The polarization beam splitter of the present invention includes a polarized beam splitting layer having a structure in which a plurality of gratings parallel to a first direction are periodically disposed in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, and of light incident on the polarization beam splitter, light having a chiefly polarized component parallel to the first direction is transmitted therethrough, and light having a chiefly polarized component parallel to the second direction is reflected.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a polarization beam splitter used in lights of a plurality of wavelengths or bands, and relates, for example, to various optical apparatuses such as an image taking optical system, a projection optical system (projector), an image processing apparatus and a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
There is known a polarization beam splitter using dielectric material multi-layer film comprising two kinds of media. As shown in FIG. 12 of the accompanying drawings, it uses transmission (19) at Brewster's angle regarding P polarized light (18) incident on multi-layer film 17, and effects reflection (21) by the interference of the multi-layer film regarding S polarized light (20).
Generally, when the refractive index of the medium on the incidence side with an interface as the boundary is defined as n1 and the refractive index of the medium on the emergence side is defined as n2, the Brewster's angle θB is given by the following expression (1):tan θB=n2/n1  (1)
It is necessary that this relation is satisfied by a prism medium and a plurality of media forming the dielectric material. Among the refractive index np of the prism medium, the refractive index nH of a high refractive index layer forming the dielectric material and the refractive index nL of a low refractive index layer, it is necessary that the following relational expression is satisfied.
                              n          P                =                                                            n                H                2                                                          n                L                2                                                                    sin                2                                                                            θ                  B                                                                  (                                                            n                      H                      2                                        +                                          n                      L                      2                                                        )                                                                                (        2        )
Regarding the S polarized light, reflecting film by multi-layer film interference is constituted by the use of the reflectances of the medium H of the high refractive index layer and the medium L of the low refractive index layer. It is possible to realize reflecting film for the entire area of visible light by 20 to 40 layers. Regarding the S polarized light, by increasing the number of the layers of the film, it is possible to secure an angle characteristic and a wavelength characteristic widely.
On the other hand, as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,925, there is known a polarization beam splitter sandwiching an adhesive agent having birefringence, instead of dielectric material multi-layer film, between prisms. This uses the refractive index difference of a birefringent material between a normal ray and an abnormal ray, and the refractive index difference is not great, but yet by using it at a great incidence angle of about 60°, one polarized light is selectively totally reflected to thereby realize polarized light separation.
For total reflection to occur, the incidence angle need be a critical angle θC or greater, and the critical angle θC is given by the following expression:sin θC=n2/n1  (3)
Also, as a polarization beam splitter using sub-wavelength structure (SWS) having a period of a used wavelength or less, there is known one as shown in FIG. 11 of the accompanying drawings wherein multi-layer film is etched into a rectangular grating shape. Here, the wavelength used is a wavelength supposed to be used in an optical element. When the supposed wavelength has a band, the wavelength band is defined as a used wavelength area, and the central wavelength thereof is defined as the used wavelength. For example, in the case of an optical element supposed to be used in visible light, the used wavelength is defined as the central wavelength of a visible area even if light incident on the element includes lights of the other wavelength areas than the visible area infrared to ultraviolet. High refractive index layers (H layers) 15 of TiO2 or the like and low refractive index layers (L layers) 16 of SiO2 or the like were alternately laminated, and they were etched so that the ratio of the pitch (period) of periodic structure to the medium (grating width), i.e., a filling factor f, might be about 0.5. The period of the rectangular grating forms structural birefringence as structure shorter than the wavelength.
In a rectangular grating as shown in FIG. 8A of the accompanying drawings wherein a medium 22 of a refractive index n1 and a medium 23 of a refractive index n2 (in this case, the air between gratings) are repeated at a ratio of a:b (i.e., the filling factor f=a/(a+b)), when a direction parallel to the grating is defined as TE and a direction orthogonal to the grating is defined as TM, it is known that the structural birefringence in the direction TE and the direction TM is represented by the following expressions (4) and (5), respectively:
                              TE                                                                          n            TE                          =                                                            an                1                2                            +                              bn                2                2                                                    a              +              b                                                          (        4        )                                          TM                                                                          n            TM                          =                                            a              +              b                                                      a                                  n                  1                  2                                            +                              b                                  n                  2                  2                                                                                (        5        )
At this time, irrespective of the ratio of a:b, nTE>nTM and therefore, in the direction TE, the refractive index difference between the H layer and the L layer is great, and in the direction TM, the refractive index difference between the H layer and the L layer is small. When an appropriate prism medium is adopted, the condition of the Brewster's angle is satisfied in the direction TM and the P polarized light can be transmitted. The thickness of each layer is independent on the condition of the Brewster's angle and therefore, by optimizing the film thicknesses of the H layer and the L layer, it is possible to form dielectric material multi-layer film. Thereby, the S polarized light is reflected and the function as a polarization beam splitter is obtained. This more heightens the degree of selection of a medium satisfying the condition of the Brewster's angle in P polarized light than a polarization beam splitter constituted by dielectric material thin film alone. Therefore, at the same time, it is possible to secure the reflectance in the S polarized light high. This leads to the feature that a polarization beam splitter covering the entire visible light area can be constituted by the order of 20 layers.

Polarization beam splitter and optical system using the same, and image displaying apparatus, using the same


Disclosed are embodiments for modeling the total resistance (Rtot) of a contact bar. In the embodiments, sections of the contact bar are demarcated depending upon the location of an additional interconnect structure, which is on the contact bar, and relative to a diffusion region, which is traversed and contacted by the contact bar. For each of the sections, section-specific current density boundary conditions are established, section-specific sheet current density expressions are developed, which assume that current flow is continuous in the normal direction relative to each boundary between any two adjacent sections and which satisfy both the section-specific current density boundary conditions and a stable current flow continuity equation, and a section-specific resistance expression is developed using the section-specific sheet current density expressions. Finally, the total resistance expression for the contact bar is developed by adding the section-specific resistance expressions for all of the sections.

1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments disclosed herein relate to modeling parasitic resistances in integrated circuits and, more particularly, to embodiments of a method, a system and a program storage device for modeling the total contact resistance (Rtot) of a contact bar that electrically connects a plurality of semiconductor fins to an additional interconnect structure (e.g., another contact bar, a via or a via bar).
2. Description of the Related Art
Parasitic contact resistance is one of the larger parasitic resistances that will impact the performance of very large scale integration (VLSI) circuits, such as ring oscillators, logic gates (e.g., NAND gates, NOR gates, etc.), etc. Thus, during integrated circuit design, accurate modeling of the total resistance (Rtot) of contacts and contact bars is very important. Currently, the total resistance of a contact bar, which traverses and is electrically connected to a diffusion region of a planar field effect transistor (FET) or is electrically connected to multiple semiconductor fins of a multi-gate field effect transistor (MUGFET), is determined using an electromagnetic field solver (i.e., an electromagnetic solver), which outputs a numerical value for the total resistance. However, in compact models, a closed-form expression for the total resistance of each contact bar is required, as opposed to a numerical value. Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved method for accurately modeling the total resistance of a contact bar using a closed-form expression.

Method, system, and program storage device for modeling contact bar resistance

International Business Machines Corporation


An installation for the production of a solid product from a powdered material comprises: a powdered material supplier; a die for receiving the material and forming the solid product to be produced; an upper punch which can co-operate in the die and which is driven in translation by a lower motorized cam; and a lower punch which can also co-operate with and in the die and which is driven in translation by an upper motorized cam. The upper and lower cams rotate in a synchronized manner. Moreover, the cam(s) are provided with an outer deformable profile which is intended to provoke particular actions from the punch that is moved in translation thereby.

The invention relates to a system for producing a solid product from a powdery material.
More specifically, it relates to the production of tablets, compressed tablets and other doses more particularly intended for pharmaceutical and chemical uses.
Traditionally, the production of such solid products involves compression of the powdery raw material in a die, this compression being obtained by means of punches that slide into said die, especially an upper punch and a lower punch.
Each of these two punches is therefore powered, for example by means of a connecting rod/crankshaft system that makes it possible to vary the height of translation of said punches.
However, the use of such a system to drive the punches has certain disadvantages which include the significant inherent inertia of the system used.
At the same time, there are also reliability problems in terms of the cohesion of the resulting solid product to the extent that cracking or lack of cohesion of the product is frequently observed resulting in return to its powdery form.
The invention also aims to provide a system capable of simulating all types of machines capable of producing or manufacturing such solid products from a powdery material in order, in particular, to resolve the production problems resulting from operating modes, the particle size of said powdery material, the conditions under which the solid products are produced (humidity, temperature, etc.).
In fact, this problem associated with developing the process for manufacturing said solid products and especially the conditions under which the system intended to produce them is used is crucial, in particular as a cost driver.
This has proved especially true in the pharmaceutical industry where. the cost of the active principle in the composition of the medication is extremely high and, consequently, any lost production due to lack of cohesion of the end product entails huge losses for the manufacturer or laboratory.
The need to produce a system for reliable testing of machines used to produce such solid products is therefore most urgent.
To achieve this, a device intended to achieve the desired objective has been proposed, for example in document FR-A-2,791,602. This device, illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, comprises means of driving the upper and lower punch respectively consisting of a first and second means of transmission kinematically interposed between the motor means and said first and second punches, this means of transmission including a first and a second cam respectively.
This arrangement eliminates sinusoidal movement of the punches associated with the prior art by linear movement which improves the compression phase.
In fact, it is possible to keep the compacted powdery material under pressure and this makes it possible to expel air from it therefore reducing, to a large extent, the risk of bursting and at least disintegration of the solid product thus formed.
In addition, the use of cams makes it possible to easily modify the cycle rate of the punches depending on the nature of the powdery products used and the conditions under which they are produced, therefore enhancing the adaptability of the device.

System for producing a solid product from a powdery material


The oral care appliance comprises: a fluid pump (46); a source of liquid (50); and a source of gas (12); wherein the pump is in operative communication with the sources of liquid and gas to produce a series of gas-injected fluid pulses and/or a jet fluid flow using liquid slugs in a selected sequence directed to a nozzle and from there to the teeth, and a control assembly for selecting pulse flow or slug flow with specific set times and sequence directed to a nozzle assembly (80) and from there to the teeth; wherein the pulses have a pulse width within the range of 0.001-0.5 seconds, a pulse height from 0.1-10 Newtons, a rise/fall time range of 0.5-250 ms, a repetition rate in the range of 2 Hz to 20 Hz, and wherein the gas/liquid mixture range from 40-95% volume to volume gas to liquid, or wherein the fluid slugs in the jet flow have a volume in the range of 0.05-0.5 ml per orifice, a diameter in the range of 0.1-2 mm and a repetition rate within the range of 2 Hz to 20 Hz.

In systems which produce teeth cleaning with a combination of bursts of gas and fluid, such as water, it is important that the gas and fluid are mixed in a way to deliver the greatest efficacy of cleaning. In addition it is important to coordinate the timing of these two functions while still being relatively simple in structure and operation, and sufficiently small to fit within a specific device footprint. Use of separate liquid and gas delivery systems typically have some problems with timing, as well as space constraints and the need for dual power sources.

Oral care appliance using a variable fluid flow


Systems and methods for monitoring changes to a digital file are described. Examples include a computer system for monitoring digital file changes that includes a processing unit that accepts a request to write an input data stream to a first file accessible within the computer system, and a storage device coupled to the processing unit and including a second file (the first file being a virtualized representation of the second file). The processing unit parses an input attribute from the input data stream, wherein the attribute includes an input identifier and an associated input value. The processing unit signals an event if the input attribute matches an identifier designated as a monitored attribute identifier of the second file.

This disclosure relates generally to the field of automated configuration management of computer systems. Computer systems frequently use a number of different files to control, manage and track the configuration and operation of system hardware and software. It is thus important for a configuration management system to track changes to files that might affect the operation of such systems or that provide important and/or sensitive information related to such operation. These files may include system configuration files, log files, critical system files, and application data files, just to name a few examples. Tracking these files may be necessary to provide configuration change audit trails, to identify unauthorized changes, to identify intrusions and intrusion attempts, and to flag and track attempted and actual alterations of audit-related files. This type of file change monitoring is sometimes referred to as "file integrity monitoring." Existing approaches to file change monitoring include periodically parsing the files to identify changes (i.e., "polling" the files), kernel modifications that intercept write operations to the files, and agents that use execution tracing to identify write operations to the files.
One simple polling approach periodically calculates a message digest (also referred to as a checksum or hash code) based on the contents of a monitored file. If the file's hash code differs from a previously calculated and saved hash code, the file has changed and an event is generated indicating that further processing is required. This approach, however, results in events being triggered by any file change, regardless of the change's significance. A more sophisticated polling approach parses a monitored file and then models the file's content to determine whether specific file elements have been changed. This second approach avoids the lack of granularity of the first approach, and only generates events if a file element of interest has changed. Still, because both approaches use polling, there is a delay between the change occurrence and its detection. This detection latency becomes even greater as more files are monitored by a system using this approach, the polling interval being necessarily increased to reduce the load that the file monitoring tasks impose on a computer system.
The use of kernel modifications to intercept write operations directed to monitored files avoids latency issues, as write operations will immediately generate an event. Interception of write operations does not preclude modeling file contents, making it possible to identify the specific parameters being modified so that events are only generated for file element changes of interest. However, such kernel modifications are difficult to maintain across multiple platforms, as they may conflict with functional or security patches released over time by the operating system vendor. Consequently, many system users and operators may not be willing to allow such operating system modifications.
Agents that perform application tracing detect changes in monitored files by tracing the execution path of every task executing on a particular computer system and generating an event when a write-locked file handle is opened for a file of interest. While this approach also avoids polling latency issues, it can impose significant overhead on the monitored system. Furthermore, the use of an agent-based architecture, required for this approach, is not always desirable.

Systems and methods for digital file change monitoring


A PHY chip for a synchronous Ethernet system includes N network input/output (I/O) ports, a first external recovered clock input, a first recovered clock output, and a first clock multiplexer having a plurality of data inputs, a select input, and an output coupled to the first recovered clock output, at least one of the data inputs coupled to a first recovered clock from a respective one of the N network I/O ports, a first additional data input coupled to the first external recovered clock input.

The present invention relates to synchronous Ethernet systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to synchronous Ethernet clock recovery.
A system supporting Synchronous Ethernet should be capable of using two clocks recovered from any two Ethernet ports as its primary and secondary timing references. This is commonly implemented by having each Ethernet physical layer device (PHY device, or PHY chip) provide two or more clock outputs, all of which are connected to the Synchronous Ethernet timing element (e.g. a digital phase locked loop (DPLL) device).
A large number of clocks must be connected to this timing element if the system has a large number of Ethernet ports. All the recovered clocks occupy printed circuit board (PCB) routing space and either require a DPLL with many clock inputs or there must be a separate input clock multiplexer circuit placed in front of the DPLL. This increases the PCB cost and the component cost.
FIG. 1 shows an exemplary 48-port Ethernet system 10 implemented using twelve four-port PHY chips (two of which are represented by reference numerals 12 and 14). The four network I/O ports of the PHY chip #1 12 are connected to interfaces to the network by printed circuit board traces that are indicated at reference numeral 16 and the four network I/O ports of the PHY chip #12 14 are connected to interfaces to the network by printed circuit board traces that are indicated at reference numeral 18. Four ports are connected to system interfaces such as Ethernet MAC interfaces to the system from the PHY chip #1 12 and the PHY chip #12 14 on printed circuit board traces that are shown collectively at reference numerals 20 and 22, respectively.
The two recovered clocks from each PHY chip are provided to a multi-input digital phase locked loop (DPLL) 24 inside of the synchronous Ethernet timing element 26. The synchronous Ethernet timing element 26 is separate from the PHY chips. As shown in FIG. 1, the recovered clock A from the PHY chip #1 12 is connected to the synchronous Ethernet timing element 26 by a printed circuit board trace shown at reference numeral 28 and the recovered clock B from the PHY chip #1 12 is connected to the synchronous Ethernet timing element 26 by a printed circuit board trace shown at reference numeral 30. Similarly, the recovered clock A from the PHY chip #12 14 is connected to the synchronous Ethernet timing element 26 by a printed circuit board trace shown at reference numeral 32 and the recovered clock B from the PHY chip #12 14 is connected to the synchronous Ethernet timing element 26 by a printed circuit board trace shown at reference numeral 34. The DPLL 24 is synchronized to a stable frequency source such as an oven-controlled crystal oscillator (OCXO) shown at reference numeral 36. The 48-port Ethernet system 10 implementation shown in FIG. 1 requires a 24-input DPLL to accommodate the recovered clocks A and B from each of the twelve PHY chips. The synchronous Ethernet timing element 26 provides a synchronous Ethernet reference clock output to the system as shown at reference numeral 38.
Existing multiport Ethernet PHY chip solutions typically provide an internal clock multiplexer that selects between the recovered clocks of the internal PHYs and provide two or more recovered clock outputs. Referring now to FIG. 2, an illustrative PHY chip clock multiplexer arrangement 50 is shown.
A clock multiplexer A 52 has a data input 54 supplying the Port 1 recovered A clock, a data input 56 supplying the Port 2 recovered A clock, a data input 58 supplying the Port 3 recovered A clock, and a data input 60 supplying the Port 4 recovered A clock. The data output 62 of the clock multiplexer A 52 supplies the recovered clock output A as selected by the value presented on the select inputs 64 of the multiplexer A 52.
A clock multiplexer B 66 has a data input 68 supplying the Port 1 recovered B clock, a data input 70 supplying the Port 2 recovered B clock, a data input 72 supplying the Port 3 recovered B clock, and a data input 74 supplying the Port 4 recovered B clock. The data output 76 of the clock multiplexer B 66 supplies the recovered clock output B as selected by the value presented on the select inputs 78 of the clock multiplexer B 66.
As indicated previously, known existing solutions such as VSC8574 and VSC8584 available from Microchip Technology, Inc., of Chandler, Ariz., provide clock multiplexers supporting two recovered clock outputs (A and B). Other existing solutions such as Microchip's VSC8488 provide a single recovered clock output per port. These solutions have the drawbacks noted above. One such drawback is illustrated in FIG. 1 at reference numeral 80 where the PCB traces providing recovered clock A line 28 and the recovered clock B line 30 that are provided from the PHY chip #1 12 to the DPLL 24 in the synchronous Ethernet timing element 26 cross over the printed circuit board traces 22 connecting the four ports from the PHY chip #12 14 to the interfaces to the system. While not shown in FIG. 1, similar PCB trace crossovers exist for the recovered clock A line and the recovered clock B line that are provided from the PHY chips #2 through #11 (not shown) to the DPLL 24 in the synchronous Ethernet timing element 26.

Daisy-chained synchronous ethernet clock recovery


A liquid crystal display unit comprising a condenser lens, incident-side polarizing plate, liquid crystal panel and emanating-side polarizing plate is disposed in an optical path from a light source toward a projection lens. A cooler comprising a closed flat platelike glass container and a refrigerant enclosed in the container with a vacuum space of specified volume left therein is joined to each of the incident-side polarizing plate and the liquid crystal panel over an effective image area. The incident-size polarizing plate and the liquid crystal panel are prevented from overheating by the spontaneous convection and evaporation of the refrigerant and the condensation thereof within the space.

Liquid crystal projectors including liquid crystal display units are disclosed, for example, in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publications SHO 61-150487 and SHO 64-74585.
FIG. 11 shows an example of such liquid crystal projectors. The illustrated projector has a projection lens 13 mounted on the front wall of a case 11, and a light source 12 opposed to the lens 13 and disposed at the rear end of the case 11 inside thereof.
A liquid crystal display unit 8 of the active matrix type is disposed between the light source 12 and the projection lens 13 on the optical axis. Blue light dichroic mirrors 14, 14a and red light dichroic mirrors 15, 15a are arranged, each as inclined at 45 degrees with the optical axis, between the liquid crystal unit 8 and the light source 12, and between the unit 8 and the projection lens 13.
Reflectors 16, 16a and 17, 17a are arranged as opposed to the respective dichroic mirrors 14, 14a and 15, 15a in parallel thereto, with liquid crystal units 8b and 8a interposed between the reflectors 16, 16a and between the reflectors 17, 17a, respectively.
Of the light emitted by the light source 12, the green light component passes through the dichroic mirrors 14, 15 and impinges on the liquid crystal unit 8, and the red light component and blue light component are respectively separated off by the red light dichroic mirror 14 and the blue light dichroic mirror 15 which are closer to the light source 12, are then reflected at the reflectors 16, 17 closer to the light source 12 and impinge on the respective liquid crystal display units 8b, 8a. When passing through the liquid crystal display unit, each light component is modulated with image data. The light components are combined again by the reflectors 16a, 17a and the red light and blue light dichroic mirrors 14a, 15a closer to the projection lens 13 to project an image on a screen 7 through the lens 13.
Since liquid crystals are exposed to very bright light in the liquid crystal projector 1, the temperature of the liquid crystal display units 8, 8a and 8b rises to a considerably high level.
Conventionally, therefore, the case 11 is provided with a fan (not shown) therein for cooling the units 8, 8a, 8b with air to prevent the rise of temperature.
However, because air is small in specific heat and further because the amount of heat transmission along the surface of glass is small, an attempt to use light of higher brightness gives rise to a need for the air cooling system to produce an increased amount of air current, consequently permitting the fan to give off a noise.
Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication HEI 1-159684 proposes an arrangement for forcibly circulating a liquid refrigerant to cool a liquid crystal unit. The arrangement, however, requires piping or circulation system for the refrigerant, is therefore complex in structure and has the problem of making the projector large-sized.


A process for creating a DRAM array having feature widths that transcend the resolution limit of the employed photolithographic process using only five photomasking steps. The process involves the following steps: creation of a half-pitch hard-material mask that is used to etch a series of equidistanty-spaced isolation trenches in a silicon substrate; filling the isolation trenches with insulative material; creation of a hard-material mask consisting of strips that are 1-1/2F in width, separated by spaces that are 1/2F in width, that is used to etch a matrix of storage trenches; angled implantation of a N-type impurity in the storage trench walls; another anisotropic etch to deepen the storage trenches; deposition of a capacitor dielectric layer; deposition of a protective polysilicon layer on top of the dielectric layer; removal of the dielectric layer and the protective polysilicon layer at the bottom of each storage trench with a further anisotropic etch; filling the storage trenches with in-situ-doped polysilicon; planarization down to the substrate level; creation of an access gate on opposite sides of each storage trench, in addition to wordlines which interconnect gates within array columns by anisotropically etching a conformal conductive layer that has been deposited on top of oxide-silicon mesas that run perpendicular to the isolation trenches and are centered between the rows of storage trenches, the oxide-silicon mesas having been created with an etch using a photoresist mask consisting of a series of parallel strips that have been laid down with minimum feature and space width, then plasma etched to 3/4F; creation of source and drains with an N-type implant; and anisotropically etching the metal layer to create bitlines along the sidewalls of the oxide mesas.

Since the late 1960's, a new generation of dynamic random access integrated memory circuits has been developed approximately every four years. Each generation has been characterized by a halving of device dimensions, resulting in a four-fold density increase over the preceding generation. Increases in DRAM circuit density have been historically limited by two factors: the problem of maintaining cell capacitance as cell area is decreased, and the resolution capability of available photolithographic equipment.
Three-dimensional cell designs and high-performance cell dielectrics are being utilized to maintain sufficient cell capacitance as cell horizontal dimensions are shrunk. The minimum size of features and spaces that a given piece of photolithographic equipment can produce is directly related to its resolution capability. The sum of minimum feature width (F) and minimum space width (S) producible with a given piece of photolithographic equipment is referred to in this disclosure as "minimum pitch". Since, for practical purposes, F can be considered to be equal to S, minimum pitch is, therefore, approximately equal to double the minimum feature width, or 2F. Using contemporary photolithography techniques, one minimum-width line (feature) and one minimum-width space may be defined for a given minimum pitch.
In a contemporary DRAM cell of conventional design, at least two rowlines and two spaces between rowlines (a total width of 4F) must be created within the X-direction width of a cell. Additional X-direction width (typically 2F) is required for the construction of a cell capacitor. This equates to a minimum X-direction width of 6F. In the Y-direction, a digit line and a space between digit lines are required. Added to this minimum total of 2F is at least another width of 1F, additional space required to provide adequate cell capacitance. Thus, total cell area is 6F (the X-direction width) multiplied by 3F (the Y-direction width), or 18F.sup.2. The actual cell size of contemporary, commercially available DRAMs varies from 16F.sup.2 to 20F.sup.2, depending on the actual cell structure and how much horizontal area it requires. Contemporary 4-megabit DRAMs are typically fabricated with photolithographic processes having 0.7 .mu.m minimum feature resolution (i.e., F=0.7 .mu.m and minimum pitch=2F or 1.4 .mu. m. Thus, the area of an average 18F.sup.2 4-megabit DRAM cell is about 9 .mu.m.sup.2.
It has long been recognized, by those skilled in the fabrication of integrated circuits, that vertical film layers as thin as 0.01 .mu.M can be grown with a high degree of accuracy. Isolated vertical film layer segments may be formed by depositing an expendable layer on a substrate, masking and etching the expendable layer down to the substrate such that expendable layer remnants having vertical sidewalls are created, blanket depositing a thin spacer layer over the substrate and expendable layer remnants, performing an anisotropic etch to create spacers on the sidewalls of the expendable layer, and then etching away the expendable layer remnants to leave the spacers. In the early 1980s, Seiki Ogura, Christopher F. Codella, Nivo Rovedo, Joseph F. Shepard and Jacob Riseman of IBM Corp. used this spacer technique to create a half-micron-width MOSFET gate. If a process could be devised in which thin vertical film layers, created using the aforementioned technique, were consistently and repeatedly used to define horizontal dimensions within an integrated circuit, minimum pitch could be dramatically reduced at a given level of photolithographic resolution, resulting in increased circuit density equal to the square of the reciprocal of the reduction factor.

Process for fabricating a DRAM array having feature widths that transcend the resolution limit of available photolithography


An organic light-emitting display device is provided. The device can include a display area having an organic light-emitting element on a lower substrate; a bezel area surrounding the display area; a transparent encapsulation unit having first and second encapsulation layers, and a first particle cover; and a first buffer layer. The first encapsulation layer can cover the display area and the bezel area. The first particle cover layer can cover the display area and a portion of the bezel area adjacent to the display area. The first buffer layer, apart from the first particle cover layer, can cover another portion of the bezel area. The second encapsulation layer, which covers the first particle cover layer and the first buffer layer, contacts the first encapsulation layer at a contact surface between the first particle cover layer and the first buffer layer.

Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an organic light-emitting display (OLED) device, and more particularly to an OLED device with improved production yields and reliability by eliminating the possibility that a portion of an adhesive layer used for attaching an upper substrate to a lower substrate is not attached on the substrates in a bezel area.
Description of the Related Art
An organic light-emitting display device (OLED) is capable of producing light on its own and thus does not require an additional light source, as in a liquid crystal display device (LCD). Therefore, an OLED device can be made lighter and thinner. Further, an OLED device has advantages in that it is driven with low voltage to consume less power and realizes better colors. Also, an OLED device has a fast response time, a wide viewing angle and a high contrast ratio (CR). For these reasons, an OLED device is currently under development as the next generation display device.
FIG. 1 a schematic cross-sectional view of a plurality of OLED devices disposed between mother substrates in the related art. FIG. 1 shows a first OLED device PA1 and a second OLED device PA2 when a lower mother substrate 190 is attached to an upper mother substrate 195. Although two OLED devices (PA1 and PA2) are defined on the lower mother substrate 190 in FIG. 1 for convenience of illustration, the number of the OLED devices defined on the lower mother substrate 190 is not limited to two.
In the related art, an OLED device is manufactured in such a manner that a plurality of thin-film transistors 120, a plurality of organic light-emitting elements 140, etc., are disposed between the lower mother substrate 190 and the upper mother substrate 195. The lower mother substrate 190 is attached to the upper mother substrate 195, and then the mother substrates are divided into individual organic light-emitting devices.
Referring to FIG. 1, the plurality of thin-film transistors 120 are disposed in a display area DA of the lower mother substrate 190. A gate insulating layer 131, an interlayer insulating layer 132 and a planarization layer 133 are disposed in the display area DA during the manufacturing process of disposing the thin-film transistor 120.
The plurality of organic light-emitting elements 140 are disposed on the planarization layer 133. A bank layer 134 is disposed around the plurality of organic light-emitting elements 140. In a bezel area BA, a variety of lines 160 and/or circuitry necessary for driving the display area DA may be disposed. In the bezel area BA, ends of the planarization layer 133 and the bank layer 134 have a tapered shape. Further, there is a step difference between the bezel area BA and the display area DA, which is approximately equal to the sum of the thickness of the planarization layer 133 and the thickness of the bank layer 134.
In addition, an encapsulation layer 135 for protecting the organic light-emitting element 140 from moisture and oxygen is disposed on the organic light-emitting element 140. When a plurality of OLED devices are manufactured simultaneously by using a set of mother substrates, the position of a cut line CUT along which one OLED device is separated from another is determined between adjacent bezel areas BAs. In addition, a buffer region is disposed closely to the cut line CUT in the bezel area BA. The buffer region is configured to absorb physical impacts, such as shocks or vibrations, generated when the cut line CUT is cut by a cutter or a laser. Therefore, no conductive lines or circuitry are disposed in the buffer region.
The upper mother substrate 195 is attached to the lower mother substrate 190 by an adhesive layer 170. However, in the bezel area BA of each of the first OLED device PA1 and the second OLED device PA2, there exists an unwanted space due to the step difference. Accordingly, the adhesive layer 170 may not be sufficiently filled up in the unwanted space or may not be securely attached to the upper mother substrate 195 and/or the lower mother substrate 190 at the boundary between the bezel area BA of the first OLED device PA1 and the bezel area BA of the second OLED device PA2. As a result, a space S where the adhesive layer is not properly attached on the substrates may be created in the bezel areas BA as shown in FIG. 1.
Due to the space S (which is an unwanted space) created in the bezel areas BA when the upper mother substrate 195 is attached to the lower mother substrate 190, pressure applied to the cut line CUT may result in bending or vibrations on the upper mother substrate 195 and the lower mother substrate 190. Shocks or physical impact may occur at this time and may be delivered to the conductive lines 160 and/or the circuitry disposed in the bezel area BA. If such impacts are applied to the bezel area BA, cracks or other types of damage may occur in various components including a variety of lines and insulating layers. Once cracks or damage occur in one component, it can very easily lead to cracks or damage in other components. Even if no cracks occur during the process of attaching the adhesive layer 170, cracks or damage may occur during other processes of cutting the set of mother substrates into individual OLED devices, such as a process of laser cutting or a process of mechanical scribing, in which strong energy is exerted on the upper mother substrate 195. Therefore, crack may still occur in the lines 160 or other components.
In addition, in the existing manufacturing process of an OLED device according to the related art, an additional process may be performed after the set of mother substrates has been cut into individual OLED devices. For example, a process of attaching a polarizing plate or a process of applying a protective film onto the upper substrate or the lower substrate using a roller may be performed. During such processes, cracks may occur in the lines 160 or insulating layers due to generated pressure. In addition, pressure is exerted on the lower substrate during a process of attaching a polarizing plate, whereby cracks may occur in the lines 160 or the insulating layers. Accordingly, cracks occur in the line 160 or the insulating layers due to the space S created in the bezel area BA, deteriorating the production yields and reliability of an OLED device.
As described above, in the OLED device according to the related art, there exists the space S where the adhesive layer 170 is not attached on the lower substrate. Accordingly, the adhesive layer 170 and the lower substrate may peel off or otherwise not be attached properly, and the lower substrate may not be securely attached to the upper substrate. Therefore, delamination or process failure may be caused during subsequent processes. In addition, moisture or oxygen may permeate through the space S from a side surface of an OLED device, deteriorating the lifespan and reliability of the OLED device.

Organic light-emitting display device including buffer layers


A system and/or method for sensing the presence of moisture (e.g., rain) and/or other material(s) on a window such as a vehicle window (e.g., vehicle windshield or backlite). In certain example embodiments, a capacitor-based system and/or method is provided for auto-correlating sensor data to determine the existence of a material on the window, and then cross-correlating sensor data to identify the type and/or amount of that material (e.g., rain). This data may be used to actuate and/or deactivate a vehicle's wiper(s), and/or adjust wiper speed. In certain example embodiments, the sensor may include an array of at least two capacitors. In certain example embodiments, the system and/or method may perform check(s) to enhance the accuracy of the detection by comparing, for example, the sign of autocorrelation values, maximum autocorrelation values, and/or gradients of autocorrelation values.

The presence of moisture (e.g., rain or condensation) and/or other material or debris on vehicle windshields and/or backlites may create hazardous driving conditions for drivers, passengers, and pedestrians if not promptly removed. Wiper blades are a well-known, common way to remove such materials and reduce the hazards of driving during dangerous conditions. Rain sensors have been developed to detect the presence of moisture (e.g., rain or other condensation) on a vehicle windshield, and to turn on and off wipers, as necessary, when such moisture is detected. Automatically detecting rain, sleet, fog, and the like, and taking appropriate action—for example, turning on/off wiper blades at a proper speed—potentially reduces distractions to the driver, allowing the driver to better concentrate on the road ahead. However, inappropriately turning on/off wipers or failing to actuate wipers when moisture is present may also create hazardous conditions. Moreover, such systems are also susceptible to "dirt" distractions which may cause false reads/wipes when dirt is on the windshield.
Certain conventional rain sensors are based on an electro-optical concept. According to certain such techniques, rain droplets are sensed solely by measuring the change in the total internal reflection of a light beam off the glass-air interface. Other electro-optical techniques have attempted to analyze the brightness of a section of a window "image" to detect rain droplets or fog on a window. However, these optical techniques have limited sensing areas, are fairly expensive, and may result in erroneous detection indications due to the use of optical imaging as the sole detection method.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,022 to Tenenbaum et al. discloses an optical technique for sensing rain on a vehicle windshield. This optical system divides a windshield into discrete rows and columns of pixels and then optically develops an "image" of the windshield. It creates a reference image of the windshield against which it compares future optical images. Unfortunately, the system of Tenenbaum suffers from certain disadvantages. The Tenenbaum optical system is susceptible to erroneous detections due to its reliance solely on optical imaging, and has a limited sensing area. The resolution of the optical image, and thus the overall accuracy of the system, is dependent on the imaging optics. This necessitates expensive optical components while requiring computationally intense data analysis, while the system is still subject to the above disadvantages. Furthermore, Tenenbaum depends on the existence of light to illuminate the water droplets through ambient means. Without naturally occurring ambient light (e.g., at night), the system will not properly function. LEDs may be used, but this tends to make the system more complex and/or expensive, with additional potential points of failure. Moreover, when using LEDs in the manner disclosed by Tenenbaum, the system can be confused by sudden changes in ambient light. For example, sudden changes in ambient light may occur when going through a tunnel, coming around a corner and suddenly facing the sun, driving through a city with skyscrapers that block the sun, etc., thereby leading to a potential for false readings/detections and false wiper actuations.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,373,263 to Netzer teaches using capacitive rain sensors and reading the differential current between two capacitors on the windshield. Unfortunately, Netzer's system also has significant disadvantages. For example, Netzer's system is sensitive only to changes. Thus, for example, if there is already moisture (e.g., rain or condensation) on a windshield because a vehicle was parked outside during a rain shower or fog, Netzer's system may not detect the same when the vehicle is started. Moreover, Netzer's system may be subject to certain detrimental effects of electromagnetic interference (EMI), temperature changes, as well as interference from other sources. For instance, as external bodies (e.g., human hand, radio waves, etc.) interfere with the function of the capacitors, the charges of the excitation and receiver electrodes may uncontrollably vary in Netzer, thereby leading to false alarms or detections. Thus, for example and without limitation, with Netzer's system, CB radios, microwaves, handheld devices, human contact with the windshield, groundable objects, and/or the like may undesirably interfere with the system, and thus possibly produce false wipes and/or detections. Netzer's system is also subject to possible false reads caused by drastic temperature changes in view of the reference capacitor system utilized by Netzer, where Netzer's reference capacitor has a different geometry/shape/size than the sensing capacitor.
Thus, it will be appreciated that there exists a need in the art for a moisture (e.g., rain) sensor that is efficient in operation and/or detection. For example and without limitation, it may be desirable to provide a rain sensor that overcomes one or more of the above-discussed disadvantages. It is noted that all of the above-discussed disadvantages need not be overcome in certain example embodiments of this invention.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, there is provided a method of sensing the presence of moisture (e.g., rain, dew, fog, or the like) on a vehicle window, the method comprising: receiving data relating to at least two capacitors supported by the vehicle window; autocorrelating the data relating to each capacitor to obtain autocorrelated data; and determining, based at least on said autocorrelated data, whether moisture is present on an exterior surface of the vehicle window. In certain example embodiments, the data relating to the at least two capacitors is received from circuitry that receives and/or reads capacitance data from the at least two capacitors. In certain example embodiments, the data relating to the at least two capacitors is output from circuitry that: (a) receives and/or reads data and/or signals from the at least two capacitors, and/or (b) includes a capacitor(s) or other circuit element(s) that mimics or substantially mimics charging and/or discharging of the at least two capacitors. In certain example embodiments, the autocorrelation may be used as an initial step to determine whether water may be present on the window. However, it is possible that the autocorrelation may also detect the presence of other materials (e.g., dust or dirt) on the window because the correlation signatures of these materials can be different.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, there is provided a moisture sensor (e.g., rain sensor) for sensing the presence of moisture on a vehicle window, the moisture sensor comprising: one, two or more capacitors; means for autocorrelating data from one, two, three, more, or all of the capacitors to obtain autocorrelated data; and means for determining, based at least on said autocorrelated data, whether moisture is present on the vehicle window.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, cross-correlating data from the at least two capacitors may be performed so as to correlate data from different capacitors to obtain cross-correlated data. Then, based at least on the cross-correlated data, a type and/or amount of moisture may be determined. The cross-correlated data may also or instead be used to determine if the material detected via the autocorrelation is a material other than moisture such as dust or dirt, and if so then not actuating the wipers. In certain example embodiments, the cross-correlating may be performed after the autocorrelating when certain conditions are met. As an example, the cross-correlation may be performed so as to determine whether the moisture on the window is light rain, heavy rain, fog, sleet, snow, or ice (a type of moisture).
In certain example embodiments of this invention, the autocorrelated data from the capacitor(s) may be checked for negative values. When the autocorrelated data has negative value(s), then the system or method may indicate that it is not raining and/or may not actuate windshield wipers.
Moreover, in certain example embodiments, the system or method may calculate whether a gradient of an autocorrelation curve associated with the autocorrelated data is greater than one or some other predetermined value; and if not then the system or method may indicate that it is not raining, park the wipers if they were moving, and/or not actuate wipers of the vehicle.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, the system or method may determine whether the shape of the autocorrelation curve associated with the autocorrelated data is different than a predetermined autocorrelation curve associated with normalized non-disturbed autocorrelation data. When it is not different or substantially different, then it may be indicated that it is not raining, wipers may be parked if they had been moving, and/or wipers may be not actuated.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, conditions checked for in the autocorrelation function include (i) the gradient of the normalized autocorrelation function (e.g., when there is no disturbance the absolute value of the gradient is unity and changes with disturbance), (ii) the sign of the autocorrelation function (e.g., with a CB radio turned on or with a human hand on the windshield the values are oscillatory with positive and negative parts), and (iii) the shape of the autocorrelation function as a function of time lag may also be used as a signature or footprint to distinguish rain from other disturbances, and this shape may also be used to distinguish between different nuances of rain or water content. Thus, in certain example instances, cross-correlating of data from at least two capacitors is only performed when one, two or all of the following conditions are met: (a) the autocorrelated data has no negative values; (b) a gradient of an autocorrelation curve associated with said autocorrelated data is greater than one; and (c) the shape of the autocorrelation curve associated with the autocorrelated data is different than a predetermined autocorrelation curve associated with normalized non-disturbed autocorrelation data. Alternatively, (c) may be replaced with (c′) the shape of the autocorrelation curve associated with the autocorrelated data matches or substantially matches a predetermined autocorrelation curve associated with a known moisture pattern. In certain example embodiments of this invention, a symmetry level of a cross-correlation curve associated with the cross-correlated data can be determined.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, it is possible to compare the autocorrelation between various capacitors. In certain example embodiments of this invention, such a comparison may be used to tell the system whether to initiate a wipe if water is present on the window when the sensor system is turned on.
In certain example embodiments, a sensing capacitor array may include at least n capacitors, where n may be two, four, ten or any other suitable number. The array may be any type of array such as a linear array, any of the arrays shown in the figures, or any other type of array. Autocorrelating of data from each of, or less than all of, the capacitors may be performed to obtain the autocorrelated data.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, capacitors are formed based on a fractal pattern. For example and without limitation, one or more of the capacitors may be formed based on a fractal pattern, such as a Hilbert fractal pattern. Other capacitive fractal patterns may also be used, including but not limited to a Cantor set. These fractal structures maximize or enlarge the periphery and thus result in a large capacitance for a given area. The use of two dimensional fractal designs also allows the sensor to occupy a small amount of physical space on the window while at the same time being electrically larger than its physical size. The concentration of lateral flux in a fractal geometry may also allow the sensor to detect rain/water not necessarily spread over the actual physical area of the sensor in certain example embodiments of this invention. Furthermore, in its higher iteration(s) a fractal capacitor(s) has an attribute of being its own Faraday shield or quasi-Faraday shield. Also, in certain example embodiments, the rain sensor may be electrically connected to a Local Interconnect Bus of the vehicle.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, there is provided a method of sensing the presence of moisture on a vehicle window such as a windshield, backlite or sunroof, the method comprising: receiving data from at least two capacitors supported by the vehicle window; correlating data from one or more of the capacitors to obtain correlated data; determining, based at least on said correlated data, (a) whether moisture is present on an exterior surface of the vehicle window, and/or (b) a type and/or amount of material present on an exterior surface of the vehicle window. For example and without limitation, the correlation may be autocorrelation and/or cross-correlation.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, there is provided a method of engaging vehicle windshield wiper(s) in response to detected rain, the method comprising reading data from a capacitive array having at least two capacitors; autocorrelating data from each capacitor individually; determining from the autocorrelation data whether it is raining; cross-correlating data from the capacitors; determining from the cross-correlated data a type and/or an amount of rain; engaging the wipers if rain is detected; and, stopping or not actuating the wipers if one or both of the determining steps determines that it is not raining. In certain example embodiments, a symmetry level of the cross-correlation curve may be determined, and a wiper speed related to the symmetry level may be selected. A wiper speed may be selected from a plurality of predetermined wiper speeds in certain example instances. In some example embodiments, only a single wipe is initiated for boundary conditions detected in one or both of the determining steps.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, there is provided a method of engaging windshield wipers of a vehicle in response to detected rain, the method comprising reading data from a capacitive array having at least two capacitors; mathematically comparing data from each capacitor individually (e.g., autocorrelating); determining from the mathematically compared individual capacitor data whether it is raining; mathematically comparing data from different capacitors (e.g., cross-correlating); determining from the mathematically compared different capacitor data a type and/or an amount of rain; engaging the wipers if rain is detected; and, stopping or not actuating the wipers if one or both of the determining steps determines that it is not raining.
In certain example embodiments, a sigma-delta modulator or other suitable circuit or software may be used to perform an analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion of data from the capacitive array. Additionally, in certain example embodiments, a software or other type of comparator may perform at least one of checking autocorrelation data for negative values, calculating whether a gradient of autocorrelation data is greater than one, and/or attempting to match or substantially match a shape of autocorrelation data with autocorrelation data stored in a database. In certain instances, the correlating engine computes cross-correlations when all conditions tested for by the comparator are met.
In certain example embodiments, a rain sensor comprises at least two sensing devices (e.g., sensing capacitors or the like) that are affected by rain on a surface of a window; circuitry that provides an output related to the sensing devices; and at least one correlating engine that (a) autocorrelates information from said circuitry to determine whether rain is present, and/or (b) cross-correlates information from said circuitry to determine how fast to operate at least one wiper of a vehicle and/or an amount of rain.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, there is provided a system or method for engaging windshield wipers in response to detected rain, the system (or method) comprising a capacitive array having at least two capacitors; circuitry that reads capacitance data from the capacitive array; a correlating engine or correlator that autocorrelates data from the circuitry to determine the existence of rain, and cross-correlates data from the circuitry to determine a type and/or an amount of rain if it is determined that rain exists; and, a wiper motor that is capable of receiving a signal for directing whether the wipers should move or stop. In certain example embodiments, a symmetry level of a cross-correlation curve is computed, and the wiper motor may select a wiper speed related to the symmetry level.
In certain example embodiments, a method or system for engaging window wiper(s) in response to detected rain is provided and comprises a capacitive array having at least two capacitors; circuitry that reads capacitance data from the capacitive array; an algorithm that mathematically determines existence of rain on the window based on data from the circuitry, and mathematically quantifies a type and/or amount of rain if it is determined that rain exists; and, a wiper motor capable of receiving a signal(s) directing whether the wiper(s) should move or stop.

Rain sensor for detecting rain or other material on window of a vehicle or on other surface


A pose of an object is estimated by first defining a set of pair features as pairs of geometric primitives, wherein the geometric primitives include oriented surface points, oriented boundary points, and boundary line segments. Model pair features are determined based on the set of pair features for a model of the object. Scene pair features are determined based on the set of pair features from data acquired by a 3D sensor, and then the model pair features are matched with the scene pair features to estimate the pose of the object.

The pose of an object has 6-degree-of-freedom (6-DoF), i.e., 3D translation and 3D rotation. The problem of pose estimation refers to finding the pose of an object with respect to a reference coordinate system, usually the coordinate system of a sensor. The pose can be acquired using measurements from sensors, e.g., 2D images, 3D point clouds, with 3D models. Pose estimation plays a major role in many robotics applications such as bin picking, grasping, localization, autonomous navigation, and 3D reconstruction.
Until recently, pose estimation was primarily done using 2D images because cameras are cost effective and allow fast image acquisition. The main problem with 2D images is to match the 2D features with their corresponding 3D features in the model. This becomes challenging due to various illumination conditions and different viewpoints of the camera, causing changes in rotation and scale in the image space. Furthermore, some views of the object can theoretically lead to ambiguous poses. Several invariant feature descriptors are known to determine the correspondences between an input image and a database of images, where the 2D keypoints are matched with the 3D coordinates.
Many industrial parts are textureless, e.g., machined metal parts or molded plastic parts. Therefore, one has to rely heavily on observable edges in the images. When boundaries of an object are used, a set of edge templates of an object is often known a priori, and the templates are searched in query edge maps. Several variants that incorporate edge orientation or hierarchical representation are known. Intensity-based edge detection often yields too many edge pixels where only a few are useful edges coming from depth discontinuities. A multi-flash camera can be used to directly estimate depth edges by casting shadows from multiple flash directions.
Generally, 3D data obtained with 3D sensors have a lot less variants in contrast to 2D data. The main challenge is to solve the correspondence problem in the presence of sensor noise, occlusions, and clutter. The correspondence problem refers to finding a one-to-one matching between features in the data and features in the model. The features are usually constructed to characterize the size and shape of the object. Several 3D feature descriptors, using the distributions of surface points and normals, and matching procedures are known. Those descriptors are generally invariant to rigid body transformation, but sensitive to noise and occlusion. Furthermore, those features require dense point clouds, which may not be available.
Pose estimation is feasible with various kinds of correspondences between sensor 3D data and the model: 3 point correspondences, 2 line correspondences, and 6 points to 3 or more planes. Typically those correspondences are used in a hypothesize-and-test framework such as RANdom SAmple Consensus (RANSAC) to determine the pose. Alternatively, the pose can be retrieved from the mode of the hypothesized pose distribution either using a Hough voting scheme, or clustering in the parameter space. Those approaches suffer from two problems when only 3D sensor data are available without images or other prior information. Points, lines, and planes are not very discriminative individually and are combinatorial to match, and it is difficult to achieve fast computation without doing any prior processing on the model.
A pair feature can be defined by a distance and relative orientations between two oriented points on the surface of an object. An object is represented by a set of oriented point pair features, which is stored in a hash table  for fast retrieval. Random two points are sampled from the sensor data and each such pair votes for a particular pose. The required pose corresponds to the one with a largest number of votes. A simpler pair feature consisting of the depth difference between a pixel and an offset pixel is used for human pose estimation with a random forest ensemble classifier.

Voting-based pose estimation for 3D sensors

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.


In one embodiment, the present invention is a method and apparatus for automatic system parameter configuration for performance improvement. One embodiment of the inventive method involves formulating a black box optimization problem, and solving the optimization problem using an enhanced smart hill climbing method. The smart hill climbing method includes both a global and a more precise local search to identify an optimal solution. In one embodiment, one or both of the global and local searches employs a weighted Latin Hypercube Sampling method in combination with importance sampling techniques to yield improved search results.

The present invention relates generally to computer hardware, and relates more particularly to the configuration of computing systems, for example, servers. Specifically, the present invention provides methods and an apparatus for automatic system parameter configuration for performance improvement.
The overwhelming success of the World Wide Web as a mechanism for facilitating information retrieval and conducting business transactions has led to an increase in the deployment of complex enterprise applications. These applications typically run on web application servers, which manage tasks including concurrency, memory management, database access and the like. The performance of an application server depends heavily on appropriate configuration, which is a difficult and error-prone task due to a large number of configuration parameters (which may number more than one hundred) and complex interactions between these parameters.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a typical Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) based application server system 100. The system 100 includes a web server 102, an application server 104 and a database 106. Typically, HTTP and web service requests flow through the web server 102 to the application server 104, which further comprises a web container 108, an Enterprise Java Bean (EJB) container 110 and a data source 112. Within the application server, requests typically flow from the web container 108 to the EJB container 110 to the data source 112 to the database 106. Each component 108, 110 and 112 of the application server has configurable parameters that can significantly impact system performance.
Despite the importance of configuration, the setting of parameters is an imprecise practice. For example, developers typically use rules-of-thumb, heuristics, or best practice guidelines provided by software vendors to derive the settings. However, configuration depends largely on the particular application being deployed and its expected workload, as well as the configuration of the systems with which it interacts.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for automatic system parameter configuration for performance improvement.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods and apparatus for automatic system parameter configuration for performance improvement


The invention disclosed relates to a method and apparatus for recovering non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPL) from regions below ground where NAPL spills are sources of aquifer contamination. The apparatus includes a system to supply gas-supersaturated liquid, a system of ground wells in fluid communication with the contaminated ground water region (source of contamination) and with an above-ground NAPL recovery system, said system of wells including an injection well in fluid communication with the system to supply gas-supersaturated liquid and with the contaminated region below ground, an extraction well in fluid communication with the contaminated region below ground and with the NAPL recovery system, wherein the NAPL is in the gaseous phase or gas-mobilized non-volatile liquid phase or both, and a pump for delivering the gas-supersaturated liquid to the vicinity of the contaminated region below ground.

This invention relates to the recovery of non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPL) from ground sources contaminated therewith, and in particular to a method and apparatus for such recovery, by injection of a gas-supersaturated liquid into the region of ground source of contamination, using a system of wells and a NAPL recovery system at the surface.
NAPL such as gasoline spills, halogenated solvents and other volatile petroleum products, are common groundwater contaminants. Dense NAPL can migrate below the water table and become trapped in the water-saturated zone, held in place by capillary forces. Since NAPL have very low solubility in water, the trapped NAPL can be a long term source of contamination of groundwater for many-many years. A schematic of trapped NAPL pool beneath the water table in an aquifer can be seen in FIG. 1.
Air sparging is a common remediation technique, seeking to capitalize on the relatively high NAPL volatility. However, this method is often very ineffective, primarily because the injected air tends to finger-through and by-pass most of the contaminated zone under the combined action of buoyancy and capillary forces. Air sparging is an immiscible displacement process and the capillary forces prevailing in the porous media will restrict gas flow through much of the pore space. As a result, the air-sparging method fails to achieve direct contact between most of the free-phase NAPL and the injected air, and its performance is severely compromised by mass transfer resistances in the aqueous phase. A schematic of this phenomenon is visualized in FIG. 2.
According to the invention disclosed in our prior U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,855 of 3 Apr. 2001, a method and apparatus are provided to produce a gas/liquid mixture which, when compared to known gas/liquid mixtures, has a) a surprisingly greater mass of gas dissolved in a given volume of liquid, to the point of super-saturation, and b) exhibits a vastly increased period during which gas remains dissolved in the liquid, before it nucleates and exits the liquid in the form of bubbles.

Recovery of non-aqueous phase liquids from ground sources


A field effect transistor includes a semiconductor substrate having an active region, a source region, and a drain region at an upper portion of the substrate. The active region is located between the source and drain regions. A gate electrode is located on the active region. A source electrode is located on the source region and forms an ohmic contact with the source region. A drain electrode has a base part on and in ohmic contact with the drain region and an extended part having edge close to the gate electrode and over a boundary between the active region and the drain region. An insulating film is located between the boundary and the extended part and has a thickness that increases along a direction from the drain electrode toward the gate electrode in a step-by-step or continuous manner.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a field effect transistor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been known a field effect transistor (FET) in which a semiconductor substrate has an active layer, a source region and a drain region at an upper portion thereof. The active layer is located between the source and the drain regions. A gate electrode is provided on the active layer. A source electrode is in ohmic contact with the source region. A drain electrode is in ohmic contact with the drain region.
When the FET is in operation, an electric field is concentrated at an edge of the drain region opposed to the gate electrode (i.e. a boundary portion between the drain region and the active layer), causing a high voltage to be applied to the boundary portion. This may result in a leakage of an electric current at the boundary portion and/or a dielectric breakdown. Therefore, the transistor is difficult to be used in high voltage.
Another type of FET is known in which the active layer has a recess on which the gate electrode is provided. When the transistor is in operation, an electric field is concentrated at a corner of the recess. As a result, the transistor is difficult to be used in high voltage.
As related art, Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-338610 discloses a MOS type field effect transistor in which a gate oxide film is provided between the gate electrode and the semiconductor substrate and is extended to a region between the drain electrode and a boundary between the drain region and the drift region.


In a preferred embodiment, a positively ventilated shoe, including: an air pump disposed in the shoe to provide a flow of air; and apparatus to selectively reverse direction of the flow of air to pump air into or pump air out of the shoe.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to shoes generally and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a novel sole for shoes which includes an integral reversible air pump.
2. Background Art
Shoes typically enclose the feet of a wearer and are typically rather well sealed around the feet, thus preventing the ingress and/or egress of any substantial quantity of air. Some types of athletic shoes include grommet-like openings through the side thereof intended to provide some degree of ventilation; however, the degree of ventilation is limited by the fact that there is nothing that is actually forcing a substantial quantity of air through the openings.
The lack of adequate ventilation in most shoes leads to the trapping of heat and moisture, a very welcome environment for the growth of organisms and odors which can be offensive to other persons and, perhaps, to the wearer also. A variety of powders and sprays have been developed to combat the growth of organisms and odors; however, the useful life of a single application thereof is limited and some persons have skin reactions thereto.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,575, issued Jun. 25, 1991, to Lakic, there is described an inflatable inner sole which is formed with upper and lower membranes scaled around the peripheral edges thereof to create a sealed hollow interior. A plurality of discontinuous seams are formed between the upper and lower membranes to create a plurality of interconnected passageways in the hollow interior. A pump is provided in the heel portion of the inner sole to inflate the inner sole as a wearer walks. A plurality of vertical apertures are formed through the discontinuous seams so that air will flow back and forth between the interior of the shoe above and below the inner sole. In one embodiment, a blower may be provided in the same manner as the pump in the heel portion to blow fresh air underneath the inner sole and up through the apertures.
No known shoe has therein means to selectively introduce air into the shoe or expel air therefrom.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a ventilated shoe, which shoe includes means to selectively pump air into the shoe or expel air therefrom.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such a shoe which is comfortable.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide means for effecting such ventilation which can be economically and easily incorporated into the shoe at the time of manufacture.
Other objects of the present invention, as well as particular features, elements, and advantages thereof, will be elucidated in, or be apparent from, the following description and the accompanying drawing figures.


This invention discloses a dual-band monopole antenna, which can be operated in dual bands and easily tuned to the frequency band required for WLAN system by means of adjusting the frequencies of the resonant mode of the antenna. The dual-band monopole antenna of the invention mainly includes a microwave substrate having a first surface and a second surface, a first horizontal radiating metallic line, a second horizontal radiating metallic line, a vertical radiating metallic line, a feeding point, and a ground plane. The microwave substrate includes a first surface and a second surface. The first horizontal radiating metallic line is printed on the first surface. The second horizontal radiating metallic line is printed on the first surface. The vertical radiating metallic line is printed on the first surface, wherein the first horizontal radiating metallic line and the second horizontal radiating metallic line respectively intersect the vertical radiating metallic line at different positions. The feeding point is disposed on the vertical radiating metallic line, and a ground plane is printed on the second surface of the microwave substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an antenna system, and more particularly to a dual-band monopole antenna for the wireless local area network (WLAN) system.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of the communication industry in recent years, markets of the WLAN have been gradually growing. In conventional techniques, there have been developed many antennas used in wireless communication devices, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,166,694 issued to Ying on Dec. 26, 2000 entitled xe2x80x9cPrinted twin spiral dual band antenna,xe2x80x9d which discloses a communication device for the wireless communication system. The communication device includes a printed circuit board, a dielectric substrate adhered on the printed circuit board, and an antenna printed on the dielectric substrate. However, the antenna is printed on the dielectric substrate and then disposed on the printed circuit board by the surface mounted technology, so the cost of the final product is high and, in addition, the antenna occupies quite a large area, which does not meet the demand for reduced volumes of current electronic products.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,008,774 issued to Wu on Dec. 28, 1999 entitled xe2x80x9cPrinted antenna structure for wireless data communication,xe2x80x9d which discloses a printed antenna used for laptop computers in WLAN or other types of small, portable, wireless data communication products including a printed circuit board, a hook-shaped radiating metallic line printed on the top surface of the printed circuit board, a feeding point connected to the hook-shaped radiating metallic line, and a ground plane printed on the bottom surface of the printed circuit board. Compared with the above mentioned patent, this invention is characterized in that the antenna is printed on a peripheral card and directly integrated with the system circuit on the peripheral card. However, the antenna is only used for WLAN operation in the 2.4 GHz band.
Accordingly, many antennas in the wireless communication network card equipped in various types of the current electronic products are only operated in a single frequency band. Therefore, it is expected that, with the growing of the market, the performance and the market competitiveness of the wireless communication network card equipped with the antenna that is operated only in a single frequency band are insufficient. Accordingly, to develop the antenna in the wireless communication network card capable of operating in dual bands is the mainstream trend of related electronic products.
In addition, current electronic products are designed to be light, thin, short and small, so it is expected that the volume of the wireless communication card equipped in all types of electronic products will have the light, thin and clever features and appearances. In this condition, the volume of the antenna equipped in the wireless communication network card will be confined in a specific volume.
Accordingly, there exists a need to provide an antenna capable of easily operating in dual bands and suitable for WLAN operation, and the antenna has the light, thin and small features so as to meet the reduced-volume requirement of current electronic products.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a dual-band monopole antenna which can be operated in dual bands and easily tuned to the frequency band required for WLAN operation by means of adjusting the resonant frequencies of the antenna.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a dual-band monopole antenna, wherein the antenna occupies a minimum area and is integrated with the system circuit of the microwave substrate.
In order to achieve the above objects, a dual-band monopole antenna of the present invention comprises a microwave substrate, a first horizontal radiating metallic line, a second horizontal radiating metallic line, a vertical radiating metallic line, a feeding point, and a ground plane. The microwave substrate includes a first surface and a second surface. The first horizontal radiating metallic line is printed on the first surface. The second horizontal radiating metallic line is printed on the first surface. The vertical radiating metallic line is printed on the first surface, wherein the first horizontal radiating metallic line and the second horizontal radiating metallic line respectively intersect the vertical radiating metallic line at different positions. The feeding point is disposed on the vertical radiating metallic line, and the ground plane is printed on the second surface of the microwave substrate.
According to one aspect of the present invention, the middle point of the first horizontal radiating metallic line is connected to one end of the vertical radiating metallic line or the vicinity thereof opposite to the feeding point, the middle point of the second horizontal radiating metallic line is connected to the vertical radiating metallic line at the position different from where the first horizontal radiating metallic line connected to, and two ends (free ends) of the two horizontal radiating metallic lines are extended outwards in opposite direction, whereby the antenna is formed as an stacked double T shape.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the path from the feeding point through the vertical radiating metallic line to one of the free end of the first horizontal radiating metallic line forms a first resonant path of the antenna in operation and determines the first (the lower) operating frequency thereof, and the path from the vertical radiating metallic line to one of the free end of the second horizontal radiating metallic line forms a second resonant path of the antenna in operation and determines the second (the higher) operating frequency thereof.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, the feeding point is connected to a feeding metallic line for signal transmission.
According to a still further aspect of the present invention, the feeding metallic line is printed on the first surface.
According to the present invention, tuning of the above-mentioned two resonant frequencies of the antenna is very easy by means of adjusting the lengths of the first and second horizontal radiating metallic lines, and further tuning the antenna to the frequency band required. In addition, the antenna of the present invention is a planar structure, and therefore it has high integration with the microwave electric circuit. The antenna according to one embodiment of the present invention can be operated in dual bands at 2.4 GHz and 5.2 GHz for WLAN operations, and has a desirable antenna gain in the operating frequency bands.


Plural terminal devices are arranged under a relay apparatus. The relay apparatus includes a mobile communication network connection unit, a packet switching network connection unit, and an emergency call determination unit. The emergency call determination unit determines whether or not the calls originated from the terminal devices are emergency calls, and when the calls are the emergency calls, connects the emergency calls to the mobile communication network connection unit. When the calls are the emergency calls, the mobile communication network connection unit connects the emergency calls to the mobile communication network by issuing thereto a notice on an identification number of the relay apparatus, the identification number being stored in an IC card attached to the relay apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a relay apparatus under which terminal devices are arranged, and to a relay method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, in the case of connecting an emergency call from an IP telephone terminal to an emergency report center (such as a police station and a fire department), the emergency call has been outputted to an IP network by inputting a special number to the IP telephone terminal, and the IP telephone terminal and the emergency report center have been connected to each other through the IP network.
Moreover, there has been disclosed an emergency call connection system capable of making a report to an emergency report center corresponding to a position of the IP telephone terminal itself in such a manner that an IP packet which includes a signal requesting the emergency call in response to the input of the special number and includes information on the position of the IP telephone terminal is transmitted to the IP network, the emergency report center corresponding to such positional information is selected, and a call is established with the selected emergency report center (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-198757).
However, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-198757 described above, it is assumed that the IP telephone terminal directly connects to the IP network, and it is premised that the IP telephone terminal has a function to connect to the network concerned. Therefore, in the conventional technology, it has been difficult to connect, to the emergency report center, the emergency call requested from a terminal device which does not have the function to connect to the network, such as an extension connecting to an access point in a business office.
In this connection, in consideration of the above-described problem, it is an object of the present invention to provide a relay apparatus and a relay method, which are capable of appropriately connecting the emergency call requested from the terminal device to the network even if the terminal device does not have the function to connect to the network.


A database including vertical tables useful for storing large numbers of objects having potentially thousands of attributes in, e.g., e-commerce applications. To support querying the vertical database using conventional SQL, a horizontal view over the underlying vertical tables is defined, and then queries are posed against the view. The queries are automatically transformed and executed against the vertical tables. If desired, the query results can be transformed back to a horizontal format. In this way, it appears to the user that a conventional horizontal data format is being used.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to databases.
2. Description of the Related Art
Relational database management systems (RDBMS) have become the repository of choice for data, owing to the ease with which data can be extracted in response to a particular user-generated query. The query language typically used in extracting data from RDBMS is SQL, the properties of which advantageously simplify the data retrieval.
SQL has been designed under the assumption that RDBMS will store data horizontally, that is, in tables in which each row represents an object, also referred to as a tuple, and each column represents an attribute of the tuple. To obtain data as desired from the database, an SQL query is generated, optimized automatically by the RDBMS, and then executed, typically by joining two or more tables using join predicates, with the sought-after data being returned to the user.
As understood by the present invention, while conventional RDBMS that use horizontal tables are effective for many of their intended purposes, in certain emerging applications, notably e-commerce, the horizontal scheme can be inadequate for several reasons. For instance, an e-marketplace for electronics might require a database storing data on parts from 1000 manufacturers and distributors, and might contain two million parts classified into 2000 categories. New suppliers might join the marketplace on a regular basis, meaning that the database must constantly evolve. Unfortunately, horizontal databases are typically limited in the number of columns that are allowed, e.g., to 1012 columns, but as recognized herein e-marketplaces such as the one postulated above might require 5000 or more attributes spread across different categories and, hence 5000 or more columns. Even if a horizontal database were expanded to allow many more columns, most of the database fields would have nulls in them (thus rendering a xe2x80x9csparsexe2x80x9d database), since most parts would have far fewer than the maximum number of possible attributes. As understood herein, in addition to increasing storage overhead, nulls increase the size of the database index and are preferentially highly sorted in many RDBMS tree indices, despite the fact that nulls convey no meaningful information. Such xe2x80x9csparsityxe2x80x9d also degrades performance when data records are very wide in terms of the number of columns but only a few columns are required for a query. Further, using a horizontal system in the above-postulated scenario, the present invention recognizes that the parts table would require frequent and expensive altering to accommodate new parts and categories.
Accordingly, the present invention has understood that a different data representation is indicated, and more specifically, that a ternary (3-column) xe2x80x9cverticalxe2x80x9d representation is better suited to applications such as the e-commerce application discussed above. In a ternary vertical table, only a few columns, e.g., three, are used, with the first column representing an object identification and two more columns representing attribute names and attribute values, respectively, for the objects. Thus, the vertical table contains no nulls. Schema evolution becomes trivial, since as new objects (e.g., electronic parts) are added to the marketplace, new tuples are added to the vertical tables.
As recognized herein, however, storing data in vertical format raises complications. First, recall that SQL is designed for horizontal storage formats, and as a consequence writing SQL queries against vertical tables requires a level of expertise in SQL not possessed by most users. Even in the hands of an expert, tailoring an SQL query for a vertical table is cumbersome and error-prone. Additionally, current application development tools are designed for horizontal data formats; they simply will not function when used in connection with vertical tables.
The present invention has recognized the above-noted problems and provides solutions to one or more of them as disclosed below.
To address one or more of the above-noted problems, a logical horizontal view is provided on top of an underlying vertical database, with the user, e.g., a person or an application development tool, writing conventional SQL queries against the logical horizontal view and with the queries then being translated transparently to the user for execution against the underlying vertical tables.
A general purpose computer is programmed according to the inventive steps herein. The invention can also be embodied as an article of manufacturexe2x80x94a machine componentxe2x80x94that is used by a digital processing apparatus and which tangibly embodies a program of instructions that are executable by the digital processing apparatus to execute the present logic. This invention is realized in a critical machine component that causes a digital processing apparatus to perform the inventive method steps herein.
Accordingly, a general purpose computer is coupled to a relational database system that is characterized by at least one vertical table. The computer logic defines a logical horizontal view over the vertical table, and receives at least one SQL query against the horizontal view. The query is transformed to render a transformed query, with the transformed query being executed against the vertical table to generate an output.
In a preferred embodiment, the query is transformed using at least one operator that receives the vertical table and outputs the logical horizontal table having column labels equal to the attribute names in the vertical table. As set forth further below, the operator is a v2h operator. More particularly, the preferred operator executes a left outer join of a projection of the object identifications of the vertical table with a summation left outer join of a projection of attribute values from the vertical table.
The query transformation can include any standard relational operator such as executing a projection based on the vertical table, or a selection from the vertical table, or a table join using the vertical table, or a cross product, union, or intersection. Also, the transforming act can include executing the operator on the vertical table to render a result and then undertaking a desired set operation on the result. As intimated above, a horizontal to vertical operator can be executed against the output to transform the output to a vertical format.
In another aspect, a computer program device includes a computer program storage device that is readable by a digital processing apparatus. A program is on the program storage device. The program includes instructions that can be executed by the digital processing apparatus for querying a vertical table in a database system. The program includes computer readable code means for transforming a horizontal-based SQL query into a transformed query that has a format for execution against the vertical table.
In yet another aspect, a method for extracting data from a vertical table in a database includes defining an enablement layer which includes a horizontal view representative of the vertical table. The method also includes extracting data from the database based on an SQL query using the enablement layer, without requiring a user to tailor the query to a vertical format.
The details of the present invention, both as to its structure and operation, can best be understood in reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and in which:

System and method for generating horizontal view for SQL queries to vertical database

International Business Machines Corporation