An apparatus for and method of using the apparatus to crack hard shelled nuts. A pair of hollow cylindrical tubes, each having both a proximal and a distal end with a chamfer at the respective proximal ends may be axially aligned with one another with their proximal ends facing one another. A nut to be cracked may be placed between the proximal ends of the spaced apart hollow cylindrical tubes. A linear compressive force may be applied to the distal ends of the two hollow cylindrical tubes the shell of the nut cracks) i.e., separates the hard shelled nut exterior shell casing from interior nutmeat). The apparatus allows hard shelled nuts like black walnuts, to be cracked with minimal damage, such as fragmentation, of the nutmeat.

Whether grown commercially or in the wild, nuts such as black and English walnuts, hickory nuts, butternuts, and many others have an outer husk as harvested. After removal of the outer husk, a hard shell is revealed that protects the edible kernel or nutmeat located in the center of the nut. It is necessary to crack the hard shell in order to access the nutmeat, and furthermore, it is most often desirable to crack the hard shell in a fashion that prevents both the shell and the nutmeat from breaking into several small fragments that need to be painstakingly sorted. It is most desirable to crack the shell in such a manner that the shell is not difficult to separate or open and the nutmeat inside is essentially completely intact. Black walnuts in particular are considered difficult to crack without damaging the interior nutmeat, causing the English walnut to be the variety of choice for commercial production.
Many types of nut crackers are known and available on the market, ranging from familiar hand-held tools to semi- or fully-automated systems using anvils, plungers, or rotating cylinders and adjustable plates designed to perform the function of cracking nut shells and retrieving the edible nutmeats. It is usually important to prevent over-cracking the shell to avoid any substantial damage to the interior nutmeat, and allow retrieval of essentially a whole nutmeat. To accomplish this goal, it is important that the amount and location of the force used to crack the shell be applied in a fashion and appropriate amount that avoids, or at least minimizes, the transference of force to the interior nutmeat.
The following is a listing of United States patents that disclose various methods of nut cracking. The citation thereof is not an acknowledgement that any are prior art to the present invention, nor a statement that an exhaustive search has been completed.
Many attempts have been made to overcome the deficiencies found in nut cracking methods and apparatus of the prior art. The existing prior art has provided an invention relating to the shelling of nuts, particularly such nuts as coconuts, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,514,237 for METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SHELLING NUTS, issued Nov. 4, 1924 to Tenney. The Tenney patent discloses a steam pre-treatment of coconuts or the like to facilitate easier separation of the meat from the coconut shell, followed by a clamping and rotational twisting of the bottom of the shell relative to the top of the shell using the mechanism described therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,561,513 for NUT-CRACKING MACHINE, issued Feb. 9, 1971 to Lindsey, discloses a nut cracking machine for the cracking of walnuts and the like that includes a container defining a compartment or reservoir for the receipt of nuts therewithin, conveyor means passing through such compartment for removing nuts one-by-one therefrom and for advancing the same in spaced apart succession into a cracking station, and nut-cracking means at such station and including both anvil structure and hammer structure aligned therewith.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,970 for NUT CRACKER issued Mar. 29, 1983 to Kenkel, discloses a nut cracker that includes a base that supports an adjustably fixed anvil member and a moveable ram member under the control of a handle, there being a guide interconnecting the ram member with the base which maintains the ram member in an erect position. The confronting faces of the anvil member and the ram member are provided with recesses into which the ends of the nut are received with clearance so that the outer rim of such recesses engage the nut to provide the cracking force to the shell remotely from the ends of the nut. With this construction, a heavy-duty unit is provided which is especially useful for cracking nuts that have hard or strong shells such as black walnuts and butternuts, and the construction further enables the shells to be broken and nut meats recovered in larger pieces without over-cracking.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,466,343 for AUTOMATIC ADJUSTING NUTCRACKER issued Aug. 21, 1984 to Thompson, discloses a nutcracker including a base, a stationary jaw, and an adjustable post. A driving cylinder is urged along the longitudinal axis of the post by a lever connected through a connecting link. A spring allows the post to float until a canting pin contacts one end of a ring disposed around the post. When the ring cants to contact the post, the force applied to the driving cylinder is translated directly to the post to crack a nut disposed between the stationary jaw and the moveable jaw.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,467,711 for METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CRACKING NUTS issued Aug. 28, 1984 to Oiso et. al., discloses a nut cracking apparatus including a conveyor comprised of parallel slats connected to endless chains for intermittent movement from a hopper to a nut gripping and cracking apparatus. Each slat is provided with a row of openings extending therethrough for receiving nuts from the hopper and an underlying support is provided to retain the nuts in the openings until each slat is moved in sequence to a plurality of cracking apparatus. Each nut is located between an upper and lower nut gripping block each of which has a recess therein with a slot at the bottom thereof. The lower nut gripping block is spring biased on a fixed blade to normally have the blade retracted out of the recess. The upper nut gripping block is spring biased on an opposed blade which in turn connected to the piston of a hydraulically operated piston and cylinder device. Upon lowering of the upper blade toward the lower blade a nut is gripped between the upper and lower blocks and continued downward movement of the blade will cause the upper and lower blades to penetrate into the recesses to cut the shell of the nut into two pieces without damaging the kernel of the nut. Upon cutting of the shell into two pieces, the upper blade is retracted and the upper and lower nut gripping blocks are spring biased back to their normal position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,665,814 for IMPACTING NUT CRACKER issued May 19, 1987 to Harborne et. al., discloses an impacting nut cracker which utilizes an impacting plunger activated by a compression spring or electrical solenoid to deliver a sharp blow to an aligned adjustable anvil to provide a stroke of measured distance to a nut confined against a tailstock anvil. A slidable and transparent guard cover over the impact area prevents excessive dispersion of the fragmented shell. A concavity in the tailstock anvil and in the adjustable anvil causes a circular edge to engage each end of the nut to cause circular fractures beneficial in achieving greater uniformity in the fracture pattern of the shell.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,307 for NUTCRACKER issued Nov. 29, 1988 to Rollband, discloses a nutcracker mounted on a base that grips a nut to be cracked between a moveable piston and an adjustable anvil. The user sets the optimum cracking distance initially by lining up an index marker located on the piston and adjusting the anvil to firmly hold the opposite end of the nut. Thereafter, the user need only move the lever handle to its up position and insert the nut—no further adjustment is necessary for similar size nuts. The user then moves the piston a limited distance by activating the lever handle connected to the piston through a toggle joint, or other limited movement arrangement. This limited movement enables the inventive nutcracker to crack the nutshell without damaging the meat inside.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,155 for NUTCRACKER APPARATUS issued Jun. 13, 1989 to Steffel, discloses a nutcracker apparatus that includes a frame on which there is provided a front and a rear head assembly that each has a head which is resiliently urged toward the other but is limited in such movement by a knife at least in part located in a slot in the head. Each knife is mounted on a rod, the rear rod being moveable toward the front rod to initially clamp the nut and as the movement of one head toward the other is limited by the uncracked nut, the rear knife continues to move toward the front knife to crack and/or split the nut.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,231 for NUT CRACKER issued Mar. 3, 1992 to Smith, discloses a nut cracker designed to accommodate virtually any size nut and provide the same degree of cracking stroke with the same mechanical advantage irrespective of nut size, with only a simple thumb-screw adjustment of a cam.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,448 for NUT CRACKING MACHINE issued Apr. 3, 2001 to Hagen, discloses a nut cracking machine that comprises a cylinder mounted in bearings for rotation n about a long axis of the cylinder. The cylinder has projections extending radially from its cylindrical surface. An anvil plate is held at a fixed predetermined distance from the cylinder when the machine is in operation. The cylinder is power driven. A feed hopper is provided for receiving nuts and directing the nuts onto the cylinder, the cylinder rotating in a direction to direct an upper part of the cylinder toward the anvil plate member, toward and increasingly restricted space between the cylinder and the anvil plate.
None of the patents, taken singly, or in any combination are seen to teach or suggest the novel method and apparatus for cracking the shells of walnuts or similar nuts, while minimizing the fracturing of the edible nutmeat within the nut.
The present invention represents a new and improved method of precisely opening hard shelled nuts while concomitantly preserving the nutmeat located therein. It is believed that such a method represents a significant advancement in the art.

Apparatus for efficient nut cracking and method of using same


There is provided a micro power generating device. A compressor impeller and a turbine wheel are coupled to the ends of a rotating shaft. A cooler is provided for lowering a temperature of the compressed air from the compressor impeller. The compressed air is mixed with the fuel and combusted in a combustion chamber. An air foil thrust bearing for supporting the rotating shaft has a thrust collar coupled to the rotating shaft, as well as a pair of thrust discs located apart from the thrust collar and fixed to the housing. Impeller type seals are formed at both surfaces of the thrust collar and impulse turbine blades are formed at the periphery of the thrust collar. A generator is positioned between the air foil thrust bearing and the compressor impeller. A portion of the cool air is bypassed toward the generator and the impulse turbine blades from the cooler.

Compact, highly mobile and efficient thermodynamic and energy systems are becoming increasingly important for a wide range of applications, such as for powering portable electronic, communication and medical devices, as well as for controlling sensor systems.
Historically, batteries, such as primary and rechargeable batteries, have been utilized for supplying portable, compact sources of power. However, portable batteries are generally limited to power production in the range of milliwatt to watts, and thus cannot address the need for significant power production. Further, they also cannot address the need for a mobile and lightweight power generating device. The environmental incompatibility of typical conventional batteries also poses a limitation for many applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,392,313 discloses a microturbomachinery that enables production of significant power and efficient operation of thermodynamic systems in the millimeter and micron range, as shown in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 1, in operation, air 12 enters the micro-gas turbine engine 10 (hereinafter also referred to as the microengine) axially along the centerline 14 of an inlet 16 and turns radially outward. It is then compressed in a centrifugal, planar microcompressor. The microcompressor includes a compressor rotor disk 18, which has radial-flow rotor blades 20.
The compressor rotor disk 18 is connected to a shaft 40 that is radially journalled for spinning, whereby the compressor rotor disk 18 and blades 20 supported by the shaft 40 are spun. Stationary diffuser vanes 22 are located just beyond the radial periphery of the compressor rotor. As such, the air passing through the compressor rotor blades 20 can exit the rotor via the vanes 22 in the diffuser.
Fuel is injected at the discharge of the compressor rotor 18 by way of a fuel injector 24. The injected fuel mixes with the air while flowing radially outward. Combustion igniters 33 initiate combustion of the air-fuel mixture. The ignited mixture axially enters an annular microcombustion chamber 30 where the mixture is fully combusted.
Combustion exhaust gas from the microcombustion chamber 30 is discharged radially inward through stationary turbine guide vanes 34 to a planar radial inflow microturbine rotor formed of a rotor disk 36. The turbine disk 36 is connected by way of the journalled shaft 40 to the compressor disk 18 and thus rotationally drives the microcompressor in response to the combustion gas exhausted through microturbine blades 38, which causes the turbine disk 36 to spin.
The shaft 40 between the microcompressor and microturbine is preferably hollow and is supported upon air static bearings. The bearings are supplied by an air bleed 42 from the microcompressor exit. Correspondingly, the shaft bearing discharges the air through the holes 44 in the microturbine.
Under a high temperature environment, it is very difficult to convert the rotating energy into the electrical energy. However, the aforesaid prior art microturbomachinery is not properly configured for power production by using the rotating energy of the shaft since it is not equipped with a cooling device.
Also, since the air static bearing is used for supporting the rotating shaft, the prior art microturbomachinery is disadvantageous in that the performance of the bearing is considerably influenced by the manufacturing tolerance. Thus, the manufacturing process of the overall system must be maintained very strictly and may become complicated. It also causes an increase in manufacturing costs. Such a shortcoming means that there is a great difficulty in achieving the operational stability of the system.

Korea Institute of Science and Technology


A method to improve a solid state disk performance by using a programmable bus arbiter is generally presented. In this regard, in one embodiment, a method is introduced comprising delaying a request from a solid state drive for access to an interface for a time to allow a host to access the interface to transmit a command to the solid state drive. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Modern solid state disk (SSD) drives have such high performance that they can saturate an interface, such as a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) interface, in a very bursty manor. Because of these large bursts of data, new commands from a host can be prevented from being sent to the SSD until the SSD goes idle for some length of time. As a result, a SSD might not be able to utilize the full concurrency of the NAND devices under deeply queued workloads. New commands to the SSD may be blocked for several hundred microseconds, because the SSD is likely to win SATA bus arbitration while it has data ready to be sent to the host. This is not an issue on normal rotating disk drives because they can not fetch data for multiple commands in parallel. However, on SSD's, this can prevent the full utilization of multiple concurrent NAND channels.

Method to improve a solid state disk performance by using a programmable bus arbiter


A regenerative refrigerator includes a regenerator disposed in a flow passage of working gas generating a cold thermal mass, the regenerator being loaded with a regenerative material to accumulate cold thermal energy from the cold thermal mass in the working gas, wherein the regenerative material is a sintered body made of a fiber material, and a diameter of the fiber material disposed at a low-temperature end of the regenerator is smaller than a diameter of the fiber material disposed at a high-temperature end of the regenerator.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a regenerative refrigerator, and specifically to a regenerative refrigerator using a regenerative material.
2. Description of Related Art
For example, a refrigerator such as a Gifford-McMahon refrigerator (referred to as a "GM refrigerator", hereinafter), a Stirling refrigerator, a pulse tube refrigerator, or the like, is configured to obtain a low temperature using a regenerator in which a regenerative material is loaded.
For example, a pulse tube refrigerator has a compressor, a pulse tube, a regenerator, and a phase control section, and the like. High-pressure working gas generated in the compressor passes through the regenerator and the pulse tube, then flows into the phase control section. The phase control section generates a phase difference between varying pressure and varying flow, oscillating like sine waves, of the working gas supplied from the compressor in the pulse tube. Thus, a cold thermal mass is generated between the pulse tube and the regenerator.
A regenerative material is loaded inside of the regenerator. The regenerative material is cooled by the cooled working gas returning to the compressor, and also refrigerates the working gas flowing into the pulse tube. Therefore, refrigeration efficiency of a refrigerator can be improved by providing a regenerator. As a regenerative material, for example, a compressed and sintered body of multiple regenerator plates made of a metallic fiber randomly stacked may be used.


An undergarment includes a main body comprising at least one panel of material, three openings having substantially equal dimensions, and three peripheral edges, where one peripheral edge is located between adjacent openings.

Undergarments for both women and men are well known in the art. Typical undergarments include smaller openings configured to fit the legs of a human wearer, and a larger opening configured to fit the torso of a human wearer. Accordingly, properly donning conventional undergarments often requires a certain degree of attention and coordination on the part of the human wearer. For instance, a human wearer needs to properly orient a conventional undergarment prior to donning said undergarment by ensuring that the smaller openings are positioned so as to receive his/her legs and the larger opening is positioned so as to receive his/her torso. This may be problematic for small children; the elderly; people with disabilities, limited coordination and/or limited mobility; people needing to dress quickly and/or in limited or no light, etc. Moreover, as conventional undergarments have a particular orientation, said garments may deteriorate unevenly and require early replacement when portions thereof are damaged.
There are several additional disadvantages associated with conventional undergarments. For example, conventional undergarments often include unnecessary and/or complicated flaps or features that are not used by the human wearer. Furthermore, the manufacture of conventional undergarments may not be efficient or cost effective given the varying dimensions of said undergarments (e.g., the different sized openings, a larger sized rear fabric panel configured to conform to a portion of the buttocks of a human wearer, etc.). Likewise, the manufacture of gender specific conventional undergarments generally requires double inventory of materials for institutional use.

Undergarments with equilateral dimensions


A gauze detection system is provided that is capable of effectively detecting a gauze pad in the patient's body during surgery without applying special processing to the gauze pad. A gauze detection system 100, includes: an image input section 1 to input a taken image of an operative field; a determination section 2 to determine whether a determination target region contains a feature of a gauze image by image processing, the region having a predetermined size in an input image; and a determination result output section 3 to report detection of a gauze pad in the input image in a case of the determination target region being determined by the determination section 2 to contain the feature of the gauze image.

Leaving a surgical instrument, a gauze pad, or the like in the patient's body during surgery is medical malpractice that should not occur. To prevent such leaving of a gauze pad, a gauze pad counting system is proposed in the past that confirms whether the number of gauze pads before use coincides with the number of collected gauze pads as used ones (JP 2014-217547A, described below).
In the gauze pad counting system in the past disclosed in JP 2014-217547 A, an IC tag storing gauze pad identification information is attached to each surgical gauze pad, and the number of gauze pads to be used and the number of collected gauze pads are respectively counted by a tag reader. Then, whether the number of gauze pads before use coincides with the number of collected gauze pads is confirmed to check if no gauze pads are left.

Gauze detection system and gauze detection method


An imaging device consistent with one of numerous embodiments has an opaque planar sheet with a plurality of pinholes defining a photon sieve in the sheet, wherein, the photon sieve comprises at least first and second regions. The first region exhibits a first focal length, a first field of view, a first transmissivity, a first resolution and a first wavelength, and the second region exhibiting a second focal length, a second field of view, a second transmissivity, a second resolution and a second wavelength. At least one of the first focal length, the first wavelength, the first transmissivity, the first resolution and the first field of view is different from the second focal length, the second wavelength, the second transmissivity, the second resolution and the second field of view. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.

A Fresnel Zone Plate (FZP), such as FZP 100 shown in FIG. 1, has a set of alternating transmissive and opaque concentric rings that serve as the diffracting elements to focus light. FZPs have been designed to operate at wavelengths that range from the radio wave range to the x-ray range. The ultimate resolution of a FZP is determined by the width of the outermost zone. Fresnel zone plates are attractive alternatives to refractive optics due to savings in size and weight. The main drawbacks for the FZP are the reduced transmission compared to refractive optics, severe chromatic aberration and the presence of secondary maxima (intensity variations in the form of concentric rings) that blur the image at the focal plane.
Photon sieves (PS) are planar imaging elements whose design is based on Fresnel zone plates (FZP), but performance in certain parameters is improved by replacing the transparent ring-shaped zones with an appropriate arrangement of pinholes as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3. An ideal lens would have an infinite diameter. An "apodized" lens, such as that of FIG. 3, creates a smooth transition of holes to the outer diameter of the lens to more closely approximate the performance of an infinite lens. FIG. 2 depicts an unapodized PS with 2,722 pinholes that is calculated to have a transparency of 55.8%. FIG. 3 depicts an apodized PS having 818 pinholes that exhibits a transparency of 28.3%. Each photon sieve is designed for a lens diameter of 1.0 mm, Focal Length=10 mm, and λ=650 nm.
Photon sieves use a quasi-random distribution of pinholes in a plane that replaces the conventional zone plate. The pinholes are generally approximately centered within a transparent zone of the underlying Fresnel zone plate. Photon sieves have multiple advantages over both refractive and Fresnel optics. Photon sieves are as compact, lightweight and easy to manufacture as Fresnel zone plates, but they form superior images in terms of sharpness and contrast. Generally, both photon sieves and Fresnel Zone Plates are diffractive devices that have a relatively narrow field of view, lower transmission, greater chromatic aberration, lower contrast and sharpness, compared to refractive devices (e.g., glass or plastic lenses). But photon sieves and Fresnel zone plates are nearly planar in geometry and are generally lower in weight than comparable refractive optics.

Multiple wavelength and multiple field of view imaging devices and methods


A sheet feeding apparatus comprises a sheet conveying mechanism for conveying sheets along a first conveying path (22) and stacking up them in a sheet stack-feed station (S), a tray (24) for storing a stack of cover sheets (P), a second conveying path (28) communicating with the first conveying path (22), a blow outlet (38) for blowing a jet of air towards the tray (24) to lift up each cover sheet (P), a sucker (30) for sucking the cover sheet (P), a sheet feeding mechanism for conveying the cover sheet (P) received from the sucker (30) along the second conveying path (28) and feeding it to the first conveying path (22), and a pneumatic pump (34) for providing a blow of air and a suction of air. The sheet feeding mechanism is changed to its standby mode when the cover sheet is transferred from the sucker (30) to the sheet feeding mechanism. Upon the sheets having been stacked in the sheet stack-feed station (S), the sheet feeding mechanism transfers the cover sheet. During the standby mode, the pneumatic pump (34) remains inactivated.

The present invention relates to a sheet feeding apparatus and particularly to a sheet feeding apparatus adapted for feeding and placing a front cover received from a transfer path over a specific number of sheets (for example, bound as a booklet) or stacks of sheets supplied from a printing machine or a sorter.
FIG. 13 is a side view showing a schematic arrangement of a conventional sheet feeder for a bookbinding machine. In FIG. 13, a side panel of the sheet feeding apparatus is removed for ease of the description.
As shown in FIG. 13, the sheet feeding apparatus 1 comprises a sheet reception inlet 2a for receiving sheets of paper, a tray 4 for storage of a stack of front covers P, a sheet stack-feed station S for stacking up the sheets and placing a front cover P on a stack of the sheets, a first conveying path 2 extending from the sheet reception inlet 2a to the sheet stack-feed station S, and a sheet conveying mechanism for conveying in a sequence the sheets received at the sheet reception inlet 2a to the sheet stack-feed station S along the first conveying path 2. The sheet conveying mechanism consists mainly of a conveyor belt 2b, transfer rollers 2c to 2g, and a discharge roller 2h.
The sheet feeding apparatus 1 also includes a second conveying path 8 extending from the tray 4 to the first conveying path 2 for joining with the first conveying path 2 and a sheet feeding mechanism for conveying the front cover P along the second conveying path 8 up to the first conveying path 2. The sheet feeding mechanism comprises a feed roller 5, a transfer roller 6, a drive motor 7, and a pair of feed rollers 8a and 8b.
The sheet feeding apparatus 1 further includes a sheet transfer mechanism for transferring the front cover P from the tray 4 to the sheet feeding mechanism. The sheet transfer mechanism comprises a pneumatic pump 14 and a drive motor 13 for driving the pneumatic pump 14. A first pulley 13a is mounted on the output shaft of the drive motor 13 while a second pulley 14a is mounted on the rotary shaft of the pneumatic pump 14. A belt 13b is mounted between the first pulley 13a and the second pulley 14a for transmitting the power of the drive motor 13 to the pneumatic pump 14.
The sheet transfer mechanism also includes a blow outlet 18 provided in the tray 4 for communicating via a first conduit 17 to the air outlet of the pneumatic pump 14 to blow up the front cover P in the tray 4, a sucker 10 communicated via a second conduit 11 to the air inlet of the pneumatic pump 14 and arranged for movement between the first position for sucking the front cover P blown up and the second position for transferring the front cover P to the sheet feeding mechanism, a sucker driving mechanism 10a for moving the sucker 10 between the first position and the second position, and a couple of first and second air valves, 12 and 16, for controlling the air intake and the air discharge of the pneumatic pump 14, respectively.
As the pneumatic pump 14 is actuated, a flow of air runs along the first conduit 17 in a direction denoted by the arrow Bb and exits at the blow outlet 18. This action effects an upper region of the stack of the front covers P in the tray 4 and more specifically, lifts up the uppermost front cover P. Simultaneously, a flow of air runs along the second conduit 11 in a direction denoted by the arrow Ba. This action causes the sucker 10 to suck up at its first position the uppermost front cover P lifted up. The sucker 10 is then moved to its second position for transferring the uppermost front cover P to the sheet feeder mechanism. The front cover P received by the sheet feeder mechanism is passed through the feed roller 5 and the transfer roller 6 and between the two feed rollers 8a and 8b as conveyed along the second conveying path 8 to the first conveying path 2.
The transfer of the front cover P to the sheet feeding mechanism by the sucker 10 is continuously carried out as synchronized with the conveying of the sheets along the first conveying path 2. Particularly in case that the sheet feeding apparatus is linked with an advanced digital printing machine, a given number of sheets for one book volume may be received in the order of page at the sheet reception inlet 2a of the first conveying path 2, conveyed along the first conveying path 2, and stacked up in the sheet stack-feed station S. During the conveying of the sheets, the pneumatic pump 14 remains actuated for releasing a blow of air from the blow outlet 18 to lift up the uppermost one of front covers. Before the transfer of the succeeding front cover is initiated, the first air valve 12 remains closed to allow the sucker 10 to suck up no front cover.
In the conventional sheet feeding apparatus, the transfer of a front cover from the second conveying path 8 to the first conveying path 2, and thus to the sheet feeding mechanism, is continuously carried out as synchronized with the timing of conveying the sheets along the first conveying path 2. If a feeding error of the front cover (no transfer of a front cover from the second conveying path 8 or transfer of multiple front covers at one time) occurs in a lot, the reaction is that the movement of the first conveying path 2 is halted and the error is eliminated by adding a front cover to, or removing the excessive front covers from, the lot. This will thus decline the operational efficiency of the apparatus.
Also, as the pneumatic pump 14 is continuously driven to blow a jet of air against the upper ones of the stacked front covers P in the tray 4, its temperature may increase and also the temperature of the jet of air. Accordingly, the front covers P are exposed to the hot air and may deform or curl up at their edges, hence lowering the quality and making their handling difficult at the succeeding step.
The pneumatic pump 14 remains actuated while no transfer of the front covers P is performed. This will increase the power consumption and thus the overall production cost while shortening the life of the pneumatic pump 14. Moreover, the pneumatic pump 14 constantly emits running noises and may cause environmental disruption.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a sheet feeding apparatus capable of, if a feeding error of a front cover occurs, readily eliminating the cause of error without halting the main operation.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a sheet feeding apparatus which can improve the environmental conditions of a pneumatic pump. For achievement of the object of the present invention, a sheet feeding apparatus is provided comprising: a sheet reception inlet for receiving a set of first sheets; a tray for storing a stack of second sheets; a sheet set discharge outlet for releasing out a set of the sheets where the second sheet is placed over the first sheets; a first conveying path extending from the sheet reception inlet to the sheet set discharge outlet; a sheet conveying means for conveying the first sheets received at the sheet reception inlet in a sequence along the first conveying path to the sheet set discharge outlet; a second conveying path extending from the tray to the first conveying path and communicated at a junction with the first conveying path; a sheet feeding means for conveying the second sheet along the second conveying path to the junction with the first conveying path and placing the second sheet over the first sheets; a sheet transferring means for transferring each second sheet from the tray to the sheet feeding means; and a controlling means for controlling the action of the sheet conveying means, the sheet feeding means, and the sheet transferring means, wherein the sheet feeding means is changed to its standby mode when the second sheet is transferred from the sheet transferring means to the sheet feeding means and, when the first sheets cross the junction, the sheet feeding means starts the sheet feeding operation, thereby the second sheet is conveyed out from the second conveying path and placed over the first sheets.
Also, for achievement of the object of the present invention, a sheet feeding apparatus is provided comprising: a sheet reception inlet for receiving a set of first sheets; a tray for storing a stack of second sheets; a sheet stack-feed station for receiving the first sheets in a stack and placing the second sheet over the stack of the first sheets; a first conveying path extending from the sheet reception inlet to the sheet stack-feed station; a sheet conveying means for conveying the first sheets received at the sheet reception inlet in a sequence along the first conveying path to the sheet stack-feed station; a second conveying path extending from the tray to the first conveying path and communicated at a junction with the first conveying path; a sheet feeding means for conveying the second sheet along the second conveying path and feeding it to the first conveying path; a sheet transferring means for transferring each second sheet from the tray to the sheet feeding means; and a controlling means for controlling the action of the sheet conveying means, the sheet feeding means, and the sheet transferring means, wherein the sheet feeding means is changed to its standby mode when the second sheet is transferred from the sheet transferring means to the sheet feeding means and, upon the first sheets having been stacked in the sheet stack-feed station, starts sheet feeding operation, thereby the second sheet is conveyed out from the first conveying path and placed over the stack of the first sheets.
According to any of the above first and second arrangements, the second sheets are held at the standby mode but not conveyed continuously in synchronization with the conveying of the first sheets such as in the prior art. Accordingly in case that an error occurs during the conveying of the current second sheet, it is readily detected and the succeeding second sheet is held in the standby mode. This allows the error during the conveying of the second sheet to be eliminated without canceling the conveying of the first sheets, hence improving the operational efficiency of the system.
The second embodiment of the present invention may preferably be modified in which the sheet transferring means comprises: a pneumatic pump having an air outlet and an air inlet; a blow outlet provided in the tray and communicated by a first conduit to the air outlet of the pneumatic pump for lifting up each second sheet stored in the tray; a suction means communicated by a second conduit to the air inlet of the pneumatic pump and arranged to move between the first position for sucking the second sheet lifted up and the second position for transferring the second sheet to the sheet feeding means; a suction means actuating means for driving the suction means to move between the first position and the second position; and air valves provided between the air outlet of the pneumatic pump and the first conduit and between the air inlet of the pneumatic pump and the second conduit for controlling the air output and input of the pneumatic pump, wherein while the sheet feeding means is in its standby mode, the air valves are controlled by the controlling means to cancel the air output and input respectively of the pneumatic pump. Accordingly, the time of blowing a jet of air to lift up each second sheet is minimized. This allows the second sheet to be prevented from being injured and degraded in the quality and to be handled without difficulty in the succeeding step.
More preferably, it may be arranged in that while the sheet feeding means is in its standby mode, the air valves are turned off by the controlling means to cancel the air output or input respectively of the pneumatic pump. The pneumatic pump is operated for a minimum duration for transferring the second sheet and remains inactivated in the remaining duration. Accordingly, the operating period of the pneumatic pump can be reduced hence decreasing the power consumption and the running noise. Hence, the pneumatic pump will be extended in the operational life and improved in the environmental conditions. Also, as the pneumatic pump is operated intermittently, its temperature increase can be avoided by being cooled down in the inactivated duration. Accordingly, the second sheet will be prevented from being assaulted by a jet of hot air. As the second sheet is successfully prevented from its degradation, it can be handled without difficulty in the succeeding step.
As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the sheet feeding apparatus may further comprise: sheet detection sensors provided at the entrance of the second conveying path; a discharge tray provided as branched out from an intermediate region of the second conveying path; and a switching gate provided at the branch point to the discharge tray of the second conveying path, wherein the action of the switching gate is controlled by the controlling means so that, in a normal mode, the second sheet is duly conveyed along the second conveying path and, when the sheet sensors detect that two or more of the second sheets are received by the sheet feeding means, the two or more second sheets are discharged to the discharge tray. Accordingly, in case that two or more second sheets are received by the sheet feed mechanism, they are automatically detected by the sheet detection sensors and thus discharged to the discharge tray. Undesired placement of two or more second sheets over a given set of the first sheets can favorably be avoided. Accordingly, in case that two or more second sheets are received by the sheet feed mechanism, they are automatically detected by the sheet detection sensors and thus discharged to the discharge tray. Undesired placement of two or more second sheets over a given set of the first sheets can favorably be avoided.


A high-sensitivity self-capacitance in-cell touch display panel device includes a sensing electrode layer having plural sensing electrodes, a display control circuit, a touch sensing control circuit, and an amplifier with gain greater than zero. The display control circuit is powered by a first power source and connected to a first ground. The touch sensing control circuit is coupled to the sensing electrodes for performing a touch sensing. The touch sensing control circuit is powered by a second power source and connected to a second ground, wherein the first power source and the first ground are different from the second power source and the second ground. The amplifier is connected to the touch sensing control circuit and a common voltage layer. The touch sensing control circuit applies a sensing signal sensed by at least one sensing electrode to the amplifier for being amplified and applied to the common voltage layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the technical field of touch panels and, more particularly, to a high-sensitivity self-capacitance in-cell touch display panel device.
2. Description of Related Art
The conventional touch display panel includes a touch panel and a display unit overlapped with the touch panel. The touch panel is configured as an operation interface. The touch panel is transparent so that an image generated by the display unit can be viewed directly by a user without being sheltered by the touch panel. Such well known skill of the touch panel may increase additional weight and thickness of the touch display panel, and may further reduce the light penetration rate, and increase reflectance and haze of the touch display panel.
On-cell and in-cell touch technology were invented to overcome the drawbacks of traditional touch technology described above. The on-cell technology is to dispose a sensor on the back side of a color filter substrate to form a completed color filter substrate. One of the on-cell touch technologies is provided to dispose a touch sensor on a thin film and then bond the thin film onto the upper one of the two substrates. The in-cell technology is to dispose the sensor within the LCD cell structure. However, when the sensor is disposed within the LCD cell structure, the distance between the sensor and the common voltage layer is only several micro meters and thus the capacitance induced therebetween is greatly increased, such that, in comparison with such a large capacitance, the capacitance change caused by touch is too small to be detected. Furthermore, because of the short distance, the display signal may be seriously interfered, resulting in a had display quality.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates the transparent electrode structure of a single-layer touch panel. As shown, there are a plurality of transparent electrodes 11 arranged in rows and columns, and the electrical signal sensed by one transparent electrode 11 is transmitted through a corresponding conductive wire 12 for output. Such a single-layer transparent electrode structure can realize an actual multi-touch detection. In use, the single-layer transparent electrode structure of FIG. 1 is combined with a display panel. However, when the single-layer transparent electrode structure is integrated with the display panel, there will be an obvious capacitance produced between the single-layer transparent electrode structure and a common voltage layer of the display panel, which may cause noises to be produced and thus lower the accuracy in detection the touch position. In order to solve the aforementioned problems for the in-cell touch panel, a direct solution is to partition the common voltage layer into several blocks for being operated with the display control in a time sharing manner, which not only restricts the resolution and size of the touch screen but also negatively influences the display quality and greatly increases the difficulties in designing and trimming of the display control circuit and manufacture of the panel, resulting in low production yield and high manufacturing cost. Therefore, it desired for the aforementioned in-cell touch display panel structure to be improved.

High-sensitivity self-capacitance in-cell touch display panel device


An access element and method for controlling access of a network element are provided. A plurality of network elements which are connected to a connection of an access element and at least one second network element is connected to the access element via a first network element. The first network element is authenticated at the access element. Another operation of authenticating the first network element at the access element is initiated by the first network element. An authentication request which is transmitted by the access element and is received at the first network element is forwarded to the second network element. The second network element responds to the authentication request with a response message and the response message is forwarded to the access element via the first network element.

Methods for controlling access by a network element to a packet-oriented or data network are known in the prior art. A network element obtains access to a data network by its identification and authentication information being transmitted to an authentication server via an access element. The authentication server checks the information of the network element and takes a decision whether to allow access by the network element. If a positive decision is made, the network element gains access via a released port of the access element. The access element is typically embodied as a switch or more generally as an access point.
In the following description consideration is given to access control of a first network element to which a second network element is connected, by way of an internal switch disposed in the first network element for example. The two network elements are connected e.g. in series to a port of the access element. Access control is performed for a particular port of the access element and is therefore also referred to as "port-related".

Method and arrangement for position-dependent configuration of a mobile appliance


A question type and domain identifying apparatus includes: a question type identifier for recognizing the number of words of a user's question to identify whether the user's question is a query for performing information searching or a question for performing a question and answer (Q&A); a question domain distributor for distributing one of plural preset domain specialized Q&A engines, as a Q&A engine of the user's question based on the recognized word number; and a Q&A engine block, including the domain specialized Q&A engines, for selectively performing information searching or a Q&A with respect to the user's question in response to the distribution of the question domain distributor.

Recently, various types of digital contents have been produced and distributed exponentially with the advancement of web and Internet techniques. Such a change in the environment is creating a huge demand for web searching, and the rapid growth of a global search company such as Google for example is considered to result from properly satisfying search demand for users' web contents in line with the changed environment.
As-well known in the art, a question and answer technique for web searching is a technique in which when a user inputs required information in form of a question in a natural language, a system searches for an answer to the user's question from a document and presents it. This question and answer technique is an application technique that comprehensively employs a natural language processing technique, an information extraction technique, and the like, and it is studied for limited domains and documents due to its level of difficulty. Namely, the conventional method uses a scheme of processing a question for a limited domain with a limited answer type and extracting an answer thereto.
In this regard, various technical developments related to such question and answer were made as text retrieval conference (TREC) established in 1992 created a question and answer track in the late 1990s, but it was mostly limited to Factoid questions and some descriptive questions for limited domains due to a technical limitation. And, in the late 2000s, a technical advancement has been achieved to process even a comprehensive question and answer type for an open domain in the question and answer technique in line with the development of a language processing technique, an information extraction technique, a meaning analysis technique, and the like.
As described above, over the flood of web contents and information growing in arithmetical procession, the existing information searching has a limitation in satisfying users' demands for information, and in order to overcome this, various discussions and techniques for a web environment such as a web 2.0, a semantic web, and the like, are mentioned. However, the eventual purpose of such discussions is how to precisely discover information suitable for the users' demand and favorably present it. As a result, the eventual purpose of the web technique will be a question and answer technique.
Namely, because the conventional method simply processes a question for domains limited to limited answer types and extracts an answer thereto, there is a limitation in satisfying users' demands (e.g., the efficiency of document searching, accuracy of extraction of an answer, etc.) for information searching.

Question type and domain identifying apparatus and method

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


In one aspect, non-invasive methods are described in which combinations of certain battery parameter values are used to identify whether metal plating (e.g., lithium plating) has occurred during charging of a battery. In response to the detection of metal plating and/or conditions associated with metal plating, one or more characteristics of a charge process may be adjusted or adapted to maintain battery parameter values within a specified range. In some cases, after detection of metal plating, a battery charge process may be adjusted or adapted to remove metal plating from a battery's anode by a discharge pulse.

By design, lithium ions are incorporated into the active anode material of a lithium ion battery during the charge phase of a battery cycle and withdrawn from the material during the discharge phase. Frequently, the active anode material can incorporate a relatively large amount of lithium per unit volume or weight. Examples of such materials include silicon and carbonaceous materials such as graphite.
For carbon-based anodes, the reaction isX e−+X Li++C→LixC  Eqn 1
If lithium ions arrive at the anode faster than they can intercalate into the anode material, some lithium ions are reduced to metallic lithium on the surface of anode material particles. This is known as lithium plating.X e−+X Li+→X Li  Eqn 2
In such processes, lithium ions that are not successfully incorporated into the anode material deposit as metallic lithium on the anode. When lithium plating happens, it typically happens toward the end of a charge process, when the potential of the anode is at its most negative, and closest to the potential of lithium metal. Thus, lithium plating typically occurs when the state of charge (SOC) is high, e.g., around 90-100%. Various factors influence the degree to which plating happens. Among them are the choice and conductivity of electrolyte formulations, the balance between anode and cathode capacities and surface areas, and the conditions under which the cell is operated (e.g., temperature and charge rate).
Once plating begins, it can lead to further plating, resulting in a number of negative consequences. These include (a) permanent loss of cyclable lithium, which reduces the overall cell capacity, (b) small short circuits caused by metallic lithium dendrites, which reduce the battery's coulombic efficiency, (c) irreversible consumption of electrolyte by reaction with the metallic lithium, and (d) safety risks due to possible dendrite formation, which can lead to large shorts and thermal runaway and, in worst case scenarios, explosive energy release.
Detrimental lithium plating is described in various sources including (1) a presentation titled "Lithium Plating in Lithium-Ion Cells," which was presented by the Aerospace corporation (Zimmerman, Albert H., and Quinzio, Michael V.) at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Battery Workshop on Nov. 16, 2010, (2) an online publication titled "Li Ion Battery Aging, Degradation, and Failure," by Harris, Stephen J., published electronically at lithiumbatteryresearch.com on or before Mar. 15, 2017, (3) an article titled "Lithium-ion batteries: Phenomenon of 'lithium plating' during the charging process observed," by Heddergott A., published by Science Daily on Sep. 3, 2014, and (4) a research paper titled "Lithium plating behavior in lithium-ion cells," by B. V. Ratnakumar and M. C. Smart, published on Apr. 10, 2010 in ECS Transactions 25.36 (2010): 241-252. Each of these references is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
In general metal plating is undesirable and should be minimized.

Method of detecting metal plating in intercalation cells


A document device, including an input scanner and printer, is installed in an automobile. The document device can transmit and receive image data wirelessly, and further interacts with a Global Positioning System (GPS) device within the automobile to determine the location of the automobile. Aspects of documents based on received image data, and the destinations of transmitted image data, can be made dependent on the location of the automobile at any time. Received image data is retained in memory and printed out when the car is in a predetermined condition, such as being turned on.

The present invention relates to the transmission of documents in the context of document devices, such as printers and scanners, which are installed in automobiles.
Document devices exploiting digital technology, such as electronic printers, input scanners, facsimiles, digital copiers, and the like, are well known in the office context. Another possible useful context for such document devices is in automobiles. In the automobile context, certain unique requirements and opportunities arise which are not anticipated in the office context. The present invention is directed to systems and methods which address these requirements and opportunities.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,896,190 and 5,420,701 show designs of highly miniaturized, battery-powered document devices, such as usable as facsimile devices.
The MobileDoc(trademark) system, described in a press release entitled xe2x80x9cXerox(copyright) Launches Industry""s First System to Send Documents by Cell Phones, Pagers,xe2x80x9d describes a wireless means for transmitting and retrieving image data relating to documents. An overview of the system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,321.
The OnStar(trademark) system, information about which is available as of the filing hereof at www.onstar.com, is a system in which a central information source, which may include a human advisor, can directly contact a particular automobile and interact with the automobile, such as by remotely unlocking doors, or detecting that the airbags have been activated. The means for this contact can be through a direct satellite connection, or a public cellular-phone system.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of operating a document device installed in an automobile, the document device including a printer, a memory, and means for accepting external signals, comprising the steps of accepting external signals and storing the external signals as input image data in the memory, and when the automobile is turned on, indicating that input image data is in the memory.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of operating a document device installed in an automobile, the document device including a selection interface, printer, a memory, and a transceiver for sending and accepting signals, comprising the steps of selecting, at the selection interface, a title relating to a data set; sending a signal related to the title to a station; and receiving from the station image signals related to the title, the printer printing an image based on the image signals.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of operating a document device installed in an automobile, the document device including a printer, comprising the steps of accepting an instruction from outside the automobile; and, as a result of receiving said instruction, making image data available to be printed by the printer.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of communicating to a document device, the document device including a printer, comprising the steps of wirelessly transmitting to the document device an instruction; and, as a result of receiving said instruction, the document device making image data available to be printed by the printer.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of operating a document device, the document device having associated therewith an input scanner for recording image data, means for determining a location of the document device, and means for transmitting image data comprising the steps of: recording image data; determining a location of the document device; selecting a destination a result of the determining step; and wirelessly transmitting at least a portion of the image data to the selected destination.

Document communication systems for use in automobiles


Methods and apparatus supporting enhanced discovery operations in peer to peer networks are described. Peer discovery, based on direct peer to peer discovery between two mobile nodes can be somewhat limited, e.g., due to power limitations, processing power, and/or channel conditions. An access point, e.g., base station, monitors for and receives peer discovery signals conveying a set of identifiers from a wireless communications device. The access point retransmits at least one identifier in the set in a wireless peer to peer communications channel. Thus the access point effectively extends the peer discovery range for wireless communications devices utilizing the peer to peer network. Wireless communications devices can monitor for and recover the rebroadcast peer discovery signals from access points. Thus, via access point signaling a wireless communications device can be made situationally aware of other devices of interest which would be otherwise outside its discovery detection range.

In the field of wireless communications there has been a trend to make available and utilize spectrum for various types of networks in addition to conventional cellular networks. One such network type which has been gaining in popularity and utilization is a peer to peer network in which communications occur in a relatively local vicinity.
Peer to peer networks may have various advantages over cellular networks. For example, peer to peer networks may be well suited to communicate small amounts of payload information directly with low overhead. In addition peer to peer networks may be well suited to efficient communications in a small local region where channel conditions between the various devices are good. However, peer to peer networks may have some limitations in comparison to typical cellular networks, e.g., in terms of device discovery range and device communications range. In typical cellular network communications, an access point with its antenna situated in a favorable site, e.g., a high location, serves as an intermediary for mobile nodes in its cell. In addition the access point is coupled via a backhaul network to other access points providing a very large communications range. In contrast, in a peer to peer network wireless communications devices which may be interested in communicating with each other may have less than favorable channel conditions until they are very close, e.g., due to obstructions. As a result, the range and/or reliability of discovery between peer devices in a peer to peer network can be limited. This tends to negatively impact the effectiveness of utilizing a peer to peer network.
Based on the above discussion there is a need for new methods and apparatus that can improve discovery operations and/or increase discovery range in a peer to peer network.

Methods and apparatus for peer discovery in a communications system


Methods and systems for generating X-ray illumination from a laser produced plasma (LPP) employing a low atomic number, cryogenic target are presented herein. A highly focused, short duration laser pulse is directed to a low atomic number, cryogenically frozen target, igniting a plasma. In some embodiments, the target material includes one or more elements having an atomic number less than 19. In some embodiments, the low atomic number, cryogenic target material is coated on the surface of a cryogenically cooled drum configured to rotate and translate with respect to incident laser light. In some embodiments, the low atomic number, cryogenic LPP light source generates multiple line or broadband X-ray illumination in a soft X-ray (SXR) spectral range used to measure structural and material characteristics of semiconductor structures. In some embodiments, Reflective, Small-Angle X-ray Scatterometry measurements are performed with a low atomic number, cryogenic LPP illumination source as described herein.

Semiconductor devices such as logic and memory devices are typically fabricated by a sequence of processing steps applied to a specimen. The various features and multiple structural levels of the semiconductor devices are formed by these processing steps. For example, lithography among others is one semiconductor fabrication process that involves generating a pattern on a semiconductor wafer. Additional examples of semiconductor fabrication processes include, but are not limited to, chemical-mechanical polishing, etch, deposition, and ion implantation. Multiple semiconductor devices may be fabricated on a single semiconductor wafer and then separated into individual semiconductor devices.
Metrology processes are used at various steps during a semiconductor manufacturing process to detect defects on wafers to promote higher yield. A number of metrology based techniques including scatterometry, diffractometry, and reflectometry implementations and associated analysis algorithms are commonly used to characterize critical dimensions, film thicknesses, composition and other parameters of nanoscale structures.
Traditionally, scatterometry critical dimension measurements are performed on targets consisting of thin films and/or repeated periodic structures. During device fabrication, these films and periodic structures typically represent the actual device geometry and material structure or an intermediate design. As devices (e.g., logic and memory devices) move toward smaller nanometer-scale dimensions, characterization becomes more difficult. Devices incorporating complex three-dimensional geometry and materials with diverse physical properties contribute to characterization difficulty.
Accurate information concerning the material composition and shape of nanostructures is limited in the process development environment of a leading-edge front-end semiconductor fabrication facility. Scatterometric optical metrology systems rely on accurate geometric and dispersion models to avoid measurement bias. With limited knowledge of material composition and shape of nanostructures available apriori, measurement recipe development and validation is a slow and tedious process. For example, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images are used to guide optical scatterometry model development, but TEM imaging is slow and destructive.
Scatterometric optical metrology tools utilizing infrared to visible light measure zero-order diffraction signals from sub-wavelength structures. As device critical dimensions continue to shrink scatterometric optical metrology sensitivity and capability is decreasing. Furthermore, when absorbing materials are present in the structure under measurement, penetration and scattering of illumination light in the optical region (e.g., 0.5-10 ev) limits the utility of conventional optical metrology systems.
Similarly, electron beam based metrology systems struggle to penetrate semiconductor structures due to absorption and scattering of the illuminating, backscattered, and secondary emission electrons.
Atomic force microscopes (AFM) and scanning-tunneling microscopes (STM) are able to achieve atomic resolution, but they can only probe the surface of the specimen. In addition, AFM and STM microscopes require long scanning times that make these technologies impractical in a high volume manufacturing (HVM) setting.
Scanning electron microscopes (SEM) achieve intermediate resolution levels, but are unable to penetrate structures to sufficient depth. Thus, high-aspect ratio holes are not characterized well. In addition, the required charging of the specimen has an adverse effect on imaging performance.
X-ray based scatterometry systems have shown promise to address challenging measurement applications. For example, Transmission, Small-Angle X-Ray Scatterometry (T-SAXS) systems employing photons at a hard X-ray energy level (>15 keV), Grazing Incidence, Small-Angle X-Ray Scatterometry (GI-SAXS) systems operating near the critical angles for reflection with photon energies above 8 keV, and Reflective Small Angle X-ray Scatterometry (RSAXS) systems employing photons in a soft x-ray (SXR) region (80-5,000 eV) have exhibited the potential to address different metrology applications within the semiconductor industry.
In some embodiments, RSAXS systems offer a unique combination of sensitivity and speed. Nominal grazing angles of incidence in a range between 5 and 20 degrees offers the flexibility to select optimal angles of incidence to achieve a desired penetration into the structure under measurement and maximize measurement information content with a small beam spot size (e.g., less than 50 μm).
Although X-ray based metrology systems offer attractive solutions to current and future semiconductor measurement applications, the development of a reliable and cost effective X-ray illumination source has been challenging. A significant amount of effort has been expended to develop various versions of a Laser Produced Plasma (LPP) X-ray illumination source. In an LPP X-ray illumination source, a target material is irradiated by an excitation source in a vacuum chamber to produce plasma. In some examples, the excitation source is a pulsed laser beam.
In general, the peak emission observed in optically thin plasmas of relatively high atomic number (high-Z) elements in the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) and Soft X-Ray (SXR) spectral regions follows a quasi-Moseley's law as described by H. Ohashi, et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 169903, 2015, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The peak wavelength, λpeak, is illustrated in equation (1), where R∞ is the Rydberg constant and Z is the atomic number of the element undergoing stimulated emission.
                              λ          peak                =                                                            (                                                      2                                                              1                      .                      8                                                            6                                    ±                                      1                                                              2                      .                      0                                                            9                                                  )                                            R                ∞                                                                [                              Z                -                                  (                                                            2                                                                    3                        .                        2                                                                  3                                        ±                                                                  2                        .                        8                                                                  7                                                        )                                            ]                                            -                          (                                                                    1                    .                    5                                                      2                                ±                                                      0                    .                    1                                                      2                                            )                                                          (        1        )
As the atomic number, Z, increases from Z=50 (Tin) to Z=83 (Bismuth), the emission peak shifts from 13.5 nm to 4.0 nm. A Tin based LPP illumination source offers optimal conversion efficiency for EUV lithography at 13.5 nanometers. In addition, light generated by a Tin based LPP illumination source is efficiently reflected by Molybdenum/Silicon Multi-Layer Mirrors (MLM). As a result, a LPP target element having a relatively high atomic number is typically selected for EUV applications. A Tin based illumination source is currently employed by the leading manufacturer of EUV lithography tools (ASML).
In some embodiments, EUV or SXR radiation is produced by electrical discharge of tin for EUV lithography or EUV/SXR metrology applications. A plasma is ignited in a gaseous medium between at least two electrodes in a discharge space. The gaseous medium is produced by partial vaporization of Tin by a laser beam from the surface of rotational disks in the discharge space. Additional description is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,427,766, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Unfortunately, the difficulties associated with debris mitigation and target replenishment associated with Tin significantly limit EUV tool availability and lead to extremely high tool cost. Tin debris deposition on the chamber walls and optical elements of EUV tools is significant. In some examples, hydrogen buffer gas is employed to protect and clean optics contaminated by Tin debris. However, implementation of hydrogen buffer gas gives rise to high cost to address safety issues.
In an attempt to avoid the challenges associated with the use of Tin targets, Xenon (Z=54) has been considered as a suitable LPP target. Inert, cryogenic Xenon ice employed as a LPP target is chemically inactive and vaporizes instantly at room temperature. Thus, debris generated by the Xenon LPP target is not deposited on optical components. Xenon has a series of Unresolved Transition Arrays (UTA) in several charge states in the EUV and SXR spectral ranges. Thus, Xenon has the potential to generate useful emission for lithography and metrology applications.
In some embodiments, solid Xenon ice target material is formed on the surface of a drum cooled by liquid nitrogen. A laser pulse irradiates a small area of solid Xenon target material deposited on the drum. The drum is rotated, translated, or both, to present new solid Xenon target material at the irradiation site. Each laser pulse generates a crater in the layer of solid Xenon target material. The craters are refilled by a replenishment system that provides new Xenon target material to the drum surface. Additional description is provided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,320,937, 8,963,110, 9,422,978, 9,544,984, 9,918,375, and 10,021,773, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
In some embodiments, a stream of liquid Xenon target material is employed as an LPP target. In one embodiment, a Xenon liquefier unit is connected to a Xenon mass flow (gas) system within a vacuum chamber, along with a Xenon recovery unit. The Xenon recovery unit is connected to the Xenon liquefier unit via a capillary tube. A stream of liquid Xenon flows from the Xenon liquefier unit to the Xenon recovery unit through the capillary tube. The capillary tube includes an aperture that exposes the stream of liquid Xenon to a focused laser beam that induces a plasma emitting EUV/SXR radiation. Additional description is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 8,258,485, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
In some other embodiments, a droplet of liquid Xenon target material is employed as an LPP target. In one embodiments, Xenon is pressurized and cooled such that it liquefies. The liquid Xenon is pumped through a nozzle as a jet. As the jet emerges from the nozzle, it begins to decay. As the jet decays, Xenon droplets are formed. The droplets may be liquid or solid depending on conditions. The droplets travel to a site in a vacuum environment where the droplets are irradiated by a laser beam to produce an EUV/SXR emitting plasma. Additional description is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 9,295,147 and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2017/0131129A1, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Unfortunately, the implementation of a droplet based LPP target, such as Tin or Xenon droplets, introduces additional challenges. To reliably stimulate plasma, droplet position stability is critical. For suitable conversion efficiency, the droplets must reach the irradiation location accurately to ensure sufficient coupling between the target material droplet and the focused laser beam. The environment from the nozzle to the irradiation site significantly affects position stability. Important factors include path length, temperature and pressure conditions along the path, and any gas flows along the path. Many of these factors are difficult to control, which leads to suboptimal LPP illumination source performance.
In addition, as a Xenon liquid jet or sequence of droplets travels, a portion of the Xenon evaporates and generates a Xenon gas cloud around the emission site. Xenon gas strongly absorbs EUV/SXR light leading to highly inefficient extraction of useable EUV/SXR light from the LPP light source.
Also, Xenon supply is limited and costly. Xenon is a trace component of the atmosphere (87 parts per billion). A complicated and costly air separation process is required to extract Xenon from the atmosphere. In response, costly recycling equipment is required to recapture as much Xenon as possible from the LPP illumination source environment to minimize Xenon losses.
As a LPP target material, Xenon atoms are highly ionized and excited to various energetic ionic states under electron impact or laser field. One or more buffer gases, such as Argon, Neon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Hydrogen, are employed to slow down and eventually stop the energetic Xenon ions to prevent etching of the chamber and optical elements. To recover the Xenon swept away by the buffer gases, the gasses within the LPP chamber are continuously evacuated by vacuum pumps and sent to a rare gas recovery unit. The gas recovery unit separates the Xenon from the buffer gases and purifies the recovered Xenon using one or more gas separation technologies.
Unfortunately, a Xenon gas recovery unit is very costly and does not reach 100% recycling efficiency. The long-term cost of ownership (COO) of a tool utilizing a Xenon gas recovery system can be very significant. FIG. 1 depicts a plot 10 illustrative of the annual cost of ownership due to lost Xenon as a function of nominal flow rate of Xenon for a tool in continuous operation. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the annual cost is plotted for different recovery efficiencies. Plotlines 11, 12, 13, and 14 depict the annual costs associated with recovery efficiencies of 98%, 98.5%, 99%, and 99.5%, respectively. Each of these recovery efficiencies is very difficult to achieve in practice, yet annual costs remain quite high.
Finally, the SXR emission spectrum of Xenon is broadband, similar to other high atomic number elements. The delivery optics employed to extract the SXR illumination from the LPP illumination source and deliver the SXR illumination to a semiconductor wafer are limited in their ability to maintain spectral purity and minimize photon flux loss because SXR optical elements typically trade off photon flux for spectral purity.
In summary, the semiconductor industry continues to shrink device dimensions and increase their complexity. To enable efficient process optimization and yield ramp, new in-line metrology tools are required to provide process developers with accurate structural information in a fast and non-destructive way. X-ray based metrology systems show promise, but improvements to a LPP illumination source employed to provide X-rays to the structures under measurement are desired.

Laser produced plasma illuminator with low atomic number cryogenic target


A fracturing manifold system including a first plurality of junctions mounted on a support structure and fluidly connected via conduit, individual ones of the first plurality of junctions configured to receive fracturing fluid from at least one fracturing pump and the first plurality of junctions including a first terminal junction. The fracturing manifold system further includes a fracturing head fluidly connected to the first plurality of junctions. The fracturing manifold system is configurable between a first configuration in which the fracturing head is mounted at a location proximate an end of the support structure and a second configuration in which an additional junction is mounted on the first support structure at the location, the additional junction is fluidly connected to the first plurality of junctions, a second plurality of junctions is fluidly connected to the additional junction, and the fracturing head is fluidly connected to the second plurality of junctions.

Hydraulic fracturing is a well stimulation technique that typically involves pumping hydraulic fracturing fluid into a wellbore at a rate and pressure sufficient to form factures in a rock formation surrounding the wellbore. This well stimulation technique often enhances the natural fracturing of a rock formation in order to increase the permeability of the rock formation, thereby improving recovery of water, oil, natural gas, and/or other fluids. In order to fracture such rock formations, the hydraulic fracturing fluid is injected into the wellbore at pressures and rates sufficient to exceed a fracture gradient of the target formation. In some conventional arrangements, a series of pumps is used to pressurize the hydraulic fracturing fluid. A fracturing manifold receives the pressurized hydraulic fracturing fluid from the pumps and delivers the hydraulic fracturing fluid to an injection point (e.g., a frac tree) at the necessary pump rate.
In order to reduce setup and teardown times, fracturing manifolds are often transported between jobsites on trailers. However, trailers are limited by structural size and weight restrictions and by local government restrictions. Furthermore, current fracturing manifold trailers lack modularity in the number of junctions provided and the location of a fracturing head in a fracturing manifold system.
An example hydraulic fracturing manifold is described in U.S. Pat. No. 10,662,749 (hereinafter referred to as the '749 reference). In particular, the '749 reference describes a trailer mounted hydraulic fracturing manifold. The trailer mounted fracturing manifold includes a specific number of cross junctions that are mounted on the trailer and receive fracturing fluid from fracturing pumps. The '749 reference further describes a modular manifold (or secondary manifold) that may be coupled to the trailer mounted fracturing manifold in order to provide additional cross junctions. The '749 reference does not, however, describe a trailer mounted fracturing manifold that includes a fracturing head that is moveable between various configurations in a modular fracturing manifold system. For instance, the '749 reference describes that a fracturing head can be attached to an end of the trailer mounted fracturing manifold but is not included on the trailer. As a result, the system described in the '749 reference is not configured to, among other things, provide a trailer-mounted hydraulic fracturing manifold that includes a fracturing head that is configurable between multiple positions in multiple configurations.
Example embodiments of the present disclosure are directed toward overcoming the deficiencies described above.

Systems and method for providing a modular hydraulic fracturing manifold


Improved method and apparatus for parallel processing. One embodiment provides a multiprocessor computer system that includes a first and second node controller, a number of processors being connected to each node controller, a memory connected to each controller, a first input/output system connected to the first node controller, and a communications network connected between the node controllers. The first node controller includes: a crossbar unit to which are connected a memory port, an input/output port, a network port, and a plurality of independent processor ports. A first and a second processor port connected between the crossbar unit and a first subset and a second subset, respectively, of the processors. In some embodiments of the system, the first node controller is fabricated onto a single integrated-circuit chip. Optionally, the memory is packaged on plugable memory/directory cards wherein each card includes a plurality of memory chips including a first subset dedicated to holding memory data and a second subset dedicated to holding directory data. Further, the memory port includes a memory data port including a memory data bus and a memory address bus coupled to the first subset of memory chips, and a directory data port including a directory data bus and a directory address bus coupled to the second subset of memory chips. In some such embodiments, the ratio of (memory data space) to (directory data space) on each card is set to a value that is based on a size of the multiprocessor computer system.

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for parallel multiprocessor computer systems and more specifically to a multiprocessor node-controller circuit and method.
Multiprocessor (MP) systems are computing systems comprised of a few or up to hundreds or thousands of processing elements (PEs). While the power of a multiple-instruction multiple-data (MIMD) MP computer system lies in its ability to execute independent threads of code simultaneously, the inherently asynchronous states of the PEs (with respect to each other) makes it difficult in such a system to enforce a deterministic order of events when necessary. Program sequences involving interaction between multiple PEs such as coordinated communication, sequential access to shared resources, controlled transitions between parallel regions, etc., may require synchronization (such as barrier and/or eureka synchronization) of the PEs in order to assure proper execution. One such invention having routers, networks, and synchronization apparatus and methods is described further in copending U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,303, issued Jul. 4, 2000, entitled xe2x80x9cSERIALIZED, RACE-FREE VIRTUAL BARRIER NETWORKxe2x80x9d.
Some MP systems having symmetric distributed multiprocessors use a coherent model of cache. One such system is described in application Ser. No. 08/971,184 filed Nov. 17, 1997 entitled xe2x80x9cMULTI-DIMENSIONAL CACHE COHERENCE DIRECTORY STRUCTURExe2x80x9d.
There is a need in the art for an improved node controller apparatus and method to improve communications between various portions of an MP system. Further, there is a need for a node controller that will xe2x80x9cscale wellxe2x80x9d providing excellent performance-cost benefits for both small and large systems. Further, there is a need for a node controller that has very high flexibility, performance and speed.
The present invention provides a method and apparatus that facilitates highly parallel processing. The present invention includes a node controller usable in both small and large multiprocessor systems, and that provides superior performance-cost benefits across a large range of system prices and capabilities. In some embodiments, this node controller is implemented on a single chip that provides two or more processor ports, each supporting single-processor and/or multiprocessor subsystems (each optionally including local cache memories), as well as one or more of the following port types: input/output (I/O), memory, directory, and network interface.
Traditionally, distributed multiprocessors are built using a separate directory controller along with a memory controller, connected to the network controller, the input/output interface, and processors. In various embodiments of the present invention, the memory controller (that optionally includes a directory controller that provides cache coherence functions) and the I/O controller and the network controller and put them all on one chip that includes a plurality of processor ports. This provides a couple of advantages. First, transmissions between any of the nodes are direct, on chip, and are implemented using a single protocol, so that transmissions do not have to traverse as many chip boundaries. Second, by imbedding all of this onto a single chip, a full crossbar design is utilized inside the chip. This provides non-blocking communication whereby a remote node can talk directly to the local node""s memory while the local node is talking to its I/O system with no queuing between those communications. In contrast, on a bus-type system, one of the communications would have to wait for the other to complete. These can go on simultaneously in embodiments of the present invention that use a crossbar. Further, by building all of the stuff into a single chip, it is more cost effective to build a smaller system out of this same architecture because there is not the overhead of having a lot of extra chips to support a large system configuration when one is not building a large system.
A first aspect of the present invention provides a multiprocessor computer system (for example, a small multiprocessor system having only two node controllers connected to one another, or a multiprocessor system having up to hundreds or thousands of node controllers connected together through a router network). One such embodiment of the system includes a first node controller, a second node controller, a first plurality of processors operatively coupled to the first node controller, a second plurality of processors operatively coupled to the second node controller, a first memory operatively coupled to the first node controller, a first input/output system operatively coupled to the first node controller, and an interprocessor communications network operatively coupled between the first node controller and the second node controller. In this embodiment, the first node controller includes: a crossbar unit, a memory port operatively coupled between the crossbar unit and the first memory, an input/output port operatively coupled between the crossbar unit and the first input/output system, a network port operatively coupled between the crossbar unit and the interprocessor communications network, and a plurality of independent processor ports, including a first processor port operatively coupled between the crossbar unit and a first subset of the first plurality of processors, and a second processor port operatively coupled between the crossbar unit and a second subset of the first plurality of processors. In some embodiments of the system, the first node controller is fabricated onto a single integrated-circuit chip.
In some embodiments of the system, the memory is packaged on a plurality of plugable memory/directory cards wherein each card includes a plurality of memory chips including a first subset of memory chips dedicated to holding memory data and a second subset of memory chips dedicated to holding directory data. Further, the memory port includes a memory data port including a memory data bus and a memory address bus coupled to the first subset of memory chips, and a directory data port including a directory data bus and a directory address bus coupled to the second subset of memory chips. In some such embodiments, the ratio of (data space in the first subset of memory chips) to (data space in the second subset of memory chips) on each of the memory/directory cards is set to a value based on a size of the multiprocessor computer system.
In some embodiments of the system, the crossbar unit selectively combines two serially received doublewords of data into a single quadword micropacket for transmission through the crossbar unit, and wherein each doubleword contains at least 64 bits of data and the single quadword contains at least 128 bits of data.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a method usable with one or more of the above described systems. The method includes transmitting data between the memory port and the first processor port, between the memory port and the second processor port, between the memory port and the input/output port, and between the memory port and the network port.
Some embodiments of the method further include transmitting data directly between the first node controller and the second node controller that are directly connected to one another by the interprocessor communications network.
Some embodiments of the method further include transmitting data indirectly between the first node controller and the second node controller through a router chip that is also connected to one or more other node controllers.

Multiprocessor node controller circuit and method