A compact automatic developing machine for silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials with improved operability which makes it easy to reduce the replenishing rate and which offers stable photographic performance, comprises at least one processing tank for containing a processing solution for processing an exposed silver halide photographic light-sensitive material. A solid processing agent is stocked and supplied to the processing tank, information on the amount of processing of the silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials is detected, and the supply of the solid processing agent is controlled according to the detected information on the amount of processing of the silver halide photographic light-sensitive material. The solid processing agent is preferably in the form of tablets which contain all components necessary to process the light-sensitive silver halide photographic material.

Silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials (hereinafter also referred to as light-sensitive materials or photographic materials) are processed by developing, desilvering, washing, stabilizing and other processes after exposure. A black-and-white developer or a color developer, a bleacher, a bleach-fixer or a fixer, tap water or deionized water, and a stabilizer are used for development, desilvering, washing and stabilization, respectively.
These liquids capable of performing the respective processes are generically called processing solutions. Each processing solution is usually kept at a temperature of 30.degree. to 40.degree. C., in which the light-sensitive material is immersed and processed.
These processes are usually carried out by sequentially transporting the light-sensitive material through processing tanks containing the above processing solutions, using an automatic developing machine or another means.
The automatic developing machine mentioned herein generally means a developing machine having a developing portion, a desilvering portion, a washing or stabilizing portion, a drying portion and a means for sequentially and automatically transporting the photographic light-sensitive material to each processing tank.
In processing using such an automatic developing machine, it is common practice to replenish the processing solution in each processing tank to keep the activity thereof constant.
Specifically, processing is carried out while supplying a replenisher from a replenisher tank to the processing tank as appropriate and necessary.
In this case, it is the common practice to prepare the replenisher itself (to be stored in the replenisher tank) in a separate place and supply it to the replenisher tank where necessary; traditionally, the replenisher has been prepared manually as follows.
The silver halide photographic light-sensitive material processing agent (hereinafter also referred to as photographic processing agent) is commercially available in the form of powder or liquid. It is manually prepared as a solution in a given amount of water in the case of powder. In the case of liquid, it is diluted with water to a given volume and transferred to the replenisher tank before use, since it is available in a concentrated state.
Replenisher tanks may be set next to the automatic developing machine, requiring considerable space. Also, in recently-increasing mini-labs, replenisher tanks are housed in the automatic developing machine; in this case as well, sufficient space must be available for the replenisher tanks.
Any processing agent replenisher is divided into several parts to ensure constantly good performance in photographic processing. For example, the color bleach-fixer replenisher is divided into two parts: the part of the oxidant ferric salt of organic acid and the part of the reducing agent thiosulfate. In preparing the replenisher, said dense part of ferric salt of organic acid and said dense part of thiosulfate are mixed together and diluted with a given amount of water before use.
Said dense parts are placed in containers such as plastic containers, which containers are packed in outer packages such as corrugated cardboard boxes for 1 unit of commercial distribution.
The processing agent replenisher kit of said part agents is dissolved, diluted, mixed and then diluted to a given volume before use. Said processing agent replenisher has the following drawbacks. First, the part agents are separately put into respective containers; some kits of processing agent replenisher comprise several bottles of part agents so that 1 unit of commercial distribution thereof means a considerable number of containers, which requires much space in storing and transporting them. For example, the color developer replenisher for CPK-2-20QA, a processing solution for color printing paper, is available in 10-liter units, wherein part A (a kit including a preservative), part B (a kit including a color developing agent) and part C (alkaline agent) are each contained in a 500-ml plastic container. Similarly, the bleach-fixer replenisher is available in 8-liter units, wherein 3 part agents are contained in respective bottles. The stabilizer replenisher is available in 10-liter units, wherein 2 part agents are contained in respective bottles. These replenishers are stored and transported in respective outer packages of various sizes. The outer package size ranges from about 17 cm.times.14 cm.times.16.5 cm for the stabilizer replenisher to about 18.5 cm.times.30.5 cm.times.22.5 cm for the bleach-fixer replenisher; it is not possible to pile packages of replenishers in storing or transporting them or stocking them in dealer shops unless they are of the same kind so that much space is required afterall.
The second drawback is concerned with the problem of disposal of waste containers. In recent years, there has been strong demand for environmental conservation and saving resources mainly in Europe and the United States; in the photographic industry, plastic containers have been of major concern. Specifically, although plastic containers for photographic use are cheap, conveniently storable and transportable and excellent in chemical resistance, they pose problems of accumulation in the environment because they are hardly biodegradable, and generation of large amounts of carbon dioxide upon burning, which contribute to global warming and acid rain. As for the problems posed on the user side, they include decrease in the available working area due to occupation of the narrow working space by crowding plastic containers, which are too tough to compress.
The third drawback is poor chemical stability. For example, in preparing a color developer replenisher for color printing paper, a given volume of water is placed in the replenisher tank, after which dense kit A, which contains a preservative, is added, followed by stirring, and subsequently dense kit B, which contains a color developing agent, is added, followed by stirring, and then dense kit C, which contains an alkaline agent, is added, followed by stirring, and finally water is added to make a given volume. This series of procedures are liable to be accompanied by some problems. For example, in case of insufficient stirring or the user's failure to add the starting water, the color developing agent tends to separate crystals, which can stay in the bellows pump and fail to be supplied so that the photographic performance becomes labile or the bellows pump breaks. Also, the dense kits are not always used immediately after production; they may be used even 1 year after production; in some cases, the performance of the color developing agent or preservative becomes labile due to oxidation.
The color developer replenisher prepared from dense kits or powder is also known to pose some problems in the replenisher tank. For example, if the replenisher remains unused for a long time, crystals can deposit on the inside wall of the replenisher tank, the replenisher becomes susceptible to oxidation, and tar forms. Under some storage conditions, other problems arise, including separation of easily-crystallizing components of the replenisher, such as the color developing agent, at low temperatures; some makers specify replenisher storage conditions and instruct the users to keep their replenisher under those conditions.
As stated above, when a replenisher, e.g., one for color developer for color printing paper, is prepared using a dense kit or powder used commonly, the abovementioned problems arise; similar problems arise in the case of bleach-fixer, bleacher and fixer.
On the other hand, in addition to the above method of preparing a replenisher using a dense kit or powder, another method is known wherein a dense kit is added as such.
In this method, supplying means such as a bellows pump are used to supply the dense kit as such to the processing tank and a given volume of water is added independently, to improve the low efficiency in dissolving operation. This method certainly obviates solution preparing operation and is free from the problem of poor storage stability because no replenisher solution is prepared, in comparison with the above method, wherein the replenisher is prepared from a dense kit or powder.
However, this method also has many problems. The major problem is size increase in the automatic developing machine because of the necessity for a dense kit tank for supplying the dense kit and a pump as a means of supplying the dense kit. For example, in the case of CPK-2-20, a processing solution for color printing paper, the dense kit of color developer replenisher is divided into 3 parts; the dense kit of bleach-fixer replenisher, into 3 parts; the dense kit of stabilizer replenisher, into 2 parts. To supply all of these dense kits, 8 tanks and 8 pumps are required. In the conventional replenishing method, 3 tanks and 3 pumps for respective replenishers were sufficient. In short, more tanks and more pumps than in the conventional method are required for supplying the dense kits, and a pump for water used to replenisher solutions is also required.
Moreover, dense kits are difficult to maintain due to proneness to crystallization near the outlet of replenisher nozzles because they are dense solutions. Another problem is that the bellows pump is insufficient in supplying accuracy so that replenishing accuracy fluctuates widely in supplying a dense replenisher, resulting in very labile photographic performance. Still another problem is that the amount of waste plastic containers remains unchanged in comparison with the conventional replenishing method even when dense kits are supplied.
In addition to the above methods, some proposals have been made to obviate the use of plastic containers and improve chemical stability.
For example, Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection (hereinafter referred to as Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication) No. 11032/1983 discloses an art wherein developing components are encapsuled in microcapsules; Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 61837/1976 discloses photographic tablets containing a disintegrating agent. Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication Nos. 109042/1990, 109043/1990, 39735/1991 and 39739/1991 disclose methods using granular photographic processing agents having a particular average grain size.
The photographic tablets containing a disintegrating agent described in Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 61837/1976 are nothing more than easily-soluble tablets.
Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 109042/1990 describes a granular photographic processing agent having a particular average grain size.
However, none of these publications proposes an automatic developing machine which has sufficiently simplified operability and offers stable photographic performance or a compact automatic developing machine having no replenisher tanks.
On the other hand, as a means of obviating the necessity for dissolving operation, Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 11344/1991 discloses an art wherein pasty part agents, in amounts according to the mixing ratio of the part agents, are pushed out from respective unit containers and appropriately diluted to accurately prepare and supply replenishers. Although this method certainly reduces or almost obviates the necessity for dissolving operation, the pasty part agents are difficult to push out in given amounts for long periods, and in addition, when they are not used frequently, nozzle clogging tends to occur, which hampers constant photographic performance. Also, paste containers are required, which must be made of flexible and tough material; it is a common practice to use composite material, which is usually difficult to reuse and hence undesirable from the viewpoint of environmental protection.
Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 123942/1980 discloses a replenisher supplying apparatus for photographic developing process for supplying powder, liquid and diluent water, but it gives no description of a processing agent replenishment controlling means for keeping photographic performance constant.
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 85732/1989 discloses an automatic developing machine having a means of adding a tablet fungicide to the stabilizer, but this publication also gives no description of a processing agent replenishment controlling means, and in addition, said means is not an essential component, since its purpose is to preserve the stabilizer itself.

Automatic developing machine for silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials


A CO.sub.2 waveguide laser frequency modulation (FM) system which applies the Fourier series components of a triangular drive waveform selectively to the tuning PZT at one end of the waveguide and the FM PZT at the other end to achieve an improvement over the waveform than can be achieved by applying the fundamental and its harmonics to the FM PZT alone. The system applies the fundamental component to the tuning PZT and the odd harmonics to the FM PZT. The frequency-separated drive signals are applied in proper phase to the PZT's at each end of the waveguide via waveform synthesizer, frequency splitter and amplifiers. The waveform synthesizer includes a ROM containing digitized values of segments of the waveform amplitudes and a digital-to-analog converter for converting the digital ROM data to an analog signal.

The present invention relates generally to waveguide lasers and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for applying modulating signals to piezoelectric transducers at both ends of a waveguide laser cavity to provide increased cavity length modulation.
In a typical gas waveguide laser system, it is known to frequency modulate the energy output from the laser by modulating the length of the laser cavity. The laser output frequency can be expressed as f=c/2L, where c is the velocity of light and L is the length of the optical cavity.
In current applications, the cavity length is typically controlled by mounting the mirrors at both ends of the cavity on transducers. The transducers used for this application are crystals which expand or contract a precise distance with an applied voltage. This property is known as the piezoelectric effect, and the crystals are referred to as piezoelectric transducers or PZT's.
In these applications, one of the PZT's is used to frequency stabilize the laser, or in other words, to keep the cavity length constant. This PZT is controlled by servo electronics and protects the cavity length against changes due to thermal or mechanical disturbances. Because this PZT "tunes" the cavity length, it is referred to as the tuning PZT. The tuning PZT has a low bandwidth and a relatively high sensitivity, on the order of nanometers per volt.
The other PZT has a high bandwidth and is used to modulate the cavity length. Since this PZT induces an optical frequency modulation, it is referred to as the FM PZT. The FM PZT throws on the order of hundreds of picometers per volt, i.e., roughly one-tenth the response of the tuning PZT. This frequency modulation is superimposed onto the tuning of the laser cavity. The result is a locked cavity length and therefore a locked laser frequency with a superimposed frequency modulation controlled by the shape and amplitude of the drive waveform input to the FM PZT.
The amount of frequency deviation that can be achieved is limited by the performance of the FM PZT. Present systems are driving the PZT to its maximum voltage and as a result the PZT is behaving in a non-linear manner.

Apparatus and method for frequency modulating a waveguide laser


A method for simulating a logic device is described wherein a sequence of input vectors to a computer simulation is reduced in order to save computational time and data storage requirements when the sequence includes a series of redundant input vectors having the same expected output vectors. The method reduces the number of redundant input vectors to be applied to the computer simulation by eliminating all but the first input vector of series while encoding a plurality of control bits associated with that input vector with information indicating the number of redundant input vectors being eliminated. Subsequently, after the simulation of the logic device, the output vectors resulting from the simulation are combined with their respective input vectors to form a set of test vectors. Using the encoded information in the first input vector of the series of redundant input vectors, the thus generated set of test vectors is then expanded to form an expanded set of test vectors suitable for generating a test program for testing the logic device on a logic device tester.

This invention relates in general to techniques for simulating logic devices and generating test programs for testing those devices from data resulting from such simulations and in particular, to a technique for compressing simulations of logic devices to reduce the run time and data storage requirements for those simulations, and subsequently decompressing data resulting from those simulations and generating test programs for testing the logic devices from the decompressed data.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a logic device 10 having a plurality of inputs 20 and a plurality of outputs 30. Although there are no restrictions on the number or arrangement of the inputs or outputs to the logic device 10, for descriptive purposes the plurality of inputs 20 is shown in the figure to include four inputs 201-204 entering on one side of the logic device 10 and the plurality of outputs 30 is shown to include three outputs 301-303 exiting on the opposite side of the logic device 10.
The logic device 10 comprises digital circuitry which responds to electrical signals received through the plurality of inputs 20 by processing those signals at a speed determined by a supplied clock signal (not shown), and generating electrical signals in response thereof which are then transmitted through the plurality of outputs 30. The maximum speed at which the digital circuitry can operate is generally determined by the process technology used in fabricating the device.
FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a test configuration for testing the logic device 10. The logic device 10 is tested by a logic device tester 50 having a plurality of test channels 60. Some of the test channels 60 are connected to the plurality of inputs 20 of the logic device 10 to provide stimuli to the logic device 10, and some of the plurality of test channels 60 are connected to the plurality of outputs 30 of the logic device 10 to receive the responses of the logic device 10 to the provided stimuli.
A test program being executed on the logic device tester 50 is provided with a sequence of test vectors particular to the logic device 10 for testing the logic device 10. Each test vector includes a set of input values (also referred to herein as an "Input Vector") which are simultaneously applied across the inputs 20 of the logic device 10, and a set of expected output values (also referred to herein as an "Output Vector") which are expected to be simultaneously detected across the outputs 30 of the logic device 10 in response to the set of input values.
When testing the logic device 10, the logic device tester 50 sequentially applies each input vector across the inputs 20 of the logic device 10, detects each set of output values across the outputs 30 of the logic device 10 in response to each input vector applied, and compares the detected set of output values against the expected output values corresponding to the input vector being applied at that time by the logic device tester 50. When a detected output value on any one of the outputs 30 does not match its corresponding expected output value, the logic device tester 50 determines that the logic device 10 has failed. The speed at which the logic device tester 50 sequentially applies each of the input vectors across the inputs 20 of the logic device 10 is typically selected to be less than the maximum clock frequency of the logic device 10.
FIG. 3 illustrates an example of sequential input vectors being applied to the inputs 20 of the logic device 10. In a first input vector corresponding to time t0, signal 201' indicates that a HIGH logic level ("1") voltage is being applied to the input 201, signal 202' indicates that a LOW logic level ("0") voltage is being applied to the input 202, signal 203' indicates that a HIGH logic level voltage is being applied to the input 203, and signal 204' indicates that a HIGH logic level voltage is being applied to the input 204. Other input vectors corresponding to times t1 through t8 are also shown.
FIG. 4 illustrates an example of output values being detected on outputs 30 of the logic device 10 by the logic device tester 50 in response to the applied input vectors of FIG. 3. In a first set of detected output values corresponding to the input vector being applied at time t0, signal 301' indicates that a LOW logic level voltage is being detected on output 301, signal 302' indicates that a HIGH logic level voltage is being detected on output 302, and signal 303' indicates that a LOW logic level voltage is being detected on output 303. Other sets of detected output values corresponding to the input vectors being applied at times t1 through t8 are also shown.
In order to determine whether the logic device 10 has failed or not, the logic device tester 50 needs to compare each detected output value with a corresponding expected output value for that output in response to the input vector being applied at that time. FIG. 5 schematically illustrates how the expected output values are obtained. Simulated versions (e.g., 201"-204") of the input signals (e.g., 201'-204' in FIG. 3) are provided to a computer program 10" which simulates the logic device 10. The computer generated outputs (e.g., 302"-303") are then tabulated and corresponding values of the simulated inputs (e.g., 201"-204") are combined with their computer generated outputs (e.g., 301"-303") to form a test vector for each of the simulated time periods (e.g., t0, t1, t2, etc.).
FIG. 6 illustrates, as an example, a tabulation of test vectors (also referred to herein as "simulation data") for the first nine simulated time periods (e.g., t0 through t8) of the computer simulation described in reference to FIGS. 3-5. For the first nine simulated time periods, it is assumed for descriptive purposes that the expected output values, 301"-303", are equal to the actual detected output values, 301'-303'.

Method of compressing and decompressing simulation data for generating a test program for testing a logic device


Various methods, apparatuses and/or articles of manufacture are provided which may be implemented to estimate a trajectory of a mobile device within an indoor environment. In some embodiments, the trajectory may be estimated without the use of any signal-based positioning information. For example, a mobile device may estimate such a trajectory based, at least in part, on one or more sensor measurements obtained at the mobile device, and further affect the estimated trajectory based, at least in part, on one or more objects identified in an electronic map of the indoor environment.

Mobile devices, such as mobile phones, notebooks, computers, etc., typically have the ability to estimate location and/or position with a high degree of precision using any one of several technologies such as, for example, satellite positioning systems (e.g., GPS and the like), advanced forward-link trilateration (AFLT), just to name a few examples of signal-based positioning systems and/or corresponding signals. Using high precision location information, applications for a mobile device may provide a user with many different services such as, for example, vehicle/pedestrian navigation, location-based searching, just to name a couple of examples. Here, high precision signal-based location information (e.g., obtained from GPS and/or other signal-based positioning systems) may be processed according to a global coordinate system (e.g., latitude and longitude or earth-centered xyz coordinates). While such use of signal-based location information referenced to a global coordinate system may be useful in providing some services (e.g., outdoor vehicle navigation), such signal-based location information referenced to a global coordinate system may be impractical for other types of services such as indoor pedestrian navigation.
In certain indoor environments, such as office buildings, shopping malls, airports, stadiums, etc., certain example signal-based positioning techniques may make use of various terrestrial-based wireless signal transmitting devices, e.g., wireless network access points, cellular network base stations, special-purpose beacon transmitters, etc., that transmit wireless signals which may be received by the mobile device and used for positioning purposes. For example, a mobile device may receive a signal-based positioning signal from a transmitter and based thereon determine a pseudorange between the transmitter and receiver. Hence, for example, positioning may be provided based on trilateration and/or other known signal-based positioning techniques. However, not all indoor environments may be adequately supported by signal-based positioning systems. Moreover in certain instances, it may be beneficial for a mobile device to avoid using signal-based positioning techniques.

Map-assisted sensor-based positioning of mobile devices


A highly moisture resistant dielectric ceramic is prepared by providing a compact containing a dielectric ceramic component powder and a second powder including a compound containing an alkali metal element, and firing the compact and a second composition containing an alkali metal element at the same time. A laminated ceramic capacitor using the dielectric ceramic is described.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dielectric ceramic and a method for producing a dielectric ceramic. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a laminated ceramic capacitor using the dielectric ceramic.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a reduction in size and increase in capacity have been required for laminated ceramic capacitors using a dielectric ceramic. As a result, the thickness for each of the dielectric ceramic layers has been thinner and thinner. Accordingly, higher reliability has been demanded more than ever before.
As a conductive material for internal electrodes for use in laminated ceramic capacitors, copper, which is a relatively inexpensive base metal, has been used in many cases from the standpoint of cost. In the case of using copper for the internal electrodes, it is necessary to fire the ceramic itself at a temperature which is less than the melting point of the copper. Therefore, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-281440 proposes a dielectric ceramic of a (Ca, Sr)(Zr, Ti)O3 based ceramic with a small amount of alkali metal element added as a sintering aid.

Dielectric ceramic and method for producing dielectric ceramic and laminated ceramic capacitor


Preliminary sharp signals S.sub.0, S.sub.45, S.sub.90 and S.sub.135 are generated based on the shapes and directions of long regions R.sub.0, R.sub.45, R.sub.90 and R.sub.135 respectively. Then differences between the preliminary sharp signals S.sub.0, S.sub.34, S.sub.90 and S.sub.135 and an unsharp signal U are obtained and the difference which has the maximum absolute value is selected as a detailed original signal. A detailed signal is generated by multiplying the detailed original signal by a predetermined coefficient K. A sharp signal S added with the detailed signal and thereby an enhanced pixel data S.sub.N is generated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of enhancing a border part included in an image of an original in an apparatus for scanning the image of the original and reading image data thereof, such as a process scanner (for a color or black-and-white image) or a facsimile.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known in the art, various method have been proposed in order to enhance border parts included in images of originals read in a process scanner or the like.
According to the most basic method within these, a read signal (sharp signal) S from a pixel P (hereinafter referred to as "noted pixel"), which is a current object of reading, and an average read signal (unsharp signal) U from a region R around the noted pixel P are extracted first. Then the difference therebetween, i.e., a detailed original signal (S-U) is multiplied by a prescribed coefficient K, to regard the product as a detailed signal: EQU D.sub.T =K(S-U) (1)
Thereafter the sharp signal S is added with the detailed signal D.sub.T as follows: ##EQU1## This signal D is regarded as pixel data of the noted pixel P, thereby to perform border enhancement.
In a more advanced method proposed for border enhancement, a system of extracting an unsharp signal U is devised. FIGS. 2B and 2C illustrate such examples, while FIG. 2A shows the aforementioned basic method, i.e., a general unsharp masking (USM) method for reference.
Referring to FIG. 2A, an unsharp signal U is obtained by simply averaging read signals from a neighbourhood region R with uniform weight distribution W.sub.a. Referring to FIG. 2B showing the case of differential masking (DM), on the other hand, the weighted mean of read signals from a neighbourhood region R is obtained with weight distribution W.sub.b increased toward a noted pixel P and reduced toward peripheral parts, so that the same is regarded as an unsharp signal U. Referring to FIG. 2C, further, differential masking is digitally performed with digital weight distribution W.sub.c. The matrix lattice in FIG. 2C shows pixel array in the digitalized image data, and the neighbourhood region R is in the form of a rectangle.
These prior art examples are described in Japanese Patent Laying-Open Gazette No. 141871/1984 and Japanese Patent Publication Gazettes Nos. 27067/1964 and 24581/1964 respectively.
In each of the aforementioned methods, however, density difference is inevitably enhanced in proportion to difference between the sharp signal S and the unsharp signal U, regardless of the cause for such difference. Thus, strong enhancement may be erroneously performed even if there is no need for enhancement or only slight enhancement is required in practice.
For example, an original itself may have a rough surface or turbulence such as a pinhole or dirt (hereinafter referred to as "spot defect of original") may occur on the original to cause concentration of density change in a narrow area. If black dirt D.sub.st of about one pixel size is adhered to a white region of an original as shown in FIG. 3A, for example, a sharp signal S.sub.a indicates a low level (high density) when a pixel P in the position of this dirt D.sub.st is noted by scan reading while an unsharp signal U.sub.a obtained by averaging read signals from a wide region R including the pixel P indicates a high level (low density). Thus, strong enhancement is inevitably performed although there is no need to enhance the image of this dirt D.sub.st.
Further, such useless density difference enhancement may be performed at a degree higher than that of enhancement originally required in an image border part. For example, when a noted pixel P is close to a continuous borderline (visible outline) E shown in FIG. 3B, an unsharp signal U.sub.b is obtained as an average value of read signals of a high density region R.sub.S and a low density region R.sub.H which are adjacent to each other along the borderline E, and difference between the same and a sharp signal S.sub.b is not increased as the example of the dirt D.sub.st shown in FIG. 3A.
According to the conventional border enhancement method, as hereinabove described, not only density difference is enhanced in a spot defect part of an original but variable density difference of such defect part is inevitably enhanced at a stronger degree as compared with a continuous border part which must be enhanced.

Method of enhancing border of region included in image


An electronic device includes a housing, a first display unit, a second display unit, a sensing input unit and a processor. The first display unit and the second display unit are both disposed on the housing. The sensing input unit is coupled to the first display unit and the second display unit, and is used for sensing and receiving a user input. The user input enables a transferring behavior of displaying a second object in the second display unit according to a first object displayed in the first display unit. The processor is coupled to the first display unit, the second display unit and the sensing input unit, and is used for controlling the second display unit according to the user input to display the second object.

1. Technical Field
The application relates to an electronic device, and more particularly, to an electronic device having a first display unit, a second display unit and a sensing input unit, that enables an object transferring behavior between the first and second display unit according to a user input sensed and received by the sensing input unit, and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, there is a primary screen for displaying the main content and other secondary screens for displaying the supplementary information in a hand-held electronic device having screens. Taking a dual-screen flip mobile phone for example, the user is able to control the displayed content of the primary screen via an input element of the mobile phone, such as keys on the mobile phone keypad. However, the user is unable to control the information of the secondary screen via the input element of the mobile phone since the secondary screen is only for displaying the supplementary information, such as time, missed calls, or unread messages. In other words, the content of the primary screen and the information of the secondary screen can not communicate or interact with each other on a conventional dual-screen mobile phone.

Electronic device capable of transferring object between two display units and controlling method thereof


A marking object having at least one object blank (3) and held by an object carrier (2), the object blank (3) being markable by a marking apparatus (7). To configure the marking objects such that the known drawbacks are eliminated, the object carrier (2) has at least one identification means (4a, 4b, 4c, 4d) that contains at least one piece of information relating to the marking object (1) and/or the identification means (4a, 4b, 4c, 4d) can be used to store at least one piece of information relating to the marking object (1).

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a marking object with at least one object carrier and at least one object blank held by the object carrier, the object being markable by a marking device. Furthermore, the invention also relates to a marking device for marking such a marking object with at least one marking unit, at least one marking object holding device and at least one defined or definable marking pattern, the marking unit and the marking object holding device being movable relative to one another in the main transport direction.
2. Description of Related Art
Marking objects of the type under consideration have long been known and are used in industrial and commercial practice, often within the framework of housing and connection identifications, for example, in the form of labels, of self-adhesive or clip-in identification strips, in the form of identification cards, notch strips, stick-in tags, tag plates, clamp strips, marking sleeves, marking tags or other molded articles. These objects are generally held in a larger number of items by the object carrier. For molded articles, the object carriers are often frames, for example, of plastic, the object being joined to the object carrier which is made as a frame by way of a crosspiece which constitutes a scored site. By separating the crosspiece, the molded part can then be released from the object carrier.
For flat object blanks, therefore especially for labels or marking tags, several labels or marking tags are located next to one another on a flat object carrier, often a flat, coated paper web or preferably a plastic injection molding.
The marking objects for marking of the object are conventionally inserted into a marking device or into a marking object holding device of the marking device and are drawn in by the marking device, whereupon the object blanks are provided with a marking pattern, generally alphanumeric characters. The marking unit responsible for the actual marking is generally a printer or a printing head which performs marking by applying ink. These printers have been known for a long time, the printer generally being intended for printing on paper. A printer with which marking objects of plastic which have several marking tags as the object blanks can be printed is known, for example, from German Patent Application DE 10 2006 003 056 A1.
However, the marking unit can also be a pressing or engraving tool which by applying pressure or by metal cutting delivers the given marking pattern into the respective object blank.
The marking of a marking object with known marking devices is subject to some disadvantages. For example, in practice, often only a few of the objects encompassed by the marking object are needed at the same time so that marking objects are only partially marked in one pass, i.e., only some of the object blanks are marked, and the marking objects with the remaining unmarked object blanks are generally not further used, but are disposed of unused as scrap.
Furthermore, in the operation of a marking device, it must be accurately watched that the marking objects are held and guided in the uniquely correct orientation by the marking object holding device since the marking pattern otherwise is incorrectly applied to the marking object. In particular, for asymmetrical marking objects or object blanks located asymmetrically in the object carrier, misalignment of the marking object in the marking object holding device leads to faulty marking of the object blanks which then can no longer be further used.
Therefore, when using different marking objects, for example, when using marking objects of different manufacturers or also only when using different types of marking objects, suitable set-up—parameterization—of the marking device must be observed. This parameterization conventionally comprises consideration of the material comprising the marking object because, for example, it dictates how thickly the ink is applied when executing the marking, or for example, also with what temperature the inscribed object should be subsequently dried or with which irradiation intensity the object should be irradiated. Faulty parameterization of the marking device, therefore parameterization which does not consider the particulars of the marking object used, likewise leads to the marking objects not being correctly marked and only becoming scrap.


A wireless electrical power supply apparatus 100 includes a first electrical power supply unit 101, a second electrical power supply unit 104, voltage control circuits 113 and 123 configured to control a first voltage difference between a first input voltage E1 and a first output voltage E2 during forward power transmission and a second voltage difference between a second input voltage E2 and a second output voltage E1 during reverse power transmission, a second switching control circuit 121, 122 configured to turn off a second transistor Q2 during the forward power transmission and thereby cause a second diode D2 to perform rectification, and a first switching control circuit 111, 112 configured to turn off a first transistor Q1 during the reverse power transmission and thereby cause a first diode D1 to perform rectification.

In general, wireless electrical power supply apparatuses are used in bidirectional power transmission systems (e.g., V2H (Vehicle to Home) or V2G (Vehicle to Grid) systems) between electricity-powered vehicles, such as electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles, and residential buildings or power distribution systems. The wireless electrical power supply apparatus performs power transmission utilizing magnetic coupling between coils and therefore eliminates the need for a cable connection with an electricity-powered vehicle.
Patent Document 1 discloses a wireless electrical power supply apparatus including inverter circuits (full bridge or half bridge) in which coils and capacitors connected in series, and converters connected to the inverter circuits. The wireless electrical power supply apparatus performs control such that the converter on the transmitter side receives constant input power, and the converter on the receiver side outputs maximum power.
In the wireless electrical power supply apparatus described in Patent Document 1, the inverter circuits on the transmitter and receiver sides are bridge circuits, each consisting of a plurality of power semiconductors, and therefore tend to be high-cost and large-sized. Moreover, the wireless electrical power supply apparatus described in Patent Document 1 requires complicated control on both the transmitter and receiver sides at the start of and during power supply.
On the other hand, Non-Patent Document 1 discloses a wireless electrical power supply apparatus including single-switch converters serving as transmitter-side and receiver-side power supply units. This wireless electrical power supply apparatus can be significantly reduced in cost and size compared to the wireless electrical power supply apparatus described in Patent Document 1.

Wireless electrical transfer with zero voltage switching power supply apparatus


The present invention discloses an emulsion fuel oil and its forming method. The emulsion fuel oil includes 550-800 parts by weight of a fuel oil, 200-450 parts by weight of a water, and 2-20 parts by weight of an additive including a non-ionic surfactant having an HLB (Hydrophilic-Lipophilic Balance) value ranged from 2.5 to 8, a combustion-assisting reagent, a stabilization reagent and a promotion reagent. The method for forming the emulsion fuel oil includes steps of (a) providing a mixture including 550-800 parts by weight of a fuel oil, 200-450 parts by weight of a water and 2-20 parts by weight of an additive, wherein the additive includes a non-ionic surfactant having an HLB (Hydrophilic-Lipophilic Balance) value ranged from 2.5 to 8, a combustion-assisting reagent, a stabilization reagent and a promotion reagent, (b) stirring the mixture by a shearing speed of 2-50 m/s at 70-95xc2x0 C. for 3-20 minutes, (c) rapidly stirring and cutting the mixture by a shearing speed of 10-500 m/s for 6-60 minutes, and (d) continuously stirring the mixture by a shearing speed of 0.5-30 m/s for 5-60 minutes to be cooled down to 45xc2x0 C. for storage.

The present invention relates to an emulsion fuel oil, and more particularly to a water-in-oil (W/O) type of emulsion fuel oil. The present invention also relates to a method for forming a water-in-oil (W/O) type of emulsion fuel oil.
The caloric value of combustion of fuel oil (heavy oil) can be converted to mechanical energy or electric energy, and is generally used in boilers or engines. Many countries have set standards and regulations to control the maximal permissible discharge level of pollutants to protect the environment. Thus, reducing the emitted concentration and amount of pollutants, such as sulfur oxide (SOx), nitrogen oxide (NOx) and carbon oxide (COx) as a result of fossil fuel combustion, is an important subject in environmental protection today.
To overcome the problems described above, some methods were developed to form an emulsion fuel oil by mixing a fuel oil, a water and a specific additive, which reduce the employed quantity of fuel oil so as to dilute the emitted concentration of pollutants.
However, the emulsion fuel oil formed with the additive described in the prior arts has disadvantages of:
1. Instability after long time storage: The resulting emulsion fuel oil is not so stable that the water and the oil are readily separated from each other. Most of the emulsion fuel oil can only maintain its emulsifying stability for a few days at room temperature. Thus, the emulsion fuel oil is usually used immediately as it is formed, and is unfavorable for large-scale production and long-distance transportation.
2. Difficult combustion ignition: It is found that such emulsion fuel oil is not easily ignited, and the caloric value of combustion goes down with increased quantity of water (for example, when the added quantity of water is 20 weight percent, the caloric value of combustion will go down to 70% as that of the same volume of fuel oil.) In addition, the emulsion fuel oil cannot be ignited easily when the added quantity of water is above 30 weight percent, which limits its industrial applicability.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an emulsion fuel oil having a caloric value of combustion comparable to that of the same volume of fuel oil.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an emulsion fuel oil having lower emitted concentration and amount of pollutants generated from combustion than that of the same volume of fuel oil.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide an emulsion fuel oil which can be stored for a long period of time without separation of the fuel oil and the water.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a method for forming an emulsion fuel oil.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, the emulsion fuel oil includes 550-800 parts by weight of a fuel oil, 200-450 parts by weight of a water, and 2-20 parts by weight of an additive including a non-ionic surfactant having an HLB (Hydrophilic-Lipophilic Balance) value ranged from 2.5 to 8, a combustion-assisting reagent, a stabilization reagent and a promotion reagent.
Preferably, the combustion-assisting reagent is a blend of an organic peroxide, an organic solvent and a diluting oil.
Preferably, the stabilization reagent is made by condensation of a phenol compound and a polyol compound.
Preferably, the stabilization reagent is used for forming a stable interface membrane between the fuel oil and the water at 70-95xc2x0 C.
Preferably, the promotion reagent is an inorganic peroxide.
Preferably, the emulsion fuel oil further includes an antioxidant reagent being one selected from a group consisting of 2,6-di-tert-butyl-p-cresol, 2,6-di-tert-butyl-phenol and 2,6-di-tert-butyl-xcex1-dimethylamino-p-cresol.
Preferably, based on 100 parts by weight of the non-ionic surfactant, the combustion-assisting reagent is 5-60 parts by weight, the stabilization reagent is 1-65 parts by weight, the promotion reagent is 0.1-30 parts by weight, and the antioxidant reagent is 1-30 parts by weight.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the method for forming an emulsion fuel oil includes steps of (a) providing a mixture including 550-800 parts by weight of a fuel oil, 200-450 parts by weight of a water and 2-20 parts by weight of an additive, wherein the additive includes a non-ionic surfactant having an HLB (Hydrophilic-Lipophilic Balance) value ranged from 2.5 to 8, a combustion-assisting reagent, a stabilization reagent and a promotion reagent, (b) stirring the mixture by a shearing speed of 2-50 m/s at 70-95xc2x0 C. for 3-20 minutes, (c) rapidly stirring and cutting the mixture by a shearing speed of 10-500 m/s for 6-60 minutes, and (d) continuously stirring the mixture by a shearing speed of 0.5-30 m/s for 5-60 minutes to be cooled down to 45xc2x0 C. for storage.
Preferably, the step (c) produces particles having diameters ranged from 0.3 to 10 xcexcm, and the particles with diameters smaller than 1.5 xcexcm occupy 50-90% of the particles.
Preferably, the step (c) is performed by a stirring device having gear-type blades for cutting the mixture.
Preferably, the combustion-assisting reagent is a blend of an organic peroxide, an organic solvent and a diluting oil.
Preferably, the stabilization reagent is made by condensation of a phenol compound and a polyol compound.
Preferably, the stabilization reagent is used for forming a stable interface membrane between the fuel oil and the water at 70-95xc2x0 C.
Preferably, the promotion reagent is an inorganic peroxide.
Preferably, the additive further includes an antioxidant reagent being one selected from a group consisting of 2,6-di-tert-butyl-p-cresol, 2,6-di-tert-butyl-phenol and 2,6-di-tert-butyl-xcex1-dimethylamino-p-cresol.
Preferably, based on 100 parts by weight of the non-ionic surfactant, the combustion-assisting reagent is 5-60 parts by weight, the stabilization reagent is 1-65 parts by weight, the promotion reagent is 0.1-30 parts by weight, and the antioxidant reagent is 1-30 parts by weight.
The above objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art after reviewing the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, in which:

Emulsion fuel oil and its forming method

4F-3, No. 127, Sec. 1, Fu-Hsing South Rd.


This present invention describes interface-defined nanolaminates (IDnLs), which are novel nanolaminate materials fabricated from metals and ceramics, and new methods for fabricating these IDnL materials, including new methods for manufacturing high aspect ratio parts comprising IDnL materials according to the present invention. IDnLs are fundamentally different from ordinary laminates in that their properties are defined by the interfaces between the layers rather by the properties of the bulk materials comprising the individual layers. In contrast to superlattice materials, IDnLs may be made thermally stable due to the wide selection of interface-defining materials, which allows judicial use of equilibrium phase diagrams. The degree of interface coherency in IDnLs may be varied to optimize material properties. In addition, IDnLs may be manufactured inexpensively in bulk, industrial quantities and large sizes by the techniques disclosed in this invention.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of nanolaminates. More particularly, it relates to interface-defined nanolaminate materials and methods of making the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, laminates are utilized in a variety of diverse fields and may be made with layers having a wide range of thickness. The terms "laminated materials" or "laminates" generally refer to materials that consist of many parallel, relatively thick layers (layer thickness>1 mm) of dissimilar materials. The properties of laminates are generally controlled by two factors: the properties of the material within the layers and the properties of the interfaces between the layers. When the number of layers is small (in this case a material usually referred to as "layered"), it is predominately the properties of the materials within the individual layers that define the properties of the whole laminate. However, as the number of layers increases, the properties of the interfaces between the dissimilar layers begin to impose an ever-increasing effect on the properties of the laminate. In some applications, it is the properties of the interfaces that are the determining factor in the performance of the whole laminate. For example, a reflecting insulator that consists of a number of metallic layers, each of which is an excellent conductor of heat and is separated from the next reflector by an air gap or vacuum, is, nevertheless, an excellent insulator because of the reflection and scattering of heat perpendicular to the metal/gas interfaces.
Laminates have many industrially useful properties. The properties of laminates are anisotropic, so they are often referred to as "two-dimensional materials" because their properties in the plane of the layers and perpendicular to that plane are drastically different. For example, heat conductivity in the crystal plane and perpendicular to the crystal planes of pyrolytic graphite can differ by three orders of magnitude; fracturing progresses easily within the individual glass planes in laminated glass but is quickly arrested in the direction perpendicular to the glass planes; electrical current propagates in but not perpendicular to the planes in metal/oxide laminates utilized in super-capacitors, etc. These anisotropic properties of laminates can be highly useful in impeding conduction of heat as well as fracture propagation, including damage caused by chemical attack. Regardless of the form of the propagating entity, laminate materials usually inhibit propagation of the energy or matter in the direction perpendicular to the layers, while dissipating this energy or matter principally along the surface (i.e. parallel to the plane of the layers) or within the interfaces.
From a conceptual point of view, the process of obstructing the energy propagation can be described by similar mathematics in all of these cases, as each interface constitutes a barrier that must be overcome by the incoming energy or matter in order to proceed through the material. Though each barrier may be small, the sheer number of them and their sequential nature ultimately overwhelms the incoming energy or matter and slows down its rate of flow through the material to a small fraction of the original value. To illustrate this point, consider, for example, that one barrier reflects or scatters only 0.01% (0.0001) of the incoming energy, letting 0.9999 through. 100,000 of these barriers placed at a distance of 100 nm apart would attenuate the flow of incoming energy to 1% of the starting value after a distance of only 1 cm. In most cases, the scattering at an interface is much higher than 0.01%. For the example of heat scattering at a metal/gas interface, the scattering is controlled by the emissivity and reflectivity of the metal surface, which can be above 50%. This high emissivity/reflectivity explains why only a few reflectors are often able to contain very high temperatures. However, even when the scattering coefficient is small, the sheer number of barriers gives tremendous power to the approach of laminated materials. This is one of the reasons why nanolaminates—laminates with individual layer thicknesses on the order of 1 to 999 nm and preferably from 1 to 100 nm—and superlattices, which are a subset of nanolaminates with coherent or atomically-coherent interfaces that produce distinctive superlattice peaks in X-ray diffraction, have attracted so much interest in the last several decades, both in research and industry.
In general, nanolaminates and superlattices are extremely finely-layered materials with individual layer thicknesses on the order of 1 to 10 nm. Traditionally, the term "superlattice" is used with layered materials that have coherent interfaces, i.e. the lattice planes are continuous from one phase to another across the interface. When the interfaces are incoherent, the material is usually referred to as "nanolayered." In the present application, "nanolaminate" and "nanolaminate materials" will be used generally to refer to materials with individual layer thicknesses up to 999 nm. These nanolaminate materials have been found to have very intriguing and industrially useful properties. Important new properties such as superior hardness/toughness combination, excellent wear resistance, supermodulus effects, superconductivity, optical waveguide properties, and magnetic properties are active areas of research in conventional nanolaminates.
Presently, despite their attractive properties, conventional nanolaminates have some very serious drawbacks from the point of view of industrial and commercial applications. With the exception of some high tech uses that require very small samples such as reading heads in magnetic storage, nanolaminates are prohibitively expensive for most industrial applications. Laminates with individual layer thicknesses of ≧100 microns may be made using relatively simple approaches that sequentially place one layer on top of the other, such as through the use of the "doctor blade" approach with powder pastes, electrophoretic deposition, spraying from different nozzles, pre-formed tapes, or by dipping in and/or painting on wet slurries. A few industrial methods to make bulk nanolayered materials exist, such as the manufacture of nanolayered materials comprising exfoliated graphite, vermiculate, and mica-type thermal insulation, which produces a single-component i.e. single composition material with incoherent interfaces; however, the continuity of individual layers in such materials is limited by the size of flakes, which is normally below 1 cm. A multiple-extrusion step approach has also been utilized in the electronics industry to make nanometer-thick layers in Channeltron photo-multiplier tubes and superconductor wires; however, neither of these methods is applicable to fabrication of bulk quantities of two-dimensional nanolayered materials.
Manufacture of nanolaminates with coherent interfaces currently requires the use of techniques such as chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, atomic layer deposition, pulsed laser deposition, electro-deposition, as well as magnetically and electrostatically-assisted sputtering, in which layers are built-up one atom at a time. These manufacturing methods are generally very slow (1 to 5 μm/min) and require expensive equipment, very clean conditions, and high vacuum, as the nanolaminates are essentially built-up one atom at a time. Nanolaminates manufactured by these techniques usually have semi-coherent (with dislocations) or coherent (no dislocations) interfaces because the slow-rate atomic deposition technique produces atomic uniformity of the interface. However, the sample size of materials made in this way is limited, and the cost to make commercial products with these techniques is prohibitive, making scale-up of these methods to industrially meaningful proportions unrealistic.
Manufacture of nanolaminates comprising shapes with a high aspect ratio such as tubes or rods presents additional challenges. For example, fuel cells require tubes with a high aspect ratio and high conductivity through the walls, while tubes comprising thermally-insulating materials require low conduction i.e. high thermal resistance along the length of the tube. To obtain a suitable nanolaminate tube, a very thick nanolaminate comprising many layers is made so that the tube may be machined through the nanolaminate i.e. so that the layers are perpendicular to the axis of the resulting tube. Manufacturing a high aspect ratio, nanolaminate part with a sufficient number of layers is thus extremely expensive, time-consuming, and impractical using conventional methods.
In addition, while laminates and nanolaminates with coherent interfaces possess many useful properties such as high conductivity, enhanced bonding, and minimum distortion across the interface, coherency is frequently undesirable as materials with coherent interfaces are usually quite brittle and have low thermal stability. The desired degree of coherency at each interface depends on the application. As stated above, laminate materials usually inhibit propagation of the energy or matter in the direction perpendicular to the layers, while dissipating this energy or matter along the surface or within the individual interfaces. Thus, to inhibit the propagation of energy, such as thermal energy or crack propagation perpendicular to the interfaces, it is desirable to have an incoherent interface between the layers of the laminate because coherent interfaces do not effectively scatter the energy perpendicular to them. Furthermore, because coherency at the interfaces leads to poor thermal stability, most superlattices are unstable even at room temperatures and quickly interdiffuse, losing their nanoscopic properties at or just above ambient temperatures. For these reasons, even where the properties of coherent interfaces may be desired, some departure from coherency is often needed to reduce the high strain energy associated with the coherent interfaces, thus assuring stability at elevated temperatures and improved mechanical properties. Such departures from ideal coherency are often induced by raising the temperature of the substrate or the rate of deposition during the magnetron-assisted sputtering of nanolaminates.
Thus, a need exists for an industrially-scalable batch or continuous technique to produce large amounts of lower-cost nanolaminates. In addition, a need exists for a process to fabricate a low-porosity nanolaminate material in which each interface has a cross-sectional area of ≧0.1 square meter.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods for fabrication of parts from bulk low-cost interface-defined nanolaminated materials

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


A material can be locally etched with arbitrary changes in the direction of the etch. A ferromagnetic-material-including catalytic particle is employed to etch the material. A wet etch chemical or a plasma condition can be employed in conjunction with the ferromagnetic-material-including catalytic particle to etch a material through a catalytic reaction between the catalytic particle and the material. During a catalytic etch process, a magnetic field is applied to the ferromagnetic-material-including catalytic particle to direct the movement of the particle to any direction, which is chosen so as to form a contiguous cavity having at least two cavity portions having different directions. The direction of the magnetic field can be controlled so as to form the contiguous cavity in a preplanned pattern, and each segment of the contiguous cavity can extend along an arbitrary direction.

The present disclosure relates to a method for a catalytic etch with magnetic direction control, an apparatus for performing the same, and a structure formed by the same.
Various anisotropic etch methods are known in the art. Such methods include an anisotropic reactive ion etch that provides directional removal of a material employing a patterned mask layer. The direction of the etch remains the same throughout the anisotropic etch process.
Crystallographic wet etches can also provide anisotropic removal of a material through formation of crystallographic facets during the etch. The direction of the etch is normal to the crystallographic surfaces during the etch.
Methods known in the art do not enable an arbitrary change in the etch direction. Thus, the variety of structures that can be patterned by local removal of a material is limited.

Catalytic etch with magnetic direction control

International Business Machines Corporation


An ESD protection circuit for protecting a circuit from an ESD event occurring between a first voltage supply node and a second voltage supply node associated with the circuit to be protected includes an MOS device having a gate terminal, a first source/drain terminal and a second source/drain terminal. The first source/drain terminal is connected to the first voltage supply node and the second source/drain terminal is connected to the second voltage supply node. The ESD protection circuit further includes a trigger circuit coupled to the gate terminal of the MOS device. The trigger circuit is configured to generate a control signal at the gate terminal of the MOS device for activating the MOS device during the ESD event. At least a portion of the trigger circuit is formed in a floating well which becomes biased to a voltage that is substantially equal to a first voltage when the first voltage is supplied to the first voltage supply node or to a second voltage when the second voltage is applied to the second voltage supply node, whichever voltage is greater.

The use of ESD protection circuitry for protecting an integrated circuit (IC) device from damage caused by the discharge of static electricity and/or other transient pulses (e.g., load dump) through the device is well known. An ESD event, which may include any large voltage and/or current transient pulse, may not necessarily cause immediate (i.e., catastrophic) failure of the device, but may damage only a portion of the device and/or cause a latent defect that can significantly shorten the operating life or negatively impact the reliability of the device.
Various methodologies have been proposed for protecting a circuit from ESD, particularly between two or more isolated power pins in the IC device. FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate examples of two conventional protection schemes for providing ESD protection between two isolated power pins PWR1 and PWR2. Each of these approaches is designed to provide an ESD discharge path between a given one of the power pins and a ground pin GND. With reference to FIG. 1A, ESD protection circuit 100 relies on ESD clamps 102 and 104, and diodes 106 and 108, connected between power pins PWR1 and PWR2, respectively, and ground. The ESD clamps 102, 104 generally include a large metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistor device (not shown). One problem with this approach, however, is that the voltage drop across the path between power pin PWR1 or PWR2 and ground may be too high, such that a breakdown of the MOS transistor device in a corresponding ESD clamp 102, 104 occurs, rendering the ESD protection circuit 100 essentially inoperable.
The ESD protection circuit 150 shown in FIG. 1B is similar to the circuit 100 shown in FIG. 1A in that circuit 150 includes ESD clamps 102 and 104, and diodes 106 and 108, connected between power pins PWR1 and PWR2, respectively, and ground pin GND. Additionally, circuit 150 includes two diodes 110 and 112 connected between the power pins PWR1 and PWR2 in a back-to-back configuration. Specifically, an anode of a first diode 110 is connected to PWR1 and a cathode of diode 110 is connected to PWR2, while an anode of diode 112 is connected to PWR2 and a cathode of diode 112 is connected to PWR1. This ESD protection approach, however, requires that the respective supply voltages applied to power pins PWR1 and PWR2 must substantially track one another, and therefore must be of the same magnitudes relative to one another. If the two voltages differ from one another by more than about 0.7 volt, the lower potential supply will be powered by the higher potential supply through a forward-biased diode (e.g., diode 110 or diode 112). Furthermore, although relying on a parasitic bipolar NPN snapback type transistor associated with the MOS device for clamping may have some limited merit, the snapback voltage is typically too high and/or uncontrollable; and thus undesirable.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved ESD protection circuit for protecting an IC device from ESD, particularly between two or more isolated power pins associated with the IC device, that does not suffer from one or more of the problems exhibited by conventional ESD protection circuitry.

Electrostatic discharge protection in a semiconductor device


The invention relates to a diagnostic method for determining the von Willebrand factor (VWF) cleaving activity of ADAMTS-13 in a test medium during which the test medium is mixed with 0.5 to 5 U/ml of a von Willebrand factor (VWF) that does not contain ADAMTS-13, and after incubation, the ADAMTS-13 activity is determined based on the drop in the VWF-mediated aggregation of thrombocytes.

Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a disease in which the classical symptoms of thrombocytopenia and microangiopathic, hemolytic anemia, neurological symptoms, disturbances in kidney function, and fever, are observed. Unusually large multimers of the von Willebrand factor (VWF) are found in plasma from TTP patients and are regarded as being the reason for the formation of VWF-rich and platelet-rich thrombi. Endothelial cells release von Willebrand factor in the form of large multimers which, in normal plasma, are cleaved by the combined action of a reductase and a metalloprotease.
In addition, it is already known that patients suffering from congenital or acquired TTP are observed to lack a specific metalloprotease which cleaves VWF between the amino acids Tyr842 and Met843. This metalloprotease has recently been identified as a new member of the ADAMTS (a disintegrin and metalloprotease with thrombospondin motifs) family and designated ADAMTS-13 Fujikawa, K., Suzuki, H., McMullen, B., Chung, D. (2001) Purification of human von Willebrand factor-cleaving protease and its identification as a new member of the metalloproteinase family. Blood 98: 1662-1666 (hereinafter "1"); Gerritsen; H. E., Robles, R., Lämmele, B., Furlan, M. (2001) Partial amino acid sequence of purified von Willebrand factor-cleaving protease Blood 98 : 1654-1661 (hereinafter "2"); Levy, G. G., Nichols, W. C., Lian, E. C. Foroud, T., McClintick, J. N., McGee, B. M., Yang, A. Y., Siemieniak, DR., Stark. K. R., Gruppo, R., Sarode, R., Shurin, S. B., Chandrasekaran. V., Stabler, S. P., Sabio. H., Bouhassira, E. E., Upshaw, J. D., Ginsburg, D., Tsai, H. M. (2001) Mutations in a member of the ADAMTS gene family cause thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. Nature 413: 488-494 (hereinafter "3").
In that which follows, the VWF-cleaving protease activity of ADAMTS-13 is simply termed ADAMTS-13 activity. ADAMTS-13 activity is normally measured by incubating a VWF sample, which has been treated with urea or guanidium hydrochloride, with dilute plasma at low ionic strength. The proteolysis is detected by means of a multimer analysis using SDS agarose gel electrophoresis or by means of fragment analysis using SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and subsequent immunoblotting, that is detecting the proteins on a cellulose membrane by means of an antigen-antibody reaction Furlan, M., Robles, R., Lämmle, B., (1996) Partial purification and characterisation of a protease from human plasma cleaving von Willebrand factor to fragments produced by in vivo proteolysis. Blood 10: 4223-4234 (hereinafter "4"): Tsai, H. M. (1996) Physiologic Cleavage of von Willebrand factor by a Plasma Protease is dependent on its confirmation and requires Calcium ion. Blood 10: 4235-4244 (hereinafter "5"). The ADAMTS-13-catalyzed degradation of the von Willebrand factor can also be determined by measuring the collagen-binding activity of the VWF (WO-A 00/50904) or by carrying out a specific, bilateral ELISA detection Obert B, Tout H. Veyradier A. Fressinaud F, Meyer D, Girma JP (1999) Estimation of the Willebrand factor-cleaving protease in plasma using monoclonal antibodies to VWF. Thromb Haemost 82: 1382-1385 (hereinafter"6"). A recombinant monomeric VWF, which has been labeled at the N terminus with a green fluorescent protein, has also recently been described for the purpose of determining the proteolysis Raife TJ, Atkinsons B, Christopherson P. Jozwiak M, Montgomery RR (2001) Recombinant, truncated monomeric von Willebrand factor (VWF) for the study of VWF proteolysis. Thromb Haemost, Suppl July: Abstract#1667 (hereinafter "7").
The conventional electrophoretic methods can only be carried out in specialized research laboratories since implementing the tests requires special laboratory equipment and the requisite expertise. While the collagen-binding test (WO-A 00/50904) and the specific ELISA (6) for detecting the proteolytic activity of ADAMTS-13 simplify the determination of ADAMTS-13 activity, they can likewise only be carried out in the laboratories which have at their disposal the appropriate equipment and the necessary knowhow. Furthermore, the bilateral ELISA requires specific monoclonal antibodies which are only available in a few laboratories since they cannot be obtained commercially. The object therefore presented itself of developing a simple method for determining ADAMTS-13 activity. This novel method was to make it possible to quantify ADAMTS-13 activity in blood plasma and other body fluids (e.g. blood serum, and saliva), and other media, in a reliable and timely manner. It was to be utilizable in any routine clinical coagulation laboratory and therefore not require any special laboratory equipment, special technical knowhow or reagents which were not available commercially. Furthermore, the novel method was to permit an automation in automatic coagulation machines which was as far reaching as possible in order to make it possible to achieve a high sample throughput at low operational cost. Since it has by now been demonstrated that low ADAMTS-13 activities can also be observed in diseases other than TTP, such a method was to make it possible to differentiate between the severe ADAMTS-13 deficiency which is characteristic of TTP and mild ADAMTS-13 deficiency. Kasper. C. K. (1991) Laboratory tests for factor VIII inhibitors, their variation, significance and interpretation. Blood Coagul Fibrinolysis 2: 7-10 (hereinafter "8") An early diagnosis, and consequently a rapid initiation of plasmapheresis therapy, essentially determines the clinical course of what is frequently a life-threatening TTP episode. For this reason, the novel method was to enable ADAMTS-13 activity to be determined rapidly and as comprehensively as possible. Timely determination of the ADAMTS-13 activity is also essential because of the existence of alternative therapy options. In particular, the method was to enable an inhibitor against ADAMTS-13 to be detected rapidly, or to enable the inhibitor titer to be determined, since different treatment possibilities (e.g. rituximab or immunoadsorption) ensue from this. The method was also, in particular, to make it possible to differentiate between congenital and acquired TTP. In addition to this, timely ADAMTS-13 activity determination, which is capable of being carried out routinely, is the prerequisite for using the recombinant ADAMTS-13 which is potentially available (W0242441). The method was not only to permit timely diagnosis, and monitoring of the therapy, of TTP patients but, in addition, reliable quantification of the ADAMTS-13 activity in any arbitrary media. Since ADAMTS-13 is an important regulator of VWF, and consequently a significant factor in hemostasis, the novel method was to be applicable in diverse studies of the importance of ADAMTS-13-catalyzed proteolysis of VWF in healthy subjects and patients suffering from different diseases.

Method for detecting the von Willebrand factor-cleaving protease activity of ADAMTS-13


An ingress edge router (6) couples a set of input links (13) carrying packet information to a set of output links (14) carrying burst information. A plurality of input line cards (30) route information packets to one of a plurality of output line cards (32) associated with a desired output link (14) over a switching matrix (34). The output line cards (32) assemble information packets into data bursts, generate burst header packets for respective data bursts, and transmit the data bursts and burst header packets on the output links (14). The output line cards (32) include a plurality of burst processing units (40) for assembling data from the packets into data bursts, a plurality of transmitters (46) for transmitting data bursts on a respective channel of an output link and a switch (42) for passing bursts from a burst processing unit to a transmitter under control of a burst control unit (44).

1. Technical Field
This invention relates in general to optical networks and, more particularly, to optical ingress router.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data traffic over networks, particularly the Internet, has increased dramatically recently, and will continue as the user increase and new services requiring more bandwidth are introduced. The increase in Internet traffic requires a network with high capacity routers capable of routing data packets of variable length. One option is the use of optical networks.
The emergence of dense-wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology has improved the bandwidth problem by increasing the capacity of an optical fiber. However, the increased capacity creates a serious mismatch with current electronic switching technologies that are capable of switching data rates up to a few hundred gigabits per second, as opposed more than one terabit per second potential capability of a single DWDM fiber (a fiber optical cable contains twenty-four fibers). While emerging IP routers may be used to switch data using the individual channels within a fiber, typically at a few terabits per second, this approach implies that tens or hundreds of switch interfaces must be used to terminate a single DWDM fiber with a large number of channels. This could lead to a significant loss of statistical multiplexing efficiency when the parallel channels are used simply as a collection of independent links, rather than as a shared resource.
Different approaches advocating the use of optical technology in place of electronics in switching systems have been proposed; however, the limitations of optical component technology has largely limited optical switching to facility management/control applications. One approach, called optical burst-switched networking, attempts to make the best use of optical and electronic switching technology. The electronics provides dynamic control of system resources by assigning individual user data bursts to channels of a DWDM fiber, while optical technology is used to switch the user data channels entirely in the optical domain.
One important part of an optical network is the edge routers and, in particular, the ingress edge routers. The function of an ingress edge router include routing the IP packets, assembling IP packets into data bursts according to the addresses of their destination egress edge routers and other information (e.g. packet classes for quality of service purposes), generating burst header packets and scheduling the data bursts and control information for their transmission on output optical channels. The goal is to carry out all these functions efficiently. The main technical problem in the design of edge routers is how to feed the high-speed optical pipes efficiently, which is critical to the overall efficiency of an optical burst switched network.
Therefore, a need has arisen for a method and apparatus for providing an efficient ingress routers for an optical burst-switched network.


A CO2-facilitated transport membrane of excellent carbon dioxide permeability and CO2/H2 selectivity, which can be applied to a CO2 permeable membrane reactor, is stably provided. The CO2-facilitated transport membrane is formed such that a gel layer 1 obtained by adding cesium carbonate to a polyvinyl alcohol-polyacrylic acid copolymer gel membrane is supported by a hydrophilic porous membrane 2. More preferably, a gel layer supported by a hydrophilic porous membrane 2 is coated with hydrophilic porous membranes 3 and 4.

Heretofore, a method for selectively separating carbon dioxide has widely been studied because of its wide application range. For example, purity of hydrogen can be improved by selectively separating carbon dioxide from a reformed gas for a fuel cell. Further, it is expected that the progression of global warming may be suppressed by selectively separating carbon dioxide which is one of causes of global warming, and storing the separated carbon dioxide on the sea bottom.
Looking at the hydrogen production process, in a reforming system for a hydrogen station, which is currently been developed, hydrogen is produced by reforming hydrocarbon into hydrogen and carbon monoxide (CO) through steam reforming, and reacting carbon monoxide with steam using a CO shift reaction.
In a conventional CO shift reactor, the cause for inhibition of miniaturization and reduction of the start-up time is considered that a large amount of a CO shift catalyst is necessary because of the restriction on chemical equilibrium of the CO shift reaction represented by (Chemical Formula 1) shown below. For example, 20 L of a reforming catalyst is required in a 50 kW reforming system for phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC), whereas, an about 4-fold amount (77 L) of a CO shift catalyst is required. This is a large factor, which inhibits miniaturization of the CO shift reactor and reduction of the start-up time. The symbol "" means a reversible reaction.CO+H2OCO2+H2  Chemical Formula 1
Therefore, when a CO shift reactor is equipped with a CO2-facilitated transport membrane capable of being selectively permeated by carbon dioxide and when carbon dioxide at the right side produced by the CO shift reaction of Chemical Formula 1 shown above is efficiently removed out of the CO shift reactor, chemical equilibrium can be shifted to the hydrogen production side (right side) to obtain a high conversion ratio at the same reaction temperature, thus making it possible to remove carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide over limitation due to the restriction of equilibrium. This state is schematically shown in FIGS. 20 and 21A-21B.
FIGS. 21A and 21B respectively show each change in the concentration of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide along the catalyst layer length of the CO shift reactor in the case where the CO shift reactor is equipped with a CO2-facilitated transport membrane or not.
Since the above CO shift reactor (CO2 permeable membrane reactor) equipped with a CO2-facilitated transport membrane enables removal of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide over limitation due to the restriction of equilibrium, it is possible to reduce a load of pressure swing adsorption (PSA) of a hydrogen station and to lower S/C (steam/carbon ratio) of the reforming reaction and CO shift, thus making it possible to reduce the cost of the entire hydrogen station and increase efficiency. Since higher performances (increase in SV) of the CO shift reaction can be achieved by being equipped with the CO2-facilitated transport membrane, miniaturization of the reforming system and reduction of the start-up time can be achieved.
Example of the related art of the CO2 permeable membrane reactor is disclosed in Patent Document 1 (or Patent Document 2 having the same contents published by the same inventors).
The reforming system proposed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 provides a CO2-facilitated transport membrane process which is useful for purification and water gas shift reaction (CO shift reaction) of a reformed gas generated when fuels such as hydrocarbon and methanol are reformed into hydrogen for a fuel cell vehicle on the vehicle, and typical four kinds of processes are disclosed in the same Patent Documents. When hydrocarbon (containing methane) is used as a raw material, by selectively removing carbon dioxide using a membrane reactor in which a water gas shifter (CO shift reactor) is equipped with a CO2-facilitated transport membrane, the reaction rate of carbon monoxide is increased and the concentration of carbon monoxide is decreased, and also purity of hydrogen thus produced is increased. Further, percentage-order carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide remaining in hydrogen produced are reacted with hydrogen in a methanator thereby converting into methane, and thus the concentrations are decreased and a decrease in efficiency of a fuel cell due to poisoning is prevented.
In Patent Documents 1 and 2, as the CO2-facilitated transport membrane, a hydrophilic polymer membrane of PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) containing mainly a halogenated quaternary ammonium salt ((R)4N+X−) as a carbon dioxide carrier is used. Example 6 of Patent Documents 1 and 2 discloses a method for producing a CO2-facilitated transport membrane formed of a composite membrane of 50% by weight of a 49-μm thick PVA membrane containing 50% by weight of a tetramethylammonium fluoride salt as a carbon dioxide carrier, and a porous PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) membrane which supports the PVA membrane, and Example 7 discloses membrane performances of the CO2-facilitated transport membrane when a mixed gas (25% CO2, 75% H2) is treated under a total pressure of 3 atm at 23° C. Regarding the membrane performances, CO2 permeance RCO2 is 7.2 GPU (=2.4×10−6 mol/(m2·s·kPa)) and CO2/H2 selectivity is 19.
Patent Document 3 shown below discloses, as a CO2-facilitated transport membrane, a CO2 absorbent formed by cesium carbonate in combination with amino acid.
The method for producing a CO2-facilitated transport membrane described in Patent Document 3 is as follows. First, a commercially available amino acid is added to an aqueous solution of cesium carbonate so as to obtain a predetermined concentration, followed by well stirring to prepare an aqueous mixed solution. A gel-coated surface of a gel-coated porous PTFE membrane (47Φ) is then immersed in the prepared mixed solution for 30 minutes or more, and the membrane is slowly pulled up. A silicone membrane is placed on a sintered metal (for the purpose of preventing the permeation side from being wetted with the solution) and the above hydrogel membrane (47 mmΦ) is placed thereon, followed by sealing through covering with a cell with a silicone packing. A feed gas is allowed to flow at a rate of 50 cc/min over the CO2-facilitated transport membrane thus produced, and the pressure of the lower side of the membrane is reduced to about 40 torr by evacuating the lower side.
In Example 4 of Patent Document 3, when a CO2-facilitated transport membrane formed by cesium carbonate and 2,3-diaminopropionic acid hydrochloride at each molar concentration of 4 (mol/kg) is used, a CO2 permeation rate is 1.1 (10−4 cm3(STP)/cm2·s·cmHg) and a CO2/N2 separation factor is 300 under the temperature of 25° C. Since the CO2 permeance RCO2 is defined by a permeation rate per pressure difference, the CO2 permeance RCO2 in Example 4 of Patent Document 3 is calculated as 110 GPU. However, data with respect to CO2/H2 selectivity in the present Example is not disclosed.
Patent Document 4 shown below discloses a CO2 separation membrane formed of a cellulose acetate membrane containing an alkali bicarbonate added therein. However, Patent Document 4 describes only about CO2/O2 selectivity and does not disclose data about CO2/H2 selectivity. Furthermore, the disclosed data are measured under the conditions of a low pressure (about 0.01 atm) and the data measured under the pressure condition of about several atm are not disclosed.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2001-511430    Patent Document 2: Specification of U.S. Pat. No. 6,579,331    Patent Document 3: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-229219    Patent Document 4: Specification of U.S. Pat. No. 3,396,510.


A liquid crystal display device (100) includes a liquid crystal layer (30) of a vertical alignment type, a first photo-alignment film (12), and a second photo-alignment film (22). The first photo-alignment film includes a first pre-tilt region (12a) and a second pre-tilt region (12b) defining pre-tilt directions (PD1, PD2) that are anti-parallel to each other. The second photo-alignment film includes a third pre-tilt region (22a) and a fourth pre-tilt region (22b) defining pre-tilt directions (PD3, PD4) that are anti-parallel to each other. The entire boundary (BD1) between the first pre-tilt region and the second pre-tilt region and the entire boundary (BD2) between the third pre-tilt region and the fourth pre-tilt region are aligned with each other, as seen from the display plane normal direction.

In recent years, liquid crystal display devices, whose display characteristics have improved, are more and more used in television receivers, or the like. Although viewing angle characteristics of liquid crystal display devices have improved, there is a demand for further improvements. Particularly, there is a strong demand for improving viewing angle characteristics of liquid crystal display devices using a liquid crystal layer of a vertical alignment type (referred to also as liquid crystal display devices of a VA mode).
At present, liquid crystal display device of a VA mode, which are used in large-size liquid crystal display devices such as televisions, employ an alignment-divided structure in which a plurality of liquid crystal domains are formed in one pixel in order to improve the viewing angle characteristic. A mainstream method for forming an alignment-divided structure is the MVA mode. The MVA mode is disclosed in Patent Document No. 1, for example.
In the MVA mode, by providing an alignment regulating structure on the liquid crystal layer side of each of a pair of substrates that are opposing each other with a vertical alignment-type liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween, there are formed a plurality of liquid crystal domains of different orientation directions (tilt directions) (typically of four different orientation directions) within each pixel. The alignment regulating structure may be slits (openings) or ribs (projecting structures) provided on electrodes, exerting alignment regulating forces from both sides of the liquid crystal layer.
Using slits and ribs, however, the alignment regulating force acting on liquid crystal molecules becomes non-uniform, thereby resulting in a distribution of response speed, because slits or ribs are linear, as opposed to cases where the pre-tilt direction is defined by an alignment film as in the conventional TN mode. Moreover, the display luminance lowers because the light transmittance lowers in areas where slits or ribs are provided.
In order to avoid such a problem, it is preferred to form an alignment-divided structure by defining the pre-tilt direction using an alignment film, also with liquid crystal display devices of a VA mode. A liquid crystal display device of the VA mode, in which an alignment-divided structure is formed as described above, has been proposed in Patent Document No. 2 by the present applicant.
In the liquid crystal display device disclosed in Patent Document No. 2, the pre-tilt direction is defined by an alignment film, thereby forming a 4-divided alignment structure. That is, in the presence of a voltage applied across the liquid crystal layer, there are formed four liquid crystal domains within one pixel. Such a 4-divided alignment structure may also be referred to simply as a 4D structure.
In the liquid crystal display device disclosed in Patent Document No. 2, the pre-tilt direction defined by one of a pair of alignment films that are opposing each other with a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween is generally 90° apart from that of the other alignment film. Therefore, the liquid crystal molecules assume a twisted orientation in the presence of an applied voltage. The VA mode, in which the liquid crystal molecules assume a twisted orientation due to the use of a pair of vertical alignment films provided so that their pre-tilt directions (alignment treatment directions) are orthogonal to each other as described above, may be referred to also as the VATN (Vertical Alignment Twisted Nematic) mode or the RTN (Reverse Twisted Nematic) mode. As already described above, since a 4D structure is formed by the liquid crystal display device of Patent Document No. 2, the present applicant refers to the display mode of the liquid crystal display device of Patent Document No. 2 as the 4D-RTN mode.
As a specific method for allowing the pre-tilt direction of the liquid crystal molecules to be defined by an alignment film, methods in which a photo-alignment treatment is performed as described in Patent Document No. 2 have been considered promising. Since the photo-alignment treatment can be done with no direct contact, no static electricity will occur due to friction as in a rubbing treatment, and it is possible to improve the production yield. Patent Document No. 3 also discloses a liquid crystal display device of the VATN mode using an alignment film (photo-alignment film) having been subjected to a photo-alignment treatment.

Liquid crystal display device and method for manufacturing same


An apparatus which produces light of a highly controlled nature and which makes sufficient use of the light including a light source, a primary reflector placed directly at or near the light source and a secondary reflector which receives light from the light source and from the primary reflector and directs it to a target area.

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the lighting of relatively large areas or targets, and in particular, to the use of high intensity light sources to light such areas or targets in a highly efficient yet highly controllable manner.
B. Problems in the Art
There are many instances where highly efficient and highly controllable high intensity lighting could be advantageous. There are many known methods of high intensity lighting. Most utilize some sort of an arc lamp of relatively high wattage and a reflector system that attempts to direct part of the light from the arc lamp to a target area. An example is the widely used axially mounted arc lamp in a bowl-shaped hemispherical reflector. This type of known lighting is described in detail in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,343,374 and 5,337,221.
Although this type of fixture can produce a relatively high intensity, controlled and concentrated beam, the nature of the fixture presents some difficulties with respect to efficiency and control. Such fixtures normally are elevated at least several tens of feet and then aimed towards the target location. Because the reflector is symmetrical, some light falls directly on the target area but other light falls outside the target area. Such light is known as spill light. It reduces the beneficial use of light because light which otherwise could be useful at the target area, and which is produced by the fixture, does not end up in the target area.
Additionally, even though such fixtures produce a relatively controlled, concentrated beam, the nature of light is such that even such a beam cannot be precisely collimated to long distances and therefore there is some beam spread and dispersion of light. It is therefore difficult to achieve sharp cutoff of the beam pattern from each of the fixtures at long distances and difficult to control the precise shape and other characteristics of the light. It is difficult to match the shape of the light from the fixture with the shape of the target area.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,343,374 and 5,337,221 show and describe apparatus and methods which address light control problems. Their preferred embodiments utilize a light fixture which can be, but is not required to be, a bowl-shaped reflector, a primary reflector, and an on-axis arc lamp. The light fixture is directed away from the target area into a mirror or secondary reflector. The mirror redirects at least a portion of the light from the primary light source. The nature of the combination is such that it produces a controlled beam with sharp precise cutoffs. Therefore, at a race car track as an example, these fixtures can be placed on the ground. Each fixture directs a light beam so that it covers the width of the track and yet cuts off at the top or very close to the top edge of the restraining wall of the outer edge of the track. The light is therefore placed on the track instead of off the track. It also is kept out of spectators' eyes. A plurality of such fixtures can be placed around the interior of the track and coordinated to produce even, uniform but controlled lighting for the track.
Although such systems do have efficiencies, there is still room for improvement regarding such devices and methods.
For example, the size of such apparatus is substantial. In the preferred embodiment described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,337,221 and 5,343,374, the light producing fixtures are essentially the same size as conventional bowl-shaped fixtures with on-axis arc lamps. For example, the reflector can be several feet in diameter at its face. The mirrors or secondary reflectors can be on the order of several feet tall by several feet wide and are spaced several feet from the light producing fixtures.
Additionally, those types of arrangements introduce difficulties regarding efficient utilization of light. All of the light from the light producing fixture may not be redirected by the secondary reflector or mirror. For example, some light from the light producing fixtures may fall outside the mirror and therefore be lost.
Also, the flexibility of these arrangements in terms of ease of positioning and adjustability is limited.
It is therefore the principle object of the present invention to provide a high efficiency, highly controllable light fixture and method which improves upon the state of the art.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method which efficiently utilizes light.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a highly controllable light for large areas from a relatively compact fixture.
Another object of the present invention is to provide flexibility with regard to operational characteristics such as adjustability of the characteristics of the light produced.
Another object of the present invention is to provide flexibility with regard to directing light to a target area.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent with reference to the accompanying specification and claims.

High efficiency highly controllable lighting apparaus and method