In one aspect, the invention includes a method of forming an insulating material comprising: a) providing a substrate within a reaction chamber; b) providing reactants comprising a Si, F and ozone within the reaction chamber; and c) depositing an insulating material comprising fluorine, silicon and oxygen onto the substrate from the reactants. In another aspect, the invention includes a method of forming a boron-doped silicon oxide having Sixe2x80x94F bonds, comprising: a) providing a substrate within a reaction chamber; b) providing reactants comprising Triethoxy fluorosilane, a boron-containing precursor, and ozone within the reaction chamber; and c) depositing a boron-doped silicon oxide having Sixe2x80x94F bonds onto the substrate from the reactants. In yet another aspect, the invention includes a method of forming a phosphorus-doped silicon oxide having Sixe2x80x94F bonds, comprising: a) providing a substrate within a reaction chamber; b) providing reactants comprising triethoxy fluorosilane, a phosphorus-containing precursor, and ozone within the reaction chamber; and c) depositing a phosphorus-doped silicon oxide having Sixe2x80x94F bonds onto the substrate from the reactants.

The invention pertains to methods of forming insulating materials, such as, for example, materials comprising silicon oxide. In exemplary applications, the invention pertains to methods of forming boron and/or phosphorous doped materials comprising fluorine, silicon and oxygen.
Silicon oxide materials (such as, for example, silicon dioxide) are commonly used in semiconductor device fabrication as insulating materials. Silicon oxide materials can be formed by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) from appropriate precursors. An exemplary combination of precursors that can be utilized for forming silicon oxide materials is silane (SiH4) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Another precursor combination which can be utilized for forming silicon oxides is tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and ozone (O3).
Silicon oxide materials can be doped with one or both of boron and phosphorous to alter (lower) a dielectric constant of the material. The boron and/or phosphorous can be introduced into a silicon oxide material by, for example providing one or both of a boron-containing precursor material and a phosphorous precursor material in a CVD reaction chamber during deposition of the silicon oxide material. Suitable phosphorous precursor materials include, for example, PH3 and tetraethoxy phosphine (TEPO). Suitable boron-containing precursors include, for example, B2H6 and triethyl borane (TEB). An alternative method of introducing phosphorus and/or boron into a silicon oxide material is to implant one or both of phosphorus and boron into the material.
A characteristic of a deposited silicon oxide material is its so-called flow temperature. A flow temperature is a temperature at which the silicon oxide material will melt. Flow temperature can be an important characteristic of silicon oxide materials. For instance, incorporation of silicon oxide materials into semiconductor fabrication processes frequently involves melting and reflowing of the materials to increase planarity and obtain good coverage of the materials over underlying device structures. Films consisting essentially of silicon dioxide typically have flow temperatures of about 1,100xc2x0 C. or higher. Addition of boron or phosphorous to such films can reduce the flow temperatures to less than 850xc2x0 C. It would be desirable to further reduce flow temperatures. Specifically, silicon oxide flow frequently occurs after provision of semiconductor devices in a semiconductor fabrication process. The high temperatures of silicon dioxide reflow can adversely affect such devices.
Another characteristic of silicon oxide materials is density. Denser materials generally have better flow properties than less dense materials. Specifically, denser materials can frequently reflow over underlying nonplanar structures more quickly than can less dense silicon oxide materials. Accordingly, it would be desirable to develop methods for densifying silicon oxide materials.
In one aspect, the invention encompasses a method of forming an insulating material. A substrate is provided within a reaction chamber together with reactants comprising Si, F and ozone. An insulating material comprising fluorine, silicon and oxygen is deposited onto the substrate from the reactants.
In another aspect, the invention encompasses a method of forming a boron-doped silicon oxide having Sixe2x80x94F bonds. A substrate is provided within a reaction chamber together with reactants comprising F-TES, a boron-containing precursor, and ozone. A boron-doped silicon oxide having Sixe2x80x94F bonds is deposited onto the substrate from the reactants.
In yet another aspect, the invention encompasses a method of forming a phosphorus-doped silicon oxide having Sixe2x80x94F bonds. A substrate is provided within a reaction chamber together with reactants comprising F-TES, a phosphorus-containing precursor, and ozone. A phosphorus-doped silicon oxide having Sixe2x80x94F bonds is deposited onto the substrate from the reactants.

Method of forming fluorine doped boron-phosphorous silicate glass (F-BPSG) insulating materials


A solid-state memory that requires a lower current during recording and erasing data and can repeatedly rewrite data an increased number of times. In at least one example embodiment, the solid-state memory includes a recording layer that includes a laminated structure in which electric properties are changed in response to a phase separation. The laminated structure includes a film containing an Sb atom(s) and a film containing a Ge atom(s), which films constitute a superlattice structure. In the laminated structure, phase separation of the film containing the Sb atom and the film containing the Ge atom allows data to be recorded and erased efficiently.

PRAMs (phase-change Random Access Memories) have been conventionally studied in order to accomplish an ultrahigh-density memory. Recording or erasing of data is carried out with respect to the PRAMs by use of a physical property change caused by a transition (called 1st-order phase transformation) between a crystalline state and an amorphous state of chalcogen compounds containing Te (see, for example, Patent Literature 1 and Non patent Literatures 1 and 2).
An alloy thin film has been usually employed as a recording material for the PRAMs. The alloy thin film has a single layer and is deposited between electrodes by a vacuum film deposition method such as sputtering with the use of a target made from a compound composition. Because of this, the alloy thin film has a thickness of 20 nm to 50 nm and is a polycrystal, not a single crystal.
Since the latter half of the 1980s, chalcogen compounds that contain Te have been studied as to their crystal structures and amorphous structures by structure analysis using an X-ray and/or the like. Note, however, that the crystal structures of the chalcogen compounds had been unclear until 2004. This is because of the presence of Sb. Sb is one of the atoms constituting the chalcogen compound containing Te, and has the atomic number next to Te, so that the difference in the number of electrons is only one (1) between Sb and Te. This makes it almost impossible to distinguish between Te and Sb by use of the X-ray diffraction or the electron diffraction.
This caused misunderstandings as to crystal structures of (i) a compound called GeSbTe (225 composition), which has been experimentally known to have excellent properties and (ii) compounds similar to a pseudo-binary composition compound (i.e., compounds, having 225, 147, or 125 composition, similar to GeTe—Sb2Te3), which compounds (i) and (ii) are and used in rewritable optical discs which have been already on the market and have been used in rewritable optical disks. Specifically, it had been believed that the crystal structures of the compounds (i) and (ii) had sodium-chloride structures in each of which Te occupies Na sites (a-sites) and Ge or Sb occupies Cl sites (b-sites) randomly (see, for example, Non patent Literature 3).
However, the structure of the GeSbTe compound was analyzed in detail by use of a device such as a synchrotron orbital radiation device. This has revealed that the chalcogen compound that contains Te has a structure different from the structures that had been believed in the following respects (see, for example, Non patent Literature 4).
Specifically, the following facts (1) through (3) came out. (1) In a crystal phase, an arrangement in which Ge atoms and Sb atoms occupy positions ((b)-sites) of Cl in a NaCl-type simple cubic lattice is not a 'random' state as previously believed. Instead, positions at which the atoms are arranged are precisely 'fixed' and the lattice is distorted (see FIG. 3). (2) The amorphous state is not completely random but has a twisted structure, while maintaining a unit, in which Ge atoms inside the crystal lattice are arranged so as to be slightly shifted by about 0.2 Å from the central position toward Te atoms, which central position is slightly off the center and is therefore ferroelectric (see FIG. 4). (3) The unit thus twisted is restored, so that high-speed switching is stably repeated (see FIG. 5).
Note in FIG. 5 that (i) the structure illustrated on the left side corresponds to the structure illustrated in FIG. 3 and (ii) the structure illustrated on the right side corresponds to the structure illustrated in FIG. 4.
Note also that a phase-change material constituted by Ge and Sb without using Te has been recently developed (see, for example, Non patent Literature 5).

Superlattice recording layer for a phase change memory

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


The present invention relates to a wafer storage container, more particularly, relates to a wafer storage container wherein the space of the wafer storage container is divided into the spaces, namely a storage room, a gas injection room, and a gas exhausting room, which are independent and separate from each other, so when the wafer storage container is transported to the load port and being coupled therewith, the purge gas is injected/exhausted through the separating walls inside the storage room, thereby efficiently removing the remaining fumes on the surface of the wafer.

Generally, semiconductor devices are manufactured by selectively and repeatedly performing processes such as vacuum deposition, polishing, photolithography, ion injection, cleaning, inspection, thermal treatment, and the like on the semiconductor wafers; and the wafers are transported to a specific location required for each process in order to be formed as semiconductor devices.
During the semiconductor manufacturing process, the wafers being processed are products of high precision, and they are stored in a wafer storage container such as a front opening unified pod (FOUP) for protection from contamination and damage due to foreign substances and external impact, and then transported for storage or processing.
In this case, process gases being used during the processing and fumes which are byproducts of the processes are not removed, but remain on the surfaces of the wafers and stored in the wafer storage container as they are.
However, proceeding of the processes with such residual materials adhered on the surfaces of the wafers will consequently followed by contamination of the semiconductor manufacturing equipments, failures in the etching pattern, and the like; thus, the reliability of the products will be degraded eventually. Therefore, various technologies for removing such residual materials are being developed.
A wafer storage container for removing fumes remaining on the wafer surface are described and disclosed in the patent literature Korean Patent Publication No. 2010-0134033.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the container portion 64 includes: a shell 65, a closed upper portion, a closed bottom surface, a closed left surface, a closed right surface, an open front surface, and a closed back surface 67.
A door 24 in the open front surface can seal the container portion 64.
A wafer shelf for storing a plurality of wafers may be included inside the container portion 64.
A kinematic coupling plate 74 is located in the bottom of the container and includes an appropriate opening for accommodating the front surface grommet and the back surface grommet 77 in the rearward port 54. The opening is being extended through the shell 65.
The container includes two rearward apertures 80 being extended from the inside of the container towards the outside thereof.
A tube type environment control element 78 configured as a tower element is inserted from the inside of the container portion 64 into the aperture 80.
The tube type element includes a containment portion 81, an offset portion 83, and a port portion 85.
The elastomer grommet 77 may be located in the lower region of the tube type element so as to be sealed hermetically, and a check valve 62 may be located therein.
A cylindrical type filter and/or a getter medial material 10 may be included in the containment portion, and configured to fit into the inside of the tube type element.
The tube type element includes a plurality of axially-extending apertures 11 comprising open horizontal slots.
In addition, the tube type element may include slits for each wafers and the purge gas is discharged at the slit position towards the surface of each wafer.
However, the wafer storage container of the prior art has a problem in that since gas injection area, wafer mounting area, and gas exhausting area cannot form independent space of their own, the gas flow is not uniform inside the wafer mounting area.
Besides, there is another problem in that: a dead zone, wherein the purge gas is not injected to the wafers being stored inside the wafer storage container, may occur; and the purge gas is injected intensively on a specific area since the purge gas is injected by the tube type element being installed vertically.


A temperature-compensated structure includes a temperature compensator having a temperature-compensation bellows whose length is responsive to changes in temperature, and a temperature-compensation actuator that moves responsive to the length of the temperature-compensation bellows. There is a movable structure, and a mechanical force multiplier extending between the temperature-compensation actuator and the movable structure so that a force applied to the movable structure is greater than the force produced by the temperature-compensation bellows.

One form of an infrared optical system includes several lenses made of infrared-transparent lens materials such as germanium or silicon. The lenses are arranged at the proper positions along an optical path to achieve the desired effects. However, the refractive index and other optical properties of such infrared lens materials are strongly dependent upon temperature. If the temperature changes so that the optical properties of the lens materials change, the lenses may no longer be properly positioned relative to each other, and the performance of the infrared optical system is degraded.
One approach to reducing the adverse effects of the temperature dependence of the lens properties is to mount one or more of the lenses in a temperature compensator. The axial position of the mounted lens along the optical path is altered by the temperature compensator as the temperature changes, so as to null the effects of the changes in the optical properties of the lens material. In some applications, it is sufficient to mount only the lens having the greatest temperature dependence of its optical properties on the temperature compensator.
This approach works well in applications involving only static forces applied to move the lens mounted on the temperature compensator. However, where the system is subject to vibrations or sudden accelerations, the inventor has observed, in the work leading to the present invention, that the temperature compensator is prone to premature mechanical failure, which in turn leads to a degradation in the properties of the optical system because it can no longer compensate for the changes in the optical properties of the lenses.
There is a need for an improved approach to temperature-compensated optical systems to overcome the sensitivity to vibrations and accelerations. The present invention fulfills this need, and further provides related advantages.

Temperature-compensated structure with force multiplier for the temperature compensator


The present invention provides a novel class of insecticides for control of disease vector insects, particularly mosquitoes. These insecticides prevent maturation or development of larvae into adult insects using interfering RNA (iRNA). The present invention further includes compositions comprising iRNA and methods of controlling, reducing, or treating an insect infestation with the iRNA or compositions described herein.

Mosquito-borne infectious diseases continue to be a serious global health concern. For example, malaria, which is caused by parasites transmitted by anopheline vector mosquito species, was responsible for 198 million clinical cases and over 500,000 deaths in 2013, per World Health Organization estimates. Media coverage of the ongoing Zika outbreak in South America, with its correlation to microcephaly in babies and Guillain-Barré Syndrome, both of which can require intensive medical intervention, have caused considerable alarm in the U.S. and worldwide, igniting renewed interest in combating mosquito-borne infectious disease. Viruses that cause Zika, chikungunya, yellow fever, as well as dengue, the most widespread and significant arboviral disease in the world, are spread by the bite of the vector mosquito in the genus Aedes, chiefly A. aegypti but also A. albopictus. Zika cases, which are linked to severe birth defects and neurological disorders, are currently occurring in many countries in the Americas, including Belize. Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, the principle vectors of Zika virus, lay eggs in natural and artificial water-filled containers located within or close to human dwellings. Due to these significant health concerns, the World Health Organization recently designated Zika virus an international public health emergency (WHO, 2016). Furthermore, dengue, the most widespread and significant arboviral disease in the world, is a threat to >2.5 billion people in the tropics, including the southern continental United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Dengue has an annual incidence of approximately 400 million cases resulting in ˜50,000 deaths annually worldwide (WHO, 2016). These statistics highlight the critical need to combat these viruses and their mosquito vectors. Given poor progress in vaccine development and distribution, mosquito control is the primary mechanism for disease control. However, the emergence of insecticide resistance and a lack of support for mosquito control programs compromise current strategies for managing mosquitoes (CDC, 2014).
Dozens of species in the genus Anopheles transmit protozoan parasites in the genus Plasmodium, which cause malaria. Multiple forms of encephalitis, dog heartworm, and West Nile virus are also transmitted by mosquitoes. Together, these mosquito-borne diseases kill over a million people, and sicken hundreds of millions, every year.
Given poor progress in vaccine development and distribution, mosquito control is the primary mechanism for disease control, but our existing arsenal for eliminating mosquitoes is not adequate. A. aegypti lay eggs in water-holding containers, including natural plant containers, as well as a variety of man-made artificial containers that collect rain water or that are filled with water by humans. Larvae hatch from the eggs and remain in the water-filled containers through the end of the pupal stage. During this aquatic phase, the immature mosquitoes are concentrated in defined water boundaries and therefore susceptible to control efforts, including larviciding. Larviciding, the application of microbial or chemical agents to kill mosquito larvae before they are reproducing adults that vector human disease, is a mechanism for larval source management (LSM) and is a key component of integrated A. aegypti control strategies (CDC, 2014). Temephos, a relatively inexpensive pesticide used globally, is one of the few organophosphates approved for control of A. aegypti larvae (EPA, 2001). Temephos attached to silica (sand) granules, the active ingredient in Abate®, has been used to treat large water containers that are too large to empty (BASF, 2014). However, after >30 years of heavy temephos usage, temephos resistant A. aegypti strains have been identified in many countries (Mazzarri and Georghiou, 1995; Saavedra-Rodriguez et al., 2013). In a recent reregistration eligibility decision, the EPA called for labeling changes to address risks that temephos poses to human and environmental health and also prohibited drinking water source treatment (EPA, 2015a). Methoprene, a growth regulator widely used for Aedes larval control, can be applied to water surfaces or delivered in slow-release briquettes (Rozendaal, 1997). Although methoprene does not pose unreasonable risks to human health, it is extremely toxic to other invertebrate species (EPA, 2000), and reduced susceptibility/resistance has begun to emerge (Marcombe et al., 2014; Lau et al., 2015). Due to the frequent development of pesticide resistance and growing concerns about the nontarget effects of pesticides in the environment, the current pesticide repertoire will soon reach its expiration date. Larviciding is also used as a method for controlling malaria vector mosquitoes. Although insecticide treated nets (ITNs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) are the backbone for malaria vector control, there is increasing interest in the use of LSM for reduction of residual malaria transmission. Integrated control programs which included larviciding were successful in Tanzania, Sudan, and Mauritius, and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that larviciding, when used as a supplement to ITNs and IRS in sub-Saharan Africa, is cost-effective for malaria control in urban settings where vector breeding sites are few, fixed, and findable. Given the renewed interest in larviciding, frequent development of insecticide resistance, and rising concern for the non-target effects of pesticides, the current larvicide repertoire will soon reach its expiration date. The continued practice of larviciding will require generation of new environmentally safe larvicides. The development of new larvicides with minimal impact on the environment is therefore essential and urgent (Whyard et al., 2009).
Insecticide resistance is increasing, rendering some of the current insecticide options useless. Also, concern about the non-target effects of some pesticides (most notoriously, DDT), limits their practical utility. The current pesticide repertoire will soon reach its expiration date, and the need to develop a new generation of environmentally safe options is urgent.
Larviciding, the application of microbial or chemical agents to kill mosquito larvae in aquatic habitats, is therefore a key component of integrated Aedes and Anopheles control and disease prevention strategies (WHO). Given the increase of reported insecticide resistance to existing larvicides and the rising concern for negative effects of pesticides on non-target organisms, the current larvicide repertoire is faced with great challenges to sustainability.
New larvicidal agents are vitally needed to address emerging arthropod-borne infectious diseases such as Zika and to target mosquito populations. While a number of recent patents have suggested the use of RNA interference for controlling insect and other pests, generally describing use of RNAi, none have disclosed the new high throughput screen for the selection of larval-lethal genes in mosquitoes including the effective siRNAs that are conserved among different mosquito species but not humans or the specific sequences identified in the present invention. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,933,042 entitled "Methods for Controlling Pests Using RNAi" discloses the use of RNA interference for controlling pest infestations, and generally discloses mosquitoes in a laundry list of pests. U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,290,764 and 8,759,306 entitled "RNAi for the Control of Insects and Arachnids" discuss and disclose RNAi that target insects, including mosquitoes but do not discuss the screening for mosquito larva-lethal genes, efforts to design iRNA larvicides that target sequences conserved in multiple arthropod pests but not in non-target species, or the specific sequences as described herein. As the Anopheline genomes have only been recently reported, prior studies were not able to determine target sequences conserved between multiple different mosquito species (e.g. Aedes and Anopheles) (Neafsey et al 2015).

Indiana University Research and Technology Corporation


A panel conveying system includes a panel cassette for receiving a plurality of panels, and a conveying vehicle for conveying the panel cassette. The conveying vehicle includes a loading/unloading unit installed on the main body to load and/or unload the panel cassette on and/or from a panel processing unit, a panel conveying unit installed on the main body to feed and/or collect the panels to and/or from a panel processing area, and a lifting unit supporting the panel cassette in the main body.

a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for conveying a flat panel display, and more particularly, to a system and method for conveying a flat panel display that can be save working space and improve process and equipment efficiency.
b) Description of the Related Art
Generally, panels such as a flat panel display, a semiconductor wafer, a liquid crystal display, and a photo mask glass are processed through a series of processes such as deposition, etching, stripping, cleaning, and rinsing processes. Such processes are performed in a cleaning room, each having a processing area.
FIG. 16 shows a conventional panel conveying system.
Processing apparatuses 100 for performing the processes are arranged in a clean room R to improve process efficiency.
Conveying units 110 are set on the process apparatuses 100 in response to a panel feeding area 120 so that the panels can be effectively supplied into the panel process area of the apparatuses 100. For example, the conveying units are comprised of a buffer or conveyer unit for vertical and horizontal movements of the panels.
The panel is received in a panel cassette 140 in a panel storing area 130 spaced away from the panel feeding area 120 in the clean room R. The panel received in the panel cassette 140 is conveyed to the panel feeding area 120 through a panel conveying system.
The panel conveying system comprises a conveying vehicle V such as an auto guarded vehicle that moves between the panel storing area 130 and the panel feeding area 120. The panel cassettes 140 are loaded on the conveying vehicle V, and are conveyed to the panel feeding area 120 corresponding to one of the panel processing apparatuses 100.
The conveying vehicle V uses electric power as a driving source and moves along a rail, which is well known in the art.
A feeding/storing stage formed in a table shape, on which the panel cassette 140 is disposed, is installed on each of the panel storing area 1300 and the panel feeding area 120. A panel loading unit 150 such as a robot arm for withdrawing the panels one by one from the panel cassette 140 disposed on the stage is installed in the panel feeding area 120.
Referring to FIG. 17, the conveying process for conveying the panel to the corresponding panel processing apparatus using the panel conveying system will be briefly described.
The conveying process comprises the steps of loading the panel cassette disposed in the panel storing area and receiving a plurality of panels (201), conveying the panel cassette to the panel processing area (202), unloading the panel cassette in the panel processing area (203), and feeding the panel received in the panel cassette to the panel processing apparatus.
However, in the above-described panel conveying method, the conveying process is comprised of many steps, complicating the process and consuming time.
In addition, since an additional conveying system for conveying the panel that is processed in the panel processing apparatus should be set in the clean room, the process is further complicated, deteriorating the processing efficiency.
Furthermore, the installing of the stages, the conveying units, and the loading/unloading units necessitates an increase of the clean room space, thereby increasing the manufacturing costs of the clean room.
In order to process a large-sized panel, the storing, feeding, and conveying areas should be increased in response to the large-sized panel. This also necessitates an increase of the clean room space, deteriorating the space efficiency of the clean room.
In addition, since the conveying vehicle is designed to move only between predetermined sections such as between the storing, feeding, and conveying areas, it is difficult to expect that the vehicle performs additional functions.

System and method for conveying flat panel display


This coupling device is for coupling a light guide such as a light wand to a light source for photocuring purposes. It enhances the curing ability of the photocuring system at lower wavelength of light while at the same time provides thermal isolation between the lamp housing and the light wand.

This invention relates to an optical curing system and more particularly relates to a light guide coupling apparatus suitable for coupling a light guide to a light source for optical curing purposes.
Some resins commonly referred to as UV resins will transform from a tacky substance to a tack-free form upon being subjected to optical curing by ultra violet light in the range of from 200 nanometer (nm) to 400 nm. Such curing technique is particularly advantageous in the formation of resinous base adhesive on a substrate or medium. The adhesive coating thus formed on the substrate is extremely strong and has a high strength bonding to the substrate. The curing process can be completed in a very short time of less than a minute, in comparison with a day or more with the use of other conventional curing methods such as heat curing. Moreover, since no heat is involved in the optical curing process, no heat damages will occurred to the substrate or other delicate components which may be located in the immediate area on the substrate at which the resin is to be cured in situ or on-the-spot. For the above reasons, optical curing of UV resins used as adhesive lends it particularly useful in the fabrication process of making such as fibre optic joints, electro-optics, lens assembly, printed circuit board applications, wire tacking, encapsulating or potting, and high strength bonding of disparate materials.
In order to carry out the optical curing process on-the-spot or in situ in a work piece, the ultra violet light generated by a light source must be directed by a light guide commonly referred to as a light wand and normally made of a fluid light guide such as an elongated optical fibre, to illuminate at the spot or area in the work piece having the UV resin provided thereon. However, due to the inherent infra red radiation present in the ultra violet radiation, which invariably creates harmful heat in the light guide, as well as the close proximity of the light guide to the hot housing of the ultra violet lamp, the high temperature can cause damage to the light guide. In some known optical curing devices thermal protection for the light guide are provided by incorporating heat absorbing filters located between the light guide and the lamp. However, the filtering lens also invariably attenuates the desirable useful light radiation. The attenuation of the light radiation by the filtering lens grows quickly to unacceptable high values at wavelengths below 340 nm which are essential in the optical curing of adhesive.


An electrochemical device manufactured using an electrode layer in which severe increase of electrode resistance is prevented and/or a solid electrolyte layer in which severe decrease of ion conductivity of a solid electrolyte is prevented is provided. The electrochemical device includes a pair of electrode layers, and a solid electrolyte layer provided between the pair of electrode layers, wherein at least one layer of the electrode layers and the solid electrolyte layer is composed of first particles each providing a function of the at least one layer, second particles and a binder which is composed of an organic polymer and binds the first and second particles, and wherein the at least one layer is formed from a mixture material containing the first particles and binder particles, each of the binder particles including the second particle and the binder carried on at least a part of a surface thereof.

1. Technical Field
Several aspects of the present invention relates to an electrochemical device and, more particularly, an electrochemical device having an electrode layer and/or a solid electrolyte layer formed using binder particles, each of the binder particles including a particle and a binder carried on at least a part of a surface thereof.
2. Related Art
Along with development of portable equipments such as a personal computer and a cellular phone, demand for a small-sized lightweight battery as a power source of the portable equipments shows a drastic increase in recent years.
In particular, it is predicted that a lithium battery realizes a high energy density since lithium has a reduced atomic weight and increased ionization energy. Extensive research has been made in this respect, as a result of which the lithium battery is widely used as a power source of the portable equipments these days.
Expansion of a lithium battery market demands a lithium battery having a higher energy density. In order to comply with such a demand, internal energy of the lithium battery has been made greater by increasing the quantity of an active material contained in the battery.
Concomitant with this trend, a noticeable increase has been made in the quantity of an organic solvent contained in an electrolyte (an electrolytic solution) which is a flammable material filled in the battery. This results in an increased danger of battery firing and, therefore, the problem of battery safety becomes at issue in recent years.
One of highly effective methods for assuring the safety of a lithium battery is to replace the electrolyte containing the organic solvent with a nonflammable solid electrolyte. Among others, use of a lithium-ion-conducting inorganic solid electrolyte makes it possible to develop an all-solid lithium battery that exhibits improved safety. Active research is now being made in this connection.
As an example, S. D. Jones and J. R. Akridge, J. Power Sources, 43-44, 505 (1993) discloses an all-solid thin film lithium secondary battery produced by sequentially forming a cathode thin film, an electrolyte thin film and an anode thin film through the use of a deposition apparatus or a sputtering apparatus. It was reported that the thin film lithium secondary battery exhibits superior charge-discharge cycle properties of several thousand cycles or more.
With this thin film lithium secondary battery, however, it is impossible for a battery device to retain an electrode active material in a large quantity, thereby making it difficult to obtain a high capacity battery. In order to increase the battery capacity, a great quantity of electrode active materials should be contained in an electrode.
For this purpose, electrodes of a bulk type battery are composed of an electrode mixture material containing electrolyte particles and electrode active material particles. This makes it possible to maintain an ion-conducting path and an electron-conducting path in the electrodes, and to obtain a bulk type battery having a high capacity.
The bulk type battery is typically manufactured by compression-molding the entire battery device within a mold of a press machine, taking out the battery device from the mold and placing the battery device into a coin type battery container.
However, in the case of the bulk type battery, particularly, an all-solid lithium secondary battery using a sulfide-based lithium-ion-conducting solid electrolyte (a sulfide-based lithium-ion conductor), it is known that the capacity thereof is reduced by about 7% from its initial capacity when subjected to several cycles of charge-discharge operations at most (see, e.g., DENKI KAGAKU, 66, No. 9 (1998)).
Thus, there is currently a demand for development of a bulk type all-solid lithium secondary battery having improved performance and being capable of preventing reduction of a battery capacity over the lapse of charge-discharge cycles.
In the all-solid secondary battery having such a structure, in order to improve strengths of the electrode layers and the solid electrolyte layer, it is proposed that materials containing a binder composed of an organic polymer are used as constituent materials thereof (see, e.g. JP-A-07-161346).
In the case of the solid electrolyte layer containing such a binder, it can be formed by mixing the electrolyte particles with an organic solvent dissolving the binder therein to obtain an electrolyte paste, applying the electrolyte paste onto a substrate, and then drying the same.
In the case of the electrode layer containing the above binder, it can be formed by adding an organic solvent dissolving the binder therein to the electrode mixture material containing electrode active material particles, electrolyte particles and, if need, conducting particles such as carbon particles to obtain an electrode paste, applying the electrode paste onto a substrate, and then drying the same.
As another method, the solid electrolyte layer or the electrode layer can be formed by removing the organic solvent from the above electrolyte paste or the above electrode paste to obtain a solid matter, crushing the obtained solid matter, and then press-molding the same into a mold.
In this case, since the organic polymer as the binder is dissolved in the organic solvent, the organic polymer exists in the organic solvent in a state that it electrically polarizes. As a result, a degree of polarization (adsorption potential) of the organic polymer affects potentials of the solid electrolyte and the electrode active material.
Specifically, in the case where the solid electrolyte layer is formed using a material containing the organic polymer in a polarized state as the binder, the organic polymer affects ion conductivity of the solid electrolyte, as a result of which the ion conductivity of the solid electrolyte layer has often been reduced. From the same reason, electrical resistivity of the formed electrode layer becomes high.
This is because the organic polymer in a polarized state reacts with the solid electrolyte or the electrode active material, and thereby a state that gateways of ion-conducting channels (paths) thereof are sealed by the organic polymer is generated in the paste.
Therefore, in the case where the solid electrolyte layer or the electrode layer is formed by drying such a paste, the above state is maintained in the formed layer. As a result, in the case of the electrode layer, impedance thereof is increased, whereas in the case of the solid electrolyte layer, the ion conductivity thereof is decreased.
For these reasons, internal resistance of the all-solid secondary battery having such electrode layer and solid electrolyte layer becomes extremely high, and an output current thereof becomes low. Therefore, such an all-solid secondary battery lacks in practicality.
In order to solve such a problem, it may be conceived that the solid electrolyte layer or the electrode layer is formed using a mixture material containing dried organic polymer particles as the binder.
However, if the mixture material is prepared by mixing the organic polymer particles with the electrolyte particles or the electrode active material particles when forming the solid electrolyte layer or the electrode layer, the organic polymer particles are bonded together in the mixture material, as a result of which the electrolyte particles or the electrode active material particles cannot be mixed with the organic polymer particles sufficiently.
Therefore, the formed solid electrolyte layer or the electrode layer cannot have excellent strength and a stable electrochemical property. This produces a problem in that an all-solid secondary battery manufactured using such a solid electrolyte layer and/or such an electrode layer also cannot have excellent strength and a stable charge-discharge property.


A swing type input apparatus includes a housing, an operation knob rotatably supported by the housing, and a detecting unit detecting an angle of rotation of the knob. The detecting unit includes a circuit substrate intersecting the rotation center line of the knob, a magnetic sensor on an extension of the circuit substrate, a magnet holder driven by and rotated with the knob, a magnet held by the magnet holder such that the magnet intersects the rotation center line and is close to and faces the magnetic sensor, and a magnetic shield case which covers the magnet and the magnetic sensor and is a boxy assembly of first and second shield cases. The boundary between the first and second shield cases is positioned so as not to overlap the magnet. A bent grounding tab in the second shield case is electrically connected to a grounding conductor of a sub substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a swing type input apparatus in which an angle of rotation of a swingable operation knob can be detected by detecting means, and particularly, relates to a swing type input apparatus using a magnetic sensor as detecting means.
2. Description of the Related Art
Regarding a related-art input apparatus in which an angle of rotation of a swingable operation knob is detected by a magnetic sensor to obtain a predetermined input signal, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-118465 discloses a switch apparatus capable of generating a signal for driving an automatic-window opening and closing motor. In the related-art input apparatus (switch apparatus), a circuit mechanism including, for example, a magnetic sensor, a relay, and a signal processing circuit is covered with, for instance, a resin case to prevent the entry of water or dust. An operation knob is placed above the resin case such that the knob is swingably supported. A magnet swinging with the operation knob is placed near the resin case. When the magnet swings, the magnet moves close to or away from the magnetic sensor. Thus, a magnetic field, produced by the magnet, detected by the magnetic sensor varies so that a signal depending on a rotation position of the operation knob is extracted. For example, when the magnetic sensor detects rotation of the operation knob to a predetermined pushed position, a signal to allow the motor to rotate forward is output, thus opening the automatic window. When the magnetic sensor detects backward rotation of the operation knob to a predetermined pulled position, a signal to allow the motor to rotate backward is output, thus closing the automatic window.
In the above related-art swing type input apparatus, the magnet has to be placed near the magnetic sensor incorporated below the operation knob. Accordingly, the magnet is also attached below the operation knob. When the magnet is swung in a position at a certain distance from the center line of rotation (hereinafter, referred to as "rotation center line") of the operation knob, however, the difference between the rotation of the operation knob and that of the magnet can easily occur. Disadvantageously, higher detection accuracy may not be expected in the related-art input apparatus. It is difficult to extract an analog input signal by, for example, finely detecting an angle of rotation of the operation knob.
The magnet and the magnetic sensor may be arranged near the rotation center line of the operation knob. In this case, the magnetic sensor is positioned near a user's finger. It is therefore necessary to provide electrostatic shielding so that the user is not affected by charged static electricity. In addition, an object (e.g., a magnetic wristband) functioning as a magnetic field source may be placed on or near the operation knob. Accordingly, it is necessary to magnetically shield the magnet and the magnetic sensor. If special measures are not taken in consideration of the above-described problems, the magnet and the magnetic sensor are easily affected by static electricity or an external magnetic field even when the magnet and the magnetic sensor are arranged in an area effective in increasing the detection accuracy. Disadvantageously, it may be difficult to ensure high reliability.


A power supply controller includes a switching signal generator, a zero crossing detection (ZCD) circuit, first and second logic gates, and an interval generator. The switching signal generator generates a switching signal and the ZCD circuit generates a ZCD signal that pulses each zero-crossing of an ac input voltage. The first logic gate generates a first output when the ZCD signal pulses while the output of the power supply is below a threshold reference. The second logic gate generates a second output when the ZCD signal pulses while the output of the power supply is above the threshold reference. The interval generator is enabled in response to the first output and disabled in response to the second output. The interval generator allows the switching signal to pass through the interval generator to the switch when enabled and does not allow the switching signal to pass when disabled.

Electronic devices use power to operate. Switched mode power supplies are commonly used due to their high efficiency, small size and low weight to power many of today's electronics. Conventional wall sockets provide a low frequency alternating current. In a switching power supply an alternating current (ac) input is converted to provide a well regulated direct current (dc) output through high frequency (HF) switching and an energy transfer element, for example, an inductor or a transformer. The switched mode power supply controller usually provides output regulation by sensing the output and controlling it in a closed loop. In operation of a switched mode power supply the high frequency switching is utilized to provide the desired output by varying the on-time, off-time or switching frequency of the switch. Typically, in pulse width modulation PWM, duty cycle is controlled, where the duty cycle is the ratio of the on time to the total switching period.
Requirements, such as efficiency, size, weight and cost are usually taken into account when designing a switched mode power supply. A controller that controls the switching of the switched mode power supply may be designed to comply with efficiency requirements of certain regulatory agencies. For example, a conventional controller may be designed to control the switching of the switched mode power supply to reduce power consumption at no load or low load power conditions while at the same time be designed to increase efficiency at higher load conditions.
One method for reducing power loss at low load and no load conditions of the switched mode power supply is commonly known as "Burst Mode Control". With the conventional burst mode control methods, output regulation is provided by short intervals of narrow duty cycle switching pulses (i.e., "burst intervals") at low load or no load conditions. These burst intervals typically are configured to start once the output voltage drops below a lower value and to stop once the output rises above an upper value. Thus, the time at which the burst intervals start and stop with respect to the ac input voltage is random. This random starting and stopping of the burst intervals with respect to the ac input voltage may result in higher switching losses, lower efficiency, as well as increased EMI noise. In some cases, audible noise may even result.

Controller with punctuated switching control circuit


Provided is a multi-element polycrystal formed by cooling a melt containing multiple components while controlling a cooling rate. The multi-element polycrystal is a mixed crystal essentially formed of elements Si and Ge having different absorption wavelength ranges and having a composition represented by Si1-XGeX, in which Ge absorbs light over a longer range of wavelength from a shorter to longer wavelength range than Si, each of the crystal grains of the mixed crystal has a matrix having a plurality of discrete regions dispersed therein, the average matrix composition is represented by Si1-x1Gex1 and the average composition of the discrete regions is represented by Si1-x2Gex2 where X1<X<X2. Also, provided is a solar-cell polycrystal satisfying high light-absorption efficiency and low cost by using the multi-element polycrystal, a solar cell and a method of manufacturing the solar cell.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polycrystal for use in a solar cell, formed of a plurality of elements such as SiGe or InGaAs, and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a method for manufacturing a polycrystal for use in a practical solar cell at low cost, a cast method (a kind of solidification method) is known. Although an Si polycrystal can be formed at low cost by the cast method, the Si polycrystal cannot absorb sunlight in a long-wavelength range of the solar spectrum. Due to this, the light conversion efficiency of the Si polycrystal is low. On the other hand, as a high efficiency solar cell, a tandem-form solar cell is known. The tandem-form solar cell has a hetero-structure having a thin-film compound-semiconductor stacked on a Ge or Si. However, the tandem-form solar cell has a problem in cost. Since it is formed by epitaxial growth, the cost is high.
As described above, a polycrystal for a solar cell providing high light-absorption efficiency at low cost has not yet been obtained. In fact, an appropriate polycrystal presently developed is chosen depending upon the use of the solar cell and put in use at present. However, recently, to use sunlight as a clean energy source more and more, the technique for developing a solar cell having a high conversion efficiency at low cost has been strongly desired.

Multi-element polycrystal for solar cells and method of manufacturing the same


A reclosable slider zipper is disclosed wherein the profiles have several interlocking ribs thereby allowing the profiles to be interlocked in various alignments. A slider is provided to open and close the reclosable slider zipper. This results in increased reliability in alignment of the profiles during manufacturing processes and similarly results in increased smoothness and tactile feel for the consumer.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a slider zipper with variable alignment interlocking profiles. This invention further pertains to a reclosable bag formed with such a slider zipper.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art for zippers with interlocking profiles is fairly well developed but nevertheless remains open to improvements, specifically those which contribute to an ease of use. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,880 entitled "Method of Making Extruded Zipper Strips and Bags Containing the Same", issued on Nov. 29, 1988 to Ausnit and U.S. Pat. No. 6,217,215 entitled "Closure Mechanism Having a Perceptible Feedback Feel", issued on Apr. 17, 2001 to Tomic disclose multiple interlocking ribs on both zipper profiles. A limitation on the use of multiple interlocking ribs is the opening and closing emphasis of the zipper. In an operation with two or more interlocking ribs, the higher force needed to open or close the zipper could indicate to the user that the zipper is being damaged.
These prior art references, along with the parent of the present application, have taught zippers wherein the profiles with multiple elements allow multiple configurations wherein alignment can be achieved. Additionally, in the parent application, a balanced tactile feel and increased smoothness of operation are achieved. However, while the prior art of slider zippers is well developed and has proven generally satisfactory for its intended use, improvements are sought in the art of slider zippers wherein the slider zippers could operate more smoothly with a reduced tendency to bind during operation.
Similarly, some manufacturing processes, such as a form fill and seal operation, require that the zipper profiles be separated prior to the insertion of a slider, with the zipper profiles being realigned in order to be returned to the interlocked position. Again, while this prior art has been well developed and has proven generally satisfactory for its intended use, further improvements are sought in the art of slider zippers so that this realignment, or similar alignment processes during manufacture, can become even more reliable and therefore contribute to the ability to operate at even higher speeds.

Variable alignment slider zipper for reclosable bags


A slurry composed of paper fibers, water, and cement that can then be used for a variety of construction applications is prepared. After draining the majority of the water, the slurry may be molded into blocks, sheets, or any other desired shape to be used as a construction material, or it can be sprayed onto wire shapes to form custom structures. The slurry product can be used as a mortar in conjunction with building blocks that have been made from the slurry, and it can be used as a plaster when mixed with conventional cement and sand mortar. The slurry can also be poured into forms in the same manner as concrete to form blocks for construction applications.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to materials used in the construction of buildings and other sheets, and custom forms as well as semi-liquid materials such as mortars and plasters.
2. Description of the Related Art
With over 50% of the average landfill mass comprised of paper, and with the growing need to decrease landfill input for obvious reasons, the ability to turn this paper into usable, stable, strong building products is a great advantage.
Many attempts dating back to the early 1900's have been made to develop structural building materials using discarded paper products. While these inventions used discarded paper products or fibrous material, they all relied substantially on other materials to supply the structural strength.
An example of the use of reinforcement elements or strengthening materials in a structure made from fibrous material is U.S. Pat. No. 1,268,929 to Conniff, which uses a reinforcing metallic element to provide additional structural strength to a wood fiber/cement composite material.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,604,097 to Hewlett and U.S. Pat. No. 1,633,702 to Hewlett et al. describe a similar structure where a wall made from a fiber/plaster mixture is reinforced by reinforcing elements made of wire or beams formed by pouring cement into the wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,808,562 to Melandri discloses a building block in which a cubic foot of material contains ten pounds of lime, twenty pounds of cement and sixty pounds of fibrous material, thus creating an extremely dense and heavy building product.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,718,536 to Downs et al. combines shredded paper with glass fibers, both of which are compressed using heat and pressure to make a composite board. The heat is necessary to melt thermoplastic material present in the limited range of paper types used in the process so that the thermoplastic material bonds the shredded paper material together.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,363 to Nelson discloses a method in which shredded paper is processed under heat and pressure to form paper into blocks to save shipping expenses in recycling. The resultant blocks provide a compact unit for shipping; however, the blocks cannot support a significant load and are manifestly unsuitable for construction applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,148,952 to Nelson et al. discloses a similar process in which shredded paper is combined with a glue binder and processed under heat and pressure to form the blocks. Though the binder decreases the tendency of the compressed paper to break up, the glue does not permeate the individual fibers in the paper; rather, it causes the inherently weak individual shreds to adhere to each other; thus, the product will fail under any significant load and cannot be used as a building material.

Building material made from waste paper and method for producing the same


In certain information handling system environments, physical devices connected to a client are redirected to a server or other information handling system. Each of these physical devices will use and occupy network bandwidth, for example, during transmission of a data packet. Dynamically selecting a compression method for the data packet based, at least in part on, the type of data or payload in the data packet may reduce the amount of network bandwidth required by a particular device, for example a USB device that has been redirected.

As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to these users is an information handling system or computing system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may vary with respect to the type of information handled; the methods for handling the information; the methods for processing, storing or communicating the information; the amount of information processed, stored, or communicated; and the speed and efficiency with which the information is processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include or comprise a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more information handling systems, data storage systems, and networking systems. The software components may comprise one or more modules that contain instructions that when executed perform one or more functions.
The information handling system may include one or more operating systems. An operating system serves many functions, such as controlling access to hardware resources and controlling the execution of application software. Operating systems also provide resources and services to support application software. These resources and services may include a file system, a centralized configuration database (such as the registry found in Microsoft Windows operating systems), a directory service, a graphical user interface, a networking stack, device drivers, and device management software. In some instances, services may be provided by other application software running on the information handling system, such as a database server.
Some information handling systems are designed to interact with other information handling systems over a network connection. In some instances, the information handling systems may share resources over the network. Certain of the networked information handling systems may act as servers, while others act as clients. In such systems, client applications and client devices may be designed so that the majority of the heavily used resources are at a shared information handling system, such as a centralized server. The client devices may have minimal memory, disk storage, and processor power. Use of such client devices may reduce the total cost of ownership because of the reduced use of resources at the client devices and because the clients can be centrally administered and updated from the server. Such client devices may be particularly well-suited for a network which can handle a significant number of devices.
Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments may include any one or more information handling systems. A virtual environment, such as a VDI, separates a desktop environment and its associated software in a data center or server, from the information handling system that is used to access the desktop environment. A "virtual desktop" may refer to any number of methodologies including server-based computing (SBC) where a number of users share the desktop of a server-based operating system, VDI where each user gets their own virtual machine which typically runs a client operating system, and application virtualization technologies that concentrate more closely on making specific applications available to users with these applications, for example, being hosted on a remote system or streamed to the user's local system. With respect to the virtual desktop technologies described, SBC is often regarded as being appropriate for task/call-center type environments, while VDI is more commonly deployed for knowledge workers who require a higher level of user personalization, and application virtualization technologies may be commonly deployed across SBC, VDI and physical desktop environments to solve business challenges such as legacy application OS compatibility.
A user may connect any number of devices to any one or more information handling systems. For example, a user may connect one or more USB devices, for example, printers, scanners, mass storage devices, etc. USB redirection technology emulates virtual USB hardware on a virtual USB bus driver on an information handling system, such as a server. Prior universal serial bus (USB) technology utilized in VDI environments emulated virtual USB hardware on a virtual USB bus driver on the server. The operating system of the server loaded a real driver and applications for the virtual USB hardware in the same way as such would be loaded for real physical hardware. When the application tried to access or use a virtual device or virtual hardware, the requests from the application would be translated as transaction requests (USB request blocks) directed to the virtual USB hardware on the server. The virtual USB bus driver redirected the USB request block (URB) transactions to another information handling system, such as a client, where the real physical hardware was actually located. The received transaction requests from the server were then submitted to the real USB hardware via a stub driver on the client. The resulting responses from the real USB hardware would then be transported back to the server and pumped to the virtual USB bus driver. The virtual USB bus driver then passed these responses back to the respective applications via the real driver, thus completing the loop.
One problem with the prior technology is that each additional USB device connected to the network increased network bandwidth. Too many redirected USB devices may bring down the VDI scalability by occupying too much network bandwidth. USB devices may consume a large amount of bandwidth because the URBs are not compressed or are not optimally compressed.

Protocol independent way for dynamically selecting data compression methods for redirected USB devices


A method and apparatus of turning a board while the board is being transferred in a conveyance system includes a conveyance system for transporting a board, a rotary turning device for rotating the board, a bumper stop for restraining the board and a speed-up belt for increasing or decreasing delivery of the board. The rotary turning device rotates at a constant rate relative to the conveyance system speed; the bumper stop stops the flow of the lumber allowing the rotary turning device to pick up the board; the speed-up belt accelerates the board to the front of the lug space and the conveyance system transports the board while it is turned within the lug space.

Rotary board turners in the prior art do not incorporate a physical stop and are not necessarily driven. Conventional board turners do not provide for controlling the speed of the conveyor while rotating the board. Conventional board turners may also fail to turn boards in a conveyance system as the conveyance system is started and stopped.
Prior art board turners are not as suitable for controlling the speed of the conveyor and rotating the board while the board is being transferred in a conveyance system as is the board turner according to the present invention. The main problem with conventional board turners is the inability to control the speed of the conveyance system while reliably rotating the board. Another problem in the prior art is the inability to select individual boards to be turned as the conveyance system speed is changed. Another problem with existing turners is the need to change timing with various thickness, width and wane conditions of the boards.
In these respects, the powered rotary board turner according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of maintaining reliable board turning as conveyance system speed increases or decreases over a wide range of speeds and as product sizes vary.


An ink level sensing system that exhibits good sensitivity is described herein. The system includes a first probe having a first active surface, a second probe having a second active surface facing the first active surface, a memory in which data indicative of a conductivity curve and command instructions are stored, and a processor configured to execute the command instructions to associate a level of fluid in a reservoir with a first signal indicative of the electrical coupling between the first active surface and the second active surface with reference to the data indicative of a conductivity curve.

This invention relates to fluid level sensing and more particularly to ink tank level sensing.
Ink level detection in a printhead is required in printing systems where the main volume of liquid ink is stored in a reservoir away from the printhead. In order to perform full color printing, four kinds of inks, i.e., cyan ink, magenta ink, yellow ink and black ink, must be used. Accordingly, color printers may include four different fluid reservoirs, one reservoir for each type of ink. As the printhead consumes ink, the reservoirs periodically need to be refilled. Sensors are used to detect whether or not the printhead has adequate ink.
There are numerous methods by which liquid ink detection has previously been performed. Most of these methods rely on the electrical conductivity of the ink and use the ink to complete a "sensing" circuit. In these systems the reservoir containing the ink is frequently made of a conductive material and forms part of the circuit. A probe made of conductive material, either a metal protrusion insulated from the reservoir or a conductive pad on an insulated circuit board, is used as the sensor and the ink bridges the space between the probe and the reservoir to complete the circuit.
These sensing systems suffer from various shortcomings. For example, the systems typically have limited sensitivity leading to inaccuracies and some systems are unable to detect various inks, particularly those with low levels of conductivity.
Thus, printers having sensing systems with good sensitivity or that sense an ink level without relying on the conductive properties of the reservoir containing the fluid would be beneficial.


An apparatus is provided for the shaping of plastics material containers, with a movable carrier on which are arranged a plurality of shaping stations for the shaping of plastics material pre-forms into plastics material containers, wherein these shaping stations have blow mold carrier parts movable with respect to each other for opening and closing the shaping stations, and wherein the shaping stations have a locking mechanism for holding the shaping stations in a closed state.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for the shaping of plastics material or glass pre-forms into plastics material containers. Machines of this type are known from the prior art. Usually machines of this type have a rotatable carrier on which are arranged a plurality of blow moulding stations. In this case these blow moulding stations or shaping stations have moulded parts in each case which can be closed in order to form a cavity in this way inside which the plastics material or glass pre-forms are expanded to form the plastics material containers, in particular by being acted upon with compressed air. In this case it is usual for guide cams which close the two mould parts with each other to be provided. In addition, locking mechanisms (in part with separate guide cams) which lock the blow mould in a closed state are known from the prior art, which is helpful since very high pressures occur in the interior of the blow mould. As a result of the use of a locking means, the cam which is responsible for the opening and closing can be kept short (in the region where the mould carrier for the removal of the bottle and for the insertion of a pre-form is situated), since the locking automatically keeps the halves of the mould carrier closed for the remainder of the revolution of the blow moulding wheel. The blow moulding machines in which the locking means is actuated by a separate mechanism usually have two locking cam segments which are separate from each other. One (locking cam segment) is situated in the region just in front of the cam for opening the blow mould parts, as viewed in the running direction of the blow moulding wheel. One is situated in the region just after the cam for closing the blow mould parts. No cam which co-operates with the locking means is provided between them. The cam follower (usually a steel roller) mounted on the locking means must therefore be accelerated twice by a cam per revolution of the blow moulding wheel. In addition, the cam followers are subjected to directions of rotation which change in part or respectively it is necessary for two cam rollers to be provided per locking means in order to avoid a change in the direction of rotation. The cam segments of the locking means are designed to be capable of being deflected in part for reasons of safety, if locking cannot be carried out on account of jamming, the cam has to swing out on account of excessive loading in order to prevent damage to the locking means.
These procedures have proved as being effective, but are in part relatively complicated technically or are disadvantageous in terms of wear.


Method and apparatus for resource allocation formatting, signaling, and procedures in wireless communications, the method reducing signal overhead. Wireless transmit/receive units are divided into one or more semi-static groups. Resource allocation takes place to a group and the resource sets are signaled to an individual unit needing the resources. The method is applied to resource allocation for services, including both real time and non real time services.

The objective of Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) is to develop a radio access network toward a high-data-rate, low-latency, packet-optimized system with improved system capacity and coverage. In the evolution of UMTS, a new project called 3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution) within the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has been proposed to cope with future requirements of UMTS. LTE has introduced new schemes on the air interface for the uplink and downlink transmissions: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) for the downlink and Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) for the uplink.
LTE needs have compelled system designers to search for ways to increase channel capacity including increasing communications efficiency over the radio interface between radio networks and mobile units. A large portion of the radio bandwidth available at this interface is allocated to carrying substantive traffic between mobile stations and the radio network. However, there is also a large amount of control information that must be transmitted between mobile stations and the radio network to perform various operations such as mobile registration, call setup, handover, etc. Some of these operations occur quite frequently. Where possible, it is desirable to reduce the volume and frequency of such signaling to increase the amount of radio bandwidth available for substantive traffic, (i.e., increased system capacity).
For real time services such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), the search for ways to increase channel capacity has led to an increase in L1/L2 control channel overhead and is undesirable. It is to this end, as well as others, that there is a need for managing the resource allocation and signaling for group scheduling in wireless communications.
There are two schedulers in the E-UTRAN Node B (eNB) allocating physical resources; one for the uplink and one for downlink. The schedulers grant the right to transmit on a per User Equipment (UE) basis. The resource assignment comprises of physical resource blocks (PRBs) and a modulating and coding scheme (MCS). These resources are allocated for one or multiple Transmission Time Intervals (TTIs). A PRB is a sub band of the frequency domain during one TTI in the time domain.
The characteristics of real time services, such as VoIP with small packets and constant inter-arrival time, make the baseline scheduling alternatives less suitable. With dynamic scheduling, many small packets result in a great deal of overhead. On the other hand, persistent scheduling uses less signaling but uses the bandwidth inefficiently during silent periods, which are common during voice communication. To better utilize the resources with less signaling overhead, the strategy of group scheduling and non-persistent scheduling is suggested. Both approaches take advantage of the silent periods which are frequent in VoIP and have less signaling overhead than dynamic scheduling.
Group scheduling is a non-dynamic scheduling approach where users are divided into groups that get scheduled dynamically. Within a group, the UEs are assigned resources using a set of predefined formats. The formats define how the resources are divided between the UEs.
Non-persistent scheduling uses predefined allocations, but switches dynamically between silent periods and talk-spurts. Retransmissions are scheduled dynamically and on any available resource. In downlink, the eNB can avoid collisions by not transmitting to more than one UE at a time. This means that transitions between talk and silent periods can be done without reassigning persistent resources. Dynamic scheduling of these resources can still be allowed for another UE during silent periods without collisions.
In uplink however, the predefined resource cannot be used by another UE since it is not known when the predefined resource will be used for transmission. Different methods to perform signal switching between silent periods and talk spurts have therefore been suggested.
Group scheduling has been proposed to provide semi-dynamic scheduling for VoIP services that can solve the problems of voice activity change and Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) retransmission collision problems. The improvement for group scheduling has been proposed to adapt to link conditions and HARQ operations such as asynchronous HARQ for VoIP services. The resource index table proposed to be used for group scheduling is shown in FIG. 1.
If the user's application requires sporadic resources, (such as Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) traffic), the system resources are best utilized if they are assigned on an "as needed" basis. In that case, the resources are explicitly assigned and signaled by the layer 1 control channel. If the type of service that the user is carrying out or the Quality of Service (QoS) profile of a user or application requires periodic or continuous allocation of resources, (such as VoIP), then periodic or continuous signaling of assigned Physical (PHY) resources may be avoided if persistent allocations are allowed. Persistent allocations are those PHY resource assignments that are valid as long as an explicit de-allocation is not made. The objective of having persistent scheduling is to reduce L1/L2 control channel overhead especially for VoIP traffic.
Providing persistent and non-persistent resource allocations are required for an efficient support of different types of data-transfer applications. The PHY resources assignments in the downlink (DL) of E-UTRA can be made valid for either a predetermined duration of time (non-persistent assignments) or an undetermined duration of time (persistent assignments). Since the assignment messages may target both the intended recipient of the assignment as well as any current owner of the resources specified by the assignment, they may be multicast. The control channel structure should allow for a UE to decode control channel messages targeting other UEs. However, there are several drawbacks that have been encountered when group scheduling is used for VoIP services on LTE system.
When different UEs are grouped for VoIP, use of a resource allocation table for signaling is necessary. But this will inevitably bring more signaling overhead if all resource related information has to be signaled through Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, which is a very inefficient way of allocating resources. Additionally, when only some of the UEs within one group are using VoIP services, there is no efficient resource allocation method such that only those UEs that are using VoIP resources are allocated resources.
For all group scheduling proposals, there are no operating procedures or signaling specified when real time (RT) and non-real time (NRT) services are supported simultaneously. There are also no operating procedures or signaling specified when one or more UEs finish their VoIP service early within a group. In addition, there are no operating procedures or signaling specified when one or more UEs need the new VoIP service within a cell.
To adapt to link conditions in current systems, an increasing amount of radio resources are allocated to a group of UEs in the resource allocation table. Consequently, if all radio resources in one allocation table are used, then it will be a waste of resources as they are dedicated only to that particular group of UEs.
It is possible that one or more UEs may finish their VoIP service and terminate their association within a group for a long period, (not the VoIP silent period), or that one or more UEs may need new VoIP services and need new grouping management, and existing methods do not provide for efficient allocation of resources for such a scenario.

Resource allocation and signalings for group scheduling in wireless communications


A method is provided for treating an individual for a malarial infection, in particular drug-resistant species of Plasmodium, including administering to the individual in need of such treatment a composition comprising an extract containing an effective amount of one or more anti-malarial di- or tri-terpene compounds. Potent and effective extracts containing the anti-malarial compounds can be derived from Luo Han fruit and Stevia leaves, including combinations of the same, for the purpose of treating and preventing malaria in an inexpensive manner from readily available commodities. In one embodiment, the composition is administered orally in a solid or liquid ingestible form.

Malaria is a devastating infectious disease, and each year 350-500 million cases occur worldwide. As a major health concern in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Central and South America, about 41% of the world's population live in areas where malaria is transmitted. And still more tragically, malaria causes 11% of all children's deaths in developing countries. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that in 2008, malaria caused nearly one million deaths, mostly among African children. In Africa, a child dies every 45 seconds of malaria, and the disease accounts for 20% of all childhood deaths.
Antimalarial treatments, primarily drug therapies, are known. The quinines (or quinoline class), e.g. chloroquine, mefloquine, are well known as therapeutic agents. Other drug combinations have been developed as well. The best currently available treatment, particularly for P. falciparum malaria, is artemisinin-based combination therapy ("ACT"). Artemisinin is derived from a plant, Artemisia annua, which belongs to the Asteraceae family.
Unfortunately, two fundamental problems have arisen in the fight against malaria, namely, drug resistance and the high cost of drugs and medical treatments. There clearly exists an urgent need for alternative therapies that avoid the development of drug resistance by Plasmodium, and drastically lower the costs associated with treating malaria. It would be a contribution to the art of medicine to provide a readily available, easily accessible antimalarial composition administrable in various forms.
According to WHO data, if resistance to artemisinins develops and spreads to other large geographical areas, as has happened before with chloroquine and sulfacoxine-pyrimethamine (SP), the public health consequences could be dire, as it is possible that no alternative antimalarial medicines will be available in the near future.
Furthermore, assuming that the same concentration of the extract from the fruit of Luo Han containing the composition of the present invention is as effective as that of artemisinin derivatives, the cost of the Luo Han extract would be only a fraction of the cost per artemisinin treatment to cure malaria. The same could be said of Stevia leaf-based extracts. Even if a substantially greater amount of the active ingredients derived from Luo Han and/or Stevia were required for antimalarial treatments, the cost savings compared to currently marketed therapies would be immense.
Certain di- and tri-terpene glycosides are known as sweeteners, but there have been no reports of using such compounds for treatment of malaria in a human subject.
It would be a further contribution to the art of medicine to provide a method of treating malaria by administering a composition containing one or more di- or tri-terpene compounds to a human patient in need of such treatment. It would be a further contribution to the art to provide a method of treating drug-resistant malaria by administering to a human patient in need of such treatment an effective amount of the composition of the invention in the form of an extract containing one or more di- or tri-terpene compounds.

Compositions and methods for treating multi-drug resistant malaria


An apparatus for prediction of the residual lifetime of an electrical system includes: an input unit; a processing unit; and an output unit. The input unit provides at least one sensor data from at least one sensor to the processing unit, the at least one sensor data including a measurement of at least one physical parameter of at least one component of an electrical system. Each sensor data is associated with a corresponding sensor and relates to a measurement of one physical parameter of a corresponding component of the electrical system. Each sensor data extends over a plurality of time windows and is assigned to a certain data class, such that sensor data at a particular time window has a value that falls into one of the data classes. For each sensor data the processing unit assigns the sensor data at each time window into a corresponding measurement window.

Many working environments such as power plants pose particular risks for the health and safety of employees. For these environments, there are different kinds of safety-related equipment in order to prevent or mitigate situations where human life is endangered. Naturally, such equipment has to be carefully and regularly maintained. However, in many cases this results in expensive scheduled downtime. For example, electrical systems (e.g. switchgear) are expected to operate reliably over decades, while they are subject to a variable thermo-mechanical and dielectric load. This causes continuous ageing as a function of the lifetime load history, leading to wide variations in the actual service time of such systems. As the actual safe service time is unknown, maintenance has to be planned at safe intervals, causing associated cost. Also, the device design is made with large safety margins, again adding to total cost. Residual lifetime prediction is possible by evaluating data from thorough inspections of the switchgear at regular intervals, which is costly, and often not available. Alternatively, dedicated tests (e.g. destructive accelerated ageing tests) on switchgear components at a given time in the life of the device can provide the desired information, but this is also costly and very time consuming. In practice, mostly only hot spot temperature and sometimes overcurrent information is used to estimate actual reliability risks. However, the costs involved have historically been justified by the large impact of potentially failed switchgear. Finding the right amount of maintenance to save cost without compromising safety is not always easy for electrical equipment in power plants, such as switchgear.
U.S. Pat. No. 10,380,280 discloses, as seen in FIG. 1, a processing system for failure prediction of electronic components. The various components, modules, engines, etc., of the processing system may be implemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium, as hardware modules, one or more integrated circuits, as special-purpose hardware (e.g., application specific hardware, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), application specific special processors (ASSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), embedded controllers, hardwired circuitry, etc.), or as some combination or combinations of these. In examples, the engine(s) described may be a combination of hardware and programming. The programming may be processor executable instructions stored on a tangible memory, and the hardware may include a processing device for executing those instructions. A memory can store program instructions that when executed by the processing device implement the engines. The processing system may include the lifetime estimation engine and a lifetime comparison engine.

Apparatus for prediction of the residual lifetime of an electrical system


Systems and methods are provided for determining vehicle pick-up location. An exemplary method may comprise obtaining a user's location and a request by the user for transportation to a destination, determining a vehicle to respond to the request, obtaining the determined vehicle's location, and determining a pick-up location for the vehicle to pick up the user based at least on the user's location, the destination's location, and the vehicle's location.

User convenience and travel efficiency are important factors to the experience of vehicle services. For example, a user often would like to be transported to a destination with the least hassle, and the driver transporting the user would like to finish the trip as quickly as possible. Thus, determining the pick-up location is critical to providing optimized vehicle services.

System and method for determining and recommending vehicle pick-up location

Beijing DiDi Infinity Technology and Development Co., Ltd.


An electrical switch having a plurality of switch positions includes a plurality of first electrical contacts, and a second electrical contact configured to electrically connect at least two of the first contacts. A carrier member is configured to carry the second contact, and a knob is used to facilitate selection of the switch positions. The knob is configured to cooperate with the carrier member so that moving the knob from one switch position to another results in a related movement of the carrier member and the second contact. A first biasing member, which is electrically isolated from all of the electrical contacts, is configured to bias at least a portion of the second contact toward the first contacts to facilitate an electrical connection therebetween.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical switch.
2. Background Art
Electrical switches are used in many different types of electrical and mechanical-electrical devices, including devices and systems within vehicles. With an ever increasing need to keep the cost of materials and production down, even relatively inexpensive items, such as electrical switches, are being targeted for cost savings. For example, reducing the total number of pieces in a switch, or making it easier to assemble, are two ways in which the overall cost of the switch may be reduced. One of the issues faced by any designer is the problem of determining tolerances for mating parts. Tolerances must be tight enough such that mating parts function properly together, while at the same time, not so tight that manufacturing costs are prohibitive. Moreover, the greater the number of parts, the greater the potential for tolerance stack-up problems.
In the case of electrical switches, it is important that the electrical contacts within the switch will properly engage each other to ensure completion of an electrical circuit. One way to help ensure that the electrical contacts form a good electrical connection is to provide a spring element against one of the contacts to force it against the other contact. One such switch is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,424,424 issued to Hollenbeck Jr. on Jan. 3, 1984. Hollenbeck Jr. describes a boat battery selector switch which includes a rotary contact which is maintained in compressive contact with other contacts in the switch via a washer and coil spring. One limitation of the switch described in Hollenbeck Jr. is that the spring is in direct contact with the electrical contact itself. This means that any current flowing through the contacts also flows through the spring. The spring is also in contact with a knob utilized by an operator of the switch. Another limitation is that the knob is attached to the switch via a threaded fastener and washer, which requires a cumbersome and time-consuming assembly process. In addition, the rotary contact slides over a portion of the knob, such that even if the coil spring were isolated from the contacts, the knob would still be subject to whatever current flowed through the contacts.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have an electrical switch that was easily assembled such that threaded fasteners were not required to attach the knob, and tolerance stack-up issues were reduced or eliminated through the use of appropriate contact carriers and/or biasing members to maintain an electrical connection between the contact elements of the switch, without requiring unreasonably tight tolerances. It would further be desirable to have a switch in which such biasing elements and the electrical contacts were all electrically insulated from the knob.


A rope fastener includes a body having a pair of parallel apertures slidably receiving two adjacent rope segments defining a loop. The fastener further includes an abutment lug disposed in line with the longitudinal axis of the body. The abutment lug has a first portion extending generally vertically from a second end of the top surface of the body and a generally planar second portion which is connected to the first portion and which extends toward a first end of the body. The first portion may include lateral grooves which receive the loop. The abutment lug is engaged by the loop by folding over the rope to form an attachment loop.

This invention relates generally to a rope fastener, and, more particularly, relates to a rope fastener which is adapted to attach a loop of a rope to another object such as a metal ring, another rope, or the like.
Rope fasteners are known which function to fasten a rope to an object by connecting a loop of the rope to the body. An example of one such fastener can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,002,780, issued to R. G. Eggeman on Oct. 3, 1961. This fastener includes a body which has a pair of holes through the top and bottom sides of the body portion. At least one hook extends from the top side of the body and has a gradually narrowing shank portion and a bill portion that turns in towards the body. In use, terminal ends of a length of cable are threaded through the holes to form a loop which extends out of the bottom of the body. This loop is passed through the hook to form a sling which tightens about a load to effect a tight grasp.
This fastener, while being effective for some applications, has several disadvantages. The inwardly curved nature of the hook makes it difficult to release the loop. In addition, the relatively wide nature of the space formed by the hook allows the cable to move freely within the hook and increases the possibility of the loop inadvertently slipping out of the hook. Moreover, the relatively large size and heavy construction of this hook makes it poorly suited for applications where light weight and agility are important, for example, recreational activities such as water skiing.


A touch module including an image sensing unit, a plurality of first reflecting elements, a plurality of second reflecting elements, and a processing unit is provided. The image sensing unit is positioned in correspondence with a first corner of a sensing area and capable of capturing a sensing image to output an image signal. The first reflecting elements and the second reflecting elements respectively have different first angles and different second angles, are disposed along a first and the second edges of the sensing area respectively, and are capable of reflecting a touch object to form a first and a second image in the sensing image. A second corner formed by the first the second edges is diagonal to the first corner. The processing unit is coupled the image sensing unit and receives the image signal to determine the position of the touch object relative to the sensing area.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a touch module and a touch detecting method, and more particularly, to an optical touch module and an optical touch detecting method.
2. Description of Related Art
Touch panels may be generally classified into the types of resistive touch panels, capacitive touch panels, optical touch panels, sonic touch panels and electromagnetic touch panels according to the detecting manner. Because the touch mechanism of the optical touch panels is suitable for large-sized display panels, most large-sized display panel's touch function is achieved by optical touch mechanism. In general, optical touch panels typically employ camera devices as sensing elements, and the camera devices are usually disposed at least two corners of a sensing area such that the position of a touch point is calculated according to two angles of the touch point sensed by the camera devices.
Taiwan Patent No. 201035831 provides a touch device utilizing a plurality of reflecting mirrors to divide a laser light source into a plurality of parallel laser beams that are sensed by a plurality of sensing units. Taiwan Patent No. M338402 provides an optical reflective image sensing panel device which includes reflecting mirrors disposed at two adjacent corners for reflecting the touch object's image to an image sensor, thereby calculating the coordinate of the touch object according to the sensed image. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20100245264 provides an optical detecting apparatus which includes a scan module and a detector disposed at two adjacent corners. The scan module rotates reflecting mirrors to project light to different angles. The detector receives light reflected by a touch object, thereby obtaining the angle of the touch object and calculating the position of the touch object according to the obtained angle.