporation


Mechanisms for modeling metastability decay through latches in an integrated circuit model are provided. Asynchronous clock boundaries are identified in the integrated circuit model and latches in a receive clock domain are enumerated. Latches within a range of the asynchronous clock boundary are selected for transformation. These latches are transformed into metastability decay latches using new latch primitive logic that models the decay of an indeterminate value. The metastability decay latches maintains an indeterminate value during a metastability time period and achieve a randomly selected logic value at the end of the metastability time period. The transformed integrated circuit model may then be simulated and the results analyzed to generate reports of the integrated circuit model's operation. The transformed integrate circuit model more accurately represents the actual operation of the hardware implementation of the integrated circuit model.

1. Technical Field
The present application relates generally to an improved data processing system and method. More specifically, the present application is directed to a system and method for modeling metastability decay through latches in an integrated circuit model.
2. Description of Related Art
In physical hardware integrated circuit devices, metastability is a problem that occurs in elements, e.g., flip-flops, latches, and the like, of the integrated circuit device when a data or control input is changing at the instant of a clock pulse. The result is that the output of the integrated circuit element may behave unpredictably, taking many times longer than normal to settle to its correct state or even oscillating several times before settling. In an integrated circuit device, such problems may cause corruption of data as well as other problems.
In many cases, metastability in integrated circuit devices can be avoided by ensuring that the data and control inputs are held constant for specified periods of time before and after the clock pulse. These periods of time are referred to as the setup time and the hold time, respectively. These times are specified in the data sheet for the integrated circuit device and are typically between a few nanoseconds and a few hundred picoseconds for modern integrated circuit devices.
Unfortunately, it is not always possible to meet the setup and hold time criteria because the integrated circuit element may be connected to a real-time signal that could change at any time, outside the control of the designer. In this case, the best the designer can do is to reduce the probability of error to a certain level, depending on the required reliability of the circuit.
One technique for suppressing metastability is to connect two or more integrated circuit elements, e.g., flip-flops or latches, in a chain so that the output of each one feeds the data input of the next, and all of the integrated circuit elements share a common clock. With this method, the probability of a metastable event can be reduced to a negligible value, but never to zero. For example, an integrated circuit element which attains a metastable value will assume an indeterminate value, i.e. neither a logic 0 or logic 1. This indeterminate value will be overwritten or decay to a random value, i.e. a logic 0 or logic 1, over time and/or through the use of additional integrated circuit elements provided in a chain, as mentioned above. Hence, there are two ways a metastable generated indeterminate value can be reduced to a random value—1) by using additional synchronization latches connected in a chain, or 2) by time.
In simulation of integrated circuit designs, while it is possible to model the metastability of a latch by using an indeterminate value, there currently is no ability to model the decay of such a metastable indeterminate value to a random value. In other words, during simulation of an integrated circuit design model, an indeterminate value does not decay as it would in the real physical hardware of the integrated circuit device. Thus, the only way to treat such indeterminate values in the simulation is to overwrite them with other logic in the simulation so that downstream logic of the metastable element does not see the indeterminate value. This, however, does not accurately represent the actual operation of the real physical hardware when the integrated circuit device is fabricated.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for modeling metastability decay through latches in an integrated circuit model

International Business Machines Corporation


An optical arrangement converts an input laser beam into a line-like output beam, which propagates along a propagation direction and which has, in a working plane, a line-like beam cross section extending along a line direction. The optical system includes: a reshaping optical unit having an input aperture, through which the input laser beam is radiated, and an elongate output aperture, elongatedly extending along an aperture longitudinal direction, the reshaping optical unit converting the input laser beam radiated through the input aperture into a beam packet exiting through the output aperture; and a homogenization optical unit which converts the beam packet into the line-like output beam, different beam segments of the beam packet being intermixed and superimposed along the line direction. The aperture longitudinal direction extends in a manner rotated about the propagation direction by a non-vanishing angle of rotation with respect to the line direction.

Laser systems are used to generate, in particular, high-intensity radiation with an intensity distribution that has a beam cross section that extends in a line-like manner. In the following, the axis defined by the line-like extension is referred to as the "long axis" of the intensity distribution. An axis perpendicular to the direction of the line and perpendicular to the direction of propagation is referred to as the "short axis." For the purpose of describing the geometric relationships, the long axis (x), the short axis (y), and the direction of propagation (z) should define an oriented, right-handed Cartesian coordinate system.
Such beam profiles are used, for example, to treat the surfaces of glasses or semiconductors (e.g. tempering, annealing). For this purpose, the line-like beam profile is scanned over the surface to be treated so as to be substantially perpendicular to the long axis. The radiation can trigger, for example, recrystallization processes, superficial melting, or diffusion processes of foreign materials into the material to be processed, or other phase changes in the region of the surface. Such treatment processes are used, for example, in the manufacture of thin-film-transistor (TFT) displays, in the doping of semiconductors, and in the manufacture of solar cells, but also in the manufacture of aesthetically designed glass surfaces for building purposes.
An optical arrangement is described in WO 2018/019374 A1.


A precision equipment having: a base; a table supported by the base; a tubular rod connected to a side of the table via a joint; a drive mechanism that moves the rod forward and backward; and a laser interferometer that detects displacement of the table relative to the base. The joint is provided by a supplying-discharging static-pressure joint and includes: a movement surface that is connected to the table and is orthogonal to a moving direction of the table; a drive surface that is connected to the rod and faces the movement surface; and a fluid supply channel supplying fluid to a static-pressure clearance between the movement surface and the drive surface. The laser interferometer includes a laser path having an optical axis along the moving direction passing through the inside of the rod of which a pressure is reduced and the drive surface and reflect on the movement surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to precision transfer equipment, more specifically, equipment that transfers a work table or a column of measuring equipment and a machine tool with a high precision for positioning.
2. Description of Related Art
Precision transfer equipment requiring a high motion accuracy (e.g., a precision positioning system, precision measuring equipment and a machine tool) has been designed to directly reflect a profile accuracy of a precisely finished guide rail to motion accuracy of an object to be moved.
Such precision transfer equipment is required to transmit a thrusting force only in a predetermined feed direction without transmitting vibration and the like from a driving source for transmitting a driving force by a drive mechanism to a movable body such as a table (an object to be moved). One of such transmission mechanisms exhibiting excellent performance is a static-pressure joint that supplies fluid between a pair of highly precise planes to form a static-pressure clearance.
Especially, a supplying-discharging static-pressure bearing that supplies fluid in an outer periphery of the static-pressure clearance and discharges the fluid in the middle, or a vacuum-balanced static-pressure air bearing can provide a strong rigidity in a compression direction and a tensile direction. Thus, there has been proposed to use a drive mechanism using the static-pressure bearing having such a high rigidity to increase geometric accuracy of motion of a high precision linear table (see Patent Literature 1: JP-A-2006-205292).
According to Patent Literature 1, only the thrusting force is transmitted in non-contact from the rod (a driving body) to the table (the movable body) via a static-pressure air bearing, so that transmission of vibration from the driving source is avoidable and a high motion accuracy of the table is achievable. Further, by placing a thrusting axis from the rod near the centroid of the table, the motion accuracy of the table is maintainable even in driving for acceleration or deceleration.
The static-pressure joint disclosed in Patent Literature 1 further includes a thrust plate that is supported near the rod by a gimbal mechanism absorbing a motion error in a yawing direction and is supported near the table by a similar gimbal mechanism absorbing a motion error in a pitching direction. Through the joint, forces other than the force in the moving direction of the table are not transmitted.
In order for precision transfer equipment to enhance accuracy, it is crucial to accurately detect and control a position of the movable body in a feed direction, in addition to a high geometric accuracy of motion of the drive mechanism and the movable body.
In order to provide such a function, there has been known a technique for detecting a position of a movable body in a feed direction by setting a laser interferometer in the precision transfer equipment (see Patent Literature 2: JP-A-2000-55617).
According to Patent Literature 2, a slider driving mechanism using a feed screw axis is provided under a table and a position detecting mechanism using a laser interferometer is provided on a side of the table. In this arrangement, a laser path extending from a light source of the laser interferometer to an end of the table is surrounded by a stretchable tube with a bellows, in which an inner pressure of the tube is reduced to eliminate an influence from air turbulence in the laser path, thereby achieving further high precision.
A simple combination of the precision transfer equipment disclosed in Patent Literature 1 and the positioning detecting mechanism disclosed in Patent Literature 2 entails the following problems.
For a precise positioning by the precision transfer equipment of Patent Literature 1, it is desirable that an object to be precisely positioned is placed on a driving axis as well as on a laser optical axis (a measurement axis) of the laser interferometer. However, it is difficult to coaxially arrange the laser path of the laser interferometer of Patent Literature 2 and the driving axis by the rod and the static-pressure air bearing of Patent Literature 1, where so-called offset is inevitable.
For this reason, even if a high precision is achieved by the precision transfer equipment of Patent Literature 1, a highly precise positioning detecting mechanism by the laser interferometer as disclosed in Patent Literature 2 cannot be combined with the precision transfer equipment of Patent Literature 1, so that a highly precise movement and a highly precise positioning may not be sufficiently achieved in practical use.
Moreover, Patent Literature 2 discloses that the bellows is used for reducing the pressure in the laser path in order to eliminate an influence of a medium in the laser path, in which the end of the bellows needs to be hermetically connected to the table. Accordingly, even if deviation of the thrusting axis is resolved by the gimbal mechanism as disclosed in Patent Literature 1, a high precision may be impaired by being affected by the bellows.


A semiconductor substrate includes a substrate, an insulating layer, and a semiconductor layer. The insulating layer is over and in contact with the substrate. The insulating layer includes at least one of an amorphous metal oxide and an amorphous metal nitride. The semiconductor layer is over and in contact with the insulating layer. The semiconductor layer is formed by crystal growth.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor substrate, a field-effect transistor, an integrated circuit, and a method for fabricating the semiconductor substrate.
2. Discussion of the Background
Group III-V compound semiconductor layers, due to their high carrier mobility, have been conventionally considered as promising replacements for silicon (Si) CMOS transistors. Specifically, MISFET with a group III-V compound semiconductor layer as a channel layer over a Si substrate has high carrier mobility and low carrier effective mass. As such, MISFET has been expected as a circuit element that could provide improvements over the characteristics to existing downsized Si CMOS transistors.
For example, see Ren, F. et al. "Demonstration of enhancement-mode p- and n-channel GaAs MOSFETs with Ga2O3(Gd2O3)As gate oxide." Solid State Electron, 41, pp. 1751-1753 (1997); Ren, F. et al. "Ga2O3(Gd2O3)/InGaAs enhancement-mode n-channel MOSFET's." IEEE Electron Device Lett., 19, pp. 309-311 (1998); Ye, P. D. et al. "GaAs MOSFET with oxide gate dielectric grown by atomic-layer-deposition." IEEE Electron Device Lett., 24, pp. 209-211 (2003); Ye, P. D. et al. "GaAs metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor with nanometer-thin dielectric grown by atomic-layer-deposition." Appl. Phys. Lett., 83, pp. 180-182 (2003); Non-patent document 5: Ye, P. D. et al. "Depletion-mode InGaAs metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor with oxide gate dielectric grown by atomic-layer deposition." Appl. Phys. Lett., 84, pp. 434-436 (2004); Rajagopalan, K., Abrokwah, J., Droopad, R., and Passlack, M. "Enhancement-mode GaAs n-channel MOSFET." IEEE Electron Device Lett., 27, pp. 959-962 (2006); Oktyabrsky, S. et al. "High-k gate stack on GaAs and InGaAs using in situ passivation with amorphous silicon." Mater. Sci. Eng. B, 135, pp. 272-274 (2006); Xuan, Y., Wu, Y. Q., Lin, H. C., Shen, T., and Ye, P. D. "Submicrometer inversion n-type enhancement-mode InGaAs MOSFET with atomic-layer-deposited Al2O3 as gate dielectric." IEEE Electron Device Lett., 28, pp. 935-938 (2007); Wu, Y. Q. et al. "Enhancement-mode InP n-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors with atomic-layer-deposited Al2O3dielectrics." Appl. Phys. Lett., 91, 022108 (2007); Zhu, F. et al. "Depletion-mode GaAs metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor with amorphous silicon interface passivation layer HfO2 gate oxide." Appl. Phys. Lett., 91, 043507 (2007); Li, N. et al. "Properties of InAs metal-oxide-semiconductor structures with atomic-layer-deposited Al2O3 Dielectric." Appl. Phys. Lett., 92, 143507 (2008); Lin, J. Q. et al. Inversion-mode self-aligned In0.53Ga0.47As n-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor with HfAlO gate dielectric and TaN metal gate." IEEE Electron Device Lett., 29, pp. 977-990 (2008); and Chin, H. C. et al. "Silane-ammonia surface passivation for gallium arsenide surface-channel n-MOSFETs." IEEE Electron Device Lett., 30, pp. 110-112 (2009).

Semiconductor substrate, field-effect transistor, integrated circuit, and method for fabricating semiconductor substrate

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


A circuit and method for power converter for improved current monitoring, comprising a buck converter comprising a high side switch, a current sensing circuits parallel to the buck converter configured to sense a current through a low side switch, and a positive slope inductor coil estimator sensing circuit parallel to a buck converter configured to estimate a current magnitude.

Field
The disclosure relates generally to a buck controller and, more particularly, to a control method using inductor coil current estimation thereof.
Description of the Related Art
Voltage regulation is important where circuits are sensitive to transients, noise and other types of disturbances. The control of the regulated voltage is key in switched mode power supplies (SMPS) and in many hysteretic-based topologies. Switched mode power supply topologies include the buck converter topology.
In hysteretic-based topologies, one of the topologies includes a hysteretic current-mode (CM) topology.
FIG. 1 shows a typical hysteretic current-mode controller. The buck converter 100 consists of a SR flip-flop 105 with inputs SET 101 and RESET 102. The SR flip-flop 105 provides a DUTY signal output 107 to pre-drive circuitry 110. The signal VIN 115 provides power to the output circuit comprising of a p-channel metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) pull-up device 120 and an n-channel metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) pull-down device 125. The p-channel MOSFET can be referred to as a PMOS transistor, and the n-channel MOSFET can be referred to as a NMOS transistor. The center node VLX is connected between the p-channel MOSFET 120 and n-channel MOSFET 125 providing a current to the output. The output node is connected to the inductor 140, the output capacitor 145 for the output signal 150, and output load 160.
Both MOSes can be replaced with BJTs or any other types of semiconductor switches. PMOS can be replaced with NMOS and vice-versa
A feedback network establishes a sensing scheme to current sensing circuit 130. Current in the inductor coil 140 is measured via current sensing circuits CSp 135 and CSn 137 where CSp 135 is active when PMOS P is ON and CSn 137 is active when NMOS N is ON. Both signals from the current sensing circuits are combined in the Current Sensing Block 130 and produce one signal ILint 139 which is an internal replica in the current in the coil. The circuit contains an Error amplifier 170 with the output signal 165, reference signal 167 coupled to a compensation network. The output of the Error Amplifier 170 is coupled to a compensation network. The error amplifier compares the output voltage with the reference voltage Vref and generates error signal vError. This signal is a base for two signals vError_H 175A and vError_L 175B which are shifted up and down from the vError by Voff/2 respectively. Internal coil current replica ILint is then compared with the vError_H 175A and vError_L 175B signals and resets (signal 185A) and sets (signal 185B) the main RS Flip-Flop FF1 105 which controls the switches.
FIG. 2 shows the timing diagram 200 for the signals. The p-channel MOS (PMOS) 210 and n-channel MOS (NMOS) 220 shows the switching of the output stage. The signal vError_H 230 and vError 240, and vError_L 250 describes the switching states of the error compensation network. The current through the inductor ILint 260 is overlaid on the switching states. In order to keep the frequency within given range several techniques can be implemented. The same is true for discontinuous current mode (DCM) mode of operation where current in the coil doesn't go below zero.
The described topology in FIG. 1, is good during transient events. The disadvantage of this prior art embodiment is the high quiescent current due to dual current sensing circuit which causes lower efficiency at light loads. In addition, a second disadvantage is the current sensing circuitry are usually noisy and layout sensitive. Additionally, another disadvantage is that the current sensing circuitry can also introduce switching noise.
U.S. Patent Application 2014/0247026 to Svorc describes a switched mode power supply having increased efficiency due to a loss-less coil current estimation for current control using a capacitor that has the same signal shape as the current through the coil inductor.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,698,470 to Ju shows a buck voltage regulator with mode switching based on sensing an integrated inductor current sense signal with an integrated reference signal. The patent also discusses switching from PWM and PFM operation in a buck converter.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,766,617 to Wan et al describes a method for improving voltage identification transient response by sensing the inductor current of a voltage regulator.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,053,595 to Mei et al shows a method and circuit for compensating offset errors caused by propagation delays in hysteretic control loops.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,707,281 to Solivan describes a voltage regulator that may include an inductor and a current detection circuit to detect current through the inductor.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,754 to Harper shows a circuit with inductor maximum current computation, inductor current comparator, and a current magnitude sensor.
In these prior art embodiments, the solution to establish a sampling circuit in switching regulator utilized various alternative solutions.

Control scheme for hysteretic buck controller with inductor coil current estimation


An internal-combustion engine with a device for adjusting the rotational angle (camshaft adjuster (1)) of a camshaft (2) relative to a crankshaft is provided. The device comprises a driving wheel (3) connected in a rotationally locked way to the crankshaft, a driven part (6) connected in a rotationally locked way to the camshaft (2), and an adjusting mechanism, with which the phase position between the crankshaft and camshaft (2) can be set and maintained in a certain range of angles. A reduction of the required axial structural space of the camshaft adjuster (1) and the number of individual parts is achieved in that the driven part (6) is fixed to the camshaft (2) with a frictional, positive-fit, or interference-fit connection.

The invention relates to a camshaft adjuster for adjusting and fixing the phase position of a camshaft of an internal-combustion engine relative to the crankshaft, with a driving wheel connected to the crankshaft in a rotationally locked way via a suitable drive, with a camshaft-fixed driven part, which is mounted on a camshaft or on an extension of the camshaft and which is driven by the driving wheel, with the phase position of the driven part being adjustable relative to the driving wheel within a certain range of angles.
In internal-combustion engines, camshafts are used to activate the gas exchange valves. The camshaft is mounted in the internal-combustion engine such that cam followers, for example, cup tappets, finger levers, or valve rockers, contact cams mounted in the engine. If the camshaft is set in rotation, then the cams roll on the cam followers, which in turn activate the gas exchange valves. Thus, the position and the shape of the cams sets both the open period, as well as the amplitude, but also the opening and closing times of the gas exchange valves.
Modern engine concepts are directed towards designing the valve drive to be more variable. On one hand, the valve stroke and valve open period should be variably configurable up to the complete deactivation of individual cylinders. For this purpose, concepts, such as switchable cam followers or electrohydraulic or electric valve drive actuators, have been provided. Furthermore, it has been shown to be advantageous to be able to influence the opening and closing times of the gas exchange valves during the operation of the internal-combustion engine. It is also desirable to be able to influence the opening or closing times of the inlet or outlet gas exchange valves separately, in order, for example, to be able to set a defined gas exchange valve overlap. Through the targeted setting of the opening or closing times of the gas exchange valves as a function of the current characteristic field range of the engine, for example, of the current engine speed or the current load, the specific fuel consumption can be reduced, the exhaust-gas ratio can be positively influenced, and the engine efficiency, the maximum torque, and the maximum power can be increased.
The described variability in the gas exchange valve time control is implemented through a relative change of the phase position of the camshaft to the crankshaft. Here, the camshaft is usually in direct driven connection with the crankshaft via a chain, belt, or gear wheel drive. A camshaft adjuster, which transfers the torque from the crankshaft to the camshaft, is mounted between the chain, belt, or gear wheel drive and the camshaft. Here, this adjusting device is embodied such that during the operation of the internal-combustion engine, the phase position between the crankshaft and camshaft is maintained reliably and when desired, the camshaft can be rotated into a certain range of angles relative to the crankshaft.
In internal-combustion engines with a camshaft for the inlet and outlet valves, these valves can each be equipped with a camshaft adjuster. Therefore, the opening and closing times of the inlet and outlet gas exchange valves can be shifted in time relative to each other and the overlap of the gas exchange valve times can be set as desired.
The basis of modern camshaft adjusters is located in general on the drive-side end of the camshaft. It comprises a driving wheel fixed to the crankshaft, a driven part fixed to the camshaft, and an adjusting mechanism transferring the torque from the driving wheel to the driven part. The driving wheel can be configured as a chain, belt, or gear wheel, and is connected to the crankshaft in a rotationally locked way by means of a chain, a belt, or a gear wheel drive. The adjusting mechanism can be operated electrically, hydraulically, or pneumatically.
Electrical adjusting mechanisms are constructed as so-called three-shaft drives. Here, a first shaft (the driving wheel) is in connection, via a linkage, which is driven by means of a second shaft (the adjusting shaft), with a third shaft (the driven part). The adjusting shaft of the linkage is driven by means of an electric motor. Planetary gears, internal eccentric gears, double internal eccentric gears, shaft gears, or wobble-plate gears, for example, are conceivable as the linkage.
In hydraulically operated camshaft adjusters, one differentiates between so-called axial-piston adjusters and rotary-piston adjusters.
In the axial-piston adjusters, the driving wheel is in connection with a piston via oblique gearing. Furthermore, the piston is in connection with the driven part likewise via oblique gearing. The piston separates a hollow space formed by the driven part and the driving wheel into two compression chambers arranged axially relative to each other. Now, if one compression chamber is charged with a hydraulic medium, while the other compression chamber is connected to an oil outlet, then the piston is displaced in the axial direction. By means of the two oblique gearings, this axial displacement creates a relative rotation of the driving wheel to the driven part and thus of the camshaft to the crankshaft.
In a rotary-piston adjuster, the driving wheel is connected in a rotationally locked way to a stator. The stator and the driven part are arranged concentric to each other. The radial intermediate space between these two components accommodates at least one, but usually several, hollow spaces spaced apart in the circumferential direction. The hollow spaces are bounded in a pressure-tight way by side walls in the axial direction. A vane connected to the driven part extends into each of these hollow spaces. This vane divides each hollow space into two compression chambers. Through targeted connection of the individual compression chambers with a hydraulic-means pump or with a hydraulic-means outlet, the phase of the camshaft relative to the crankshaft can be set or maintained.
To control the camshaft adjuster, sensors detect the characteristic data of the engine, such as, for example, the load state and the engine speed. This data is fed to an electronic control unit, which, after comparing the data with a characteristic data field of the internal-combustion engine, controls the adjusting motor of the camshaft adjuster or the inflow and the outflow of hydraulic means to the various compression chambers.
A camshaft adjuster for adjusting and fixing the phase position of a camshaft of an internal-combustion engine relative to its crankshaft according to the state of the art is known from DE 101 61 701 A1. In this publication, a driven part is fixed to a camshaft by means of a central screw. The driven part is arranged concentric to the driving part. In the radial intermediate space between driving wheel and driven part, several hollow spaces are formed, which are closed in a pressure-tight way by side walls in the axial direction. Vanes fixed to the driven part project into these hollow spaces, whereby two compression chambers are formed in each hollow space. The driven part is fixed with the help of a central screw, whereby the driven part is screwed onto the camshaft in the axial direction. The connection is established with a frictional lock through the axial force of the attachment means, which act upon a clamping surface arranged perpendicular to the axial force between the camshaft adjusting unit and the camshaft. The centering of the camshaft adjuster to the camshaft is realized through a complementary connection with radial play.
This actually good solution brings along the disadvantage of an increased axial structural space requirement due to the screw head. Because certain distances between the engine and chassis must be maintained in vehicles for reasons of safety, it is desirable to keep the axial structural space requirement of the camshaft adjuster to a minimum.
Furthermore, in this solution a small eccentricity due to the centering play between the camshaft adjusting unit and the camshaft must be taken into account.
Through the frictional connection of the driven part to the camshaft by means of the central screw, additional stresses are fed into the driven part and the camshaft. To reduce these stresses, in one embodiment, between the driven part and camshaft, there is a sleeve provided with a friction lining, whereby the stress is reduced but not sufficiently overcome.
Furthermore, solid axial clamping surfaces and threading in the camshaft are necessary, whereby considerable additional expense for their production and a high system weight must be taken into account.
Another such camshaft adjuster is described in DE 198 48 607. This is similar to the embodiment from DE 101 61 701 A1. A central screw, which connects the driven part to the camshaft, is arranged in turn within a central bore hole of the driven part. A central valve, which is used for controlling the flow of hydraulic medium to and from the various compression chambers, is integrated in the central screw. In this embodiment, the increased stress on the central valve due to the central screw function has a disadvantageous effect on the device.


Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for processing video searches using query-independent quality scores.

This specification relates to digital information retrieval, and particularly to processing video resources to facilitate search operations.
Internet search engines provide information about Internet accessible resources (e.g., Web pages, images, sounds, text documents, multimedia content, and other content) that are responsive to a user's search query by returning a set of search results in response to the query. A search result includes, for example, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and a snippet of information for resources responsive to a query. The search results can be ranked (i.e., put in an order) according to scores assigned to the search results by a scoring function. The scoring function ranks the search results according to various signals, for example, where (and how often) query terms appear in the search results and how common the query terms are in the search results indexed by the search engine.


A device simply the alignment of a trailer tongue of a towed vehicle for coupling to the tow bar of a towing vehicle. The device includes a direction orientable wheeled body having a socket thereon to receive the lower end of a vertical tongue jack of the trailer whereby movement of the wheel of the device aligns the trailer tongue hitch socket with the hitch ball of a towing vehicle. Wheel movement is achieved by rotation of a gear in engagement with the wheel.

The use of travel trailers and boat trailers by today's recreation oriented society is well documented. As boats get bigger, their trailers get longer. As travel trailers become more sophisticated to provide space for showers, refrigerators, TV sets and other comfort providing appliances and facilities, the trailers have themselves become bigger and bulkier.
It is quite common to park the boat trailer in a garage separate from the car or truck. And, it is quite common to park the camping trailer in a campground and detach the towing vehicle to use it for local touring and shopping.
Today most towed vehicles are retained by a ball and socket towing apparatus made by one manufacturer or another. Unfortunately, most people have difficulty in backing up the towing vehicle to the exact spot where the hitch ball would be in alignment with the socket of the trailer or towed vehicle to permit ready coupling of one to the other. The problem is compounded by the fact that the weight of the trailer tongue inhibits manual alignment of the socket with the previously positioned ball of the towing vehicle. This necessitates repeated back-up efforts, often resulting in frustration for both the driver of the towing vehicle and the helper directing the driver's movements.
Various devices have been invented to help align the trailer tongue's socket with the towing vehicle's ball for this coupling.
Many of these however, are limited in their movement capabilities. Some utilize a track, others only move in one direction. Some have constructions that do not lend themselves for use on other than flat land. As the result of a patent search applicant became aware of the following U.S. Pat. Nos.:
______________________________________ 1,337,065 GARCIA 3,084,953 MCGREGOR 3,765,703 VOELKERDING 4,911,460 DEPAULA 4,961,589 FAURENHOFF ______________________________________
Yet with all of these inventions and others, there still remains the need for an easy-to-use, low-cost readily-manipulatable trailer tongue alignment device.
It is an object therefore of this invention to provide an improved trailer tongue alignment device, operable by a socket wrench.
It is another object to provide a trailer tongue alignment device which can be easily operated by man, woman and child.
Still another object is provide a trailer tongue alignment device that is moveable in 360.degree. as may be needed.
A further object is to provide a tongue alignment device that is usable with almost any trailer tongue which has a vertical trailer tongue jack.
A still further object is to provide a trailer tongue alignment device that can be operated on soft or hard ground, paved or pebbled surfaces, be they flat or sloping.
These and other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.
The invention accordingly comprises the product possessing the features, properties and the relation of components which are exemplified in the following detailed disclosure and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the claims.


Disclosed is a telescopic-type horsewhip with a positionable and adjustable length, including a hollow whip rod grip section, a hollow whip rod extension section, and hollow whip rod sections. One end of the hollow whip rod extension section is arranged in the hollow whip rod grip section, and the other end of the hollow whip rod extension section is connected with the hollow whip rod section. A whip popper, a whip flap, a whip lash, a whip lash connector or a detachable whip drop lash fixing set is provided at an end of the hollow whip rod section. The hollow whip rod extension section and the hollow whip rod grip section are connected by a locking bolt. The hollow whip rod grip section, equipped with a tail cover on its other end, is provided with a non-slip handle at one end near the tail cover.

Currently, although equestrian sports are more popular in Europe and America, a certain number of people in China also engage in and love the sports. At present, most of the horsewhips used in equestrian sports and horse training are of fixed size. However, the existing telescopic-type horsewhips have no positionable length or have positionable length but are still very long after being retracted, which is not convenient for mailing, carrying and storage. When doing equestrian sports, due to different heights of horses or different sizes of venues during training, people need to be equipped with horsewhips of different lengths in order to achieve the best distance between man and horse to better guide the horse. At the same time, most of the existing horsewhips are inconvenient for e-commerce practitioners to deliver horsewhips to consumers with lower packaging and shipping costs.

Telescopic-type horsewhip with positionable and adjustable length

Zhenjiang Angel Equestrian Products Co., Ltd.


There is disclosed a method in a communications system for enabling authentication of a sender device and a receiver device in the communication system, wherein the sender device is associated with a self-generated first identity and a first master device, the receiver device is associated with a self-generated second identity and a second master device and wherein the authentication is enabled by utilizing the first master device and the second master device for the sender device and the receiver device to verify the identities of each other. In one embodiment, both the sender device and the receiver device are also associated with a third device ant the third device is used in addition to the master devices for verifying said identities. There is also disclosed a method In a sender device, a method in a receiver device, a method in a third device, a sender device, a receiver device, a third device, and a computer program product for the same.

The Internet has revolutionized the way business is done and has changed consumer behavior in a very short space of time. However, electronic commerce will only be able to realize its full potential if a number of important conditions are met. One of these conditions will be the underlying security of the data transported over the Internet, intranets and extranets.
Thus, there is an increasing demand for creating secure transfer of packages of information between sender devices and receiver devices in digital communications systems and networks. In areas such as digital business communication, digital money transactions, digital product delivery, etc., it is of importance that the package of information does not fall into the wrong hands, such as in the hands of an unauthorized party, or is tampered with by a participating party or by a third unauthorized party. It is also of importance that the sender and receiver can trust each other.


A punch press alignment instrument has upper and lower cylindrical components that are associated for vertical displacement relative to one another. Both components have outer tool holder engaging surfaces which are to be aligned with one another so as to in turn align the tool holders of the punch press when the upper and lower components themselves are in alignment. Alignment elements, e.g., ridges and grooves provided on mating surfaces of the components confronting each other are brought into contact with one another to move the components of the instrument into mutual alignment. An alignment control member, e.g., a screw is preferably provided for progressively bringing the upper and lower components toward one another and an indicator such as a lamp, a dial indicator or an audible indicator is provided for denoting the spacing between the upper and lower components to thereby confirm the alignment of the tool holders. A releasable element is used to temporarily hold the upper and lower components apart when they are spaced laterally from one another or for any reason are not capable of being placed in alignment.

In many standard punch presses, a punch element is carried on an upper turret in alignment over a die that is mounted on a lower turret. The punch and die are both held in circular tool holders. Before the press can be operated, the tool holders must be placed in vertical alignment with one another so that the punch and die are in turn in alignment during operation. An alignment tool previously used by the assignee of the present invention included upper and lower parts in which the upper part was provided with a pair of laterally spaced apart downwardly extending cylindrical pins that were placed in corresponding cylindrical openings in the lower part of the device to align the tool holders. The device was cumbersome to operate and there was no means of indicating when the upper and lower parts of the device were in alignment. Alignment tolerances were also not as good as are sometimes required. In addition, there was no device for progressively moving the upper and lower parts toward one another or for automatically bringing them into progressively better alignment with one another.
In some punch presses, because upper and lower turrets do not rotate on a common axis or for some other reason stations are out of alignment, the upper and lower parts of the alignment instrument should not contact one another while they are not able to be aligned.
In view of these and other deficiencies of the prior art, it is one object of the invention to enable upper and lower components of the alignment instrument to be placed into contact with one another only when they are in a position where they are capable of being aligned.
Another general object is to provide an improved alignment instrument that will align a punch and a die in three ways simultaneously; horizontally on perpendicular x and y axes with respect to the base of the punch press as well as automatically rotating the die with respect to the punch about a common vertical axis.
Another object of the invention is the provision of a device for moving upper and lower components of an alignment instrument apart or toward one another under the control of an operator for bringing them into alignment.
Yet another object of the invention is the prevision of an indicator that operates automatically to indicate the alignment of two components of the instrument which in turn align a punch holder with a cooperating die holder.
A still further object of the invention is the provision of an improved punch press alignment instrument having a visual display that will indicate both partial and complete alignment of components.
These and other more detailed and specific objects of the invention will be apparent in view of the following description and drawings which illustrate by way of example a few of the various ways the invention can be carried out within the scope of the appended claims.


An optical frequency mixing module is described that comprises a nonlinear medium for frequency mixing the photons of one or more input optical fields to generate an output optical field; a nonlinear medium tuner for automatically phase matching the nonlinear medium to the one or more input optical fields to select the wavelength of the output optical field generated by the nonlinear medium; and a first direction correcting optic. The position of the first direction correcting optic relative to the nonlinear medium is dependent upon the selected wavelength of the output optical field and therefore ensures that the position and angle of propagation of this field remains constant and independent of its wavelength of. The optical frequency mixing modules therefore provides a means for automatically selecting the wavelength of the output field with no deviation being imparted onto the position or angle of propagation of the output field.

The nonlinear optical properties of crystals have been exploited for many years in order to mix photons of one or more optical fields so as to generate an output optical field at a desired known frequency or wavelength.
An example of such a process is sum-frequency mixing (SFM). This technique is based on the annihilation of two input photons at angular frequencies ω1 and ω2 to generate one photon at frequency ω3. Sum-frequency generation is a parametric process meaning that the photons satisfy energy conservation, leaving the matter unchanged, as defined by equation (1) below:ℏω3≈ℏω1+ℏω2  (1)wherein ℏ=h/2πand h represents Planck's constant
For sum-frequency mixing to occur efficiently, the condition, as defined by equation (2), referred to as phase-matching, must be satisfied:ℏk3≈ℏk1+ℏk2  (2)where k1, k2 and k3 are the angular wavenumbers of the three waves as they travel through the medium. As this condition is satisfied more and more accurately, the sum-frequency generation becomes more and more efficient. Also, as sum-frequency generation occurs over a longer and longer length, the phase-matching must become more and more accurate.
A special case of SFM is second-harmonic mixing (SHM) in which ω1=ω2. This is possibly the most common type of SFM. This is because in SHG, only one input field is required, as compared with SFM, where if ω1≠ω2, and thus two simultaneous input fields are needed which can be more difficult to arrange.
As an alternative process to SFM known in the art is difference frequency mixing (DFM). This is a nonlinear process that involves combining two photons of different energies to produce a third photon whose energy equals the difference between those of the incident photons, as defined by equation (3) below:ℏω3≈ℏω1−ℏω2  (3)wherein ℏ=h/2πand h represents Planck's constant
For DFM to occur efficiently the following phase-matching condition as defined by equation (4) must be satisfied:ℏk3≈ℏk1−ℏk2  (4)where k1, k2 and k3 are again the angular wavenumbers of the three waves as they travel through the medium.
Other frequency mixing processes known in the art include third harmonic mixing (THM), high harmonic generation (HHG) and optical parametric amplification (OPA) and down conversion.
As with any second order χ(2), or higher order, phenomenon in nonlinear optics, the nonlinear processes can only occur under certain predefined conditions e.g. the light is interacting with matter, which is non-centro-symmetric and the input fields have a very high intensity (typically generated by a laser source). The phase matching requirements of equations (2) and (4) means that the frequency, or wavelength, of the generated output fields can be changed by the co-ordinated tuning of both the wavelength of the input field and the position of the nonlinear medium. Changing the position of the nonlinear medium is typically achieved by rotation or translation of the nonlinear crystal within the input fields.
Although such movement provides a means for the frequency, or wavelength, tuning of the generated output fields a corresponding deviation of the propagation direction of the output fields is experienced. This deviation of the output fields is problematic to the development of a commercial optical frequency mixing apparatus since it then requires the operator to realign steering optics for the output field so as to allow it to be employed for its desired purpose. This realignment process is by no means a trivial exercise and requires a high level of skill and effort on the part of the operator. Such realignment is also time-consuming resulting in significant down time for the use of the generated output field.
A second issue with the systems known in the art arises from the fact that nonlinear crystals are not able to convert all of the photons of the one or more of the input fields into photons for the output fields. As a result the output field from such devices often contains unwanted components at the wavelength of the one or more input fields. For certain nonlinear processes the optical fields at these unwanted wavelengths can be of significantly higher powers than that of the desired output wavelength. To address this issue wavelength dependent filters and or carefully designed mirror coatings are required to be employed within the steering optics for the output field. Both of these types of optical components further add to the realignment issues experienced by operators employing those systems known in the art.
It is therefore an object of an aspect of the present invention to provide an optical frequency mixing module that obviates or at least mitigates the foregoing disadvantages of the optical frequency mixing apparatus known in the art.


A method of mounting a rubber plug to a wire used for a waterproof connector in which the fluctuation in the position of the rubber plug about the wire is reduced. The mounting method comprises the steps of: accommodating the rubber plug in a mounting jig such that the thick portion of the rubber plug is positioned at open end of the mounting jig; grasping a tip of the wire between a pair of guides such that the tip opposes the thick portion of the rubber plug; aligning an axis of the wire with that of the wire insertion hole of the rubber plug; moving the mounting jig toward the wire to insert the rubber plug into the wire while moving the pair of guides in the same direction as the mounting jig moves; projecting the tip of the wire from the thin portion of the rubber plug by the sum of the predetermined length and a supplementary length; moving the mounting jig in the direction away from the pair of guides to release the rubber plug therefrom; moving the pair of guides toward the mounting jig while pushing the rubber plug by the length of the supplemental length toward the tip of the wire to project the wire from the end of the thin portion of the rubber plug by the predetermined length.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of mounting a rubber plug to a wire used for a waterproof connector in which the fluctuation in the position of the rubber plug about the wire is reduced.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a waterproof connector used for connecting wire harnesses, a rubber plug 2 is inserted into an end of a wire 1 as illustrated in FIGS. 7A to 8B, and then a terminal 23 is calked so as to be fixed to the wire together with the rubber plug.
The rubber plug 2 consists of a thin portion 2a with a small diameter and a thick portion 2b with a large diameter, as illustrated in FIGS. 8A and 8B. A wire insertion hole 2c is formed in the rubber plug 2, and a tapered wire insertion guide 2d is formed in the wire insertion hole 2c on the side that the wire 1 is inserted. Further, projections 2e are formed on an outer periphery of the thick portion 2b. Reference symbol L1 shows the length of the thin portion 2a. L2 shows the length of the thick portion 2b.
After the wire 1 is positioned so as to project, from an end of the thin portion 2a of the rubber plug 2 by a predetermined length D as illustrated in FIG. 7A, an insulating coating 1b is removed by a stripping device not shown. Conductor crimping pieces 23b of a wire connecting portion 23B of the terminal 23 in FIG. 7B are used to crimp an exposed core wire 1a, and insulating calking pieces 23c crimp the thin portion 2a with a small diameter. Reference symbol 23A shows an electrical contact portion for a mated terminal and Reference Numeral 23a shows a resilient contact piece.
FIGS. 9 and 10 show a rubber plug mounting method with a conventional rubber plug mounting apparatus, as disclosed in Japanese patent publication (examined) No. Showa 64-9131. Reference numeral 4 shows a jig and a rubber plug accommodating portion 5 with a tiered portion concavely formed therein. The rubber plug accommodating portion 5 consists of a large hole 5a with a diameter substantially the same as that of the thick portion 2b of the rubber plug 2, and a small hole 5b with a diameter sufficiently larger than that of thin portion 2a of the rubber plug 2.
The rubber plug 2 is accommodated in the accommodating portion 5 in advance, and the wire 1 is aligned with the wire insertion hole 2c by a pair of guides 6 and 6' which are vertically arranged. Then, the mounting jig 4 proceeds in the direction indicated by an arrow P toward the wire 1, and the guides 6 and 6' are simultaneously moved in the same direction at the same velocity to insert the rubber plug 2 to the wire 1 by a predetermined length as illustrated in FIG. 9. The length that the rubber plug 2 is inserted is the sum of an overall length of the rubber plug 2 and a prescribed projection length D. Finally, the jig 4 is moved in the direction indicated by an arrow P' to release the rubber plug, which permits a projecting length of the wire 1 from the thin portion 2a to be adjusted to the predetermined length D as illustrated in FIG. 10. However, with the method described above, a return .DELTA.L of the rubber plug 2 is generated as a matter of fact, which provides a gap between the guides 6 and 6'. As a result, a projecting length D' does not coincide the setting value D, resulting in fluctuation in the position of where the rubber plug 2 is situated about the wire 1.
The reason for the fluctuation is because the resilient thin portion 2a with a small diameter elongates by .DELTA.L1 from an original length L1 due to a frictional resistance between the wire insertion hole 2ac of the rubber plug 2 and the wire 1, as illustrated in FIG. 11A. The release from the jig 4 causes the thick portion 2b with large diameter of the rubber plug 2 to move on the side of the thin portion 2a with small diameter 2a by the resilience of the overall rubber plug 2. However, the return length is fluctuated due to dimensional tolerance and uneven resilience of the rubber plug 2. Therefore, even if the insertion length of the rubber plug 2 to the wire 1 is constantly maintained, the fluctuation in the position of the rubber plug 2 could not be prevented effectively.


A content server enables one user to purchase licensed content for another user and, in response to the purchase, automatically delivers the content to the other user's device. The content server further configures the other user's device to receive and utilize the licensed content, thus enabling the other user to consume the content.

Advances in technology have made possible the storage and transmission of large media objects, applications, and other forms of content. Songs, movies, television shows, video clips, pictures, and video games are widely available, sold through the Internet and distributed on computer-readable media. A typical user possesses several devices—including telecommunications devices such as mobile phones—that are used to acquire, store, and play those many forms of content.
To acquire content, users often interact with online merchants who enable purchasing and downloading of the content. The online merchants have web sites that users can browse. The web sites often include logic that enables a user to select a content item, enter payment information, and begin downloading the item. Usually, the content item is downloaded onto the device that the user utilized to browse the web site and purchase the content item. Before downloading can begin, the user may also be required to assent to a license agreement that restricts the usage rights acquired by the user when purchasing the content item.
Online merchants typically do not offer users any options other than buying content for themselves. Buying content that can be shared with other users or gifted to other users is often prohibited both by the capabilities of the recipients' devices and by the need for the recipients to give assent to the license agreement.

Licensed content purchasing and delivering


A method of analyzing and organizing printed documents is performed at a computing system having one or more processors and memory. The method includes receiving one or more printed documents, each including one or more pages. The method includes processing each page of each printed document. The method includes scanning the respective page to obtain an image file. The method also includes determining a document class for the respective page by inputting the image file to one or more trained classifier models, and generating a semantic analyzer pipeline including at least an optical character recognition (OCR)-based semantic analyzer. The method also includes applying the OCR-based semantic analyzer to the preprocessed output page to generate a preprocessed output page and to extract semantic information corresponding to the respective page. The method includes determining a digital organization for the respective printed document based on the extracted semantic information and the document class.

Collections of visual media files (e.g., images and video) are growing in size and are often stored in multiple locations. Media repositories may exist on local storage for mobile and desktop devices, dedicated network-attached storage (NAS), or on remote cloud services. It is particularly difficult to search media files. Whereas textual queries can be matched to text content of ordinary documents, an image or video does not include text that can be directly matched. In addition, because of the vast quantity of media files, a manual scan of the media file universe is generally not productive. Furthermore, brute force approaches, such as performing OCR on an entire image, does not necessarily capture critical characteristics that would be relevant to a search query.
Similarly, even though information is increasingly digitized, documents continue to be printed (e.g., for offline review). There is also a large amount of legacy information that is only available in paper form. Old printed matter tends to be damaged and is not amenable to traditional scanning techniques. Moreover, organizing printed documents is particularly difficult due to the large number of document types. For example, a spreadsheet and a map that are printed and subsequently scanned together require very different analysis for digitization and organization.

Digital organization of printed documents according to extracted semantic information


A method and circuit for controlling feedback in, for example, a power factor converter circuit. A current sense signal is compared with a reference signal to generate a comparison signal. A clipped signal is generated from the comparison signal where the signal is a periodic waveform that transitions between two levels that are symmetrically positioned about a reference signal. The clipped signal is used to generate a summed signal at the input of an integrator. The integrator generates a feedback signal suitable for use in, for example, a power factor converter circuit.

Power converters are used in a variety of portable electronic devices including laptop computers, cellular phones, personal digital assistants, video games, video cameras, etc. In addition, they are used in non-portable applications such as, for example, Light Emitting Diode (LED) driver converters. They may convert a dc signal at one voltage level to a dc signal at a different voltage level (this is a dc-dc converter), an Alternating Current (ac) signal to a dc signal (this is an ac-dc converter), a dc signal to an ac signal (this is a dc-ac converter), or an ac signal to an ac signal (this is an ac-ac converter). Typically, these types of converters include a diode bridge rectifier stage and a bulk storage capacitor which produces a dc voltage from an ac signal provided by an ac line. This dc voltage is further processed by a converter which generates an output signal that is applied across a load. In this configuration, the rectifying circuit only draws power from the ac line when the instantaneous ac voltage is greater than the voltage across the bulk storage capacitor, resulting in a non-sinusoidal current signal that has high harmonic frequencies. A drawback with this configuration is that the power factor or ratio of real power to apparent power is usually very low. Thus, the converter draws excess current but fails to use the excess current to perform or accomplish any circuit functions.
To address the power factor issue, integrated circuit manufacturers couple a Power Factor Correction (PFC) stage to the diode bridge rectifier, which improves the use of current drawn from the main ac line by shaping it to be more sinusoidal. Generally, power converters that include PFC stages are either two-stage power converters, i.e., a two-stage PFC architecture, or single stage power converters, i.e., a single stage PFC architecture. A converter having a two-stage PFC architecture allows for optimization of each individual power stage. However, this type of architecture uses a large number of components and processes the power twice. A converter having a single stage PFC architecture uses fewer components, processes the power a fewer number of times which can improve efficiency, and can be more reliable than a two-stage architecture. A drawback with the single stage architecture is that it has a large output ripple which is at twice the ac line frequency. The magnitude of this ripple can overdrive conventional feedback networks forcing them outside of the linear response region or degrade their ability to maintain a high power factor. A technique for smoothing out or decreasing the ripple is to couple a filtering capacitor having a large capacitance value to the output filter network. Although the large capacitance smoothes out the ripple in the current delivered to the load without interfering with the control loop, it uses electrolytic capacitors which are large, expensive, and degrade circuit reliability. In addition, the large capacitance slows the response time of the control loop resulting in excessive current which can overdrive and potentially damage an LED load. The excessive currents typically occur when the converter is first energized or if the input voltage changes rapidly.
Another approach to mitigate high output ripple involves slowing the response time of the LED current feedback signal. The slower response introduces a delay in the feedback signal which is no longer representative of the actual current at a given moment in time. A slow control loop is used to minimize the effect of phase delay in the LED current feedback signal and maintains stable operating conditions. This slow response limits the circuit in responding to changing power line conditions potentially creating an excessive LED current. Initial power up also creates excessive current due to overshoot which can damage the LEDS. Systems with a slow feedback response are also prone to flicker which is undesirable in light sources.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a method and a circuit that provides a feedback signal to a switching power controller that represents the average load current without ripple or time delays thereby allowing a rapid response to changing operating conditions. It would be of further advantage for the power converter and method to be cost efficient to implement.

Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC


The invention provides methods of cultivating microalgae photoautotrophically outdoors to prepare concentrated microalgae products containing eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) docosahexaenoic acid, two long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids found in fish oil that are very important for human and animal health. It also provides concentrated microalgae products containing EPA and DHA and purified lipid products containing EPA and DHA purified from microalgae.

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are Long Chain Poly-Unsaturated Fatty Acids (LCPUFA) and belong to the omega-3 family. These polyunsaturated fats play a very important role in the function of our bodies and have been shown to be important in maintaining brain, retina and cardiovascular health (1-9). These fatty acids also play an important role in inflammation and thus they are useful for fighting diseases linked to inflammation, which include cardiovascular disease and arthritis (10-12).
The nutritional importance of EPA and DHA began emerging in the mid 1980s. The paleolithic diet contained small and roughly equal amounts on Omega-6 and Omega-3 PUFAs (ratio of 1-2:1) (13). An imbalance of this ratio can cause many age related health problems and neurodegenerative diseases (14).
In the 1980s, the major source of these LCPUFAs in the human diet was from fish or from fish oil capsules. But fish stocks are declining throughout the world due to overfishing. In addition, fish accumulate methyl mercury, PCB's and other toxins in their fat tissue, and these thus contaminate fish oils.
Fish do not synthesize EPA and DHA; they accumulate them from eating phytoplankton or eating animals that eat phytoplankton. It is the phytoplankton and other microbes that are the primary producers of EPA and DHA. Thus, an alternative source of EPA and DHA is microorganisms, and particularly phytoplankton.
A search is on to find suitable organisms to produce EPA- and DHA-containing oils (15-19).
The main difference in fish oils and algal oils is their structure. Fish oils are storage lipids and are in the form of triacylglycerides. The algal lipids are a mixture of storage lipids and membrane lipids. The EPA and DHA present in algae is mostly in the form of glycolipids and a small percentage is in the form of phospholipids. Glycolipids are mostly part of chloroplast membranes and phospholipids are part of cell membranes. Since glycolipids and phospholipids comprise a maximum of approximately 10-15% of the dry weight of algae, EPA and DHA production in this form is not considered economically viable. It has been suggested that cost effective production of EPA and DHA from algae (or any other microbes) would require the use of microbial strains that could produce large amounts of triacyglycerides (21).
Marine algae rich in EPA or DHA are produced by hatcheries in greenhouses or indoors in large tanks or transparent cylinders. But such methods are expensive and commercially not viable.
Economical ways of raising microorganisms that accumulate EPA and DHA are lacking. Microalgae have the potential to be raised photoautotrophically—by photosynthesis without a reduced carbon source, using CO2 as their carbon source. Since sunlight is free and land is inexpensive in some areas, it would be advantageous to raise microalgae outdoors photoautotrophically with sunlight in a way that results in accumulation of EPA and/or DHA. But culturing microalgae outdoors photoautotrophically is challenging because the cultures grow slowly and are prone to become contaminated when cultured outdoors. In addition, strains that may accumulate significant quantities of EPA or DHA under carefully controlled conditions may not accumulate as much under outdoor photoautotrophic conditions.
New sources of EPA and DHA for human nutritional supplements and as animal feed and aquaculture feed are needed. New improved methods of culturing microalgae to serve as a source of EPA or DHA are needed. Identification of microorganisms that are suitable sources of DHA and EPA for humans, seafood, and livestock is needed.

Photoautotrophic growth of microalgae for omega-3 fatty acid production

Parry Nutraceuticals, Division of E.I.D. Parry (India) Ltd