Technologies are described herein for ranking documents with social tags. A number ranking feature containing a number of times a document was tagged is received. A textual property ranking feature containing a union of each social tag associated with the document is also received. The number ranking feature is transformed into a static input value. Further, the textual property ranking feature is transformed into a dynamic input value. A document rank for the document is determined by inputting the static input value and/or the dynamic input value into a ranking function.

Search applications (commonly referred to as search engines) are designed to retrieve documents from a database based on a query containing one or more search terms. In particular, conventional search applications may retrieve documents having at least one document property matching the terms in the query. The document property may include text contained in the document. Examples of text contained in the document include the title and the body of the document. The document property may further include text that is not contained in the document. An example of text that is not contained in the document is anchor text, which is the text contained in a hyperlink to the document.
In order to return more relevant documents, the search application may rank a set of candidate documents (i.e., the set of documents satisfying the query) according to their predicted relevance. The search application may then return the documents in order of their relevance. For example, the search application may return the documents in order from the most relevant to the least relevant. If a large number of documents are retrieved in response to a given query, the search application may also return only a subset of the candidate documents that are the most relevant. In this way, the user can more efficiently analyze the returned documents.
The search application may rank documents according to a ranking function, which may associate a ranking score for each candidate document. For example, a simple ranking function may attach a greater relevance to documents in which the search terms are contained in the titles of the documents. The quality of ranked documents returned by the ranking function depends largely on the ranking function itself, as well as the ranking features (i.e., the inputs) entered into the ranking function. Thus, the quality of the ranked documents may be improved by also improving the ranking features entered into the ranking function.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.


Systems and methods for implementing a down-conversion mixer with signal processing are disclosed.

In wireless communication systems, such as Ultra Wide Band (UWB), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), etc., a Radio Frequency (RF) signal undergoes processing and mixing with a local oscillator signal for down-conversion of the RF signal into a baseband signal. In traditional implementations, down-conversion of the RF signal to the baseband signal takes place in the current domain, however signal processing, such as amplification and filtering, takes place in the voltage domain. In addition, interfaces between signal processing blocks and mixing blocks are also in voltage domain in a classical RF receiver. Therefore, conversions of the baseband signal from voltage domain to current domain and vice versa usually take place several times. This can increase noise, chip area and power consumption substantially.
Recently, more and more RF transceivers used in the wireless communication systems have Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) or even System-on-Chip (SoC) level integration, and they support multi-band and/or multi-standard operation. The signal processing blocks and multiple RF frontend blocks including mixers are integrated in a VLSI Integrated Circuit (IC). In most cases, multiple RF frontend blocks occupy a large area, and the signal processing blocks may need to be appropriately separated from the RF frontend blocks for proper floor planning. As a result, the signal processing block delivers a signal to the RF block via long wirings. The passage of the signal via long wirings can couple noises to the interface nodes, and cause high consumption of power for driving parasitic load of the long wirings.

Down-conversion mixer with signal processing


Disclosed is a magnetic tape cassette storage and handling apparatus which is compact, reliable and uncomplex. The apparatus includes a ferris wheel structure having a plurality of circumferentially spaced compartments for storing individual magnetic tape cassettes. A cassette handling device is located in a central opening of the ferris wheel structure. The apparatus is preferably mounted adjacent to a magnetic tape recorder/player, so that the cassette handling device loads and unloads a cassette from a compartment of the ferris wheel structure into and out of the magnetic tape recorder/player.

This invention relates in general to magnetic tape cassette recorder/player and, more particularly, to a magnetic tape cassette recorder/players having an uncomplex, reliable and compact magnetic tape cassette storage and handling apparatus.
In many applications, it is desirable to store a large amount of information on electronic media, such as to store analog or digital information on a plurality of magnetic tape cartridges or cassettes. Various types of storage systems have been proposed for storing a number of magnetic tape cassettes close to a magnetic tape recorder/player, so that individual cassettes are easily accessed by the recorder/player. In one such storage system, a plurality of magnetic tape cassettes are stacked in a vertical magazine adjacent to a magnetic tape recorder/player. Such storage systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,886,591, issued May 27, 1975, Inventor Bettini; U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,013, issued Jan. 2, 1979, Inventor Fisher; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,768, issued May 11, 1976, Inventor Covington. Vertical stacking storage systems are disadvantageous for the following reasons: (1) the reels of magnetic tape in the cassettes are stored in a flat position, thus tending to cause sideways shifting of the tape pack against the reel flanges, which results in tape edge damage, causing tape transport difficulties and recorded information degradation; (2) access to an individual tape cassette is slow; and (3) storage of a large number of tape cassettes requires the vertical dimension of the storage system to be unacceptably large.
In order to reduce the time for access to an individual magnetic tape cassette, various closed loop storage systems have been proposed. Thus, carousel type cassette storage systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,592,975, issued July 13, 1971, Inventor Ban; U.S. Pat. No. 3,631,426, issued Dec. 28, 1971, Inventor Appelt; U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,915, issued Nov. 27, 1973, Inventors Kozu et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,765, issued Aug. 14, 1979, Inventor Gysling. The systems disclosed in these patents includes a carousel type storage structure which store a plurality of cassettes in circumferentially spaced, horizontally disposed compartments. Since the cassettes are stored with the reels on edge, edge damage to the tape during storage is minimized. In the latter three patents, an elevator mechanism is used to load and unload a cassette into a magnetic tape transport station. In the former patent, the magnetic tape transport is moved into and out of contact with a cassette which remains in its storage compartment. An analogous system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,294, issued Dec. 13, 1977, Inventor Burkhart, which discloses a carousel like conveyor storage system. A tape cartridge transfer mechanism is located adjacent a magnetic transducing station. The storage systems disclosed in these five patents are disadvantageous either because of the use of a cassette loading station located adjacent to the storage structure which is relatively complex and space consuming or the use of a complex and expensive, movable tape transport.
Ferris wheel type cassette storage systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,525,086, issued Aug. 18, 1970, Inventor Lichowsky, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,541, issued Sept. 1, 1981, Inventors Tanahashi et al. The system disclosed in the latter patent is disadvantageous because of the complex and space consuming, side loading cassette loading device which loads a cassette into recording apparatus.

Ferris wheel magnetic tape cassette storage and handling apparatus


A method for displaying autoradiograph having information on two-dimensional location of radioactively labeled substances resolved on a support medium, which includes the steps of:. (1) obtaining digital signals corresponding to said autoradiograph and having information on the resolved positions of radioactively labeled substances and radiation intensity at said positions; PA0 (2) subjecting the digital signals to signal processing to obtain at least two-dimensional waveforms for one resolved row, which exhibit position along the resolving direction and signal level; and PA0 (3) displaying multiply the resulting two-dimensional waveforms at regular intervals in a direction perpendicualr to the resolving direction.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for displaying autoradiograph.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Autoradiography has been known as a method for obtaining information on location of radioactively labeled substances which are distributed in at least one-dimensional direction to form rows consisting of plural bands on a support medium.
For instance, the autoradiography comprises steps of: labeling organism-originating biopolymers such as proteins or nucleic acids with a radioactive element; resolving (developing) the radioactively labeled biopolymers, derivatives thereof, cleavage products thereof or synthetic products thereof on a support medium through a resolving process such as gel electrophoresis; placing the support medium and a high-speed X-ray film together in layers for a certain period of time to expose the film; developing said film; obtaining information on location of the radioactively labeled substances from the developed film; and then performing the identification of the polymeric substances, determination of molecular weight thereof or isolation thereof based on the obtained locational information.
Recently, the autoradiography has been effectively used especially for determining the base sequence of nucleic acid such as DNA or RNA. Further, the autoradiography has been used as an essential means in the screening of gene wherein a hybridization method such as southern blotting, northern blotting or western blotting is employed.
Japanese Patent Provisional Publications No. 59 (1984)-83057 and No. 60(1985)-10174 and Japanese Patent Application No. 58(1983)-173393 (which correspond to U.S. applications Ser. No. 837,037, now pending as Ser. No. 07/378,509; No. 624,813 now pending under Ser. No. 07/127,605; and No. 651,279 now pending under Ser. No. 07/431,701, respectively) disclose a radiation image recording and reproducing method using a stimulable phosphor sheet in place of a conventional radiography using a radiosensitive material such as an X-ray film. Said method comprises causing a stimulable phosphor in the stimulable phosphor sheet to absorb radiation energy and exciting the stimulable phosphor with an electromagnetic wave (stimulating rays) such as visible light or infrared rays to release the radiation energy from the phosphor sheet as light emission. This method enables exposure time to be greatly shortened and does not suffer chemical fog which is a problem associated with the conventional radiography. Further, this method has an advantage in that the autoradiograph having locational information on the radioactively labeled substances can be obtained in the form of symbols and/or numerals in addition to a visible image, because the autoradiograph can be stored in the phosphor sheet as the radiation energy and read out as stimulated emission in time sequence.
The analysis of the autoradiograph has been, heretofore, made by a person in such a manner that they have detected the distribution of the radioactively labeled substances on the support medium by visually observing an autoradiograph to obtain the locational information (and further informations such as the identification of the biopolymer, the molecular weight thereof and characteristics thereof based on the locational information) on the specific substances labeled radioactively. For instance, the base sequence of DNA is determined by measuring resolved portions (bands) of radioactively labeled base-specific DNA fragments or a mixture thereof with eyes and comparing the resolved portions among resolved rows of the DNA fragments with each other.
The term "visualized autoradiograph" used herein generally means a radiation image of radioactively labeled substances on a radiographic film, which is obtained by placing a support medium containing the labeled substances resolved (developed) and the radiographic film together in layers to expose the film. For instance, the visible image of autoradiograph is such an image as shown in FIG. 1 (practically, a photographic image having various shade in density is obtained on a film). FIG. 1 shows an example of an electrophoretic pattern in which radioactively labeled DNA fragments are resolved in four rows on a gel support medium through electrophoresis. In FIG. 1, each of black bands represents an electrophoresed portion of DNA fragments. In the above-mentioned radiation image recording and reproducing method, the same autoradiographic image can be obtained on a photographic film by reproducing it from electric signals which are obtained by reading out the stimulable phosphor sheet through an appropriate conversion means. Before the visualization of the autoradiograph, the electric signals can be subjected to various image processing to thereby facilitate the visual analysis of the autoradiographic image.
On the thus-obtained visible image of autoradiograph, however, there are mainly indicated two-dimensional locations of radioactively labeled substances as shown in FIG. 1, and it is almost impossible to accurately determine radiation intensity (namely, amounts of the radioactively labeled substances in proportion thereto) therefrom.
In order to facilitate the analysis of autoradiograph, there has been proposed a method in which electric signals corresponding to the autoradiograph are subjected to image processing such as gradation processing and then the autoradiograph is displayed as an image. However, an extra display device such as graphic display for gradation must be used and cost for analysis is expensive.
To reduce time and labor required for visual analysis and to improve the accuracy of analytical information, there have been previously proposed some methods for automatically obtaining locational information on the radioactively labeled substances in the form of symbols and/or numerals by converting the autoradiograph of the labeled substances distributed in at least one-dimensional direction on a support medium into digital signals and subjecting the digital signals to appropriate signal processing, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publications No. 59(1984)-126527 and No. 59(1984)-126278 (which respectively correspond to U.S. application Ser. Nos. 568,877 (now U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,597) , and now U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,597 and application Ser. No. 568,875 which is pending), etc. Said digital signals corresponding to the autoradiograph can be obtained by visualizing the autoradiograph on a radiographic film according to the conventional radiography and photoelectrically reading out it by means of reflected light or transmitted light. Alternatively, when a stimulable phosphor sheet is used, said digital signals can be obtained by directly reading out the phosphor sheet on which the autoradiograph is stored and recorded.
Further, there have been proposed methods which comprise electrically displaying an image of original autoradiograph (resolved pattern) on CRT, inputting information required for analysis on the basis of the display image and subjecting digital signals corresponding to the autoradiograph to signal processing according to the input information, namely semi-automatic analytical methods of autoradiograph, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Applications No. 60(1985)-62298 and 60(1985)-62299 (which correspond to U.S. application Ser. No. 844,967 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,687).


A method and apparatus enables linered label applicators to use labels on thin liners. Linered labels comprise a composite of an elongate sheet of thin or light-weight temporary liner having a precut label adhered to a low adhesion surface. The cut-out labels on the liner are fed into the linered label applicator. The use of support mechanisms other then vacuum application on rollers enables the use of thinner liner sheets on labels. A die head for cutting or perforating labels comprising adhesive on label stock comprising a die head having at least 80% of its outer surface comprising flat areas between cutting edges, multiple cutting edges on the outer surface, and an internal volume in the die head, the internal volume for carrying coolant liquid into and out of the volume so as to cool the outer surface of the die head when the coolant temperature is at least 10° C. cooler than the outer surface of the die head.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of labels that are provided either on liners or without separation liners between the labels. The invention also relates to a method of using lower weight liners in label application processes to reduce operating costs. The present invention also relates to apparatus and methods for applying regular label stock and linerless labels to substrates. The present invention also relates to the use of either microperfing (microbridging) of label stock or complete cutting of labels from a matrix prior to lamination with liners. The present invention also relates to the use of labeling apparatus that can support cut labels with or without the use of vacuum systems. The present technology also relates to a unique die cutting tool for label application that allows for high speed rotary die cutting of adhesive-exposed label substrates where the die cutting edge actually contacts the adhesive.
2. Background of the Art
Labels can be provided in many different formats. The most significant format of labels is a label material (often referred to as the face stock, e.g., natural or synthetic fiber paper, polymeric film, metal foil, or combinations of these materials) with a backside adhesive (e.g., either pressure-sensitive adhesive, which for some uses may also include repositionable or microspherical adhesive, solvent activated adhesive, and thermally activated adhesive), and a release liner in contact with the adhesive. The labels are formed from label stock on which the shape of the labels are cut into the label material, leaving a remainder portion of the label material called the matrix. The process of cutting out the label shapes from the label material (and sometimes including removing the matrix, leaving a label on a liner, and/or separating multiple width labels on a web into single width label webs) is called conversion.
Labels which are not provided to commerce (either to intermediate users or end users) with liners over an adhesive face, referred to in the art as linerless labels, are less expensive than lined labels, more labels can be provided in a roll of a given diameter than conventional labels with release liners, and they are more environmentally friendly since they do not require the disposal of liners after use. (For example, any adhesively coated liner stock that is provided in roll form with no liner between an adhesive surface and the display surface of a label is an example of a linerless label. Linerless labels should also be less expensive since one entire element (the liner) may be removed from the manufacturing cost of the label. Liners can constitute 35% to 50% of the total cost of a lined label construction. For these and other reasons, linerless labels are achieving increased popularity. Equipment for applying linerless with rewettable or thermal sensitive adhesives to a wide variety of moving elements (such as substrates, bottles, or packages) is fairly common, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,492,908 and 4,468,274. However, the application of unlined pressure sensitive adhesive labels to moving elements although known in the art, is uncommon (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,415), and does not have the versatility to apply the labels to all sorts of moving elements, such as envelopes, webs, bottles, cans, and packages.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,674,345, a method and apparatus are provided which quickly, positively, and in a versatile manner apply linerless pressure sensitive adhesive labels to moving elements. The equipment and method are versatile since they may be utilized with envelopes, packages, substrates, bottles, cans, packages and a wide variety of other moving elements, and the method and apparatus typically are practiced so as to leave no skeletal web after the labels are formed, thus avoiding any necessity of disposing of any waste label material According to the apparatus of that invention, means for mounting a supply of linerless label tape having a release coated face and adhesive (typically pressure sensitive adhesive) face is associated with a number of novel apparatus elements according to the invention. These novel elements include a non-stick circumferential surface feed roll, a hardened vacuum anvil cylinder cooperating with a cutting cylinder having a radially extending knife blade, which in turn cooperates with a wiper roller that applies liquid release material to the blade after each cut, and transport means having many unique features. The transport means includes a plurality of conveyor tapes which are spaced in a direction transverse to the direction of conveyance of labels thereby, and a vacuum chamber assists the adhesive from the labels in maintaining the labels in position on the conveyor tapes during conveyance. The conveyor tapes are typically substantially circular in cross section so as to present a minimal area for engagement with the label adhesive, and the labels are separated from the conveyor tapes by a plurality of non-stick surface stripper rings which extend upwardly above the top surface of the conveyor tapes, and are associated with a peeler roller which bends the labels upwardly as they are deflected by the stripper rings. From the peeler roller and stripper rings the labels are moved directly into contact with a moving element. Where, as typical, the labels are moved into contact with moving envelopes, the labels and envelopes pass through nip rollers whereby the pressure sensitive adhesive is activated.
Linerless labels have also become increasingly more popular because of the many advantages associated therewith. When any labels (including linerless labels) are used, it also is necessary to be able to automatically print the labels in a cost-effective manner. One way this can readily be accomplished is by using a thermal printer, either a thermal printer having a thermal printhead with a thermal ribbon unwind and rewind system, or a thermal printer with a direct thermal printhead. Conventional thermal printers are not capable of printing linerless labels, however, because there will be surfaces thereof which necessarily come into contact with the uncovered adhesive face of the linerless labels as the labels are being fed to the printhead, during printing, or afterwards. According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,293, a variety of thermal printers are provided which overcome this problem and are eminently suited for effective printing of linerless labels. The linerless labels printed according to the present invention may be almost any type of linerless labels, such as for example, thermal ribbon embodiments shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,588 and direct thermal printer embodiments such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,713.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,293 describes a thermal printer which prints linerless labels in such a way that printer components will not stick to the adhesive face of linerless labels. Substantially stationary printer components, such as a label guide, transport plate, front panel, and stripper blade, preferably have the adhesive face engaging surfaces thereof plasma coated so that adhesive will not stick to them. An optional cutter provided downstream of the stripper blade also has plasma coated surfaces. A driven platen roller has a surface thereof coated with or covered by a high release silicone, which will not stick to the adhesive, but has high friction characteristics to facilitate drive of the labels. In a direct thermal printer, a plasma coated tear off surface is downstream of the driven platen roller, and stripper belts, a second roller with O-rings, and the like are provided to prevent the labels from wrapping around the driven platen roller. One or more sensors may also be provided for controlling drive of the platen roller in response to the position of registration marks on the linerless labels. According to one aspect of that invention a thermal printer for printing linerless labels, having an uncovered adhesive face, is provided comprising the following elements: a linerless label unwind; a substantially stationary label guide; a substantially stationary transport plate; a rotatable driven platen roller; a printhead cooperating with the print roller; and, the label guide and transport plate having surfaces which engage the adhesive face of linerless labels from the label unwind, the adhesive-engaging surfaces comprising plasma coated surfaces which substantially prevent the label adhesive from adhering thereto. The printhead preferably comprises a thermal printhead, and a thermal printer unwind and rewind system is associated with the printhead that provides the thermal ribbon between the printhead and the driven platen roller. The driven platen roller preferably has a peripheral surface thereof which is coated with a high release silicone which has both non-stick characteristics with respect to the adhesive face of the linerless labels, but also high friction characteristics to facilitate driving of the labels. Any other substantially stationary surfaces of the printer which are also likely to come into contact with the adhesive face of the linerless labels—such as a front panel—are also plasma coated. The transport plate may be grooved to minimize the surface area that engages the label adhesive face. The printer also preferably comprises a stripper blade/bridge mounted on the opposite side of the driven platen roller from the label unwind, in the direction of label conveyance through the printer. The stripper blade/bridge is positioned with respect to the driven platen roller and the printhead so as to prevent a printed label from being wound onto the driven platen roller and assists the label moving from the platen roller to the cutter. The stripper blade/bridge has a surface which has a non-stick feature, preferably a plasma coating, and typically the stripper blade/bridge may be mounted directly on a pre-existing tear bar on the printer. According to that invention a conventional thermal printer may readily be modified merely by substituting the particular non-stick label guide, transport plate, and driven platen roller according to the invention, and mounting the stripper blade/bridge on the existing tear bar.
Linerless labels are produced, for example, by feeding a tape having a release coated face and an adhesive face to a hardened anvil vacuum cylinder, utilizing a non-stick circumferential surface feed roll. A knife blade on a cutting cylinder is rotated into contact with the tape at the anvil cylinder to cut the tape into linerless labels, and release liquid is applied to the blade after each cut. From the anvil cylinder the labels are deposited on a plurality of spaced conveyor tapes of circular cross section with the adhesive faces contacting the conveyor tapes. A vacuum chamber assists in holding the labels on the conveyor tapes. The release coat faces of the labels conveyed by the conveyor tapes may be heated and then printed with hot melt ink from an ink jet printer. The labels are separated from the conveyor tapes using a peeler roll and non-stick stripper rings, and then immediately contact a moving web or other elements to which they are to be applied, with the label and web passing through nip rolls to activate the pressure sensitive adhesive.
In spite of the benefits that are obvious from the proposed and actual use of linerless labels, the growth of the technology has not been as rapid in commerce as has been expected. The reduced rate of acceptance is due at least in part because the present capability of application equipment is significantly slower than for lined labels. In production and supply, faster rates without waste are critical to levels of efficiency, productivity and profitability. Significantly slower equipment, such as the present linerless label application systems which operate at speeds one fourth to one half the speed of lined label applicators, reduce cost competitive aspects of the linerless label. Additionally, the cost of equipment specific to linerless labels requires an independent capital investment for equipment which is useful only for the linerless labels. For a manufacturer to convert from a lined label process or to add a lined label process to his business, a completely new apparatus has to be purchased. At a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, this is not a highly attractive scenario for labeling companies.
According to the invention described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,071, a method and apparatus are provided which quickly, positively, and in a versatile manner apply linerless pressure sensitive adhesive labels to moving elements. The equipment and method are versatile since they may be used with any substrate, including for example envelopes, packages, bottles, cans, packages and a wide variety of other moving elements, may be used with any available linerless label, and the method may be used on existing commercial apparatus by the addition of an inventive module according to practice of that present invention. The process of that present invention comprises associating the linerless label with a temporary, reusable support (temporary, reusable liner) on line or immediately before introduction to the label application apparatus, stripping the label from the temporary, reusable support, winding up the temporary support, and reusing the temporary support again to support a linerless label for introduction into commercial lined label applicators with stripping capability.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,187,128 describes a method and apparatus for converting and applying labels. The apparatus includes a vacuum anvil roller and an idler roller that cooperate to separate the base stock (the label material and the liner) into its component parts (the label material or face web and the backing liner). A cutting roller cooperates with the vacuum anvil roller to butt cut the unlined face of the face web to form butt cut labels. A traction nip roller cooperates with the vacuum anvil roller to press the butt cut labels to the backing liner to form releasably-lined labels. The benefit of the process is asserted to overcome a problem with anvil cutting processes weakening or cutting the backing liner during conversion to releasably lined labels.
Published US Patent Application No. 20010035257 (Fujii) describes a method of an emboss pattern process having steps of transferring an emboss pattern onto a thermoplastic resin sheet by using an emboss patterning roller; lustering the opposite face of the embossed face of the thermoplastic resin sheet by using a lustering means having a mirror face member; and peeling the thermoplastic resin sheet from the emboss patterning roller at a lower temperature than a temperature for transferring the emboss pattern. The emboss patterning roller has a roller body, having a face embossed with the pattern, and sealing rings attached on each side face of the roller body, in which the roller body and the sealing ring has a passage for flowing a cooling medium from one sealing ring through the roller body to the other sealing ring. The roller body 17 is, in turn, composed of an outer cylinder section 19; a middle cylinder section 21 inserted into the inside of the outer cylinder section 19; and an inner cylinder section 22 inserted into the inside of the middle cylinder section 21. Incidentally, in the processing apparatus 10, from the emboss patterning roller 13 on the opposite side of the roller 14, a cooling roller 44 can be placed to abut onto the outer circumferential face of the elastic roller 14. The surface temperature of the elastic roller 14 can be controlled by the cooling roller 44.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,400,230 (Wyslotsky) discloses a label indexing and applicator apparatus in which a substrate stock storage shaft 50 is provided for rotationally supporting and paying out the substrate stock 52 from a roll 54 thereof. In connection therewith, substrate stock directional rollers 56, 58, 60, 62, 63, 64, 64 are carried by frame 22 for directing the substrate stock 52 in the first direction as indicated by Arrow A for eventual disposition within and threadable engagement by heat nip 46 and in contact in heat nip 46 with strip label stock 29 as shown in FIG. 7. Accordingly, strip label stock 29 and substrate 52 are bonded together in heat nip 46 to form a laminate 66 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 7. Upstream of heat nip 46 is provided a cooling roller 72 having water coolant influent and effluent parts 72a, 72b, and with accompanying laterally disposed cooling exit guide roller 73, cooling the bonded strip label stock and substrate laminate 66.
Chill rolls and cooling rolls as separate entities in extrusion, cutting and other manufacturing processes are known, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,070,727 (Calhoun et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,743,469 (DiZio).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,652,172 (Wood et al.) actually discloses the use of heating die cut rollers in a linerless label process. Claimed is a method of severing a label segment from a web of linerless tape within a printing device for subsequent application to an article, the web of linerless tape being defined by a print side and an adhesive side, the method comprising: providing a cutting device including a heated cutting element; directing the web of linerless tape to the heated cutting element with a supply device such that the print side is proximate the heated cutting element; contacting the web of linerless tape with the heated cutting element to sever the label segment from the remainder of the web as part of a cutting operation; and raising the temperature of the heated cutting element to at least a temperature of 1600° Fahrenheit to clean the heated cutting element following the cutting operation.

Apparatus and method for applying labels


A programmable effects system for graphical user interfaces is disclosed. One embodiment comprises receiving one or more effect elements to apply to an element in a graphical user interface for a device, ordering the effect elements in a pipeline of operations, and storing the pipeline of operations in an effect template. Then, after the graphics hardware capability for a device is determined, the effect template may be used to create a shader that includes supported effects to render an element in the graphical user interface.

Graphical user interface (GUI) platforms are deployed on multiple devices with different graphics hardware capabilities. Modern graphics processors are capable of high-fidelity visual effects for some classes of applications, e.g. video games, but GUI platforms have not utilized these hardware capabilities.
Some GUI platforms, such as Microsoft's Windows Presentation Format (WPF), use hardware acceleration to provide a rich GUI experience. However, these platforms use hardware acceleration in a least common denominator approach and do not utilize the range of hardware capabilities. Additionally, these platforms do not allow GUI developers to build custom graphical effects, nor do these GUI platforms provide a fallback mechanism for techniques targeted at high-end classes of hardware that are implemented on a device that does not support high-fidelity visual effects.

Programmable effects for a user interface


The invention discloses a macro lens that takes a retrofocusing function for the purpose of downsizing. The macro lens employs a floating mechanism to cover a wide photographing range from the equi-magnification to the infinity, and especially, attains a great imaging performance by appropriately compensating for spherical aberration, comatic aberration, and chromatic aberration of magnification. The macro lens comprised of first to fifth lenses in the order closer to the object; that is, the first lens serving as a negative meniscus lens with a convex surface oriented to the object, the fourth lens as a negative lens with a concave surface of great curvature oriented to the image plane, and the fifth lens as a negative lens with a surface of great curvature oriented to the object. The macro lens satisfies conditions as expressed in the following formulae:0.6≦F1/F≦1.3   (1)0.9≦F4/F5≦1.5   (2)where F is a focal length of the entire lens system, F1 is a focal length of the first lens, F4 is a focal length of the fourth lens, and F5 is a focal length of the fifth lens.

In ordinary lenses other than the macro lens, a point of the reference in correcting aberration is located in infinitive far while macro lens compensate for aberration based upon the reference of proximal distance. Such a macro lens, however, is used considerably frequently for ordinary photographing, and it is desirable that the macro lens should fully cover an aberration correcting range from the ultimate proximal distance to the infinitive far.
A first embodiment of the prior art technology developed under these circumstances is a macro lens that employs a floating mechanism adapted to move at least two groups of lenses independent of each other during the focusing so as to cover a wide photographing range from the infinity to the equi-magnification (See Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 listed below, for example).
A second embodiment disclosed in the prior art technology is a macro lens that features a longer backfocus than its focal length by virtue of the first group of lenses of a retrofocusing type (See Patent Document 3 and Patent Document 4 listed below). Commercially available examples of this type include Pentax FA Macro 50 mm, F 2.8 from Asahi Optical Co., Ltd. (currently renamed as Pentax Corporation).
A third embodiment of the prior art technology currently commercially available is a reduced focal length macro lens capable of close-up shooting of an object in the proximal range but not in the range of infinity. For instance, available are AF Macro Zoom 3×-1×, F 1.7-2.8 from Konica Minolta, Inc., and Zuiko 20 mm, F 2 from Olympus Corp.
List of Cited Patent Documents:
Document 1                Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. SHO62-195617
Document 2                Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. SHO63-247713
Document 3                Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. SHO62-160412
Document 4                Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. H01-214812
The 35 mm film photographing lens is currently used not only for 35 mm film but also for optical apparatuses such as a digital still camera which charge coupled devices or CCDs dimensioned as small as 23.7 mm×15.6 mm are built in. In creating a picture this small, a focal length must be reduced so as to make the same angle of view as that of the photographing lens for the 35 mm film.
However, the macro lens utilizing the floating mechanism of the aforementioned first embodiment of the prior art is designed based upon a Gaussian lens, and as a consequence, the backfocus cannot be longer than the focal length that can be hardly shorter than about 50 mm. Hence, this type of macro lens has not been implemented as real products.
The second prior art embodiment is of retrofocusing type, and therefore, the lens structure is devised so as to cover a wide photographing range from the infinity to the equi-magnification, and especially, to minimize a variation in aberration. For that purpose, radii of curvature of the third group of lenses, r5 and r6, are not so different from each other, and a Z value indicating the norm for the centering of the lenses is small. As a result, precision in machining and accuracy of eccentricity greatly affect the entire lens system, and use of components manufactured with sufficient precision and accuracy brings about an adverse increase in the manufacturing cost.
The third prior art embodiment is a macro lens of the reduced focal length serving as a photographing lens only for close-up shooting of the object in the proximal range, which means the use of the lens is limited to this specific purpose. This macro lens is highly disadvantageous in that it is not suitable to take a picture of the object in the infinity range and does not meet the most common requirement.
The present invention is made to overcome the aforementioned disadvantaged in the macro lenses of the prior art, and accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide the one that takes a retrofocusing function for the purpose of downsizing, employs a floating mechanism to cover a wide photographing range from the equi-magnification to the infinity, and especially, attains a great imaging performance by appropriately compensating for spherical aberration, comatic aberration, and chromatic aberration of magnification.


A method for manufacturing a silicon wafer includes a planarizing process 13 for polishing or lapping the upperside and lowerside surfaces of a thin disk-shaped silicon wafer obtained by slicing a silicon single crystal ingot, an etching process for dipping the silicon wafer into the etching liquid wherein silica powder is dispersed uniformly in an alkali aqueous solution, thereby etching the upperside and lowerside surfaces of the silicon wafer, and a both-side simultaneous polishing process 16 for polishing the upperside and lowerside surfaces of the etched silicon wafer simultaneously or a one-side polishing process for polishing the upperside and lowerside surfaces of the etched silicon wafer one after another, in this order.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an etching liquid for controlling a silicon wafer surface shape and a method for manufacturing a silicon wafer using the same for reducing loads of a both-side simultaneous polishing process, and attaining both a high flatness degree and the reduction of surface roughness.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, the manufacturing processes of a semiconductor silicon wafer include processes of chamfering, mechanical polishing (lapping), etching, mirror grinding (polishing) and cleaning on a wafer that is cut and sliced from a silicon single crystal ingot pulled up, and the wafer is manufactured into a wafer having a highly precise flatness degree. A silicon wafer that goes through mechanical manufacturing processes including block cutting, outer diameter grinding, slicing, lapping and the like has a damaged layer, i.e., a work-affected layer on the surface thereof. The work-affected layer induces crystal defects such as a slip dislocation and the like in the device manufacturing processes, and decreases the mechanical strength of the wafer, and causes adverse effects on the electrical characteristics thereof, and accordingly such defects must be removed completely.
An etching process is performed so as to remove this work-affected layer. In the etching process, either an acid etching method or an alkali etching method is employed. In this etching process, a plurality of wafers are dipped into an etching bath containing an etching liquid, thereby the work-affected layer is chemically removed.
The acid etching has advantages that there is no selective etching property to a silicon wafer, and the surface roughness is small, therefore, the micro shape precision is improved, and the etching efficiency is high. As the etching liquid of this acid etching, an etching liquid of three components obtained by thinning mixed acid of hydrofluoric acid (HF) and nitric acid (HNO3) by water (H2O) or acetic acid (CH3COOH) is mainly employed. It is considered that the acid etching has the above advantages because etching progresses on the basis of diffusion controlling conditions by the above etching liquid, and under the diffusion controlling conditions, the reaction speed does not depend upon the crystal orientation of the crystal surface, crystal defects and the like, and the diffusion on the crystal surface has a main effect. However, in this acid etching, although the work-affected layer can be etched while improving the surface roughness of a silicon wafer, as the acid etching progresses, the outer circumferential portion of the wafer becomes dull, and the flatness degree as micro shape precision obtained by lapping is deteriorated, which causes mm-order concaves and convexes called swells or peels on the etched surface. Further, the cost of the chemical liquid is high, and it is difficult to control and maintain the composition of the etching liquid, which has been a problem in the prior art.
The alkali etching has advantages that the flatness degree is excellent and the macro shape precision is improved, and there is little metal contamination, and there is no problem of harmful secondary products like NOx in the acid etching or no danger in handling thereof. As the etching liquid of this alkali etching, KOH and NaOH are employed. It is considered that the alkali etching has the above advantages because this etching progresses basically on the basis of diffusion controlling conditions. However, in the alkali etching, although the work-affected layer can be etched while maintaining the flatness degree of a silicon wafer, there occur facets whose partial depth is several μm, and whose size is several to several ten μm (hereinafter, referred to as facets) that deteriorates the wafer surface roughness, which has been another problem in the prior art.
As a method to solve the problems in the alkali etching, there is disclosed an etching method of a silicon wafer wherein an etching liquid obtained by adding 0.01 to 0.2 weight percentage of hydrogen peroxide to 100 weight percentage of a caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) aqueous solution is employed (for example, see Patent Document 1) According to the etching method disclosed in the above Patent Document, by adding hydrogen peroxide to a caustic soda aqueous solution at a specified percentage, nonconformities arising in the alkali etching by the caustic soda aqueous solution are solved. Specificially, in comparison with the etching using a NaOH aqueous solution, the size of an etched pit on the lowerside surface of a silicon wafer is made finer. Furthermore, the occurrence of micro etched pits on the lowerside surface of the silicon wafer is restricted, and the desired etching speed can be adjusted easily and in a wide area, and furthermore, the etching speed is increased.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H07-37871 (claims 1 to 4, paragraph [0021])
However, in the conventional methods including the method disclosed in the above Patent Document, a wafer after the etching process is sent to a both-side simultaneous polishing process and a one-side polishing process wherein the surface thereof is processed into a mirror surface. However, in the upperside and lowerside surfaces of the silicon wafer after the etching process, the wafer flatness degree obtained at completion of the planarizing process is not maintained. Furthermore, a desired wafer surface roughness is not obtained yet, and accordingly, in order to improve the wafer flatness degree and the wafer surface roughness, it is necessary to move or remove large amounts of grinding residue in the both-side simultaneous polishing process and the one-side polishing process. As a result, this creates additional time and energy loads on the both-side simultaneous polishing process and the one-side polishing process.

Etching liquid for controlling silicon wafer surface shape and method for manufacturing silicon wafer using the same


The present disclosure relates to a packaging device and a packaging method. The packaging device includes a first platform and a second platform facing the first platform. The first platform moves back and forth towards or away from the second platform. The first platform is provided with a first electromagnetic device. The packaging device further includes at least one patch which is capable of being adsorbed by the first electromagnetic device. One side of the patch is attached to the first platform, and the other side of the patch is configured to be attached to a substrate to be packaged. The substrate is detachably fixed onto the first platform.

Conventionally, a Light Emitter Diode (LED) display panel is mainly packaged by glass packaging material (for example, ultraviolet (UV) glue). During the packaging, a cover glass and a substrate glass are adsorbed and aligned, and then the UV glue between the substrate glass and the cover glass is irradiated by UV light, so as to package the cover glass and the substrate glass together by the UV glue.
There are mainly two kinds of absorption methods including vacuum absorption and electrostatic absorption in the prior art. If the glass is adsorbed by the vacuum absorption method, the adsorbed glass may easily fall in condition that a chamber for the operation is in a high vacuum. Therefore the vacuum absorption method is inapplicable for the packaging in the high vacuum condition. Furthermore, upon releasing the adsorbed glass substrate, the glass substrate may be vibrated due to switching on/off a pressure-vent hole, and thus the glass substrate may be offset, which adversely affects a precision of the alignment.
For the electrostatic absorption method, an appropriate electrostatic range has to be determined based on the type of one substrate. If the static electricity is excessive, it may cause problems such as breakdown of the LED device; and if the static electricity is insufficient, the substrate may easily fall, the precision of the alignment may be adversely affected, and the process is complicated. Furthermore, since one component to be packaged is needed to be irradiated by the UV light from the bottom of the component, thus it is difficult to configure one static absorption device with vacuum absorption function. As a result, the absorption strength is low and the substrate may fall.


The disclosure provides an electronic device and a heat dissipation module having an imaginary structural plane. The heat dissipation module includes a fin assembly, a connecting part and a heat pipe. The fin assembly is disposed on the structural plane and includes a plurality of fin elements extending along a first direction. The connecting part is connected to the fin elements. The fin elements are connected to each other via the connecting part. At least one portion of the connecting part is connected to at least one portion of the heat pipe, and the connecting part and the heat pipe both extend along a second direction. The fin assembly and the connecting part are integrated and formed into one piece by die casting. The first direction and the second direction form a first included angle greater than 0 degree.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an electronic device and a heat dissipation module thereof, and more particularly, to an electronic device and a heat dissipation module thereof having multiple fin elements.
2. Related Art
Compared to a general computer, a thin client is a low-level computing apparatus without built-in compact disc driver, hardware device, soft disc driver and other unnecessary soft/hardware device or function. The thin client is connected to a server which stores application programs and information data of the thin client. When the thin client is operated by a user, the thin client transmits a command of the user to the server to execute operation of the command or save data needed by the user. After that, the server transmits an operating result back to the thin client and the result is displayed to the user by a display device. In other words, the thin clients only are terminal devices which provide inputting and basic functions, and other operating and saving functions of the thin client, and the thin clients are gathered and managed by the server.
Generally speaking, such thin client only includes multiple basic elements, such as a computing processing unit (CPU), a motherboard, a memory, a power supply and basic input/output ports. Therefore, the user may not install programs or save data in the thin client, otherwise, the data are saved in the server. That is, the thin client without saving function is uneasily affected by virus. As for the whole system, the arrangement of the thin client and the server may improve the protection of the data to make sure the safety of the data and keep the service uninterruptedly. Thus, in order to improve the network safety and equipment cost of an organization, the thin client becomes the basic computing device adopted by large organizations and enterprises.
The thin client is composed of the low-level electronic elements, so the operating frequency of the thin client is much slower than that of the general computer, thereby generating less heat. So, the general thin client does not include any active heat dissipation module, such as a fan module, for performing heat dissipation on the electronic elements of the thin client. In detail, the heat dissipation module consists of a heat dissipation plate and a heat pipe which is located on the heat dissipation plate. The heat dissipation plate is directly connected to the electronic element to perform heat dissipation on it. However, when the operating frequency of the electronic element is increased, the heat generated by the electronic element is increased, too. But the thin client without the active heat dissipation module may not bring the heat out immediately due to the increasing operating frequency of the electronic element. When the heat which is generated by the electronic element may not be removed by the heat dissipation plate, the excess heat will affect the stability of the operated thin client. Therefore, there is an emergent need of a heat dissipation module of a thin client to solve the problem of poor heat dissipating efficiency of the thin client which affects the stability of operation of the thin client.

Electronic device and heat dissipation module thereof

Inventec (Pudong) Technology Corporation


A non-transitory storage medium storing instructions readable and executable by an imaging workstation (18) including at least one electronic processor (20) to perform an image reconstruction method (100). The method includes: receiving emission imaging data (22) from an image acquisition device (12) wherein the emission imaging data has been filtered using an acquisition energy passband (18); generating filtered imaging data by filtering the emission imaging data with a second energy passband (90) that is narrower than an acquisition energy passband; reconstructing the filtered imaging data to generate an intermediate image; estimating one or more scatter correction factors (SCFs) from the intermediate image; and reconstructing the emission imaging data corrected with the estimated SCFs to generate a reconstructed image.

Compton scatter is a major image quality and quantitation degradation factor in positron emission tomography (PET) that should be accounted for during high quality image reconstruction. Accurate scatter correction in PET image reconstruction suffers from a "chicken-and-egg" problem. Scatter correction factors need to be simulated from an attenuation map and an emission map estimate. The problem is that, before scatter correction has been applied, the emission map estimate is contaminated with scatter. If such contaminated emission estimate is used for scatter correction, in the end the scatter correction factors would be biased.
In one approach for addressing this problem, an iterative approximation of emission estimate is used to minimize scatter. The iterative approach starts with an emission estimate (with scatter in general), uses it for scatter simulation, then uses the scatter estimate to reduce the scatter in the emission estimation, and then the process is iterated for a given number of iterations to obtain an emission estimate with acceptable level of remaining scatter. The iterative approach complicates the workflow and is time-consuming. In a variant approach, to compensate for this, the generation of emission estimate is done in coarse sinogram space and without time of flight (TOF) localization of events to save time, but with the price of compromised accuracy.
The following discloses new and improved systems and methods to overcome these problems.

Scatter correction using emission image estimate reconstructed from narrow energy window counts in positron emission tomography


A transmission mechanism suitable to be used in a washing machine for creating dual-direction driving comprises a drive power input end and two drive power output ends, in which one of drive power output ends is connected to an agitator shaft (10) to drive the agitator shaft rotating in a first direction; while the other of drive power output ends is connected with an inner basket shaft (11) to drive the inner basket shaft rotating in a second direction opposed to the first direction. A washing machine for creating dual-direction washing and a washing method for creating dual-direction washing in a washing machine are disclosed in the present invention. Furthermore, an agitator and an inner basket suitable to be used in the washing machine are disclosed in the present invention.

It is well known that washing machines are widely used in domestic and the industrial application. According to the arrangement of the inner basket in a washing machine, conventional washing machines can be divided into two types: the vertical type and the horizontal type. Generally, a vertical type of a washing machine includes an inner basket, an outer basket, a agitator, a driving system and a control system. In the vertical type of a washing machine, an inner basket is disposed vertically in the outer basket, and an agitator is installed on an agitator shaft and is disposed on the bottom of the inner basket. The driving system has an output end and an input end. The agitator shaft is connected to the output end of the driving system. During washing, generally the inner basket does not rotate, while the agitator rotates in two opposite directions alternately. The agitator agitates the water inside the inner basket to rotate and realize washing. However, it has been found that there are a few defects in such a type of the existing washing machine. During washing, the impact strength of the water produced by the agitator is relatively weak, cloths are prone to be tangled and it is quite difficult to increase the ratio of washing to cleanness. In order to overcome the above-mentioned defects, a design of a washing machine with a rotating basket has been developed in the washer's manufacturer, wherein the inner basket is not fixed and is kept in the form of a free float. When the agitator rotates, the inner basket creates a counter-action against the impacting force of the water caused by the rotation of the agitator, so as to make the inner basket to rotate in a opposite direction likely to achieve the "rubbing" effect. However, the rubbing effect obtained by such a arrangement is still not satisfactory. Because a driving power is not imparted to the inner basket, the rotation capability of the inner basket is quite little, and the agitator only rotates on the bottom of the inner basket alternately. Thus, the "rubbing" effect obtained by this washing method is not substantially improved, and the problem of tangling cloths can not be solved well. In a horizontal type of a washing machine, two rolling cylinders which rotate in opposite directions are disposed horizontally. They are connected to two driving power sources and rotate in the opposite directions. Although such a type of a washing machine can realize a better "rubbing" effect, its structure is quite complicated and its cost is higher in manufacture. In order to overcome the defects in the existing washing machine, the present invention provides a transmission mechanism for creating dual-directional rotation suitable to be used in a washing machine. Particularly, this transmission mechanism is suitable for a washing machine in a vertical type.

Counter-rotation wash method and transmission machine

Haier Electric Appliances International Co., Ltd.


A process for optical alignment in which an alignment layer is irradiated with polarized light from a light source and optical alignment is carried out, and in which polarized light is emitted within the light irradiation area of the light source with differently aligned polarization axes. In doing so, the alignment layer and the light irradiation area are moved relative to one another so that the divergence of the polarization axes of the polarized light is essentially cancelled relative to one another and the direction of optical alignment in the alignment layer is made uniform.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a process for optical alignment in which alignment layers of a liquid crystal display (LCD) element and an angle of view field compensation film which is installed in a liquid crystal cell are irradiated with polarized light, and in which optical alignment is performed. The invention relates especially to a process for optical alignment in which the alignment layers can be aligned in the desired direction even when optical alignment is being performed with deviations of the polarization axis for the polarized light which is radiated onto the alignment layers.
2. Description of Related Art
A liquid crystal display element is produced as follows:                An alignment layer which is formed on the surface of a transparent substrate is subjected to treatment (alignment treatment) in which liquid crystals are aligned in the desired direction.        Two transparent substrates are placed on top of one another such that the alignment layers come to rest on the inside.        Liquid crystals are added between the alignment layers.
With respect to alignment treatment of the alignment layers of the above described liquid crystal display element, there is a technique which is called optical alignment in which the alignment layers are irradiated and exposed with polarized light with a given wavelength and in which this alignment is thus carried out. The device for irradiation with polarized light for optical alignment can be one of the devices which are described, for example, in Japanese patent specification JP 2928226 B and Japanese patent specification JP 2960392 B (both of which correspond to U.S. Pat. No. 6,190,016 B1).
Recently, the above described device for irradiation with polarized light has been used more and more often, not only to produce the above described liquid crystal display element, but also to produce an angle of view field compensation film, also called an optical compensation film or a wide-view film. The angle of view field compensation film was produced by application of liquid crystals for UV curing to a base film, alignment of the liquid crystal molecules in a certain direction, afterwards curing the liquid crystals by UV irradiation, and thus, fixing the direction of the liquid crystal molecules. By cementing an angle of view field compensation film to a liquid crystal display a reduction of the image quality is compensated. The film for producing optical alignment including the angle of view field compensation film is called an "optical alignment layer" below.
In the devices for irradiation with polarized light for optical alignment of the alignment layers of a liquid crystal display element which were described in the above described Japanese patents, as is also shown in FIG. 7 of JP 2928226 B and FIG. 5 in JP 2960392 B (FIG. 9 of corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 6,190,016 B1), a workpiece W which is a substrate, an angle of view field compensation film or the like, onto which an optical alignment layer has been applied, is irradiated with polarized exit light. For this purpose, UV-containing light which has been emitted from a light irradiation source is allowed to be incident in a polarization element in which, for example, several glass plates inclined at the Brewster angle, and is thus subjected to polarization separation. Then, the light is routed via an integrator lens, a plane mirror, a collimation lens, a collimation mirror or the like.
For optical alignment of an optical alignment layer, polarized light with a given wavelength (UV radiation, for example, with a wavelength of 280 nm to 320 nm) and with an extinction ratio at least equal to a given value (for example, with a ratio of the proportion of S-polarized light to P-polarized light of 1/10 to 1/100) is necessary. This is determined by the physical properties of the above described optical alignment layer. The term "extinction ratio" is defined as the ratio of the proportion of P-polarized light to the proportion of S-polarized light which are contained in the polarized light.
Recently, as the parameter for executing optical alignment, in addition to the above described wavelength and extinction ratio, also the divergence of the direction of the polarized light (hereinafter called the "polarization axis") within the irradiation surface has been considered more and more.
When using the device for irradiation with polarized light in the above described conventional example, the divergence within the surface of the polarization axis on the irradiation area is roughly ±0.5°, as is shown, for example, in FIG. 5. When deviations of the polarization axis occur in the polarized light with which the alignment layer is irradiated, divergence of the alignment direction of the alignment layer is caused; this can lead to faulty parts.
This means that, when optical alignment is being performed with light having large divergence within the surface of the polarization axis, the contrast of the liquid crystal display element as a finished part differs from place to place; this causes a reduction of image quality.
To eliminate divergence of the polarization axis approaches are suggested in Japanese Patent Publication JP2004347668 and Japanese Patent Publication JP2005128271. However, in the approaches of these publications, there is the disadvantage that there needs to be a special arrangement in the light irradiation means for eliminating the divergence of the polarization axis and that increases costs.
Furthermore, as a light source for irradiation with polarization light, also the use of a rod-shaped lamp has been suggested which is more easily used for irradiating a large area than a point light source lamp according to the above described conventional example. However, using a rod-shaped lamp makes it difficult to eliminate divergence of the polarization axis.


A data processing apparatus is provided in which data is stored in a state distributed to a storage destination depending on the data property, so that the stored data is reused easily and that the storage of the data is managed efficiently on the basis of the data property. Storage means comprises a first storage section, a second storage section, and a memory controller serving as data distributing means. The first storage section temporarily stores data outputted (processed for output) from each section (a scanner section, a FAX section, a network processing section, etc.) of data processing means. The second storage section comprises storage regions partitioned in correspondence to the data properties, and stores data satisfying a predetermined condition among the data outputted (processed for output). The memory controller distributes the data to either the first storage section or the second storage section depending on the data property.

The present invention relates to a data processing apparatus implemented as a digital composite apparatus having the combined functions of a copying machine, a facsimile machine, a printer, and the like and, in particular, to a data processing apparatus comprising storage means for storing data in a state distributed to a storage destination depending on the data property of the data.


An apparatus for separating a tubular string from a subsea well installation. The apparatus includes a heave compensator tensioning the tubular string, a subsea actuator assembly positioned within the tubular string, a subsea controller in communication with the subsea actuator assembly, a subsea safety tree positioned within the subsea well installation and a fluid delivery subsystem. An output signal generated by the subsea controller responsive to receipt of a predetermined input signal releases a piston of the subsea actuator assembly such that the tension in the tubular string shifts the piston relative to a cylinder energizing fluid in the fluid delivery subsystem to actuate the retainer valve, the shut-in valve assembly, the vent sleeve and the latch assembly, thereby safely separating the tubular string from a subsea well installation.

Without limiting the scope of the present invention, its background is described with reference to separating a tubular string from a subsea well installation in an emergency situation, as an example.
In many deep water offshore well operations, tubular members such as risers, work strings, production strings and the like are connected between a floating surface vessel and a subsea well installation. Such offshore facilities include various safety systems that automatically prevent fluid communication between the well and the vessel in the event of emergency conditions such as when the vessel must drive away from the location of the subsea well installation. Such drive away conditions may occur as a result of a malfunction of one or more components of a positioning system of a dynamically positioned vessel, the breaking of a tensioned cable of a moored vessel, an effort to avoid bad weather or the like.
In certain installations, the safety systems may include a subsea safety tree on the lower end of the tubular string that may be positioned within the blowout preventer stack of a subsea wellhead. The subsea safety tree may include one or more shut-in valves that operate to automatically shut-in the well. In addition, the subsea safety tree may include a latch assembly that enables separation of the tubular string from the lower portion of the subsea safety tree, a retainer valve that prevents fluid discharge from the tubular string into the environment and a vent sleeve that provides for controlled venting of pressure trapped between the closed retainer valve and the closed shut-in valves of the subsea safety tree.
Conventionally, each of these components of the subsea safety tree, the retainer valve, the vent sleeve, the latch assembly and the shut-in valves, are controlled by fluid pressure in control lines which extend from a pressure source on the vessel to the subsea safety tree. In many installations, dedicated control lines between each of the components and the surface are used, including both supply lines and return lines. In addition, the actuation of each of these components is controlled by electrical switches, such as solenoid valves, that selectively prevent and allow hydraulic pressure to operate the various components. Accordingly, in an emergency situation wherein disconnection of the tubular string from the subsea well installation is required, the proper operation of each of these independent control systems is necessary to safely shut-in the well, contain fluid within the tubular string, bleed off pressure between the shut-in valves and the retainer valve and cause separation of the tubular string from the subsea well installation.
Therefore, a need has arisen for an apparatus and method for disconnecting a tubular string from a subsea well installation in an emergency situation that has improved reliability. A need has also arisen for such an apparatus and method that simplifies the control system required to execute an emergency disconnection of a tubular string from a subsea well installation. Further, a need has arisen for such an apparatus and method that reduces the time required to execute an emergency disconnection of a tubular string from a subsea well installation.

Apparatus and method for separating a tubular string from a subsea well installation


A pen system is for farming aquatic organisms. The pen system has an outer surrounding rigid structure and an internal, closed enclosure. The outer surrounding rigid structure forms an upper portion and a lower portion. The pen system further has: an internal surrounding connecting element, the closed enclosure being attached to the connecting element; and a heave-compensation system having a plurality of fluid-filled cylinders, each fluid-filled cylinder being hingedly attached, in a first end portion, to the connecting element, and being hingedly attached, in a second end portion, to the inside of the rigid structure.

The farming of fish, especially salmonids, has developed from simple and relatively small fish pens with a frame made of wood into large annular fish pens. The annular fish pens are provided with a circular buoyancy body which typically consists of two concentric plastic rings. The plastic rings may carry a walkway. The small fish pens were typically placed in sheltered coves and small, roundish fjords with narrow inlets. As the fish pens became larger and deeper, the fish pens were placed in localities farther from shore. These localities are more exposed to wind and waves.
It is also known that the fish pens may have a square shape and be surrounded by a walkway made of steel. Even though fish pens with plastic rings or with steel walkways can withstand some waves, they are still placed in localities that are relatively sheltered from waves and wind.
To prevent infection from fish-pathogenic organisms between the fish farms, there are requirements for distances between the farms. There is therefore a limited number of localities along a coastline that satisfy the requirement for shielding and for distance to a neighbouring farm.
There is a risk that a fish farm may be damaged in bad weather. The fish in the fish farm may then escape. The farmer then suffers a loss in the form of destroyed equipment and loss of fish. The escape of farmed fish is also undesirable. Escaped salmonids, in particular, will seek towards rivers when they become sexually mature, and mix with the wild population.
There is thus a need for fish farms that can tolerate being positioned in more exposed localities than the known fish farms. For this purpose, it has been suggested to use constructionally altered oil rigs provided with farming pens. Such oil rigs may be mobile rigs, such as semi-submersible rigs, and fixed rigs.
Because of their size, semi-submersible rigs will be affected differently by waves than fish pens that are provided with surrounding floating means. Fixed rigs will not be affected by waves. There is thus a need to connect a large floating unit, like a semi-submersible rig, and a smaller unit, like a fish pen for fish farming, in such a way that the connection is flexible enough for the large unit and the smaller unit to move in dissimilar ways in waves.
There is further a need to be able to connect a fixed unit, like a fixed rig, which does not move with waves and a smaller unit which moves in waves.

Fish pen system with compensation for wave motion


Incoming digital video signals to a video system each undergo identification with specific identifier prior to receipt at a corresponding one of the video system inputs. At each of the video system outputs, the output signal undergoes decoding to obtain the identity of the signal to confirm proper routing of signals within the video system.

Identification of a serial digital video signal from a single source or even a few sources generally presents little difficulties. However, in a typical broadcast facility, many serial digital video signals exist, and identification of each signal often proves problematic, particularly as the signals undergo routing through one or more devices, such as a cross-point switcher, some times referred to as a cross-point matrix. Presently, to positively identify a given serial digital video signal during routing, descrambling and de-serialization of the signal must occur in order to decode the identification information. Carrying out these processes requires a significant amount of hardware. Thus, in a system having many serial digital video signals, providing the necessary descrambling and de-serialization hardware often proves impractical from a cost, space and power consumption perspective. For this reason, broadcast facilities typically rely completely on routing control system status information to determine which input connects to a given output in the cross-point matrix. Such reliance incurs the disadvantage that no automated method exists for checking the actual signal present at a given cross-point matrix output and alerting the user should the status information prove erroneous.

Identification of video signals in a video system


A charging method for charging a secondary battery includes the steps of: (a) performing constant-current charging with a first current; and (b) when a voltage of a secondary battery reaches a first voltage, performing constant-voltage charging at the first voltage. When a temperature of the secondary battery is equal to or higher than a reference temperature in step (a), step (b) includes the steps of (b1) when the voltage of the secondary battery reaches a second voltage lower than the first voltage, performing constant-voltage charging at the second voltage, (b2) after step (b1) and when the temperature of the secondary battery falls below the reference temperature, performing charging with a second current, and (b3) when the voltage of the secondary battery reaches the first voltage, performing constant-voltage charging at the first voltage.

The market for portable electronic devices, such as portable audio devices and digital still cameras, have rapidly grown in recent years. With this trend, secondary batteries, which can be reused by charging them, have come to play an important role in supplying power to such portable electronic devices. Among these batteries, secondary batteries which are to be used as drive power sources for electronic devices are required to increase their capacity in order to increase the operating time of the electronic devices.
The increase in the capacity of a secondary battery, however, greatly affects the safety of the secondary battery. Specifically, to charge the secondary battery, the secondary battery is fitted to a charger. At this time, heat generated from the charger or heat generated by the secondary battery itself causes the temperature of the secondary battery to rise above an ambient temperature. The extent of this temperature rise is generally about 10° C. When the capacity of the secondary battery is increased, however, the extent of the temperature rise increases accordingly. Thus, when a strong shock or the like is applied from outside to a fully charged secondary battery having an increased temperature, for example, this secondary battery might abnormally generate heat. Such a phenomenon might also occur when the secondary battery is charged at a high ambient temperature.
To solve the above problem, Patent Document 1 discloses the following method. In this method, to charge a battery safely, the temperature of a secondary battery which is being charged is monitored such that when the temperature of the secondary battery exceeds a given temperature, charge current is switched to a small value, thereby suppressing a temperature rise of the secondary battery which is being charged.
Patent Document 2, for example, discloses a method for controlling charging with charge current and charge time adjusted based on a detected temperature of a secondary battery.


In an identification medium for identifying an authenticity of an object either visually or optically by using an identification device, high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal is applied onto the object, onto a sticker adapted to be affixed to the object or onto a base for hot stamping onto the object, and the high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal is patterned, and/or a graphic representation layer such as a figure and letter is formed under or over the high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal to enhance the aesthetic quality of the identification medium or the object, and improve the capability to identify and prevent forgery.

This application claims priority from PCT/JP01/09157, filed Oct. 18, 2001, and JP2000-318779, filed Oct. 19, 2000, incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a medium and method for preventing forgery of two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects such as passports, cards, security notes, gift certificates, pictures, public transportation tickets, and public betting tickets.
Conventionally, hologram has been used as an identification medium for preventing the forgery of cards, security notes and coupons. However, as the fabrication of hologram gets easier over time, forgery has become more and more common, and some of the cases of forgery, in particular those in connection with media for visual identification, are so undistinguishable from authentic ones that it is virtually impossible to tell them apart. Therefore, there is a need for new identification media.
Japanese patent laid open publication (kokai) No. 63-51193 discloses the use of high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal as an identification medium, and the light reflected therefrom is detected either visually or by using an optical identification device.
Cholesteric liquid crystal normally has a layered structure, and the axial directions of the molecules in each layer are parallel to each other as well to the plane of the layer. Each layer is slightly twisted relative to the adjacent layer so that a three-dimensional spiral structure is produced. This structure demonstrates the property to selectively reflect a circularly polarized light having a wavelength of xcex which is given by xcex=nxc2x7p where p is the depth of the layers for this axial direction to turn 360 degrees or the pitch, and n is the average index of refraction of each layer. Low polymer cholesteric liquid crystal is used for thermometers whose color changes with temperature because the pitch p distinctly changes with temperature as well as for display devices.
On the other hand, high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal is provided with a relatively fixed crystal structure so that the pitch p changes very little with temperature, magnetic field and electric field, and selectively reflects light of a certain predetermined color (wavelength). High polymer cholesteric liquid crystal can be prepared, for instance, by heating high polymer having a property to be formed into thermotropic cholesteric liquid crystal beyond the liquid crystal transition temperature to cause a liquid crystal structure to grow, and fixing the liquid crystal structure by rapidly cooling it.
For instance, when high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal that reflects red light having a prescribed wavelength xcexR is placed over material which absorbs visible light such as black paper, and random light such as sun light is projected thereon, the transmissive light is totally absorbed by the underlying black paper, and only left circularly polarized light having the wavelength of xcexR is reflected. It produces an attractive special color which may be called as cholesteric color. This light however can be shut off if a filter for blocking left circularly polarized light is placed thereon.
When high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal that reflects red light having a prescribed wavelength xcexR is placed over material which reflects visible light such as white paper, and random light such as sun light is projected thereon, the underlying white color becomes visible. If a filter for transmitting only left circularly polarized light is placed thereon, only the reflected left circularly polarized light having the wavelength of xcexR become visible as red light. If left circularly polarized light having the wavelength of xcexR instead of sun light is projected thereon, only the reflected light having the wavelength of xcexR becomes visible even without using a filter.
However, when reflected light is used for identification purpose, although the high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal demonstrates a unique cholesteric color, and is attractive in appearance, it cannot provide a generally agreeable appearance by itself, and has been considered inadequate as an identification medium of an object whose aesthetic appearance is important. The graphic shapes (graphic shapes and patterns) formed on the identification medium are also an important factor in identifying the object. In this regard also, a further improvement of identification media using high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal is desired.
The present invention was made in view of such problems of the prior art, and its primary object is to provide an identification medium which provides an improved identification capability, is highly difficult to illicitly duplicate, is highly attractive in terms of both shape and color, and is easy to fabricate, and a method for making such an identification medium.
According to the present invention, such an object can be accomplished by providing an identification medium for identifying an authenticity of an object either visually or optically by using an identification device, characterized by that: the identification medium comprises high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal which is patterned, and/or a graphic representation layer such as a figure and letter which underlies or overlies high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal, and by providing a method for making an identification medium for identifying an authenticity of an object either visually or optically by using an identification device, characterized by the steps of: applying high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal onto the object, onto a sticker adapted to be affixed to the object or onto a base for hot stamping onto the object, and patterning the high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal, and/or forming a graphic representation layer such as a figure and letter under or over the high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal.
This enhances the aesthetic appearance, and improves the capability to identify the object and prevent an illicit duplication of the object.
In particular, by patterning the high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal by etching or by using laser, the high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal can be accurately and easily patterned into a desired shape so that its aesthetic appearance and identification capability can be both improved. By printing on the high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal, the printed color shows on the printed part and the cholesteric color shows on the exposed surface of the high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal so that the freedom in design is enhanced. By thermally transferring the high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal according to a prescribed pattern, small batch production is facilitated. By partly modifying the high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal by laser, the high polymer cholesteric liquid crystal is provided with partly different optical properties, and its aesthetic appearance and identification capability can be both improved.

Medium for identifying matter to be identified and method for production thereof


Provided is a method for purifying a quaternary alkyl ammonium salt enabling the obtainment of a particulate quaternary alkyl ammonium salt having a low water content at a high yield which is suitably used as an electrolyte in an electrolytic solution.

Conventionally, in order to produce a quaternary alkyl ammonium salt, for example, to produce quaternary alkyl ammonium tetrafluoroborate, quaternary alkyl ammonium chloride, bromide or hydroxide is allowed to react with fluoroboric acid. Such methods have been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,965,178 (1976), and published Japanese Patent Applications, Publication No. S63(1988)-30454, 2000-226361, and 2001-247522.
A published Japanese Patent Application, Publication No. H5(1993)-286981 proposes a method involving the use of anhydrous hydrofluoric acid. An published Japanese Patent Application, Publication No. H11(1999)-310555 proposes yet another method in which a hydrogenfluoride salt of quaternary alkyl ammonium fluoride and boron trifluoride or its complex are allowed to react. A published Japanese Patent Application, Publication No. H11(1999)-27179 proposes yet another method in which tertiary amine is allowed to react with alkyl halide, which is immediately followed by reaction with fluoroboric acid. A published Japanese Patent Application, Publication No. H11(1999)-315055 proposes yet another method in which quaternary alkyl ammonium bicarbonate and fluoroboric acid are allowed to react.
A quaternay alkyl ammonium salt (e.g., quaternary alkyl ammonium tetrafluoroborate) obtained by one of the conventional methods described above contains a trace amount of chlorine or bromine derived from a starting material, or of fluoroboric acid which is introduced during the synthetic process. If such a salt is not properly treated so as to be deprived of those contaminants, the salt could hardly be used with profit as an electrolyte in an organic electrolytic solution of a dielectric capacitor or battery. The method for treating such a salt to improve its purity includes purification based on recrystallization which, however, can hardly achieve the complete elimination of contaminants.
A published Japanese Patent Application, Publication No. 2001-348388 discloses a method in which quaternary alkyl ammonium halide is allowed to react with fluoroboric acid in alcohol, and the reaction product is dried. This method enables the elimination of chlorine or bromine contaminant derived from the starting material, and thus the obtainment of a quaternary alkyl ammonium salt in which contaminants derived from the starting materials are significantly inhibited.
A quaternary alkyl ammonium salt obtained by this method, however, tends to conglomerate as do quaternary alkyl ammonium salts obtained by the conventional methods described above. Because of this tendency, the salt in question poses following problems.
Quaternary alkyl ammonium salts are generally highly hygroscopic. Because of this property, quaternary alkyl ammonium salts obtained by the conventional methods tend to conglomerate, which reduces the drying efficiency of the salts. If such a quaternary alkyl ammonium salt is used as an electrolyte in an electrolytic solution of an electric circuit element, it will react with water to produce an acid in the electrolytic solution which will result in the augmented internal resistance if the circuit element is a battery, or corrode the metal parts, if the circuit element is a dielectric capacitor.
An object of the present invention is to solve the problems inherent to the conventional methods. To put it more specifically, the object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing highly pure quaternary alkyl ammonium salts which can be profitably used in the production of dielectric capacitors.

Method of purifying quaternary alkyl ammonium salt and quaternary alkyl ammonium salt

Abstract: The method for the purification of a quaternary alkyl ammonium salt comprises dispersing a quaternary alkyl ammonium salt to be purified into an organic solvent to allow it to form a suspension there. The alkyl groups constituting the quaternary alkyl ammonium salt have 1 to 5 carbon atoms each. The quaternary alkyl ammonium salt to be purified is dispersed into the organic solvent to make a suspension, and then the particles are washed with an alcohol solvent.


Calls received by a data center that are associated with a request are monitored. Features are subsequently extracted from the monitored calls so that a machine learning model may use such features to determine that the request will cause the data center to malfunction. The machine learning model can be trained using data derived from a transaction log for the data center. At least one correction action to prevent the data center from malfunctioning can then be initiated in response to such determination. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described.

Data centers are susceptible to various types of incidents which can negatively affect the data being stored therein as well as the related computing equipment. In particular, software malfunctions can cause the overall performance of a data center to be impacted so as to result in data loss (without the ability to restore) or service level agreement (SLA) performance issues. To minimize the risks associated with such incidents, data centers often have circuit breaker mechanisms to prevent data loss and to cut off malfunctioning nodes (e.g., computers, servers, etc.) after such failures are detected. These circuit breakers can be triggered, for example, if operation (e.g., transaction, API, etc.) failures hit a certain pre-defined level. The circuit breakers can also be triggered based on traffic monitoring and, in some cases, can cause data traffic to be rerouted to a different node within the data center.

Data center disaster circuit breaker utilizing machine learning


A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate configured to include a plurality of active regions that are stretched in parallel to each other, a plurality of first contact plugs and the plurality of active regions, wherein each active region is coupled with a corresponding first contact plug, and a contact pad configured to couple with a given number of first contact plugs among the plurality of first contact plugs. Misalignment occurring at the ends of a series of drain contacts may be prevented, and the size of well-pickup contacts may be decreased by forming contact plugs that are coupled with drain regions with the same distance to a well-pickup contact region without additionally forming well-pickup contact plugs and using the contact plugs as well-pickup contact plugs. Therefore, loss of a substrate may be minimized, and burden of Optical Proximity Correction (OPC) is relieved, reducing Turn-Around Time (TAT).

1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a semiconductor device and a fabrication method thereof, and more particularly, to a semiconductor device having a well-pickup contact structure and a method for fabricating the semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor device, such as non-volatile memory devices, includes patterns for applying a bias voltage to operate memory cells. For example, a NAND flash memory device includes memory cells that are coupled serially, selection transistors that are coupled on both sides of the memory cells, and a structure for applying a predetermined bias to wells formed in active regions of a semiconductor substrate where the memory cells and the selection transistors are disposed.
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a conventional semiconductor device, and a method for fabricating the semiconductor device.
Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, an isolation layer 20 is formed over a substrate 10 to define a plurality of active regions 10A that are stretched in parallel to each other, and then a first insulation layer 30 is formed over the active regions 10A and the isolation layer 20.
Subsequently, first drain contact plugs 40A are formed to be coupled with drain regions through the first insulation layer 30, and a first well-pickup contact plug 40B is formed to be coupled with well-pickup regions. Also, a well-pickup contact pad 40C is formed to be coupled with the first well-pickup contact plug 40B, and a second insulation layer 50 is formed over the resultant substrate including the first drain contact plugs 40A, the first well-pickup contact plug 40B, and the well-pickup contact pad 40C.
Subsequently, second drain contact plugs 60A coupled with the first drain contact plugs 40A through the second insulation layer 50 and a second well-pickup contact plug 60B coupled with the well-pickup contact pad 40C are formed, and then a third insulation layer 70 is formed over the resultant substrate including the second drain contact plugs 60A and the second well-pickup contact plug 60B. Subsequently, a conductive pad 80A that is coupled with the second well-pickup contact plug 60B through the third insulation layer 70, dummy lines 80B on both sides of the conductive pad 80A, and conductive lines 80C coupled with the second drain contact plugs 60A are formed.
Since the first well-pickup contact plug 40B is formed between the first drain contact plugs 40A according to conventional technology, misalignments may be caused between a series of the first drain contact plugs 40A. In particular, as the first well-pickup contact plug 40B may be enlarged in size, substrate loss and chip size may be increased.

Semiconductor device and method for fabricating the same