There is provided an air conditioning system for a passenger compartment R of an electric vehicle having a rechargeable battery unit that is chargeable by supply of power from an external power source external to the vehicle. An air conditioner (AC) ECU 27 acquires a preparatory air conditioning time γ that is the time it takes to condition the interior air of the vehicle to a target interior air temperature 27T. An HEV controller 25 acquires from a quick charger 100 a charge time left 100R that is the time it takes until charge is completed and initiate preparatory air conditioning within the passenger compartment if the charge time left 100R is less than or equal to the preparatory air conditioning time γ.

There are known a battery or pure electric vehicle (EV) which uses one or more electric traction motors and a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) which combines an internal combustion engine propulsion system with an electric propulsion system. These vehicles derive all their electric power from their large capacity rechargeable battery units for power supply to traction motors and air conditioners for air conditioning in their passenger compartments. In some electric vehicle, an improvement in convenience of driving is made by charging its battery unit during regenerative braking and by restoring the battery unit to an acceptable upper charge level with an external battery charger.
It is known from Patent Document 1 to condition air so that interior temperature and the like within a passenger compartment of an electric vehicle may be comfortable or, in other words, carry out a so-called "preparatory air conditioning" during charge in order to ensure comfortable environment for a user to get in the vehicle and drive after charge. By carrying out such preparatory air conditioning during charge, the amount of power consumed by an air conditioner can be saved during driving, resulting in an appreciable extension of driving range between charges in addition to improved comfort in the passenger compartment. The above-mentioned Patent Document 1 proposes intermittently turning on and off an air conditioner in order to reduce load derived from carrying out the preparatory air conditioning.

Air conditioning system for an electric vehicle


The invention provides at a relatively low cost a carbon substrate that is formed from an opaque material and that has an extremely flat surface so that optical measurements can be made on the substrate. Graphite powder with a particle size of 10 μm or less is mixed in a thermosetting resin such as a furan resin, and the mixture is molded into a sheet and calcined at 1400° C. in an inert atmosphere to produce a carbon substrate whose surface is then ground flat.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical measurement carbon substrate that is suitable for mounting thereon a specimen such as a powder, biological molecules, or the like, for observation in a reflected light optical system.
A substrate for a DNA chip, in which a DNA fragment is fixed to the substrate and, when making measurements, a fluorescence-marked DNA sample is applied thereon for observation under various kinds of microscopes, also falls within this category.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the fields of material sciences and some of life sciences, a specimen such as a powder, biological molecules, or the like, is illuminated through an objective lens, and the reflected light, scattered light, fluorescence, or the like from the specimen is brought to a focus for observation. Various kinds of microscopes using reflected light optics (reflected light illumination) are used (examples include a differential interference contrast microscope, polarized light microscope, an interference microscope, a fluorescence microscope, a confocal microscope, a phase contrast microscope, a near-field optical microscope, and an evanescent microscope). In this case, the specimen to be observed is placed on a slide glass originally designed for observation with transmitted light illumination. If such a slide glass is used for observation in a reflected light optical system, reflections of the slide glass itself, auto fluorescence, etc. become a problem.
In reflected light optical systems, there is no need to place a specimen on a light transmitting substrate such as a slide glass. One possible approach here is to place a specimen for observation, not on a slide glass, but on an opaque plate whose reflections and auto fluorescence are reduced to extremely low levels.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-121438 discloses that an amorphous carbon plate, obtained by carbonizing a resin molding by calcination, is used as a substrate for a DNA chip in which a DNA fragment is fixed to the substrate.
When using an opaque material for an optical measurement substrate, it is required that the substrate has an extremely flat surface free from irregularities of micron order so as not to cause a problem for microscope observation. If a substrate plate obtained by calcining a molded resin plate is to be used as an optical measurement substrate, the surface of the plate must be ground flat, but in the case of a plate made only of amorphous carbon (glassy carbon), the surface is extremely hard and is therefore difficult to grind, the resulting problem being that the processing cost, to obtain the required flatness, increases.

Optical measurement substrate and fabrication method for the same


Techniques are disclosed for enabling scaling graphical elements defined based on one or more mathematical functions, while retaining certain features of the graphical elements. In various embodiments an example method may include defining a shape relative to a primitive object based on one or more functions, the shape including a feature based on a configurable parameter associated with the one or more functions. An image of the shape is then rendered and displayed via a display device. The example method continues with receiving an input indicative of a request to scale the shape. In response to receiving the input, the rendering and display of the image of the shape is dynamically updated by scaling the primitive object based on the input, wherein scaling the primitive object scales the shape, but retains a scale of the feature as set by the configurable parameter.

Computer-generated graphics are used in a number of different computing applications ranging from games to graphical user interfaces. The process of displaying such graphics can involve converting primitive geometric objects (triangles, quadrilaterals, etc.) residing in a three-dimensional (3D) space, into two-dimensional (2D) rasterized image data that can be displayed via a display device. The displayed graphics can be transformed by scaling the primitive geometric object on which the graphics are based.

Scaling and feature retention in graphical elements defined based on functions


Embodiments are related to nonviral gene delivery vectors using only FDA-approved components: iopamidol, protamine, and ethiodized oil.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is bio-affecting and body treating compositions of iopamidol, protamine, and ethiodized oil.
2. Description of Related Art
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has become increasingly prevalent in the United States (Altekruse S F et al., J Clin Oncol 2009, 27, 1485-91; El-Serag H B et al., Arch Intern Med 2007, 167, 1983-9). Systemic treatments for HCC have limited efficacy and inherent toxicity (Worns M A et al., Dig Dis 2009, 27, 175-88). In contrast, the use of chemoembolization (Brown D B et al., J Vasc Intery Radiol 2009, 20, S425-34) to treat HCC allows for localized, concentrated delivery of chemotherapeutic agents resulting in less systemic toxicity, improved quality of life, and significant prolongation of survival (Lau W Y, Lai E C, Hepatobiliary Pancreat Dis Int 2008, 7, 237-57). However, the benefits of chemoembolization may be less dramatic in patients with advanced disease (large, multifocal, and/or infiltrative tumor, vascular invasion, severe cirrhosis) (Kothary N et al., J Vasc Intery Radiol 2007, 18, 1517-26) and new treatment strategies are being actively pursued.
Over decades of trial and error, chemoembolization has been iteratively improved for localized delivery to the tumor site incorporating cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents, a lipid component to enhance tumor uptake, a contrast agent for fluoroscopic visualization, and embolic material to impede washout and induce ischemia. The chemoembolization strategy is suited to treat HCC given the arterial blood supply to tumors and the inherent avidity of HCC for ethiodized oil (Bruix J et al., Gastroenterology 2004, 127, S179-88, Maleux G et al., Dig Dis 2009, 27, 157-63). In vitro studies, including electron microscopy analysis, have shown that emulsified ethiodized oil droplets are taken up by hepatoma cells via endocytosis, a process that is more active in these cells than in hepatocytes (Chou F I et al., Nucl Med Biol 1995, 22, 379-86). The viscosity of the ethiodized oil emulsion also allows it to act as an embolic agent, reducing blood flow to the tumor and decreasing washout of the chemotherapeutic agents. This increases the intratumoral area under curve (AUC) while decreasing the systemic exposure to the chemotherapeutic agents (Lau W Y, Lai E C, Hepatobiliary Pancreat Dis Int 2008, 7, 237-57).
In addition to chemoembolization, researchers have explored the use of gene therapy as an HCC treatment strategy. Delivery of thymidine kinase, tumor suppressor genes, and anti-angiogenesis genes into tumor cells would afford improved drug selectivity and possibly tumor growth attenuation (Mohr L et al., Expert Opin Biol Ther 2002, 2, 163-75; Peñuelas I et al., Gastroenterology 2005, 128, 1787-95). Although there are a number of genes with oncocidal activity, the difficult problem of achieving efficient gene delivery while maintaining acceptable indices of toxicity remains a challenge. Both viral and nonviral gene delivery vectors have been developed with viral vectors being more efficient gene carries (Boeckle S, Wagner E, AAPS J 2006, 8, E731-42). Unfortunately, the host's immune response limits both the safety and efficacy of viral vectors (Boeckle S, Wagner E, AAPS J 2006, 8, E731-42; Descamps D, Benihoud K, Curr Gene Ther 2009, 9, 115-27; Massari I et al., Exp Gerontol 2002, 37, 823-31). In the context of HCC, animal studies have shown the utility of combining chemoembolization and trans-arterial nonviral gene therapy strategies. Kim et al. demonstrated that an emulsion of ethiodized oil, an aqueous contrast agent, and condensed polyethyleneimine:DNA particles could deliver plasmid DNA to VX2 liver tumors in a rabbit model (Kim Y I et al., Radiology 2006, 240, 771-7). Although gene transfection was significant, polyethyleneimine has a prohibitive toxicity profile, making clinical translation difficult (Hunter A C, Adv Drug Deliv Rev 2006, 58, 1523-31).

Nonviral gene delivery vector iopamidol, protamine, ethiodized oil reagent (VIPER)

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


Logic circuits and carry-lookahead circuits capable of performing high speed operations with simplified designs are described. The logic circuit is provided for searching a binary bit string from the most significant bit to the least significant bit for a first "0" or "1" bit and comprises a NOT gate circuit receiving the most significant bit of said binary bit string and composed of a dynamic logic circuit; NOR gate circuits provided in a one-to-one correspondence to the respective bits of said binary bit string, each NOR gate circuit receiving the bit of said binary bit string corresponding to the bit position of said each NOR gate circuit and, if any, the bit(s) of said binary bit string which is more significant than the bit corresponding to the bit position of said each NOR gate circuit except for the most significant bit; and two-input NOR gate circuits each of which receives two logic signals as output from adjacent ones of said NOT and NOR gate circuits.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a logic circuit for finding a "0" bit or a "1" bit by searching a binary bit string. Furthermore, the present invention is related to a carry-lookahead (CLA) circuit for use in arithmetic units handling a number of bits.
2. Prior Art
There are utilized logic circuits called a "0" bit searching circuit and a "1" bit searching circuit as logic circuits for constituting the hardware of a computer system. The logic circuits of this kind is used to find a "0" bit or a "1" bit by searching a binary bit string from the most significant bit to the least significant bit. The logic circuits are used to constitute a comparator for determining the largest number among a plurality of numbers, or a priority encoder used in a signal reception circuit having a plurality of input lines and provided, when receiving input signals at two or more input lines, for generating an output signal indicative of the input line receiving an input signal and having the highest priority among from the input lines receiving input signals.
On the other hand, a "1" bit searching circuit in accordance with the prior art is composed of a number of the logic gate connected in a matrix form or in a tree arrangement so that the circuit design tends to be complicated. Furthermore, there are a number of gates arranged from the input to the output so that it takes much time to pass input data therethrough.
On the other hand, carry lookahead circuits have been generally utilized in adder circuits for performing the addition operation of an N-bit input signal a<N-1>, a<N-2>, . . . , a<0>), referred to simply as a <N-1:0>, and an N-bit input signal b<N-1>, b<N-2>, . . . , b<0>, referred to simply as b<N-1:0>. An example of such a prior art CLA circuit is described in Japanese Patent Published Application No.Hei 3-150630. The prior art carry lookahead circuit as described is a so-called carry select adder which performs the addition operation both in the case that the carry-in signal is "0" and in the case that the carry-in signal is "1". In accordance with the carry out from the lower bit operation, either result of the addition operation is selected and output as a correct result.
There is described a carry lookahead circuit as illustrated in FIG. 2 in Japanese Patent Published Application No.Hei 3-150630. Propagate signals P<3:0> and generate signals G<3:0> are calculated during the addition operation of the input signals a<3:0> and the input signals b<3:0> by obtaining the EX-OR and the AND of each corresponding bits of the input signals a<3:0> and the input signals b<3:0>. The propagate signals P<3:0> and the generate signals G<3:0> are input to the carry lookahead circuit together with the carry-in signal Cin from the lower stage in order to generate carry signals C<3:0>.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an exemplary carry select adder which performs the addition operation both in the case that the carry-in signal is "0" and in the case that the carry-in signal is "1" and, in accordance with the carry out from the lower bit operation, either result of the addition operation is selected and output as a correct result. The carry lookahead circuit CLA1 serves to performs the addition operation in the case that the carry-in signal is "1" while the carry lookahead circuit CLA2 serves to performs the addition operation in the case that the carry-in signal is "0". Either of the outputs of the carry lookahead circuits CLA1 and CLA2 are selected by means of a 2-1 multiplexer MUX.
A bit group 0 is arranged in the form of the 4-bit carry lookahead circuit as illustrated in FIG. 2 in order to handle <0:3> bits of data having a 32 bit length to be handled while seven bit groups 1 to 7 are arranged in the form of the 4-bit carry lookahead circuits each designed as illustrated in FIG. 3 in order to handle <4:7> bits, <8:11> bits, <12:15> bits, . . . <28:31> bits of the data. A carry lookahead circuit capable of handling 32 bits is then formed as illustrated in FIG. 1. C<0> to C<3>, C<4> to C<7>, C<8> to C<11>, . . . , C<28> to C<31> are sequentially generated in this order in the group 0, the group 1, . . . the group 7.
However, there is a following problem in the prior art CLA as described above. FIG. 4 shows the delay time required for completing the calculation, i.e., the delay time required for generating the carry signals C<0> to C<31>. Each of the carry lookahead circuits CLA1 and CLA2 of the respective carry lookahead circuits of the group 0 to the group 7 takes the same time T1 required for calculation. However, the multiplexer MUX of the carry lookahead circuit of the group 1 can initiate the operation required for selecting carry signals only after receiving the carry signal C<3> as given from the group 0. The delay time T2 of the multiplexer MUX is accumulated from the group 1 to the group 7 resulting in the total delay time T1+T2*7. Because of this, in accordance with the prior art technique, there is a problem that a longer delay time is required for completing the calculation of carry signals for data having a longer bit sequence.


An improved polyimide-based coating composition comprising a polyimide upper layer and a polyimide-modified bismaleimide lower layer for use as a coating on metal substrate, such as an electrolytic copper foil. The polyimide are prepared from reactions between diamines, such as p-phenylene diamine and 4-4'-diaminodiphenyl ether, and dianhydrides, such as 3,3',4,4'-benzophenone tetracarboxylic dianhydride and biphenyl-3,3',4,4'-tetracarboxylic dianhydride. The modified bismaleimide can be prepared from reacting an N,N',4,4'-diphenyl bismaleimide with a barbituric acid or its derivative. A double-layered extrusion coating technique having a double-layered extrusion die is utilized to apply the coating composition onto the metal substrate. The final laminated products show improved peel strength between the polyimide coating and the substrate, as well as improved dimensional stability and surface flatness thereof.

This invention relates to a polyimide-based coating composition for laminating metal substrate such as copper foil. More particularly, this invention relates to a polyimide-based coating composition for making flexible copper laminate that provides improved adhesion, dimensional stability, and surface flatness, and method of applying the same.
Polyimides have been widely used in the electronics industry as a film coating material on metal substrates. Polyimides are well known for their excellent heat-resisting characteristics. However, there exist several areas that need to be improved regarding the application of polyimides in the electronics industry. Typical of these problem areas include: the degree of adhesion between polyimides and the metal substrate (for example a copper foil), the dimensional stability of the electrolytic copper laminate, and the flatness of the copper laminate surface after being clad with polyimides. Surface flatness determines the closeness at which the circuit line can be packed together. To provide a fine line circuit, a highly flat surface will be required.
A common approach to improve the degree of adhesion between polyimides and the copper foil is to use adhesives. Proper selection of adhesives can also help maintaining the flatness of the copper foil surface. However, most adhesives do not have the same extent of heat resistance as polyimides. The use of adhesives often reduces the temperature range of the final product and, therefore, limits the types of applications that polyimides may be used. The additional step of having to apply adhesives before applying the polyimide coating layer also complicates the manufacturing procedure in making copper laminates. Therefore, it is desirable to develop polyimide compositions that provide good adhesion characteristics between the coating layer and the copper foil without the need to use adhesives, and, at the same time, ensure that the final product has acceptable surface flatness.

Flexible copper/polyimide and barbituric acid modified bismaleimide blend/polyimide laminate

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A DRAM semiconductor memory chip comprised of a matrix of rows and columns having a bit storage cell at each location, means for receiving row and column address bits in multiplexed form on a single address bus, the multiplexing arrangement being such that the number of column address bits exceeds the number of row address bits, whereby a system using the DRAM memory chip has access to an enlarged page size.

DRAMs are typically organized into rows and columns (bit lines), with a bit stored at their intersections. By addressing a particular row and column the stored bit can be read by a sense amplifier connected to a column.
As the DRAM size, and thus the number of bits stored in a DRAM, has increased, addressing it has become more complex. For example in the very early (small) DRAMs (nominally 1K or 2K bits) both the rows and columns coould be addressed using a single address word. However once DRAMs reached the size of nominally 4K bits (4096 bits), address words for the rows and columns were multiplexed on an address bus. In a nominally 4K memory, for example, 6 bits in an address defined one selected row out of 64 possible rows and a further 6 bits defined one selected column out of 64 possible columns.
In more recently designed large memories, for example in a 1 megabit memory, 10 address bits define a row followed by 10 bits which define a column. The 1K (1024) bits defined by 10 column address bits is called a "page", and selection of data from this datafield without changing row address is called "page mode" operation.
At the intersection of each row and column is a transistor and capacitor, called a bit storage cell. As the number of cells per unit semiconductor substrate area increased, the tolerable ratio of cell capacitance to bit line capacitance set a practical limit of 256 cells connected to a bit line sense amplifier. The memory was therefore divided into blocks or groups. In a nominally 1 megabit memory, for example, each vertical (column) bit line in the matrix was divided into 8 blocks or groups, each being associated with 256 horizontal so called word lines. All of the bits stored at the intersection of a word line and all of the vertical bit lines forms a page.
In a typical 1 megabit chip, therefore, there cannot be simply 1024 bit lines and 1024 word lines. Because of the aforenoted capacitance ratio limitation there will be 8 blocks, each block having 256 word lines and 512 columns. As each column must be associated with a sense amplifier, such a typical memory chip thus has 4096 sense amplifiers. Because there are only 10 bits in a column address, page size is limited to 1024 bits.
Also, importantly, because of the peak current requirements from the power supply when all of the sense amplifiers associated with a particular word are to be accessed, all sense amplifiers could not be active when a row (word line) address change occurred. Some groups or blocks of words remain in a quiescent state.
With further increase in size of DRAMs, more of the memory will remain inactive and the difference between the number of sense amplifiers required and the accessible page sizes will become larger. For example, in a 16 megabit DRAM memory built using 12 bits for each of row and column address, a nominally 4K bit page size will be obtained, although 64K or more sense amplifiers are used. Depending on the adopted number of refresh cycles, not all of the sense amplifiers will be active at any one time.
With increases in processor speed, the page mode has become very important because the computing cycle is too short to allow both row and column addresses to be changed in one processor cycle.


The present disclosure describes an exemplary hybrid client/server architecture that may be utilized leverage the unique capabilities of both remote and local services. Data may be processed in parallel by remote and local processes. Results generated during the parallel processing may be exchanged between remote and local services and used to update results generated by the separate services. The hybrid client/server architecture may be utilized to generate enhanced inferences, hybrid subscriptions base upon local and remote subscriptions, and enhance natural language expression evaluation services.

Distributed networks generally have access to more computing resources and can therefore perform complicated processing tasks relatively efficiently. Additionally, applications that reside on distributed networks may be frequently updated and, as such, tend to incorporate newer functionality. Due to these factors, many services that were once performed on a local device are now performed using a remote device that may be part of a distributed network. However, remote services are generally implemented such that they can be used by many different clients. Because of this, generalized remote services may not have access to information that can be used to provide a high degree of personalization for a specific user. Furthermore, in many situations, personal data on a client device cannot be transferred to the remote device. Therefore, it is difficult to utilize remote services in a manner to perform personalized tasks for an individual.
It is with respect to these and other general considerations that embodiments have been made. Also, although relatively specific problems have been discussed, it should be understood that the embodiments should not be limited to solving the specific problems identified in the background.

Hybrid client/server architecture for parallel processing


An apparatus for generating ions which can be operated by a low signal voltage. The apparatus includes, a first voltage source for applying to a first electrode a first voltage slightly less than a critical voltage for constant ion generation; and a second voltage source for applying to a second electrode a second voltage significantly less than the first voltage having such an amplitude that a total of the first and the second voltages exceeds the critical voltage such that the ion generation by the first electrode takes place only while the second voltage is being applied to the second electrode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for generating ions suitable as a source of corona ions for forming electrostatic latent images in an electrostatic printer.
2. Description of the Background Art
In a conventional apparatus for generating ions to be used as a source of corona ions for forming electrostatic latent images in an electrostatic printer, there is one such apparatus comprises a corona charger or a solidified ion generation substrate, and an ion current control electrode on which a multiplicity of slits corresponding to recording dots are provided. In this apparatus, a flow of ion currents towards a recording medium is allowed or disallowed by controlling a high voltage applied to the ion current control electrode. In particular, with the solidified ion generating substrate, it has been possible to generate highly density corona ions suitable for high speed recording.
This type of an apparatus for generating ions is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 4,155,093, which is schematically shown in FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 1, two electrodes 102 and 103 are provided above and below an insulative substrate 101, of which the electrode 103 has an incision or hole 104 for increasing a field concentration so as to generate corona ions more easily. Between these electrodes 102 and 103, an alternating voltage 105 is applied, so that a strong alternating field is created in the incision or hole 104 by which a high density of positive and negative ions are generated. Of these generated ions, only the negatively charged ones are selectively allowed to flow towards acceleration electrodes 107 as ion currents by means of a control voltage 106 to be applied to the electrode 103. These ion currents are accelerated by a voltage 108 applied to the acceleration electrodes 107 so as to reach an insulative recording medium 109 on which an electrostatic latent image is to be formed.
A so called ion recording head is a collection of as many apparatuses for generating ions of the type described above as a number of picture elements required. Such an ion recording head is known to have the following drawbacks. First, because both of the positive and negative corona ions are steadily generated by the electrodes for generating ions, a lifetime of the recording medium is shortened and at the same time an ozone odor is produced as the corona ions leak out. Second, the control voltage to be applied to the control electrode is required to be a high voltage of over 150 V. As a consequence, since a control IC for controlling such a high voltage inevitably occupies a large mounting area which is prohibitive for a highly condensed implementation, the realization of a highly compact ion recording head has been difficult.
As a method of reducing the control voltage, a proposition was made in Japanese Patent Application Laid open No. S61-255870 a control voltage was applied in a direction perpendicular to the slits, for the corona ions to pass through. According to this proposition, it is possible to reduce the control voltage to a low of approximately 30 V. However, since it is necessary to provide additional electrodes for producing a field perpendicular to the slits, a structure is further complicated. This gives rise to a limitation in terms of a mounting area, which in turn gives rise to limitations on the resolution of the image and the number of picture elements that can be incorporated.
In addition to these problems of conventional apparatuses for generating ions, there is a general problem associated with any apparatus for generating ions. Namely, ion generation is affected by the environmental conditions of the apparatus a critical voltage for the corona ion generation and the amount of corona ion currents changes, and the corona ion generation becomes uneven, as the environmental condition of the apparatus changes. Among the environmental conditions that affect corona ion generation, the temperature affects the critical voltage for the corona ion generation, whereas the atmospheric pressure affects the amount of the corona ion currents and the critical voltage. Also, vapor condensation on the electrode for generating ions occurring at high humidity can prevent corona ion generation altogether.
More specifically, the effects of environmental conditions on the corona ion generation by an apparatus for generating ions can be analyzed as follows.
When a pair of parallel electrodes in the apparatus which are provided on an insulator are approximated by a pair of parallel wires, the critical voltage for corona ion generation is given by: ##EQU1## where 2a is equal to a thickness of the electrodes (cm), L is a distance between the electrodes (cm), P is an atmospheric pressure (cmHg), T is a temperature (0), m is a coefficient depending on the cleanness of the surface of the electrodes, which is equal to 1 when the surface is clean (See R. M. Shaffert "Electrophotography", p.235, Focal Press, London, 1980). According to these equations (1) and (2), for the apparatus where L=100 micron and a=10 micron, the critical voltage V.sub.T is roughly 650 V at 250 and 76 cmHg.
The dependence of the critical voltage on temperature is shown in FIG. 2. As can be seen from FIG. 2, the critical voltage at 0.degree. is roughly 60 V higher than that at 25.degree.. In fact, for a given ion current, the control voltage must be roughly 60 V higher at 0.degree. than at 25.degree..
The dependence of the critical voltage on atmospheric pressure is shown in FIG. 3. As can be seen from FIG. 3, the critical voltage at 71 cmHg (950 mb) is roughly 40 V lower than that at 76 cmHg (1013 mb). In fact, for a given amount of ion currents, the control voltage needs to be roughly 40 V lower at 71 cmHg than at 76 cmHg. Furthermore, because the mobility of the corona ions is inversely proportional to the atmospheric pressure, the amount of ion currents changes slightly, and accordingly there is a slight shift of curves in FIG. 3 as indicated by a one dot chain line.
Thus, the critical voltage for corona ion generation is greatly affected by the temperature and the atmospheric pressure, while the amount of corona ion currents is also affected by the atmospheric pressure to a smaller extent. It is to be noted that these environmental conditions usually do not change very much during a particular operation of the apparatus, so that once the operation is started out successfully, a fairly stable operation can be expected.
On the other hand, when vapor condensation on the electrode for generating ions occurs from high humidity, corona ion generation is prevented altogether. In this condition, if the control voltage is increased to approximately 900 V insulation by the air is lost, and the spark discharge occurs, as shown in FIG. 4, which in turn causes the breakdown of the electrodes.
In the apparatus for generating ions using a solidified ion generation substrate, resistor heat elements for removing the vapor condensation on the electrodes may be provided. Alternatively, a high frequency voltage which is lower than the critical voltage may be applied between the electrodes before operation, so as to heat up the electrodes through the insulator by the induction loss of the insulator, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 63-18372.
An apparatus described in the last reference is schematically shown in FIG. 5. In this apparatus, a high frequency voltage is applied between a discharge electrode 111 on an inductive body 110 and an induction electrode 112 embedded in the inductive body 110 by a voltage source 113 controlled by a voltage controller 114 in order to generate corona ions, and either the generated positive and negative corona ions are selected by a bias voltage 114 as corona ions to charge a recording medium 116. In addition, a heater 117 is provided on the inductive body 110 in order to maintain the electrodes 111 and 112 at a constant temperature by controlling a heater power source 18 in accordance with the temperature of the electrodes 111 and 112 detected by a temperature detector 119. By means of these features, the temperature of the electrodes 111 and 112 is controlled to be constant as shown in FIG. 6.
Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 7, a high frequency voltage V.sub.A, which is less than the critical voltage V.sub.T, is applied for a predetermined period of time between the electrodes 111 and 112 so as to accelerate heating by the heater 117 by the heat generation by the inductive body 110 due to the induction loss of the insulator. Thus, by maintaining the temperature of the apparatus above that of the environment, the vapor condensation on the electrodes 111 and 112 is removed, and then a control voltage V.sub.0, which is greater than the critical voltage V.sub.T, by V.sub.C is applied. These high frequency voltage V.sub.A and the control voltage V.sub.0 are biased by the bias voltage V.sub.B.
However, in this apparatus of FIG. 5, temperature control is not performed in accordance with the humidity, depending on which the amount of the vapor varies considerably. Moreover, whether the vapor is completely removed from the electrodes 111 and 112 is not checked at all.
Also, in this apparatus of FIG. 5, no attention is paid to any change in atmospheric temperature or atmospheric pressure, so that the apparatus is still greatly affected by environmental conditions.
As for a corona charger in which a high voltage is applied to a wire in order to generate corona ions, which has been widely used in conventional copy machines, no attention has been paid to the effects of environmental conditions, so that fluctuations in the quality of the copied images has been a general feature in conventional copy machines.

Apparatus for generating ions using low signal voltage


Sulfonated aniline-type copolymer and a process for their preparation are disclosed.. These products comprise a water soluble and alcohol soluble copolymer of a compound (A) selected from the group of aniline, N-alkylaniline and phenylenediamine, and aminobenzene sulfonic acid (B); said sulfonated product being a following compound of a general formulae I to V stated in the specification, or a mixture thereof.. Also, process for the sulfonated aniline-type copolymer comprises the steps:. copolymerizing a compound (A) selected from the group of aniline, N-alkyl aniline and phenylene diamine, and aminobenzene sulfonic acid (B) to obtain a copolymer; and PA0 sulfonating the thus obtained copolymer with a sulfonating agent.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a sulfonated aniline-type copolymer and a process for the production thereof. More particularly, this invention provides an electric conductive polymer which is soluble in water or an alcoholic solvent.
The obtained polymer solution may be applied to various kinds of antistatic treatment using a simple method such as a coating, spray or dipping method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A proton-doped polyaniline is well known as an electric conductive polymer, however, the proton-doped aniline has a drawback in the molding step or the processing step owing to the insolubility of almost all solvents.
Under these circumstances, a water soluble sulfonated polyaniline that reveals electric conductivity without the addition of a dopant, as well as a process for the production thereof have been proposed.
Examples of the process for the production of the sulfonated polyaniline are as follows: a process for the production of a sulfonated polyaniline by electrochemically polymerizing an aniline and an m-aminobenzene sulfonic acid (Nihon Kagakukaishi, 1985, 1124; Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2-166165); a process for the production of a sulfonated polyaniline by chemically polymerizing an aniline and o- or m-aminobenzene sulfonic acid (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1-301714 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,441); a method of sulfonating an emeraldine-type polymer (polyaniline) obtained by polymerizing chemically or electrochemically using a conc. sulfuric acid (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 58-210902 corresponding to EP-96319A); a method of sulfonating using anhydrous sulfuric acid and a triethyl phosphate complex (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 61-197633) and a method of sulfonating using a fuming sulfuric acid (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1991, 113, 2665-2671; J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1990, 112, 2800, WO91-06887) and the like.
The first mentioned process (Nihon Kagaku kaishi, 1985, 1124; Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2-166165) had drawbacks in that the isolating process for the product was complicated because of the formation of the product on the electrode, and because a large number of products were difficult to synthesize.
The present inventors attempted to follow the second-mentioned process (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1-301714). Namely, the present inventors carried out the process for the polymerization of aniline and m-aminobenzene sulfonic acid using an ammonium peroxodisulfate, as is described in said publication. It was then found that only about one sulfonic acid group per five repeating units was introduced in the obtained product.
Furthermore, the present inventors carried out the process for sulfonating a polyaniline using a fuming sulfuric acid as was described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 61-197633 mentioned above. It was also found that only about one sulfonic acid group per five repeating units was introduced in the obtained product as described in the publication, page 7, because the reaction proceeded in the dispersion state owing to insufficient solubility of the polyaniline with regard to the sulfonating solvent, and there was a problem in that the obtained sulfonated polyanilines, including a small amount of the sulfuric acid group therein, were found to be deficient with regard to electric conductivity and solubility.
Next, when sulfonating a polyaniline with a fuming sulfuric acid, about one sulfonic acid is introduced into two repeating units (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1991, 113, PP2665-2671; J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1990, 112, 2800).
However, when fully sulfonating polyaniline by means of the above process, it is necessary to add an aniline to an amount of the fuming sulfuric acid, because of insufficient solubility of a polyaniline with regard to the fuming sulfuric acid.
Furthermore, when the amount of fuming sulfuric acid is insufficient, a part of the polyaniline solidifies and is not sulfonated thereon.
Therefore, it is necessary to determine a method of introducing much more sulfonic acid groups into the aromatic ring in order to reveal the electric conductivity and improve solubility without the addition of a dopant to a polymer.
Also, when considering the molding properties, such as a film forming property using a coating and in particular when considering the probability of coating the polymer on both a hydrophic and a hydrophobic substrate material, the obtained polymer should preferably enjoy good solubility with regard to water and alcohol and the like.
However, the prior sulfonated polyaniline has good solubility with regard to water, but has low solubility with regard to alcoholic solvents.

Sulfonated aniline-type copolymer and process for production thereof


The invention is a crosstalk canceler wherein different frequency bands are canceled at different locations so as to allow greater listener movement about the “sweet spot” while maintaining effective crosstalk cancellation. A spectrally smooth canceler equalization is used, reducing artifacts for listeners away from the sweet spot and further enlarging the sweet spot. Finally, the canceler equalization is adapted to either the anticipated or the actual crosscoherence among the input channels, producing a natural equalization regardless of the input.

This invention pertains to audio signal processing, and specifically to a system and method for crosstalk cancellation.
There are a number of settings in which separate audio signals are prepared for the left and right ears of a listener. Such signals are referred to as binaural signals, and are distinct from stereo signals in that the left and right binaural channels are intended to be heard only by the respective left and right ears of the listener.
Binaural signals are typically used to convey spatial information about the sounds presented. It turns out that a sense of sound source location is created by subtle features imposed on the signals arriving at the left and right ears of the listener [5, 6, 7]. By separately processing left-ear and right-ear signals, as illustrated in FIG. 1, a sound source can be made to appear at any desired location in a listener's perceptual space.
Such synthetic spatial audio—commonly referred to as 3D audio—has application to video games, teleconferencing, and virtual environments, wherein each sound may be processed so as to appear to originate from its generating object. Another 3D audio application is placing "virtual" speakers about a listener, for instance in a standard home theater surround sound configuration as shown in FIG. 2. Here, each of five surround signals 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 is processed according to its location 34, 44, 54, 64, 74 to form left-ear and right-ear signals 32, 42, 52, 62, 72 and 33, 43, 53, 63, 73, which are summed to form the left-ear and right-ear channels 35 and 36 of a binaural signal. Presenting the binaural signal to a listener over headphones gives the impression of a five-speaker surround system, though only the two binaural channels are used.
In all of these applications, headphones or similar transducers are often used to ensure that the left and right binaural channels are delivered, respectively, to the left and right ears of the listener [5, pp. 217-220]. If the binaural signal were played through stereo speakers configured as shown in FIG. 4, each listener ear would hear both binaural channels. This mixing of the left and right binaural channels, called crosstalk, can significantly degrade the spatial cues in the binaural signal, diminishing the listening experience.
There are, however, situations such as in the case of an arcade game where the use of headphones or earphones is impractical, and it is desired to use stereo speakers to present binaural material. In [1], Atal and Schroeder presented a system called a crosstalk canceler for processing a binaural signal to develop a pair of speaker signals that would deliver the original binaural signal to a properly positioned listener.
The system relies on differences among the transfer functions between the two speakers and the two ears. The basic idea is to cancel the crosstalk appearing in the right ear from the left speaker by sending a negative filtered version of the left speaker signal out the right speaker. The filtering is such that the crosstalk from the left speaker and the canceling signal from the right speaker arrive at the right ear simultaneously as negative replicas of each other, and sum to zero. Left ear crosstalk from the right speaker is similarly eliminated.
The crosstalk canceler proposed in [1] can be very effective, but has several drawbacks which limit its usefulness. First, so that the cancellation signal exactly cancels the crosstalk signal, the listener must be carefully positioned at the so-called sweet spot. In addition, the transition between effective cancellation in the sweet spot and no cancellation out of the sweet spot is very abrupt, making it difficult for listeners to find the sweet spot. Consider a 5 kHz signal having a wavelength of about two inches. The listener only need move his head an inch closer to one speaker than the other to turn the perfect cancellation between the crosstalk and canceling signals into perfect reinforcement between the two.
In addition to restricting listener movement, the canceler [1] is sensitive to the shape of the listener's head and ears. To get effective cancellation, particularly at high frequencies, the canceling signal filter should be tailored to the listener.
The second drawback has to do with the timbre or equalization of the canceled signal as compared to that of the original binaural signal. Listeners in the sweet spot sometimes sense that the canceler output is lacking in low-frequency energy compared to the original binaural signal. Listeners away from the sweet spot complain of phase artifacts and a position sensitive equalization. (Note that the apparent equalization away from the sweet spot is important in some applications. For example, consider a television equipped with stereo speakers and virtual surround sound processing as shown in FIG. 3. While the crosstalk canceler can deliver the virtual surround binaural signal to listener 80 in the sweet spot, the crosstalk canceler should not compromise the listening experience of those away from the sweet spot.)
To address the restrictions on listener movement, Cooper and Bauck in [2] proposed a crosstalk canceler which cancels only the low frequencies; the high-frequency portion of the binaural input is sent to the output unchanged. Many audio signals have their energy concentrated below a few kilohertz, so that canceling only those frequencies should not significantly diminish the cancellation effect. Because the wavelengths for the canceled portion of the binaural signal are relatively large, the listener has greater freedom of movement before perceiving a change in cancellation effectiveness. Essentially, the canceler trades a less effective cancellation in the sweet spot for a broader sweet spot.
In [3, 4], Cooper and Bauck present a canceler equalization based on the observation that each canceler has a set of so-called "null canceler" frequencies at which the canceling signal filter is orthogonal to—that is, ±90° out of phase from—the direct signal filter. The proposed equalization inverts the sum of the power in the direct and canceling filters at the null canceler frequencies. This equalization is an improvement over the one implied in [1] in that listeners away from the sweet spot hear few artifacts, and those in the sweet spot experience less of a timber change. However, for certain kinds of source material, a timbre change is still noticeable for listeners in and out of the sweet spot.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide a crosstalk canceler allowing greater listener movement while maintaining effective cancellation, and having an equalization which leaves the input binaural signal uncolored. Another object is to develop a canceler which is insensitive to listener head and ear acoustic properties. It is also an object of the present invention to broaden the transition between effective cancellation in the sweet spot and no cancellation outside the sweet spot to help listeners find the sweet spot. Another object of the present invention is to develop a canceler which is relatively free of artifacts away from the sweet spot. Finally, it is an object of the present invention to adapt the equalization to the input signal so as to minimize timbre changes imposed by the canceler.


A substrate support assembly for supporting a substrate during processing is provided. In one embodiment, a support assembly includes a ceramic body having an embedded heating element and a base plate. The base plate and the ceramic body define a channel therebetween adapted to supply purge gas to a perimeter of a substrate disposed on the support assembly. The base plate is fastened to the body by brazing, adhering, fastening, press fitting or by mating engaging portions of a retention device such as a bayonet fitting.

1. Field of Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to an apparatus for supporting a substrate in a semiconductor processing chamber.
2. Background of the Invention
Integrated circuits have evolved into complex devices that can include millions of transistors, capacitors and resistors on a single chip. The evolution of chip designs continually requires faster circuitry and greater circuit density that demand increasingly precise fabrication processes. One fabrication process frequently used is chemical vapor deposition (CVD).
Chemical vapor deposition is generally employed to deposit a thin film on a substrate or semiconductor wafer. Chemical vapor deposition is generally performed in a vacuum chamber having a heated substrate support. The substrate is typically secured by vacuum to the heated substrate support to facilitate uniform temperature control across the surface of the substrate. A precursor gas is typically directed through a showerhead situated near the top of the chamber. The precursor gas reacts to form a layer of material on a surface of the substrate that is positioned on a heated substrate support. Purge gas is routed through holes in the support to the edge of the substrate to prevent deposition at the substrate""s edge or backside. Volatile by-products produced during the reaction are pumped from the chamber through an exhaust system.
One material frequently formed on substrates using a chemical vapor deposition process is tungsten. Precursor gases that may be used to form tungsten generally includes tungsten hexafluoride (WF6) and silane. As the silane and tungsten hexafluoride mix, some tungsten (i.e., tungsten that does not deposit on the substrate) deposits on the showerhead and other chamber components. The tungsten film that builds on the showerhead may become a source of contamination in the chamber. Eventually, the tungsten build-up may clog the holes in the showerhead that facilitate the passage of the precursor gas therethrough necessitating the showerhead be removed and cleaned or replaced.
To extend the interval in time between the routine maintenance of the showerhead, fluorine based chemistries are generally used to clean (i.e., etch away) the stray tungsten film. However, the use of fluorine, while advantageous for removing tungsten, reacts to form a layer of aluminum fluoride on the heated substrate support that is commonly made of aluminum. The aluminum fluoride layer has a generally rough surface topography. The rough surface creates a leak path that impairs the vacuum used to chuck or hold the substrate to the heated support. Additionally, the aluminum fluoride layer is a potential source of particulate contamination.
Substrate supports fabricated from ceramic materials provide an improvement over aluminum supports due to ceramic""s lack of reactivity with fluorine. However, ceramic supports are difficult to fabricate. For example, the holes in ceramic supports used to provide purge gas to the perimeter of the support are typically drilled from the perimeter of the support to a depth generally equal to the radius of the support. Drilling such a deep hole in ceramic is difficult. The tools used to make these holes are frequently broken during the fabrication (e.g., drilling) process. Broken tools disposed within the support must be removed or the support must be scrapped. These fabrication difficulties result in costly supports and an undesirable high scrap rate.
Alternatively, radial purge gas passages may be formed by sintering or fusing two ceramic plates to enclose the passages as described in the previously incorporated U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/596,854. However, this technique results in a costly support as well.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved support for chemical vapor deposition processes.
One aspect of the present invention generally provides a substrate support assembly for supporting a substrate during processing. In one embodiment, a support assembly for supporting a substrate during processing includes a ceramic body having an embedded heating element and a base plate. The base plate and the ceramic body define a channel therebetween adapted to supply purge gas to a perimeter of the substrate disposed on the support assembly. The base plate is fastened to the body by brazing, adhering, fastening, press fitting or by mating engaging portions of a retention device such as a bayonet fitting.
In another embodiment, a support assembly includes a ceramic body having an embedded heating element coupled to a stem. A base plate is removably disposed adjacent the ceramic body and defines a channel therebetween adapted to supply purge gas to a perimeter of the substrate disposed on the support assembly.


Compositions of the invention include metal-based coordination complexes, which are preferably tunable photodynamic compounds. The compositions and complexes are useful as therapeutic agents and as in vivo diagnostic agents for treating or preventing diseases including those that involve hyperproliferating cells in their etiology, such as cancer. Compositions and complexes of the invention are further capable of destroying microbial cells, such as bacteria, fungi, and protozoa, and destroying viruses. The compositions and complexes are also capable of modulating cell function in other ways.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to metal-based coordination complexes that are useful as therapeutic and diagnostic agents. The invention further relates to photodynamic compounds that can be activated with ultraviolet to infrared (UV-IR) light, particularly near infrared light, that are useful as therapeutic and diagnostic agents. In particular, the invention provides tunable metal-based photodynamic compounds that are coordination complexes derived from organic ligands. The photodynamic compounds can be activated by light to destroy unwanted cells, for example hyperproliferative cells and microbial cells. The photodynamic compounds can also be activated by light to destroy viruses.
2. Description of Related Art
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is currently an active area of research for the treatment of diseases associated with hyperproliferating cells such as cancer and non-malignant lesions. The development of new photodynamic compounds (PDCs) for photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been increasingly focused on metallosupramolecular complexes derived from metals such as ruthenium and rhodium. The ongoing investigation of new photosensitizers for PDT stems from the limitations associated with traditional organic-based porphyrins such as Photofrin®, which must be activated with relatively short wavelengths of light and do not function in hypoxic environments. Significant advances have been made toward overcoming these limitations with the introduction of mixed-metal complexes that possess low-lying 3MMCT (metal-to-metal charge transfer) excited states. To date, however, there has been limited reporting of metal based photodynamic compounds that are capable of providing photodynamic therapy for the treatment of diseases associated with hyperproliferating cells such as cancer and non-malignant lesions.
There is a long felt need for new photodynamic compounds (PDCs) that are useful as photosensitizers for PDT that are both disease-modifying and effective in treating patients with diseases caused by hyperproliferating cells, for example, cancer. There is also a long felt need for new PDCs that are useful as in vivo diagnostic agents. The present invention addresses the need to develop novel PDCs that are useful as photosensitizers for PDT that are both disease-modifying and effective in treating patients with diseases caused by hyperproliferating cells, for example, cancer. The present invention also addresses the long felt need for new PDCs that are useful as in vivo diagnostic agents.
All references cited herein are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

Metal-based coordination complexes as photodynamic compounds and their use


Universally adaptable evacuators are adaptable to all surgical fields, easy to apply and, in most cases, may be expanded and/or removed as necessary. A hollow tube including a fitting adapted for connection to a vacuum source and at least one smoke inlet is held in position with the smoke inlet proximate to a surgical wound. According to a preferred embodiment, a stapling tab extending from a flexible perforated tube is used to hold the evacuator in place around the periphery of a surgical incision. According to an alternative embodiment, a smoke evacuator attaches temporarily or permanently to a retractor or other surgical instrument. Standard tubing and couplers may be used and the assembly may be prepackaged in sterile condition and disposed after use.

Modern surgical techniques typically utilize a "bovie" and/or bipolar cauterizing systems which can generate considerable amounts of smoke. This smoke often clouds the operative field of sight, and is potentially hazardous to attending personnel.
Smoke evacuation attached directly to operating bovie effectively eliminates smoke, but blocks the surgical view and makes use of the bovie cumbersome. Large hose evacuators placed near the operative incision are loud, in the way, and do not effectively or rapidly remove smoke from all fields.


A multiplexing/demultiplexing method comprises, during multiplexing, taking one bit from a time slot of each of a plurality of information data signals to form an information data sequence. The information data sequence is combined with a fixed binary code and, during demultiplexing the combined signal is analyzed in fixed bit length blocks to derive the information data. The code is selected such that the combined data signal has, for each possible information data sequence, a set of unique values irrespective of the starting point of the combined signal within the block. In this way there is no need to incorporate any alignment procedures during demultiplexing.

This invention relates to a multiplexing/demultiplexing method, in particular for conveying a plurality of binary digital signals within a single higher rate binary digital signal and which does not require an alignment process at the receiving end in order to decompose the combined signal into its constituant parts and convey them to their correct destinations.
Known multiplexing/demultiplexing methods use a process often referred to as "alignment" in order to unambiguously identify the constituent parts of the combined signal. For example some multiplexing methods use bit or byte interleaving of the lower rate signals, and include in the transmitted signals some extra bits, e.g. those of a frame alignment word, parity coding, or carter coding. Other methods use block coding with parallel inputs and a serial output.
At the receiving end where demultiplexing is to take place the received signal must be disinterleaved or decoded and the start and finish of each frame or code block must be known. This is often referred to as "alignment", a process which comprises searching in either serial or parallel form for correct alignment by counting the number of correct false and consecutive alignment positions as an aid to stopping or starting the search procedure, or otherwise deducing the start and finish of each frame or block from some property added to them by the multiplexing method. Known examples are the frame structures defined in ITU recommendations G.741 and G.751.
Another known method, which does not of necessity require that the transmitted rate is greater than the sum of the individual rates of the signals being multiplexed together, uses bit or byte interleaving, but depends upon at least one of the individual signals having a known property of its bit sequence which is different from the others, e.g. a frame word, so that it can be identified. This may be regarded as a special case of the method described previously in which extra bits are incorporated into one of the individual signals before multipexing. It still requires a process of alignment during demultiplexing.


A radiant heater (12) is disclosed for heating a glass sheet heating furnace (10) and includes a base (40) having a horizontally extending heating passage (28) therein and a cover plate (42) mountable over said base (40). A horizontal flame burner (30) supplies a horizontal flame in heating passage (28) to heat radiant heater (12) and furnace (10) thereby.

Conventional glass sheet heating furnaces include roller conveyors on which glass sheets are heated while conveyed in a generally horizontal orientation through an associated heating chamber. Convection between both top and bottom surfaces of the conveyed glass sheets and the gas within the heating chamber performs a certain extent of the heating. Conduction between heated rolls of the conveyor and the bottom surface of each conveyed glass sheet also provides for the heating. In addition, the preferred construction of these furnaces utilize electric resistance elements both above and below the conveyor rolls such that both the top and bottom surfaces of the glass sheet are also heated by radiation.
Heating of glass sheets to a desired temperature for processing is most preferably performed as rapidly as possible to keep the furnace short to lower heat losses and so as to provide heating with as little distortion as can be achieved. The use of electric resistance elements requires high energy input to bring the furnace up to temperature, requires a long-time interval to effect upward temperature changes and requires high energy input to maintain a given temperature once that temperature is established.

Gas fired radiant heater for furnace floor


There is provided an absorbent article having a surface member joined in consideration of absorptivity.

It is conventionally known that in order to absorb certain fluid, for example, menstrual blood, an absorbent article has an absorbent member for absorbing a fluid, and a surface member provided between the absorbent member and a human body in order that fluid discharged from the human body may be absorbed by the absorbent member as soon as possible and be moved away from the human body. It is also known that as a surface member of such an absorbent article, a product is used that is obtained, for example, by sending a thermoplastic film and a fibrous layer in an overlapped manner into a gap between two heated rollers, and melting the thermoplastic film with an embossing pattern provided on one of the rollers and a circumferential face, without any projections and depressions on the surface, of the other roller, thereby joining the thermoplastic film and the fibrous layer with opening sections or small embossed sections formed (for example, see JP-A-02-102046).

Absorbent article including a surface member with concaved sections

Abstract: The absorbent article has a longitudinal direction, a width direction, and a thickness direction and is worn on a body. The absorbent article includes: an absorbent member for absorbing fluid; and a fluid-permeable surface member, wherein the surface member covers the absorbent member on the side of the body when worn in the thickness direction, the surface member includes a surface sheet and an intermediate sheet that is disposed closer to the absorbent member than the surface sheet in the thickness direction, the surface sheet has a first concave section along a first direction, the intermediate sheet has a second concave section along a second direction that intersects the first direction, and the surface sheet and the intermediate sheet are joined at positions where the first concave section and the second concave section intersect each other.


A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of nonvolatile memory cells for a user area and a trimming data storage area; and a plurality of word lines. A first trimming data is stored in the trimming data storage area, and is for adjusting a read voltage to be applied to a selected word line as one of the plurality of word lines in a read operation. The read voltage is set to a voltage which exceeds a maximum voltage in an adjustable voltage range based on the first trimming data when the read operation is carried out to the trimming data storage area.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device and an operating method thereof, in particular, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device using a trimming technique and an operating method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with miniaturization of the size of a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, ON-current in a memory cell has been decreased. As the ON-state current is decreased, manufacture variations in a word line voltage and sense amplifier reference current greatly influence on relative relation between the ON-current and the sense amplifier reference current. In such a case, when data in the memory cell is read on the basis of the sense amplifier reference current and the ON-current, the read operation may become unstable.
For the above situation, a trimming scheme (disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-P2004-55081A)) is employed of suppressing the variations in the word line voltage and the sense amplifier reference current in the read operation, in order to properly read data with the reduced ON-current. According to the trimming scheme, first, a wafer test is carried out and then optimum trimming data is determined for each chip of the nonvolatile memory. The determined trimming data is stored in a dedicated memory array area in the nonvolatile memory (hereinafter, referred to as a "trimming data storage area"). Next, in a system initial operation (hereinafter, referred to as a "reset sequence"), the trimming data is read out from the trimming data storage area to set optimum word line voltage and sense amplifier reference current (or reference voltage). Thus, in the subsequent system operation, the read operation can be carried out in the optimum state.
Here, a conventional nonvolatile semiconductor memory device described in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-P2004-55081A) will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional nonvolatile semiconductor memory device. The conventional nonvolatile semiconductor memory device has a nonvolatile memory array 101, a plurality of trimming circuits 108 to 111, a decoder circuit 105, a trimming register 106 and a selector circuit 107. Data can be electrically written or erased into or from the nonvolatile memory array 101. The nonvolatile memory array 101 is divided into a user area 102 and a trimming data storage area 103. The user area 102 stores user data therein. The trimming data storage area 103 stores trimming data corresponding to each of operation modes. The plurality of trimming circuits 108 to 111 carries out trimming operations in accordance with each operation mode. The decoder circuit 105 receives a mode signal and designates an address in the nonvolatile memory array 101 in which the trimming data is stored for the operation mode represented by the mode signal. The trimming register 106 stores the trimming data read out from the nonvolatile memory array 101 according to the address designated by the decoder circuit 105. The selector circuit 107 outputs the trimming data held in the trimming register 106 to one of the trimming circuits 108 to 111 corresponding to the operation mode represented by the mode signal.
FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram showing a part of configuration of the nonvolatile memory array 101. The nonvolatile memory array 101 (the user area 102 and the trimming data storage area 103) has a plurality of word lines WL, a plurality of source lines SL, a plurality of bit lines BL, and a plurality of memory cells M. The plurality of memory cells M are nonvolatile memory cells such as flash memory cells. The word lines WL and the source lines SL extend in a first direction and are connected to control gates and sources of corresponding memory cells M, respectively. Each of the bit lines BL extends in a second direction substantially orthogonal to the first direction and is connected to drains of corresponding memory cells M. The memory cells M are provided at intersection points of the word lines WL and the bit lines BL. When a memory cell M11 is selected from the memory cells M, a word line WL3 is selected from the word lines WL, a bit lines BL0 is selected from the bit lines BL and a source line SL1 is selected from the source lines SL.
For example, in FIG. 2, when data is read from the memory cell M11 as the selected cell, a read voltage Vread (word line voltage) is applied to the word line WL3 connected to the control gate of the selected cell M11 and the other word lines WL are set to the ground voltage. A predetermined read voltage is applied to the bit line BL0 connected to the drain of the selected cell M11 and the other bit lines BL are set to the ground voltage. All source lines SL are set to the ground voltage. At this time, data in the memory cell M11 is read by comparing a cell current Ion passing through the memory cell M11 and the bit lines BL with a reference current IREF in a sense amplifier circuit 4.
Next, a read operation of reading out data from the memory cells M of the nonvolatile memory array 101 will be described. Here, for an ON-state memory cell as a selected cell in a first state where a threshold voltage is low (data "0" has been written) and an OFF-state memory cell as a selected cell in a second state where the threshold voltage is high (data "1" has been written), relationship between current and voltage at the read operation will be described. FIG. 3 is a graph showing relationship between the read voltage and cell currents and the sense amplifier reference current. A horizontal axis represents a read voltage Vread (word line voltage) and a vertical axis represents cell current Ion and the sense amplifier reference current IREF. The sense amplifier reference current IREF passes through the sense amplifier (not shown in FIG. 1) in the read operation. The sense amplifier compares the sense amplifier reference current IREF with the cell current Ion to read data. The ON-state memory cell current Ion1 as the cell current Ion passes through the ON-state memory cell. The ON-state memory cell current Ion1 rapidly increases with increase in the word line voltage. On the other hand, The OFF-state memory cell current Ion2 as the cell current Ion passes through the OFF-state memory cell. The OFF-state memory cell current Ion2 increases slightly with increase in the word line voltage. The sense amplifier reference current IREF is set constant irrespective of the word line voltage. The read voltage (word line voltage) Vread applied to the word lines is set to be V0 (for example, 2.5 V). The ON-state memory cell is determined to be in the first state based on the ON-state memory cell current Ion1 larger than the sense amplifier reference current IREF. On the other hand, the OFF-state memory cell is determined to be in the second state based on the OFF-state memory cell current Ion2 smaller than the sense amplifier reference current IREF.
Here, unless both the ON-state memory cell current Ion1 and the OFF-state memory cell current Ion2 have a certain margin with respect to the sense amplifier reference current IREF in case of the read voltage Vread=V0, an operation speed, that is, a read speed of the sense amplifier is decreased. For this reason, the sense amplifier is generally used in the condition that an ON margin ΔIm1 (for example, 5 μA) and an OFF margin ΔIm2 (for example, 5 μA) are ensured. At this time, when there are variations in the word line voltage and the sense amplifier reference current in terms of manufacture yield, since the ON-current (ON-state memory cell current Ion1) is small, influence of the variations is considered to be large. That is, it is expected that the margins (the ON margin ΔIm1 and the OFF margin ΔIm2) cannot sufficiently ensured due to small variations. However, even in this case, since the variations are suppressed by adjusting the word line voltage and the sense amplifier reference current on the basis of the trimming data (TCD, TCD2) to ensure sufficient margins, a proper read operation can be carried out without decreasing the read speed.
However, the trimming data is read out from the trimming data storage area before the word line voltage and the sense amplifier reference current are optimized. In other words, in the read operation of the trimming data from the trimming data storage area 103 during the reset sequence, optimum trimming data cannot be found. For this reason, there is a possibility that the variation in the sense amplifier reference current IREF becomes large. FIG. 4 is a graph showing a relationship between the read voltage, the cell currents and the sense amplifier reference current. A horizontal axis represents the read voltage Vread (word line voltage) and a vertical axis represents the cell current Ion and the sense amplifier reference current IREF. FIG. 4 shows a state that the sense amplifier reference current IREF is shifted relatively greatly due to variation in the sense amplifier reference current IREF (or variation in the ON-state memory cell current Ion1). In case of the read voltage (word line voltage) Vread=V0, the ON margin ΔIm1 between the ON-state memory cell current Ion1 and the sense amplifier reference current IREF becomes about 0 μA and the margin cannot be ensured. This leads a problem that the sense amplifier cannot read correctly data in the ON-state memory cell in the trimming data storage area 103. That is, there is a case where the trimming data cannot be correctly read. Therefore, a method capable of correctly reading the trimming data in the reset sequence before reading the trimming data, even when the ON-state current is small is strongly demanded.

Nonvolative semiconductor memory device and operating method thereof


A device for cushioning impact loads is described as employing unique rolling rubber rings for compressively engaging adjacent conical surfaces of the device as the surfaces come closer together. The ring has a pair of longer toroidal segments which are connected by a pair of shorter toroidal segments which have cross-sections which are substantially smaller than those of the longer segments, such that the ring can be designed to resist different lateral forces imparted to the ring.

The invention relates to devices for resiliently supporting loads or dampening impact loads and especially to the resilient elastomeric rings which are used in such devices.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,819,060 and 2,819,063 are typical of the many patents which relate to such devices. The rubber rings used in these devices have uniform cross-sections and are primarily designed to resiliently resist unidirectional or bidirectional loads along the center axis of the rings. Further, because the rings have a uniform symmetry, they cannot be dynamically tuned, so to speak, to absorb different lateral loads imposed, for example, on rings at different locations.
The present invention is directed to a resilient elastomeric ring which is used in a load-cushioning device useful in an automobile. The ring is provided with different size cross-sections in opposing arcuate sections of the ring to accommodate different lateral loads imposed on the device.
Briefly stated the present invention is directed to the provisions of a resilient elastomeric torus or ring and the angular relationship of the ring supporting means relative to the vertical axis on which the means are mounted in the load-cushioning device. Both of these provisions, either individually and collectively, allow for dynamic rate tuning in the three principle axes; vertical, fore and aft, and lateral.

Resilient rolling torus for a load-cushioning device


Embodiments provide a computer implemented method for detecting a phishing internet link, wherein an internet link is a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or a domain name, the method including: receiving the internet link; replacing one or more visually confusing characters with one or more original characters, wherein the one or more visually confusing characters are similar to the one or more original characters; removing a top-level domain from the internet link; removing a common subdomain from the internet link; splitting the remaining internet link into a list of words; converting the list of words into a list of word vectors; calculating an average word vector of the list of word vectors; and providing a phishing score for the average vector, indicating a probability of the internet link being a phishing internet link.

The phishing attacks are attacks which impersonate a legitimate website to steal sensitive information from end-users. Currently, the phishing attacks can be detected after analyzing the content of a suspicious website and comparing the suspicious site with either other phishing attacks or with the legitimate site which the suspicious site impersonates. However, the analysis and comparison require a relatively long computational time, thus making it impossible to check every single website or URL.

International Business Machines Corporation


According to one embodiment, after forming transistors on a semiconductor substrate, a stopper layer and an interlayer insulating film are formed. Then, a contact hole is formed in the interlayer insulating film and a copper film is formed on the interlayer insulating film to bury the inside of the contact hole with copper. After that, the copper film on the interlayer insulating film is removed by low-pressure CMP polishing or ECMP polishing to planarize a surface thereof to form plugs. Thereafter, a barrier metal, a lower electrode, a ferroelectric film, and an upper electrode are formed. In this manner, a semiconductor device (FeRAM) having a ferroelectric capacitor is formed.

Recently, it has been highly required that a large volume of data can be processed at a higher speed along with the development of digital technologies. In addition, it has been also required that semiconductor devices used in electronic equipment be further densely integrated and show higher performance. Accordingly, there has been widely studied technologies that use, to provide a semiconductor storing device (DRAM: a dynamic random-access memory) with higher integration, ferroelectric materials or high dielectric materials in place of conventionally used silicon oxides or silicon nitrides as a material of an insulating film of capacitor in the DRAM.
A ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) is a non-volatile semiconductor memory device using a ferroelectric for an insulating film (a capacity insulating film) of a capacitor and stores data by utilizing a hysteresis characteristic of the ferroelectric. The ferroelectric has a characteristic that polarization is caused when a voltage is applied and that spontaneous polarization is maintained even after the voltage is stopped to be applied. In addition, when the polarity of the applying voltage is reversed, the polarity of the spontaneous polarization is also reversed. Accordingly, it is possible to store data by associating one polarity with "1" and the other polarity with "0". The stored data can be read out by detecting a polarity of the spontaneous polarization.
The ferroelectric film constituting the capacitor of FeRAM is made of lead zirconate titanate (PZT), PLZT in which La is doped into PZT, a PZT-based material in which a small amount of Ca, Sr, or Si is doped, Bi layered structure compounds, such as SrBi2Ta2O9(SBT, Y1) and SrBi2(Ta, Nb)2O9(SBTN, YZ), and is formed by a sol-gel method, a sputtering method, a metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method, or the like.
In general, an amorphous or microcrystalline ferroelectric film is formed on a lower electrode by using these film forming methods, and thereafter a crystal structure thereof is changed by thermal processing to have a perovskite structure or bismuth layered structure. As a material for an electrode of a capacitor, it is required to use a material which is less likely to be oxidized or which can maintain conductivity even after being oxidized. In general, platinum metals such as platinum (Pt), iridium (Ir), iridium oxide and the like, or oxidants thereof are widely used. In addition, aluminum (Al) is a generally used material for a wiring as in the general semiconductor device.
Similar to other semiconductor devices, FeRAM is also required to be further densely integrated and to show higher performance, so that it is needed to reduce an area of a cell in the feature. To reduce the area of the cell, it has been known that it is effective to use a stack structure in place of a conventional planar structure. Here, the stack structure means a structure that a capacitor is formed directly on a plug (a contact plug) formed on a drain of a transistor constituting a memory cell. In a conventional FeRAM with a stack structure, a capacitor is formed directly on a W (tungsten) plug by laminating a barrier metal, a lower electrode, a ferroelectric film, and an upper electrode in this order. The barrier metal has a function to prevent the W plug from oxidation. Since a material having the effect of the barrier metal together with the effect of the lower electrode is often selected, the barrier metal and the lower electrode cannot be clearly separated. However, the barrier metal and the lower electrode are generally formed by combination of at least two films, which are selected from a TiN film, a TiAlN film, an Ir film, an IrO2 film, and an SRO(SrRuO3) film.
In Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2000-31421, for the purpose of preventing excessive necking of a storage node, it is disclosed that a recessed W plug filling a part of a contact hole is formed, and thereafter a conductive film (for example, a Cu film) and an insulating film (for example, SiON film) are sequentially formed on an entire surface thereof, and then the conductive film and the insulating film are polished by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) to form a contact plug with a structure in which an insulating material is buried in the center portion thereof.
In addition, In Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 10-242423, there is disclosed a semiconductor device in which a second plug formed by filling a contact hole in a second interlayer insulating film with W is laminated on a first plug formed by filling a contact hole in a first interlayer insulating film with polysilicon, and a capacitor is formed on this second plug.
Furthermore, In Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2003-68993, it is proposed that a W plug is formed after a hydrogen permeation prohibiting film made of TiAlN, TiN, TaN or the like is formed on an inner surface of a contact hole to avoid deteriorating characteristics of a capacity insulating film at the time when processing is carried out in a high concentration hydrogen atmosphere.

Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same


A microcomputer based reclosing relay performs a number of sequences to generate a succession of reclosure signals for a circuit breaker at timed intervals. The digital processing unit of the relay maintains flags, counts and running times for generating the succession of timed reclosures in a volatile memory. Periodically, these flags, counts and running times are copied to a non-volatile memory such as an EEPROM. Upon restoration of power following an interruption of power which results in loss of the contents of the volatile memory, the digital processing unit recopies the flags, counts and running times saved in the non-volatile memory back into the volatile memory, so that the relay can resume generating the succession of reclosures from the point at which power was lost. The flags and counts are copied to the EEPROM only when they change state, while the running times are only saved once a second to prolong the service life of the EEPROM.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to reclosing relays which automatically reclose circuit breakers in electric power transmission and distribution systems after they have been opened by other protective relays. More specifically, it relates to a microcomputer based reclosing relay and particularly to aspects of such a relay which provide continuity of operation despite interruption in power to the relay microcomputer.
2. Background Information
Reclosing relays are commonly used to automatically reclose circuit breakers in electric power systems which have been opened by overcurrent or other protective relay action. Typically, the reclosing relay provides several reclosures at predetermined intervals in case the fault which initiated tripping of the circuit breaker takes time to clear and the circuit breaker does not remain closed in response to the first closure. The first reclosure is usually made without a delay since operating experience has shown that the majority of faults are of a temporary nature such as lighting flashovers, and will not be reestablished after an interruption of the fault current.
If the circuit breaker does not remain closed after the first reclosure, the relay makes additional reclosures at suitably graded intervals. It is common practice for the reclosing relay to make two additional reclosures. If the circuit breaker does not remain closed after the third reclosure, the reclosing relay goes to a lockout state, and manual action is required to reset the circuit breaker and the reclosing relay.
Conventionally, reclosing relays have been electromechanical devices While these devices are very reliable, they are not very flexible.
It is a primary object of the invention to provide a reclosing relay which can be more easily adapted to varying conditions.
It is also an object of the invention to provide such a reclosing relay which maintains continuity of operation despite interruption in power to the relay.


Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method comprising: obtaining a base formulation, obtaining an activator formulation, mixing the base formulation with the activator formulation, so as to result in a liquid applied roofing formulation, applying the liquid applied roofing formulation to at least one steep slope roof substrate, and solidifying the formulation, so as to form at least one coating layer on the at least one steep slope roof substrate. Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a liquid applied roofing formulation comprising a first part and a second part. In some embodiments, the first part comprises the base formulation and the second part comprises the activator formulation.

Many current roofing products such as roofing underlayments, may be adequate as ice and water barriers. However, at least some roofing underlayments may have limited breathability and may potentially cause moisture issues. In addition, some roofing underlayments may contain failure areas, such as, but not limited to overlaps, seams, and roofing fasteners.
Formulations and methods that address at least the above issues, while preserving existing advantages of current roofing products (such as, but not limited to, fire resistance and nail sealability) are therefore needed.

Liquid applied roofing formulations and methods of using the same to coat at least one steep slope roof substrate


A device is described based on flexible photonic crystal, which is comprised of a periodic array of high index dielectric material embedded in a flexible polymer. Dynamic, real time tunability is achieved by the application of a variable force with a MEMS actuator or other means. The force induces changes in the crystal structure of the photonic crystal, and consequently modifies the photonic band structure. The concept was demonstrated by a theoretical investigation on the effect of mechanical stress on the anomalous refraction behavior of the flexible PC, and a very wide tunability in beam propagation direction was observed. Experimental studies on fabrication and characterizations of the flexible photonic crystal structures were also carried out. High quality flexible PC structures were fabricated by e-beam lithography and anisotropic etching processes.

1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to photonic crystals, and in particular the strain tuning of flexible photonic crystals
2. Description of the Related Art
Photonic crystals (PCs) are a class of materials that possess periodic dielectric constants. Such periodicity in dielectric constant strongly modulates the propagation of electromagnetic waves. There is a strong analogy between photonic crystals and real crystals. PCs exhibit photonic bands in a similar manner that electronic energy bands are formed in real crystals. Certain photonic crystals show photonic bandgaps, which are ranges of wavelengths in which generation and propagation of light is completely prohibited. Furthermore, the properties of PCs are likewise governed by the Bloch-Floquet theorem. Much like electronic dopants, defects may be introduced into PCs so that the periodicity in dielectric constants is perturbed locally. Such defects or impurities can act as active optical elements such as mirrors, waveguides and micro-cavities.
A photonic band gap provides a mechanism to confine light in a very small length scale. PC waveguides are typically created from semiconductor materials using e-beam lithography and standard semiconductor etching tools. To form a waveguide, a line defect is introduced to an otherwise periodic lattice, and light can be confined to the defect region and guided along the length of the waveguide. Those skilled in the art use well known analytical and numerical tools to design waveguides whose defect geometry is tailored towards certain wavelengths of light and different applications.
PCs can be used to build cavities with extremely high confinement factors in which strong enhancement of light-matter interaction occurs. Such high Q cavities exhibit strongly enhanced spontaneous emission rate and thus are ideal platforms to develop extremely low threshold lasers. Progress in nanofabrication techniques has made it possible to produce the complex PC structures required to build PC-based micro-cavities. The PC-based micro-cavity is typically defined by introducing a defect in an otherwise perfect PC structure. The defect acts as an optical cavity as it introduces a highly localized mode within the photonic bandgap.
PCs also exhibit extraordinary refraction and dispersion characteristics, orders of magnitude greater than in conventional optical materials. It has been shown that a beam entering the crystal with a small incident angle can experience strong positive or negative refraction with an extraordinarily large refraction angle. It should be noted that these properties are based on anisotropic and nonlinear dispersion and therefore do not require the existence of photonic bandgaps, significantly relieving material requirements. These novel properties present possibilities of achieving a new range of nanoscale optical devices that can focus, disperse, switch and steer light.
Recent developments have clearly demonstrated how PCs can generate, manipulate, process, transmit and detect light. There is significant promise in the possibility that PCs will be used extensively in compact and highly integrated nanoscale structures. These devices may provide the breakthroughs needed for the next-generation photonics technology. However, although many novel device schemes have been developed by extensive theoretical and experimental works, most of them are based on "passive" PC structures designed to perform certain functions without any means of external control.
A crucial innovation needed to fully exploit the unique optical properties of PCs is the ability to dynamically control or tune the photonic band structure and consequently their optical properties. There have been some efforts to achieve tunability by using electro-optic materials which change their refractive indices in response to an external electric field. Such research has predicted the tunability of photonic band structure by infiltrating liquid crystal (LC) into an opal structure. This work was soon followed by experimental demonstration of temperature tuning of photonic bandgap (PBG) in LC infiltrated PC structures. More recently, two-dimensional (2D) modeling studies showed tunability of the super-prism effect in 2D PCs infiltrated by LC and lead lanthanum zirconium titanate (PbLaZrTiO3, PLZT). However, a more rigorous 3D simulation taking explicitly into account the finite thickness of the slab PC structure predicted that tunability is limited due to the small attainable changes in the refractive index of LC. There have also been recent efforts at strain tuning of PCs. While all of these developments are encouraging, it is clear that there exist certain fundamental limitations on achievable tunability. For LCs, the attainable change in refractive index is typically on the order of 15% and, for PLZT, it is typically smaller. To maximize their promise, there is a clear need for wider tunability in PCs.
Information relevant to attempts to address these problems can be found at
U.S. Publication Numbers:US 2004/0076362US 2004/0170352International Publication Number:WO 02/10843WO 2004/008230WO 2004/008231Additional Publications:    S. Kim and V. Gopalan, "Strain-tunable photonic band gap crystals," App. Phys. Lett. 78, 3015 (2001).    N. Malkova, S. Kim, and V. Gopalan, "Strain-tunable light transmission through a 90° bend waveguide in a two-dimensional photonic crystal," App. Phys. Lett., 83, 1509 (2003).    N. Malkova, V. Gopalan, "Strain-tunable optical valves at T-junction waveguides in photonic crystals," Phys. Rev. B, 68, 245115-1-6 (2003).    C. W. Wong, P. Rakich, S. Johnson, M. Qi, H. Smith, E. Ippen, L. Kimerling, Y. Jeon, G. Barbastathis, S.-G. Kim, "Strain-tunable silicon photonic band gap microcavities in optical waveguides" App. Phys. Lett. 84, 1242 (2004).    Y. B. Jeon, C. W. Wong, S. G. Kim, "Strain-Tuning of Nano-Optical Devices: Tunable Gratings and Photonic Crystals," 12th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems. Digest of Technical Papers, 202 (2003).    S. Jun and Y. Cho, "Deformation-induced bandgap tuning of 2D silicon-based photonic crystals," Opt. Express 11, 2769 (2003).    S.-G. Kim, C. W. Wong, Y. B. Jeon, "Strain-tuning of Optical Devices with Nanometer Resolution", Annals of CIRP 52, 2003.    N. Malkova, "Tunable resonant light propagation through 90° bend waveguide based on strained photonic crystal," J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 16, 1523 (2004)    K. Busch and S. John, "Liquid-crystal photonic-band-gap materials: the tunable electromagnetic vacuum", Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 967, (1999).    K. Yoshino, Y. Shinoda, Y. Kawagishi, K. Nakayama and M. Ozaki, "Temperature tuning of the stop band in transmission spectra of liquid-crystal infiltrated synthetic opal as tunable photonic crystal," Appl. Phys. Lett. 75, 932, (1999).    S. W. Leonard, J. P. Mondia, H. M. van Driel, O. Toader, S. John, K. Busch, A. Birmer, U. Gosele and V. Lehmann, "Tunable two-dimensional photonic crystals using liquid-crystal infiltration," Phys. Rev. B 61, R2389, (2000).    D. Scrymgeour, N. Malkova, S. Kim and V. Gopalan, "Electro-optic control of the superprism effect in photonic crystals," Appl. Phys. Lett. 82, 3176 (2003).    S. Xiong and H. Fukshima, "Analysis of light propagation in index-tunable photonic crystals," J. Appl. Phys. 94, 1286, (2003).    W. Park and C. J. Summers, "Optical Properties of Superlattice Photonic Crystal Waveguides", Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 2013 (2004).    S.-Y. Lin, V. M. Hietala, L. Wang and E. D. Jones, "Highly dispersive photonic band-gap prism," Opt. Lett. 21, 1771 (1996).    H. Kosaka, T. Kawashima, A. Tomina, M. Notomi, T. Tamamura, T. Sato and S. Kawakami, "Superprism phenomena in photonic crystals", Phys. Rev. B 58, 10096 (1998).    W. Park and C. J. Summers, "Extraordinary Refraction and Dispersion in 2D Photonic Crystal Slabs", Opt. Lett. 27, 1397 (2002).    L. Wu, M. Mazilu and T. F. Krauss, "Beam Steering in Planar-Photonic Crystals: From Superprism to Supercollimator," J. Lightwave Technol. 21, 561 (2003).    S. G. Johnson and J. D. Joannopoulos, "Block-iterative frequency-domain methods for Maxwell's equations in a planewave basis," Opt. Express 8, 173 (2001).However, each one of the cited references suffers from at least one of the following disadvantages: limited tunability, limited functionality, fabrication difficulties, or excessive cost or size.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for widely tunable PCs that can be fabricated on a very small scale using largely conventional lithography techniques.

Strain tunable, flexible photonic crystals

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The Board of Regents of the University of Texas System