A device and a method for detecting deposits in a membrane module which produces a permeate and which comprises at least one permeable or semipermeable membrane layer. At least one polymer optical fiber for detecting deposits on the membrane layer is integrated in the membrane module such that the polymer optical fiber is in contact with at least one membrane layer. A method of detecting deposits in a membrane module producing a permeate and to a membrane module for producing a permeate from a feed stream of a fluid, in particular an aqueous solution, with the membrane module comprising a plurality of adjacently disposed or stacked sheets of a permeable or semipermeable membrane layer and with at least one polymer optical fiber being embedded or integrated in the membrane module, which polymer optical fiber is in contact with at least one sheet of the membrane layer.

In membrane separation technology, membrane modules are used to separate a permeate and a retentate from a feed stream of a fluid passing through the membrane module. The retentate is retained by at least one permeable or semipermeable membrane in the membrane module while the permeate permeates through the membrane. This causes low-molecular and high-molecular substances of the feed stream to be separated from each other, with the retentate containing the high-molecular constituents of the feed stream in concentrated form, which is why it is also referred to as concentrate.
As a rule, membrane modules comprise a plurality of sheets of a permeable or semipermeable membrane layer, wherein the sheets may be, for example, flat membrane sheets which, for example, can be stacked one on top of the other to form a plate module or can be spiral-wound around a central vessel to form a spiral-wound module. Disposed between consecutive membrane sheets is an intermediate sheet which serves as a spacer and which allows the permeate and the retentate (also called concentrate) to flow between the membrane sheets. Other configurations of membrane modules are, for example, membrane pocket modules, in which membrane pockets, the edges of which are welded together, are wound around a vessel which has bores, or hollow fiber modules in which hollow membranes are arranged in bundles and affixed on one end by a fixing means, with the hollow fibers being open on the permeate side and being closed on the retentate side.
DE 42 33 952 C1 and DE 101 30 716 A1, for example, disclose spiral-wound modules which can be used for reverse osmosis and for cross flow filtration, in particular for microfiltration. Another spiral-wound module is described in US 2003/0205520 A1. A hollow fiber module is known, for example, from DE 10 2016 004 573 A1.
In membrane systems, membrane modules frequently have a modular configuration and are arranged, in particular, in series- or in parallel-connected circuits, which allows the membrane system to be customized to the volume of the separation process required (for example, the throughput required) and to the material properties of the feed stream and of the permeate and retentate to be produced, in particular, the particle size of the particles that are dissolved in a solution and are to be separated.
Membrane modules are widely used in water treatment processes and filtration processes. Depending on the size of substances to be separated, for example, from an aqueous solution, a distinction is made between microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis, with the separation process being carried out, for example, by passing a particle-containing solution under pressure through the membrane layers of the membrane modules modularly arranged in a membrane separation system. Since, for example, for reverse osmosis and nanofiltration, high pressures in a range from 3 to 20 bar (nanofiltration) and 10 to 100 bar (reverse osmosis) are required, the membrane layers of a membrane module are disposed in a pressure-resistant housing, for example, a cylindrical pressure vessel. The housing has an inlet for delivering the feed stream and a permeate outlet and a concentrate outlet for discharging the permeate and the concentrate, respectively. In a spiral-wound module, the feed stream, for example, is entered on a face side of the spiral-wound module, and the permeate is collected in a central permeate vessel, which has openings, and discharged through a permeate vessel from the spiral-wound module. The concentrate exits on the opposite face-side end of the spiral-wound module and can be discharged through a concentrate outlet.
When membrane modules are used, in particular, in water treatment and filtration processes, deposits collect on the membrane surfaces, the deposits form a cover layer in which minerals (for example, lime scale), colloidal water constituents and microorganisms in the form of a biofilm accumulate. This cover layer reduces the separation efficiency of the membrane layer, as a result of which regular and, in particular, periodic cleaning and flushing of the membrane modules or a replacement of the membrane layers is required. To clean the membrane layers, for example, surfactant-containing cleaning solutions can be used. To maintain the separation function of the membrane layers intact over long periods of time, it is necessary to clean and flush the membrane layers well enough in advance before clogging of the membrane layers occurs. To ensure timely cleaning and flushing, a cleaning and flushing procedure is generally carried out with a certain time tolerance to prevent the risk of the membrane layers to become clogged. As a result, the membrane modules tend to be cleaned too frequently, which entails, on the one hand, a high consumption of cleaning and flushing fluids and, on the other hand, while the cleaning procedure is being carried out, relatively long down times during which the membrane module is not available for carrying out the separation process. In addition, in spite of regular cleaning of the membrane layers with surfactant-containing cleaning fluids, the growth of microorganisms on the membrane surfaces continues (biofouling). Biofouling also leads to a reduction of the separation efficiency of the membrane modules.
For the purpose of detecting such deposits, US 2008/0084565 A1 proposes the use of an interferometer-based detection system which can also be used in membrane modules for reverse osmosis.

Membrane module and method of detecting deposits in a membrane module


A process for stabilizing cyclobutanone derivatives, comprising adding at least one of an alkali metal carbonate, alkali metal oxide, alkaline earth metal carbonate, and alkaline earth metal oxide as a stabilizer to at least one cyclobutanone derivative of the structure

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a process for stabilizing cyclobutanone derivatives and also to correspondingly stabilized cyclobutanone derivatives.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cyclobutanone and its derivatives are an important reactant for some preparation processes of organic compounds. The preparation of cyclobutanone is known by different processes. For example, cyclobutanone, as described in DE 101 62 456, can be obtained by rearrangement of cyclopropylmethanol in aqueous solution in the presence of an acidic heterogeneous catalyst and subsequent dehydrogenation using a heterogeneous catalyst. A further process for preparing cyclobutanone is described by DE 199 10 464; in this process, the cyclobutanone is prepared by oxidizing cyclobutanol by means of alkali metal hypochlorite or alkaline earth metal hypochlorite.
The preparation of pure cyclobutanone represents a particular challenge, since the target product is generally contaminated by reactants and by secondary components which can form both in the course of preparation and through the storage of the cyclobutanone. For example, WO 2002/48083 A2 describes numerous compounds which are detectable as impurities in aqueous cyclobutanone. These impurities are frequently colored compounds, such that contaminated cyclobutanone can be recognized by its color. For example, Eastman describes, in WO 2002/48083 and also EP 1 180 509, a purification process for crude cyclobutanone over five process stages, such that cyclobutanone can be obtained in a purity of >90%.
In spite of this complicated purification process for cyclobutanone, a deposit forms in the cyclobutanone after a few days or a few months. This precipitate is very troublesome for the use of the cyclobutanone in numerous preparation processes. In order to reduce the formation of impurities, cyclobutanone is cooled and supplied in light-protected packaging. The mechanism of decomposition of cyclobutanone is described in some publications, as listed, for example, in WO 2002/48083.
Since cyclobutanone and its derivatives serve as synthetic units for active pharmaceutical ingredient synthesis, any prevention of by-products is desirable. First, the polymerization tendency of the cyclobutanone and second, the formation of by-products should be prevented. For example, WO 2002/48083 describes the addition of phenolic compounds to cyclobutanone and derivatives thereof, which are distributed homogeneously in the product, in order to prevent the formation of by-products by transport and storage. These phenolic compounds are the classical phenol-based stabilizers—so-called sterically hindered phenols, for example 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol, also known by the abbreviation BHT.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a process for stabilizing cyclobutanone derivatives. In particular, the stabilizer added should also be removable again from the cyclobutanone derivative, in order that the stabilizer itself does not cause problems in the further active pharmaceutical ingredient synthesis. Moreover, the stabilizer used should be non-toxic.

Process for stabilizing cyclobutanone derivatives

Abstract: where R1, R2, R3, R4, R5 and R6 are each independently hydrogen or an alkyl, aralkyl, cycloalkyl, aryl, alkylaryl, hydroxyl, alkoxy, halogen, cyano or carboxyl group; and the correspondingly stabilized cyclobutanone derivatives.


A technique for sealing a housing (10) is disclosed characterized by use of a multi-stage tool (50) specifically adapted to progressively cold roll and crimp seal one or more flanges (18) formed on a component (12) over a beaded edge (24) which, in one embodiment, may be formed on another component (14). The multi-stage tool (50) includes a series of laterally spaced roller dies (56A,56B,56C) configured to structurally support desired walls (15,16) of one or more of the components (12,14) during the process as well as progressively roll form and crimp the flanges (18) about the beaded edge (24) of the component (14).

As is well known, in the production of manufactured products, it is typical to enclose various components of the manufactured products within a protective housing. Such housings typically have been assembled in numerous ways, such as by mechanical fasteners, soldering, brazing, and/or welding.
Such prior art housings and techniques for assembling such housings possess inherent deficiencies when utilized in the assembly of modern, heat-sensitive components, such as electrical or microwave devices. For instance, it is customary practice for modern, heat-sensitive microwave devices to be enclosed within a sealed housing to protect the microwave devices throughout prolonged use. Typical of such microwave devices is a microwave series feed assembly consisting of a main feed line coupler and auxiliary coupler elements which are assembled (or packaged) together with numerous heat sensitive dielectric insulators, all of which are enclosed within an elongate aluminum rectangular conduit. Heretofore, it was customary practice to enclose such sealed microwave devices in an aluminum rectangular conduit by use of threaded fasteners, solder, dip brazing, arc welding, or laser welding to attach and seal a cover to the conduit or chassis after component assembly. Such prior art fastening or attachment techniques, however, have proven infeasible when new technology requirements dictate that the enclosure be lightweight, low cost, contain heat sensitive components, and/or be extremely long in length.
In this regard, the prior art use of mechanical fasteners, such as threaded fasteners, requires additional material to be provided on each side of the housing of the device to accommodate such mechanical fasteners. Further, such mechanical fasteners must be spaced at very close intervals to achieve the required structural or electrical performance characteristics of the device. The use of such additional material and fasteners necessarily results in a device having increased weight and size.
The prior art soldering assembly techniques require nickel and tin pre-plating of areas to be joined prior to soldering. Further, the heat required for proper soldering applications oftentimes damages heat-sensitive components contained within the microwave device. Further, the structural integrity of long microwave devices is suspect when the soldered joint is exposed to dynamic environments.
Similarly, the prior art dip brazing assembly techniques require that the entire housing be exposed to very high temperatures, i.e., approximately 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit in some cases, to achieve the desired integrity of the brazed joint. Such high temperatures typically anneals and distorts aluminum enclosures and further may damage the heat-sensitive components contained therein. Prior art arc-welding techniques additionally result in heat degradation similar to that of the dip-brazing process. In addition, arc welding requires a thicker wall section of metal be present in the weld area to eliminate possible burn-thru at the arc-welding site, which additional material increases the overall weight of the assembled device.
Finally, the prior art use of laser welding in the assembly process concentrates heat in a very small area so that thermal degragation of the microwave components is normally quite small. However, laser welding has been a slow and expensive process which typically renders it a cost ineffective assembly solution in many potential applications.
Thus, there exists a substantial need in the art for an improved method of assembling heat-sensitive components, such as microwave devices, within a sealed housing which is conducive to low cost, mass production techniques, and which additionally accomplishes assembly without generation of excessive heat that could degrade the heat-sensitive components disposed within the assembly.

Metallic component cold roll/crimping tool


The present invention relates to a personal user agent acting on behalf of a group of member device agents in a communication network. The personal user agent provides its group of member device agents with a specialized proxy function, while representing the group to the network as a single user agent. To devices on the communication network, the personal user agent behaves and is viewed as a user agent. To the group of member device agents, the personal user agent behaves and is viewed as both a registrar and a proxy server.

The evolution of packet-switched communications now allows various types of media to be communicated over a common network to devices capable of receiving and processing compatible media. Currently, there exists an eclectic offering of devices capable of supporting data, audio, and video media, alone or in any combination. For example, a personal computer may support all three types of media, whereas a video device may support only video media, a packet-switched telephone may support only audio media, and a personal digital assistant (PDA) may support voice and data. In essence, there are numerous devices having a mixed array of media capabilities.
In an effort to maximize the benefit of having these various media capabilities, users often have a number of devices with various media capabilities. Further, users may have more than one device with a common media capability, but may have a preference of one device over another for a given media capability, depending on quality, venue, or time of communication. Unfortunately, there is no efficient way for a user to manage communications using the various devices in light of their respective media capabilities. To establish a video session between a personal computer and another video device, the user must establish the video session, and if a related audio session should be created between the personal computer and an audio device, the user must control the establishment of a session between the personal computer and the audio device. In order to establish the separate audio and video sessions, the user must establish the respective sessions as if they were unrelated.
As such, there is a need for a way to efficiently manage multiple devices having various media capabilities. There is a further need to automate the establishment of various sessions based on the type of media and the capability of the respective devices. Where multiple devices have a common capability, there is a need for an efficient and automated way to select a preferred one of the devices to establish a media session.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, a memory array and a fabrication method thereof, and more particularly to a semiconductor device having a stacked array structure (referred to as a STAR structure: a STacked ARray structure) applicable to not only a switch device but also a memory device, a NAND flash memory array using the same as a memory device and a fabrication method thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, a memory array and a fabrication method thereof, and more particularly to a semiconductor device having a stacked array structure (hereinafter referred to as a STAR structure: a STacked ARray structure) applicable to not only a switch device but also a memory device, a NAND flash memory array using the same as a memory device and a fabrication method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, most MOSFETs used as a switch device have a planar type structure which takes up a lot of space to make a switch device of a memory array such as a 1T-DRAM etc. and there has been a limitation on a high integration of the memory array.
Also, most memory devices used as a memory cell have a planar type structure and have the above mentioned problem.
Particularly, since the high integration of a NAND flash memory array is easier than that of a NOR type, the NAND flash memory array is becoming popular as a mass non-volatile memory. But there has been a limitation on the high integration of the memory array by using a planar type memory cell.
To overcome the limitation of the planar type memory cell, various forms of memory devices having a vertical channel have being developed. However, so far, because the developed memory cells with a vertical channel are connected between bit lines of a single layer and word lines, it causes a problem that has a limitation on the high integration of a NAND flash memory array.
Furthermore, a conventional NAND flash memory array has a relatively weak effect on a channel of a memory cell. And it has a disturbance problem induced by an adjacent cell which shares a word line in an unselect bit line and a delay problem of an erasing speed due to the back tunneling.
To solve the problems of the conventional technology, an objective of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor device having a stacked array (STAR) structure which enables to widen a channel width of a vertical channel without limit and to form a single gate (SG), a double gate (DG) and a gate all around (GAA) as occasion demands.
In addition, another objective of the present invention is to provide a NAND flash memory array using the semiconductor device having a STAR structure as a memory cell, specifically, with the gate all around (GAA) structure by consisting of vertically stacked bit lines with memory cells connected in series and word lines wrapping around and sharing the several bit line layers, and to provide a fabrication method of the same.

Semiconductor device having stacked array structure, NAND flash memory array using the same and fabrication thereof

Seoul National University R&DB Foundation


Extensible URI-pattern-based servlet request processing frameworks process and respond to requests for resources sent over a network by client programs to application programs in multi-tiered data processing systems. An extension processor component, an improved web container; and an improved web application architecture form the framework. The extension processor component includes one or more extension processor factories, each of which generates a single type of extension processor to handle specific application components. Each extension processor is adapted to respond to a request having a declared pattern. The extension processor factory resides within the web container and provides a list of patterns for which it is responsible. The extension factory also instantiates an extension processor to respond to a request having a pattern that matches that extension processor's declared pattern. The improved web application includes a request mapper adapted to route a request having a particular pattern to the appropriate extension processor.

Without question, the advent of the personal computer revolutionized enterprise computing during the 1980s, quickly distributing processing power throughout an enterprise. As the personal computer distributed processing power, though, it also tended to distribute critical data throughout the enterprise. The enterprise world soon realized that such unfettered data distribution was difficult to manage. Critical data often was lost as individual computers failed, and just as often, the same data maintained in separate computers was inconsistent or unsynchronized.
The evolution of the two-tier "client/server" architecture resolved some of this tension between the benefits of distributed processing and the detriments of distributed data. In a two-tier enterprise information system (EIS), a server tier stores and manages enterprise data, while a client tier provides a user interface to the data in the server tier, as illustrated in FIG. 1. A conventional client tier also is responsible for implementing most of the business logic or data processing. In general, a client and a server rely on a request/response model for communicating with each other, in which the client sends a request (for data or other resources) to a server, and the server responds to the client. Note that, in this context, the terms "client" and "server" refer to the hardware and software, collectively, that implement each tier's respective functions. The client, though, generally is a distinct physical entity that is remotely connected to the server through a network. FIG. 1 depicts a classic embodiment of the two-tier architecture, in which a client provides the user interface and business logic, and a database server maintains the enterprise data and processes a client's request to retrieve or update the data. More particularly, two-tier client/server architecture 100 has a server tier in the form of server 120 that stores and manages enterprise data stored in database 122. A client tier in the form of client 110 provides user interface 114 for viewing and manipulating data maintained by server 120. Client 110 is also responsible for implementing most of the business logic 112 required for data processing. Server 120 processes request 130 to retrieve or update the data in database 122 and sends response 140 to client 110.
Probably the most prolific example, though, of a tiered, client/server architecture is the World Wide Web ("the web"). Originally, the web comprised only two tiers—web servers and web clients (more commonly known as web "browsers"). FIG. 2 depicts the original web architecture, which is almost identical to the classic database architecture depicted in FIG. 1. In this case, however, user interface 114 is replaced by a web browser 116 and database 122 is replaced by web pages 124. Early incarnations of server 120 merely provided access to static web pages 124 by retrieving them and sending them over the network to the client 110, and the client 110 did nothing more than request and display them. Generally, though, web browser 116 may request any type of web resource that is available to server 120. Every web resource is associated with a Uniform Resource Indicator (URI), which uniquely identifies the resource. More particularly, web page's 124 URI identifies the location of server's 120 host, and the name and location of web page 124 within server's 120 file system. Consequently, web page's 124 URI is also known as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). For example, the URL of a hypothetical web page 124 named "bar.html" in the "foo/" directory of web server 120 named "example.com" would be "example.com/foo/bar.html." Web browser 116 and the web server 120 adhere to the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a standard network communication protocol, in order to exchange requests and responses over the network. Thus, the complete URI for the hypothetical "bar.html" web page 124 would be http://example.com/foo/bar.html.
Although the two-tier architecture has enjoyed much success over the years, sophisticated multi-tier client/server systems slowly have displaced this traditional model. As FIG. 3 illustrates, a multi-tier system such as multi-tier system 300 places at least one intermediate (or "middleware") component between client 110 and server 120. Generalized "n-tier" systems include n layers of software that provide a different layer of services at varying levels of detail to the layers above and beneath them, where n is any number. While client 110 tier generally retains its traditional responsibility for implementing user interface 114, one or more middle tiers implement business logic 112. A middleware component that implements business logic 112, as depicted in FIG. 3, commonly is referred to as an "application server." Additional tiers usually implement the traditional server 120 tier functions, which include data management and retrieval.
Web server technology continued to evolve as well, and eventually embraced techniques for dynamically generating web pages. These techniques allowed a web server to access enterprise data, usually through a database server, and to process the data before responding to a client's request, as FIG. 4 illustrates.
Clearly, there is some functional overlap between clients, web servers, application servers, and database servers, with each component exhibiting unique advantages. In particular, ubiquitous web browsers such as MOZILLA, NETSCAPE, and INTERNET EXPLORER provide inexpensive (if not free), cross-platform user interfaces that comply (usually) with standard formats (e.g. HTML) and protocols (e.g. HTTP). Similarly, web servers generally offer a cross-platform, standard-compliant means of communicating with the browsers; application servers provide cross-platform access to customized business logic; and database servers provide cross-platform access to enterprise data. Today, an EIS generally integrates each of these components, thus capturing the best of all worlds and providing an architecture for implementing distributed, cross-platform enterprise applications. FIG. 5 depicts one embodiment of a modem EIS, in which distributed, cross-platform web architecture 500 combines web server 180, application server 150, and server 120 to provide cross-platform access to customized business logic 112 and enterprise data stored in database 122.
Although the modem EIS provides an architecture for implementing distributed, cross-platform enterprise applications, historically, each EIS component has not been portable to other platforms (i.e. platform independent). In 1995, however, Sun Microsystems, Inc. ("SUN") introduced a new product, "JAVA," that provided the foundation for building such portable components. As introduced in 1995, JAVA comprised an object-oriented programming language and a processing architecture (the "JAVA virtual machine" or "JVM"). See David Flanagan, Java in a Nutshell 3 (3d ed. 1999). SUN touted JAVA as the only "write once, run anywhere" development tool, meaning that a developer could create a JAVA application and run it on any platform. Id. at 6. More accurately, though, JAVA allows a developer to create a JAVA application and run it on any platform having a JVM. Id. Several years later, SUN released a new JAVA specification, which included new language features and a new library of JAVA classes (the "JAVA platform") designed to support stand-alone application development. See James McGovern et al., Java 2 Enterprise Edition 1.4 Bible 5 (Wiley Publishing, Inc. 2003). SUN marketed this specification as JAVA 2 Standard Edition (J2SE). Id. Finally, in 1998, SUN released JAVA 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), which addressed the need for developing and deploying portable enterprise applications. Id. J2EE defines a standard multi-tier architecture for an EIS. Id. J2EE comprises a specification that defines the logical application components within an EIS, and defines the roles played in the development process. Id. All J2EE components run within a "container" program, which the J2EE specification also defines. Id. at 6. The components of a J2EE platform include application clients, applets, web components, and server components. Id.
A JAVA "servlet" is a type of J2EE web component that can perform the application processing assigned to a middle tier, act as a proxy for a client, and even augment the features of the middle tier by adding support for new protocols or other features. See generally MageLang Inst., The Java Servlet API, at http://java.sun.com/developer/onlineTraining/Servlets/Fundamentals/servlets.html (last visited Aug. 18, 2004). A servlet also can extend a web or application server's functionality and support dynamic generation of HTML documents. In this respect, a JAVA servlet is similar to native web server extension technologies such as Microsoft's ISAPI and ASP and Netscape's NSAPI. See, e.g., Clifford J. Berg, Advanced Java 2 Development for Enterprise Applications 604 (2d ed. 1999).
Like all J2EE components, a servlet runs within a container (sometimes also referred to as a servlet "engine"), which manages the servlet. The container loads and initializes the servlet, passes requests to the servlet and responses to a client, manages multiple instances of a servlet, and acts as a request dispatcher. The container also is responsible for destroying and unloading the servlet. For example, if the servlet's resources are needed elsewhere, the container destroys and unloads the servlet and then subsequently reloads and reinitializes the servlet if it is requested again. A servlet also is destroyed at the end of its useful life, and when the container shuts down. See Jeanne Murray, Building Java HTTP Servlets (September 2000), at https://www6.software.ibm.com/developerworks/education/j-servlets/j-servlets-ltr.-pdf (last visited Aug. 18, 2004). A container passes initialization information to a newly created servlet through a ServletConfig object. See, e.g., MageLang Inst., supra. While running, a servlet can get information about its environment (or "context") through a ServletContext object. Id.
In practice, a client sends a request to a server, which specifies a servlet's URI. The server, or more likely, a container running within the server, then creates an instance ("instantiates") of the servlet identified by the URI. The server or container also creates a thread for the servlet process. The servlet instance then stays active until the container explicitly destroys the servlet or the server shuts down. The container sends the request to the servlet, which processes the request and builds a response. The servlet dynamically constructs a response using information in the client request, and, if necessary, data from other EIS components. If the request uses HTTP, the servlet wraps the response in HTML. Finally, the servlet passes the response back to the client, through the container. Murray, supra.
Naturally, SUN provides a JAVA Servlet Application Programming Interface (API), which defines a standard interface between a client, container, and servlet. See, e.g., id. The JAVA Servlet API includes two packages, one that supports generic protocol-independent servlets (the "javax.servlet" package), and one that provides specific support for HTTP (the "javax.servlet.http" package). Id. Thus, a generic servlet must implement the javax.servlet.Servlet interface. Such generic servlets typically implement this interface by extending the javax.servlet.GenericServlet class, which is implemented in the javax.servlet package. A servlet that needs HTTP support (a "web servlet"), on the other hand, should extend the javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet class, which is implemented in the javax.servlet.http package. Almost all servlets written today are designed to use the HTTP protocol, so most servlets currently extend the javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet class. See Mark Andrews, Story of a Servlet: An Instant Tutorial, at http://java.sun.com/products/servlet/articles/tutorial/ (last visited Aug. 18, 2004).
The Servlet API generally provides support in four categories: (1) servlet life cycle management; (2) access to servlet context; (3) utility classes; and (4) HTTP-specific support classes. See, e.g., MageLang Inst., supra. A servlet and container communicate through the API methods, which include init(ServletConfig), and service(ServletRequest, ServletResponse). Id.
As noted above, a container instantiates and initializes a servlet the first time it is needed. To initialize the servlet, the container invokes the servlet's init( ) method, passing a ServletConfig object as an argument. The ServletConfig object includes a getServletContext( ) method that returns a ServletContext object, which represents the server's environment. Id. Generally, the init( ) method opens database or other server connections required to service a request. See, e.g., Murray, supra.
The service( ) method is the "heart" of the servlet. MageLang Inst., supra. A container invokes the service (ServletRequest, ServletResponse) method whenever a request invokes the servlet. Thus, each request message from a client results in a single call to the servlet's service( ) method. The service( ) method reads the request and produces the response message from its two parameters: a ServletRequest object, and a ServletResponse object. A ServletRequest object consists of name/value pairs of parameters and an InputStream. A ServletResponse object represents the servlet's reply back to the client. Id.
The Java Servlet API is a standard supported by many web servers, especially those that are bundled with application servers. Berg, supra, at 604. Thus, the Servlet API provides a very convenient and secure framework for creating distributed applications that can serve dynamically generated HTML, and also can access other network servers, such as databases and application servers. Id. Of course, to implement a distributed application with Java servlets, a web server must run a servlet container or an application server that has a servlet container capable of supporting the life cycle of servlets. McGovern et al., supra, at 78. A servlet container running within a web server is referred to generally as a "web container." Likewise, a distributed application that relies on web servlets is referred to generally as a "web application." Because web servlets plug into an existing server, they leverage a lot of existing code and technology. The server handles the network connections, protocol negotiation, class loading, and more. MageLang Inst., supra.
A JavaServer Page (JSP) is another type of J2EE web component that supports dynamic HTML generation. See, e.g., McGovern et al., supra, at 113. A JSP, in form, is similar to a static HTML document that contains embedded Java code. Id. at 7. Functionally, though, a JSP is nothing but a servlet that a container automatically generates from a file containing valid HTML and JSP tags. Id. at 115. The container interprets the JAVA code and incorporates any output that the code generates into the HTML content before returning the content to a client. Berg, supra, at 631. In practice, most JSP implementations compile portions of a JSP page into one or more runtime objects that can be cached for improved efficiency. Id.
Servlets have become an important adjunct to application servers by providing a web-traversable gateway. Many products extend application server features including security, transaction management, and load balancing to the servlet container, thereby allowing servlets to become the universal gateway to these services. Berg, supra, at 607. A "gateway" servlet, found in application servers such as Tomcat and JBoss, handle specific Uniform Resource Locator (URL) patterns and route requests for those URLs to their final destination (typically a client) after reading configuration information and initializing the target.
A gateway servlet, though, like all J2EE components, must run within a container. The container loads and initializes the servlet, passes requests to the servlet and responses to a client, manages multiple instances of a servlet, and acts as a request dispatcher. The container also destroys the servlet at the end of its useful life. Servlets are unloaded and removed from memory when the container shuts down. Consequently, the container may remove a gateway servlet at any time, which may decrease application performance and/or impose additional requirements in container design. Gateway servlets also must undergo the lifecycle of a servlet, which may adversely affect application performance as well. Moreover, the gateway servlet concept does not provide a convenient means for implementing a downstream container that can leverage any of the host container's optimizations.
While the above-described gateway servlets fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned prior art does not describe an extensible URI-pattern-based servlet request-processing framework that allows processing and responding to requests for resources sent over a network by client programs to application programs in an EIS. The prior art makes no provision for providing gateway servlet functionality without being subjected to the constraints of traditional servlet design. Thus, there is a need in the art for an improved means of processing URI requests that overcomes the disadvantages of the current gateway servlet technology but still allows a developer to extend and customize a web application's functionality. Such an improved means also should reduce the execution path of any given request and handle most standard lifecycle events (such as J2EE security calls and class loading) and web container specific events. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need. In this respect, the extensible URI-pattern-based servlet request processing framework according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of processing and responding to requests for resources sent over a network by client programs to application programs in a multi-tiered data processing system.

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention relates to a composition of enantiomers of 3,6,7,7a-tetrahydro-1H-pyrrolo[1,5-a]imidazole-2,5-dione and pharmaceutically acceptable solvates or co-crystals thereof in a certain ratio, a pharmaceutical composition comprising said composition, its use as a medicament and the use of the inventive compositions or pharmaceutical compositions in the treatment and/or prevention of a disease or disorder typically and preferably selected from peripheral sensory neuropathy, preferably peripheral neuropathic pain; seizure; depression; or cognitive impairment.

Glutamic acid is an excitatory neurotransmitter that is widely present in the brain. The first indication of its role as an excitatory messenger emerged in the 1950's, when it was observed that intravenous administration of glutamate induces convulsions. However, the detection of the entire glutamatergic neurotransmitter system, with biosynthetic and catabolic enzymes, cellular uptake mechanisms, intracellular storage and release systems, and its cell-surface ion channels and G protein-coupled receptors, did not take place until the 1970's and 1980's, when suitable pharmacological tools were first identified. It was in the 1990's that the newly emergent tools of molecular biology provided means for the molecular identification and classification of glutamatergic ion channels, receptors, transporters, etc.
The membrane-bound ion channels that are gated by the excitatory amino acids glutamate and glycine, and that also respond to the xenobiotic compound N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), control the flow of both divalent and monovalent cations into pre- and post-synaptic neural cells (see Foster et al., Nature 1987, 329:395-396; Mayer et al., Trends in Pharmacol. Sci. 1990, 11:254-260). They are molecularly, electrophysiologically, and pharmacologically distinct from the glutamate-gated, cation-conducting ion channels that respond to the xenobiotic agents kainate or alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA); and they are similarly distinct from the family of glutamate-gated G protein-coupled receptors, the so-called metabotropic glutamate receptors.
The NMDA-preferring glutamate-gated ion channel has a hetero-tetrameric structural basis: two obligatory GluN1 units and two variable GluN2 receptor subunits encoded by the GRIN1 gene and one of four GRIN2 genes, respectively. One or both GluN2 subunits can be potentially replaced by a GluN3A or a GluN3B subunit. The GRIN1 gene product has 8 splice variants while there are 4 different GRIN2 genes (GRIN2A-D) encoding four distinct GluN2 subunits. The glycine binding site is present on the GluN1 subunit and the glutamate binding site is present on the GluN2 subunit (Paoletti P et al., Nat Rev Neurosci. 2013; 14(6):383-400).
Multiple classes of positive or negative allosteric modulators of glutamate-gated ion channels have been described; they bind glutamate-gated ion channels at the inter-subunit interface of the ligand-binding domains (LBD's) of the respective ion channels, a site that is distinct from the glutamate- or the glycine-binding sites present within the LBD (Sun et al., 2002; Jin et al., 2005; Hackos et al., 2016). Allosteric modulators have also been described (Wang et al. 2017) that bind to the trans-membrane domain of the NMDA-type glutamate-gated ion channel, where a highly-conserved structural motif (the so-called "Lurcher domain") restricts ionic flow through the pore when the ion channel is in the closed or deactivated state (Karakas and Furukawa, 2014; Lee et al., 2014; Ogden and Traynelis, 2013).
Allosteric modulators of glutamate-gated ion channels have therapeutic potential, and even utility in healthy individuals, in diverse fields, such as learning, memory processing, mood, attention, emotion, motoneuron disease, peripheral sensory neuropathy and pain perception (Cull-Candy S et al., Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2001; 11(3):327-35).
Compounds that modulate NMDA receptor function can be useful in treatment of many neurological and psychiatric disorders including but not limited to bipolar disorder (Martucci L et al., Schizophrenia Res, 2006; 84(2-3):214-21), major depressive disorder (Li N et al., Biol Psychiatry. 2011; 69(8):754-61), treatment-resistant depression (Preskorn S H et al. J Clin Psychopharmacol. 2008; 28(6):631-7) and other mood disorders (including schizophrenia (Grimwood S et al., Neuroreport. 1999; 10(3):461-5), ante- and postpartum depression (Weickert C S et al. Molecular Psychiatry (2013) 18, 1185-1192), seasonal affective disorder, and the like; Alzheimer's disease (Hanson J E et al., Neurobiol Dis. 2015; 74:254-62; Li S et al., J Neurosci. 2011; 31(18):6627-38) and other dementias (Orgogozo J M et al. Stroke 2002, 33: 1834-1839), Parkinson's disease (Duty S, CNS Drugs. 2012; 26(12):1017-32; Steece-Collier K et al., Exp Neurol. 2000; 163(1):239-43; Leaver K R et al. Clin Exp PharmacolPhysiol. 2008; 35(11):1388-94), Huntington's chorea (Tang T S et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2005; 102(7):2602-7; Li L et al., J Neurophysiol. 2004; 92(5):2738-46), multiple sclerosis (Grasselli G et al., Br J Pharmacol. 2013; 168(2):502-17), cognitive impairment (Wang D et al. 2014, Expert Opin Ther Targets 2014; 18(10):1121-30), head injury (Bullock M R et al., Ann NY Acad Sci. 1999; 890:51-8), spinal cord injury, stroke (Yang Y et al., J Neurosurg. 2003; 98(2):397-403), epilepsy (Naspolini A P et al., Epilepsy Res. 2012 June; 100(1-2):12-9), movement disorders (e.g. dyskinesias) (Morissette M et al., Mov Disord. 2006; 21(1):9-17), various neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Fuller P I et al., Neurosci Lett. 2006; 399(1-2):157-61) or neurodegeneration associated with bacterial or chronic infections, glaucoma (Naskar R et al. Semin Ophthalmol. 1999 September; 14(3):152-8), pain (e.g. chronic, cancer, post-operative and neuropathic pain (Wu L J and Zhuo M, Neurotherapeutics. 2009; 6(4):693-702), diabetic neuropathy, migraine (Peeters M et al., J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2007; 321(2):564-72), cerebral ischemia (Yuan H et al., Neuron. 2015; 85(6):1305-18), encephalitis (Dalmau J. et al., Lancet Neurol. 2008; 7(12):1091-8.), autism and autism spectrum disorders (Won H. et al., Nature. 2012; 486(7402):261-5), memory and learning disorders (Tang, Y. P. et al., Nature. 1999; 401(6748):63-9), obsessive compulsive disorder (Arnold P D et al., Psychiatry Res. 2009; 172(2):136-9.), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (Dorval K M et al., Genes Brain Behav. 2007; 6(5):444-52), PTSD (Haller J et al. Behav Pharmacol. 2011; 22(2):113-21; Leaderbrand K et al. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2014; 113:35-40), tinnitus (Guitton M J, and Dudai Y, NeuralPlast.2007; 80904; Hu S S et al. 2016; 273(2): 325-332), sleep disorders (like narcolepsy or excessive daytime sleepiness, patent WO 2009/058261 A1), vertigo and nystagmus (Straube A. et al., Curr Opin Neurol. 2005; 18(1):11-4; Starck M et al. J Neurol. 1997 January; 244(1):9-16), anxiety, autoimmunological disorders like neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (Kowal C et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2006; 103, 19854-19859) and addictive illnesses (e.g. alcohol addiction, drug addiction) (Nagy J, 2004, Curr Drug Targets CNS Neurol Disord. 2004; 3(3):169-79.; Shen H et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2011; 108(48):19407-12).
The symptoms of peripheral sensory neuropathy, including one of the most prominent symptoms, peripheral neuropathic pain (Zilliox L A, 2017), are frequently encountered clinical conditions: the prevalence in the general population has been estimated to be between 7% and 10% (van Hecke O et al., 2014). In the United States, painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy alone is estimated to affect approximately 10 million people. Peripheral sensory neuropathy is often resistant to treatment and is associated with poor patient satisfaction of their treatment. Several medications have been shown to be effective in treating peripheral sensory neuropathy associated with diabetic neuropathy and post-herpetic neuralgia, and these medications are often used to treat neuropathic pain associated with other conditions as well. These treatments often have unwanted adverse effects and discontinuation of treatment may be problematic. It is important to recognize that peripheral sensory neuropathy affects many aspects of daily life and is associated with poor general health, reduction in quality of life, poor sleep, and higher anxiety and depression. In fact, measures of quality of life in people with chronic peripheral sensory neuropathy were rated as low as for patients with clinical depression, coronary artery disease, recent myocardial infraction, or poorly controlled diabetes mellitus (Smith B H et al., 2007).
The American Academy of Neurology has published practice guidelines on the treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy (Bril V et al., 2011), post-herpetic neuralgia (Dubinsky R M et al., 2004), and trigeminal neuralgia (Gronseth G et al., 2008). Several other clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of neuropathic pain also have been published (Attal N et al., 2010; Moulin D, et al., 2014).
Sensory neuropathy is commonly classified as central or peripheral, depending on the site of the lesion that is causing the symptoms. Examples of conditions associated with peripheral sensory neuropathy are diabetic neuropathy, human immunodeficiency virus-associated neuropathy, chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, post-herpetic neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, complex regional pain syndrome, compressive mononeuropathies, radiculoneuropathies, inflammatory neuropathies (acute and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy), post-traumatic neuropathy, or phantom limb neuropathy.
Typically, peripheral sensory neuropathy has both positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms include tingling ("pins and needles"), prickling, lightening-like or lancinating sensations, aching, knife-like, pulling or tightening-like symptoms, burning- or searing-like, or electrical pain. Negative symptoms include numbness, deadness, or the feeling of wearing socks. Some unique aspects of peripheral sensory neuropathy include hyperalgesia (an increased response to a stimulation is normally painful); allodynia (pain due to a stimulus that typically does not provoke pain); hyperesthesia (an increased sensitivity to stimulation); paresthesia (abnormal sensation, whether provoked or spontaneous); dysesthesia (unpleasant abnormal sensation); hypoesthesia (diminished pain in response to a normally painful stimulus); analgesia (loss of pain sensation); and anaesthesia (loss of sensation). The positive signs or symptoms are thought to represent excessive activity in a sensory pathway due to a lowered threshold or heightened excitability. Negative signs and symptoms are experienced as diminished or absent feeling and are due to a loss of sensory function.
While some pharmacological agents have been found to be effective in the treatment of symptoms of peripheral sensory neuropathy (Finnerup N B et al., 2015), only a minority of patients suffering from neuropathic pain show a complete response to drug therapy. For the majority of patients, it is reasonable to expect that treatment will make the pain tolerable. In general, a 30% reduction of a pain on an 11-point numerical rating scale is considered clinically important and constitutes "moderate relief" or "much improved." It is also important to recognize and treat comorbidities, such as anxiety and depression, and secondary treatment goals may include improving sleep, advancing function, and enhancing overall quality of life. These goals are best achieved when pharmacologic therapy is one component of a multi-disciplinary approach to treatment.
Neuropathic pain medications approved by the US Food and Drug Administration are carbamazepine, duloxetine, pregabalin, gabapentin, topical lidocaine, and topical capsaicin. Tramadol and opioid analgesics are effective in different types of neuropathic pain but are generally not recommended as first-line treatments because of concerns about long-term safety. However, they are recommended as first-line treatments in acute neuropathic pain, neuropathic pain due to cancer, and episodic exacerbations of severe neuropathic pain. The use of strong opioids (codeine, morphine, oxycodone and fentanyl) in the treatment of a variety of neuropathic pain conditions is controversial and a public health concern given the rising number of deaths related to prescription opioids. The serious risks of overdose, dependence, and addiction which these drugs carry may outweigh the potential benefits.
Thus, there remains an urgent and important medical need for the development of novel, orally-effective therapies for peripheral sensory neuropathy and peripheral neuropathic pain that are toxicologically benign and devoid of the potential for dependence and addiction phenomena.
There also remains an important medical need for the development of novel, orally-effective therapies for neuropsychiatric diseases, such as those described in the 5th version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5); and for the treatment of motoneuron diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Dimiracetam (2,5-dioxohexahydro-1H-pyrrolo[1,2-a]imidazole—IUPAC name: (RS)-3,6,7,7a-tetrahydro-1H-pyrrolo[1,5-a]imidazole-2,5-dione) is a bicyclic 2-pyrrolidinone derivative and a nootropic member of the racetam family:

AU 2012/201853 discloses the use of dimiracetam, or a pharmaceutically acceptable solvate thereof, alone or in association with other active principles, in the manufacture of a medicament useful for the treatment and/or prevention of chronic pain.
WO 93/09120 relates to certain processes for preparing certain fused imidazole derivatives and in particular for preparing chiral fused imidazole derivatives.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,406 mentions that dimiracetam may be useful in restoring learning and treating memory difficulties. One example of a disease to be treated with dimiracetam is Alzheimer's disease.
Dimiracetam was originally developed as a cognition enhancer and has been shown to be able to improve learning and memory in rats (Pinza M et al., 1993; EP 3 354 83). In single-dose healthy human volunteer studies (Torchio L et al., 1995), dimiracetam was found to ameliorate, versus placebo, certain measures of the transient decline in cognitive performance induced by injection of scopolamine. Further medical uses of dimiracetam have been described including in particular its broad efficacy in rodent models of neuropathic pain. The efficacy of dimiracetam in the treatment of neuropathic pain of different origin has been documented in established models of neuropathic pain induced by nerve injury, chemotherapy, or mono-iodoacetate (MIA)-induced osteoarthritis (Fariello R et al., 2014); Di Cesare Mannelli L et al., 2015a; Di Cesare Mannelli L et al., 2015b; WO 2008/125674; EP 2 857 017 B1, US 2010/0125096; WO 2012/055057). The chemotherapy-induced symptoms of neurotoxicity are responsive to dimiracetam, regardless of which chemotherapeutic agent is used: dideoxycytidine- (ddC-), oxaliplatin-, vincristine-, paclitaxel-, and sorafenib-derived models all respond to the effects of dimiracetam; and dimiracetam has been shown to be effective not only in treating, but also in preventing the symptoms brought on by administration of these chemotherapeutic agents. A single oral administration of dimiracetam can completely, but transiently, revert hyperalgesia and allodynia back to the level of healthy controls. With repeated twice-daily oral administration, the maximal effect becomes sustained, without evidence of tachyphylaxis, or tolerance, despite dose diminution and increased inter-dose interval to once-daily oral administration. Furthermore, the effects of dimiracetam are disease-specific: in a unilateral chronic constriction injury (CCI) model, where rats develop a state of peripheral neuropathic pain in one hind-limb subjected to surgical placement of a ligature around the sciatic nerve, but not in the other limb subjected to sham surgery, a single oral dose of dimiracetam reduced the pain response only in the nerve-ligated limb, without affecting algesia or allodynia in the sham-operated limb; this profile is markedly distinct from effects of, for example, opiates, which affect both limbs in this model (Christensen D et al., 1998).
The mechanism of dimiracetam's pharmacological actions have been explored using synaptosomal preparations of the hippocampus and the spinal cord. This assay is intended to pharmacologically mimic the physiological process of glutamate-triggered glutamate release; its pH-, Zn2+- and ifenprodil-sensitivities suggest involvement of an NMDA-receptor isoform containing pH-sensitive GluN1 and GluN2A subunits (Fariello et al., 2014). Inhibition of glutamate signaling is an established basis for the prevention or the treatment of neuropathic pain (Latremoliere and Woolf, 2009). In the spinal cord, at the junction where peripheral sensory afferents make their first and only synaptic connection to the interneurons of the central nervous system (Marieb, Wilhelm and Mallat, 2017), glutamate-induced glutamate release is a component of the up-regulated, or "sensitized" signaling which results from a damaged peripheral nerve (Latremolier and Woolf, 2009).
In synaptosomal preparations of the hippocampus, dimiracetam is a moderately potent inhibitor with an IC50 of approximately 3 μM for inhibiting NMDA-plus-glycine-triggered release of [3H]-D-aspartate previously loaded into the synaptosomal preparation. In synaptosomal preparations of the spinal cord, however, dimiracetam is much more potent, with an IC50 of approximately 20 nM for inhibiting the NMDA-plus-glycine-triggered [3H]-D-aspartate release (Fariello R et al., 2014).
Dimiracetam's ability to block glutamate-triggered glutamate release in the spinal cord underlies its utility in the prevention or treatment of peripheral sensory neuropathies; other mechanisms in the brain may underlie its efficacy in the treatment of depression in rats (Fariello et al., 2011; WO 2015/010217); and its efficacy in rat and human models of scopolamine-induced cognitive impairment (Pinza et al., 1993).
Dimiracetam is a chiral compound with a single stereocenter, but it has undergone clinical development as a racemic mixture of its (R)- and (S)-enantiomers. This was done even though (R)-dimiracetam is the more active enantiomer (WO 2008/125674), because the racemate of dimiracetam has been found to be even more potent than either of the single enantiomers. For example, in rats pre-treated with 2′,3′-dideoxycytidine (ddC, zalcitabine), a single oral dose of (R)-dimiracetam resulted in partial efficacy response, while the (S)-enantiomer resulted in a smaller response than the corresponding dose of the (R)-enantiomer. On the other hand, racemic dimiracetam gave a superior response compared to either (R)- or (S)-dimiracetam alone (WO 2008/125674). This rank order of potency of (S)-, (R)-, and racemic dimiracetam is also seen in the effect of dimiracetam on reverting MIA-induced hyperalgesia (WO 2008/125674).

Synergistic compositions comprising (R)-dimiracetam (1) and (S)-dimiracetam (2) in a non-racemic ratio


Disposable, bipolar electrosurgical forceps are designed to prevent the sticking of body tissue to the tips of the forceps and include a pair of electrode arms having lengths with opposite proximal and distal ends, with thin layers of biocompatible metal on the forceps arm distal ends and bipolar electrical conductors permanently secured to the forceps arm proximal ends.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to disposable, bipolar electrosurgical forceps that are designed to prevent the sticking of body tissue to the tips of the forceps. More specifically, the present invention is directed to disposable, tissue-sticking resistant forceps that include a pair of electrode arms having lengths with opposite proximal and distal ends, with thin layers of biocompatible metal on the forceps arm distal ends and bipolar electrical conductors permanently secured to the forceps arm proximal ends. The manner in which the forceps are constructed enables the forceps to be manufactured inexpensively, and thereby enables the forceps to be disposable.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Bipolar electrosurgical forceps are typically constructed with a pair of electrode arms having proximal ends that are adapted to have electrical conductors removably attached to the proximal ends, and opposite distal ends with tips that contact and grasp or pinch body tissue between the tips during use of the forceps. For patient safety reasons, it is required that the portions of the forceps tips that contact the body tissue be constructed or formed of a biocompatible material that will not react with the body tissue. In the construction of prior art forceps, the biocompatible material commonly used on the tips of the forceps is an expensive metal such as stainless steel, titanium, tungsten and gold or silver. The use of this metal on the forceps tips is a significant factor in the manufacturing costs of the forceps.
In the use of prior art forceps, one of the electrical conductors connected to the forceps proximal end is connected to a source of electric power, and the other electrical conductor connected to the forceps proximal end is connected to a ground. The pair of forceps arms function as electrodes. When the forceps arms are manually manipulated by the surgeon to grasp body tissue between the distal end tips of the arms, an electric current is completed from one forceps arm through the body tissue to the other forceps arm. This current passing through the forceps tips and the body tissue heats the forceps tips and the body tissue held between the tips and causes the tissue to be joined or coagulated.
However, the heat produced in the forceps tips can also result in pieces of the body tissue sticking to the tips. During a surgical procedure using bipolar electrosurgical forceps, pieces of body tissue can accumulate on the forceps tips. As a result, sterilization of the forceps following the surgical procedure requires scrubbing or scraping of the forceps tips to remove the body tissue. This scrubbing and scraping of the tips can also result in a portion of the expensive biocompatible metal being removed from the tips. Over a period of time and after several uses and subsequent cleaning of the forceps, a sufficient amount of the biocompatible metal can be removed from the forceps tips to where the biocompatible material will no longer contact the body tissue in use of the instrument. At this point the instrument is no longer useful, requiring the disposal of the expensive instrument. This also requires the purchase of another expensive instrument to replace the disposed of instrument.
An additional disadvantage associated with reusable bipolar forceps having layers of biocompatible metals on the forceps tips is the potential for reducing the strength of the bond between the biocompatible metal layers and the forceps tips due to the cleaning of the forceps after each use. High temperature steam cleaning of the forceps can reduce the strength of the bond of the biocompatible metal with the forceps tips. This presents the potential of leaving foreign material in the body, for example in the brain, after a surgical procedure using the forceps. In addition, chemical cleaning of the forceps can adversely affect the forceps tip metal layers by a change in the chemical composition of the layers, for example tarnishing or oxidation of the tip layers.
To prolong the useful life of bipolar electrosurgical forceps, the thickness of the layer or amount of biocompatible metal at the forceps distal end tips has been increased. With the increased amount of biocompatible metal on the forceps distal end tips, the forceps can be used and sterilized a greater number of times before the biocompatible metal is worn away from the forceps tips by repeated sterilizations and scrubbing and scraping of the tips. However, due to the type of biocompatible metal (i.e., gold, silver, etc.) used on the forceps distal end tips, increasing the thickness of the metal significantly increases the cost of the surgical instrument.
To overcome these disadvantages of prior art bipolar electrosurgical forceps, what is needed is a novel construction of bipolar forceps that provides biocompatible metal at the forceps distal ends, but is constructed in a manner that reduces manufacturing costs and enables disposal of the forceps after one use.


A pyramid structure to mitigate optical probing attacks in ICs by scrambling the measurements reflected by a laser pulse is disclosed. The pyramid structure is applied to selected areas at the bottom surface of the metal traces in metal layer to circumvent the extra silicon layer and thus minimize the changes to the conventional device structures. The pyramid structure includes randomized pyramids at nanometer scale. Optical simulation results show the pyramidized metal surface is able to prevent optical probing attacks. The fabrication of pyramids is CMOS compatible as well. Optical simulations are performed to analyze the impact these nano-scaled pyramids in a laser voltage probing attacking model. The nanopyramid can disturb the optical measurements enough to make the attacks practically infeasible. In addition, the nanopyramid structure countermeasure works in a passive mode without consuming any energy.

Over the past two decades, optical probing techniques have been developed for failure analysis of integrated circuits (ICs) with the photon emission microscopy (PEM) and later laser voltage probing (LVP). These techniques are based on the measurements of optical signals, and thus are considered as "contactless" probing. Although such techniques are greatly helpful for signal tracking and understanding the functionality of ICs for failure analysis and debug, they can also be used to perform attacks and cause serious security concerns. Reported studies have shown that PEM and LVP can read the information from memory cells, registers, and hardware security primitives such as physical un-cloneable functions (PUFs).
To perform such attacks, the adversaries firstly need to have knowledge about the layout of the device under test. At a minimum, transistors, memory cells and registers should be localized to an area of interest. They should also have access to the equipment needed to acquire clear optical images of the device, such as a photon emission microscope. Optical signals may then be collected from the device, usually when the device is working, analyzed, and used to extract the sensitive information such as cryptographic keys, proprietary firmware, or unencrypted bit streams. For example, in typical complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) devices, there is significant current only when the transistors are switching. The current transportation is fulfilled by the recombination of electrons and holes in transistors, which results in photoemission that directly indicates the switching of transistors. Since modern IC device feature sizes are below the wavelength of the light used by optical microscopes (from visible to infra-red), solid-immersion-lenses (SIL) have been used to improve the spatial resolution of imaging. Meanwhile, with smaller transistor channel size and decreasing supply voltage, inherent photon emission from each transistor and logic gate is significantly reduced, making the detection more difficult. Therefore, newer techniques such as LVP employ external laser sources to provide more photons for probing. Novel imaging techniques such as phase lock scanning in frequency domain have also been developed. There are other optical attacks like laser fault injection that do not necessarily require optical images of the circuits. Instead, changes in the IC output caused by the faults are analyzed to derive secret information.
Several countermeasures against the optical probing attacks have been proposed. For example, a protective optical layer was coated on the backside of dies, while light emitting diodes (LEDs) and photon detectors are fabricated on the front side. The protective layer reflects light from the LEDs and the reflection is monitored by the photon detectors. Any silicon thinning occurring on the backside that is necessary for optical attacks will damage the layer and change the reflection, which can be captured by the detector. This technique provides a general solution against the backside attacks but may require costly steps to integrate the LEDs and detectors into standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuits. In other research, ring-oscillator PUFs (RO-PUFs) were utilized as sensors to capture incident laser signals to trigger the alarm on attacks. In such designs, the RO-PUFs represent additional overhead and need to be placed close to the protected circuits. In addition, all the countermeasures mentioned above work in active mode. In other words, the sensors require additional power to detect the attack and self-destruct sensitive data upon detection.

University of Florida Research Foundation, Incorporated


This invention provides a auxiliary material for use with a superconductive material, which auxiliary material is characterized in that MgO alone or MgO and NiO are dispersed in Ag material by internal oxidation. Here, it is preferred that a weight ratio of Ag and MgO or a weight ratio of Ag, MgO and NiO is such that MgO is 0.03 to 3.3 wt % and a balance is Ag. Alternatively, Mgo is 0.01 to 1.7 wt %, NiO is 0.02 to 1.3 wt % and a balance is Ag. The auxiliary material of the present invention is manufactured by a process in which after a base material consisting of either and Agxe2x80x94Mg composition or an Agxe2x80x94Mgxe2x80x94Ni composition has been dissolved and cast, the base material, when in a process of being formed into a predetermined thickness, is subjected to an internal oxidation which is carried out at a temperature of 650 to 850xc2x0 C. and continued for 20 to 80 hours in an oxygen atmosphere having a pressure of 3 to 10 atm, followed by being further processed. According to the present invention, the above described material can be used as an auxiliary material for use with a superconductive material, thereby making it possible to produce a tape-like material or a wire-like material which has an improved stability even under a severe condition of a heat energy, i.e., it will not be softened by a heat, nor will it have a reaction with a superconductive material, thus ensuring an extremely high mechanical strength.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an auxiliary material for use with a superconductive material to improve the mechanical deflection property of a tape-like or a wire-like superconductive material. In detail, this invention relates to a tape material or a pipe material containing Ag as a base material, particularly to a superconductor auxiliary material (i.e., an auxiliary material for use with a superconductive material) which, by virtue of its specific Ag alloy composition and upon being subjected to a specific oxidation treatment, can offer an excellent thermal stability, i.e., the auxiliary material will not be softened under a severe condition of a heat energy, thereby ensuring an excellent mechanical strength.
2. Background Art
As far as superconductive materials are concerned, in recent years, the public""s concern has been shifted from metallic superconductive materials to oxide superconductive materials. This is because the oxide superconductive materials, by virtue of their height critical temperatures and their strong magnetic fields, have been found to have a broad use in various ways, with one example being that an oxide superconductive material can be used in a conductor such as a tape-like conductor and a wire-like conductor.
Here, since oxide conductive materials usually belong to ceramic category, they are often brittle. Accordingly, if an oxide superconductive material is to be put into practical use, it is required that a metal material be formed into a tape and used as an auxiliary material for the superconductive material, thereby forming a multi-layered composite structure. Alternatively, such a multi-layered composite structure may be filled into a pipe, so as to improve its mechanical deflection property.
However, an auxiliary material for use with a superconductive material is required not only to be able to strengthen the superconductive material, but also to have a flexibility which is regarded as an important aspect. Further, such an auxiliary material is not allowed to have a crack and a break. As a result, there have been appeared in the commercial market various auxiliary materials formed through different experiments for obtaining various desired properties.
On the other hand, for use as such auxiliary materials, there have been known many kinds of alloy materials each containing Ag as its main component. In this way, a reason as to why several sorts of alloy elements should be added in a superconductor auxiliary material can be explained as: it is because Ag fails to provide a sufficient thermal stability and a sufficient mechanical strength.
Several conventional superconductor auxiliary materials may be described as follows. At first, Japanese Patent Application Publication Laid-Open No. 6-283056 discloses that an Ag alloy serving as a metal base material contains at least one of Mg, Ni, Ti, Mn, Au and Cu, with Mg and Ni being 1 atom % or less, Ti and Mn being 0.5 atom % or less, Au being 30 atom % or less, Cu being 2 atom % or less.
In addition, Japanese Patent Application Publication Laid-Open No.8-241635 has disclosed that at least one of MgO and NiO contained in Ag alloy is converted to Mg and/or Ni, thereby indicating a material containing 0.01 to 0.5 mass % of at least one of Mg and Ni. This prior art teaches that a silver alloy after having been treated in a wire drawing treatment is oxidized in an atmospheric air at 800 to 900xc2x0 C. for 5 to 50 hours, and the surface of the silver alloy has been oxidized only at a depth of 70 xcexcm.
However, with regard to the above Prior art, it is difficult to ensure that the above described auxiliary materials for use with superconductive materials can exactly offer a sufficient mechanical strength, a sufficient flexibility and a sufficient softness, all of which are needed as an auxiliary material for use with a superconductive material. Namely, with regard to the above first prior art, when a superconductive material is caused to fill into a pipe material, crack will occur in a pipe during a wire drawing process, causing the pipe to be broken. On the other hand, with regard to the above second prior art, although there is not a problem in relation to a softness during processing, it is usually considered that a desired mechanical strength will become insufficient under a severe condition of a heat energy.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved alloy for use as a superconductor auxiliary material which has a sufficient mechanical strength, a sufficient flexibility and a sufficient softness.
The inventor of the present invention, after having carried out a great deal of research for the purpose of solving the above problems, has found that in order to improve the durability and the mechanical strength (to be resistant against a heat energy) of a superconductor auxiliary material, an effective method is to disperse oxides of Mg and Ni in a base material containing Ag as a main component, with the dispersion being effected by virtue of internal oxidation. The object of the present invention is to prevent the occurrence of a crack or damage even within an internal oxide, and such an object has been achieved by virtue of a specific composition and a specific internal oxidation method.
An invention according to claim 1 is a pipe-like or tape-like Ag alloy auxiliary material for use in a process for treating a superconductive material, characterized in that Ag is used as a base material, MgO alone or MgO and NiO formed by internal oxidation are dispersed in the Ag base material, wherein MgO is 0.03 to 3.3 wt % and a balance is Ag, or MgO is 0.01 to 1.7 wt %, NiO is 0.02 to 1.3 wt % and a balance is Ag.
In this way, the present invention is formed by dispersing MgO and NiO through an internal oxidation. This constitution is not at all disclosed in the above described prior art. That is, the above described first prior art is that whose oxidation is carried out in an atmospheric air which is different from that used in the present invention. Moreover, the first prior art does not inherently teach an oxide amount specified in the present invention. On the other hand, the above described second prior art is that which is capable of oxidizing the surface of Ag material at a depth of only 70 xcexcm. The present invention is significantly different from this prior art in that the present invention employs an Ag alloy before combining a superconductive material with an auxiliary material, with Mg and Ni being internally oxidized under a specific condition, thereby forming an auxiliary material which failed to be obtained in the above Prior art.
Here, the alloy composition used in the present invention is such that when only MgO is dispersed in Ag material, the weight ratio of MgO is 0.03 to 3.3 wt %. On the other hand, when MgO and NiO are both dispersed, the weight ratios of MgO and NiO are respectively in a range of 0.01 to 1.7 wt % and a range of 0.02 to 1.3 wt %. The reason for these weight ratio ranges may be explained as follows. Namely, if MgO and NiO are respectively less than 0.01 wt % and less than 0.02 wt %, it will be difficult to improve the mechanical strength. On the other hand, if the weight ratios are respectively more than 1.7 wt % and more than 1.3 wt %, the material will have an undesirably high hardness, rendering it difficult to process the material.
Furthermore, a method according to the present invention for manufacturing the superconductor auxiliary material is characterized in that; after a base material consisting of either an Ag-Mg composition or an Agxe2x80x94Mgxe2x80x94Ni composition has been dissolved and cast, the base material is rolled or subjected to a pipe drawing treatment, and in a process of being formed into a predetermined thickness and a predetermined length, the base material is subjected to an internal oxidation which is carried out at a temperature of 650 to 850xc2x0 C. and continued for 20 to 80 hours in an oxygen atmosphere having a pressure of 3 to 10 atm, followed by a further rolling treatment and a further pipe drawing treatment, thereby producing a tape-like material or a pipe-like material having a predetermined thickness and a predetermined length.
In the process in which Ag Mg composition or Ag Mg Ni composition is subjected to an internal oxidation while the base material is being processed, oxygen at a high temperature and under a pressurized condition is caused to penetrate through the material to gradually oxidize the internal Mg and Ni. However, at this time, Ag itself is not oxidized, but rather allows the oxygen to pass to the inner central portion of the material. The temperature for effecting the internal oxidation is preferably in the range of 700 to 800xc2x0 C.
When manufacturing the superconductor auxiliary material using the method recited in claim 2, it is preferred (as recited in claim 3) that Ag-Mg composition or Agxe2x80x94Mgxe2x80x94Ni composition each serving as a base material be so formed that Mg is 0.02 to 2.0 wt %, with a balance being Ag. Alternatively, Mg is 0.01 to 1.0 wt %, Ni is 0.01 to 1.0 wt %, with a balance being Ag.
The reason for the above ranges may be explained as follows. Namely, by setting the composition of the base material within the above ranges, it is possible to set the weight ratios of MgO and NiO within desired ranges suitable for the superconductor auxiliary material of the present invention. That is, it is possible to set the weight ratios so that MgO is 0.03 to 3.3 wt %, alternatively, MgO is 0.01 to 1.7 wt % and NiO is 0.02 to 1.3 wt %.
In this way, by internally oxidizing Mg and Ni (having the specific weight ratios) under the specific condition, it is possible to produce a wire product having a sufficiently high flexibility.
Furthermore, a pipe material serving as a wire material in the present invention is obtained by stretching an elongate filled material formed by filling the interior of an auxiliary material with an oxide superconductive material which is relatively brittle. However, when a tape-like material is to be formed, an auxiliary material is combined with an oxide superconductive material to form a composite. Then, several layers of such composite are laminated together, forming a laminated structure which is then covered by an oxide of Ag alloy.
Next, a detailed description is given with reference to the following examples.

Auxiliary material for superconductive material


A navigation processor is interfaced to an acoustic processor and to DGPS surface positioning equipment on a vessel. The navigation processor receives (a) position data from the DGPS surface positioning equipment, (b) data from a gyrocompass on an underwater system, (c) depth data of the underwater system, (d) velocity data of the underwater system based on data from a Doppler log unit on board the underwater system, and (e) range and bearing data of the underwater system from the acoustic processor, in order to calculate coordinates of the underwater system.

WO.99/61307 discloses an apparatus for deploying an object to an underwater target position, the apparatus being provided with a beacon to transmit acoustic rays and a plurality of thrusters to control positioning of the apparatus with respect to the underwater target position.
The prior art apparatus is used for deploying and/or recovering loads up to 1000 tons or more on the seabed at great depths, for instance, up to 3,000 meter or more. During deployment, the apparatus is controlled by controlling equipment on board of a vessel floating on the sea surface. The controlling equipment needs to know the exact location of the apparatus as accurate as possible. To that end, the beacon on board of the apparatus transmits acoustic rays through the sea water to the vessel. An appropriate acoustic receiver receives these acoustic rays and converts them into electrical signals used to calculate the position of the apparatus with respect to the vessel.
However, it is found that with increasing depth of the apparatus below the sea water the accuracy of the location measurement decreases due to bending of the acoustic rays in the sea water.

Navigation processor, a system comprising such a navigation processor and a method of controlling an underwater system by such a navigation processor


A tonometer for measuring intraocular pressure of an examinee's eye in a non-contact manner, comprises: an arithmetic part for calculating the intraocular pressure; a fluid blowing unit for blowing a fluid at a cornea of the examinee's eye through a nozzle; a projecting optical system for projecting light onto an anterior segment of the examinee's eye through the nozzle, the system including a light source and a condensing lens; and an imaging optical system for imaging a cross-sectional image of the anterior segment, the system including an imaging lens and an imaging elements. The imaging optical system is placed so that extended planes of a cross section of the light projected onto the anterior segment by the projecting optical system, a principal plane of the imaging lens, and an imaging plane of the imaging element intersect one another on one axis, and the projecting optical system includes a light restriction unit that allows the light from the light source to pass through inside of the nozzle but not to pass through outside of the nozzle.

There is a tonometer for measuring intraocular pressure of an examinee's eye by blowing a fluid at a cornea of the examinee's eye through a nozzle and then optically detecting a deformed state of the cornea. As such tonometer, a device having an optical system for measuring corneal thickness by imaging (picking up) a cross-sectional image of an anterior segment of an examinee's eye including a cornea has been proposed. This device is arranged to correct measured intraocular pressure based on the measured corneal thickness (see WO 95/20342 (JP National publication No. 8(1996)-507463) and others).


A semiconductor light emitting element suppressing non-uniformity in light emission on a light emitting surface is provided. An n-type semiconductor layer, a light emitting layer and a p-type semiconductor layer are laminated in order, and a translucent electrode film is laminated on the p-type semiconductor layer and a p-electrode is provided on the translucent electrode film. On the other hand, an n-electrode is provided on a semiconductor layer exposure surface that exposes the n-type semiconductor layer. The p-electrode includes a connecting portion having a circular planar shape and an extending portion that extends like a long and slender strip from the connecting portion to encircle and face the n-electrode. Holes in the translucent electrode film are provided such that the density thereof is decreased along with a move from the n-electrode side toward the p-electrode side.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a semiconductor light emitting element.
2. Related Art
In recent years, significant advances have been seen in the area of semiconductor light emitting elements. In particular, semiconductor light emitting elements (light emitting diodes) using semiconductor materials of GaInN, AlGaInP and GaAlAs with high light emission efficiency become commercially practical. Moreover, a group III nitride semiconductor such as gallium nitride (GaN) receives attention.
In a semiconductor light emitting element using such a group III nitride semiconductor, a laminated semiconductor layer having a light emitting diode (LED) structure configured with an n-type semiconductor layer, a light emitting layer and a p-type semiconductor layer is formed on a substrate and an electrode having optical permeability (a translucent electrode) is formed on the p-type semiconductor layer at an uppermost portion to extract emitted light through the translucent electrode.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-123501, there is described a GaN-based semiconductor light emitting element including an n-type GaN-based semiconductor layer and a p-type GaN-based semiconductor layer, in which the p-type GaN-based semiconductor layer is provided with a translucent electrode formed thereon having plural through holes for light emission, to thereby reduce light absorbance of the translucent electrode and improve emission efficiency.
Incidentally, for improving light extraction efficiency of a semiconductor light emitting element, it is required to apply uniform voltage to an entire light emitting layer to pass uniform current through the entire light emitting layer. This suppresses unevenness in light emission on a light emitting surface of the semiconductor light emitting element and improves the light extraction efficiency.
However, due to a potential gradient generated in response to current diffusion in a surface direction of the translucent electrode, the voltage applied to the light emitting layer varies depending on a position in the light emitting surface of the light emitting layer.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor light emitting element that suppresses non-uniformity in light emission on a light emitting surface thereof.


Systems and techniques for providing travel information. An information terminal offers a user an opportunity to select to receive travel information. Upon such a selection by the user, selections and information are received from the user to indicate the user's needs. The selections and information may take the form of explicit selections and entries, or submission of an identifier associated with a use record indicating user needs. Information submitted by the user is examined and appropriate travel directions, local area information, and information relating to the destination or points along the route are furnished to the user. If desired, a user record may be updated with information related to the current transaction.

While many travelers use global positioning system (GPS) devices during their travels, and use sophisticated wireless devices which act as a conduit for information delivery, many do not. In addition, programming information and queries into a GPS or wireless device may require the expenditure of time and effort that must be taken away from driving to the destination.
Every traveler on a trip that is moderately long or longer makes occasional stops for fuel, and may also make stops for refreshment. In addition, travelers who do not use GPS or other routing devices may become lost, so that they need guidance to find the correct route. They may also be interested in knowing about supplies such as fuel and food, and points of interest, further along the route and at the destination.

Methods and apparatus for travel information


A mercapto compound represented by the following formula (1): ##STR1## is obtained by reacting, in the presence of a mineral acid, thiourea with a compound represented by the following formula (2): ##STR2## wherein X means a hydroxyl group or a chlorine or bromine atom, and then adding a base to alkalinize the reaction mixture so that the reaction product is hydrolyzed.. The mercapto compound represented by the formula (1) can be reacted with at least one cyanate compound selected from the group consisting of polyisocyanate compounds, polyisothiocyanate compounds and isocyanate-group-containing isothiocyanate compounds to form a sulfur- containing urethane resin. A lens made of the resin is colorless and transparent, has high refractive index and low dispersion characteristics, and is excellent especially in heat resistance.

This invention relates to a novel mercapto compound and its preparation process, sulfur-containing urethane resins using the mercapto compound and lenses made of the resins.
The mercapto compound according to the present invention has a variety of utilities, for examples, as a crosslinking agent, epoxy resin hardener, curing agent, polymerization regulator, synthetic resin raw material, antioxidant, metal complex former, biochemical reagent and lubricant additive. 2) Description of the Related Art
Plastic lenses are lightweight and fragmentation-resistant compared with inorganic lenses and, moreover, are dyeable, so that they are finding rapidly increasing utility as optical elements, such as eyeglass lenses and camera lenses, in recent years.
Resins widely employed these days for such purposes include the resin available by radical polymerization of diethylene glycol bis(allylcarbonate) (hereinafter called "D.A.C."). This resin has various advantages such as excellent impact resistance, lightweight, superb dyeability, and good workability such as good cutting and grinding machinability.
The refractive index of a D.A.C. lens, however, is 1.50 (n.sub.D =1.50) which is lower than the refractive index (n.sub.D =1.52) of an inorganic lens. To obtain optical characteristics comparable with those of a glass lens, it is necessary to increase the central thickness, peripheral thickness and curvature of the D.A.C. lens, unavoidably resulting in an overall large thickness. There is accordingly an outstanding desire for the development of a lens resin having a still higher refractive index. Known examples of lens resins which can provide a high refractive index include polyurethane resins available by reacting an isocyanate compound with a hydroxyl compound such as diethylene glycol (U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,588), a halogen-containing hydroxyl compound such as tetrabromobisphenol A (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 164615/1983) or a hydroxyl compound having the diphenyl sulfide skeleton (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 194401/1985).
Although lenses made of these known resins have a refractive index improved over lenses made of D.A.C., they are accompanied by the drawback(s) that they may be insufficient in refractive index and/or they may be poor in weatherability and/or high in specific gravity due to the use of a compound containing many halogen atoms or an aromatic ring in the molecule thereof with a view toward imparting an improved refractive index.
The present assignee has already filed an application for patent on 1,2-bis[(2-mercaptoethyl)thio]-3-mercaptopropane (U.S. Pat. No. 5,087,758). When this compound is polymerized with m-xylylene diisocyanate employed most widely for the production of a lens resin, the withstandable maximum temperature of the resulting resin is 98.degree. C. A lens made of this resin is therefore deformed at temperature conditions (90.degree.-95.degree. C.) under which plastic lenses are usually dyed, leading to the desire for further improvements in heat resistance.
In addition, the color hue upon polymerization is important. The raw material of the plastic lens requires that its vapor pressure is not too high to permit ready distillation for its purification on an industrial scale. From this viewpoint too, it has been desired to develop a mercapto compound having a molecular weight of about 200.

Mercapto compound, its preparation process, and sulfur-containing urethane resins and lenses using the same


According to an aspect of an embodiment of the invention, there is provided an electrostatic chuck including: a ceramic dielectric substrate including a first major surface for mounting a clamped target, a second major surface on opposite side from the first major surface, and a through hole provided from the second major surface to the first major surface; a metallic base plate supporting the ceramic dielectric substrate and including a gas feed channel communicating with the through hole; and an insulator plug including a ceramic porous body provided in the gas feed channel and a ceramic insulating film provided between the ceramic porous body and the gas feed channel and being denser than the ceramic porous body, the ceramic insulating film biting into the ceramic porous body from a surface of the ceramic porous body.

A ceramic electrostatic chuck is fabricated by sandwiching an electrode between ceramic dielectric substrates made of e.g. alumina, followed by firing. An electrostatic clamping force is applied to the incorporated electrode. Thus, the electrostatic chuck clamps a substrate such as a silicon wafer by electrostatic force. In such an electrostatic chuck, an inert gas such as helium (He) is passed between the front surface of the ceramic dielectric substrate and the back surface of the clamped target substrate to control the temperature of the clamped target substrate.
For instance, the temperature increase of the substrate may be associated with processing in an apparatus for processing a substrate such as a CVD (chemical vapor deposition) apparatus, sputtering apparatus, ion implantation apparatus, and etching apparatus. In the electrostatic chuck used in such an apparatus, an inert gas such as He is passed between the ceramic dielectric substrate and the clamped target substrate to bring the substrate into contact with the inert gas. Thus, the temperature increase of the substrate is suppressed.
In the electrostatic chuck for controlling the substrate temperature with an inert gas such as He, a hole (gas feed channel) for feeding an inert gas such as He is provided in the ceramic dielectric substrate and a base plate for supporting the ceramic dielectric substrate.
Here, electric discharge may occur in the gas feed channel when the substrate is processed in the apparatus. Patent Literature 1 discloses an electrostatic chuck in which the insulation performance in the gas feed channel is improved by providing a ceramic sintered porous body in the gas feed channel. The structure and the film hole of the ceramic sintered porous body are used as a gas flow channel. Patent Literature 2 discloses an electrostatic chuck in which a discharge prevention member of the processing gas flow channel made of a ceramic porous body and intended for preventing discharge is provided in the gap for gas diffusion. Patent Literature 3 discloses an electrostatic chuck in which arc discharge is reduced by providing a dielectric insert made of a porous dielectric such as alumina.
However, a sufficient insulation breakdown voltage cannot be achieved simply by providing a ceramic porous body in the gas feed channel. Further enhancement of insulation breakdown voltage is needed to provide an electrostatic chuck supporting various conditions in the processing apparatus.
Furthermore, the porous body has high porosity. Thus, the heat transfer coefficient from the ceramic porous body to the ceramic dielectric substrate is lower than the heat transfer coefficient from the metallic base plate to the ceramic dielectric substrate. Thus, the temperature difference is likely to increase between the temperature of the substrate cooled by a conduction gas passed from the gas feed channel and the temperature of the substrate with no conduction gas passed. That is, regions with a large within-wafer temperature difference (what is called hot spots and cold spots) occur near the ceramic porous body throughout the substrate. This causes the problem of failing to perform temperature control with high wafer temperature uniformity.


An image processing system segments input image data into a plurality of regions, and obtains features of at least one region. The system refers to correspondence information to obtain a colorless pattern that is associated with the features of the at least one region of the input image data, and generates colorless image data using the obtained colorless pattern.

The Contemporary image forming apparatuses are provided with colorless toner or colorless ink, which are collectively referred to as "clear toner". In addition to a widely known use of clear toner to protect the printed surface or to create glossy effects, clear toner may be used to generate various colorless patterns to add visual variety to the printed image. For example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 2008-532066 and 2008-145453 (JP-2008-532066-A and JP-2008-145453-A), an operator may apply any desired colorless pattern to any desired portion of the printed image.
However, it has been difficult for a general user to determine which colorless pattern should be applied to which portion of image data to be processed.

Electrophotographic apparatus, system, and method of using colorless toner