The present invention relates to a process for improving the polymerization of ethylene and one or more optional co-monomer(s) in a polymerization loop reactor characterized in that said process comprises the step of controlling the hydrogen/monomer ratio along the path of the reactor by multiple, spatially separated, feeding of hydrogen along the path of the loop reactor. In particular, the invention provides a process for controlling, and preferably narrowing, the molecular weight distribution of the produced polymer particles. In another aspect, the invention relates to a polymerization loop reactor suitable for the polymerization process of ethylene and an optional olefin co-monomer, wherein the molecular weight distribution of the produced ethylene polymer can be controlled.

Polyethylene (PE) is synthesized by polymerizing ethylene (CH2═CH2) monomers. Because PE is cheap, safe, stable to most environments and easy to be processed polyethylene polymers are useful in many applications. According to the properties polyethylene can be classified into several types, such as but not limited to LDPE (Low Density Polyethylene), LLDPE (Linear Low Density Polyethylene), and HDPE (High Density Polyethylene). Each type of polyethylene has different properties and characteristics.
Ethylene polymerizations are frequently carried out in a loop reactor using monomer, liquid diluent and catalyst, one or more optional co-monomer(s), and hydrogen. The polymerization in a loop reactor is usually performed under slurry conditions, with the produced polymer usually in a form of solid particles, which are suspended in the diluent. The slurry in the reactor is circulated continuously with a pump to maintain efficient suspension of the polymer solid particles in the liquid diluent. The product is discharged from the loop reactor by means of settling legs, which operate on a batch principle to recover the product. Settling in the legs is used to increase the solids concentration of the slurry finally recovered as product slurry. The product is further discharged through flash lines to a flash tank, where most of the diluent and unreacted monomers are flashed off and recycled. The polymer particles are dried, additives can be added and finally the polymer may be extruded and pelletized.
Molecular properties of ethylene polymers, such as crystallinity or density, average molecular weight and molecular weight distribution (MWD) are determined by a number of factors such as nature and concentration of the reactants or polymerization conditions. The molecular weight distribution (MWD), also referred to as polydispersity, is defined as the ratio of weight average molar mass (Mw) divided by number average molar mass (Mn). MWD gives an indication of the uniformity of the degree of polymerization and thus the length and weight of the polymer chains. Thus, polymers with a lower MWD are characterized by higher uniformity than polymers with a higher MWD. In general, polyethylene polymers with narrow molecular weight distributions have greater stress cracking resistance and better optical properties. Polyethylene polymers with broad molecular weight distributions generally have greater impact strength.
Control of reactions conditions during the polymerization process for controlling the molecular weight distribution of a polymer is important but is difficult to realize in practice. During the polymerization process the concentration of reactants, including monomer, one or more optional co-monomer(s), and hydrogen, will vary and tend to decrease as the reactants are converted to form polymer in the course of the polymerization process. While reactants are depleted along the path of the reactor, fluctuations in reaction temperatures and fluctuations in reactant concentration occur along the reactor. As the length of the loop reactor increases, the concentration of reactants will tend to vary to a greater extent. The degree to which the concentration of reactants diminishes is also dependent upon the velocity of the corresponding reactions. The variation in concentration of a reactant will be more pronounced the faster the reactant is consumed during the polymerization process. This will contribute to non-uniform polymer properties. Especially hydrogen is difficult to control since the concentration of hydrogen required during polymerization is very small.
WO 2004/024782 discloses a slurry polymerization process wherein olefin monomer is fed to a continuous loop reactor at two or more feed points. This document also refers to the possibility of introducing catalyst in the loop reactor through a plurality of catalyst feeds. Further, in accordance with this document, a plurality of co-monomer feeds may be provided on the loop reactor. However, this document remains silent regarding the need of controlling the concentration of hydrogen in the polymerization reactor during polymerization.
In view of the above, there remains a need in the art to provide a process for improving the polymerization of ethylene. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved ethylene polymerization process.
More in particular, it is an object of the invention to provide a process for controlling the molecular weight distribution of ethylene polymer. It is in particular an object to provide a process for narrowing the molecular weight distribution of ethylene polymer.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a process for controlling the concentration of reactants, and especially of hydrogen, in a polymerization reactor during polymerization.
The present invention aims to provide a polymer end product having improved compositional homogeneity. The present invention also aims to provide a polymer end product having improved quality. It is another object of the invention to provide a polymer end product having improved physical optical properties.

Process for improving the polymerization of ethylene and one or more optional comonomer(s) in a polymerization loop reactor


A method for conditioning a polishing pad, which is configured to polish a wafer and attached to a rotatable discoid turntable, by using a conditioning head, the method being characterized by: moving the conditioning head in a radial direction of the turntable to perform the conditioning while rotating the polishing pad attached to the turntable by rotation of the turntable; and controlling a rotational speed of the turntable and a moving speed of the conditioning head in the radial direction of the turntable in correspondence with a distance of the conditioning head from a center of the turntable. Consequently, the method for conditioning a polishing pad which enables appropriately conditioning an entire polishing surface of the polishing pad can be provided.

In case of planarizing a sheet-like workpiece, e.g., a silicon wafer in conventional examples, a polishing apparatus such as a single-side polishing apparatus or a double-side polishing apparatus is used.
For example, in the single-side polishing apparatus, a polishing pad made of urethane foam or a nonwoven fabric is attached to a discoid turntable which is driven to rotate, and polishing slurry to improve polishing efficiency is flowed. Further, a wafer held on a polishing head is pressed against the polishing pad to perform polishing. The wafer can be attached to the polishing head by a wax, vacuum, or surface tension of a liquid.
Furthermore, for example, in the double-side polishing apparatus, a discoid planetary gear called a carrier is arranged between upper and lower discoid turntables having polishing pads made of urethane foam or a nonwoven fabric attached thereto respectively. A workpiece is inserted into and held in a holding hole of this planetary gear, and a sun gear and an internal gear meshing with the planetary gear are mutually rotated to bring about rotation and revolution of the planetary gear. The double-side polishing apparatus simultaneously polishes upper and lower surfaces of the wafer by the rotation, the revolution, rotation of the upper and lower turntables, and rubbing against the wafer. During the double-side polishing, to efficiently perform the polishing, the polishing slurry is supplied from a plurality of holes provided in the upper turntable.
However, in the polishing pad used in such a polishing apparatus, so-called clogging occurs. The clogging means that residues of a polished wafer, solid matters contained in the polishing slurry, or their mixtures are deposited on a surface layer of the polishing pad or accumulated in the polishing pad. The clogging degrades polishing efficiency or degrades flatness or surface quality of each polished workpiece.
It is general to perform various kinds of conditioning for different purposes to such degeneration of the polishing pad as described above. As the conditioning, for example, there is a method for jetting high-pressure water to a surface of the polishing pad from a cleaning nozzle head to eliminate the clogging. Furthermore, there is also a method for pressing a dressing head in which abrasive grains made of diamond are scattered against a surface of the polishing pad and scraping away a surface layer of the polishing pad including the clogging by friction of the abrasive grains and the polishing pad provided by rotating the turntable.
At the time of performing the conditioning for the polishing pad, the cleaning nozzle head or the dressing head often has an area which is obviously smaller than a surface used for polishing (a polishing surface) of the polishing pad. Thus, to clean or dress the entire polishing surface of the polishing pad, such a conditioning head is disposed to an arm, and the head can be moved from the outermost periphery to the innermost periphery of the turntable when the arm is linearly moved or turned (see, e.g., Patent Literature 1). Moreover, as disclosed in Patent Literature 1, when the turntable is rotated simultaneously with the movement of the head, the head can clean or dress the entire polishing surface of the polishing pad.

Method for conditioning polishing pad and polishing apparatus


An actuator device comprises an active matrix array of rows and columns of electroactive polymer actuators, each electroactive polymer actuator having a switching circuit. The switching circuit has a drive transistor and a capacitor arrangement. The capacitor arrangement is charged to a voltage derived from a drive voltage for the electroactive polymer actuator combined with a voltage derived from the drive transistor threshold voltage. During this programming of the capacitor arrangement, the EAP actuator is isolated from any current flowing. The switching circuit enables compensation for age-related changes in the threshold voltage. Thus, a low performance (i.e. with poor threshold voltage stability) transistor may be used, with measurement of the threshold voltage of the current-providing TFT once per frame time (or once per multiple frame times) to compensate for the aging effect.

Electroactive polymers (EAP) are an emerging class of materials within the field of electrically responsive materials. EAP's can work as sensors or actuators and can easily be manufactured into various shapes allowing easy integration into a large variety of systems.
Materials have been developed with characteristics such as actuation stress and strain which have improved significantly over the last ten years. Technology risks have been reduced to acceptable levels for product development so that EAP devices are commercially and technically becoming of increasing interest. Advantages of EAP devices include low power, small form factor, flexibility, noiseless operation, accuracy, the possibility of high resolution, fast response times, and cyclic actuation.
The improved performance and particular advantages of EAP material give rise to applicability to new applications.
An EAP device can be used in any application in which a small amount of movement of a component or feature is desired, based on electric actuation. Similarly, the technology can be used for sensing small movements.
The use of EAP devices enables functions which were not possible before, or offers a big advantage over common sensor/actuator solutions, due to the combination of a relatively large deformation and force in a small volume or thin form factor, compared to common actuators. EAP devices also give noiseless operation, accurate electronic control, fast response, and a large range of possible actuation frequencies, such as 0-20 kHz.
Devices using electroactive polymers can be subdivided into field-driven and ionic-driven materials.
Examples of field-driven EAP devices are dielectric elastomers, electrostrictive polymers (such as PVDF based relaxor polymers or polyurethanes) and liquid crystal elastomers (LCE).
Examples of ionic-driven EAP devices are conjugated polymers, carbon nanotube (CNT) polymer composites and Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMC).
Field-driven EAP devices are actuated by an electric field through direct electromechanical coupling, while the actuation mechanism for ionic EAP devices involves the diffusion of ions, and they are hence current driven devices. Both classes have multiple family members, each having their own advantages and disadvantages.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show two possible operating modes for an EAP device.
The device comprises an electroactive polymer layer 14 sandwiched between electrodes 10, 12 on opposite sides of the electroactive polymer layer 14.
FIG. 1 shows a device which is not clamped. A voltage is used to cause the electroactive polymer layer to expand in all directions as shown.
FIG. 2 shows a device which is designed so that the expansion arises only in one direction. The device is supported by a carrier layer 16. A voltage is used to cause the electroactive polymer layer to curve or bow.
The nature of this movement for example arises from the interaction between the active layer which expands when actuated, and the passive carrier layer. To obtain the asymmetric curving around an axis as shown, molecular orientation (film stretching) may for example be applied, forcing the movement in one direction.
The expansion in one direction may result from the asymmetry in the electroactive polymer, or it may result from asymmetry in the properties of the carrier layer, or a combination of both.
In certain applications, an array of actuators can be useful, for instance in positioning systems and controlled topology surfaces. However, as the driving voltages of the actuators are fairly high it quickly becomes expensive to drive each actuator individually with its own driver IC.
A passive matrix array is a simple implementation of an array driving system using only row (n rows) and column (m columns) connections. As only (n+m) drivers are required to address up to (n×m) actuators, this is a far more cost effective approach—and also saves cost and space of additional wiring.
Ideally, in a passive matrix device, each individual actuator should be actuated up to its maximum displacement without influencing the adjacent actuators. However, in arrays of traditional EAP actuators (without any voltage threshold behavior) some cross talk to adjacent actuators will be present. When a drive voltage, for example, is applied to actuate one actuator, the actuators around it also experience a voltage and will partially actuate, which is an unwanted effect for many applications. Hence, with a passive matrix addressing scheme it is not straightforward to individually address each actuator independently of the others.
The use of an active matrix for addressing arrays of electroactive polymer actuators has been contemplated, for example for electronic braille applications. An active matrix approach involves providing a switching device at each electroactive polymer actuator, at the intersection of a row conductor and a column conductor. In this way, each actuator in the array can—if desired—be individually actuated. An active matrix addressing scheme means it is possible to have any random pattern of actuators in the array actuated at the same time.
When designing an active matrix design for a field driven EAP, a problem arises that the switching device, for example transistor, needs to be able to withstand high actuation voltages, which may be hundreds of volts. This is far above the possible voltages which can be handled by existing transistors suitable for integration into an array device.
There is therefore a particular interest in ionic (current driven) EAP devices for use with an active matrix addressing scheme. Ionic EAP devices are activated by an electrically induced transport of ions and/or solvent. They usually require low voltages but high currents, for example they may operate at low and hence safer voltages of around 5V. They require a liquid/gel electrolyte medium (although some material systems can also operate using solid electrolytes). The ability to address at lower voltages enables use of readily available switching devices.
The different types of ionic EAP device mentioned above will now be discussed in further detail.
FIG. 3 shows an example of an Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMC) EAP, comprising a polymer membrane 30 between conducting electrode surfaces 32. Anions 34 are fixed in the membrane and cations 36 are mobile. The cations 36 are hydrated by water molecules 38. When a voltage is applied, the hydrated cations migrate to the cathode, leading to polymer expansion.
The IPMC actuator in this way consists of a solvent swollen ion-exchange polymer membrane laminated between two thin metal- or carbon based electrodes and requires the use of an electrolyte. Typical electrode materials are Pt, Gd, CNTs, CPs, Pd. Typical electrolytes are Li+ and Na+ water based solutions. When a field is applied and a current induced, cations typically travel to the cathode side together with water. This leads to reorganization of hydrophilic clusters and to polymer expansion. Strain in the cathode area leads to stress in the rest of the polymer matrix resulting in bending towards the anode. Reversing the applied voltage and inducing a current in the opposite direction inverts bending. Well known polymer membranes are Nafion (trade mark) and Flemion (trade mark).
FIG. 4 shows an example of a conjugated polymer actuator, comprising an electrolyte 40 sandwiched by two layers 42, 44 of the conjugated polymer. The electrolyte is used to change oxidation state. When a potential is applied to the polymer through the electrolyte, electrons are added to or removed from the polymer by the induced current, driving oxidation and reduction. Reduction results in contraction, oxidation in expansion. Thus, curvature is induced towards the reduced side 46 as shown in FIG. 4. In some cases, thin film electrodes are added when the polymer itself lacks sufficient conductivity. The electrolyte can be a liquid, a gel or a solid material (i.e. complex of high molecular weight polymers and metal salts). Most common conjugated polymers are polypyrolle (PPy), Polyaniline (PANi) and polythiophene (PTh).
FIG. 5 shows an example of a Carbon Nano Tube (CNT) actuator, in which a carbon nano tube 48 is suspended in an electrolyte 49. The electrolyte forms a double layer with the nanotubes, allowing injection of charges. This double-layer charge injection is considered as the primary mechanism in CNT actuators. The CNT acts as an electrode capacitor with charge injected on the CNT, which is then balanced by the electrical double-layer formed by movement of electrolytes to the CNT surface. Changing the charge on the carbon atoms results in changes of carbon-carbon bond length. As a result, expansion and contraction of single CNT can be observed.
Other examples include ionic polymer gels. Note that the electrodes used can be continuous, or segmented.
For low cost applications, it is desired to use low cost transistor technology, for example amorphous silicon transistors. These, as well as other low cost and low voltage technologies, typically have poorer stability, for example they suffer threshold voltage drift, which makes their usage difficult, and presents problems for the design of the driving circuitry.

Actuator device based on an electroactive polymer


A diagnostic test composition for detecting and measuring an analyte possessing biologic activity, the composition comprising. (a) A redox catalyst system capable of converting a monomer to a polymer, the monomer capable of undergoing addition polymerization, the redox catalyst system comprising one or more chemical moieties with PA1 (b) at least one monomer capable of undergoing addition polymerization.. 1) the analyte comprising at least one such moiety or PA2 2) in the case that the analyte lacks a redox catalyst property, the analyte is linked by a specific ligand to at least one such moiety or is linked by the specific ligand to a generator of at least one such moiety, and

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns the utilization of addition polymerization, e.g., vinyl polymerization, in diagnostic test compositions for detecting and measuring an analyte possessing biologic activity and in methods for detecting and measuring an analyte possessing biologic activity.
2. Background Information
Modern diagnostic tests for trace amount of analyte possessing biologic activity, such as those encountered in clinical laboratory medicine often employ immunologic (i.e., antigen-antibody) reactions. More recently the use of probes for the assay of nucleic acids has entered the realm of clinical and research laboratories. These highly specific reactions are detected by means of a label or tag, attached to one of the components, that is either chromophoric, fluorescent, radioactive, chemiluminescent or an enzyme that can generate such signals. Chromophore labels for detection of trace analytes are of historic and academic interest only because of their low sensitivity. Color detection methods are capable of detecting no fewer than 10.sup.18 to 10.sup.15 analyte molecules per milliliter, while radioisotope detection methods can approach a detection sensitivity in the range of 10.sup.8 to 10.sup.7 analyte molecules per milliliter.
Fluorescent, chemiluminescent and enzymatic methods as characterized by relative-specific-activities can be more sensitive than radioisotope methods by at least two or more magnitudes. These are goals, however, and not achievements. Continued increases in sensitivity are reported as these methods are refined, but no magnitude jumps are anticipated.
Prior to the present invention, no one proposed the coupling of an extraneous non-catalytic substance with a catalyst component of vinyl polymerization. If the extraneous substance is a highly specific ligand for a target analyte of interest, then the production of detectable polymer can indicate the presence and site of the analyte. This linkage provides the basis of a unique detection system. The present invention when applied to analytes of biologic interest provides a diagnostic technique useful in the fields of medicine and agriculture.

Redox polymerization diagnostic test composition and method for immunoassay and nuclei acid assay

Mount Sinai Medical Center, 1 Gustav Levy Pl.


An annunciation system which will detect the majority of failed breakers and indicate to the consumer when a breaker needs to be replaced, but does not put the consumer in an emergency situation where critical loads have lost power. The annunication system provides a visible and audible indication of the failure of a breaker to trip either as a result of fault current conditions or a test of a ground fault or arc fault circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to circuit interrupters and, more particularly, to circuit interrupters that provide an audible and/or visual alarm when their trip mechanisms fail to actuate an operating mechanism for opening an electrical circuit in response to a fault condition.
2. Related Art
Circuit interrupters include, for example, circuit breakers, contactors, motor starters, motor controllers, other load controllers and receptacles having a trip mechanism. Circuit breakers are well known in the art and examples are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,260,676 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,293,522.
Circuit breakers are used to protect electrical circuitry from damage due to an overcurrent condition, such as an overload condition or a relatively high level short circuit or fault condition. In small circuit breakers, commonly referred to as miniature circuit breakers, used for residential and light commercial applications, such protection is typically provided by a thermal-magnetic trip device. This trip device includes a bimetal, which is heated and bends in response to a persistent overcurrent condition. The bimetal, in turn, unlatches a spring powered operating mechanism, which opens the separable contacts of the circuit breaker to interrupt current flow in the protected power system. An armature, which is attracted by the sizeable magnetic forces generated by a short circuit or fault, also unlatches or trips the operating mechanism.
In many applications, the circuit breaker also provides ground fault protection. Typically, an electronic circuit detects leakage of current to ground and generates a ground fault trip signal. This trip signal energizes a shunt trip solenoid, which unlatches the operating mechanism, typically through actuation of a thermal-magnetic trip device.
A common type of ground fault detection circuit is the dormant oscillator detector including first and second sensor coils. The line and neutral conductors of the protected circuit pass through the first sensor coil. The output of this coil is applied through a coupling capacitor to an operational amplifier followed by a window comparitor having two reference values. A line to ground fault causes the magnitude of the amplified signal to exceed the magnitude of the reference values and, thus, generates a trip signal. At least the neutral conductor of the protected circuit passes through the second sensor coil. A neutral to ground fault couples the two detector coils which causes the amplifier to oscillate, thereby resulting in the generation of a trip signal. Examples of these circuits can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,260,676 and 5,293,522.
Recently, there has been considerable interest in also providing protection against arc faults. Arc faults are intimate and high impedance faults which can be caused, for instance, by worn insulation between adjacent conductors, by exposed ends between broken conductors, by faulty connections, and in other situations where conducting elements are in close proximity. Because of their intimate and high impedance nature, arc faults do not generate currents of either sufficient instantaneous magnitude or sufficient average root mean square current to trip the conventional circuit interrupter. Even so, the arcs can cause damage or start a fire if they occur near combustible material. It is not practical to simply lower the pickup currents on conventional circuit breakers, as there are many typical loads which draw similar currents and would, therefore, cause nuisance trips. Consequently, separate electrical circuits have been developed for responding to arc faults. Examples of such circuits can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,224,006 and 5,691,869.
Ground fault protection circuits and arc fault protection circuits typically include separate associated test circuits for affirming their continued operability. Separate test switches are provided for performing the ground fault and arc fault tests, for example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,630. Alternately, a single test actuator can be employed for conducting both tests as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,982,593.
Proposals have been put forth, as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 6,040,967, that a xe2x80x9clockoutxe2x80x9d device be included in ground fault interrupter circuit breakers. This device is only activated on testing of the breaker. If a failure of the tripping circuit or the sensing circuit is detected, the breaker is forced open on testing; leaving the consumer with a power outage that cannot be corrected without an electrician. This power loss will be a disincentive to test breakers; fewer breakers will be tested; and potentially more failed breakers will remain in the field. A study has been conducted that indicated some ground fault circuit interrupter receptacles and breakers may have failed in the field and may not be providing protection and the user is not doing the required periodic testing to detect these failures (NEMA field test survey).
Accordingly, an improved circuit interrupter protection system is desired that will alert a user to a failed breaker condition without disadvantaging the user by preventing the breaker from being reset.
The foregoing objective is achieved by a breaker failure annunciation system for either or both ground fault circuit interrupters or arc fault circuit interrupters that does not depend on actions taken by a consumer in order to detect a failure in either the mechanical trip mechanism or the electrical trip circuitry. A trip mechanism within the circuit interrupter that actuates an operating mechanism in response to predetermined current conditions to open the circuit interrupter""s contacts, provides an electrical output when activated. The electrical output is connected to an annunciator that supplies an alarm when the operating mechanism fails to open the contacts when actuated by the trip mechanism, to alert a user of the failed actuation.
In the preferred embodiment, the alarm is provided by a light emitting diode and/or an audible alarm. Preferably, where the interrupter includes an actuation coil in series with a fusible resister, the breaker failure annunciator system is connected in parallel with the series arrangement of the actuation coil and fusible resister.
Preferably, the annunciator is activated by the detection of a failure in either the trip mechanism, ground fault interrupter circuit or arc fault interrupter circuit and does not prevent the resetting of the circuit interrupter. In addition, in the preferred embodiment, a detection of a failure in the arc fault interruption circuit or the ground fault interruption circuit does not activate the trip mechanism.


The present disclosure includes methods and systems for dynamically rendering a social page of the user based on the visiting user's interests. When a visiting user visits another user's social page, the visiting user will be presented with information from the user's social page related to interests for which the visiting user has exhibited an interest.

Social networking is generally understood as an automated network in which data resides that represents an individual's personal network of friends, family, colleagues, coworkers and subsequent connections within those networks. Social networks can be utilized to find more relevant connections for dating, job networking, service referrals, activity partners, and the like.
As social networking has grown more popular, the information related to, and available to each user has become voluminous. Users may be inundated with information that does not interest the users.

System and method for generation of a dynamic social page


Beverage bottle handling and filling machine for containers, such as bottles and cans, with lifting devices to lift the containers by the mouth or neck upward to engage beverage discharge openings to permit filling. The filling machine has a piston/cylinder arrangement that is designed to be pressurized to exert a force on the lifting device in the direction of the initial upward movement to tighten the seal between the bottle mouth and the discharge opening. The cylinder chamber is realized in the form of a duct for permitting flow of pressure media to pressurize the container and the piston/cylinder arrangement.

1. Technical Field
This application relates to a handling machine for containers such as bottles, cans etc., for example of a bottling machine for bottling liquids in bottles with filler valves located on a rotor and lifting devices associated with the filling valves to lift the bottles toward the discharge openings, whereby the lifting devices are realized in the form of lifting rods that can be moved vertically against a spring force with holding devices located in the lower area in the form of grippers, support and centering surfaces for the container mouth and/or the neck collar of the container.
2. Background Information
In particular during the bottling of beverages such as mineral water, beer or other carbonated beverages, for example, under counterpressure, lifting devices are used, the lifting cylinders of which are realized with bottom or support plates. The bottles standing vertically on these plates, optionally with the use of corresponding centering grooves, are lifted toward the discharge openings of the filler valves, lowered after the filling process has been completed, removed from the filling machine and transported to a capping machine.
Because the beverage is under pressure, to prevent excessive foaming, a corresponding counterpressure must be established in the bottles to be filled. For this purpose, before the actual filling process, and optionally with the inclusion of additional measures such as pre-evacuation, flushing with a sterilization medium, etc., the bottles are pre-pressurized with the pressure prevailing in the bottling machine boiler, using the carbon dioxide in the boiler.
Designs of the prior art have pressing devices which are engaged in an appropriate manner with the container—for example a plate that engages the bottom of the container—to press the container against the filling mechanism as necessary. In the designs of the prior art, the pressure force is applied by compression piston devices which are located underneath the bottle plate, for example, or can be suspended on the filling mechanism. What the constructions of the prior art have in common is the pressurization of the compression piston arrangement with a compressed gas from a separate compressed gas source, which has an adjustable constant pressure during the working stroke. The application force is thus constant during the operation of the filling mechanism. In the designs of the prior art, the compression piston arrangements are pressurized constantly, and therefore operate according to the principle of a pneumatic spring. The application device is lowered and raised against the piston pressure by means of guide cams or similar mechanisms. For safety reasons, the application force is set high enough by a suitable selection of the pressure of the compressed gas that pressurizes the pressure piston arrangements so that there is always sufficient pressure for all the beverages being bottled in the plant, which can have different levels of carbonization pressures, to prevent foaming or the escape of gas or fluid on the edge of the container. This method has the disadvantage, however, that the pressure force is generally too high, i.e. higher than necessary. However, the level of the pressure force affects the wear of parts at various points on the filling device, such as, for example, the gaskets or the components of the bottle pressing device. Therefore a sealing force that is too high is a disadvantage. It is also obvious that a significant pressure is also exerted on the bottles themselves when they are pressed against the filler valves. Such a pressure seldom or only rarely has any corresponding disadvantages when it is exerted on glass bottles, but that is not the case with plastic bottles, which are being used to an increasing extent, and on which the clamping pressure between the filling valves and the bottom support plates causes an unacceptable and undesirable deformation of the cylindrical portion of the bottle. To prevent this problem, lifting devices are used that have grippers located on support rods or support surfaces that come into contact with the neck collars located in the mouth area of plastic bottles or other commonly used containers. A filling machine of this type is known from publications in the prior art. The support rods are thereby located with the corresponding support surface as an independent component with a cam roller underneath the outlet of the filler valves.

Beverage bottle handling and filing machine for containers such as bottles and cans


A semiconductor device is disclosed, which includes at least two layers superposed on each other in a stacking direction above a substrate, each of the layers including an insulating film a conductive layer films, a conductive plug electrically connected to the conductive layer, and at least one dummy via chain provided in the insulating films and stacked in the at least two layers, wherein the dummy via chain includes at least two reinforcing metal layers and at least one reinforcing plug.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for enhancing reliability of a semiconductor device, particularly to a semiconductor device in which durability of a conductive portion against a heat stress generated in an insulating film formed of a low relative dielectric constant film is enhanced.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, to speed up semiconductor devices such as LSI, reduction of a wiring resistance or reduction of dielectric constant of an interlayer insulating film have been advanced. Concretely, a material of a wiring has been shifted to copper (Cu) from aluminum (Al). Also for the interlayer insulating film, films having a low relative dielectric constant film (low-k films) such as a simple SiO2 film, an SiO2 film doped with fluorine, and an SiO2 film containing organic components have been attempted to be employed.
The low relative dielectric constant film is formed by lowering density of the material or by removing polarity from the material. For example, when the material density is lowered, the material is usually prepared to be porous. Since the low relative dielectric constant film is low in the film density, mechanical physical values such as Young's modulus are usually low. That is, the low relative dielectric constant film is weak in the material itself. Additionally, the low relative dielectric constant film includes a film structure having a low polarity so as to lower the dielectric constant in the film. Therefore, adhesion strength is little in a laminate interface between laminate films in which the low relative dielectric constant films are stacked or the low relative dielectric constant film and another film are stacked. Concretely, the materials of the films change in properties by permeation of gas for use in processing/forming via holes or grooves for wirings in the low relative dielectric constant film, or by processing processes. Accordingly, there is possibility that the mechanical strength of the material of the low relative dielectric constant film is deteriorated, or the adhesion strength in the interface between the laminate films including the low relative dielectric constant film is deteriorated.
The little film strength of the low relative dielectric constant film or the little adhesion strength in the interface between the laminate films including the low relative dielectric constant film is a large obstacle to a multi-layer process in which especially the wiring of the semiconductor device is formed in a multi-layered structure. In order to overcome this obstacle, an interface treatment technique or a process at the time of RIE processing is optimized, and accordingly enhancement of the film strength of the low relative dielectric constant film or the adhesion strength in the multi-layered wiring structure including the low relative dielectric constant film has been attempted. This technique is described, for example, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 11-176835.
As described above, the material of the low relative dielectric constant film is essentially low in the Young's modulus as compared with that of a general SiO2-based insulating film. Additionally, it is seen that the material of the low relative dielectric constant film is high in coefficient of linear expansion as compared with that of the general SiO2-based insulating film. A possibility that the low Young's modulus and high coefficient of linear expansion of the low relative dielectric constant film cause unknown defects in the semiconductor device and a process for manufacturing the device is high. Additionally, full-scale studies or countermeasures have not been carried out against the low Young's modulus and high coefficient of linear expansion of the low relative dielectric constant film.


Controlling a boot operation form an alternate operating system by pressing a single predetermined key or simultaneously pressing a set of unique keys on the keyboard which causes the computer system to reboot using the operating system on an attached drive to be booted. The user can recover operational use of their computer system when the internal system drive suffers a software application or operating system failure. An attached storage device containing a bootable operating system, an application program in the host computer that can detect the pressing of a single or set of unique keys on the keyboard which will then cause the application to process boot files and force a reboot of the operating system with the attached storage device as the boot device.

Multiple approaches to booting from more than one storage device and for selecting one of a plurality of operating systems are known. Systems often use boot.ini and the boot configuration data base. Microsoft® has created a detailed document showing how the boot configuration database (BCD) is architected and edited as BCD objects.
The capability of computer systems to boot from more than one storage device or the ability to boot a selected operating system from a number of operating systems has been present for quite some time. WINDOWS NT™ operating systems have been in the field since 1993 and have had multi-boot capability.
NT™ systems from NT 3.1™ through NT 5.2™ released in 2007 have typically used a boot preference file named boot.ini. This file, if present, is read by an early load portion of NT™ and processed. The file typically contains the ID and address of each partition and sub-folder in the partition that houses or contains an operating system, and the identity of a default operating system, and a timer value which states in seconds the amount of time the information will be displayed to a user before the default operating system will be booted.
Sophisticated users can edit the boot.ini file and change the default operating system to be booted and/or add or remove operating systems. See FIGS. 2A and 2B for examples of boot.ini files.
Starting with WINDOWS NT 6™ released in 2006, the boot.ini file was discarded and a new facility with increased capability called Boot Configuration Database (BCD) was introduced to control the booting of a system.
The BCD provides a firmware-independent mechanism for manipulating boot environment data for typically for WINDOWS VISTA™ and later operating systems. WINDOWS VISTA™ and later versions of WINDOWS use it to load the operating system or to run boot applications such as memory diagnostics. The BCD abstracts the underlying firmware. BCD currently supports both PC/AT BIOS and Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) systems. BCD interfaces perform all necessary interaction with firmware.
The BCD allows developers to programmatically manipulate a BCD store or objects through the BCD WMI Provider™. The WMI Provider™ supports a unified programming interface that can be used for both local and remote management of BCD stores. The interface is independent of the underlying firmware, so developers can write one application that works on any type of system.
The reference manual for the BCD facility is available at microsoft's website and is incorporated by reference herein.
The manual describes the exact interface and how objects within the BCD are manipulated.
Additionally, if the operating system on the system drive becomes non-operational, and even if the user has a bootable backup storage device attached to the computer system, it can be a daunting task to use that backup as the primary bootable storage device. Until now, the user typically needed to change the BIOS settings to boot the backup storage device or remove the backup drive from its enclosure and install it into the computer system.

System, apparatus, and method for initiating a reboot of a personal computer system by pressing a button on an attached storage device and causing the operating system on the attached storage device to be booted


The invention relates to treatment apparatus (10) for correcting a refractive error of an eye (12) that includes a laser device (14) for separating corneal tissue by means of laser radiation (16); a control device (18) designed to control the laser device (14) to emit the laser radiation (16) for cutting out and/or ablating a volume (24) out of the surface (26) of the cornea (22) of the eye (12) in dependency on a measured pachymetry of the cornea (22) and the refractive error of the eye (12), whereby the cut-out and/or ablated volume (24) in the surface (20) of the cornea (22) results in a shape of a closed ring, a partial ring, a crescent or a crescent shaped closed ring. A method for controlling such an apparatus for correcting a refractive error of an eye, and to a protective mask for an eye are also provided.

US 2010/0331831 A1 discloses a treatment apparatus for operatively correcting myopia or hyperopia in an eye. The treatment apparatus includes a laser device controlled by a control device, which is used to separate corneal tissue of the eye by applying a laser beam. In order to minimize a regression of a corrected visus of the eye over time, it is suggested to cut a lenticule-shaped volume from within the cornea of the eye. This lenticule-shaped volume has a minimum thickness in order to be able to safely remove all corneal tissue cut out of the cornea. The minimum thickness thus reduces complications during and after a corrective surgical procedure for correcting the reflective error of the eye.
A refractive error of an eye can especially occur due to a degenerative disorder of the eye, especially due to the degenerative disorder called keratoconus. This degenerative disorder of the eye causes structural changes within the cornea, which cause it to thin and change to more conical shape. This change of the shape can also be called a keratoconus and can cause substantial distortion of the vision.
There are several methods known for correcting the refractive error of an eye due to the keratoconus. The Wikipedia article "Keratoconus", dated Aug. 19, 2015, gives a good overview for possible corrections of refractive errors due to a keratoconus. One possibility is the insertion of intrastromal corneal ring segments. This procedure requires to make a small incision in the periphery of the cornea and to slide two thin arcs of polymethyl methacrylat between the lays of the stroma on either side of the pupil. Afterwards, the incision is closed by a suture. However, such an implant can cause both complications during the surgical operations and afterwards. For example, the implant can cause an inflammation of the eye, possibly permanently damaging the eye. Furthermore, the implants can grow out of the cornea. Additionally, due to the implant, the eye is much more suspectible for a trauma from an external object impacting acting on the eye.
Furthermore, the Wikipedia article suggests that a LASIK procedure for correcting the refractive error of the eye is contra-indicated in keratoconus and other corneal thinning conditions as removal of corneal stroma tissue will further damage an already thin and weak cornea. This is especially the case for the method suggested in US 2010/0331831 A1, as it requires a minimum thickness of the corneal tissue volume removed.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a treatment apparatus for correcting a refractive error of an eye that is especially gentle to the cornea of the eye. Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for controlling a treatment apparatus for correcting a refractive error of an eye that allows for an especially gentle treatment of the eye. Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for correcting a refractive error of an eye that is especially gentle for the cornea of the eye. Another objective of the present invention is to provide a protective mask for the eye that can reduce the risk of complications when correcting a refractive error of the eye.

Treatment apparatus for correcting a refractive error of an eye


A casing of a circuit breaker for nominal currents above 250 A that enables at least one rigid busbar to be swung in to make contact with at least one switching pole attached in the casing. The casing may include a bottom section that cuboidally includes a rectangular base area and two rectangular side faces connected to the base area and running parallel to one another. Adjacent side faces are connected to one another via at least two stays which are arranged away from the opposing openings, delimited by the side faces, of the cuboidal bottom section, so that a switching pole can be inserted between the stays into the bottom section and so that a rigid busbar can be swung in at one of the two openings in order to make contact with the switching pole, when busbar and bottom section are each premounted, for example in a switching cabinet.

Circuit breakers are used to switch large currents, typically currents of more than 100 A. Typically a circuit breaker consists of a casing and switching poles fitted therein. The electrical opening and closing of the circuit is effected in the switching poles.
To simplify assembly of the switching poles use is made of a "casing". Typically this casing consists of a bottom section, a top section and a top cover. The switching poles are mounted in the bottom section, with the top section or top cover mounted above serving as cover and protection.
Above nominal currents of 250 A busbars are preferably used to carry the current rather than cable connections. These busbars are typically made of copper or aluminum. To mount a circuit breaker in an electrical installation the premounted, rigid busbars are first swung away, and then the circuit breaker is mounted in the bottom section of the casing and likewise premounted in the electrical installation. Finally the busbars are swung in and connected to the electrical contacts of the switching poles.
The premounted rigid busbars approximately describe a circular path when being swung away from or into the circuit breaker. The casing of the circuit breaker should be designed such that the busbars can be swung in to the contacts of the switching poles, if busbar and bottom section are for example premounted in a switching cabinet. After being swung in, the busbar is connected to the electrical contact of the switching pole, e.g. via a screw connection.
Until now the problem of being able to swing the rigid premounted busbars in has been solved by an array-like structure in the bottom section of the casing of the circuit breaker according to FIG. 4. For the chamber of an individual switching pole this means that in accordance with FIG. 4 the bottom section consists of a base area and two rectangular side faces running parallel to one another and connected to the base area. Typically casings are manufactured as cast housings made of a thermoplastic. The array-like structure in accordance with FIG. 4 proves to be of little advantage here because of the significant tendency of the bottom sections manufactured using a casting process to warp and collapse. This warping of the bottom section is shown in FIG. 5 on the basis of two bottom sections of a casing: the bottom section shown by dashed lines and the bottom section shown by unbroken lines show the strong geometric deviation of the injection-molded component from the desired shape.

Casing of a circuit breaker, in particular of a circuit breaker for nominal currents above 250A


A cured sintered porous metal structure comprising aluminum and aluminum alloys is presented comprising an aluminum oxide durable surface integral to the structure. The surface layer is enhanced in aluminum while the underlying structure is thereby depleted in aluminum. The structure exhibits surface and interfacial durability.

This invention is directed to maturing the surfaces of porous metal powder structures to prolong the life of the surface and the underlying structure. Bodies comprised of sintered porous metal bodies can be advantageously used as filters for fluids, such as diesel particulate filters or molten metal filters, substrates for catalysts, such as for automotive, DeNOx, and woodstove combustor applications, as structural building materials, and generally for structures to support needs for high surface area stable surfaces.
Commonly, such structures are combined with catalysts, such as the base metals and/or noble metals, to be introduced into troublesome effluents that must be converted into some other chemical species. Typically, the method of use is accomplished by putting the structure in the exhaust pathway of either organically fueled power plants or in the exhaust pathway of internal combustion engines.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,272 discloses a family of one of the compositions contemplated hereunder, and is incorporated herein by reference for all that is disclosed therein. In that inventive effort an iron aluminum alloy was sintered into a hard porous body. In copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 219,986 filed July 15, 1988, another composition is disclosed. That disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, as filed. In copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 273,214 now abandoned filed Nov. 18, 1988, an oxide surface is discussed. That disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, as filed.
That various metal powder structures can be batched, extruded and subsequently sintered into hard porous bodies is a technical achievement. For purposes of durability, however, the bodies from these kind of structures must be additionally treated to provide along lived durable product. As used in the proposed environment, bald sintered surfaces of the subject substrates were found to degrade. This is a disadvantage for a number of reasons, not, the least of which is that the surface on the bald sintered structures can be the interface between costly catalysts and the high surface area structure. Should that interface degrade, the catalyst/substrate system would fail.
The present invention is directed to curing the surface of sintered metal powder porous bodies. The curing a controlled densification and oxidation of the surface layer. This surface layer can be up to a couple of microns thick, most preferably from 0.5 to 1 micron. It is important to understand that controlled densification is defined as directed to the oxide layer only. This densified layer provides durability to the surface, but does not subtract from the porosity of the structure. This important feature provides the structure with the porosity common to a high surface area substrate and adds long life consistent with commercial needs.
Advantageously, the curing process results in an oxide film, durable as a protective coating for the underlying structure. Perhaps as significantly, this protective coating provides a durable high surface area interface integral with the underlying structure that is capable of binding various catalysts. A system so formed may then be placed in harsh environments with an added level of confidence that the system will survive.
Essentially, the final structure of the present invention is a synthesis between a metal core and a ceramic outer layer. The prior work in this field contains either a ceramic high surface area substrate or a contorted metal foil subsequently layered with a high surface area coating. The invention, herein, supplants both of these technologies with a porous metal core intimately integral to a high surface area durable surface.


A method and a system for controlling user equipment (UE) access to a network are used for controlling the access of a UE to a local network. The method includes: a Serving General Packet Radio Service Support Node (SGSN) obtains the information of the local network to which the UE requests access via an Activate Packet Data Protocol Context initiated by the UE; the SGSN instructs a Home Node B (HNB) to establish a local network bearer for the UE according to the information of the local network to which the UE requests to access; the HNB grants the UE access to the local network by establishing a local network wireless bearer for the UE based on the instruction of the SGSN.

When a UE needs to be attached to a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) or an Evolved packet System (EPS), if the UE is going to establish a Packet Data Network (PDN) connection, the UE shall initiate an Activate Packet Data Protocol (PDP) Context procedure, that is, the UE can establish a PDN connection by performing the Activate Packet Data Protocol (PDP) Context procedure.
If the UE initiates a PDN connection, the UE shall transmit an Activate Packet Data Protocol (PDP) Context Request message to a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) in a core network. The Activate PDP Context Request message includes an Access Point Name (APN), a PDN Type, Protocol Configuration Options and a Request Type. The APN and the Request Type are optional parameters. If the UE requests for establishment of a new PDN connection, the Activate PDP Context Request message does not include the Request Type. If the UE supports a handover from a non-3rd Generation Partner Project (3GPP) access to an access of Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) or Global System of Mobile communication (GSM)/Enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution (EDGE) Radio Access Network (GERAN), the Request Type in the Activate PDP Context Request message is set as Handover Request. This characteristic is supported only in the specifications of Release 8 and subsequent releases. That is, the Activate PDP Context Request message includes the Request Type that is set as Handover Request only for a handover of the UE from the non-3GPP access to the UTRAN/GERAN in the specifications of Release 8 and subsequent releases.
In the prior art, an Internet Protocol (IP)-enabled UE can access a mobile operator core network via a Home NodeB (HNB) through an Activate Packet Data Protocol Context Request procedure. However, such a new demand for a Home NodeB (HNB) of Release 9 (R9) has been proposed in the 3GPP TS22.220 standard that an IP-enabled UE shall be capable of being connected with an IP-enabled device at home through the HNB, but no specific solution has been presented so far.

Method and system for controlling access of user equipment to network

China Academy of Telecommunications Technology


A method and apparatus for dynamically controlling variation in an attribute of a light beam employing materials with unusually high electrooptical coefficients that are subject to optical damage from the light beam being controlled. The method includes providing a transmission medium composed of a high sensitivity electrooptic material transparent to the light beam and having a nonzero electrooptic coefficient, where the medium is adapted to receive, propagate, and output the light beam. The medium is subjected to an electric field, the strength of which is controlled to determine the amount of variation of the light beam attribute. The field is generated by electrodes appropriately enclosing the medium and inducing a voltage across the electrodes. The medium is illuminated by a suppressing light source, the illumination being intense enough to significantly reduce charge distribution inhomogeneity within the medium. The intensity of the suppressing illumination is at least twice the intensity of the light beam being controlled.

Not Applicable
Not Applicable
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to electrooptic materials and real-time electrooptic devices and more particularly, to techniques for reducing or eliminating optical damage effects in electrooptic materials so they can be used to effectively control, with electric signals, attributes of a light beam traversing the material.
2. Description of the Related Art
From an application perspective, there are two types of electrooptic effects: direct and indirect. The direct electrooptic effect is the change of index of refraction of an optical transmission medium induced by an electric field that is directly controlled by an electric voltage signal applied on a pair of electrodes enclosing the medium. The indirect electrooptic effect involves the change of index of refraction induced by electric field that is generated by a nonelectric process, such as by light illumination, as in a photorefractive process. It has been established that, in a photorefractive process, a light beam can cause a redistribution of the electrons and ions, hence creating a non-uniform internal electric field in the medium. Such a non-uniform internal electric field also causes changes of refractive index, affecting the light propagation inside the medium. The goal of photorefractive research efforts and photorefractive application devices has been to find a way to utilize the non-uniform distribution of the index of refraction induced by incident light beams. Thus, even though in the photorefractive process, indirect electrooptic effects constitute an important contributing factor, the photorefractive process and the direct electrooptic effects are two essentially different physical processes. The most important differences are that (1) the photorefractive process is a light-light interaction process, while the direct electrooptic process is control of a light beam through an external electric field, and (2) in physical implementations, the photorefractive process involves electrodeless electrooptic effects, whereas, for direct electrooptic effects, there must be at least a pair of electrodes to generate the electric field.
Direct electrooptic effects have been used for the construction of light beam deflectors, modulators, spectral filters, optical switches, multiplexers, and optical computing devices. According to convention, the phrase, xe2x80x9celectrooptic device,xe2x80x9d is used solely for those devices that utilize the direct electrooptic effect, while for the devices involving indirect electrooptic effects, substantially different terminologies are used, such as those used in photorefractive devices. Thus, unless noted otherwise, the present specification uses the terms, xe2x80x9celectrooptic effectsxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9celectrooptic devices,xe2x80x9d to indicate the physical process involving direct electrooptic processes.
For practical applications of the direct electrooptic effects, one of the most important requirements for an electrooptic material is a high electrooptic coefficient. As is well known, when an electric field is applied to an appropriate electrooptic material in the appropriate direction, the change of the index of refraction is
n(E)xe2x88x92n(0)=a1E+(xc2xd)a2E+xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
where n(E)xe2x88x92n(0) is the change in the index of refraction due to the electric field E, and a1, a2, . . . , are the first order and second order electrooptic coefficients for the material. According to general convention, Equation (1) can also be written as
n(E)xe2x88x92n(0)=(xc2xd)n(0)3xc2x7rxc2x7E+(xc2xd)n(0)3xc2x7Rxc2x7E2xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2)
where r and R are first order and second order electrooptic coefficients, respectively, and are generally complex high-rank tensors. Note that, for the construction of direct electrooptic devices, a critically important difficulty is the fact that for all known electrooptic materials, electrooptic coefficients are very small. For example, in the prior art, the best and the most popular electrooptical materials for direct electrooptic devices are the crystals ADP, KDP (KH2PO4), lithium niobate (LiNbO3), and lithium tantalate (LiTaO3). Lithium niobate may be considered as having the largest linear electrooptical coefficient among all the qualified materials. Lithium niobate has a linear electrooptic coefficient r33=35.8 pm/V, or 35.8xc3x9710xe2x88x926 mm/kV. When electric field E is as strong as 1 kV/mm, the change in the index of refraction is only approximately 1.85xc3x9710xe2x88x924, which is too small for many potential applications.
On the other hand, some materials have been found that exhibit much larger electrooptic coefficients. Certain single crystal materials, such as SBN (Sr1-xBaxNb2O6, where x is the percentage composition, in the range of 0.25 less than x less than 0.75), have an electrooptic coefficient 30 to 100 times larger than that of the above-identified materials. In the present specification, these materials with unusually large electrooptic coefficients are called xe2x80x9chigh sensitivity electrooptic materials,xe2x80x9d in contrast to the conventional electrooptic materials of the prior art, which are called xe2x80x9clow sensitivity electrooptic materials.xe2x80x9d There is no clear demarcation line for differentiating the high sensitivity from the low sensitivity electrooptic materials. However, high sensitivity electrooptic materials may be roughly defined as those materials that have an electrooptic coefficient at least five times greater than that of the average coefficient of conventional electrooptic materials.
In the 1960s, it was found that the incident light, the light whose attributes are being intentionally modified by applying a voltage signal to the electrodes through direct electrooptic effects, causes these high-sensitivity electrooptic crystals to incur a kind of internal xe2x80x9coptical damage.xe2x80x9d Optical damage is a phenomenon that, under light illumination, the index of refraction of an originally homogeneous crystal material becomes spatially inhomogeneous. It was also found that the optical damage becomes apparent only after illumination over a relatively extended period of time, measured in seconds or greater. As a consequence of the optical damage, when a light beam passes through such a material, the well-behaved incident light beam becomes severely distorted. Because of this effect, all materials vulnerable to optical damage effects were effectively excluded from use for control of incident light beam attributes through direct electrooptic effects.
In recent years, the underlying cause of optical damage in electrooptic materials has been essentially explained. It was discovered that the light-induced change of the index of refraction is due to the light-induced redistribution of electric charge inside the material. A light-induced inhomogeneous electric charge distribution inside the material produces a strong inhomogeneous internal electric field which, in turn, causes an inhomogeneous distribution of index of refraction.
As indicated, those materials having the most pronounced optical damage have been excluded from use for control of incident light beam attributes through use of direct electrooptic effects because of the severe detrimental effects caused by the incident light beam. Unfortunately, those electrooptic materials with severe optical damage are often the best direct electrooptic materials because they have the largest electrooptic coefficients, which is by far the most important property.
The object of the present invention is to provide a method and device for reducing or eliminating optical damage in high sensitivity electrooptic materials so that they can be employed in the dynamic control of light beam attributes.
The present invention provides an effective means for reducing or eliminating the optical damage effects so that high sensitivity electrooptic materials can be used in direct electrooptic processes, specifically, the dynamic control of an attribute of an incident light beam. Briefly, the present invention is a method for dynamically controlling variation in an attribute of a light beam. The method includes providing a transmission medium composed of a high sensitivity electrooptic material transparent to the light beam and having a nonzero electrooptic coefficient, where the medium is adapted to receive, propagate, and output the light beam. The medium is subjected to an electric field, the strength of which is controlled to determine the amount of variation of the light beam attribute. The medium is illuminated by a suppressing light source, the illumination being intense enough to significantly reduce charge distribution inhomogeneity within the medium.
A light beam enters a transmission medium that is transparent to the light beam. The beam propagates through the medium, and exits as an output light beam with a particular attribute changed. The attribute that is controlled is determined by the medium itself, and may be the direction of the light beam, the intensity of the light beam, or another attribute. The amount of change of the attribute is determined by the strength of an electric field generated by a pair of electrodes. The voltage across the electrodes is controlled to determine the amount of attribute change.
A suppressing light source illuminates the transmission medium with an intensity sufficient to suppress the inhomogeneous charge distribution induced by the light beam being controlled. The intensity of the suppressing illumination must be larger than that of the incident light beam, typically by a factor of from 2 to a relatively large number such as 1,000. Since there is not restriction on the other parameters of the suppressing illumination, low-cost conventional light sources such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and incandescent lamps can be used.
Other objects of the present invention will become apparent in light of the following drawings and detailed description of the invention.

Method and apparatus for employing electrooptic materials subject to optical damage as a medium for control of light beam attributes using electrode-generated electric fields


A sweeper apparatus for sweeping grass cuttings from a lawn and depositing the cuttings in a pile includes a wheel carried frame for towing directly behind or offset with respect to a tractor type lawn mower, a drum mounted on the frame with an open top front end for receiving lawn cuttings, a rotary sweeper for sweeping lawn cuttings upwardly beneath a cowl into the drum, a lever pivotally connected to the frame for manual actuation to tension a belt/pulley system which causes the drum to rotate to a cuttings discharge position and to return to a cuttings receiving position, and a release device for deactivating the tilt mechanism, whereby the drum returns to the cuttings receiving position.

This invention relates to a sweeper apparatus, and in particular to an apparatus for sweeping grass cuttings from a lawn.
The usual practice when cutting the normal lawn is to either leave the cuttings on the lawn or to collect the cuttings in a bag for disposal. Large lawns are usually cut using a ride-on type lawn mower, e.g. a small tractor with a lawn mower attachement. Removal of the grass cuttings from the lawn can present a problem. On large lawns, raking is out of the question. A removable grass catcher of the type used on a manually operated lawn mower would require frequent emptying.
A solution to the above defined problem is to gather the cuttings into large piles, which can relatively quickly and easily be removed from the lawn. This is the approach taken by the present inventor. A search of the patent literature discloses that others have taken the same approach. In this connection, reference is made to Canadian Patents Nos. 227,508, which issued to E. E. Laberge on Dec. 26, 1922, 878,829, which issued to W. Snerchynski et al on Aug. 24, 1971 and 957,463, which issued to D. D. Dankel et al on Nov. 12, 1974, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,749,564, which issued to C. E. Tally on Jun. 12, 1956, 3,493,987, which issued to H. F. Longnecker on Feb. 10, 1970 and 3,597,786, which issued to W. F. Ruhl on Aug. 10, 1971.
The majority of the patented devices are relatively simple manually operated devices for pushing across a lawn to sweep lawn cuttings into a container. The remaining patents relate to devices which are either relatively complicated or ill adapted for use with ride-on lawn mowers of the type including a small tractor with a lawn mower attachment.
The object of the present invention is to provide a relatively simple lawn sweeper apparatus, which is easy to operate, and which permits the driver of the vehicle to remain seated while the apparatus is unloaded.


A method for determining the composition of a fuel in a lubricant in an internal combustion engine in disclosed. The composition of a fuel having at least a first portion of a first fuel component and a second portion of a second fuel component is predefined. The mass flow with which the fuel is introduced into the lubricant in an introduction phase or discharged from the lubricant and from the housing in a discharge phase is determined. The composition of the mass flow is determined from a first mass flow of the first fuel component and a second mass flow of the second fuel component, which are determined based on a) an introduction parameter in the introduction phase or a discharge parameter in the discharge phase, and b) the first portion of the first fuel component and the second portion of the second fuel component in the fuel.

Modern Otto-cycle engines, in particular so-called FlexFuel engines, which can be operated with any desired fuel composition of gasoline and ethanol, exhibit increased introduction of fuel into the oil circuit of the Otto-cycle engine. This introduction of fuel has an adverse effect on the lubricating action of the engine oil. In particular, the subsequent outgassing of the fuel from the engine oil poses an acute risk to fault-free engine running. It is thus sought, in terms of hardware, to discharge the fuel again as quickly as possible. In terms of software, a fuel content of the engine oil is modeled. If one additionally takes into consideration systems of the Otto-cycle engine which must process a wide variety of fuels (for example fuels with different ethanol/water contents), the modeling of the introduction and discharge behavior becomes significantly more complex.
Correct introduction and discharge behavior for different fuels must be determined over the lifetime of the vehicle. Furthermore, the mixture of the different fuels must be taken into consideration. Only in this way is it possible to ensure correct system intervention or correct handling of a certain level of oil dilution and fuel outgassing.
Normally, the oil dilution and the fuel outgassing are determined by way of simple models which operate based on a lambda controller or which merely count the number of cold starts, with the oil dilution being inferred based on said number.

Modeling oil dilution using a multicomponent model


A process for preparing a concentrated detergent composition useful in automatic machine dishwashers comprising preparing a dry mixture of a thickening polymer and a sodium trimetaphosphate builder, then adding the dry blend to water and subsequently adding a potassium hydroxide base to form a homogeneous solution. Sodium silicate and optional ingredients are then added to the process. Compositions resulting from the process contain a K+/Na+ weight ratio of greater than about 0.5 to about 1 and a viscosity of from 1,800 to about 3,500 cps.

To prepare stable liquid or gel detergent formulations for automatic dishwashing machines, it is known that phosphate builders which are highly soluble and reversion stable are required. It is further known that the preparation of a homogeneous gel composition which is stable, free-flowing and readily dispensable is achieved by using sodium trimetaphosphate as the builder in combination with potassium hydroxide as an alkaline source. See Rapisarda et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,706. While sodium trimetaphosphate itself is not a sequestering agent, its reaction with the base converts the metaphosphate anion to the tripolyphosphate anion.
Other bases known in the art are not desirable for the present invention because of their reaction with the metaphosphate anion. In particular, if sodium hydroxide is used for the hydrolysis, sodium tripolyphosphate which has a limited solubility, is formed. Hydrolysis with an ammonium hydroxide base will form a soluble tripolyphosphate, but due to the alkanity, ammonia is liberated, therefore, the use of ammonia hydroxide is limited to neutral or acidic formulations, rather than the alkaline compositions of the invention. Also see Rapisarda et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,706.
When sodium trimetaphosphate is hydrolyzed with potassium hydroxide, according to the invention, a soluble sodium potassium tripolyphosphate (SKTP) is formed as follows: EQU (NaPO.sub.3).sub.3 +2 KOH=Na.sub.3 K.sub.2 P.sub.3 O.sub.10 +H.sub.2 O
To prepare such an aqueous detergent composition, it was preferred to slurry the sodium trimetaphosphate with water in a mixing vessel and then add potassium hydroxide in solid or aqueous form. Once the builder and base are slurried into the mixing vessel, the other ingredients, including the premix were added and mixed.
It has been discovered that in compositions containing more than about 23% by weight sodium trimetaphosphate, that the traditional processing procedure results in undesirable viscosities and lumps due to large amounts of suspended solids,
There is therefore a need to provide an improved process for preparing concentrated detergent compositions structured with sodium trimetaphosphate as the builder.

Process for preparing concentrated detergent compositions for use in automatic dishwashers

Lever Brothers Company, Division of Conopco, Inc.


A collision preventing device includes: a holder 20; an annular collision detecting portion 30; holding means 40; and switching means 50. The holder 20 is attached to a non-contact probe 18. The annular collision detecting portion 30 covers the non-contact probe 18. The holding means 40 holds the collision detecting portion 30 displaceably and returnably in a Z-axis direction with respect to the holder 20. The switching means 50 detects a relative displacement occurring between the holder 20 and the collision detecting portion 30 and commands a driving system to stop the movement of the non-contact probe 18 or move the non-contact probe 18 in a escape direction. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent the breakage of the non-contact probe 18, the main body of the measuring apparatus, the work, and the like due to the collision.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a collision preventing device for a measuring apparatus and a measuring apparatus having a collision preventing unit. More particularly, the present invention relates to a collision preventing device for a measuring apparatus and a measuring apparatus having a collision preventing unit, the measuring apparatus measuring dimensions and the like of a work while relatively moving the work and a non-contact probe by a driving system.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a measuring apparatus using a non-contact probe, a non-contact view measuring CMM (Coordinate Measuring Machine) is known. The non-contact view measuring CMM is capable of measuring the dimensions and the like of a work on the basis of an image fetched by a non-contact probe while moving the work or the non-contact probe in an X-axis direction, a Y-axis direction, and a Z-axis direction that are mutually perpendicular to each other.
In FIG. 13, a non-contact view measuring CMM 1 is provided with a measuring table 11 and a bridge-type frame 12. The bridge-type is capable of moving on the measuring table 11 in the Y-axis direction. A guide rail 13 is attached to one side of the measuring table 11, and one leg 121 of the bridge-type frame 12 moves while sliding in the Y-axis direction along this guide rail 13.
Here, the relative displacement of the bridge-type frame 12 and the guide rail 13 is measured by a displacement detecting unit including a scale 14 disposed on the guide rail 13 and a detector (not shown) disposed on the leg 121. It should be noted that an air bearing or the like is provided on the underside of the other leg 122 of the bridge-type frame 12, whereby the leg 122 is slidably supported on the measuring table 11.
Meanwhile, an X-axis slider 15 is disposed on a bridge 123 in such a manner as to be slidable in the X-axis direction, and the relative displacement of the bridge 123 and the X-axis slider 15 is measured by a displacement detecting unit similar to that for the Y-axis direction. The bridge 123 bridges between the legs 121 and 122 of the bridge-type frame 12. Further, a Z-axis supporting member 16 is disposed on the X-axis slider 15, and this Z-axis supporting member 16 is provided with a Z-axis spindle 17 which is slidable in the Z-axial direction. A non-contact probe 18 is attached to the Z-axis spindle 17, and this non-contact probe 18 includes a CCD camera 181 and an objective 182 attached to the CCD camera 181.
The non-contact probe 18 is movable in the X-, Y-, and Z-axis directions by a driving system (not shown) provided in the non-contact view measuring CMM 1. Although not shown, the driving system has an X-axis driving system, a Y-axis driving system, and a Z-axis driving system for moving the non-contact probe to in the X-, Y-, and Z-axis directions. For example, the driving system is adapted to be operated manually or by inputting coordinates to a computer (not shown) connected to the driving system.
The measurement, the non-contact probe 18 is first moved in the X-, Y-, and Z-axis directions along the work by the driving system. Next, in a state in which the non-contact probe 18 is positioned at a desired position, an image of the work is fetched by the CCD camera 181. The dimensions and the like of the work are then determined from this image.
The non-contact probe 18 of the above-described non-contact view measuring CMM 1 is used at a position proximate to the work. At the time of measurement, in particular, the non-contact probe 18 is moved in a three-dimensional direction, but there are cases where the non-contact probe 18 is made to collide against the work due to the carelessness of an operator or such as an error in the input setting of coordinates to the computer. In addition, in the case of an apparatus having a number of devices, such as a combination measuring apparatus, a mechanism is often adopted in which the devices are stored except when necessary, and a device, when necessary, is moved to a normal position so as to be used. In such a case as well, unless the distance between the device and the work is proper, there is a possibility of causing the device to collide against the work.
Since the above-described non-contact probe 18, the devices, and the line are not provided with the collision detecting capability in themselves, even if the non-contact probe 18, for instance, collides against the work, the driving force of the driving system continues to be applied to the non-contact probe 18. The driving system stops only when an overload has been applied to the driving system, or an overcurrent has occurred, or an error signal such as a servo tracking error in the driving system has been issued from the driving system. For this reason, there is a problem in that large damage may be possibly imparted to the main body, the driving system, and the non-contact probe 18 of the non-contact view measuring CMM 1 or the work.

Collision preventing device for a measuring apparatus and measuring apparatus having collision preventing unit


Apparatus for imaging an area of a surface along a viewing angle that is oblique to the surface includes an afocal optical relay, which is adapted to form a tilted initial image of the area by collecting optical radiation from the area along an optical axis oriented at the viewing angle. A tilt correction unit is coupled to correct a tilt of the initial image so as to form a substantially undistorted intermediate image. A magnification module is coupled to focus the intermediate image onto an image detector.

Optical inspection is commonly used in semiconductor device manufacturing to detect defects on the surface of a wafer, such as contaminant particles, scratches and unremoved portions of material layers. Defects can cause device failures, thus substantially reducing the process yield. Therefore, careful inspection is required to verify the cleanliness and quality both of unpatterned wafers and of patterned wafers at various stages in the manufacturing process.
A common method for inspecting semiconductor wafers is to scan a laser beam over the wafer surface, and measure the light scattered from each point on which the beam is incident. One such method, based on dark-field scattering detection, is proposed by Smilansky et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,366,690, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference. Smilansky et al. describe a wafer inspection system based on an optical detection head that comprises a laser and a number of light sensors, which are fed by fiberoptic light collectors arrayed around the laser. The optical head is positioned over the wafer surface, and the wafer is rotated and translated so that the laser beam scans over the surface. The sensors detect the radiation that is scattered from the surface in different angular directions simultaneously, as determined by the positions of the fiberoptics. The entire wafer surface is thus scanned, one pixel at a time, along a spiral path.
Another dark-field wafer inspection system is described by Marxer et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,271,916, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference. In this system, a laser beam is directed toward the wafer surface in a normal direction and scans the surface along a spiral path. An ellipsoidal mirror is used to collect the laser radiation that is scattered from the surface at angles away from the normal. Preferably, light scattered within a first range of angles is collected by one detector, while that scattered within a second range of angles is scattered by another detector. The different detector signals are used to distinguish large defects from small defects.
A further defect detection system based on this approach is described by Vaez-Iravani et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,538,730, which is also incorporated herein by reference. In this case, different wide- and narrow-angle collection channels are used. Signals obtained from the narrow and wide collection channels may be compared to distinguish between micro-scratches and particles. Forward-scattered radiation may also be collected and used for this purpose. The intensity of scattering may further be measured using sequential illumination with S- and P-polarized radiation.
Chuang et al. describe an imaging system with high numerical aperture (NA) in U.S. Pat. No. 6,392,793, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference. The system is based on a catadioptric group of mirrors and lenses, which can be used to collect reflected, diffracted, and scattered light over a range of angles. The system has several applications, including dark-field imaging.
Kinney et al. describe an optical inspection module and method for detecting particles and defects in U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,276, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference. The module includes a light source, which illuminates a surface under inspection at a grazing angle of incidence. A lens is oriented to collect non-specularly reflected light scattered from the light beam path by defects on the surface. A photodetector array in the focal plane of the lens receives the scattered light. Each pixel of the array corresponds to an area on the surface, and the plurality of pixels together form a field of view that covers substantially the entire surface.
Speckle is a well-known effect in imaging systems that use coherent illumination, due to the strong autocorrelation of the beam amplitude. In coherent illumination systems known in the art, which are typically based on continuous wave (CW) laser illumination, the laser beam is passed through a rotating diffuser, which reduces the autocorrelation and thus reduces the speckle contrast accordingly. Alternatively, the laser beam may be passed through a bundle of optical fibers of different lengths, as described, for example, by Suganuma in U.S. Pat. No. 6,249,381, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference. Enhanced de-speckling may be achieved by using two optical fiber bundles disposed sequentially along the light path, as described by Karpol et al., in U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2002/0067478 A1, which is assigned to the assignee of the present patent application and whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Inspection system with oblique viewing angle


An apparatus, system, method, and computer-readable recording medium monitor and detect connection issues in a wireless network. The wireless network communicatively interconnects a gateway device including a network controller, wireless extenders, and client devices. The gateway device receives probe requests from the client devices and the wireless extenders, and the network controller periodically monitors at least one of: i) frame parameters or ii) signal strength information based on the probe requests, and identifies a connection issue with respect to at least one of the wireless extenders. The gateway device transmits a report or alert regarding the connection issue to at least one client device, and the report or alert is used to prompt re-installation of the wireless extender having the connection issue.

There has been a rapid rise in the use of wireless devices in wireless networks, which has increased traffic drastically, degraded the quality of service, and reduced the coverage capabilities of many network devices (e.g., gateways, access points, and wireless extenders). The wireless industry recognized these issues and developed standards for wireless routing protocols such as a multi-access point (MAP) or mesh protocol, which allows for wireless devices to communicate with each other using optimal paths for relaying data in the wireless network. The MAP or mesh protocol defines the control protocols and the data objects necessary to enable onboarding, provisioning, control, and management of wireless devices in a wireless network.
A wireless network implementing the MAP or mesh protocol (e.g., MAP or mesh network) generally includes the use of a MAP controller device. Typically, the MAP controller device obtains learned station (STA) information (e.g., band capability, steering friendly devices, etc.) from other wireless devices (e.g., APs, gateways, or extenders) in the wireless network. Additionally, wireless management functions can be provided for the MAP controller device for management of the MAP or mesh network to improve quality of experience (QoE) for users. In a typical MAP or mesh network, there can be multiple wireless extenders under the control and management of the MAP controller device.
For example, in a MAP or mesh network, a home user can install several wireless extenders at different places in the home to get a seamless coverage that is managed and controlled by the MAP controller device. Additionally, the wireless extenders installed in the MAP or mesh network do not necessarily need to be of the same make and model. However, over time, performance of the MAP or mesh network can degrade because of various issues related to the different wireless extenders.
The issues related to the different wireless extenders can include software issues, hardware issues, signal level variations due to obstructions, or other performance and installation issues. Currently, there is no effective way for conventional MAP controllers to monitor, identify, and address performance issues related to the wireless extenders in a MAP or mesh network. For example, it can be difficult for conventional MAP controllers to monitor, identify issues, and initiate corrective action with regard to a specific wireless extender in the MAP or mesh network.
Thus, it would be advantageous and an improvement over the relevant technology to provide an apparatus, system, method, and program for providing monitoring and installation enhancements in a wireless network having one or more wireless extenders, such that overall system performance and QoE in the wireless network is improved.

Monitoring and installation enhancements for devices in a wireless network


The invention is concerned with a method for manufacturing a channel device, especially for recordings of thermal conductivity, viscosity, density, dielectric constants, refractive indices, etc. of materials such as fluids and gases (called samples), where the material under investigation is guided through a measuring channel with at least one sensor and at least one inlet and one outlet orifice for the sample. The invention also concerns the fabrication procedure of the channel device, especially the recording unit for determining the thermal conductivit, viscosity, density, dielectric constant, etc. of samples where the material under investigation is passed through or brought into a measuring channel which is equipped with sensors and actuators.

The invention is concerned with a channel device, especially for recordings of thermal conductivity, viscosity, density, dielectric constants, refractive indices, etc. of materials such as fluids and gases (called samples), where the material under investigation is guided through a measuring channel with at least one sensor and at least one inlet and one outlet orifice for the sample. The invention also concerns the fabrication procedure of the channel device, especially the recording unit for determining the thermal conductivity, viscosity, density, dielectric constant, etc. of samples where the material under investigation is passed through or brought into a measuring channel which is equipped with sensors and actuators.
The aim of the invention is to create a measuring arrangement capable of on-line recordings which is extremely sensative even for a very small sample volume and can be miniaturized for mass production, using photolithographic, thin-film and solid-state techniques. The invention is characterized by a channel, formed by a substrate (or carrier) and a layer, forming a wall, which is arranged a certain distance from the substrate. The layer is deposited by evaporation, spin-on, sputter, drop-on, reactive deposition, CVD, PECVD, etc., techniques and consists ie. of synthetic material, glass, ceramic, Si3N4, SiO2, SiO, combinations of these materials, etc. The invention is also characterized by the fact that the sensors and actuators are formed by layers on and/or in the substrate and /or in the wall forming layer, ie. by evaporation, spin-on, sputter, drop-on, reactive deposition, CVD (chemical vapor deposition), PECVD (plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition), etc. techniques.
The process invention is characterized as follows: a dissolvable substance is deposited on the substrate, forming the inside of the channel, consisting of ie. photoresist, synthetic material etc. The dissolvable substance is covered afterwards by the wall forming layer, which also covers at least parts of the substrate where the substrate is free of dissolvable substance. The layer adheres well on the substrate and forms, together with the substrate, the measuring channel. The dissolvable substance can be dissolved and removed through the inlet and outlet orifices using solvents and solutions which are not dissolving or attacking the wall forming layer or the substrate.

Method for fabricating a channel device and tube connection