The invention relates to a transflective liquid crystal display capable of display in both of transmissive and reflective modes and a method of manufacturing the same and provides a transflective liquid crystal display which can achieve high display characteristics in both of the transmissive and reflective modes. A configuration is employed which includes a liquid crystal display panel having a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer sealed between the substrates, a pixel region including a reflective area having a reflector for reflecting light entering from the side of one of the pair of substrates and a transmissive area for transmitting light entering from the side of the other of the pair of substrates toward the one of the pair of substrates, a backlight unit having a reflector and a light guide plate for reflecting the light which has entered the transmissive area from the side of the one of the pair of substrates and which has been transmitted by the area to cause the light to enter the transmissive area again from the side of the other of the pair of substrates, and a color filter layer formed only in the transmissive area of the pixel region.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display and a method of manufacturing the same and, more particularly, to a transflective liquid crystal display capable of display in both of transmissive and reflective modes and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, active matrix liquid crystal displays having a thin film transistor (TFT) at each of pixels are widely used as displays in every field of application. Under such a circumstance, transflective liquid crystal displays capable of display in both of reflective and transmissive modes have been put in use as displays for mobile terminals or notebook type personal computers.
FIGS. 47A and 47B show a configuration of a transflective liquid crystal display according to the related art disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1. FIG. 47A shows a configuration of a pixel of the transflective liquid crystal display, and FIG. 47B shows a sectional configuration of the transflective liquid crystal display taken along the line X-X in FIG. 47A. As shown in FIGS. 47A and 47B, the pixel region is divided into a transmissive area T and a reflective area R. In the reflective area R on a TFT substrate 102, an insulator (resin layer) 130 is formed such that the reflective area R has a cell thickness that is one-half of a cell thickness of the transmissive area T. A reflective electrode 116 having an irregular surface is formed on the insulator 130. In the middle of the transmissive area T on an opposite substrate 104, a protrusion 132 for regulating the alignment of a vertical alignment type liquid crystal 106 is formed. A pair of ¼ wave plates 120 are provided on respective sides of the TFT substrate 102 and the opposite substrate 104 that constitute the exterior of the panel. A pair of polarizers 122 is provided outside the ¼ wave plates 120, respectively. A step for forming and patterning the insulators 130 is required for this transflective liquid crystal display to make the cell thickness of the reflective areas R smaller than the cell thickness of the transmissive areas T. This results in a problem in that the manufacturing cost of the liquid crystal display is increased because of increased complicatedness of manufacturing steps.
As a solution to this problem, a transflective liquid crystal display having a configuration as shown in FIG. 48 was proposed in a Japanese Patent Application (numbered 2003-95329) made by the applicant. As shown in FIG. 48, a plurality of gate bus lines 150 extending in the horizontal direction in the figure are formed substantially in parallel with each other on a TFT substrate of a liquid crystal display. A plurality of drain bus lines 152 extending in the vertical direction in the figure are formed substantially in parallel with each other such that they intersect the gate bus lines 150, an insulation film, which is not shown, being interposed between them. A TFT 154 is formed in the vicinity of each of intersections between the gate bus lines 150 and the drain bus lines 152. Regions surrounded by the gate bus lines 150 and the drain bus lines 152 constitute pixel regions. Storage capacitor bus lines 156 substantially in parallel with the gate bus lines 150 are formed such that they extend across the pixel regions substantially in the middle thereof. A storage capacitor electrode 158 is formed on the storage capacitor bus line 156 at each pixel region.
A pixel electrode constituted by a transparent conductive film is formed at a pixel region. A pixel electrode has a rectangular circumference, and it has a plurality of electrode units 162 smaller than the pixel region, electrode blank sections (slits) 164 formed between adjoining electrode units 162, and connecting electrodes 166 for electrically connecting electrode units 162 separated by the slits 164 with each other. A plurality of spaces 168 are formed at the periphery of the electrode units 162, the spaces being cutouts on respective side edges which extend substantially in parallel with the gate bus lines 150 or drain bus lines 152. A black matrix (BM) 170 for shielding a region outside the pixel region from light is formed on the opposite substrate.
In this configuration, the storage capacitor electrode 158 is used as a reflector, and circular reflectors 172 are separately formed in the pixel region. The reflectors 172 are formed of the same material as that of a gate electrode or source and drain electrodes of the TFT 154 and are provided such that they substantially overlap the centers of the electrode units 162 when viewed in a direction perpendicular to a substrate surface. The reflectors 172 are in an electrically floating state.
In this configuration, the cell thickness of a reflective area is the same as the cell thickness of a transmissive area. Therefore, the birefringence of the reflective area is twice that of the transmissive area because light passes through the same liquid crystal layer twice to enter and exit the cell. A problem therefore arises in that yellow is displayed in the reflective area while white is displayed in the transmissive area when the same voltage is applied to the transmissive area and the reflective area. A measure taken to suppress birefringence is to decrease the tilt of liquid crystal molecules during display in the reflective mode by decreasing the applied voltage.
Although the configuration shown in FIG. 48 allows manufacturing steps simpler than those for the configuration shown in FIGS. 47A and 47B, it requires an applied voltage to be adjusted for display in the transmissive mode and for display in the reflective mode. Another problem arises in that when intense external light enters during display in the transmissive mode, the color of light reflected by a reflective area can be greatly different from the color of light transmitted by a transmissive area.
The followings are the description of related arts,
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. JP-A-H11-183892
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. JP-A-2002-341366
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. JP-A-2001-166289
Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent No. 3380482
Patent Document 5: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. JP-A-S57-155582
Patent Document 6: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. JP-A-2001-242452
Patent Document 7: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. JP-A-2002-350853
Patent Document 8: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. JP-A-2000-47215
Patent Document 9: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. JP-A-2000-111902
Patent Document 10: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. JP-A-H11-242226
Patent Document 11: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. JP-A-H11-281972
Non-Patent Document 1: Asia Display/IDW' 01, p. 133 (2001)
Non-Patent Document 2: SID 96 Digest, pp. 618-621

Liquid crystal display having particular reflective area and transmissive area


A method for identifying a machine from within a facility for which information is to be presented via a wireless information device (WID), the method including the steps of assigning machine identifiers to each facility machine, determining WID location within the facility, presenting machine identifiers corresponding to machines associated with the WID location to the WID user, receiving a selection indication via the WID indicating one of the visually presented machine identifiers, accessing machine information corresponding to the selected machine identifier, transmitting the accessed machine information to the WID and presenting the accessed machine information via the WID.

The field of the invention is wireless information devices and more specifically wireless devices for automatically obtaining location based information related to machines when a wireless device is placed within proximity of the machines.
There are many industries where electronic interfaces have been developed to facilitate monitoring or control or both system monitoring and control. For instance, in the industrial automation industry, a manufacturing plant may include several thousand different machines arranged to form a plurality of machine lines that cooperate to produce one or more products. In this case, each machine or a sub-set of machines may be equipped with an interface including a processor, some type of information output device and some type of information input device. The output device is often a display screen for displaying text, graphics, etc., and the input device is typically a keyboard.
Because of the nature of industrial automation, some industrial facilities have adopted policies requiring at least some level of local or location specific interfacing and control. In industrial control, many (e.g., tens or perhaps even hundreds) machines may be positioned along a machine line so that improper performance of or damage to one machine affects operation of a large number of related downstream machines. In addition, improper machine operation, given unforeseen circumstances, may result in injury to facility employees proximate the malfunctioning machine or proximate downstream machines. In these cases, if remote control were allowed, an operator may adjust one machine believing that some other similar machine is being adjusted with unintended and potentially costly results.
In an effort to avoid unintended results, most automated facilities require operators to be located adjacent or proximate a machine prior to altering machine operation. This proximity requirement is enforced by providing machine monitoring and controlling interfaces proximate associated machines. More specifically, the interfaces are typically placed in positions that enable an interface operator to observe machine operation prior to, during and after adjustment of machine operating characteristics. Here the interfacing is local despite remote or centralized processing. In this manner, an operator can essentially simultaneously observe operation of a particular machine and the information provided by an interface associated with the particular machine. This "dual viewing" capability facilitates a far more comprehensive understanding of machine conditions and enables the operator to quickly determine if control alterations have desired effects.
Requiring even basic interfaces at each machine or adjacent logically related sub-sets of machines is relatively expensive as each interface typically requires a display of some type and at least a set of control buttons or a keyboard of some type. To minimize costs many control systems are designed to provide pseudo-local or multiplexed control where one interface may be provided for several proximate machines. For instance, one interface may be provided for ten proximate machines.
Multi-machine interfaces represent a tradeoff between cost and functionality. TO this end, as indicated above, unfortunately, the "dual viewing" (i.e., simultaneous view of a machine and an associated interface) capability afforded by providing interfaces as close as possible to associated machines is hampered when the number of interfaces is less than the number of machines within a facility. Thus, in the case above, where a single interface is provided for ten separate but proximate machines, the interface may not be located in an optimal position for observing operation of a sub-set of the ten machines while simultaneously viewing the interface.
In addition, where a single interface is provided for more than one machine, the interface has to be relatively more complex than an interface provided for a single machine. To this end, to avoid confusion and unintended changes to machine operation, it is generally accepted that an interface should only display information corresponding to a single machine or a related sub-set of machines at any given time. For example, where a single interface is provided for accessing information corresponding to and controlling ten logically related machines, if the interface were programmed to provide information and controls for two or more of the machines at one time, an interface operator may examine data corresponding to one of the ten machines believing that the examined data corresponds to another of the ten machines or worse, the operator may adjust control of one of the ten machines believing that the operator is controlling another of the ten machines.
To avoid this type of confusion and related control errors, multi-machine interfaces are typically programmed to so that information and control tools corresponding to only a single one of the machines associated with an interface are provided at any time. Thus, multi-machine interfaces generally require some type of machine selection process and corresponding tools that allow a user to select which of several machines the user wishes to interrogate and/or control and hence are more complex that single machine interfaces that can automatically provide information to an operator.
Furthermore, in the case of multi-machine interfaces there is always the possibility that an operator may inadvertently select one machine believing that the operator has selected another machine for monitoring or control. Here, as above, the possibility for an unintended and costly result is great.
Second, as in most businesses, in an automated facility, there are many different types of employees and machine access and control requirements for the employee types are very different. For instance, a janitor likely has no need to access machine information or control machine operation, a maintenance engineer will require access to certain machine information and control capabilities and a process engineer may require access to a completely different set of machine information and control capabilities. Systems have existed for a long time (e.g., password protection, biometric comparison, etc.) that can restrict information access and control to specific authorized personnel. Unfortunately, these systems generally require relatively complex and expensive interface devices (e.g., a complete keyboard or some type of biometric scanner). As indicated above, in automation most interfaces are minimized to reduce costs and hence the added security that comes with restricting access and control to those having a need to access and control are often foregone.
One solution to the above problems that has been used in the automation industry is to provide hand held devices (HHDs) to machine operators having a need to monitor and/or control facility machines. (Unless indicated otherwise all portable information devices hereinafter will be referred to as HHDs, including PDAs, laptops, etc.). Here, an HHD, as its label implies, is a relatively small and portable device that can be carried around a facility by a machine operator. The HHD is typically provided with a small display screen, a set of buttons or a full keyboard to enable information interchange, a processor, a memory and a connection cable having a distal end configured to be received by a machine port. Each facility machine is provided with a machine port for receiving the HHD cable. To link to a local machine processor, the HHD cable is plugged into the machine port and establishes a one to one match where there is no ambiguity regarding which machine an HHD user is obtaining information for.
Here, information access and control can be restricted by restricting access to the HHDs. Thus, for instance, when a maintenance engineer enters a facility to perform maintenance duties, the engineer may check out an HHD from a central HHD location for use in the facility. After the maintenance engineer has completed his duties, the engineer may be required to check the HHD back into the central HHD location. To restrict access and control differently for different personnel there may be classes of HHDs where each class allows a user a unique set of access and control privileges (i.e., a maintenance HHD may have a first set of capabilities while a process control HHD may have a second set of capabilities).
Unfortunately the HHD solution described above also has several shortcomings. First, the manual process of linking an HHD to a machine processor is time consuming, burdensome and costly. Again, while one or a small number of linking processes may not seem burdensome, where the process has to be repeated several hundred times during an operator's shift, the combined linking tasks become excessive. In addition, in this case there may be a safety risk where an HHD becomes untethered from a machine in some way. One other problem with these types of plugs in HHDs is that access ports for receiving a tether may not always be readily accessible.
Second, where several hundred links may have to be made during a given day, the wear and tear on machine communication ports and HHD cable can be excessive and require either routine replacement or an extremely robust and expensive mechanical linking system.
Third, despite support for some customization regarding the types of information and control provided to a facility employee by way of configuring HHDs as a function of the type of employee that will use the HHD, there is no easy way to allow an employee to customize the appearance of information and control tools provided by the HHD. For instance, one maintenance engineer may want a first set of information presented in a first format while another maintenance engineer may want the same first set of information presented in a second format completely different than the first format.
Fourth, any system that requires an HHD to be tethered to a machine in order to obtain information related to the machine or to control the machine restricts operator movement and may not allow an operator to move into particularly advantageous positions to observe machine operations. Also, in this regard, a mechanical tether is cumbersome to manipulate and therefore is bothersome.
Industries outside industrial automation have faced problems similar to those faced in industrial automation and have devised some solutions that are suitable to the respective industries. For instance, in the medical industry, it has been recognized that the ability to obtain information about a patient automatically upon entering the patients room is advantageous. In a medical facility, a process that requires a physician to manipulate a patient's arm to identify a patient ID on a wristband or the like and then enter the patient ID into an information device to obtain the patient's medical history is burdensome. The process may disturb a sleeping patient, requires that the physician come in close proximity to the patient, is subject to human error and is time consuming. The process is particularly burdensome in emergency situations where time may be of the essence.
European patent application No. 0,992,921 (hereinafter "the '921 reference") entitled "Computer Access Dependent On Location of Access Terminal" which was filed on Sep. 21, 1999 teaches a facility system wherein a separate wireless access point is positioned within each facility room for communicating with physician specific wireless HHDs located within the room. The '921 reference teaches that a physician identifier is stored in the HHD and, when an HHD is sensed within a room, the access point automatically obtains the physician identifier from the HHD, determines a degree of access (i.e., authorization) associated with the physician identifier, accesses information associated with the room (i.e., information associated with a patient within the room) and then transmits a sub-set of the patient information consistent with the physician's degree of access to the HHD for display.
The '921 solution works well in a facility that can easily be divided into cells separated by walls (i.e., patient rooms) and where there is only one set of information (i.e., information related to a single patient) associated with a particular cell. However, if a plurality of patients are located within a single room the '921 reference system cannot determine for which of the plurality of patients a physician seeks information. It is unclear how the '921 reference would resolve the quandary regarding which patient information to provide to a physician when more than one patient resides in a room. The '921 reference presents a problem where a physician may end up reviewing information corresponding to one patient while examining a different patient in the same room—clearly an unacceptable situation. In the context of an automated facility the '921 reference could not be used to select information corresponding to one machine out of a plurality of machines in a room for delivery to an HHD.
In addition, the '921 reference fails to teach or suggest any type of location specific equipment control. Failure to discuss equipment control is not surprising given the relatively course location resolution contemplated by the '921 reference.
Moreover, the '921 reference system and other systems of the same ilk require a relatively large number of access points to provide even the relatively coarse location resolution capabilities contemplated. System cost increases along with component count and therefore systems like the '921 reference system are relatively expensive.
In the office automation industry, U.S. Pat. No. 6,359,711 (hereinafter "the '711 patent") which issued on Mar. 19, 2002 and is entitled "System and Method for Supporting A Worker In A Distributed Work Environment" teaches a system where, like the '921 reference, a single access point is located within each room in a facility. The '711 patent teaches that HHDs (i.e., laptop computers) used by specific users are provided with user identifiers. A system database correlates user identifiers with information related to applications that the specific users subscribe to or have authorization to use. In addition, the database also includes information related to office equipment located throughout a facility where the equipment is associated with specific applications. For instance, a word processor application may require access to a printer, a window treatment control application may require access to motorized blinds and an HVAC application may require access to a thermostat control.
When an HHD is brought into a room, the access point senses the HHD, obtains the user identifier therefrom, accesses the database to identify applications associated with the user identifier, identifies which office equipment types the identified applications must access, locates the single instance of each identified office equipment type that is closest to the access point and then creates a control link between the laptop and the identified equipment instances.
While suitable for an office environment, the '711 patent control scheme is not suitable for an industrial automation environment for several reasons. First, the '711 patent system, like the '921 reference system, relies on clearly delineated and identifiable facility cells (i.e., rooms) and a single access point in each cell. Like the '921 reference, the '921 patent system cannot determine relative proximity between the HHD and a plurality of machines located within a single room. For instance, where an HVAC control, a printer and a laptop are located in the same room, the '711 patent cannot determine if the laptop is closest to the HVAC control or the printer.
Second, the '711 patent system teaches linking a laptop to the closest instance of each required equipment type independent of whether or not the instance is proximate the HHD. For instance, in the case of a word processor application requiring a printer, the '711 patent system locates a closest printer to an access point and enables control of the located printer irrespective of the distance between the printer and the laptop (i.e., the access point). Here, the printer may be five rooms away from the HHD and hence from the person operating the printer. This type of "blind" control is acceptable in the case of a printer application where the end results of an imperfect printing process is minimally costly. However, in the case of automated control of machinery, as indicated above, such blind control often cannot be tolerated.
Third, a system like the '711 patent system would cause confusion in an industrial control environment. To this end, while a particular user may have clearance to observe machine information corresponding to several different machine types and to control various machine types using various applications, simultaneously and automatically presenting information or controls corresponding to two or more machine types at a time would be confusing where only a single machine type can be controlled at any one time.
What is really needed in the industrial automation environment is a system that can be used to clearly associate a wireless HHD within a facility with a single facility machine for monitoring and control. One way to accomplish this HHD-machine associating task is to identify machine zones adjacent each facility machine, determine when a wireless HHD is within one of the zones and then provide machine information to the HHD corresponding to the machine associated with the zone for presentation to the HHD user. This method of associating cannot be achieved without precise location resolution.
World patent application No. WO 00/50919 (hereinafter "the '919 reference") which is titled "Method and Computer Readable Medium for Locating and Tracking a User in a Wireless Network Using a Table of Digital Data" teaches one system that can be used to relatively accurately determine location within a specific space or within a room. To this end, the '919 reference teaches a plurality of base stations or access points can be installed at locations within a facility. The access points each transmit signals of known strength to mobile HHDs within the facility. The strengths of the signals decrease as a function of distance traveled. The HHDs each receive the transmitted signals and, based on signal strengths of several of the received signals, determine the location of the HHDs within the facility.
World patent application No. WO 02/054813 (hereinafter "the '813 reference") titled "Location Estimation in Wireless Telecommunication Networks" teaches a location system similar to the system described in the '919 reference that relies on signal strength to determine location of a portable device within a facility. The '813 reference, however, applies a statistical model to the received signals to, supposedly, yield a far more accurate device location.
While each of the '919 reference and the '813 reference teach location determining systems that have better resolution than the room based systems described in the '921 reference and the '711 patent, it is likely that even with the increased resolution capabilities afforded by the '919 reference or the '813 reference, the location resolution requirements for a secure wireless industrial control cannot be achieved for several reasons. First, even where a signal strength based system supports relatively accurate location resolution throughout most of a facility, it may be that an unusually large number of moving metallic machines reside in certain facility areas that may introduce errors into transmitted signals thereby appreciably affecting received signal strengths. In this case, at least in areas including unusually large numbers of machines or machines having odd layouts, location position may not be accurately determined using the '919 and '813 reference systems.
Second, many industrial facilities are laid out according to space saving schemes that require adjacent machines to be juxtaposed relatively close to each other. In these cases machine zones corresponding to two or more adjacent machines may overlap so that, even a properly operating high resolution location determining system could not distinguish which machine information is sought in the overlapping region. Thus, for instance, assume that a location determining system identifies that an HHD is located in a space that is overlapped by three adjacent machine zones, here, the HHD may be provided with information corresponding to any one of the three machines corresponding to any one of the three overlapping zones.
Third, even where machine zones can be selected so that the machine zones do not overlap, many practical location determining systems may not be accurate enough to distinguish between adjacent zones. For instance, locating systems based on signal strength may only be able to distinguish general location within a room such as in which of four room regions an HHD resides or in which of sixteen equi-sized room regions an HHD resides or in which of 100 facility regions an HHD resides where each of the regions may includes several different machines.
In addition, there may be situations where a single area is associated with more than one machine zone. For instance, a transfer line may move items along a path adjacent thirty different machines. In this case it may make sense to be able to observe information corresponding to the transfer line at any location along the line and to observe information for each machine only adjacent each machine. Similarly, it may make sense to enable an HHD user to observe a machine or machine line layout map for a facility area from any space within the area or to observe machine specific information for one or more machines proximate an HHD user's specific location within the area.
Thus, it would be advantageous to have a system that could be used to unambiguously identify a machine for which information is sought and then associate an HHD and the machine so that machine specific information is obtainable with minimal HHD operator effort.

Machine associating method and apparatus


Automated booting of a client for a subscriber is provided for clients that are for use in interactive user sessions that involve multimedia. A subscribe message is sent from the client to a proxy server. The proxy server authenticates the subscribe message, and sends the subscribe message to the configuration server. A notify message is sent to the client from the configuration server. The notify message is sent through the proxy server, and contains a location of a profile for the client. The profile is downloaded to the clients. This arrangement allows the persistence of profiles in a centralized place.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to hardware and software based customer premise equipment (CPE) for use in interactive user sessions that involve multimedia. The invention further relates to an automated boot process, and to provisioning and activation technologies for these hardware and software clients.
2. Background Art
Session initiation protocol (SIP) is an existing request/response protocol for initiating, modifying, and terminating interactive user sessions that involve multimedia. SIP-based clients include both hardware and software based customer premise equipment (CPE). Generally, SIP provides signaling and session setup for Internet protocol (IP) communications involving multimedia.
Traditional provisioning approaches used with SIP clients utilize a pull model for provisioning, in which the client checks for configuration changes periodically or requires to be rebooted to get configuration updates. As a result, updates to the SIP clients are traditionally not real-time updates. In addition, by design, SIP is a peer-to-peer protocol. As a result, traditional SIP applications are not configured to maintain persistence of data in a centralized place to enable the subscriber to have a consistent experience across a variety of platforms and hardware solutions. Also, the traditional back-office system does not support clients behind in-home NAT devices or nomadic clients.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a method and system for booting, provisioning, and activating hardware and software clients that address some of the shortcomings in existing approaches.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and system for booting, provisioning and activating hardware and software clients


A family of structures and designs for use in devices such as heat exchangers so as to allow for enhanced performance in heat exchangers smaller and lighter weight than other existing devices. These structures provide separate flow paths for liquid and vapor and are generally open. In some embodiments of the invention, these structures can also provide secondary heat transfer as well. In an evaporative heat exchanger, the inclusion of these structures and devices enhance the heat transfer coefficient of the evaporation phase change process with comparable or lower pressure drop.

There exists a current need for high efficiency heat exchange to take place in relatively small areas and applications. In such applications, characteristics such as size, weight, and energy efficiency are primary competitive metrics and principal technology development objectives. Examples of applications where such devices are required include but are not limited to man-portable vapor compression cooling systems, evaporators for portable fuel processors and fuel cell power systems, micro and mini heat pipes for high heat flux heat transfer applications, such as chip cooling; and other applications.
In such applications, the ability to affect evaporation or condensation with relatively higher heat transfer rates, reduced pressure drop, reduced pressure fluctuations, and reduced superheating of the refrigerant vapor provides for reduced size and reduced power demand from increased system efficiency of many such systems. The present invention includes a simplified design for phase-change heating and cooling devices that provides many of the aforementioned advantages while allowing for simplified manufacture and use. While the present invention is described as being implemented in the aforementioned applications it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is not limited thereto but may be variously included and deployed according to the needs and necessities of a user.
Additional advantages and novel features of the present invention will be set forth as follows and will be readily apparent from the descriptions and demonstrations set forth herein. Accordingly, the following descriptions of the present invention should be seen as illustrative of the invention and not as limiting in any way.

Enhanced two phase flow in heat transfer systems


A backlight assembly includes a light guiding plate, a light source and a bottom receiving plate. The light source is disposed at a first side of the light guiding plate. The bottom receiving plate includes a bottom surface and a side wall to form a receiving space in which at least a portion of the light guiding plate is placed. The bottom surface is smaller than a lower surface of the light guiding plate and has a plurality of openings formed through the bottom surface. The side wall extends from the bottom surface.

1. Field of the Present Invention
Example embodiments of the present invention relate generally to flat panel displays. More particularly, example embodiments of the present invention relate to a backlight assembly for a flat panel display and a display apparatus having the backlight assembly.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, a display apparatus includes a display panel displaying an image and a backlight assembly supplying light to the display panel. The backlight assembly may include various kinds of light sources. For example, many recent backlights employ arrays of light emitting diodes (LEDs).
The backlight assembly is classified as an edge-illumination type or a direct-illumination type, according to the position of its light source. In the edge-illumination type, a light guiding plate for guiding the light is disposed adjacent to the light source. For example, in a display apparatus used for a slim PC, a bottom receiving plate receiving a light guiding module is smaller than the light guiding module to decrease a total width of a frame, so that the light source and the light guiding plate are partially received in the bottom receiving plate.
Generally, the bottom receiving plate may include a metal. Heat generated from the light source is conducted to the bottom receiving plate. However, the bottom receiving plate only partially receives the light guiding module, so that temperature of the light guiding module is different in areas in which the bottom receiving plate is disposed, areas compared to areas in which the bottom receiving plate is not disposed. Characteristics of the display panel are affected by the temperature, so that brightness changes according to changes of the temperature. For example, an area of the display panel having relatively high temperature has a relatively high brightness. Thus, the difference in temperature between the area in which the bottom receiving plate is disposed and the area in which the bottom receiving plate is not disposed causes a brightness difference, so that a defect such as a stains or other undesirable visual effects occurs.

Backlight assembly and display apparatus having the same


According to one embodiment, a signal processing apparatus includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry correlates a plurality of communication terminals as a group. The processing circuitry assigns a first transmission right to one of the communication terminals in the group and a second transmission right to one of the communication terminals in the group. The processing circuitry transmits, through a first channel, image data transmitted from the communication terminal which is assigned with the first transmission right to the other communication terminals in the group. The processing circuitry transmits, through a second channel, voice data transmitted from the communication terminal which is assigned with the second transmission right to the other communication terminals in the group. The processing circuitry is configured to permit a single communication terminal to be assigned with both the first and second transmission rights.

Push-to-Talk (PTT) communication, being a half-duplex voice communication system, is known as the technique realizing one-to-many simultaneous group voice communications. The PTT communication involves use of, for example, transceivers, wireless equipment, etc., as terminals. In the PTT communication, a user is permitted to send voices to other parties forming a group, during a period where the user is pressing a call button arranged on its terminal.
The recent spread of multipurpose communication terminals such as smartphones has attracted attention to Push-to-Talk over Cellular (PoC) that stipulates transmission of packets including voice data to multiple devices in a multicast manner. According to the PoC, a transmission right for transmitting voice data is given to one of multiple communication terminals forming a group. The communication terminal having acquired the transmission right transmits voice data to the other communication terminals in a multicast manner.


Configurations for stationary imaging systems are provided. The configurations may include combinations of various types of distributed sources of X-ray radiation, which generally include addressable emitter elements which may be triggered for emission in desired sequences and combinations. The sources may be ring-like, partial ring-like, or line-like (typically along a Z-axis), and so forth. Combinations of these are envisaged. Corresponding detectors may also be full ring detectors or partial ring detectors associated with the sources to provide sufficient coverage of imaging volumes and to provide the desired mathematical completeness of the collected data.

The present invention relates generally to the field of computed tomography imaging systems. More particularly, the invention relates to geometries and configurations for the stationary computed tomography systems in which a detector and distributed source element are fixedly positioned in an imaging system scanner.
Many applications exist for computed tomography imaging systems. Developed over recent decades, such imaging systems provide a powerful tool for imaging internal features of subjects of interest, typically presented as slices and volumes. In general, the systems consist of a source that directs radiation through the subject of interest onto a detector. Although, the source may be any type of radiation that is able to penetrate the subject of interest, special attention is given to an X-ray source in the description herein. The X-ray source and detector, in traditional systems, are mounted on a rotational gantry and spun at a relatively high rotational rate, such on the order of two rotations per second, although faster and slower speeds are also used. Measurements of the incident X-ray intensity on the detectors, are acquired at many locations during rotation and may be stored for later analysis and processing. The systems then compute useful reconstructed images by processing the acquired intensity measurements allowing determination of the location of features within the subject. While variants on this basic design have been proposed and are presently in use, current technologies exploit rotation of the source and detector, with selection of acquisition windows and special processing of the data serving to enhance clarity of the reconstructed images.
While such arrangements have proven extraordinarily useful in identifying features of interest within a subject, they are limited by the need to rotate the source and detector elements. Sources of X-rays typically have included conventional X-ray tubes which are somewhat weighty, and must be powered and cooled during the rotation. Detectors, similarly, are becoming increasingly voluminous, spanning the field of view of the imaging system at higher resolutions, and multiple rows to obtain significant amounts of data during an exam. Circuitry associated with the detectors must also be rotated to perform the data acquisition and initial processing. Engineering proficiency is required to produce a carefully balanced system with power and data transmission interconnects, along with the mechanisms to remove heat generated during operation.
There is a need, at present, for improved system designs in computed tomography. In particular, there is a significant need for a design which can lighten rotational loads, or even eliminate the need for rotation of system components all together. There is a particular need for systems that can generate high-quality images while reducing the mechanical, electrical, thermal and other problems associated with rotation of a source and a detector.

Stationary computed tomography system and method


According to the present invention, for a downshift operation, a line pressure is decreased at an initial stage of the downshift operation, a gear ratio is derived from an input revolution speed of an automatic transmission and an output revolution speed thereof, and the line pressure is increased when the gear ratio meets a predetermined condition.

The present invention relates to a line pressure control for an automatic transmission, and more particularly to a line pressure control when the automatic transmission undergoes a downshift operation.
An automatic transmission is shiftable between two gear positions by switching friction element or elements which are hydraulically activated by a hydraulic fluid pressure often called a line pressure.
During a downshift operation, a friction element on the high speed side is released to render the transmission operable in neutral state, allowing the engine to increase its revolution speed, and then another friction element on the low speed side is engaged. In order to shorten a period of time required for such a downshift operation, it is effective to decrease the magnitude of line pressure at an initial stage of the downshift operation so as to quickly release the friction element on the high speed side. However, if the timing when the line pressure is increased to the original level is retarded, the another friction element on the low speed side slips for a prolonged time. Thus, this measure of decreasing the line pressure at the initial stage of such downshift operation is difficult to be put into practice owing to the difficulty of managing the timing when the line pressure is increased to the original level.
An object of the present invention is to provide a line pressure control wherein the timing when the line pressure is increased to restore its original level is appropriately managed, so that the line pressure is allowed to be decreased sufficiently.


The present invention is directed to a method of making large diameter metal fluoride sungle crystals that can be used in optical lithograpby systems, for example, excimer laser that operate below 200 nm. In addition, the invention is directed to metal fluoride single crystals suitable for use in such lithographic ststems, such fluoride crystals having a internal transmission of ≧99.9% at 193 nm and ≧99.0% at 157 nm.

The present invention relates generally to the preparation of fluoride crystals, and particularly to making of barium fluoride crystals with improved below 175 nm wavelength optical properties.
More specifically, said invention relates:
to a process of preparing barium fluoride crystals, which is improved with reference to the purity of the crystals prepared with a permeable graphite crucible; and
to a process of preparing barium fluoride crystals in permeable graphite crucibles with the resulting barium fluoride crystals having an increased transmission in the far-ultraviolet (λ<170 nm) at about the 157 nm wavelength of the fluorine excimer laser output.

Preparation of 157nm transmitting barium fluoride crystals with permeable graphite


An auto-injector for administering a dose of a liquid medicament includes an elongate housing arranged to contain a syringe with a hollow needle and a stopper for sealing the syringe and displacing the medicament, the housing having a distal end and a proximal end with an orifice intended to be applied against an injection site. The syringe is slidably arranged with respect to the housing. A spring capable of, upon activation: pushing the needle from a covered position inside the housing into an advanced position through the orifice and past the proximal end (P), operating the syringe to supply the dose of medicament (M), and retracting the syringe with the needle into the covered position. After delivering the medicament, an activator arranged to lock the spring in a pressurized state prior to manual operation and capable of, upon manual operation, releasing the spring for injection.

Administering an injection is a process which presents a number of risks and challenges for users and healthcare professionals, both mental and physical.
Injection devices (i.e. devices capable of delivering medicaments from a medication container) typically fall into two categories—manual devices and auto-injectors.
In a manual device—the user must provide the mechanical energy to drive the fluid through the needle. This is typically done by some form of button/plunger that has to be continuously pressed by the user during the injection. There are numerous disadvantages to the user from this approach. If the user stops pressing the button/plunger then the injection will also stop. This means that the user can deliver an underdose if the device is not used properly (i.e. the plunger is not fully pressed to its end position). Injection forces may be too high for the user, in particular if the patient is elderly or has dexterity problems.
The extension of the button/plunger may be too great. Thus it can be inconvenient for the user to reach a fully extended button. The combination of injection force and button extension can cause trembling/shaking of the hand which in turn increases discomfort as the inserted needle moves.
Auto-injector devices aim to make self-administration of injected therapies easier for patients. Current therapies delivered by means of self-administered injections include drugs for diabetes (both insulin and newer GLP-1 class drugs), migraine, hormone therapies, anticoagulants etc.
Auto-injectors are devices which completely or partially replace activities involved in parenteral drug delivery from standard syringes. These activities may include removal of a protective syringe cap, insertion of a needle into a patient's skin, injection of the medicament, removal of the needle, shielding of the needle and preventing reuse of the device. This overcomes many of the disadvantages of manual devices. Injection forces/button extension, hand-shaking and the likelihood of delivering an incomplete dose are reduced. Triggering may be performed by numerous means, for example a trigger button or the action of the needle reaching its injection depth. In some devices the energy to deliver the fluid is provided by a spring.
US 2002/0095120 A1 discloses an automatic injection device which automatically injects a pre-measured quantity of fluid medicine when a tension spring is released. The tension spring moves an ampoule and the injection needle from a storage position to a deployed position when it is released. The content of the ampoule is thereafter expelled by the tension spring forcing a piston forward inside the ampoule. After the fluid medicine has been injected, torsion stored in the tension spring is released and the injection needle is automatically retracted back to its original storage position.
US 2007/0112310 A1 discloses an injector being automatic in that the needle is inserted into the injection site (e.g., a patient's skin) with user or caregiver assistance, the delivery is automatically initiated upon needle insertion, and the needle is retracted automatically after the end of delivery. Preferably the needle is not seen by the user prior to, during or after injection. Prior to and after injection, the needle is hidden in the device so as to avoid any potential injury or health risk to the user or health care provider. The injector includes a housing and a shield arranged to slide relative to the housing and a driver moving during drug delivery. The housing and shield form a cartridge enclosure. The cartridge is shielded and locked after delivery is completed. A needle-locking mechanism can be used in any number of pen-like injectors or safety needles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,963 discloses an automatic injection device which, upon activation by the user, automatically extends a syringe with needle, delivers medication through the needle, and retracts the needle, thus keeping the needle hidden from view. All motions are achieved by means of a tension spring and a cam profile.
WO 2009/081103 A1 discloses an auto-injector for a syringe that is suitable for use in the injected delivery of drug to a patient. The auto-injector comprises a housing defining a housing cavity arranged for receipt of a syringe; and a needle delivery aperture through which a needle tip of the syringe protrudes during dispensing of the liquid drug formulation. The auto-injector further comprises a barrel coupling element that couples to the barrel of the syringe and is movable in tandem therewith; a syringe advancer for moving the syringe and barrel coupling element in tandem therewith from a rest position, in which the hollow needle, is within the housing to a use position, in which the needle tip protrudes through the needle delivery aperture; a syringe actuator for actuating the syringe by plunging said plunger within the barrel of the syringe to dispense the liquid drug formulation; a syringe retractor for retracting the syringe and barrel coupling element in tandem therewith from the use position to a retract position, in which the hollow needle is within the housing; and a syringe lock for locking the barrel coupling element and syringe coupled thereto in the retract position.
WO 2008/155377 discloses an inserter for an infusion set comprising an insertion needle and a spring unit assuring automatic insertion and automatic retraction of the insertion needle. The inserter for a medical device comprises—a housing, —a first body which is movable relative to the housing and comprising penetrating means pointing in the direction of insertion, —a second body which is also movable relative to the housing and—driving means which move respectively the first body and the second body relative to the housing wherein the driving means moves the first body in the direction of insertion and moves the second body in a direction different from the insertion direction.
DE 10 2005 038 933 A1 discloses an inserter for an infusion set comprising an insertion needle and a spring unit assuring automatic insertion and automatic retraction of the insertion needle. The inserter for a medical device comprises—a housing, —a first body which is movable relative to the housing and comprising penetrating means pointing in the direction of insertion, —a second body which is also movable relative to the housing and—driving means which move respectively the first body and the second body relative to the housing wherein the driving means moves the first body in the direction of insertion and moves the second body in a direction different from the insertion direction.


A router includes a motor housing, a motor provided in the motor housing driving a collet for turning a cutting tool, and a base for resting on a workpiece. Support columns mounted to the base allow the motor housing to move relative to the base in a direction parallel to the rotational axis of the cutting tool. The support columns are spaced apart in a direction transverse to the rotational axis, and the motor housing is connected to the support columns by means of support members spaced apart in a direction parallel to the rotational axis.

A known type of router, sold by The Black & Decker Corporation under part number KW800, is shown in FIG. 1. The router 2 has a motor housing 4 containing a motor (not shown) for driving a collet 6 to which a cutting or milling tool (not shown) is mounted to engage a workpiece (not shown) through an aperture 8 in a base 10. The motor housing 4 is mounted to a support member 12, and a pair of handles 14, 16 are integrally formed with the support member 12. The handles 14, 16 are mounted to respective inclined portions 14a, 16a, which extend from respective vertical portions 14b, 16b. The support member 12 has front and rear portions between which the motor housing is fixed in position by clamping the lower part of the motor housing 4 between the front and rear portions of the support member 12.
The support member 12 is slidably mounted relative to the base 10 by means of support columns 18, 20 which pass through the support member 12 and through respective vertical portions 14b, 16b, and is urged upwardly by respective compression springs 22, 24. The minimum separation of the support member 12 and base 10 is set by means of an upper abutment member 26 slidably mounted through an aperture in the support member 12 and fixable in position by means of a thumb screw 28. The abutment member 26 co-operates with a platform 30 which is rotatable relative to the base 10 and on which three lower abutment members 32, 34, 36 of different lengths are mounted, so that any one of the lower abutments members 32, 24, 36 can come into contact with the upper abutment member 26 when the support member 12 is moved downwards towards the base 10. The minimum separation between the support member 12 and base 10 (and therefore the depth of cutting of the cutting tool in the workpiece) is set by suitable choice of the axial position of the upper abutment member 26 in the support member 12 and the rotational position of the platform 30 on the base 10 to set the separation of support member 12 and base 10 at which the upper abutment member 26 comes into contact with one of the lower abutment members 32, 34, 36.
The router shown in FIG. 1 suffers from a number of drawbacks. For example, because the motor housing 4 is clamped between the front and rear portions of the support member 12 at its lower part, the motor housing 4 engages a relatively shallow recess in the support member 12 and it is therefore possible to misalign the motor housing 4 with the support member 12. This can result in the cutting tool mounted to the collet 6 not being arranged vertically. Also vibration of the motor in the motor housing 4 can cause lateral oscillation of the cutting tool. In addition, because the support columns 18, 20 pass through relatively short vertical portions 14b, 16b respectively, some angular movement of the motor housing 4 relative to the base 10 is possible as a result of manufacturing tolerances between the internal diameter of vertical portions 14b, 16b and support columns 18, 20. All of these factors can have a detrimental effect on the accuracy with which the cutting tool can cut.


An underpants-type disposable diaper has outer members that separately or integrally configures a front body and a back body. An inner member is attached to the outer members from the front body to the back body. The outer members have a waist extended section that extends to a side of the waist opening of an edge of the inner member on a waist side. The underpants-type disposable diaper further has a display sheet containing a liquid impervious resin film on an outer side of the inner member in a region in which the outer members and the inner member overlap with each other in at least one of the front body and the back body, in which the display sheet extends from a region overlapping the inner member into the waist extended section.

In general, an underpants-type disposable diaper includes an outer member for individually or integrally configuring a front body and a back body and an inner member having an absorbent body attached to the outer member to extend from the front body to the back body, and a waist opening and a pair of left and right leg openings are formed by joining both side edge portions of the outer member of the front body and both side edge portions of the outer member of the back body to form side seal portions.
In such an underpants-type disposable diaper, to improve fitting to a body, the outer member is configured to have a stacked structure including a plurality of sheet layers, and various elastic members are attached between the sheet layers in a stretched state. Especially, a diaper, in which elongated elastic members extending along a width direction are attached in a stretched state in the width direction with intervals in a front-back direction in lower torsos defined as front-back direction zones corresponding to side seal portions and an intermediate region located between front and back lower torsos, has relatively high fitting with respect to the body (for example, see Patent Literatures 1 to 5).
However, in the underpants-type disposable diaper, since the waist side edge of the inner member is separated from the waist opening of the outer member to the crotch side to some extent, and a waist extended section from the waist side edge of the inner member to the waist opening in the outer member has a stacked structure of a nonwoven fabric and an elastic member, there has been concern that urine and loose stools leaking from front and back end portions of the inner member to the waist side may permeate into the waist extended section of the outer member and seep through the external surface.

Underpants-type disposable diaper with seepage-minimizing display sheet structure


(R)-7-chloro-N-(quinuclidin-3-yl)benzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxamide has been found to have procognitive effects in humans at unexpectedly low doses. Thus, (R)-7-chloro-N-(quinuclidin-3-yl)benzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxamide and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof can be used at unexpectedly low doses to improve cognition.

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) form a family of ion channels activated by acetylcholine. Functional receptors contain five subunits and there are numerous receptor subtypes. Studies have shown that central nicotinic acetylcholine receptors are involved in learning and memory. Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors of the alpha7 subtype are prevalent in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex.
WO 2003/055878 describes a variety of agonists of the alpha7 nAChR said to be useful for improving cognition. WO 2003/055878 suggests that certain agonists of the alpha7 nAChR are useful for improving perception, concentration, learning or memory, especially after cognitive impairments like those occurring for example in situations/diseases/syndromes such as mild cognitive impairment, age-associated learning and memory impairments, age-associated memory loss, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and certain other cognitive disorders. Among the compounds described are (R)-7-chloro-N-(quinuclidin-3-yl)benzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxamide and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof.

Treatment of cognitive disorders with (R)-7-chloro-N-(quinuclidin-3-yl)benzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxamide and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof


An approach for enabling multi-factor biometric authentication of a user based on different data capture modalities of a mobile device is described. A biometric enabler receives a request for authentication of a user via a network at a mobile device of the user. The biometric authentication further initiates a capture of media associated with the user at the mobile device based on the request, wherein the capture is based on a capture condition. The biometric enabler also determines, in response to the request, whether the media is associated with different types of biometric information of the user as maintained in association with a resource that requires authentication of the user.

Service providers are continually challenged to deliver value and convenience to consumers by providing compelling network services and advancing the underlying technologies. One area of interest has been the development of security services—e.g., for performing strong authentication of mobile device users based on the capture and analysis of biometric data. Unfortunately, users are limited in their ability to control or enhance their experience as they submit media, such as voice or video data, required for performing the authentication.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for enabling multi-factor biometric authentication of a user based on different data capture modalities of a mobile device.

Method and system for multi-factor biometric authentication based on different device capture modalities


TOF distance sensor for capturing the distance to an object by receiving radiation reflected by the object, said radiation emanating from a radiation source modulated by a modulation frequency, comprising a pixel matrix for recording a pixel image. The pixel matrix consists of demodulation pixels which are designed for rear-side reception of the radiation. The demodulation pixels comprise a conversion region for generating charge carriers from the received radiation, and a separating device for separating the charge carriers in accordance with the modulation frequency, and also a stop for partitioning-off the conversion region from the separating device in relation to the charge carriers, and also an aperture for passing the charge carriers from the conversion region into the separating device. The TOF distance sensor is embodied in such a way that in each case at least two demodulation pixels form a common aperture.

The prior art has disclosed TOF (time of flight) distance sensors which detect the phase shift of modulated light, which was emitted toward an object and reflected by the latter, and derive the distance to the object therefrom. An example of one such sensor is disclosed in US Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0145281 A1.


A user terminal is disclosed including a transmitter that transmits delivery acknowledgment signals (ACK/NACK) in response to downlink (DL) signals transmitted from a plurality of cells, a receiver that receives information about cells to be scheduled, and a processor that controls transmission of the ACK/NACK based on the information about the cells to be scheduled. Further, a radio base station is disclosed that communicates with a user terminal using a plurality cells, the radio base station including a processor that controls scheduling of downlink (DL) signals transmitted respectively from the plurality of cells; a transmitter that transmits information about cells to be scheduled; and a receiver that receives delivery acknowledgement signals (ACK/NACK) transmitted from the user terminal based on the information about the cells to be scheduled.

In the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network, the specifications of long term evolution (LTE) have been drafted for the purpose of further increasing high speed data rates, providing lower delays and so on (see non-patent literature 1). Also, successor systems of LTE (also referred to as, for example, "LTE-advanced" (hereinafter referred to as "LTE-A"), "FRA" (Future Radio Access) and so on) are under study for the purpose of achieving further broadbandization and increased speed beyond LTE.
The system configuration of LTE Rel. 10-12 includes at least one component carrier (CC), where the LTE system band constitutes one unit. Such bundling of a plurality of component carriers (cells) into a wide band is referred to as "carrier aggregation" (CA). In LTE Rel. 10-12 systems, CA to use maximum 5 CCs is utilized.
In LTE systems, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ: Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest) is supported in order to suppress degradation of communication quality due to signal reception failures in radio communication between a user terminal (UE) and a radio base station (eNB). For example, a user terminal feeds back delivery acknowledgment signals (referred to as "HARQ-ACKs," and also referred to as "ACK/NACKs") depending on the condition of reception of downlink (DL) signals transmitted from a radio base station. There is a rule that, when the user terminal transmits HARQ-ACKs in an uplink control channel (PUCCH), the user terminal uses predetermined PUCCH formats according to the number of CCs (or cells) and so on (see non-patent literature 2).

User terminal, radio base station and radio communication method


A method includes providing a device under test, which includes a lower test layer and an upper test layer that is stacked on the lower test layer and includes an overhang protruding past an edge of the lower test layer by a predetermined length, fixing the lower test layer onto a mounting stage, and measuring adhesive force of an interlayer adhesive layer in a tensile mode by applying a load to a bottom surface of the overhang of the upper test layer in a first direction. An apparatus includes a mounting stage fixing the device under test, a load applying tip applying the load to the bottom surface of the overhang, a location adjuster adjusting a distance between the device under test and the load carrying tip, a load cell detecting a magnitude of the applied load, and a controller controlling the location adjuster and the load cell.

Semiconductor chips (or dies) are packaged and electrically connected to an external circuit to constitute an electronic device. When a semiconductor chip is packaged, the semiconductor chip is attached onto another semiconductor chip or a substrate, such as a printed circuit board (PCB), via interlayer adhesive layer, such as adhesive paste or adhesive film.
In a semiconductor package including the interlayer adhesive layer, if adhesion strength of the interlayer adhesive layer is insufficient, a crack or an exfoliation may occur at the bonding interface between adjacent layers during fabrication or usage of the semiconductor package, thereby causing a defect in electric connections between semiconductor chips or between a semiconductor and a substrate, and, in some cases, causing a fracture in the stacked structure of the semiconductor package. Recently, as semiconductor devices become miniaturized, a thickness of an interlayer adhesive layer as well as that of a semiconductor package are significantly reduced, and thus the interlayer adhesive layer may be more susceptible to an occurrence of cracks or exfoliations of bonding interfaces. However, regardless of the reduced thickness of the interlayer adhesive layer, a reliability of the semiconductor package is more tightly required, and thus it is necessary for the adhesive layer to have sufficiently reliable adhesive force. Therefore, a quantitative method of measuring adhesive force is desirable as a method of evaluating reliability of a semiconductor package.
MIL-812 is a standard for quantitative measurement. The MIL-812 is limited to measurement of adhesive force in the shear mode with respect to a device under test (DUT). During packaging process, interlayer exfoliation associated with the interlayer adhesive layer may be caused not only by shear stress, but also tensile stress. Therefore, in measurements based on MIL-812, causes of defects in interlayer adhesive layer of a semiconductor package may not be precisely detected.
To measure adhesive force of interlayer adhesive layer in the tensile mode, it is necessary to apply tensile force to interface of the interlayer adhesive layer. To this end, a jig for applying a load may be fixed to any one of stacked semiconductor chips, which are combined with each other such that interlayer adhesive layer is disposed between adjacent chips. Then, the jig fixed to a corresponding semiconductor chip may be pulled. However, it is difficult to firmly fix a jig onto a semiconductor chip having a small thickness or size. Furthermore, specific material properties of the interlayer adhesive layer, such as thickness or adhesive force, may be changed during fixation of the jig. Thus, precise and reliable measurement is difficult.

Method of measuring an adhesive force of interlayer adhesive layer in tensile mode for stacked semiconductor device and apparatus for measuring the same

INDUSTRY-ACADEMIC COOPERATION FOUNDATION, YEUNGNAM UNIVERSITY


An automotive motor-driven device controlling and driving system for controlling and driving the respective ultrasonic linear motors of a plurality of automotive motor-driven devices, such as power seats, power windows and power antenna. The automotive motor-driven device controlling and driving system comprises a power circuit connected to the battery of an automobile, a single ultrasonic oscillator, a plurality of power amplifiers having input terminals connected to the power circuit and the ultrasonic oscillator, and output terminals connected through motor control switches to the ultrasonic linear motors, respectively, and a control unit for controlling the power circuit, the ultrasonic oscillator and the power amplifiers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automotive motor-driven device controlling and driving system for controlling and driving a plurality of automotive motor-driven devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recent automotive motor-driven devices, such as front and rear power window regulators, employ, as driving means, silent, compact, lightweight ultrasonic linear motors, which generate neither mechanical noise nor electromagnetic noise. A driving circuit for driving an ultrasonic linear motor must be provided with an ultrasonic oscillator and a power amplifier for amplifying the output power of the ultrasonic oscillator. Necessarily, the ultrasonic linear motors of a plurality of motor-driven devices are connected individually to driving circuits. Such a circuit configuration, however, entails increase in the number of component parts and cost.

Automotive motor-driven device controlling and driving system


Frequency and voltage scaling are performed for each virtual processor in a virtual environment. The characteristics of the workload performed by each virtual processor are dynamically profiled and a scaling algorithm determines a scale factor for that virtual processor as a function of the profiled characteristics. The profiled characteristics may include virtualization events associated with the workload being performed. In addition, a particular scaling algorithm and profiling technique may be selected based on which virtual processor is currently running.

As microprocessors and computer systems advance, greater amounts of software can be executed on a single platform. To accommodate different software that may be written for different platforms and operating systems (OSs), virtualization technologies have been developed. Virtualization enables multiple OSs and applications to share the resources of and execute concurrently on a single hardware platform. Today, virtualization is finding its way into diverse types of computing environments, from small factor servers to large-scale data centers that simultaneously provide computing services to multiple customers.
Virtualization generally is implemented using a software entity referred to as a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM). The VMM presents to each OS a virtual machine (VM) having virtual resources, including one or more virtual processors, virtual memory and virtual input/output (I/O) resources, that the OS may completely and directly control. The VMM maintains the system environment for implementing virtualization policies, such as sharing and/or allocating physical resources among the VMs. Each OS and other software that runs on a VM is referred to as a guest or guest software, while a host or host software is software, such as the VMM, that runs outside of the virtualization environment. Thus, virtualization technologies allow multiple guest software to simultaneously run on a single host or physical platform. A guest executing on a system may see a virtual central processing unit (VCPU) which appears to the guest as a physical CPU having the same, or a subset of the same, features as the actual physical CPU (PCPU).
Because virtualization technologies can consolidate many diverse workloads into a single physical machine, virtualization makes efficient use of physical resources and, thus, in some respects, may be viewed as a type of environmentally friendly (or "green") technology. This has provided momentum to embrace virtualization technologies, particularly since energy consumption is of increasing concern. However, simply consolidating OSs on a single platform may still not be enough to satisfy demands for efficiency. Towards that end, virtualization technologies are increasingly being required to further exploit fine-grained power management (or power-saving) capabilities of the type that were first introduced on client devices and now are popular even on high end servers. However, virtualization of the CPUs and the continuous sharing and re-allocating of physical resources adds a layer of complexity, making it difficult to translate traditional power management techniques implemented by an OS on a physical machine to a virtual environment.

Virtual-CPU based frequency and voltage scaling


Spherical rotation is described for encoding a video that has a wide field of view, such as a spherical or hemispherical video. One example relates to receiving encoded video including rotation orientation metadata, decoding the video, extracting the rotation orientation metadata, rotating the decoded video based on the rotation orientation metadata, generating a view of the rotated decoded video, and buffering the generated view for display.

With the emergence of low cost high definition video cameras and high-speed internet connectivity, video internet traffic is growing quickly. 360-degree video is an emerging trend in virtual reality, video conferencing, automotive, and surveillance applications, among others and is supported by wide field of view cameras, including 180 and 360-degree field of view cameras. Dedicated web sites and channels are also available to post and view 360-degree videos, including virtual reality content. For collaboration between groups of users, 360-degree video offers greater flexibility. Instead of switching between cameras, a remote viewer can move across a room using a 360-degree view and zoom in on people or objects of interest in the camera's view.
Panoramic video playback systems using Virtual Reality (VR) head mounted displays are emerging for consumer use. Panoramic and 360-degree video content is typically created by stitching together the 2D videos captured by multiple cameras into a spherical representation. In some cases, the multiple views are rendered in software. The spherical video is then projected into a format suited for video encoding, such as an equi-rectangular projection format or a cube map projection format.
At the client, the bitstream containing the full panoramic compressed video frames is received and decoded, creating a representation of the entire panoramic field of view. A smaller portion of the full field of view is selected for display. This portion is referred to as the viewport and it is the only part that the user can see at any one time. It may be a large part of the total field of view or a small part. The portion of decoded video represented by the viewport is determined by the head position of a head mounted display, or through a position selection user interface when viewing on a normal 2D display. In other words, the position of the viewport is determined by where the viewer is looking or pointing. There may also be a zooming feature for which the field of view and resolution of the viewport is also determined by the user.

Spherical rotation for encoding wide view video


A sheet discharge apparatus includes a sheet stacking portion on which a sheet discharged by a discharging portion is stacked, and a control portion configured to control a moving unit such that a height position of an uppermost sheet stacked on the sheet stacking portion becomes a first height position. In a case where a sheet detection portion detects that the height position of the uppermost sheet is above a second height position, the control portion sets a sheet discharge speed of the discharging portion to a first sheet discharge speed. In a case where the sheet detection portion detects that the height position of the uppermost sheet becomes lower than the second height position, the control portion controls the sheet discharge speed to be a second sheet discharge speed faster than the first sheet discharge speed.

Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to a sheet discharge apparatus, a sheet processing apparatus, and an image forming apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
In general, there is known an image forming apparatus which discharges a sheet, on which an image is formed, by a sheet discharge apparatus and stacks the sheet on a discharge tray. In addition, a sheet processing apparatus may be provided in the image forming apparatus to perform a binding process on the sheet where the image is formed. In this case, the sheet on which the image is formed is conveyed to the sheet processing apparatus to be subjected to the binding process, and then a sheet bundle is discharged by the sheet discharge apparatus and stacked on the tray.
Hitherto, JP-A-2009-113958 discloses such a sheet discharge apparatus in which, when the sheet bundle subjected to the binding process is discharged, a sheet discharge speed is accelerated in order that a binding portion of the discharged sheet bundle does not interfere with the binding portion of the already-stacked sheet bundle.
By the way, when a predetermined amount of sheets are stacked on the tray stacked with the discharged sheet or the sheet bundle (even in a case where sheets are bound in a sheet bundle and discharged, there is no difference in that the sheet is discharged, and thus in the following it is assumed that the sheet bundle is also included in the meaning of the sheet if there is no specific mention about the sheet bundle or the sheet separated one by one), the tray descends to enable the next sheet to be stacked. Then, after the tray descends, the next sheet is discharged and sequentially the sheet is stacked on the tray. However, the sheets to be stacked on the tray is limited in amount, and thus when the stacking amount of the sheets stacked on the tray is in a full loaded state up to the limit of the tray, the sheet processing apparatus and the image forming apparatus are stopped. In this case, when the sheet is removed by a user, the tray is raised. When the raised tray is returned to a home position, the sheet processing apparatus and the image forming apparatus are reactivated, and the sheet is discharged onto the tray.
In order to prevent that the sheet processing apparatus and the image forming apparatus are stopped at the time of the full loaded state, or in order to temporally check the stacked sheet, the user may remove the stacked sheet during operation. Even in a case where the stacked sheet is removed during operation as described above, the sheet discharge apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2009-113958 already described above keeps on discharging the next sheet bundle at the increased sheet discharge speed in order that the binding portion of the discharged sheet bundle interferes with the binding portion of the stacked sheet bundle.
Herein, in a case where the stacked sheet is removed, the height position of the uppermost surface of the sheet on the tray is lowered. In this state, when the sheet is discharged, the leading end of the discharged sheet is hung down a lot. When the hanging-down amount of the leading end of the sheet is large, an abutting angle formed between the leading end and the uppermost surface of the sheet becomes large compared to that before the stacked sheet is removed. It is noted that, in a case where all the stacked sheets are removed, the abutting angle formed between the leading end of the sheet and the sheet stack surface of the tray becomes large.
Then, when the abutting angle becomes large, a discharge resistance between the leading end of the sheet and the sheet on the tray becomes large. When the discharge resistance becomes large, strength (stiffness) of the sheet becomes small compared to the resistance, and thus the sheet is buckled. As a result, the trailing end of the sheet leans onto a sheet discharge unit, and a paper jam occurs.

Sheet discharge apparatus and image forming apparatus having same


A method of using a substrate transport pod is provided, which is suitable for manufacturing semiconductor devices with copper wiring and low dielectric insulating film having dielectric constants of less than 3. The method is based on loading the substrates into a pod from an atmosphere of a first process, and circulating a gaseous atmosphere through interior of the pod in such a way to selectively remove at least one contaminant including moisture, particulate substances or chemical substances, and to expose the substrates to a controlled atmosphere intermittently or continually while the substrates are held in the pod before they are unloaded from the pod and introduced into a second process. For a pod that is used to house the substrates for the purpose of retaining or transporting, the pod has a pod main body and a door that provides a hermetic sealing seal, and the pod is made primarily of a materiel that has moisture absorption factor of less than 0.1%, a the pod can contact the substrates directly or indirectly and has a conductive area so as to enable static charges to be guided out of the pod.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the structures, capabilities and methods of operating a substrate transport pod suitable for storing or transporting objects such as semiconductor wafers, photo-masks or hard-disks in a highly clean environment, and relates in particular to a method of managing the operation of the substrate transport pod to be used in semiconductor manufacturing processes.
2. Description of the Related Art
As semiconductor elements become more minute, it is anticipated that an even higher degree of cleanliness would be required in the future. For example, it is anticipated that the target control size of the particles that can cause pattern defects and shorting of wiring would become smaller than 0.1 xcexcm. Further, in addition to particulate contaminants, it becomes necessary to reduce gaseous contaminants. Various hydrocarbon molecules, by adsorbing onto the semiconductor wafers, cause deterioration in voltage resistance of gate oxide film or thickness variations in deposited films. Basic gases react with chemical enhancement type photo-resist to result in loss of resolution, and acidic gases can cause corrosion of wiring.
In addition, moisture (humidity) has been targeted for reduction in recent years. This is because a finer device structure has led to the use of a variety of materials in forming wiring and films, and moisture in the environment can sometimes bind with the above-mentioned materials to cause problems. On the other hand, independent of the trend towards a finer device structure, the size of the wafers is increasing and automation is also progressing in the field of processing technologies. Automation of semiconductor manufacturing lines is prompted by the fact that it is necessary to segregate humans, who act as a contamination source, and the fact that, as the diameter of wafers increases, the weight of the transport pod increases to about 10 kg, such that manual handling becomes difficult.
In the past, with increasing circuit density and speed of semiconductor chips, aluminum has been used as the material for wiring to connect elements within the semiconductor chip. However, when the width of the wires becomes less than 0.13 xcexcm, conventional aluminum wiring causes serious problems of heat generation and signal delay so that, in place of aluminum wiring, there is a trend towards the use of copper wiring.
Also, SiO2 has been used as the insulation material for the isolation of wiring. However, the dielectric constant of SiO2 at about 4 is high so that the replacement of aluminum wiring with copper wiring only results in about a 20% improvement in signal delay, so that there has been a need to use a substance of lower dielectric constant, of less than 3, for the insulation material.
In readying for such a development, the examination of copper wiring and low dielectric materials for insulation has already identified a potential problem, arising from the processing of chips with a line-width at the level of 0.18 xcexcm. Such low dielectric materials are based on organic materials or porous materials so that problems are such as absorption of moisture from the environment are encountered, which leads to increasing dielectric constants, and therefore, these material must be handled differently from conventional insulation films and are presenting an extremely difficult challenge.
Also, copper used for wiring behaves differently from aluminum that has been used in the past because of its tendency to react with oxygen in the air to produce oxide films. Also, because the copper molecules have higher chemical activity compared with aluminum molecules such that, if particles containing copper or copper vapor itself is discharged into the clean-room, it contaminates the clean-room to lead to severe drop in the yield of semiconductor chips. Also, organic contaminants on a silicon substrate surface have been known to cause a drop in reliability of gate oxide film, an increase in incubation time in the low pressure CVD processes and abnormal film growth. Therefore, even if a superior material is found in the future for use in making low dielectric insulation films, it is conceivable that it cannot be adopted because of its susceptibility to contamination from such impurities as organic substances and ions in the environment. Conversely, by controlling the processing environment, an opportunity may emerge of using those materials that have not been able to be used in the past. Also, if ammonia is present, the photo-resist material applied on the semiconductor wafer exhibits a so-called xe2x80x9cT-topxe2x80x9d phenomenon, which refers to a phenomenon that the top section of the developed photo-resist is wider than the bottom section.
The present invention is provided in view of the background information described above, and an object is to provide a substrate transport pod suitable for use in processes for manufacturing semiconductor chips comprised by a combination of copper wiring and low dielectric insulation films having a dielectric constant less than 3, and methods for operating the pod. Also, as the line width becomes finer, problems of contamination resulting from minute quantities of ammonia and organic substances generated from workers and particle contaminants generated from a work uniform, become more serious. Furthermore, due to diversification of customer demands for semiconductor products, it is anticipated that the proportion of xe2x80x9clarge variety/small quantityxe2x80x9d products such as system LSI (large scale integration) circuits will increase in relation to the proportion of xe2x80x9csmall variety and large quantityxe2x80x9d products such as DRAM (dynamic random access memory) and MPU (micro-processor units). For these reasons, there will be a need for facilities that enable varying combinations of semiconductor processing easily and quickly. The present invention provides a substrate transport pod suitable for use in an automated semiconductor processing plant for manufacturing semiconductor devices, including large variety and small quantity products, and methods for operating the pod.
To resolve the problems outlined above, the present invention provides a solution for resolving the problems encountered in semiconductor chip manufacturing processes that utilize copper wiring and insulation films of dielectric constant of less than 3. For example, silicon wafer substrates having low dielectric insulation film, photo-resist film or copper wiring may be housed in a substrate transport pod for transferring or storing the substrates between processes, so that the interior air of the pod is controlled in such a way that the level of at least the moisture is held below a certain value or the ammonia concentration is held below a certain value. Or if copper film is exposed to the interior air of the pod, the level of at least moisture or oxygen concentration is controlled, so that various problems associated with manufacturing semiconductor chips having copper wiring and insulation films of a dielectric constant less than 3 can be resolved. In particular, a structure of the substrate transport pod is provided so as to enable to maintain at least one parameter of the interior air, such as particulate concentration, humidity, organic substance concentration, and ionic gas concentration, to a level below a specific value. Further, a method of operating a plurality of substrate transport pods in an automated semiconductor manufacturing plant is provided.
As explained above, the present invention relates to the structure and capabilities as well as a method of using a substrate transport pod suitable for use in storing or transporting an object to be subjected to processing, such as semiconductor wafers, photo-masks or hard disks, under a highly clean atmosphere. Therefore, it is applicable to manufacturing of semiconductor devices based on highly conductive wiring, such as copper wiring, and insulation films having a low dielectric constant.

Substrate transport apparatus, pod and method


A filter screen assembly for removing particulate material from a slurry. The assembly includes filter media for accumulating particulate of larger than predetermined size as filter cake exteriorly of plates having a plurality of slots therein. A hook member along an edge of each of the plates engages a tubular distributor having slots therealong. Each of the slots of the tubular distributor receives the hook member of one of the plates so that the plates are mounted on the tubular distributor. Other edges of the plates are connected to form chamber means therebetween. The chamber means communicates with the interior of the tubular distributor. A reduced pressure is impressed on the interior of the tubular distributor to cause liquid of the slurry to be drawn through the slots in the plates so that the particular material collects on the outside of the plates.

This invention relates to a filter screen assembly for separating particulate material from a slurry in which the particulate material is contained.
An object of this invention is to provide such a filter screen assembly in which a large area of filter screen is provided in a small volume.
Another object of this invention is to provide for such a filter screen assembly, a filter screen unit which is of simple structure, die moldable, durable, strong, inexpensive, easy to assemble, clean and replace, and which resists clogging away from the filter surface.
A further object of this invention is to provide for such a filter screen assembly, a slurry filter screen unit which separates particulate matter from the filtrate at the outer surface of the filter unit from which the particulate may be scraped or otherwise readily removed from the exterior of the filter unit.
Another object of this invention is to provide a slurry filter screen unit having oppositely faced parallel filter faces, each having spacing support means projecting toward the other so that inward forces applied to the filter faces are mechanically transferred to the opposite face to substantially offset inwardly directed forces applied to one face to the inwardly directed forces applied to the exterior of the opposite face of the filter.
Another object of this invention is to provide such a filter screen unit with a filter media web overlying the filter faces and adapted to filter from the slurry passing through the media all particles larger than a predetermined size which would otherwise pass through the filter faces of the unit.
A further object of this invention is to provide a filter screen assembly having filter media of bag form overlying the filter faces of the unit and removable from the filter unit when desired.
Another object of this invention is to provide a filter screen assembly through which liquid may be drawn from a slurry to accumulate particulate matter from the slurry on the filter and discharging said liquid through a venturi to draw air through a second filter assembly to dry the filter cake previously accumulated on said second filter assembly.
A further object of this invention is to provide a filter system having at least two filter assemblies adapted to alternately filter particulate matter from liquid of a slurry drawn into one assembly and expelling said liquid through a venturi pump to draw air through the second filter assembly to dry filter cake accumulated on the filter faces thereof so that the filter cake may be more readily removed from the filter media.

Slotted filter plate with hook attachment


The present invention relates to a multiple-unit-dose comprising L-dopa as pharmaceutically active compound, whereby the composition provides a release of L-dopa in accordance with a test in accordance with U.S. Pharmacopeia Standards in an artificial gastric juice having a pH of at most 1.2 of at most 20% by weight during 1 hr, and in a phosphate buffer according to the same standard a release of at least 35% by weight during 1 hr, and at least 80% by weight during 3 hrs.

L-dopa, L-3,4-dihydroxyphenyl alanine, or 3-(3,4-dihydroxy-phenyl)-L-alanine, or 3-hydroxy-L-tyrosine, alternatively, is a pharmaceutically active compound, which is active at the inhibition of symptoms of the Parkinsons disease, particularly at the inhibition of the tremor related to the Parkinsons disease.
However, hitherto has no pharmaceutical composition been developed which gives a satisfactory pharmacological effect, i.e., a pharmaceutically high, even plasma level. This depends on several factors, i.a., that L-dopa is rapidly decomposed by carboxylic elimination. This can, and has been regulated by adding a decarboxylase inhibitor, such as benserazide or carbidopa, the administration of which means that the L-dopa dose can be considerably reduced. Other problems are that L-dopa is resorbed over a restricted part of the gastro-intestinal tract, i.e., shows a so called absorption window. Hitherto it has been necessary to administer known compositions five to eight times per 24 hrs due to the short half life time of L-dopa. In spite of this the treatment has given high top levels in the plasma which in turn leads to troublesome side-effects.