The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for detecting a defect and a method for detecting a defect using the same, and more particularly, to an apparatus for detecting a defect and a method for detecting a defect using the same for detecting a defect inside an inspection object without destructing the inspection object.

Typically, in life prediction and integrity evaluation of components or materials, information on a defect position is very important, which requires an accurate and fast detection technique.
Pulse echo technique, which is one of existing nondestructive defect detection techniques, is a technique for detecting a defect according to an amplitude of energy reflected by the defect existing inside an inspection object. However, it is difficult to measure an accurate size of the defect, since the amplitude of the reflected energy is dependent on a state of a reflection surface.
In contrast, as a defect detection technique using a diffraction phenomenon of a wave, time of flight diffraction method (TOFD) has a 10 times or more faster inspection speed than the pulse echo technique, enables an inspector to easily detect a defect, and does not depend on a direction of the defect, and therefore it gets spotlighted as a stable inspection method.
The TOFD is a technique for transmitting a wave to an inspection object, namely, a medium, using a transmission probe and a reception probe and analyzing a defect position such as a discontinuity inside the inspection object. The wave transmitted from the transmission probe passes through the medium to collide with the defect therein, and generate a diffraction wave. The generated diffraction wave is received by the reception probe, and the defect position is detected by measuring a time when the wave is transmitted from the transmission probe and a time when the diffraction wave is received by the reception probe.
However, for the TOFD, since only an overall movement distance between the transmission wave and the diffraction wave generated thereby is measured, it is difficult to accurately measure a three-dimensional position of the defect existing inside the inspection object, which includes a defect position on the surface of the inspection object, a defect depth from the surface of the inspection object, and the like.

Apparatus for detecting defect and method for detecting defect using the same

Abstract: An apparatus for detecting a defect according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a first probe unit configured to transmit a signal into an inspection object and receive a signal generated inside the inspection object, a second probe unit separately installed from the first probe unit and configured to receive the signal generated inside the inspection object, and a position determining unit configured to detect a defect position inside the inspection object using the signal received by the first probe unit and the signal received by the second probe unit.


Some embodiments relate to a method and a corresponding apparatus for estimating the wear of a non-volatile memory. Such a method may include determining a load profile with respect to a real access load occurring during a defined test period where the load profile indicates a respectively associated access load for accesses to a first NVM, and generating access data representing the determined load profile. The method further includes determining an estimated value for the wear of a particular second NVM in part on the basis of the access data.

Non-volatile digital memories, in particular flash memories, can nowadays be found in a large number of electronic devices, for example in communication technology and automotive technology. Such non-volatile memories (NVMs) are characterized by the fact that, unlike volatile memories such as, for example, random access memories (RAMs), they do not lose the data stored in them when their power supply is lost. However, NVMs usually also have some particular features that need to be taken into account as regards their control.
These include in particular the fact that with some types of NVMs, in particular with flash memories, the individual memory cells cannot be individually erased or reprogrammed, but that this is only possible on a block by block basis for respective predefined physical blocks of memory cells (physical memory blocks). In order to reprogram one or more memory cells belonging to the same physical memory block in a flash memory, for example, the entire physical memory block first needs to be erased and then rewritten with a desired new data pattern which, in addition to the unchanged data of the other cells, also contains the changed data of the memory cells to be reprogrammed.
Further, for some types of NVMs, in particular flash memories, the number of erase operations and thus also write operations per physical memory block that can be performed on such an NVM during the course of its lifetime (maximum number of cycles, or endurance) is limited due to its physical structure. With such an NVM, a corresponding wear occurs during the course of its operation until finally, after a certain degree of wear, the reliability of the memory decreases significantly and thus when the maximum number of cycles is reached, the end of life (EOL) specified by this is reached. Different NVMs can have different values for the maximum number of cycles depending on their design, so that, in dependence upon the respective application, the NVM that typically represents an optimum choice for the specification of a system with such an NVM, in particular a flash memory, is the one that on the one hand fulfills the maximum number of cycles required for the application, but on the other hand is not oversized in this respect, since this would usually be associated with unnecessary additional costs (typically, NVMs with a higher maximum number of cycles are also more complex to manufacture and therefore more expensive).
There exists a need in the art for enhanced methods and apparatus for estimating the wear of a non-volatile memory.

Methods and apparatus for estimating the wear of a non-volatile memory


A probe used for testing on a semiconductor package is provided which is capable of reducing scratching of a solder ball, sticking of solder to a contact terminal, and damage to the contact terminal. A diameter of an end portion of the contact terminal of a probe is set to be almost the same as that of a solder ball. The end portion is provided with a semispherical concave portion to be contacted with the solder ball and a plurality of guiding grooves formed from a center of the concave portion in a direction of a diameter and used to guide solder separated from the solder ball and stuck to the concave portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a probe of a semiconductor socket, which is applied during a semiconductor package test to test an electrical characteristic of an integrated circuit in a semiconductor package called, for example, BGA (Ball Grid Array).
2. Description of the Related Art
In a semiconductor package, a semiconductor chip on which semiconductor integrated circuits are formed is packaged through a package sealing process using, for example, a resin. As one of the semiconductor packages formed by the way described above, a BGA package 1 shown in FIGS. 6(a) and 6(b) is known. On a bottom surface of the BGA package 1 are placed solder balls 2 serving as an input/output terminal from or to an outside and which are arranged in a grid form.
In order to carry out a test on semiconductor integrated circuits mounted in the BGA package 1 to check their electric characteristics, a semiconductor socket 4 in which a plurality of probes 3 are mounted, is provided as shown in FIG. 7. That is, at a time of making the test, by mounting the BGA package 1 on the semiconductor socket 4, the solder balls 2 come into contact with contact terminals 5 placed on the probe 3. Since the contact terminals 5 are provided with elasticity by a compressed spring (not shown) being placed in a lower portion, an effective contact between the solder ball 2 and the contact terminal 5 can be obtained.
However, each of the contact terminals 5 placed on the conventional probes 3 has a tip portion 6 as shown in FIG. 8. The end portion 6 is configured in a manner that it has four projected portions each having a crest. Therefore, since the conventional probe 3 comes into contact with the solder ball 2 at four points, the solder ball 2 is scratched. As a result, if the BGA package 1 is mounted on a print substrate after the test has been completed, there is a risk of occurrence of a junction failure. Thus, the conventional probe 3 has a disadvantage in that an increase in defective rate of the semiconductor package is unavoidable.
Moreover, if the four crests on the end portion 6 come into point-contact with the solder ball 2, pushing force is concentrated in the point-contact position of the solder ball 2. Therefore, solder separated from the solder ball 2 easily sticks to the end portion 6 and, due to oxidization of the stuck solder, a rate of occurrence of contact failures becomes high. On the other hand, the end portion 6 of each of the contact terminals 5 is crushed in a short time and becomes unusable and a frequency of replacing the contact terminal 5 becomes high. The above problems occur often when the solder ball 2 is formed using a Pb (lead)- free solder.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a probe for testing on a semiconductor package which is capable of reducing scratching on a solder ball, sticking of solder to a contact terminal, and damage to the contact terminal.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a probe applied to semiconductor package test which is to test an electrical characteristic of an integrated circuit in a semiconductor package, having:
a contact terminal to contact electrically a solder ball serving as a contact of the semiconductor package;
wherein the end portion of the contact terminal is provided with: a concave portion which is to come into contact with the solder ball and has a concave showing almost hemispherical shape; and at least a guiding groove to guide adherent solder adhering to the concave portion from the solder ball to outside, which is formed on the concave portion and extends from the bottom center of the concave portion toward outside.
With the above configuration, the contact terminal employed in the probe for testing a semiconductor package has almost semispherical concave to be in contact with the solder ball in the semiconductor package and a guiding groove being formed from a center of the concave portion in a direction of a diameter and operated to guide solder adhering to the concave portion. As a result, since the solder ball comes into contact with the contact terminal not in a point contact form but in at least a line contact form, an amount of solder adhering to the concave portion can be reduced. Thus, the scratch on the solder ball and the damage to the contact terminal can be minimized. Therefore, a junction failure of the semiconductor package occurring when the semiconductor package is mounted and additionally a life expectancy of the probe can be lengthened. Moreover, since the solder separated from the solder ball and adhering to the concave portion flows out along the guiding groove from a center of the concave to an outside of the contact terminal, a long washing period to be used for removing the solder can be secured. Therefore, an operation rate of the test apparatus can be improved.
In the probe, the contact terminal may be made up of a cylindrical body having said end portion and having a diameter being slightly smaller than that of said solder ball.
In this case, by making a diameter of the contact terminal slightly smaller than the solder ball, pushing pressure is not concentrated in a point contact position of the solder ball but is dispersed in a face surrounding the solder ball and therefore an amount of solder separated from the solder ball and adhering to the contact terminal can be further reduced.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for testing an electrical characteristic of an integrated circuit in a semiconductor package, for making a solder ball serving as contact of the semiconductor package contact electrically a probe putted in a test semiconductor socket, comprising:
placing the solder ball into a concave showing almost hemispherical shape of a concave portion formed on a contact terminal of the probe;
making the solder ball contact the concave portion;
guiding adherent solder adhering to the concave portion from the solder ball to outside by at least a guiding groove formed on the concave portion.

Probe applied to semiconductor package test and method for testing semiconductor package


Methods for creating viral display libraries for purposes of isolating variants with modified target cell specificity and related methods; also retroviral display libraries.

This invention relates to the field of viral constructs, especially their use in gene delivery.
Targeting of a retroviral gene delivery vehicle specifically to the tissue where expression of a transgene is required is a critical aspect of gene therapy. In order to retarget a retrovirus to a tissue of interest, three basic strategies have been widely used to alter retroviral interactions with cellular receptors:
1) Complete substitution of the envelope glycoprotein (Env) by another protein.
2) Incorporation of an antibody fragment into Env.
3) Incorporation of a cell-binding ligand into Env.
Fusing a cell-binding ligand or single-chain antibody fragment to Env only rarely leads to reasonably efficient retargeted gene transfer. The lack of success using these approaches may be due to structural perturbations of the Env molecule as a result of fusion to the novel targeting domain. The present invention reflects an alternative approach to avoid this problem.
In a general aspect, the invention is a retroviral display library, said library comprising a plurality (preferably more than 1xc3x97105, more preferably more than 1xc3x97106) of retroviruses wherein each retrovirus differs in relation to other retroviruses in the plurality as to the amino acid sequence of an Env protein, each member of the plurality comprising nucleic acid that codes for both said Env protein and a cell-selection marker.
In a general aspect, the invention is a retroviral Env library, said library comprising a plurality (preferably more than 1xc3x97105, more preferably more than 1xc3x97106) of Env proteins wherein the amino acid sequence of each Env protein differs in relation to the amino acid sequence of the other Env proteins in the plurality.
In another related aspect, the invention is a retroviral nucleic acid library said library comprising a plurality (preferably more than 1xc3x97105, more preferably more than 1xc3x97106) of retroviral nucleic acid molecules, each of said molecules coding for a retroviral Env protein and a cell-selection marker, and wherein each of said nucleic acid molecule differs in relation to other nucleic acid molecules in the plurality as to the Env protein amino acid sequence that it codes for.
In another related aspect, the invention is a cell population expressing either a retroviral display library or a retroviral Env library or a retroviral Env library of the present invention. Preferably, the population is one that has achieved (or is capable of) such expression through at least 10 (more preferably at least 200) cell population doublings.
In several related aspects, the invention is method. Each of these methods is applicable to any virus. Nevertheless, in one preferred set of embodiments, the virus that forms the basis for the library is one that infects mammalian cells (e.g., human cells). In another preferred set of embodiments, the virus is one of a kind that has been used in gene delivery experiments by others, and includes retroviruses, adenoviruses, herpes viruses, and adeno-associated viruses and alphaviruses. Retroviruses are of particular interest and, in the case of retroviruses, the exterior protein of the virus is preferably an Env protein.
In one aspect, applicable to all viruses, the invention is a method of creating a viral display library said method comprising the steps of:
(1) randomly integrating nucleotides (by adding or, more preferably, substituting nucleotides) into viral nucleic acid molecules, the site of said integration in each nucleic acid molecule being within the coding region for an exterior protein of said virus, so as to create a library of viral nucleic acid molecules; and
(2) infecting a population of cells with the nucleic molecules created in step (1) so as to create a library comprising a plurality (preferably more than 1xc3x97105, more preferably more than 1xc3x97106) of viruses wherein for each member of the plurality, the amino acid sequence of the exterior protein coded for by the nucleic acid molecule differs from the amino acid sequence of exterior protein coded for by other members of the plurality, and wherein prior to step (2) (preferably prior to step (1)) each of said nucleic acid molecules further comprises a coding sequence for a cell-selection marker.
In another aspect applicable to all viruses, the invention is a method of isolating a virus that can transfer its nucleic acid to a host cell, said method comprising the steps of:
(1) administering to a population of host cells, a random display library of viruses comprising a plurality (preferably more than 1xc3x97105, more preferably more than 1xc3x97106) of viruses, wherein each virus differs in relation to other viruses of the plurality as to the amino acid sequence of the exterior protein; and
(2) isolating a virus that infected one of said host cells. In one embodiment, each member of the plurality codes, on the same nucleic acid molecule, for both an exterior protein of the virus and a cell-selection marker and step (2) can be achieved by cell selection for virus-infected cells. Alternatively, virus that infected the cells can be identified, after a suitable delay post-infection, in the cell supernatant. For retroviruses, the identification can be made, generally 1 to 2 weeks post infection, by assaying for retroviral reverse transcriptase (Goff, S. P., Traktman, P., and D. Baltimore (1981) J. Virol. 38:239-248).
In another aspect applicable to all viruses, the invention is a method of transmitting non-viral nucleic acid (preferably a gene expressible in said cell., it being understood that the gene can be transmitted as RNA, incorporated into the cell genome as DNA, and be expressed) to a cell, said method comprising the steps of:
(1) administering to a population of host cells, a random display library of viruses, comprising a plurality (preferably more than 1xc3x97105, more preferably more than 1xc3x97106) of viruses wherein each virus differs in relation to other viruses of the plurality as to the amino acid sequence of the exterior protein,
(2) isolating a virus that infected one of said host cells; and
(3) administering the virus isolated in step (2) to a target cell so as to transfer the nonviral nucleic acid to the host cell, wherein prior to step (3) (preferably prior to step (1)) the nonviral nucleic acid sequence intended for delivery to a host cell is incorporated into a nucleic acid viral molecule of said virus. The target cell may be in an organism (e.g., a human or other mammal), in blood or other tissue outside an organism, or in cell culture (for example, either in liquid suspension or on solid surface). As in steps (1) and (2) of the method of isolating a virus, a cell selection marker may be used.
In another aspect, the invention is a retrovirus, said retrovirus created and isolated by a method of this invention.
A method for screening a viral display library for variants of a virus that target a known tissue-specific surface protein where the library is expressed on the surface of cells, said virus a library virus, and wherein the tissue-specific surface protein is expressed on the surface of a vector virus, said method comprises the steps of:
(1) administering a vector virus to a population of host cells, said vector virus expressing said tissue-specific protein on its surface, said host cells expressing a random library comprising a plurality of exterior proteins of said library virus, wherein the vector virus being administered comprises a nucleic acid molecule coding for a cell-selection marker and wherein the amino acid sequence of each exterior protein in the plurality differs from the amino acid sequence of other exterior proteins of the plurality; and
(2) isolating a cell that bound to the tissue-specific surface protein on the vector virus being administered or isolating a library virus from said cell.
In another aspect applicable to all viruses, the invention is a method for screening a viral display library for viral variants that target a known tissue-specific surface protein where the library is expressed on the surface of cells, said virus a library virus, and the tissue-specific surface protein is expressed on the surface of a vector virus. The method comprises the steps of:
(1) administering a vector virus to a population of host cells, said virus (preferably a pseudotype, such that the tissue-specific surface protein is coded for by a nucleic acid molecule that is not part of the vector virus) expressing said tissue-specific protein on its surface, said host cells expressing a random library comprising a plurality (preferably more than 1xc3x97105, more preferably more than 1xc3x97106) of exterior proteins of said library virus wherein the vector virus being administered comprises a nucleic acid molecule coding for a cell-selection marker and wherein the amino acid sequence of each exterior protein in the plurality differs from the amino acid sequence of other exterior proteins of the plurality; and
(2) isolating a cell that bound to the tissue-specific surface protein on the vector virus being administered or isolating a library virus from said cell. Preferably each cell expresses a small number of amino acid sequence variants of exterior viral proteins, the average number being less than 10, as close to 1 as possible.
For all libraries and all methods, one preferred embodiment is to include a coding region for a nonviral cell-binding peptide (an example is the CCR5-binding peptide discussed herein) in the viral exterior protein of interest, especially within the region that is varied for purposes of constructing the library.
In selecting a virus for delivery of a gene to a cell, it is clearly preferred to select a virus that does not have a pathologic effect on the host cell or host. Therefore, it is preferred to modify a nonhuman retrovirus for use as a vehicle into a human. However, recent advances indicate that lentiviral delivery vectors (such as those derived from the retrovirus HIV-1) have an advantage in that they infect non-dividing cells. Furthermore, Env proteins isolated using the procedures outlined here could be used to eventually pseudotype lentiviral particles or alphavirus particles.
It is preferred that the cell-selection marker, generally a protein, be a drug-resistance marker.
It is understood that a random display library can comprise two or more viruses which have the identical envelope protein amino acid sequence.
The libraries of the present invention, and therefore the related processes of making and using them, are useful as pools of viral vehicles from which an appropriate vehicle can be selected to transfer a gene to a host cell. A large number of possible applications exist for gene therapy vectors created using the present inventions. They can be used to target specific cell types for any gene therapy application. These include the correction of diseases that are caused by enzyme deficiencies such as diabetes. For example, the missing enzyme can be expressed from liver or muscle tissue. Selected Env variants can also be used to target genes to heart cells to deliver factors which promote tissue regeneration in diseased states. Delivery of toxic genes to tumors or virus-infected cells for therapeutic applications can also be accomplished. For lower organisms, such as microorganisms, the methods are applicable for modifying the host range of the viruses for purposes of either killing the microorganism or transferring beneficial genes.

Targeting viral vectors to specific cells

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey


A method is disclosed for configuring a medical imaging device. In at least one embodiment, the method includes providing an input data set specifying a clinical task, the input data set including quantified image requirements; transferring the input data set to a server; providing a configuration data set by the server depending on the input data set; transferring the configuration data set from the server to the medical imaging device within a defined time interval; and configuring the medical imaging device based on the configuration data set.

Medical instruments such as medical imaging devices are well known in the state of the art. These medical imaging devices have to be configured properly by a clinician for each usage and adapted to the specific task for achieving a desired result. Usually, medical instruments offer many configuration options that can be adapted for performing the specific medical task in the best way. Typically, these parameters depend on each other in a complex manner such that the proper configuration of the medical instruments strongly depends on the experience of the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,000,510 B2 discloses a method to control a slice image acquisition system, wherein a scan protocol is initially selected from a number of scan protocols and an automatic control of the slice image acquisition system ensues on the basis of the selected scan protocol.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,687,762 B2 discloses a CT system for scanning a patient, comprising a computer system to control the CT system, the computer system including an evaluation unit for a logical decision tree to determine examination and scan parameters for the CT system.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,615,804 B2 discloses a method for generating a medical image and evaluating the medical image, wherein the image data are evaluated by a given analysis application and a secondary application automatically proposes a set of parameter values coordinated to the given analysis application and/or given patient information.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,636,077 B2 discloses a method for an automatic selection of a scanning protocol for a tomographic recording of an X-ray image of a patient, the method comprising automatically comparing a patient-specific value with retrievably stored reference values, wherein one scanning protocol can be associated with each reference value.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,008,029 4458 A1 discloses a device for controlling and/or monitoring at least one apparatus during a medical intervention, wherein the device includes at least one control unit for controlling and/or monitoring the at least one apparatus.
US 2017 0124271 A1 relates to a method and a system for providing a social network to facilitate user sharing, distributing, ranking, and searching medical device configuration items.
US 2015 0 199 478 A1 relates to a system and a method for identifying image acquisition parameters.
For example, the medical imaging device is a computer tomography (CT)-scanner. In the case of patients with chest pain, one can choose                a single low energy kV scan (e. g. 70/80 kV) of a thorax at a low pitch for ac-cumulating a sufficient radiation dose due to a limitation of a x-ray tube at low kV or        a medium energy kV scan (e. g. 100 kV) at a high pitch.
Additionally, CT scans can be performed in a dual or single energy mode as well as with or without an ECG-gating. Similar variances are possible with regard to the application of iodinated contrast media. For example, either a short injection at a high contrast injection rate or a longer injection at a lower injection rate can be selected.
Furthermore, to optimize image quality, e. g. in terms of motion artifacts, and maintain a clinically desired radiation dose level, one can either reduce the pitch at a faster gantry rotation or keep the pitch high at a slower gantry rotation. Smaller detector collimations might provide better images due to less scatter and cone beam artifacts but require longer scan times as well as a longer contrast media injection and a more challenging scan timing. Similar issues are seen on the reconstruction side. Depending on the clinical task and the preference of the user, images at different slice width can be reconstructed or quantitative of edge enhancing reconstruction kernels can be used.

Method for configuring a medical imaging device, system for configuring a medical imaging device, computer program product and computer readable medium


An apparatus, computer program product, method and system are disclosed for manually guiding inbound callers through an IVR system, then sequentially playing prerecorded, precategorized scripts, or audio dialogs, to the caller in accordance with the steps of a sales method governing the categorization of the scripts. Certain embodiments of the present invention include substitute means of collecting, conferencing, routing, and managing inbound callers in and out of IVR platforms.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to interactive voice response (IVR) technologies, and more particularly relates to an apparatus, computer program product and data processing system for covertly guiding a caller through an IVR system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Business processing outsource (BPO) service provides are commercial organizations which run call centers that manage inbound and outbound telephone sales campaigns for their clients. BPO service providers have been quick to incorporate developing technological advances into their business models, including increasingly sophisticated Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technologies, which recognize verbal and keypad input from callers.
Sales teams at inbound BPO call centers are able to rely on IVR technology to collect a great deal of information from, and about, inbound callers before routing those inbound callers to live operators. IVR technologies enable customers, and potential customers, of retail business to navigate databases verbally or through the touchpad of the telephone. Through IVR systems, potential customers are able to interface with a computer that prompts callers to enter information and provides voice based-feedback. Callers to IVR systems interact with a voice browser by listening to audio output that is either pre-recorded or computer-synthesized. Callers submit audio input to the IVR system in the form of natural voice communication or DTMF keypad input.
In modern BPO business models, inbound sales representatives are required to attend to an increasingly number of incoming calls over the telephone, which calls IVR platforms help them manage. IVR technology has drastically increased the efficiency of the BPO industry, and has been used to manage billions of incoming calls across the industry over the years since IVR use became standard in the industry. IVR technology reduces operation costs and at the same time and increases customer satisfaction.
The interfacing features of IVR systems can be configured to direct potential customers through a sequence of simple menus which gather personal information using CTI (Computer Telephony Integration). The capability of the IVR technology to identify and collect personal information from callers makes IVR technology very important to the BPO industry. Call center operators are able to modify their presentation in accordance with personal information gathered by the IVR platform and digitally displayed to the operators.
IVR platforms usually run on Wintel and Cisco equipment, and usually rely on VXML, or VoiceXML, technologies to interact with callers using voice-recognition technology.
VoiceXML is designed for creating audio dialogs that feature synthesized speech and/or digitized audio. These audio dialogs are played to callers in response to IVR recognition of spoken or dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signaling (keypad input). Modern IVR platforms making use of VXML or VoiceXML can be configured to carry on conversations and sales transactions with callers from the point of contact to the point of sale, by playing audio dialogs to callers.
IVR platforms can be further configured to play digitized audio scripts to callers which are so responsive to the natural verbal input of the callers that the callers do not know they are interfacing with a machine. Some embodiments of IVR platforms prompt an operator of the BPO service provider monitoring a call to select from a list of prerecorded scripts to replay to the caller in response to questions asked by the caller.
BPO call centers employing operators with poor English skills, or exotic accents, have found that their operators can reach greater levels of sales efficiency replaying digitized scripts of skilled native English speakers then attempting to interact directly with callers.
Call Control XML (CCXML) interoperates with VXML to manage a plurality of simultaneously incoming calls. CCXML is the W3C standard markup language for controlling how phone calls are placed, answered, transferred, and conferenced. CCXML works in conjunction with VoiceXML to provide standards for telephony application, including support for multi-party conferencing and message-passing.
CCXML imparts the ability to many IVR platforms to give each active line in a voice application its own dedicated VoiceXML interpreter, and the ability to receive events and messages from systems outside of the CCXML or VoiceXML platform. Interaction with an outside call center platform, calls started asynchronously from the VoiceXML platform, and communication between multiple clustered VoiceXML or CCXML platforms all require event interaction from one platform to another. Although IVR systems often make use of the same standards, including VXML and CCXML, there exists no system or computer program product in the industry for interchanging different IVR systems within a single BPO architecture.

Means for directing a caller through an interactive voice response system and of making use of prerecorded precategorized scripts


A solvent system which comprises two or more single organic solvents or two or more mixed organic solvents, characterized in that the state of the solvent system can be reversibly changed, with changing temperature conditions, from one state which is a homogeneously compatibilized mixed solvent system in which the two or more single or more mixed organic solvents constituting the solvent system have been homogeneously compatibilized and mixed to the other state which is a separated solvent system made up of two or more separated phases respectively consisting mainly of the two or more single or mixed organic solvents constituting solvent system, and that when the solvent system is the homogeneously mixed solvent system, a chemical component which is soluble in only one of the single or mixed organic solvents can be evenly dissolved in the system; and a process for producing a compound with the solvent system.

In chemical reaction, if it becomes possible to separate easily the aimed product from catalyst, additives for reaction or by-products, not only the numbers of necessary operations for separation can be reduced largely, but also the generation of wastes harmful to the environment can be effectively reduced by decreasing the numbers of agents used in the process. While, as the methods to separate the product easily in investigation stage, following methods were already proposed.
1. Solid-phase synthesis characterizing that the series reactions of molecules locating on the surface of solid dispersed in solvent with molecules dissolved in the solvent are carried out on the surface of solid in the state that the solid is dispersed in solvent.
2. Fluorine compativility-two-phases reaction systems characterized that fluorinated alkanes and the ordinary low polar organic solvent are combined.
3. Reaction system which uses a phase-transfer catalyst in double phases consisting of water and organic solvent.
4. Reaction system in the combination of two or more kinds of organic solvents which control the chemical reactivity of polymer or compound whose ligand is polymer and the refining by separation by changing dissolving ability of polymer carrier which is dissolved or dispersed in solvent, by changing the state of phase separation.
In these reaction systems, the method 2, each components consisting of the solvent are compatible by heating. However, the usable solvent is limited to the low polar solvent which has relatively high affinity with fluorinated solvent of low polar. Further, this method has problems, that is, expensive fluorinated solvent is necessary, the substance to be dissolved is necessary to be fluorinated because it is dissolved in fluorinated solvent, and in the case of reaction dissolving an organic or an inorganic salt, there is a difficulty to handle a polor substance such as biomolecule, because high permittivity solvent does not have this characteristic.
Further, the method 3 can be said as the reaction system which combines high permittivity or high polar solvent with low permittivity or low polar solvent. Although these solvents forms two-phases structure according to the difference of the physical property, the solvent which forms reversibly homogeneous compatible mixed solvent by simplified change of outer condition is not obtained yet. Further, the reaction is limited at the interface of separated two layers, and the reactivity can not be said to be high.
As disclosed in the method 4, when polymer is used as a solute or as an agent, the separation of low molecule component and polymer component accompanying to the phase separation of the solvent can be easily controlled. In the meanwhile, in many chemical reactions, the reaction between low molecule components is carried out. However, in the chemical reaction which uses plural numbers of low molecule substances, the separation of the aimed product from not necessary substances by utilizing strictly the difference of solubility between these low molecule substances in actual level was considered to be difficult. The reason why can be illustrated as follows. That is, when two-phase separation state is formed by combining two or more organic solvents, the components in upper layer solvent and in lower layer solvent are not composed by single component but main component solvent of another layer is mixed.
Therefore, the subject of this invention is to construct the reaction system which solve the problem of controlling the reaction and the problem of separation and refining of the reacted product. In earnest study to solve these problems, the inventors of the present invention have found that the specific non polar organic solvent and polar organic solvent have different solubility to the chemical component and can transfer reversibly and easily to two solvent states, that is, the homogeneous compatibilized mixed solvent state and the separated solvent state in which the phase is separated by only changing the temperature condition, further, can separate single or plural low molecule solute components whose physical properties are different spatially and almost completely, still further, the substantial reaction condition is only satisfied in homogeneous compatibilized mixed solvent state, thus dissolved above mentioned problems.
Above mentioned non polar organic solvent and polar organic solvent are respectively single organic solvent composed of one organic solvent or mixed organic solvent which mixes two or more solvents belonging to each organic solvent by adequate mixing ratio.
At the dissolving of said problem, for example, the polar solvent which dissolves ordinary electrolyte does not form the homogeneous compatibilized mixed solvent state with non polar organic solvent by simple condition, and especially it is difficult to make it reversible. However, in the solvent system which is found out by the inventors of the present invention, one solvent can dissolve electrolyte, and the homogeneous compatibilized mixed solvent state dissolving electrolyte—the separable state by dissolving electrolyte only in single organic solvent mainly composed of one organic solvent which is phase separated or mixed organic solvent can be accomplished reversibly only by controlling the temperature. The discovery of this phenomenon is an unexpected one, and said solvent system is extremely useful for the designing and construction of various reaction system in the future, because ionic substance is frequently used in the reaction system and the separation of ionic substance after reaction is difficult. Further, this solvent system can construct the functional system which control not only reaction process but also refining process, compativility—phase separation, for example, the system which flows an electric current at the critical temperature, and is hopeful as the new functional material.
Further, the inventors of the present invention are aimed to use said solvent system practically and have synthesized the compound which is utilized so as the practical use of the solvent system to be possible, for example, have designed the compound having a bonding part of amino acid unit from which the formation of peptide in the method for peptide synthesis is initiated with a residue which make the utilization of the solvent system possible such as the compound represented by following general formula A, and have constructed the reaction system utilizing the solvent system positively.

In general formula A, L1 is hydroxyl group which bonds with amino acid, a single bond which bonds with thiol group, amino group or carbonyl group, an atomic group which bonds with said hydroxyl group, thiol group, amino group or carbonyl group or an atomic group which forms fused aromatic ring of two rings bonding with dotted line, wherein the dotted line is an atomic group which forms said fused aromatic ring by bonding with H or L1, X is O, S, ester group, sulfide group or imino group, R is hydro carbon group of carbon number 10 or more which can contain O, S or N having a possibility to improve the solubility to cycloalkane solvents as a bonding atom, n is a integer from 1 to 5, further in the case when said hydro carbon group of carbon number 10 or more is to improve the solubility to cycloalkane solvents, R possesses a side chain with functional group which bonds with the amino group and/or substituent.
From the technical view point, the residue of the compound represented by general formula A is called as carrier in the present invention.
This peptide synthesis reactions can be applied to the synthesis of oligomers or polymers such as protein, DNA, RNA or polysaccharides.

Compatible-multiphase organic solvent system


A polymer comprises recurring units of formula (1) and recurring units having acid labile groups which units increase alkali solubility as a result of the acid labile groups being decomposed under the action of acid, and has a Mw of 1,000-500,000.

This invention relates to a resist composition, typically chemically amplified positive resist composition, which has a remarkably increased contrast of alkali dissolution rate before and after exposure, a high sensitivity, high resolution, and etching resistance and lends itself to the microfabrication of VLSI""s.
While a number of recent efforts are being made to achieve a finer pattern rule in the drive for higher integration and operating speeds in LSI devices, deep-ultraviolet lithography is thought to hold particular promise as the next generation in microfabrication technology. Deep-UV lithography is capable of achieving a minimum feature size of 0.5 xcexcm or less and, when a resist having low light absorption is used, can form patterns with sidewalls that are nearly perpendicular to the substrate.
Recently developed acid-catalyzed chemical amplification positive resists, such as those described in JP-B 2-27660, JP-A 63-27829, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,491,628 and 5,310,619, utilize a high-intensity KrF excimer laser as the deep-UV light source. These resists, with their excellent properties such as high sensitivity, high resolution, and good dry etching resistance, are especially promising for deep-UV lithography.
Such chemically amplified positive resists include two-component systems comprising a base resin and a photoacid generator, and three-component systems comprising a base resin, a photoacid generator, and a dissolution inhibitor having acid labile groups.
For example, JP-A 62-115440 describes a resist material comprising poly-4-tert-butoxystyrene and a photoacid generator, and JP-A 3-223858 describes a similar two-component resist material comprising a resin bearing tert-butoxy groups within the molecule, in combination with a photoacid generator. JP-A 4-211258 describes a two-component resist material which is comprised of polyhydroxystyrene bearing methyl, isopropyl, tert-butyl, tetrahydropyranyl, and trimethylsilyl groups, together with a photoacid generator.
JP-A 6-100488 discloses a resist material comprised of a polydihydroxystyrene derivative, such as poly[3,4-bis(2-tetrahydropyranyloxy)styrene], poly[3,4-bis(tert-butoxy-carbonyloxy)styrene] or poly[3,5-bis(2-tetrahydropyranyloxy)styrene], and a photoacid generator.
The base resins in these resist materials bear acid labile groups on side chains. When these acid labile groups are groups such as tert-butyl and tert-butoxycarbonyl which are cleaved by strong acids, the resist pattern tends to take on a T-top profile. By contrast, when the acid labile groups are alkoxyalkyl groups such as ethoxyethyl which are cleaved by weak acids, the corresponding resins have the drawback that the pattern configuration is considerably narrowed as the time interval between exposure and heat treatment increases. Moreover, the presence of bulky groups on the side chains lowers the heat resistance of the resin and leads to an unsatisfactory sensitivity and resolution. These problems have hitherto prevented the practical implementation of either approach.
To provide higher transparency and firm adhesion to substrates and to improve footing on substrates and etching resistance, JP-A 3-275149 and 6-289608 propose resist materials using a copolymer of hydroxystyrene and tertiary alkyl (meth)acrylate. The resist materials of this type suffer from poor heat resistance and an indefinite pattern profile after exposure and are not satisfactory in etching resistance as well. Since the current progress toward higher resolution entails the simultaneous progress toward thinner film patterns, it would be desirable to have a resist material with higher etching resistance.
An object of the invention is to provide a resist composition, especially chemically amplified positive resist composition, which is superior to prior art resist compositions in sensitivity, resolution, exposure latitude and process flexibility, and has a satisfactory pattern profile after exposure and high etching resistance. Another object is to provide a patterning process using the resist composition.
It has been found that a polymer having recurring units of the following general formula (1) or (2) and having a weight average molecular weight of 1,000 to 500,000 is an effective base resin in a positive resist composition, especially chemically amplified positive resist composition. The chemically amplified positive resist composition containing a photoacid generator and an organic solvent as well as the polymer has many advantages including an increased dissolution contrast of a resist film, high resolution, improved latitude of exposure, improved process flexibility, a good pattern profile after exposure, and high etching resistance. The composition is thus suited for practical use and advantageously used in microfabrication, especially in VLSI manufacture.
In one aspect, the invention provides a resist composition comprising a polymer comprising recurring units of the following general formula (1) and recurring units having acid labile groups which units increase alkali solubility as a result of the acid labile groups being decomposed under the action of acid, and having a weight average molecular weight of 1,000 to 500,000.
Herein R1 and R2 each are a hydrogen atom, hydroxyl group, substitutable hydroxyalkyl group, straight or branched alkyl group, substitutable alkoxy group, or halogen atom, and n is 0 or a positive integer of 1 to 4.
In another aspect, the invention provides a resist composition comprising a polymer comprising recurring units of the following general formula (2) and having a weight average molecular weight of 1,000 to 500,000.
Herein R1, R2 and R4 each are a hydrogen atom, hydroxyl group, substitutable hydroxyalkyl group, straight or branched alkyl group, substitutable alkoxy group, or halogen atom, R3 and R5 each are hydrogen or methyl, R6 is a hydrogen atom, methyl group, alkoxycarbonyl group, cyano or halogen atom, R7 is an alkyl group of 1 to 20 carbon atoms, n is 0 or a positive integer of 1 to 4, m is 0 or a positive integer of 1 to 5, p, q and s each are 0 or a positive number, and r is a positive number.
In formula (2), one or both of R1 and R4 are preferably selected from among groups of the following formulae (3) and (4), straight, branched or cyclic tertiary alkoxy groups of 4 to 20 carbon atoms, trialkylsiloxy groups whose alkyl portions each have 1 to 6 carbon atoms, and oxoalkoxy groups of 4 to 20 carbon atoms.
Herein R8, R9, R11 and R12 are independently selected from hydrogen and straight or branched alkyl groups of 1 to 8 carbon atoms, R10 is a monovalent hydrocarbon group of 1 to 18 carbon atoms which may be separated by an oxygen atom, or a pair of R8 and R9, R8 and R10, or R9 and R10 may form a ring and each of R8, R9 and R10 is a straight or branched alkylene group of 1 to 18 carbon atoms when they form a ring, R13 is a straight, branched or cyclic alkyl group of 4 to 40 carbon atoms, and xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d is 0 or a positive integer of 1 to 5.
In a second aspect, the invention provides a chemically amplified positive resist composition comprising (A) an organic solvent, (B) the above-defined polymer as a base resin, and (C) a photoacid generator. The resist composition may further include (D) a dissolution inhibitor. Preferably the resist composition further includes (E) a basic compound.
In a third aspect, the invention provides a process for forming a resist pattern comprising the steps of applying the resist composition onto a substrate to form a coating; heat treating the coating and then exposing it to high-energy radiation or electron beams through a photo mask; and optionally heat treating the exposed coating and developing it with a developer.

Resist composition and patterning process

Abstract: R1 and R2 each are hydrogen, hydroxyl, hydroxyalkyl, alkyl, alkoxy or halogen, and n is 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4. The polymer is useful as a base resin to form a chemically amplified, positive resist composition which has advantages including a significantly enhanced contrast of alkali dissolution rate before and after exposure, high sensitivity, high resolution, and high etching resistance and is best suited as a micropatterning material for use in VLSI manufacture.


A tail light construction comprising an outer housing having an aperture that extends therethrough. An annular resilient grommet is disposed in the aperture and a metal bulb holder is mounted within the central opening of the grommet and includes a socket which receives the base portion of a light bulb. The axis of the bulb is located at an acute angle with respect to the base of the housing. A lens encloses one end of the central opening of the grommet, while either a lens or an opaque closure plate encloses the opposite end. Electrical connectors are connected to the bulb and extend in sealed relation through the grommet and are connected to electrical leads.

There are no federal regulations, at present, governing the use of lights on agricultural field equipment that is being towed on public roads or highways. However, there has been increased interest in the use of lights for agricultural field equipment because of safety concerns, as well as potential legal liability.
Agricultural field equipment,. such as wagons, plows, manure spreaders, and the like, have various shapes and configurations, so that the lights must be capable of being mounted on various surfaces of all types of equipment without the need for specialized brackets or connectors. Further, lights to be used with agricultural field equipment, must be able to withstand the rigorous field and environmental conditions that are encountered through normal use of the equipment and be resistant to moisture, dust and chemicals.


There is provided method of profiling protein tyrosine phosphorylation of a sample, the method comprising: contacting the sample with an SH2 Superbinder in order to bind pTyr-including peptides contained in the sample with the SH2 Superbinder; isolating the bound pTyr-including peptides from the sample; and identifying the isolated pTyr-including peptides.

Protein phosphorylation by various protein kinases has an important role in manifold eukaryotic cell processes, including metabolism, cell growth, cell cycle progression, apoptosis, cytoskeletal architecture, and differentiation. Protein phosphorylation is particularly central to cell signalling, with phosphorylation acting to, among other effects, control enzyme activity, immune response, protein subcellular localization, protein degradation, and protein-protein interactions.
In eukaryotes, protein phosphorylation occurs almost exclusively on tyrosine (Tyr), serine (Ser), and threonine (Thr) residues. Of the around 518 protein kinases encoded by the human genome, around 90 are categorized as Tyr kinases (TKs), with most of the remainder categorized as Ser/Thr kinases (STKs) and a smaller subset as dual-specificity kinases that phosphorylate Tyr and Ser/Thr (Manning, G. et al., "The protein kinase complement of the human genome", (2002) Science 298:1912). By definition, a protein kinase has the conserved catalytic domain that phosphorylates proteins, but it can also have additional domains, such as protein-protein interaction domains (Manning, G. et al., "The protein kinase complement of the human genome", (2002) Science 298:1912).
Protein kinase activity often requires the phosphorylation of the kinases themselves. In general, the kinase activity of TKs is activated by the phosphorylation of one or more Tyr residues in a so-called activation loop. The activation loop is a short, conserved peptide located in the catalytic core of the kinase. In most TKs, as well as in a number of STKs or dual-specificity kinases (e.g., MAP kinases) and lipid kinases (e.g., phosphatidylinositide 3-kinases), the activation loop harbors 1-3 tyrosine residues that are among the first tyrosine(s) to be phosphorylated during kinase activation (Huse, M. and Kuriyan, J. "The conformational plasticity of protein kinases" (2002), Cell 109:275-282; Taylor, S. S., et al. "Evolution of the eukaryotic protein kinases as dynamic molecular switches" (2012) Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. 367:2517-2528; Bayliss, R., et al. "On the molecular mechanisms of mitotic kinase activation", (2012) Open Biology 2:120136). Structural studies have revealed that phosphorylation of the activation loop enables kinase substrate and ATP binding (Hubbard, S. R. et al., "Crystal structure of the tyrosine kinase domain of the human insulin receptor", (1994) Nature 372:746-754; Lemmon, M. A., and Schlessinger, J. "Cell signaling by receptor tyrosine kinases", (2010) Cell 141:1117-1134).
In addition, many TKs also have Tyr residues outside the activation loop, or even outside the kinase domain itself. The phosphorylation of these additional Tyr residues can, amongst other effects, positively or negatively auto-regulate the activity of the kinase domain or bind to interaction domains on other proteins.
More than half of the 90 human TKs have been implicated in one or more cancers, inflammatory disorders, and other diseases (Drake et al., "Clinical targeting of mutated and wild-type protein tyrosine kinases in cancer" (2014) Mol. Cell. Biol. 34: 1722-1732; Melnikova, I. and Golden, J., "Targeting protein kinases" (2004) Nature Rev. Drug Discov. 3: 993-994). Thus, tyrosine kinases are considered one of the most important groups of drug targets, and at present, numerous drugs that target TKs have been approved, and many more are in various stages of pre-clinical and clinical evaluation (Gross, S. et al., "Targeting cancer with kinase inhibitors" (2015) J. Clin. Invest. 125: 1780-1789; Patterson, H. et al., "Protein kinase inhibitors in the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases" (2013) Clin. Exp. Immunol. 176: 1-10; Vlahovic, G. and Crawford, J., "Activation of tyrosine kinases in cancer" (2003) Oncologist 8: 531-538; Cohen P., "Protein kinases—the major drug targets of the twenty-first century?" (2002) Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. 1: 309-315).
Kinases, in particular tyrosine kinases, also play central roles in regulating immune functions through the phosphorylation of specific tyrosine residues contained within the cytoplasmic domain of immunoreceptors. Specifically, immune signaling is regulated by Immunoreceptor Tyr-based Regulatory Motifs (ITRMs) which include Immunoreceptor Tyr-based Activating Motifs (ITAM), Immunoreceptor Tyr-based Inhibitory Motifs (ITIM), and Immunoreceptor Tyr-based Switching Motifs (ITSM) (Liu, H. et al., "A comprehensive immunoreceptor phosphotyrosine-based signaling network revealed by reciprocal protein-peptide array screening" (2015) Mol. Cell. Proteomics 14: 1846-1858).
Advances in mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics have made it possible to identify ˜90% of all proteins encoded by the human genome. A recent proteomic analysis suggests that more than three-quarters of expressed human proteins can be phosphorylated (Sharma, K. et al., "Ultradeep human phosphoproteome reveals a distinct regulatory nature of tyr and ser/thr-based signaling", (2014) Cell Rep. 8:1583-94).
A critical step in identifying phosphorylated amino acids is the enrichment of phosphoproteins or phosphopeptides prior to MS analysis. Immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC), often comprising use of TiO2 or Ti4+, can be used to enrich phosphopeptides. In Sharma et al., phosphopeptides from HeLa S3 cells were enriched using TiO2 beads. Of the approximately 38,000 phosphosites identified, 84.1% were pSer, 15.5% were pThr, and 0.4% were phosphotyrosine (pTyr). These relative proportions were similar to those estimated decades earlier using radioisotope labelling.
Identification of cellular Tyr phosphosites by MS can be improved by enrichment with anti-pTyr antibodies (e.g., 4G10, p-Tyr-100) and by pre-treatment of cells with pervanadate, an inhibitor of protein phosphatases. In Sharma et al., combining pervanadate pre-treatment and enrichment with anti-pTyr antibodies allowed for the identification of more than 2,000 Tyr-phosphorylated peptides from about 1,300 proteins in HeLa S3 cells. Only around 18% of the Tyr phosphosites identified by Sharma et al. appeared to be novel. Those authors concluded that, although coverage of Ser/Thr phosphorylation events appeared to be very comprehensive, the Tyr phosphoproteome was far from complete.
Cellular signal transduction relies on regulated and dynamic protein-protein interactions, which are often mediated by modular domains. One example is the Src homology 2 (SH2) domain, which binds to peptides containing pTyr. The human genome encodes around 120 SH2 domains. All known SH2 domain structures conform to a conserved domain fold. Typically, SH2 domains have a pTyr-binding pocket along with a second pocket or subsite that confers specificity for residues C-terminal to pTyr in the ligand peptide (Huang, H. et al., "Defining the specificity space of the human SRC homology 2 domain" (2008) Mol. Cell. Proteomics 7:768-784).
In addition, SH2 domains are known to bind to ITRMs (Liu, H. et al., "A comprehensive immunoreceptor phosphotyrosine-based signaling network revealed by reciprocal protein-peptide array screening" (2015) Mol. Cell. Proteomics 14: 1846-1858).

Methods for protein tyrosine phosphorylation profiling with variant SH2 domains


Provided herein is an apparatus for converting a wired sensor system to a wireless sensor system. The apparatus can comprise a relay station comprising at least one antenna and at least one radio. The relay station can be adaptable to be integrated as at least one application specific integrated circuit and further adaptable to convert a wired sensor system into a wireless sensor system. Further provided are systems for converting wired sensor systems into wireless sensor systems and methods of use.

While many other systems have gone wireless, the majority of healthcare and fitness monitoring system remain wired today. A typical wired healthcare system is shown in FIG. 1. The system shown in FIG. 1 can be used to monitor a variety of physiological parameters such as electrocardiogram (ECG), electroencephalogram (EEG), electromyogram (EMG), blood glucose, blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), hydration, air flow, pressure, acceleration and temperature. In the system shown, the sensors are placed on the subject's body to measure the desired physiological parameters. These sensors are connected to an anchor medical device which is called the host in the system. The host device can be any healthcare related device such as a bedside patient monitor, holster monitor, glucose meter, EEG system, blood pressure monitor, and/or a mobile health monitor. The host can be a stationary platform, a portable device or a mobile device. As shown, the wired sensor system typically feeds the data to the host via a wired host bus. The type of host bus is defined during the initial design of the healthcare system.
The tethering of patients to healthcare systems creates many problems today. The leads connected to sensors are reused among various patients often causing infection, leading to even death in many cases. Wires also come in the way of clinicians and caretakers resulting in lower productivity, poorer quality of care and lower reliability as wires frequently come off. Furthermore, tethering is a major discomfort for patients, particularly when extended monitoring is involved. Due to these and many other reasons, it would be desirable to make healthcare monitoring systems totally wireless, thereby untethering patients from host systems.
There is a large installed base of a variety of host systems with tethered sensors—bedside patient monitors in hospitals and clinics; portable host devices for ambulatory monitoring (such as holter monitors). It is highly desirable to retrofit these legacy systems for wireless monitoring. For wireless monitoring to be widespread, the retrofitted wireless scheme must be able to compete with the wired systems in every way. The wireless link must be as reliable as a wire. The wireless sensors attached to the body must be ultra low cost, must dissipate very low power for multi day operation, and must be physically small and disposable. Furthermore, the wireless adaptor plugged into host system must be compact, low power, and low cost.
There have been recent attempts to create wireless systems some of which have been introduced in the market. However, all these systems have wireless sensors, host systems and adaptors which are bulky, high power, expensive and have questionable reliability. It makes them unsuitable to compete with wired solutions for large scale deployment. The invention described herein proposes a scheme to retrofit the existing wired systems for wireless operation based on integrated semiconductor solutions with attributes to compete with today's wired systems to meet the mass market needs. The proposed scheme transforms the wired system as shown in FIG. 1 to a wireless system in a transparent manner and without an impact on the core infrastructure of the system, including the host's hardware or software, also known as retrofitting.

Methods and apparatus to retrofit wired healthcare and fitness systems for wireless operation


According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a prepreg with a carrier, comprising: a sheet-like base member; a first insulating resin layer provided to cover a surface of the sheet-like base member; a first carrier provided to cover the first insulating resin layer; a second insulating resin layer provided to cover a back surface of the sheet-like base member; and a second carrier provided to cover the second insulating resin layer, wherein the first and the second insulating resin layers have different resin compositions or the first and the second insulating resin layers have different thicknesses, and a front surface and a back surface of the prepreg with the carrier is visually identifiable.

A multi-layered printed wiring board typically includes a large sized multi-layered printed wiring board for mother board and a small sized multi-layered printed wiring board for system-in-package (SiP) (referred to as a semiconductor package substrate). In recent years, as the high density packaging technology for semiconductor devices is advanced, semiconductor package substrates including micro interconnects have attracted attentions. When a semiconductor element is packaged on to a semiconductor package substrate via a flip-chip process in the conventional technology, such semiconductor package substrate is required to have sufficient mechanical strength for ensuring a certain packaging reliability. Therefore, an internal layer circuit board having a certain thickness for sufficient mechanical strength has been employed for such semiconductor package substrate. However, when two or more of such internal layer circuit boards are stacked under the circumstance that increased number of layers are required due to requirements for higher integration and higher packaging, the thickness of the obtained semiconductor package substrate is considerably increased.
The multi-layered printed wiring board is generally manufactured via a building-up process, in which insulating resin films and conductor circuit layers are alternately deposited over an internal layer circuit board. In the process for manufacturing the multi-layered printed wiring board by the building-up process, an insulating resin film with a carrier is employed for forming an insulating resin film. In the trend of reducing the thickness of the multi-layered printed wiring board, various investigations are also made on the insulating resin film with the carrier for the purpose of providing higher mechanical strength. For example, a process for obtaining a multi-layered printed wiring board having improved mechanical strength and packaging reliability by employing a prepreg with carrier employing a prepreg as an insulating resin film is proposed in Patent Document 1.
Further, a method for obtaining a prepreg by laminating insulating resin films on both sides of a glass cross with a roller laminator apparatus is disclosed as a process for manufacturing of a prepreg (for example, Patent Document 2). Such process for obtaining the prepreg with a roller laminator apparatus provides easier control of the thickness of the obtained prepreg, as compared with a process for immersing a sheet-like base material within a resin varnish and then drying thereof.
Further, in such process to be employed this roller laminator apparatus, a resin composition or a thickness of the insulating resin films laminated on both sides of the base material such as a glass cross, based on a desired design of a multi-layered printed wiring board.
However, when insulating resin films having different resin compositions and/or thicknesses are laminated on the front surface and the back surface of the base member, it is difficult to specify the front and the back surfaces of the obtained prepreg. This may cause erroneous laminations for the front and the back surface of the prepreg on the internal layer circuit board when a multiple-layered printed wiring board is manufactured employing such prepreg, causing a failure in the obtained multiple-layered printed wiring board. In addition, the failure of the multiple-layered printed wiring board may, in turn, stops the next operation in the process for manufacturing the semiconductor device employing the multiple-layered printed wiring board. Even if it is allowed to forward the operation in the process for manufacturing the semiconductor device, the semiconductor devices having sufficient packaging reliability may not be possibly obtained.
The present invention is, taking into account such situation, to provide a prepreg with a carrier, which provides a visual identification for front and back surfaces. The present invention is also to provide a multi-layered printed wiring board employing such prepreg with the carrier, which exhibits enhanced reliability. The present invention is also to provide a semiconductor device employing such multi-layered printed wiring board, which exhibits improved packaging reliability.    [Patent Document 1]    Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-342,871    [Patent Document 2]    Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-123,870

Prepreg with carrier and process for manufacturing same, multi-layered printed wiring board and semiconductor device


An electrical switch, particularly for an electrical appliance having an electric motor. The switch has two electrical supply connections for the supply voltage, particularly for a rechargeable battery, and two electrical motor connections for the supply of voltage to the electric motor. Furthermore, the switch has a control electronics unit, such as a microprocessor, a microcontroller or the like, for executing control processes in the electrical appliance, wherein particularly the control electronics unit operates by means of a piece of software. The switch can also be connected with a data line for communication between the control electronics unit and an external device, wherein particularly one of the electrical motor connections is used as an interface for the data line. Furthermore, the invention relates to an appropriate method for communication by an electrical switch with an external device.

Such switches are used in electrical appliances, the electrical appliance preferably being able to be an electric tool having an electric motor, specifically a rechargeable battery powered and/or a mains powered electric tool, particularly drills, grinders, saws, planes, angle grinders or the like. However, the electrical appliance may also be a domestic appliance, such as a kitchen appliance, a vacuum cleaner or the like.
Such an electrical switch has two electrical supply connections for the supply voltage, particularly for a rechargeable battery, and two electrical motor connections for the supply of voltage to the electric motor. Furthermore, the switch has a control electronics unit, such as a microprocessor, a microcontroller or the like, for executing control processes in the electrical appliance. By way of example, the electric motor of the electric tool can be operated by the control process at a speed preselected by the user in order to allow a workpiece to be machined in a manner suited to the workpiece. Usually, the control electronics unit in the electric tool operates by means of a piece of software. The control electronics unit is provided with the relevant software when the switch is manufactured. There is no provision for a later change to and/or adjustment of the software.


An imaging panel includes an active matrix substrate having pixels each with a photoelectric conversion element, a scintillator provided on a surface of the active matrix substrate, a damp-proof material entirely covering the scintillator, and an adhesive layer bonding the damp-proof material to the scintillator and the active matrix substrate. The active matrix substrate includes a first flattening film that is configured as a photosensitive resin film and is provided inside and outside a pixel region, and a first inorganic film that is provided between the first flattening film and the scintillator, is overlapped in a planar view with an entire region of the scintillator, and is in contact with the first flattening film, at least outside the pixel region. At least partial region on the first inorganic film, outside the region overlapped in a planar view with the scintillator, is covered with the adhesive layer.

An X-ray imaging device conventionally includes an active matrix substrate having a photoelectric conversion element provided in each pixel and connected to a switching element. Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique for preventing from moisture penetration into such an X-ray imaging device. The X-ray imaging device according to Patent Literature 1 prevents from moisture penetration through an adhesive agent bonding a damp-proof protective layer for a phosphor layer provided on a photoelectric conversion substrate and the photoelectric conversion substrate. Specifically, the photoelectric conversion substrate is provided thereon with a surface organic film made of polyimide or the like, and the surface organic film is provided with a groove that extends along the outer periphery of the phosphor layer and is filled with a resin.


A helmet that can effectively reduce the rotational acceleration of an impact and at the same time also effectively reduce translational acceleration is provided. A helmet has an outer shell including a hard material and a shock absorbing liner (14) disposed inside the shell. The shock absorbing liner (14) includes a main body liner (16), a recessed portion (30) provided at an inner surface of the main body liner (16), an insert liner (18) fitted into the recessed portion (30), and a central raised portion (42) (central support member) disposed between a bottom surface of the recessed portion (30) and a bottom surface of the insert liner (18). When the helmet receives an impact, the insert liner (18) swings about the central support member as a fulcrum, thereby reducing the impact.

Safety helmets, such as open face helmets and full face helmets for example, are conventionally known as helmets that riders of motorcycles, for example, put on to protect their heads. Such conventional helmets are mainly configured from an outer shell and, disposed inside the shell, a shock absorbing liner, a right and left pair of chin straps, and internal padding for improving the comfort of the wearer. Furthermore, through holes for ventilation are provided at the upper portion of a facial opening provided in the front face of the helmet to ensure a field of view for the wearer.
When a region of part of the outer shell is impacted, the shell functions to disperse the impact to a wider region and absorb the impact energy through deformation. Furthermore, the shock absorbing liner functions to absorb, through a reduction in its thickness (i.e., compression), the impact energy propagated from the outer shell and delay the propagation of the impact energy to the wearer's head to thereby reduce the maximum acceleration resulting from the impact. Here, "maximum acceleration" means the maximum value of acceleration obtained by an "impact absorption test" of the helmet.
To verify the protection of a safety helmet, conventionally an "impact absorption test" is performed. In the "impact absorption test," a model head made of metal is used as a model of the helmet wearer's head. The impact applied to the helmet in the "impact absorption test" is absorbed as described above, and maximum acceleration is measured by an accelerometer disposed inside the model head made of metal as the impact force that finally propagated to the head. The method of the "impact absorption test" and the standard value for maximum acceleration are respectively determined by respective countries.
To enhance the protection performance of a safety helmet, it is necessary to reduce the maximum acceleration produced by an impact. For this purpose, conventionally, measures that increase the thickness of the outer shell and/or the shock absorbing liner have been adopted.
However, because a helmet has a substantially spherical shape, the rigidity of the top portion is inevitably greater than that of the other portions and makes it difficult to absorb an impact. Thus, a structure called an insert liner was invented.
Japanese Patent No. 3,825,106 discloses a structure where a cavity portion is provided in the top portion of the inside of a shock absorbing liner and a separate member is inserted into the cavity portion. The inserted member (called an insert liner) has a smaller density, that is, is softer than the shock absorbing liner, so it can reduce the rigidity of the top portion.
In this way, the impact absorbability of the top portion can be maintained.


A system for determining the image resolution of a check image using MICR characters. The disclosed system includes an extracting system for extracting a magnetic ink code recognition (MICR) code line from the document image, wherein the extracting system provides coordinate values for each of a plurality of MICR characters in the MICR code line; a calculating system for calculating a set of resolution values based on the coordinate values of the MICR characters; and a statistical analysis system that calculates a representative resolution value from the set of resolution values.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to image processing, and relates more specifically to a system and method for determining image resolution using MICR (magnetic ink code recognition) characters.
2. Related Art
The finance industry has adopted electronic images of checks as a key component of check processing. The recent passage of the Check 21 Act, which allows institutions to process check images, as opposed to the actual paper document, further attests to the progressively increasing use of such images. As such, the ability to efficiently process high volumes of check images is a critical requirement for such institutions.
To enable the use of several image processing technologies, such as OCR (optical character resolution), etc., the imaging resolution of the imaged document is required. In general, image resolution is a measurement of pixels/inch. Occasionally, at the time of capture, the imaging resolution is either not recorded in the image header or is recorded incorrectly. Without the resolution, the document cannot be processed. Thus, it becomes necessary that the imaging resolution be established by some independent means.
To date, no one has addressed this problem. Accordingly, a need exists for a process that can determine the imaging resolution of an imaged document, such as a check.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System for determining image resolution using MICR characters

International Business Machines Corporation


A gas turbine combustor is capable of reducing NOx over a whole load range of a gas turbine. The combustor comprises two burner systems. It is possible to independently control a flow rate of combustion air supplied to a burner of the respective systems and a flow rate of bypass air jetted from through a bypass air port. The air supplied to the burners is mixed with fuel in a mixing chamber and then ejected into a combustion chamber so as to form a flame. The amount of bypass air is controlled in accordance with an operation load, a humidity of air and a heating value of fuel. It is therefore possible to prevent any blow off and reduce NOx over the whole load range of the gas turbine.

The present invention relates to a gas turbine combustor and a gas turbine generating apparatus, and more particularly, to a low NOx gas turbine combustor and a low NOx gas turbine generating apparatus which are suitable to use gaseous fuel or liquid fuel.
One of the features of the gas turbine combustor is a very wide operation range from starting to full load. For the application of this wide operation range, it has conventionally been customary to operate the gas turbine combustor by regulating the amount of fuel supplied to burners with the amount of air kept constant as disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 61-52523. However, according to the operating method in which only the amount of fuel is regulated, when the load is low, the amount of fuel is reduced during the operation so that the combustion becomes lean on fuel to make it impossible to maintain a good combustion state, resulting in that unburned fuel is increased. To cope with this, it is proposed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 61-52523 that, in order to maintain a good combustion state over the whole operation range of a gas turbine and reduce the emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx), a combustion chamber is divided into a primary stage combustion section in charge of the low load operation and a secondary combustion section in charge of the high load operation so as to effect the two-stage combustion and the amount of combustion air for the primary stage and the amount of combustion air for the secondary stage are made changeable independently. The primary stage combustion section adopts a diffusion combustion mode in which fuel and air supplied from different exhaust ports are mixed in the combustion section and combusted, while the secondary stage combustion section adopts a premixed combustion mode in which fuel and air are mixed prior to combustion.
In order to reduce the amount of NOx produced from the gas turbine combustor, it is effective to decrease the temperature of combustion gas. The temperature of combustion gas becomes lower as the amount of air becomes larger when the amount of fuel is kept constant. Namely, as the combustion becomes lean on fuel, the temperature of combustion gas becomes lower to make it possible to reduce NOx. However, in the case of a burner of the diffusion combustion type, even if the amount of air is increased to effect the combustion under the condition of lean on fuel, a region where an excess air ratio becomes close to 1 (one) inevitably appears in the process of mixing fuel and air in the combustion chamber. For this reason, it is difficult in general to reduce NOx and the merit of controlling the amount of air is not so great for the reduction of NOx. On the other hand, in the premixed combustion burner, the NOx emission can be reduced by performing the fuel lean combustion. However, for the fuel lean combustion, it is necessary to keep the fuel-air ratio within a specified range that results in the low NOx emission even if the load of the turbine is changed.
In the above-described prior art, no suggestion is made about the means for keeping the fuel-air ratio within a specified range that results in the low NOx emission even if the load of the turbine is changed.

Gas turbine combustor and gas turbine generating apparatus


A signboard comprising a base; a plurality of signs formed on the base, the plurality of the signs comprising predefined shapes; and a perforation outline surrounding each of the plurality of the signs, the perforation outline adapted to allow for the removal of the plurality of the signs from the base.

Hardware stores, office supply stores, and the like, typically offer customers signage that provides an observer with text or directional information or symbols, such as an arrow shaped symbol, guiding one towards a particular location, event, or destination. For example, the Hillman Sign Center of Cincinnati, Ohio, offers a directional sign with text, such as "garage sale" and the arrow shaped symbol printed on a sign's surface. The directional sign has a perimeter shape of a rectangle and not that of the directional shape of an arrow. Consequently, even from a front facing side, the arrow's direction is less discernable from certain distances and less effective than, say, a particular directional sign with a discernable arrow-shaped perimeter.
Office Depot, Inc. and its retail outlets also offer a rectangular shaped sign with a directional arrow symbol printed on the sign's surface as part of a sign kit package. This sign kit package includes four individual signs made of plastic, measuring 11 inch by 14 inch. Similar to Hillman Sign Center's art above, each sign has a perimeter that is shaped as a rectangle. The sign kit package comes with two signs that have pre-printed arrow symbols pointed to the right and the remaining two signs with the arrow symbols pointed to the left. The shaped sign(s) come with indicia, such as "garage sale." Similar to the sign provided by the Hillman Sign Center, the perimeter of the sign is of a rectangular shape. The preprinted directional arrow is only printed on one side of the sign with the text. Because of the rectangular perimeter of the Office Depot signs, the visibility of the direction being conveyed and the variety of uses of the signs may be limited.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,485 describes a directional sign for providing observers with directional information to a particular location. A generally rectangular shaped sign has an arrow indicator secured to the rear of the sign. The arrow indicator can be concealed for packaging or storage purposes and can also be pivoted and extended from behind the rectangular shape in one of the three (right, left, and up) preset directions desired, thus allowing some flexibility. However, this directional sign may relatively be expensive and may only provide the person with a single sign to use. The sign may further require assembly, additional parts, and tools, to setup for display. Further, the design in the '485 patent creates an unconventional navigation shape, which is an arrowhead protruding from a rectangle. The directional message conveyed by this design may not be as clear as the directional message conveyed by a simple traditional arrow symbol.
With the foregoing in mind, it is an object of the present invention to satisfy the need for a relatively simple, efficiently packaged, or inexpensive directional sign which may be used by a person, such as a homeowner or an individual conducting an event, to convey directional information to an observer to travel along a pathway or to locate an event. It is another object of the invention to provide the directional sign with a much discernable directional perimeter shape.


An optical branching device suitable for branching optical fibers extracted through an access window cut in a sheath of an optical cable. The optical branching device includes a central channel configured to house a portion of the optical cable, at least one lateral channel which branches from the central channel and which is configured to house at least one of the optical fibers, and a housing suitable for receiving a fixing member for fixing the device to the optical cable. The housing is in a non-projecting position relative to the lateral channel along a longitudinal direction of the central channel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of equipment for installing optical access networks. In particular, the present invention relates to an optical branching device suitable for separating optical fibres extracted from a riser cable of an optical access network.
2. Description of the Related Art
An optical network of the type known as FTTP ("Fibre To The Premises") or FTTH ("Fibre To The Home") is an optical access network which supplies a number of end users with broadband or ultra-wideband communications services, in other words services which require data transmission speeds of several hundreds of Mbit/s or even higher speeds.
Typically, an FTTP or FTTH optical network comprises a distribution box which is typically positioned in the basement of the building in which the end users reside.
An optical cable, which will be referred to hereafter as a "riser cable", emerges from the distribution box and runs vertically inside the building from the basement to each floor. The riser cable comprises a plurality of optical fibres, typically up to 96 optical fibres, enclosed in an outer sheath. The riser cable is typically laid in a channel which provides mechanical protection for the cable. This channel can be fixed to the surface of a wall or can be housed in the thickness of the wall (in the concrete, for example). Inside the channel, the riser cable can run together with other cables, such as power distribution cables and telephone cables.
On each floor of the building, the optical riser cable typically passes through junction boxes together with the electrical and telephone cables.
In the portion of riser cable housed in the junction box, an access window can be cut in the riser cable sheath and one or more optical fibres can be extracted from it. Each extracted optical fibre can then be inserted into a corresponding protective tube known as a "drop tube", and can be extracted from the junction box and routed towards the apartment of a user residing on the floor in question. At any intermediate point between the access window and the user's apartment, the extracted optical fibre, protected by the tube, can be joined to a user optical cable, known as a "drop cable", which can be "pre-connectorized", meaning that it has an optical connector on its free end. The pre-connectorized end of the user cable is typically located in a suitable termination box in the user's apartment, in such a way that the user can connect it directly to his devices which use broadband services (such as a PC and a set-top box).
US 2010/0232752 describes an optical branching device suitable for receiving a portion of a riser cable in the sheath of which an access window has been cut to extract one or more optical fibres. The device has two shells at its opposite ends, which bear on the sheath of the riser cable. At the ends of the device there are also channels for receiving a strap or tape which partially surrounds the outer circumference of the shell and partially surrounds the circumference of the sheath of the riser cable, thus fixing the device to the cable. Between the shells, the device has a longitudinal recess which can be aligned with the access window in the sheath, thus exposing the optical fibres of the cable. The device also includes six outlet ports for guiding the optical fibres extracted from the cable. The ports are positioned obliquely with respect to the longitudinal recess.