A user of a handheld communication device selects in a foreground process portions of an electronic document. In a background process a new document is prepared that comprises the selected portions. The user selects the address for forwarding the new document, and the new document gets sent in a background process.

As an example of electronic documents, consider an email system. Email enables users to exchange computer messages via a data network such as the public Internet and the private AOL. The email protocol is a component of the Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). All online services and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer email, and most of them also support gateways for exchanging mail with users of other systems. Email messages typically comprise text, and can have text, graphics, video, sound files, web pages, etc., as attachments to or embedded within the email body.
As another example of electronic documents, consider Web pages. A browser enables the user to access the information available on the World Wide Web. Typically, this information comprises HTML codes that via the browser control how the information, i.e., the Web page, is being displayed for the user.

Selective sending of portions of electronic content


A device for a serial bus system. The device has a receiver receiving a signal from a bus of the bus system. For a message exchanged between user stations of the bus system, a recessive bus state is overwritable by a dominant bus state and the recessive bus state is generated differently in the first communication phase than in the second communication phase. The receiver generates a digital signal based on the received signal, and the signal being output to a communication control unit for evaluating the data contained in the digital signal. The receiver uses a first and second reception threshold for generating the digital signal in the second communication phase, the second reception threshold having a voltage value lower than that of the first reception threshold or higher than the highest voltage value which, during normal operation, is established on the bus for a dominant bus.

For the communication between sensors and control units, for example in vehicles, a bus system is frequently used, in which data are transmitted as messages in the Standard ISO 11898-1:2015 as CAN protocol specification with Controller Area Network Flexible Data-Rate (CAN FD). The messages are transmitted between the bus users of the bus system, such as sensor, control unit, transmitter, etc.
As the number of functions of a technical system or of a vehicle increases, so, too, does the data traffic in the bus system. Moreover, it is often a requirement that the data must be transmitted faster from the transmitter to the receiver than previously. As a result, the required bandwidth of the bus system will continue to increase.
To be able to transmit data at a higher bit rate than in the case of CAN, an option has been created in the CAN FD message format for switching to a higher bit rate within a message. In such technologies, the maximally possible data rate is increased beyond a value of 1 Mbit/s by using a higher clocking speed in the area of the data fields. Such messages are also referred to below as CAN FD frames or CAN FD messages. In the case of CAN FD, the payload data length is extended from 8 bytes all the way up to 64 bytes and the data transmission rates are significantly higher than in the case of CAN.
Even though a CAN- or CAN FD-based communications network offers numerous advantages with respect to its robustness, for example, it nevertheless has a significantly slower speed as compared to a data transmission in, for example, 100 Base-T1 Ethernet. Moreover, the payload data length achieved so far with CAN FD of up to 64 bytes is too short for some applications.

Device for a user station of a serial bus system and method for communication in a serial bus system


A toner image transfer type recording apparatus having a cleaning unit for removing residual contaminants from the surface of a rotating recording drum after toner image transfer. The cleaning unit includes a blade which engages the surface of the drum, a rotatable cleaning cylinder disposed immediately upstream from the blade, and a housing structure surrounding the blade and the rotatable brush. The housing is evacuated by an air pump connected thereto, causing external air to be introduced through an opening of the housing to facilitate removal of the contaminants from the housing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus of the toner image transfer type, namely electrostatographic apparatus, such as an electrophotographic apparatus or an electrostatic electrographic apparatus. In particular, it relates to an improved cleaning device to remove residual contaminants from the surface of the recording medium of the recording apparatus after a toner image transfer operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known, in a recording apparatus of the toner image transfer type, such as an electrophotographic printer or copying machine, or an electrographic printing machine or copying machine, an electrostatic latent image is formed on a recording medium such as a photoconductive drum or dielectric drum. The latent image is developed as a toner image formed on the surface of the drum. Thereafter, the toner image is adhesively transferred onto a printing medium such as cut sheet or web at an image transfer station of the apparatus where the surface of the recording medium and that of the printing medium are set in contact with each other. The present invention is applicable to both electrophotographic recording apparatus and electrographic recording apparatus. However, for clarity and simplicity of description, the description of the present invention will be limited to an electrophotographic recording apparatus having a photoconductive drum and employing cut sheet as a printing medium.
Since the image transfer usually does not remove all the toner particles from the surface of the recording medium but leaves a small amount of toner particles thereon, and since it is necessary to keep the surface of the recording medium clean for subsequent image formation thereon, the surface must be cleaned completely immediately after the image transfer. Accordingly, at the next cleaning station, contaminants remaining on the surface of the photoconductive drum, including residual toner particles, toner carriers, and paper lints, are removed. A cleaning device, therefore, is disposed downstream from the image transfer station with respect to the rotation of the drum. Hereinafter, the terms "downstream" and "upstream" are used with respect to the rotating movement of the photoconductive drum.
There have been two types of conventional cleaning devices. One is a type having a rotatable cleaning means such as a rotatable brush including a number of bristles made of plastic wire, mounted around a rotatable shaft, or a rotatable cylinder of sponge-like material formed around a shaft. The cleaning means extends in the axial direction of the photoconductive drum. The other is a blade type using a blade of elastic material such as polyurethane rubber. The blade extends in the axial direction of the photoconductive drum, and is disposed such that the edge of the blade engages with the rotating surface of the photoconductive drum in pressure contact therewith. The cleaning capability of a cleaning device of the rotatable type is not sufficient since there is a tendency to cause a contaminated toner image on a cut sheet or to cause fluctuated electric discharge of the electric discharger due to the residual toner particles scattered by brushing.
A cleaning device of the blade type normally can clean the surface of the photoconductive drum satisfactorily. However, there is a problem of abrasion of the edge of the blade caused by contaminants of large size such as toner carriers and paper lints accumulated on the edge as described hereafter.
When the feed passage of the cut sheet is selectively disposed in an upper portion of the recording apparatus, the image transfer station must be set at the top portion of the photoconductive drum. This configuration of the arrangement of the photoconductive drum to the printing medium is essentially beneficial for an operator of the apparatus, because removal of jammed sheets and replacement of the photoconductive drum, can be performed very easily and safely from the top side of the apparatus without damaging the surface of the photoconductive drum. The sheet jamming tends to occur at a portion of the sheet feed passage located in the vicinity of the image transfer station. Consequently, approach to the jammed cut sheet and the photoconductive drum by the operator, can be done easily only by opening the upper portion of the recording apparatus.
With respect to the above-described configuration of the arrangement of the photoconductive drum and the feed passage for the cut sheet, the blade must be naturally disposed such that the edge of the blade engages along a substantially downwardly moving surface of the photoconductive drum in pressure contact therewith and the edge of the blade is directly upstream, usually upwardly. When the edge scrapes the surface of the photoconductive drum to remove the contaminants thereon, the scraped contaminants might accumulate on the edge of the blade. The accumulated contaminants contain toner particles, toner carriers and paper lints. The toner particles are fine particles having a diameter of micron order. The toner carriers contained in two-component developer material have diameters of ten micron order. When two-component developer material is employed, the toner carrier tends to be scattered inside the apparatus by the centrifugal force of a rotating magnetic brush which is formed of the developer material. The paper lints have a larger size, range from 50 to 100 microns, and are generated by friction between the advancing printing medium and the sheet feed passages, particularly between the side edge of the printing medium and the passages.
The accumulated contaminants tend to stick to the edge of the blade, forming a layer stuck to a leading surface portion of the blade which is directly in contact with the surface of the photoconductive drum. As a result, the surface of the photoconductive drum is scratched and damaged by the toner carriers and the paper lints after some duration of recording operation. To avoid this damage, the used blades must be replaced with new ones, thus increasing the operating expense.
In addition, friction between an abraded blade edge and the surface of the photoconductive drum causes heat by which toner particles are melted. The melted toner particles make a thin film of toner particles stuck to the surface of the drum, disabling the portion of the surface covered by the film, This phenomenon is referred to in the art as "filming".
In contrast, fine toner particles appear to have a lubricant function. Thus, a layer of toner particles having a thickness is allowed to accumulate on the edge of the blade. However, particularly in a case where the top surface of the blade is formed to be perpendicular to the surface of the drum, forming a step there, toner particles accumulate on the step excessively, forming a pile on the top surface of the blade and the portion of the surface of the drum adjacent to the cleaning edge. This is not desirable because such piled toner particles tend to scatter within the recording apparatus, causing various problems. Further, some toner particles may pass underneath the cleaning edge, leaving a film on the peripheral surface of the drum. The film of toner particles may produce an unclear toner image formation.
As one of the countermeasures to solve the above-described problem in prior art recording apparatus, the edge of the blade is sharpened to be formed in a wedge-like shape, providing the blade with a slanted top surface over which scraped toner particles can easily fall down and the accumulation of the contaminants on the edge is reduced. However, the sharpening of the edge is rather difficult and costly, and the edge tends to be easily abraded by repeated recording operations.

Cleaning unit for cleaning recording medium of an electrophotographic apparatus


A blocking apparatus is cooperable with the latch lever of a vehicle door latching mechanism to prevent the latch lever from moving during a crash event, which prevents the latching mechanism from allowing the vehicle door to open. The blocking apparatus includes a housing supporting a linearly movable plunger engagable with a cam surface on the latch lever and a blocking member pivotally mounted for movement between a normal position and a blocking position. The blocking member moves into the blocking position due to the imposition of crash forces on the blocking member during a crash event. A centering spring mechanism biases the blocking member into the normal position and can return the blocking member into the normal position to permit movement of the latch lever after the crash event has occurred. The plunger is biased into engagement with the latch lever so as to move with the cam surface.

A door on an automobile includes a latching mechanism that has the function of securing the door in a closed position. An actuation device is operable to release the latching mechanism to permit the door to be opened as desired for ingress and egress with respect to the passenger compartment of the automobile. Mechanically actuated latching mechanisms typically include a latch lever that is connected to the actuation lever to move generally linearly in response to a corresponding movement of the actuation lever. Typically, the actuation lever is pivotally supported on the door to affect a release of the latching mechanism.
During a crash event, the momentum of the vehicle can cause the latch lever to move inertially and affect an undesired opening of the latching mechanism. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a blocking mechanism that would be operable to prevent the inertially movable latch lever from moving during a crash event, yet allow the normal operation of the latching mechanism to permit the desired opening and closing of the door. It would be further desirable that the blocking mechanism would be operable to reset after the crash event to allow the selective release of the latching mechanism for the opening of the door.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,583,741, granted to Werner Breitschwerdt on Jun. 8, 1971, a lock arrangement for automotive doors balances the inertial forces incurred during a crash event through force absorbing springs and a weighted pivot lever. A door handle assembly that precludes an inadvertent opening of the latch mechanism upon a side impact crash event is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,052, granted to Larry Spitzley on Aug. 8, 2000.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,481, issued to Alexander Buschmann on Feb. 2, 1999, discloses a door latch that is constructed in a manner as to prevent unlatching during a collision. An L-shaped blocking lever is pivotal between blocking and non-blocking positions by means of a spring. The blocking lever is pivoted by inertial forces to come into alignment with a camming point, which causes the latch to stay closed during impact. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,648,382, granted on Nov. 18, 2003, to Stefan Monig teaches a pivotable latching member secured in position by a torsion spring and a stationary stop in a housing. During a crash event, the inertial forces will overcome the spring force and move the latching member into position where the latching end of the latching member is supported on a support location of the housing to block the movement of the outer door handle.
In U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/018537, published on Aug. 25, 2005, an inertia activated assembly is disclosed to cause the latching mechanism of a vehicle door handle to resist opening from the frame during a crash event. A spring restrains a weight component to be seated against the housing. During a crash event, the weight component is set into motion and will travel outwardly with respect to the cone-shaped hole in the housing and away from the housing. The weight component along with the locking tab prevents rotation of the pivoting cam to prevent the door latch from being opened.

Apparatus for blocking the movement of an inertially activated component


This invention provides tricyclic derivatives which are leukotriene B.sub.4 antagonists, formulations of those derivatives, and a method of using those derivatives for the treatment of conditions characterized by an excessive release of leukotrienes.

Research in the area of allergic reactions of the lung has provided evidence that arachidonic acid derivatives formed by the action of lipoxygenases are related to various disease states. Some of these arachidonic acid metabolites have been classified as members of a family of eicosatetraenoic acids termed leukotrienes. Three of these substances are currently thought to be major components of what has been previously called slow reacting substance of anaphylaxis (SRS-A).
Leukotriene B.sub.4 (LTB.sub.4) is a proinflammatory lipid which has been implicated in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, arthritis, chronic lung diseases, inflammatory bowel diseases, and other inflammatory states characterized by the infiltration and aggregation of polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Thus aggregated, the polymorphonuclear leukocytes liberate tissue-degrading enzymes and reactive chemicals causing the inflammation. Antagonism of LTB.sub.4 should therefore provide a novel therapeutic approach to treatment of these conditions.
It is the object of this invention to provide novel chemical agents which are selective leukotriene antagonists that can be used therapeutically in the treatment of inflammation and allergic disorders such as asthma, where leukotrienes are thought to be causal mediators.


A resonant tank circuit has an output port configured to be coupled to a load comprising a current-controlled semiconductor device, such as a diode, thyristor, transistor or the like. A voltage generator circuit is configured to intermittently apply voltages to an input port of the resonant tank circuit in successive intervals having a duration equal to or greater than a resonant period of the resonant tank circuit. Such an arrangement may be used, for example, to drive a static switch.

The inventive subject matter relates to drive circuits and methods for semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to circuits and methods for driving current-controlled semiconductor devices.
Current-controlled semiconductor devices typically include a PN junction as a controlling terminal. Examples of such devices include thyristor-type devices such as silicon-controlled rectifier (SCRs), TRIACs and gate turn-on devices (GTOs), as well as diodes, bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) and junction field-effect transistors (JFETs).
Conventionally, such devices may be driven by simple linear circuits, such as a voltage source in series with a resistor. They also may be driven by a linear regulator that regulates a voltage over a known sense resistor. FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional technique for driving an SCR 10, in which a driver circuit 20 drives a control terminal of the SCR 10 via a resistor R.

Resonant tank drive circuits for current-controlled semiconductor devices


FinFET devices are formed with body contact structures enabling the fabrication of such devices having different gate threshold voltages (Vt). A body contact layer is formed to contact the gate electrode (contact) enabling a forward body bias and a reduction in Vt. Two example methods of fabrication (and resulting structures) are provided. In one method, the gate electrode (silicon-based) and body contact layer (silicon) are connected by growing epitaxy which merges the two structures forming electrical contact. In another method, a via is formed that intersects with the gate electrode (suitable conductive material) and body contact layer and is filled with conductive material to electrically connect the two structures. As a result, various FinFETs with different Vt can be fabricated for different applications.

Fin field-effect transistors (FinFET) are multi-gate transistors where the conducting channel is wrapped around a thin piece of silicon, often referred to and configured as a "fin." The dimensions of the fin structure determine the effective channel width of the transistor. Typically, the source, drain and gate are formed extending above the substrate.
FinFETs provide a promising candidate for small line width technology (e.g., approximately 22 nm and below) because of their excellent short channel effect control and scalability. To be advantageous for general purpose applications, it is desirable for FinFETS to have different threshold voltages (Vt) that can be used for different circuit functionalities. However, manufacturing FinFETs with different threshold voltages is difficult. Because the channel or "fin" is on the order of 30 nm, this dimension makes it almost impossible to adjust Vt by changing channel doping concentration.
One possible way to obtain FinFETS with different Vt is to utilize different gate stack materials in High-K-Metal-Gate FinFET technology. However, the use of multiple gate stack processes needed to produce FinFETS with different Vt is extremely complex and non-practical in the manufacturing process.
Another way to obtain different Vt is through body bias. For example, in a conventional surface channel nFET, negative body bias increases Vt while positive body bias lowers Vt. Positive body bias is seldom used in bulk surface channel technology due to its associated high leakage current. Dynamic-Threshold MOSFETS (DTMOS) utilizes positive body bias to dynamically lower Vt when a transistor is "on" in order to increase drive current.
For a conventional FinFET structure, no body contact is possible because the channel/fin is completely isolated by buried oxide (BOX) underneath the channel/fin. Others have proposed to introduce body contact to FinFET structures, however, these methods are either very complicated, non-practical in manufacturing, or the FinFET device characteristics are severely affected.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved FinFET device and structure (and methods of manufacture) having a gate to body contact that lowers the Vt of the device (as compared to FinFET without gate to body contact).

FinFET with novel body contact for multiple Vt applications


A cross operator is applied to the image of a wiring pattern provided on a printed board, to obtain respective sizes of the image in first and second directions. When the condition that the size of the wiring pattern in one of first and second directions is larger than a threshold value but the size in the other direction is smaller than the threshold value is satisfied, it is decided that the wiring pattern is a wiring line., The width of the wiring line is measured with the operator and is compared with a predetermined allowable range of the width. A land and a pin hole which may be present on the printed board do not satisfy the condition for detecting the wiring line and accurate inspection of the wiring line is attained.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of and apparatus for inspecting the width of a wiring line formed on a printed board.
2. Description of Prior Arts
A printed circuit board is provided with wiring patterns having lands and through holes. With reduction in size and weight as well as improvement in performance of electronic components, wiring patterns on a printed board are also refined and highly densified. Then, it is required to reduce the width of wiring lines as well as the diameter of through holes.
As to such narrow lines, inspection and management of widths thereof are more important than conventional lines having relatively wide width.
In inspection and management of line widths of the wiring pattern, a certain allowable range is set for the line widths. When the width of a line is within the range, the line is regarded as nondefective one. On the other hand, when the width of a line is out of the range, the line is regarded as defective.
Techniques of automatically inspecting the width of wiring lines have been developed, in which a pixel operator is employed as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open Gazette No. 59-74627 (1984), for example.
FIGS. 1(a) to 1(d) show a cross operator OP which is employed as an exemplary pixel operator.
FIG. 1(a) shows such a case that a defect MIS takes place in a wiring line L. Arms L.sub.1 and L.sub.2 of the operator OP on the line L and are parallel to the line L. The width of the line L is measured with arms L.sub.3 and L.sub.4 which are perpendicular to the line L. The line width is below a prescribed value at the defect MIS portion, whereby the defect MIS is detected.
FIG. 2 illustrates the cross operator OP in more detail. It is assumed that a logical level of "1" is obtained on the pixels of the operator OP located on a pattern P such as the line L, while the other logical level "0" is obtained on other pixels. Then, it is decided that the center O of the operator OP is on the line L if there are two arms L.sub.1 and L.sub.2 all pixels of which are "1" and the center O of the operator OP is "1". The other two arms L.sub.3 and L.sub.4 perpendicular to the two arms L.sub.1 and L.sub.2 provides continuous four pixels having the logical level "1", and the length corresponding to the four pixels is regarded as the line width W. When the line width W is below a prescribed value "5", for example, it is decided that there is the defect MIS on the pattern P.
The conventional method has the following two disadvantages.
(1) If the operator OP is applied to a land R having a pinhole PH as shown in FIG. 1(b), however, the pinhole PH is also inevitably decided as a defect MIS of the line L. Similarly, a mix pattern for power supply shown in FIG. 1(c) and a logo pattern shown in FIG. 1(d) are also inevitably decided as defects MIS of the lines L. Namely, the operator OP often mistakes nondefective patterns for defective lines, to cause false information and remarkably reduce reliability of the inspection.
(2) A region Aq (FIG. 4) in the vicinity of a corner of the line L cannot be effectively inspected in the conventional method, so that the region Aq is a "blind region" in the inspection. That is, if the operator OP scans a longitudinal line L from the lower position to the upper portion of the line L and the center O thereof reaches the blind region Aq, the arm L.sub.1 extends beyond the line L, so that part of pixels on the arm L.sub.1 provide the logical level of "0". Therefore, the blind region Aq is not detected as the line L although the same is essentially present on the line L.
This blind region Aq is in the form of a square, one edge of which is equal to the length of each arm of the operator OP. Hence, if the line L is relatively wide as shown in FIG. 4, it is possible to detect the defect MIS since the defect MIS located in the vicinity of the corner belongs to a detectable region Ap. On the other hand, when the line L is narrow as shown in FIG. 5, the defect MIS cannot be detected since the same is in the blind region Aq.
Respective arms of the operator OP may be reduced in size in order to reduce the blind region Aq. However, in this case, it is inevitable that a land R (FIG. 3) is also recognized as the line L and this portion is decided as defective.
A curved wide line pattern as shown in FIG. 6 can be decided as the line. However, a curved narrow line pattern as shown in FIG. 7 is not decided as the line even if the same has the same curvature as that of the case shown in FIG. 6, since there are no arms all pixels of which are "1".

Method of and apparatus for inspecting width of wiring line on printed board


A light assembly is used in a purse and is releasably attached to one inside surface of such purse by a hook-and-loop fastener. The light includes a switch which automatically turns on the light as soon as the purse is opened, and includes an alarm system that generates an audible signal after a pre-set time interval after the purse is opened unless the alarm is de-activated manually.

Many women carry their belongings in a purse. Whenever this purse is opened, there are shadows in the purse, even in bright light, and especially in darkened areas, such as a dark room or the like. These shadows make finding a small item, such as a house key, difficult.
Accordingly, many women carry a flashlight in their purse. However, such lights must be small so as not to take up an inordinate amount of room, especially if the purse is small. Thus, finding the flashlight itself can be a difficult task, thereby vitiating the advantages of the light. Still further, if the light is difficult to activate, as because it has a small, difficult-to-reach switch, the advantages associated therewith are further inhibited.
Still further, many woman suffer from purse snatchings. Therefore, there is a need for a means for inhibiting such occurrences.
If the light is small, it can become lost in the clutter of many other items that may be in the purse. If the user must search for the light, its effectiveness is undermined.
Accordingly, there is a need for a device which is small, yet which can be used to not only provide light in a purse, but can also be used as a means for inhibiting loss of the purse as by purse snatching.


The present disclosure provides a static random access memory (SRAM) cell. The SRAM cell includes first and second inverters cross-coupled for data storage, each inverter including at least one pull-up device and at least two pull-down devices; at least four pass gate devices configured with the two cross-coupled inverters; at least two ports coupled with the at least four pass-gate devices for reading and writing; a first contact feature contacting first two pull-down devices (PD-11 and PD-12) of the first inverter; and a second contact feature contacting second two pull-down devices (PD-21 and PD-22) of the second inverter.

In deep sub-micron integrated circuit technology, an embedded static random access memory (SRAM) device has become a popular storage unit of high speed communication, image processing and system-on-chip (SOC) products. For example, a dual port (DP) SRAM device allows parallel operation, such as 1R (read) 1W (write), or 2R (read) in one cycle, and therefore has higher bandwidth than a single port SRAM. In advanced technologies with decreased feature size and increased packing density, low loading and high speed of the cell structure are important factors in embedded memory and SOC products. Various gate structures are implemented to achieve high packing density and high speed. For example, a U-shaped gate structure is employed in the SRAM structure. However, the U-shaped gate structure induces potential issues including pull-down (PD) device variation and integration concerns on fin-like field-effect transistor (FinFET) structure. Furthermore, the critical dimension uniformity (CDU) in the U-shaped gate structure also introduces necking and leakage problems. Accordingly, the U-shaped gate structure impacted the SRAM cell stability and limited the scaling (or shrink) capability. It is therefore desired to have a new structure and method to address the above issues.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A variable camshaft timing phaser having a locking pin directly influenced by engine oil, which is not impacted by any intervening valves. The locking pin is comprised of a tapered pin, which fits into a tapered recess. The locking pin is biased towards engaging by a spring, and is retracted by oil from the engine oil supply. The locking pin remains disengaged from the tapered recess as long as the oil pump is on.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to the field of variable camshaft timing (VCT) systems. More particularly, the invention pertains to a center mounted spool valve and a lock pin, which is fed directly with supply oil.
2. Description of Related Art
Internal combustion engines have employed various mechanisms to vary the angle between the camshaft and the crankshaft for improved engine performance or reduced emissions. The majority of these variable camshaft timing (VCT) mechanisms use one or more xe2x80x9cvane phasersxe2x80x9d on the engine camshaft (or camshafts, in a multiple-camshaft engine). In most cases, the phasers have a rotor with one or more vanes, mounted to the end of the camshaft, surrounded by a housing with the vane chambers into which the vanes fit. It is possible to have the vanes mounted to the housing, and the chambers in the rotor, as well. The housing""s outer circumference forms the sprocket, pulley or gear accepting drive force through a chain, belt or gears, usually from the crankshaft, or possibly from another camshaft in a multiple-cam engine.
In an effort In traditional systems the locking pin is present in the vane of the phaser. Taking pressure (control pressure) from either the advanced or retard chamber, or a combination of both disengages the locking pin.
A traditional system as shown in prior art FIGS. 1 and 2 comprises an oil pump (10) that provides supply oil to a remotely located spool valve (14) in the engine block (16). The spool valve (14) is controlled by a variable force solenoid (12). Oil lines (18)(20) present in the engine block (16) are supplied with oil from the spool valve (14) and lead into a bearing (22) located on the camshaft (26). The lines (18)(20) continue through the bearing (22) and the camshaft (26) until they terminate in the phaser (24). The two lines are present in the phaser vane, one leading to the retard chamber (17b) and one leading to the advanced chamber (17a), labeled R and A respectively.
In order to prevent motion of the phaser when oil pressure is too low to hold position, a locking pin is often provided. The locking pin (30) of the system can be located in the vane (28) or in the rotor or housing. The locking pin is disengaged from the rotor (not shown) by taking the oil pressure from either the advance or retard chambers or a combination of the two. In an effort to reduce the oscillation of the phaser due to cam torsionals of a remotely mounted spool valve in a traditional system as described below, the spool valve overlap is increased to reduce the flow from the chamber to chamber. In such a system as described, the locking pin (30) only receives partial oil pressure. The partial oil pressure is due to the fact that the oil must travel through the spool valve (14) located in the engine block (16), through lines (18)(20) in both the engine block (16) and the camshaft (26), and through the chambers (17a)(17b) in the phaser (24). As the oil is made to travel further and further, and through more objects, for example through the cam bearings, chambers and the spool valve, the amount of oil lost due to leakage increases and the oil pressure is reduced significantly, so that by the time the oil reaches the locking pin in the above described system, the pressure is only partial.
Also, in an effort to reduce the oscillation of the phaser due to cam torsionals of a remotely mounted spool valve in a traditional system as described, the spool valve overlap is increased to reduce the flow from the chamber to chamber. The reduction of the flow of oil reduces the pressure of the oil that keeps the locking pin disengaged from the rotor. With the reduction of flow, the locking pin can easily engage the rotor, especially if the vane is in the middle of travel.
In most prior art variable cam timing systems, the locking pin is controlled by the oil pressure in the advance or retard chambers, through an oil line from one or both chambers. These chambers pressurize with oil from the output of the spool valve. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,402 the camshaft rotor carries a slidable pin that may be locked in a position with respect to the housing that prevents the movement of the rotor relative to the housing. The sliding action of the pin is controlled by the position of the spool valve that is slidable along its axis to selectively control the flow of engine oil into and out of the advance and retard chambers of the housing. Since the spool valve is controlling whether the pin is locked or not, the locking of the pin is not solely a function of engine oil pressure.
A variable camshaft timing phaser having a locking pin directly influenced by engine oil, which is not impacted by any intervening valves. The locking pin is comprised of a tapered pin, which fits into a tapered recess. The locking pin is biased towards engaging by a spring, and is retracted by oil from the engine oil supply. The locking pin remains disengaged from the tapered recess as long as the oil pump is on.

Method to ensure robust operation of a pin lock in a vane style cam phaser


A method and apparatus for automatically separating blanks from a copper strip (200) and coining heat spreader lids (400) from the blanks. A high speed blanking structure (208) severs single rectangular or square blanks (212) from the copper strip. The blanks are loaded into a cartridge (214), and placed in a blanks hopper (213). The blanks are transferred from the hopper to a rotatable turret (217). The turret rotates to move a blank to a coining die cavity of a coining press (305). The blank is coined to form a lid and returned to the turret to be delivered to an unload station where the lid is dropped onto a conveyor (310). The conveyor transports the lid to a deburr and clean station (610).

1. Field
This invention relates generally to semiconductor chip devices, and in particular to the manufacture of a heat spreader lid that is part of a multi-piece integrated heat spreader/heat sink/stiffener assembly in a semiconductor package which reduces stress and warping of a semiconductor die during attachment of the die to a substrate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In semiconductor device assembly, a semiconductor chip (also referred to as an integrated circuit chip or "die") is bonded directly to a packaging substrate. Semiconductor packages that have been soldered to a motherboard and placed in a computer are typically subjected to temperature cycling during computer operation. Therefore, the semiconductor packages require a way to permit excess heat to be radiated into the surrounding air so that the heated air can be removed by cooling fans. A heat spreader lid, composed of a high thermal conductivity material, and having substantially the same dimensions as the package substrate, is attached over the die and bonded by a thermally conductive adhesive which is heat cured. A conventional heat spreader is typically a flat piece of nickel-plated copper about 20 to 40 mils thick. A metal plate called a heat sink, which includes metal fins to promote rapid radiation of excessive heat, is bonded by a thermally conductive adhesive to the flat surface of the heat spreader lid. The purpose of the heat spreader and heat sink is to disperse the heat generated during thermal cycling in order to reduce stress in the package due to different coefficients of thermal expansion of the various elements of the package, including the die, substrate and underfill. Such stress in the semiconductor package may ultimately result in electronic and/or mechanical failure, including cracking of the die. It is desirable that the lid be in the form of a cap with side that will fit over the semiconductor package to further constrain the substrate in order to prevent warping or other movement relative to the die which may be caused by thermal cycling.
Conventional processes for manufacturing a heat spreader use a progressive die wherein raw material is taken from a copper coil and run through a progressive die (blanking, coining and piercing) so that the result at the end of the progression is supposed to be a finished part. The problem with this process is that it does not result in a part off of the coining press that meets minimum specifications for flatness. There must be subsequent grinding and finishing to bring the part into compliance with minimum specifications for flatness, which is critical for the heat spreader to make uniform contact with the semiconductor die.

Making integral heat spreader by coining


A guide for guiding wallpaper knife includes a planar member with a right-angled lip formed at a forward end portion of the planar member. The right-angled lip and the planar member form a press for pushing an overlapping sheet of wallpaper into a corner, while a flat linear edge of the right-angled lip provides a guide surface for guiding the wallpaper knife along a linear path substantially parallel to the corner of a room.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to wallpapering, and more specifically, to a knife guide for cutting wallpaper at any vertical inside corner of a room.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wallpapering an inside corner of a room presents a technically difficult problem in that it is visually desirable to have a sharp right angle with the pattern or print of the wallpaper matching as it turns the corner. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to construct a perfect corner. Thus, where a perfect corner would have intersecting planes of two right-angled walls forming a perfectly straight vertical line, in reality, the intersecting planes form generally non-linear and multi-planar lines. This makes it nearly impossible for the artisan to go around the corner with a single sheet of paper finishing one wall and starting down the next with a perfectly plumb vertical edge. It is also nearly impossible to have two side edges of paper meet of butt together at the corner as one would on the flat wall.
A second reason for "breaking" and restarting at every inside corner is that some materials shrink upon drying. This ofter ruins the tight bond at the inside corner and the sharp, crisp look of a 90-degree angle.
Although overlapping a side edge portion of one sheet over the side edge portion of the other sheet is a known technique for compensating for imperfections in the corner, creating the necessary overlap which looks best is difficult. It should be very small, e.g. 1/8" at most, just enough to hide a seam at the very corner and giving the illusion of the pieces being butted together.
Another great benefit of making the overlap small occurs with printed papers that require the pattern always be matched. With the small overlap, the cut piece can be matched at eye level and then made vertically plumb overall. The illusion created is that it is a perfect match at the corner and no material is lost or wasted.
Various known devices have been used in the past to guide a wallpaper knife. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,500,540 has a right-angled guide for holding a wallpaper knife in the corner of the guide in order to guide the knife down the corner of a room. However, the guide requires a perfect corner in order to cut wallpaper in a straight line at the corner. Therefore, U.S. Pat. No. 3,500,540 does not address the problems in wallpapering created by imperfect room corners.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,875,664 describes a scribing tool for cutting tile which must be cut next to a wall. However, since tilts are rigid, they do not experience the same problems associated with cutting wallpaper sheets.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,330,939 describes a template for trimming covered linoleum.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,724,010 describes a device which resembles a putty knife having a knife blade mounted in a forward corner edge thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,207 describes a wallpaper trimmer which does not have any specific application for overlapping two sheets of wallpaper
U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,340 teaches a device for trimming overlapping edges to form a butt-seam.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,409 describes a wallpaper trimmer for cutting wall coverings on outer wall corners.
The above-mentioned patents do not address problems created by inperfect wall corners.


A device for indicating the type of ammunition provided in or on the ammunition unit comprises a distinguishable specific identification allocated for each type of ammunition and made up of electronic device with different electrical characteristics depending on the type of ammunition, including a status-changing element which can change between at least two statuses having different electrical characteristics. A control circuit is provided for controlling change-over of the status-changing element between the at least two statuses having different electrical characteristics, the process of the status changes controlled by the control circuit being indicative of the type of ammunition contained in the ammunition unit.

Known devices for indicating the ammunition type can consists of color marking of the ammunition units, preferably in connection with the electrical connection at the bottom of the ammunition unit. The color marking makes it possible, for example, for flares to be distinguished from radar chaff and different types of flares or radar chaff charges can be similarly distinguished from one another. On loading the release system release units with ammunition units, the operator must make sure that the different ammunition units reach the intended place in the magazine of the release unit on the basis of the color marking. The places are predetermined. Since the loading must often be carried out under time pressure and difficult external conditions such as darkness, there is a risk of mistaking the ammunition types. The predetermined distribution of the ammunition types also involves limits in the possibilities of matching the ammunition to the prevailing threat situation.
Another device for indicating the ammunition type is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,068,556. This device is intended for rockets and each specific type of rocket is allocated an identification impedance identifying the rocket type.

Arrangement with release system, ammunition unit and release system


A spatial mass pendulum includes a pendulum mass and at least three, preferably four, pendulum rods. The pendulum rods are arranged distributed around the pendulum mass and are each coupled at a first coupling point to the object and at a second coupling point to a lower section of the pendulum mass. At least two pendulum rods are dimensioned and spread in such a way that the distance between their first coupling points is greater than the distance between their second coupling points, so that during a movement of the pendulum mass its center of gravity is guided by the pendulum rods on the surface of a virtual ellipsoid.

For quite some time now, large mass pendulums, which act as gravity pendulums in the gravitational field, have been used as oscillation absorbers for buildings. They serve to reduce the oscillations generated in particular by wind, wave movements, earthquakes, explosions, human influences (movement of people, etc.). For the building excited to oscillations, stresses result which lead to significant problems with regard to strength, stability, fatigue strength or safety and comfort of people present. Classic applications for mass pendulums in or on buildings include high-rise buildings, towers and pedestrian bridges. Mass pendulums can also be used in ships or other objects whose oscillations are undesirable and are to be reduced.
Different types of mass pendulums are known. In principle, each mass pendulum, irrespective of the specific embodiment, consists essentially of a mass (pendulum mass, oscillating mass) connected to an object in a suitable manner so that it can oscillate. The different designs differ in the way the mass is coupled to the object and in the way it is damped.
With regard to the damping of a mass pendulum in its application as an oscillation absorber, it is generally known to suspend a pendulum mass from the object to be protected so that it can oscillate and to arrange damping elements between the pendulum mass and the object. The period of oscillation of the mass pendulum is adjusted to the period of oscillation of the object to be damped. This is usually the lowest resonant frequency that is calculated from a modal analysis or measured on a real object. If the object is excited to oscillate, the mass pendulum undergoes a phase-shifted oscillation movement. The relative movement is damped by the damping elements and, thus, directed mechanical energy is extracted from the system and regularly dissipated into thermal energy. With suitable tuning, both the oscillation amplitude and the post-oscillation time of the object to be protected are significantly reduced.
With regard to the types of common mass pendulums, it is known that a pendulum mass is hinged to the object to be protected via approximately parallel pendulum rods. This arrangement creates a spherical pendulum in which the pendulum mass moves symmetrically on the surface of a sphere during the oscillation process. The oscillation period of the mass pendulum can be adjusted to any given oscillation period, for example to a resonance frequency of the object to which the pendulum is attached.
The oscillation period T (reciprocal value of the oscillation frequency f) of conventional gravity pendulums is decisively determined by the pendulum length Ip according to the formula
  T  =      2        π                                l          p                g            (g: gravitational acceleration of the earth). When used as a centrifugal pendulum in rotating objects, the centrifugal acceleration aZF is used instead of the gravitational acceleration g. The amount of the pendulum mass MP, its distribution (mass moments of inertia Ix, Iy) and the pendulum rods have only a very small influence, which is usually negligible for practical dimensioning.
In addition to the design as a common spherical pendulum, there are designs which arrange the pendulum mass in a folded double pendulum or guide a secondary mass coupled to the main mass on a horizontal plane or with a negative radius of curvature. The aim here is either to achieve the pendulum length required for a given period of oscillation (due to the proportionality of the period of oscillation to the root of the pendulum length, this length increases quadratically as the period of oscillation increases) at a significantly lower overall height, or to enable the two main axes to be tuned differently for objects oscillating asymmetrically about the main axes, e.g. high-rise buildings with asymmetrical ground plans.
Disadvantages of known mass pendulums are the very high construction heights due to long oscillation periods and consequently the loss of valuable construction volume. The alternatives mentioned require technically complex, cost-intensive designs, some of which use linear guide elements with increased friction, which lead to a poorer response behavior of the mass pendulum. Regular common spherical pendulums allow only one direction-independent period of oscillation, so that they are only suitable for symmetrically oscillating objects. In the case of executed objects, it often turns out that their calculated predicted oscillation periods were determined too long. For example, real stiffnesses of high-rise buildings are often greater with correspondingly shorter (actually measured) oscillation periods and require a significant shortening of the pendulum length during installation due to the square dependence. The buffer height initially planned in this context for subsequent adjustment is also not usable.

Compact spatial ellipsoidal mass pendulum


A storage controlling device including a memory and a processor configured to obtain information on each of a plurality of remaining lives of each of a plurality of storage devices included in a redundancy storage system, determine each of a plurality of timings for replacement of each of the plurality of storage devices so that a number of the timings for replacement included in a predetermined time range is less than a predetermined number, each of a plurality of timings for replacement being determined to be earlier than each of the plurality of timings that malfunctions occur in each of the plurality of storage devices corresponding to each of a plurality of timings for replacement, each of the plurality of timings that malfunctions occur being specified based on the obtained information, and output information that indicates at least one of the plurality of determined timings for replacement.

In the related art, there is redundant arrays of inexpensive disks (RAID) technology in which a combination of multiple storage devices are operated as a virtual disk. Disks, which are formed by RAID levels higher than or equal to RAID 1, have redundancy, and even if several storage devices malfunction, data can be recovered from other storage devices. In contrast, in a state where redundancy is lost, and one or more storage devices malfunction, in a so-called multi-dead state, data may not be recovered. Some storage devices may have a self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology (SMART) function as a function for predicting a malfunction caused by degradation over time.
According to related technology in the related art, self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology (SMART) data may be requested from one disk among a redundant array of multiple disks. There is technology in which SMART information regarding data disks and a spare disk is obtained, it is predicted if there are any data disks which are highly likely to malfunction among the data disks, and data of a data disk, which is highly likely to malfunction, is copied onto the spare disk.

Storage controlling device, storage controlling method, and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium


A back massaging device includes a base having a clamp for securement to a bed frame rail. A vertical column is mounted for reciprocal axial and rotational movement on the base. A transverse arm is pivotally mounted at an upper end of the vertical column and includes an actuating rod mounted for reciprocal parallel linear movement therewith. A massaging implement is pivotally secured on a distal end of the actuating rod. A programmable control simultaneously controls movement of the vertical column, the transverse arm and the actuating rod to move the massaging implement over a preprogrammed contour of an individual's back. The programmable control may include a remotely operable joystick to allow control of the back massaging device by a reclining individual during a back massaging operation. The massaging implement may include a remotely actuatable lotion dispenser.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to massaging devices, and more particularly pertains to an improved automatic back massaging device. Many people today, in our fast-paced, hectic environment, can never find the time to relax and unwind. For those who can find the time to relax, an activity that can soothe the tension and exhausted muscles provides a great deal of stress release. A massage activity providing this stress release has been conventionally afforded by human masseurs. However, a conventional massage can be expensive, and requires prearranged appointments and is thus not conveniently available in a home environment. Rudimentary massaging devices proposed by the prior art include a vibrating bed frame and various manually manipulated devices. These conventional massage implements are relatively expensive and cumbersome to use, while at the same time not affording a thorough massage. The present invention seeks to overcome these prior art disadvantages by providing a remotely controlled programmable robotic type massaging device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of massaging devices are known in the prior art. A typical example of such a massaging device is to be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,043, which issued to T. Thompson on Feb. 26, 1980. This patent discloses a massage table including a drive system for rotating a driven massage roller while reciprocating the table top. U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,421, which issued to V. Hershberger on Oct. 25, 1983, discloses a therapeutic manually actuated massaging device. Manual manipulation of pivotal handles causes the massage rollers to traverse an individual's back. U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,738, which issued to C. Niessen on Apr. 30, 1985, discloses a massage unit having a stationary frame which serves as a carrier for a motor driven drum upon which are journalled freely rotatable massage rollers. The device includes a bench or bed which is slidable transversely to the axis of the drum for moving an individual into contact with the massage drum. U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,998, which issued to T. Masuda et al on Apr. 14, 1987, discloses a massage table including a foldable base plate having carriers with massage rollers thereon. The massage rollers are mounted for movement along a linear guide track by a belt drive mechanism. U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,100, which issued to G. Hengl on Jan. 26, 1988, discloses a massaging machine having a cantilevered horizontally slidable massage brush. The brush is slidable along the horizontal frame and a counter weight is automatically slidable in the opposite direction as the brush, to maintain a constant pressure of the brush on the back of an individual.
While the above mentioned devices are directed to massaging devices, none of these devices disclose a programmable massaging device including a massaging implement movable along a preprogrammed contour of an individual's back. Additionally, none of the aforesaid devices include an automatic remotely actuatable lotion dispenser in conjunction with a programmable massaging implement. Inasmuch as the art is relatively crowded with respect to these various types of massaging devices, it can be appreciated that there is a continuing need for and interest in improvements to such massaging devices, and in this respect, the present invention addresses this need and interest.


Systems, computer program products, and methods are described herein for providing real-time intelligence engine for data asset discovery. The present invention is configured to receive an indication that a first user has initiated a creation of a first multi-dimensional cube using a first computing node; initiate an asset recovery engine on the first computing device to: compare attributes associated with the first multi-dimensional cube with attributes associated with the multi-dimensional cubes stored on the first edge computing unit of the first computing node to determine a match; retrieve a first configuration file associated with the subset of the one or more multi-dimensional cubes stored on the first edge computing unit of the first computing node; and execute the creation of the first multi-dimensional cube based on the first configuration file using the first computing node.

Analytics servers facilitate the work of building and populating analytics indexes such as cubes, which define spatial relationships between documents and concepts measured by their distance in a multi-dimensional space. These servers process data on various subject matters across various technologies. Widespread use of data across the technology platform has resulted in increased processing times for each cube causing performance issues and network and latency issues. As long as data grows, these issues will play a key role in data analysis and performance.
Therefore, there is a need for a real-time intelligence engine for data asset discovery.

Real-time intelligence engine for data asset discovery


The in-wheel motor drive assembly 21 includes: a motor unit A; a wheel hub bearing unit having a tubular wheel hub 32, a cylindrical outer-ring-side member 22c surrounding the outer circumferential surface of the wheel hub, and a wheel hub bearing 33 disposed in an annular space formed between the outer circumferential surface of the wheel hub and the inner circumferential surface of the outer-ring-side member to rotatably support the wheel hub; and a speed reduction unit 101 being a speed reduction mechanism having an output shaft 28 extending in one direction and an input shaft 25 extending in the other direction and reducing the rotational speed of the input shaft and transmitting the reduced rotation to the output shaft, the output shaft being fixedly inserted in the center of the wheel hub 32 and the input shaft being fixedly inserted in the motor rotary shaft 35.

There are some known conventional in-wheel motor drives as seen in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2009-52630 (PTL 1) and 2009-174593 (PTL 2). Each of the in-wheel motor drives disclosed in PTL 1 and PTL 2 has a drive motor, a speed reducer that receives a driving force from the drive motor and reduces rotational speed to output the reduced rotation to a wheel, and a wheel hub member coupled with an output shaft of the speed reducer, and the drive motor, speed reducer and wheel hub member are coaxially arranged in a line. The speed reducer adopts a cycloid reduction mechanism that provides a high speed reduction ratio in comparison with a general planetary gear speed reduction mechanism regarded as a conventional speed reducer. Such a configuration allows the torque required for the drive motor to be small and therefore the in-wheel motor drive to be advantageously reduced in size and weight.
In the manufacture and assembly of the in-wheel motor drives as disclosed in PTL 1 and PTL 2, an inner ring of a wheel hub bearing is fabricated by fixedly coupling a wheel hub and a wheel-side rotation member through a tube forming method. An exterior member, serving as an outer ring of the wheel hub bearing, is secured with bolts to one end face of a cylindrical speed-reduction-unit casing, serving as an outer circumferential surface of the speed reduction unit. Then, rotation members, two curved plates, inner pins, outer pins, and some other components are inserted in a predetermined order from an opening on the other end of the speed-reduction-unit casing to assemble the components one by one inside the speed reduction unit.
In the next assembly step, one end face of a cylindrical motor-unit casing is secured to the end face, in which the opening is formed, of the speed-reduction-unit casing. Since the motor unit disclosed in PTL 1 is an axial gap motor with stators on opposite sides of the motor unit in an axial direction, a stator for one side is first inserted, then a rotor is inserted, and a stator for the other side is inserted into the motor-unit casing from an opening formed on the other end thereof to assemble the components one by one inside the motor unit.
Since the motor unit in PTL 2 is a radial gap motor, components are inserted from an opening on an end of a motor-unit casing, separately, in a predetermined order and assembled one by one inside the motor unit. More specifically, after an end face of the motor-unit casing is secured to an end face of the speed-reduction-unit casing, a stator is first inserted from an opening on the other end of the motor-unit casing and then secured to an inner circumferential surface of the casing. Second, a rotor is inserted and the rotary shaft of the rotor is secured to an end of a rotation member projecting from the speed reduction unit.


A piezoelectric/electrostrictive structure is provided, including a plurality of stacked sheet-shaped piezoelectric/electrostrictive bodies and at least one sheet of a thin film. The interfaces between the piezoelectric/electrostrictive bodies are exposed at side faces of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive structure, the side faces have notches, and the thin film is placed on the notched portions of side faces. A method for manufacturing the piezoelectric/electrostrictive structure includes the steps of stacking a plurality of ceramic green sheets made of a piezoelectric/electrostrictive material, firing the stacked ceramic green sheets to prepare fired piezoelectric/electrostrictive bodies and forming at least one sheet of a thin film on side faces of the fired piezoelectric/electrostrictive bodies by a chemical vapor deposition process.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a piezoelectric/electrostrictive structure including a plurality of stacked sheet-shaped piezoelectric/electrostrictive bodies and also relates to a method for manufacturing such a structure by a green sheet-stacking process and a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Printing apparatuses such as printers, facsimiles, and copiers have long used a non-impact process. In particular, most compact printers have recently used such a non-impact process; hence, clear images equivalent to silver photographs can be reproduced on sheets of paper with high-performance inkjet heads. Piezoelectric inkjet heads are typical components of non-impact printing apparatuses. The piezoelectric inkjet heads include actuators including a plurality of piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuating parts and discharge ink using the displacement of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuating parts.
FIG. 13 is a perspective view showing an exemplary inkjet head 130. The inkjet head 130 includes a nozzle plate 139 having nozzles 138 and also includes an actuator 131 having ink chambers 135 blocked with the nozzle plate 139. The ink chambers 135, which may be referred to as cells 133, are defined by partitions 136, a substrate 132, and a cover plate 137 and communicatively connected to ink supply channels, which are not shown. The partitions 136 form piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuating parts 134. In the inkjet head 130, the volume of the ink chambers 135 (the cells 133) is varied by applying driving voltages to the piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuating parts 134 (the partitions 136) and ink is therefore discharged from the nozzles 138, whereby printing is performed. Japanese Patent No. 3217006 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses an inkjet head including an actuator.
There is no limit to the improvement of printing apparatuses for providing clear images. Therefore, for the inkjet head 130, the piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuating parts 134 and the ink chambers 135 need to be more densely arranged. In particular, the ink chambers 135 need to be arranged at 180 dots per inch (dpi) or more. In this case, the pitch between the nozzles 138 is equal to 141 μm (25.4 mm (one inch) per 180 of the nozzles 138). A decrease in the pitch between the nozzles 138 leads to a decrease in the width W of the ink chambers 135 and a decrease in the thickness T of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuating parts 134, as is clear from FIG. 13. Therefore, in order not to reduce the volume of the ink chambers 135, the depth (height) D of the ink chambers 135 must be increased by an amount equal to the decrement of the width W thereof. In usual, the depth D thereof is uniform and equal to the height of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuating parts 134. The dense arrangement of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuating parts 134 and the ink chambers 135 leads to an increase in the aspect ratio D/T of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuating parts 134 and an increase in the aspect ratio D/W of the ink chambers 135. The volume of the ink chambers 135 can be maintained by increasing the length of the ink chambers 135 without increasing the width W thereof. However, this technique is not preferable because the area of the actuator 131 is increased.
The actuator 131 having the above configuration can be manufactured by firing a green compact prepared by a green sheet-stacking process. FIGS. 14A to 14C are illustrations showing steps of manufacturing the actuator 131.
Slurry is prepared by mixing a piezoelectric material, a binder, a solvent, a dispersing agent, and an additive such as a plasticizer. Green sheets 16 are then prepared by a doctor blade process or another process using the slurry. The green sheets 16 are punched so as to have a predetermined shape. As shown in FIGS. 14A and the 14B, the resulting green sheets 16 are stacked on the substrate 132 and then pressed, whereby a ceramic green compact 143 is obtained. The ceramic green compact 143 obtained is fired, polarized as needed, wired, and then attached to the cover plate 137, whereby the actuator 131 shown in FIG. 14(c) is obtained. Electrodes may be attached to the actuator 131 as needed.
The actuator 131 prepared by the green sheet-stacking process has a problem in that the interfaces between the green sheets 16 are damaged in some cases when the ceramic green compact 143 is fired. The reason why the damage occurs will now be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.
FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing section A of the ceramic green compact 143 shown in FIG. 14(b). Section A covers some of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuating parts 134 and the ink chambers 135. FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view showing a part of section A shown in FIG. 2. Each punched green sheet 16 has tapered end faces as disclosed in JP-A-2002-160195 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 2). Side faces of the ceramic green compact 143 that are vertical as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 have notches 25 due to the stacked green sheets 16. With reference to FIG. 3, the stacked green sheets 16 can be displaced as disclosed in Patent Document 2. Therefore, after a pressure P is applied to the stacked green sheets 16 such that the green sheets 16 are unified, the interfaces between the green sheets 16 have unbonded portions 32 created due to a difference in depth between the notches 25. In the actuator 131 prepared by firing the ceramic green compact 143, cracks extend from the unbonded portions 32. Furthermore, since electrode layers are arranged on side faces of the actuator 131 that have the notches 25 and the piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuating parts 134 are distorted by applying voltages between the electrode layers, the actuator 131 is damaged by the cracks and the stress due to the displacement. In particular, actuators prepared by firing green compacts including green sheets and electrode layers placed therebetween have ceramic/metal interfaces and the bonding force between such interfaces is less than that of ceramic/ceramic interfaces. Therefore, such actuators are readily damaged.
An increase in the aspect ratio of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuating parts 134 makes such a problem more serious. This is because an excessive increase in pressure applied to the stacked green sheets 16 causes the stacked green sheets 16 to be buckled. Since the buckling strength is inversely proportional to the second power of the height of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuating parts 134, an increase in the aspect ratio of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuating parts 134 leads to a reduction in buckling strength. Therefore, the pressure applied to the green sheets 16 to be unified must be low. This causes unbonded portions to be created between the green sheets 16 which are not displaced. An increase in the aspect ratio of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuating parts 14, that is, a decrease in the width thereof enhances the influence of the unbonded portions on the strength; hence, the actuator 131 is readily damaged. The damage of the actuator 131 leads to the leakage of ink from ink chambers 135 placed in the inkjet head 130 and therefore leads to a serious decline in the reliability of printing apparatuses.

Piezoelectric/electrostrictive structure and method for manufacturing the same


A laminated ceramic capacitor including a laminated body having a plurality of stacked ceramic layers and internal electrodes located between the ceramic layers. The internal electrodes have a plurality of ceramic columnar members formed therein, which project into the internal electrodes from interfaces between the ceramic layers and the internal electrodes, but do not penetrate in the thickness direction of the internal electrodes.

Examples of laminated ceramic electronic components include laminated ceramic capacitors. The increased electrostatic capacitance per unit volume, that is, the ability to acquire higher capacitance in spite of being smaller in size is desired for laminated ceramic capacitors in the case of using the capacitors as surface-mounted components. In order to enhance the reduction in size and the increase in capacitance, it is typically effective to enhance the reduction in layer thickness for each of ceramic layers and internal electrodes, and the increase in the number of the internal electrodes located between the ceramic layers.
However, the increased number of the layers increases the ratio of the internal electrodes per unit volume of the laminated ceramic capacitor. As a result, the difference in the temperature of sintering shrinkage in a firing step between the ceramic layer section and the internal electrode section has a significant influence, which makes delamination likely to be caused.
In addition, the ceramic constituting the ceramic layer section and the metal constituting the internal electrode section are different from each other in coefficient of thermal expansion. Therefore, the laminated ceramic capacitor obtained through the firing step has internal stress caused by the difference in coefficient of thermal expansion. This internal stress is further increased as the ratio of the internal electrodes is increased by the increase in the number of layers, and thus is a cause of making cracks likely to be caused when thermal stress (thermal shock) is applied.
In order to solve these problems, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-111698 (Patent Document 1) discloses glass phases extending in a columnar fashion in the thickness direction of internal electrodes, which are distributed in scraps. This configuration will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 7. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a partial enlargement of a laminated body 4 to serve as a component main body of a laminated ceramic capacitor.
The laminated body 4 has a stacked structure including a plurality of ceramic layers 2 stacked and internal electrodes 3 located between the ceramic layers 2. The internal electrodes 3 mainly include a metal sintered body 6, and have several voids 7 observed, while columnar glass phases 8 extending in a columnar fashion in the thickness direction are distributed in scraps in the internal electrodes 3.
The glass phases 8 are formed in the firing process for obtaining the laminated body 4. When a glass component is contained in a conductive paste for the internal electrodes 3, a glassy substance is deposited in the internal electrodes 3 and at the interface section between the internal electrodes 3 and the ceramic layers 2 in the process of firing, and this deposited glassy substance partially forms the columnar glass phases 8.
The glassy substance deposited as described above suppresses the shrinkage of the internal electrodes 3, reduces thermal stress at the interfaces between the internal electrodes 3 and the ceramic layers 2, and makes the internal electrodes 3 and the ceramic layers 2 likely to slide on each other at the interfaces. Thus, stress which causes delamination can be relaxed to make structural defects such as delamination and cracking less likely to be caused.
However, the technique described in Patent Document 1 forms the columnar glass phases 8 so as to penetrate in the thickness direction of the internal electrodes 3, and thus causes the internal electrodes 3 to be broken off at least in the sections with the columnar glass phases 8 present. As a result, in the case of the laminated ceramic capacitor, situations are caused against the demand for the increase in capacitance, such as leading to a reduction in electrostatic capacitance.
While the laminated ceramic capacitor has been described above, laminated ceramic electronic components other than laminated ceramic capacitors can also encounter similar problems.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-111698

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Laminated ceramic electronic component and manufacturing method therefor


An image signal processing method adapted to an AFE device, which respectively generates first and second colors of digital signals according to first and second colors of analog signals. First, the first color of odd and even signals and the second color of odd and even signals are generated according to the first and second colors of analog signals, respectively. In a single channel mode, the first color of odd or even signal serves as the first color of digital signal for output, and the second color of odd or even signal serves as the second color of digital signal for output. In a dual channel mode, the first color of odd signal and second color of even signal are synchronously outputted, and the first color of even signal and second color of odd signal are also synchronously outputted. The first color of odd and even signals are combined to form the first color of digital signal, and the second color of odd and even signals are combined to form the second color of digital signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an image signal processing method and device, and more particularly to an image signal processing method and device for a LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor.
2. Description of the Related Art
The cathode ray tube (CRT) display technology is always the mainstream of display for a long time, and its associated technology is well developed after several tens of years of improvements. Recently, the display technology has been greatly modified owing to the trend of digitalization. Thus, the digital display tends to replace the CRT monitor.
Unlike the operation method of the conventional analog display, the digital signals of the digital display replace the electron beams of the CRT monitor. So, the digital display may be made thinner and lighter, and makes it possible to get rid of the problems of radiation and frame flickers. The liquid crystal display (LCD) and the plasma display panel (PDP) is representative of the mainstreams of the present digital display technology. At present, because the LCD technology is suitable for the small-scale display and the domestic televisions are mainly the CRT monitors, the application field of the LCD technology in the market is wider than that of the PDP technology.
In the applications of the personal computers, because the display cards (VGA cards) of many computer systems can only output analog image signals, the LCD has to convert the analog signals into digital signals for display. Therefore, the image processing device of the LCD must have an analog front end (AFE) device and a scalar for performing operations of signal conversion and scaling, wherein the AFE device is for converting analog image signals into digital image signals, while the scalar is for computing the digital image signals so as to obtain images with various resolutions.
The function of the AFE device is to convert analog image signals, which are composed of three primary colors of red (R), green (G), and blue (B), into digital image signals. A typical AFE device has three sets of ADCs (analog-to-digital converters) 110, 130 and 150 for converting red analog signals RA, green analog signals GA and blue analog signals BA into red digital signals RD, green digital signals GD and blue digital signals BD, respectively, as shown in FIG. 1. In the AFE device, the most important portion is the high-speed ADC, the performance of which directly influences the frame quality of the LCD monitor. Taking a 15″ LCD monitor as an example, if the display mode is 1024×768×85 Hz (XGA mode), the ADC has to work at 94.500 MHz. That is, the clock generator 170 has to output clock signals CLK with 94.500 MHz to the ADCs 110, 130 and 150. With the development of the LCD technology, there will be more and more large-scale panels to be commercialized. If a 17″ LCD monitor is operating under the SXGA mode (1280×1024×85 Hz), the working clock of the ADC may reach 157.500 MHz. Consequently, an ADC with high-speed and medium resolution plays an important role in the AFE device. With the increasing of the integration degree of the chip, the current trend is to integrate the AFE device, the scalar and other peripheral circuits on the same chip, which is called as a LCD control chip.
The required clock of the ADC will get higher and higher as the resolution of the liquid crystal panel gets higher and higher. However, owing to the support limitation of the manufacturing process, it is difficult to implement the ADC having a working clock higher than a certain extreme value. In order to overcome such a problem, the interleaved circuit architecture having increased speed but large area is adopted during the design phase. In such methods, an ADC working at the frequency f may be equivalent to an odd converter and an even converter both working at the frequency f/2, and the analog signals are converted into an odd signal and an even signal. Thereafter, a selector (e.g., a multiplexer) working at the frequency f is adopted to alternatively output the odd signal and the even signal, both of which may be combined into the desired digital signal. FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration showing an interleaved ADC. Taking the conversion of the red analog signal RA as an example, the odd converter 211 and the even converter 213 of the ADC 210 operate, according to the clock signal HCLK, to convert the red analog signal RA into a red odd signal RDO and a red even signal RDE, respectively. Thus, the frequency of each of the red odd signal RDO and the red even signal RDE is the same as that of the clock signal HCLK. The multiplexer 220 alternatively switches between the odd converter 211 and the even converter 213 according to the clock signal CLK, and the red odd signal RDO and the red even signal RDE may be combined into the red digital signal RD for output accordingly. The frequency of the clock signal CLK is twice that of the clock signal HCLK and may be implemented by the frequency divider 270. Similarly, the odd converter 231 and the even converter 233 of the ADC 230 may convert the green analog signal GA into the green odd signal GDO and the green even signal GDE, both of which are then combined into the green digital signal GD by the multiplexer 240. The odd converter 251 and the even converter 253 of the ADC 250 may convert the blue analog signal BA into the blue odd signal BDO and the blue even signal BDE, both of which are then combined into the blue digital signal BD by the multiplexer 260.
Simply speaking, in the interleaved architecture, the analog signals of the three primary colors may be converted into the digital signals with the frequency f if each ADC works at the frequency f/2. Consequently, the circuit design difficulty may be greatly reduced, but a larger circuit area is required.
FIG. 3 shows timing charts of the clock signals CLK and HCLK, the red odd signal RDO, the red even signal RDE and the red digital signal RD, wherein the frequency of the clock signal CLK is one half that of the clock signal HCLK. As mentioned above, the frequency of each of the red odd signal RDO and the red even signal RDE is the same as that of the clock signal HCLK. The multiplexer alternatively switches between the odd converter and the even converter according to the clock signal CLK so as to combine the red odd signal RDO and the red even signal RDE into the red digital signal RD, wherein the frequency of the red digital signal RD is the same as that of the clock signal CLK. Similarly, the methods for forming the green and blue digital signals are also the same as that for forming the red digital signal, and detailed descriptions thereof will be omitted.
In the high-frequency mode, digital signals of the three primary colors are combined by the odd and even signals generated from the odd and even converters, respectively. Therefore, if the odd and even converters have unsymmetrical circuit architectures caused by the differences of manufacturing processes or other reasons, fine ripples with different brightness will be caused in the gray-scale frame. FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration showing the actual gray-scale distribution of the digital signal. It is assumed that the odd symbols denote the pixels (e.g., pixels P1, P3, P5, . . . P11 ) for the odd signals outputted from the odd converters, and the even symbols denote the pixels (e.g., pixels P2, P4, P6, . . . P12) for the even signals outputted from the even converters. Theoretically, each pixel value should fall on the horizontal line, as shown in FIG. 4A. However, because the circuit architectures of the odd and even converters are not symmetrical, the pixel value is not the same as the theoretical value. In some cases (e.g., in this embodiment), it is possible that all pixel values corresponding to the odd signals outputted from the odd converters are higher than the theoretical values, and all pixel values corresponding to the even signals outputted from the even converters are lower than the theoretical values (or the odd pixel values are lower and the even pixel values are higher, depending on the circuit designs). Consequently, interleaved fine ripples with different brightness in the gray-scale frame will be produced. Of course, it is inevitably that the odd or even signals are different from the theoretical values. That is, one of the odd or even signals may coincide with the theoretical values). However, in terms of outputting the same pixel value, the odd signal will be indispensably different from the even signal, which is the main reason causing the different brightness.
Of course, such a problem directly influences the image quality. The influence will become more significant in the display mode of lower frequency or the frame with the simpler background, and will be found by the user. Hence, it is necessary to find and solve the source of the problem in order to improve the display effect of the monitor and to enhance the display quality.

Image signal processing method and device


A structure of the lockable door includes a door cover, a first sliding member, a fastening member, and a second sliding member. The door cover is hinged to a case, and can selectively cover an opening of the case. The first sliding member is inserted through the door cover, and can be slidably mounted on one side surface of the door cover. The fastening member is slidably mounted on the other side surface of the door cover, and has at least one protrusion. The first sliding member is inserted through the fastening member, and the first sliding member and the second sliding member are connected to each other. When the first sliding member is in a retaining position, the second sliding member moves to be on the protrusion, and the first sliding member presses the door cover towards the second sliding member, so as to enhance waterproofness.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lockable door structure, and more particularly to a lockable door structure applicable to an electronic device, which can selectively cover an opening of a case of the electronic device.
2. Related Art
With the rapid development of the electronic technology, portable notebook computers with high mobility and convenience have gradually become the mainstream of the market. Since the notebook computer is small, and cannot be mounted with too may peripheral devices or connection ports, the notebook computer is usually required to be connected to various external peripheral devices through special expansion slots, so as to be highly applicable and highly extensible as a multifunctional product.
For the above extensible notebook computer, room is reserved inside the case of the mainframe of the notebook computer, so that peripheral hardware devices can be mounted inside the mainframe. The room is connected to the outside through an opening in the surface of the case, so that a user can directly mount or dismount a peripheral hardware device without disassembling the case, thus avoiding the trouble of dissembling the case of the mainframe.
When the notebook computer is used in a harsh and hostile environment, for example, in a case in which a military computer has to be used outdoors for a long period of time, foreign matter, such as dust, dirt, and liquid, has to be prevented from entering into the inside of the notebook computer through the expansion slots. Therefore, a movable door cover structure is designed in most existing notebook computers, so as to cover the expansion slots to make the notebook computer dustproof and waterproof. However, the door cover structure cannot harm convenience of a user using the notebook computer, so that the door cover structure for the dust proofing and the water proofing must take into account of both the convenience of use and the covering effect of preventing the foreign matters from entering.
Since water is in liquid form, water is easier to flow into the inside of the notebook computer as compared with foreign matter of solid form such as the dust. If water enters into the computer device, the water may directly damage electronic components of the computer device. Therefore, how to prevent the water from entering into the inside of the computer device is a major design consideration of research and development personnel.
In the prior art, a common door cover structure is similar to a gate. The gate-type waterproof door cover slides along a direction parallel to a sidewall of the case in a reciprocating manner, and the waterproof door cover can pivot relative to the computer device, so as to expose the expansion slots to the outside selectively. In addition, in order to enhance the waterproof of the door cover structure, in the prior art, a compressible waterproofing layer with friction is disposed between the waterproof door cover and the sidewall of the case, which for example, may be a foam material or a rubber material. The waterproofing layer is pressed tightly within limited room between the waterproof door cover and the case to prevent the water from passing through the room between the waterproof door cover and the case to flow into the inside of the computer device.
Conventionally, the waterproofing layer is usually made of a material with a high friction coefficient, so as to achieve an optimal waterproofing effect. However, high friction of the waterproofing layer also incurs friction to the sliding of the waterproof door cover, so that high friction of the waterproofing layer makes the sliding of the waterproof door cover difficult during opening and closing of the cover. In order to enhance the waterproofness of the door cover, the thickness of the waterproofing layer has to be increased to enhance the contact and an interference force between the waterproofing layer and the door cover, so that the thickness of the waterproofing layer increased makes the sliding of the waterproof door cover harder and results in inconvenience of the operation of the user.
On the contrary, in order to decrease resistance generated during the sliding of the waterproof door cover, the thickness of the waterproofing layer has to be decreased to make it easy for the door cover to slide. However, a distance between the waterproof door cover and the case remains the same, and therefore the waterproofing layer is no longer pressed tightly by the waterproof door cover, thus results in an imperfect waterproofing effect of the waterproof door cover.


A display panel includes an array substrate, an organic light-emitting layer, a thin film encapsulation layer, multiple micro LEDs and multiple drive signal lines. The organic light-emitting layer is disposed on a side of the array substrate and includes organic light-emitting elements. The thin film encapsulation layer is disposed on a side of the organic light-emitting layer facing away from the array substrate, covers the organic light-emitting layer, and includes a plurality of thin film encapsulation sub-layers sequentially stacked. The micro LEDs are disposed on a side of at least one of the plurality of thin film encapsulation sub-layers facing away from the organic light-emitting layer. The drive signal lines are electrically connected to the micro LEDs and configured to transmit a drive signal to the micro LEDs, and the drive signal lines are disposed in contact with at least one of the thin film encapsulation sub-layers.

With the continuous development of display technologies, an organic light-emitting element and a micro light emitting diode (LED) may be disposed in the display panel. For example, in order to dispose an optical electronic element such as a front-facing camera in the current full-screen smart phones, a hollowed region needs to be provided in the middle of an upper end of a display screen of the phone and the optical electronic element is disposed in the hollowed region, resulting in a reduced area of a display region of the display panel. A size of the micro LED is much smaller than a size of the organic light-emitting element, and thus the micro LED is used in a region where the optical electronic element is disposed of the display panel to achieve a high-transparency display.
To dispose the organic light-emitting element and the micro LED in the display panel, generally the micro LED is directly hung outside on the display panel, that is, drive lines of the micro LED need to be manufactured on an additional substrate, then the micro LED is transferred to the additional substrate, and then the additional substrate is bonded to an original organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display screen, which increases the thickness of the display panel and is not conducive to the thinning of the display panel.

Display panel including organic light-emitting elements and micro LEDs, manufacturing method thereof and display device

Shanghai Tianma Micro-Electronics Co., Ltd.