A chemical mechanical polisher includes a substrate carrier and support system which employs at least one motor to drive the substrate carrier through polishing motions. An additional driver for driving at least a portion of the carrier in directions perpendicular to the motions supplied by the motor(s) is also included. A clamping flexure is provided to selectively lock the substrate carrier in a vertical position. The substrate carrier, in one embodiment is mounted to a vertical driver via a column. The column is guided by spiral flexures to prevent motion in directions normal to vertical. An air mount is provided to support the majority of the mass of the substrate carrier, so that only a small force need be applied by the additional driver for movements in the vertical direction. Another drive mechanism is also described which provides both polishing motions as well as vertical force application.

Chemical mechanical polishing to achieve the planarization of substrate surfaces, such as those of semiconductor wafers, flat panel displays, hard disks, etc. has become a very desirable method of processing. CMP typically requires the mounting of a substrate into a head or carrier which is then urged against a polishing surface to effect polishing of an exposed surface of the substrate. In the usual arrangements, both the carrier and the polishing surface are rotated to apply a polishing action.
For example, Kaanta et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,630, discloses a method of polishing a semiconductor wafer in which a wafer carrier is coupled to a spindle which is in turn driven by a motor to rotate the spindle and wafer carrier. The wafer carrier applies a load to the wafer and against a rotatable turntable assembly which includes a polishing table that is rotatably driven by a motor.
Hirose et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,384,986, discloses a turntable with an abrasive cloth mounted thereon and a top ring, each of which are independently rotated to perform polishing. The top ring drive shaft is rotatable about its own axis by a train of gears which are rotated by a motor.
Sandhu et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,129, discloses a rotatable platen assembly which is coupled to a drive mechanism for rotation thereof. A head assembly supports and holds a face of a semiconductor wafer in contact with the platen assembly to polish the wafer face. A motor is connected to the polishing head to rotate the polishing head. Individual regions of the wafer face are disclosed as having different polishing rates.
Shendon, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,624,299 and 5,582,534, disclose a device for chemical mechanical polishing that includes a housing which is configured to provide orbital and rotational movement of a carrier. A gear arrangement is provided to rotationally drive the carrier while at the same time sweeping the carrier arm through an orbital path. A motor and gear assembly may be connected to a platen to provide a rotational polishing surface against which the carrier moves.
The ideal substrate polishing process can be described by Preston's equation: R=K.sub.p *P*V, where R is the removal rate; Kp is a function of consumables (abrasive pad roughness and elasticity, surface chemistry and abrasion effects, and contact area); P is the applied pressure between the wafer and the abrasive pad; and V is the relative velocity between the wafer and the abrasive pad. As a result, the ideal CMP process should have constant cutting velocity over the entire wafer surface, constant pressure between the abrasive pad and wafer, and constant abrasive pad roughness, elasticity, area and abrasion effects. In addition, control over the temperature and pH is critical and the direction of the relative pad/wafer velocity should be randomly distributed over the entire wafer surface.
Most of the current CMP machines, including those discussed above, fail to produce constant velocity distribution over the entire substrate surface and thereby fail to achieve uniform material removal over the entire surface which is essential for a planar result. Consequently, wastage of significant portions of the substrates results, particularly at the edges of the substrates.
Other relative motion arrangements have been attempted and described, but also fail to achieve constant velocity distribution over the entire substrate surface and thereby fail to achieve uniform material removal over the entire surface of the substrate.
Chisolm et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,522,965, discloses a compact system for chemical mechanical polishing which employs a non-rotational platen having a polishing pad thereon, against which a wafer is rotated by a rotating carrier. An ultrasonic energy is inputted to the platen in an effort to enhance the polishing action.
Hirose et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,643,056, discloses a revolving drum type polishing apparatus A rotating drum having a polishing pad mounted on its outer peripheral surface is provided and is rotationally driven by a motor about its longitudinal axis. The drum is suspended above a wafer to be polished by a column attached to a base. The wafer is seated on a Y-table which is in turn mounted on a X-table which is fixed to the base. The X and Y tables are able to oscillate in directions perpendicular to one another, while the drum rotates against the surface of the wafer.
Lund, U.S. Pat. No. 5,643,044, discloses an orbiting wafer carrier which is mechanically driven by an internal gear arrangement. An abrasive tape is forcibly pressed against an exposed surface of the wafer, during the orbiting motion to effect polishing.
Parker et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,599,423, discloses an apparatus for simulating a chemical mechanical polishing system in an attempt to optimize the same. A rotating platen is provided, against which a polishing pad forces a substrate. The force is applied to the polishing pad by a moveable tubular polishing arm which is preferably continuously moved linearly across the rotating substrate, from edge to center, until the polishing end point is attained.
In addition to the failure to develop an apparatus which removes a consistent amount of material across the entire face of a substrate during polishing, most of the current machines discussed require a large mass to be born by the carrier or head support due to the mechanical arrangements which are provided for driving the carriers. This equates to a large inertial mass which must be contended with when starting and stopping a polishing motion. For rotational carriers, this is not a significant concern unless the rotational speed is to be frequently varied. However, rotational carriers have the inherent drawback of not providing a constant velocity distribution across the polishing surface.
Co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 08/443,956, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Chemical Mechanical Polishing, discloses apparatuses which are capable of polishing a substrate while maintaining uniform average velocity between the substrate and an abrasive pad against which the substrate is polished. U.S. application Ser. No. 08/443,956 is hereby incorporated by reference thereto in its entirety.
For example, one embodiment disclosed in application Ser. No. 08/443,956 includes a carrier which is driven in the Z-direction by a servo motor and lead screw. A cross member, post and linear slide must be supported during programmable movements by the servo motor and lead screw. The carrier is maintained substantially fixed in the X and Y directions during polishing. A table, which includes the polishing surface against which the carrier polishes the substrate, is moved in the X and Y directions during polishing. The table is mounted along a linear slide and is moveable therealong in the X direction by a lead screw and servo motor arrangement. For movement in the Y-direction, a plate is provided which supports the table and is in turn mounted to another slide for movement therealong in the Y direction. The plate is driven by a third servo motor and lead screw arrangement.
While the above discussed embodiment, as well as the other embodiments disclosed in the application, effectively maintain uniform average velocity between the substrate and the abrasive pad during polishing, they nevertheless require the movements of fairly significant inertial masses to accomplish their functions. For example, in the embodiment described above, the Y-direction servo motor and lead screw must drive the combined weight of the plate and a portion of its slide, as well as the table, the table slide and the servo motor and lead screw associated with the X-direction movement of the table. This puts a significant strain on the servo motors, particularly the Y-direction servo in this example, which could lead to overheating and reduced service life of the servo and or lead screw. Even more significantly, the substantial masses involved limit the effective velocities at which the polishing patterns can be carried out.
Thus, there remains a need for systems with improved polishing velocity capabilities, which can at the same time maintain uniform average velocity between a substrate and an abrasive pad against which the substrate is polished. An important objective is to reduce the inertial mass or masses to be moved, especially for devices that include starting and stopping motions or variations in patterns and/or velocities during their operation. Another goal is to improve the performance of the drivers which actually move the inertial masses through their polishing patterns. More responsive drivers, i.e., drivers with improved acceleration and velocity capabilities, are desirable.
Additionally, mechanical arrangements for driving a carrier can limit the size of the polishing pattern that the apparatus is capable of performing. For example, the radius of the polishing path of the apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,643,053, is limited to the distance between the drive shaft 56 and the second shaft 64 which interconnect the carrier with a motor. It would be desirable to have a capability to define a polishing pattern which would be limited only by the useable surface of the polishing surface against which the carrier travels.


An apparatus for controlling an inverter circuit of an induction heat cooker which generates and outputs high voltage power to cook food contained in a cooking container is disclosed. The apparatus varies a pulse width of high level interval of a driving pulse according to a level of AC power supplied thereto to vary a switch current of the inverter circuit, and sufficiently secures a turn off time of the driving pulse in proportion to a resonant time varying according to states of separation of the cooking container or the heated food. Therefore, the apparatus improves stability of the switching operation and endurance. Also the apparatus requires relatively low manufacturing costs as the trigger generation is implemented with relatively low-priced amplifiers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling an inverter circuit of an induction heat cooker, and more particularly to an apparatus for controlling an inverter circuit of an induction heat cooker capable of generating a driving pulse whose width is varied in response to an input voltage to reduce a voltage difference between both ends of a switch to drive a switching operation of the inverter circuit, and, simultaneously, controlling the inverter circuit so that a turn-off time of the driving pulse is varied according to separation state of the cooking container and a cooking state of food.
2. Description of the Related Art
A cooker such as a rice cooker, an electric pan, a slow cooker, an electric kettle and the like is a device cooking food included in a container thereof by heating the food above a predetermined temperature.
Generally, a cooker includes a body having a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) to operate and determine whether power is applied thereto in response to a user's button operation, a cooking container for containing food to be placed therein, and a heater installed under the cooking container or in the body for heating food.
This specification will be described in respect to an induction heat cooker including coils, each of which is regularly formed in a predetermined part to be put a cooking container, and cooking food in the cooking container made of a magnetic material heated by eddy currents caused by magnetic fields as current flows in the coils.
Referring to FIG. 1, a prior art inverter circuit of an induction heat cooker will be described in detail below.
An inverter circuit 41 of an induction heat cooker switches a switch element to generate a high frequency current with relatively high power and to heat a cooking container including food by induction heat. Such an inverter circuit 41 is switched by a control signal to supply current to coils, thereby supplying heat to the cooking container. The construction of the prior art inverter circuit will be described in detail below.
The inverter circuit 41 includes an AC power source 10 supplying an AC power source to each element, a rectifier 20 for rectifying the AC power source, a filter 30 for filtering the AC power rectified in the rectifier 20 to output a filtered AC power, and a switching unit 40 inputting the filtered AC power and applying a high power to the coils in response to a switching operation.
Also, an inverter circuit controller 81 controlling the inverter circuit 41 includes an input voltage detector 50 for detecting a variation of voltage inputted to the inverter circuit 41 connected to the AC power source 10, a pulse width variation controller 60 varying a width of a driving pulse driving the switching unit 40 in response to a variation of the input voltage, and a gate drive unit 80 for transmitting the driving pulse generated from the pulse width variation controller 60 to the switching unit 40 to perform the switching operation.
Such a pulse width variation controller 60 includes a differential amplifier 61 generating a control signal for varying a width of high level interval of the driving pulse in response to a variation from the input voltage detector 50, and a pulse generation IC (Integrated Chip) 62 for determining a turn-off time of the driving pulse.
Therefore, the width of the driving pulse for driving the switching unit 40 of the inverter circuit 41 is varied such that the width of high level interval of the driving pulse is decreased in a relatively high input voltage portion and the width of high level interval thereof is increased in a relatively low input voltage portion, therefore a voltage increase at both ends of the switch can be repressed when the inverter circuit is driven.
Here, since a turn-off time of the driving pulse is determined by resisters and capacitors each of which has respective values in the inverter circuit, it can be maintained constantly even when heating loads are varied in response to variations of separation state of the cooking container or cooking state of food therein.
FIG. 2 is views illustrating waveforms of a switch voltage and a driving pulse of a prior art inverter circuit in response to variations of heat load. With reference to FIG. 2, the prior art problems will be described in detail below.
A waveform of G1 drawn by a bold line indicates a state that a cooking container is placed to the cooker. Namely, the waveform of G1 is a graph showing that the cooker has normal heat loads as the coils normally contact the cooking container. Also, a waveform of G2 drawn by a dotted line indicates a state that the cooking container is separated from the cooker. Namely, the waveform of G2 is a graph showing that the cooker has no heat load.
The reason why the waveforms G1 an G2 are different is that the cooking container and food, which are referred as heat load, are gradually heated as current flows in the coils, such that the heat load and magnetic characteristics of the coils vary, and thus characteristics of switch voltages differ.
Namely, the heated load of the induction heat cooker is varied according to separation of the cooking container, state variation of heated food, material and deformation of the cooking container, etc. The variation of the heated load causes a resonant inductance value of the coils.
Especially, the resonant inductance value in a state with no heat load, wherein the cooking container is separated, is much greater than that of the inverter circuit, which is previously set. Therefore, a resonant time of the switch element increases.
As such, although the resonant time is varied in response to the variation of the inductance value, the turn-off time of the driving pulse in the prior art inverter circuit is fixedly set when it is manufactured. Therefore, the prior art inverter circuit has disadvantages in that the switch element has a high voltage when it is turned on, if the resonant inductance value is increased.
When the cooking container is separated, or in a no heat load state, if a resonant time is increased by an increased resonant inductance value, the switch element is set to a relatively high switch voltage while it does not secure a relatively sufficient turn off time, and a relatively large short current flows through the switch element. Therefore the switch element is damaged. Accordingly, the damage of the switch element causes a breakdown of the induction heat cooker and burdens a user with costs for repairing the breakdown thereof. Also, they deteriorate the endurance of the cooker.

Apparatus for controlling inverter circuit of induction heat cooker


Automatic recognition of sample media content is provided. A spectrogram is generated for successive time slices of audio signal. One or more sample hash vectors are generated for a time slice by calculating ratios of magnitudes of respective frequency bins from a column for the time slice. In a primary evaluation stage an exact match of bits of the sample hash vector is performed to entries in a look-up table to identify a group of one or more reference hash vectors. In a secondary evaluation stage a degree of similarity between the sample hash vector and each of the group of reference hash vectors is performed to identify any reference hash vectors that are candidates for matching the sample media content, each reference hash vector representing a time slice of reference media content.

Various audio recognition systems and methods are known for processing an incoming audio stream (a 'programme') and searching an internal database of music and sound effects ('tracks') to identify uses of those tracks within the programme.
In the real world, music is often only one of the layers of audio of a programme. One of the challenges for audio recognition is to recognize the identity of music even in circumstances where there are other layers of audio such as sound effects, voiceover, ambience, etc. that occur simultaneously. Other distortions include equalisation (adjusting the relative overall amounts of treble and bass in a track), and change of tempo and/or pitch.
Some audio recognition techniques are based on directly carrying out a near-neighbour search on calculated hash values using a standard algorithm. Where the space being searched has a large number of dimensions, such standard algorithms do not perform very efficiently.
An article entitled "A Highly Robust Audio Fingerprinting System" by J. Haitsma et. al. of Philips Research, published in the Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Music Information Retrieval, 2002, describes a media fingerprinting system to compare multimedia objects. The article describes that fingerprints of a large number of multimedia objects, along with associated meta-data (e.g. name of artist, title and album) are stored in a database such that the fingerprints serve as an index to the meta-data. Unidentified multimedia content can then be identified by computing a fingerprint and using this to query the database. The article describes a two-phase search algorithm that is based on only performing full fingerprint comparisons at candidate positions pre-selected by a sub-fingerprint search. Candidate positions are located using a hash, or lookup, table having 32 bit sub-fingerprints as an entry. Every entry points to a list with pointers to the positions in the real fingerprint lists where the respective 32-bit sub-fingerprint are located.
However, there remains a need for an apparatus, system and method for more efficient and more reliable identification of audio media content.


A parking lock in a vehicle transmission includes a locking mechanism for locking and releasing a parking interlock gear (1) and an actuating unit. The actuating unit is coupled via a coupling mechanism to the locking mechanism in order to actuate the locking mechanism between an interlock position and a release position of the parking interlock gear (1). The parking lock is arranged on an intermediate plate (2) in a housing of the vehicle transmission.

A parking lock for a motor vehicle transmission is known, for example, from the publication DE 10 2016 101 486 A1. The parking lock includes a locking pawl for fixing an output shaft of a transmission, which is coupled to a parking interlock gear, in position, wherein this locking pawl is movable between an open position or a release position and an interlock position of the parking interlock gear with the aid of an actuating unit. The actuating unit is designed as a hydraulic cylinder arrangement which is coupled to a mechanical switch connected between the hydraulic cylinder arrangement and the locking mechanism. The hydraulic cylinder arrangement includes a cylinder and a piston which is axially displaceable in this cylinder and is coupled to the switch, wherein the switch is arranged in the cylinder. The piston is articulatedly connected to a connecting rod which, for its part, as an integral part of the actuating unit, mechanically acts on the locking pawl in order to engage and disengage the parking lock. The piston longitudinal axis of the hydraulic cylinder arrangement and the connecting rod are arranged axially parallel to one another, offset at a right angle with respect to a swivel axis of the locking pawl.
The parking lock is usually arranged in the transmission housing in the area of the hydraulic transmission control unit, since the parking lock cylinder or the hydraulic cylinder arrangement is located directly in the hydraulic control unit of the vehicle transmission. As a result, the necessary installation space for the control unit is enlarged. The structural design of the parking lock is established by the position of the parking lock cylinder in the hydraulic control unit, since the installation space available therefor is limited.

Arrangement of a parking lock in a vehicular transmission


A shutter device for a camera includes shutter blades arranged to be movable to a first position in which the shutter closes and to a second position in which the shutter opens, and a switching part arranged to change a clearance provided between the shutter blades along an optical axis from a first state over to a second state in which the clearance is narrower than in the first state.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a shutter device for a camera of the kind having a plurality of shutter blades and to the camera having the shutter device of this kind.
2. Description of the Related Art
The conventional shutter device for a camera has been arranged as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12. Referring to these figures, the shutter device comprises shutter blades 401 and 402, a blade retaining plate 403 in which an aperture part 403a is formed to give a maximum aperture diameter, a shutter base plate 404, and a driving pin 405 which is arranged to be caused to drive the shutter in the direction of arrow E by a known driving device.
The shutter blades 401 and 402 respectively have holes 401a and 402a rotatably fitted on fulcrum pins 404a and 404b which are provided on the shutter base plate 404. The driving pin 405 is slidably fitted into slots 401b and 402b which are respectively formed in the shutter blades 401 and 402. The blade retaining plate 403 is mounted on the shutter base plate 404 by screws (not shown) or an adhesive or the like with some clearance left between them in such a way as to allow the shutter blades 401 and 402 to turn respectively around the fulcrum pins 404a and 404b. The shutter blades 401 and 402 are thus arranged to be caused to turn by the movement of the driving pin 405 in the direction of arrow E in such a way as to form an aperture or to close the aperture.
FIG. 12 shows in a plan view the shutter blades 401 and 402 in relation to the aperture part 403a. The illustration shows the shutter blades 401 and 402 in their positions closing the aperture part 403a.
In order to perfectly prevent the film from being exposed to light with the aperture part 403a closed by the shutter blades 401 and 402, the shutter blades 401 and 402 must be arranged to be adequately overlapping the blade retaining plate 403 (a dimension "b" shown in FIG. 12) and also to adequately overlap each other (a dimension "a" shown in FIG. 12). However, clearances are provided in accordance with the conventional arrangement between the shutter base plate 404, the shutter blade 401, the shutter blade 402 and the blade retaining plate 403 for smooth rotation of the shutter blades. To prevent external light from coming round through these clearances to the surface of the film, therefore, the mutual overlapping amount of the shutter blades 401 and 402 (the dimension "a") and the overlapping amount of the blade retaining plate 403 and the shutter blades 401 and 402 (the dimension "b") must be arranged to be sufficiently large. These large overlapping amounts, however, have been impedimental to a reduction in size of the shutter device.


A poly-phase filter receives inphase input signals I and Ī and quadrature input signals Q and Q, and provides inphase output signals Iout and Iout and quadrature output signals Qout and Qout. The capacitance of each variable capacitor connected to the terminals providing inphase output signals Iout and Iout is and the capacitance of each variable capacitor connected to the terminals providing quadrature output signals Qout and Qout, are different in value, and preferably by twice a predetermined value. This is because adjustment to the capacitance values may be made to each set of variable capacitors by the predetermined value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to analog filters. In particular, the present invention relates to analog filters suitable for use, for example, in mobile or telecommunications applications.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
From a fixed frequency sinusoidal source, an ideal poly-phase filter outputs equal-amplitude inphase (i.e., 0° and 180°) and quadrature (i.e., 90° and 270°) signals. However, in real implementations, due to source harmonics, circuit element mismatches, offset voltages and parasitic impedances, equal-amplitude inphase and quadrature output signals are difficult to achieve.


Various embodiments of the present invention provide for immediate allocation of virtual memory on behalf of processes running within a computer system. One or more bit flags within each translation indicate whether or not a corresponding virtual memory page is immediate. READ access to immediate virtual memory is satisfied by hardware-supplied or software-supplied values. WRITE access to immediate virtual memory raises an exception to allow an operating system to allocate physical memory for storing values written to the immediate virtual memory by the WRITE access.

The present invention is related both to computer architecture and to computer operating systems. Although the present invention has many different alternative embodiments with respect to different, particular computer hardware platforms and computer-operating-system architectures, the present invention can be completely and straightforwardly described with respect to a simplified and generalized conceptualization of virtual-to-physical-address translation for one computer architecture.
FIG. 1 illustrates generalized virtual-to-physical-address translation employed in a wide variety of modern computer systems, and implemented in a wide variety of currently available computer operating systems. A virtual address 101 generally fills a single, naturally sized computer word for a given computer and computer-operating-system architecture. In most systems, a virtual address 101 is stored in a hardware register, and is used by the processor or processors within a computer system to locate a corresponding natural word stored in the computer system's memory hierarchy 131, 137, 139, and 129. The process by which a unit of physical memory corresponding to virtual address is located within physical memory is referred to as "virtual address translation," and the stored information 109 that facilitates a particular virtual address translation is referred to as a "translation."
Normally, a virtual address 101 comprises a number of higher-order bits 103 that together compose a virtual page number, and a number of lower-order bits 105 that together compose a page offset. Computer-system hardware and a computer operating system together translate virtual addresses into physical addresses that directly identify a memory location corresponding to the virtual address. Mapping of virtual addresses to physical memory locations provides great flexibility to computer systems with regard to memory implementations. For example, a computer system may provide, through virtual addresses, a much larger process address space than could be accommodated, at a given instance in time, in the physical, random-access memory available within the computer system. In such systems, the computer hardware and a computer operating system collaborate to maintain virtual memory pages most likely to be next accessed in physical memory, and maintain virtual memory pages less likely to be accessed in the near future on larger capacity mass storage devices. Virtual memory pages can migrate from mass storage devices to physical memory and from physical memory to mass storage devices dynamically, as programs execute and access virtual memory. Virtual memory also allows a computer system to provide to each of numerous, concurrently running processors the illusion that each process enjoys private access to an entire virtual-memory address space, and may facilitate security measures, inter-process memory sharing, and provide additional types of benefits to computer operating systems and to computer users.
In an exemplary computer system, during a first virtual-to-physical-address translation, a computer processor, computer-operating-system routine, or a combination of a processor and computer-operating-system software extract the virtual page number 103 from a virtual address stored within a register and use the virtual page number 107 to locate a corresponding entry 109 within a translation look-aside buffer 111. The translation look-aside buffer ("TLB") 111 stores most recently accessed virtual page translations to assist in virtual-address translation. In many systems, the TLB is stored in specialized, high-speed TLB registers, and is backed up by a lower-speed virtual hash page table ("VHPT"), in turn backed up by translations stored on mass storage devices. For the purpose of the describing the present invention, it is sufficient to understand that the TLB stores a set of current virtual-page-to-physical-page translations to facilitate virtual-to-physical-address translation.
Each TLB entry, such as TLB entry 109, includes a virtual page number 113, a corresponding physical page number 115, many additional fields that may describe privilege level, access rights, protection keys, and other such information used by the operating system to control access to virtual memory pages, represented in FIG. 1 by spaces 117 and 119, and a number of bit flags 121-125. In many computer systems, a bit flag referred to as a "present bit" (bit flag 125 in FIG. 1), indicates whether or not the virtual-memory page currently resides in physical memory. When, during memory access, the present bit indicates that the virtual memory page corresponding to the TLB entry does not currently reside in physical memory, a page fault occurs, and the operating system uses 127 the virtual page number 113 to locate the contents of the virtual page in mass storage 129 and copy the located virtual page into a location in physical memory, such as the L1 cache memory 131, and updates the physical page number 115 to reflect the location in memory in which the contents of the virtual page has been copied from the mass storage 129. By contrast, when the present bit of the TLB entry indicates that the physical page corresponding to the virtual page is resident within memory, the contents of the physical memory location corresponding to the virtual address may be directly accessed 133 by supplying the physical page number 115 and the page offset 105 to a memory subsystem 135, which reads the contents of the physical address from, or writes a value to, the corresponding memory location in one of a tiered system of caches, including the L1 cache 131, the L2 cache 137, and main memory 139. Whether virtual-to-physical-address translation is carried out entirely by processor logic, by the processor under control of firmware, or by the processor under control of operating system software routines depends on the particular computer-system hardware platform and operating system within a computer system. In the exemplary architecture, an access-rights field in each TLB entry specifies the types of access allowed to the virtual memory page corresponding to the TLB entry. Access types include no access, read access, write access, execute access, and a privilege-promotion access used allow execution of operating system code using an enter-privileged-code instruction. The access rights field comprises 3 bits in the exemplary architecture, each of the 8 possible values specifying one or more access rights for each possible privilege level. The value of the access-rights field, combined with the value of a 2-bit privilege-level field within the TLB entry, completely specifies the access rights available to a process running at each of four possible privilege levels.
When an operating system or application program begins execution, or when additional memory is allocated for operating system or program use, a computer system commonly allocates a large number of virtual pages on behalf of the operating system or application program. In many cases, the operating system or application program expects that newly allocated virtual pages are initialized to a default value. The expected default value is commonly the value "0" for each byte within the newly allocated virtual memory page. In many currently available computer systems, the newly allocated virtual memory pages are fully instantiated, meaning that, when sufficient physical memory is available, a physical memory page corresponding to the virtual memory page is assigned for the virtual memory page and that the physical memory page is initialized to the default value.
FIG. 2 illustrates allocation of five virtual memory pages on behalf of a process. As shown in FIG. 2, physical pages 202-206 corresponding to five virtual memory pages are allocated in memory 210, corresponding TLB entries 212-216 are placed into the TLB 218, and the physical pages 202-206 are initialized to contain a default value. In general, virtual memory pages are either immediately initialized, under program control, as part of the virtual-page allocation process, or selected from a pool of pre-initialized pages that are zeroed or otherwise initialized in a background, operating-system process. In either case, initialization of the virtual-memory pages is computationally expensive, and may involve significant time delays for nascent processes or for processes allocating additional memory resources prior to undertaking a particular task. In some cases, a greater number of virtual memory pages are allocated than actually needed by a process, and allocated virtual-memory pages may never be written to, but only read from, or may never be accessed during the life of a process.
Designers, manufactures, and users of computer systems have recognized that allocation of virtual-memory pages for initializing processes, and for processes that dynamically supplement their virtual memory during operation, represents a significant computational and time overhead. Therefore, manufactures, designers, and users of computer systems have recognized the need for systems and methods that efficiently initialize newly allocated virtual-memory pages.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Method and apparatus for testing leak integrity of a workpiece such as a wheel rim in which the rim is positioned within an air-tight housing with the axial rim edges is sealing engagement with opposed wall portions of the housing so as to form first and second chambers within the housing internally and externally of the rim. One of such chambers is supplied with air under pressure. Microphones are positioned in the other chamber for detecting leakage of air through the rim as a function of intensity of ultrasonic radiation emitted thereby. The test apparatus is calibrated to detect air leakage that exceeds a pre-specified maximum allowable air flow rate by removably mounting a calibration orifice on a test workpiece, with the orifice being sized to provide the pre-specified maximum allowable leakage flow rate for a satisfactory workpiece at the operating pressure of the apparatus. With the test workpiece in place, the detection electronics is adjusted to indicate an unsatisfactory workpiece when the microphone output exceeds the level associated with air flow through the test orifice.

It has heretofore been proposed to test for air leaks in closed and semi-closed structures ultrasonically in a soundproof enclosure. U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,538 and application Ser. No. 222,018 filed July 21, 1988, and now U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,390; both assigned to the assignee hereof, disclose leak detection apparatus in which a transfer line sequentially feeds a plurality of closed or semiclosed workpieces, such as vehicles wheels, oil pans, valve covers or catalytic converter housings, to a test station. An elevator at the test station lifts each workpiece in sequence from the transfer line to an elevated position at which the workpiece is disposed within and enclosed by a sound chamber. The sound chamber is formed by a cup-shaped enclosure wall having an open bottom edge that sealingly engages the elevator in the upper or test position of the latter. An air supply selectively feeds air under pressure into the workpiece enclosed in the chamber, and one or more microphones ultrasonically detect air leakage from within the workpiece.
Automated test apparatus of the described character has enjoyed substantial commercial acceptance and success. However, further improvements remain desirable. For example, problems have been encountered in attempting to calibrate the leak detection equipment to a maximum allowable flow rate at a given air pressure specified by the workpiece manufacture or customer. Workpieces that are known to exceed allowable leakage flow rate have been employed for calibration proposes. However, while such a "know leaker" can be employed for qualitative examination of the microphone outputs, they cannot be readily employed for qualitative control proposes to set a microphone output threshold corresponding to the desired maximum allowable flow rate for an acceptable workpiece. Further, the air passages in the test piece become clogged with dirt and debris, whereupon the test piece must be replaced by another known leaker that may have completely different leakage characteristics.
Accordingly, it is general object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for calibrating leak detection equipment of the described character that provide an accurate and repeatable qualitative vehicle for calibrating the equipment to a pre-specified maximum allowable flow rate for satisfactory workpieces, that may be readily employed periodically during an automated test operation for recalibrating the equipment, that may be readily modified in the event of a change in specified allowable flow rate, and that may be readily cleaned or repaired in the event of clogging by dirt or other debris in the test equipment.

Calibration of air leak detection apparatus


An angle detection error is prevented by using a columnar permanent magnet that is radially double-pole-magnetized as a rotating angle detecting sensor while preventing a gap between a plurality of magnetic sensors and an end face of the permanent magnet from being narrowed. The permanent magnet is a ferrite magnet or an alnico magnet having a diameter of 4 mm to 20 mm, and an axial length of 3 mm to 5 mm. The plurality of magnetic sensors detects radial magnetic flux densities at positions axially spaced 0.5 mm to 3.0 mm apart from a central portion of the permanent magnet, the central portion having a diameter equal to or smaller than 20% of the magnet diameter to make it possible to perform detection in a range in which a distribution curve of a radial magnetic flux density has a moderate inclination.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a noncontact rotating angle detecting sensor that can detect a relative rotating angle between two members by using a permanent magnet and a magnetic sensor.
2. Description of Related Art
As a rotating angle detecting sensor of this type, a sensor including a columnar permanent magnet and a plurality of magnetic sensors that are arranged on the same circumference at a position axially spaced apart from one end face of the permanent magnet. The rotating angle detecting sensor of this type includes a permanent magnet fixed to one member of two members between which a relative rotating angle is desired to be detected, a plurality of magnetic sensors fixed to the other member, and a processing circuit that converts a rotating angle of a relative concentric rotation of the two members into a rotating magnetic field of the permanent magnet to calculate the rotating angle by an operation using an output difference between the plurality of magnetic sensors. In the fixing, as far as possible, a center line of the permanent magnet, center of the circumference on which the plurality of magnetic sensors are arranged, and rotating centers of the relative rotation between the two members are arranged on the same straight line (Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2004-191101).
Conventionally, as the permanent magnet, a permanent magnet that is obtained by radially double-pole-magnetizing a columnar shaped body is used. The permanent magnet of this type has the N pole on a half and the S pole on the other half, when the magnetic field is divided by an axial plane including the center line of the columnar shape. The plurality of magnetic sensors detects magnetic flux densities to detect a rotating angle. As far as possible, the plurality of magnetic sensors are advantageously arranged in a space having a large absolute value of a magnetic flux density to avoid a gap between the magnetic sensor and one end face of the permanent magnet from being narrowed. For example, when an axial magnetic flux density along the center line of the permanent magnet is detected by the plurality of magnetic sensors, since a peak of an axial magnetic flux density distribution curve is located at a position axially spaced apart from an outer edge of one end face of the permanent magnet, the position is set as a normal arrangement position of the plurality of magnetic sensors (Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-291942).
However, when the axial magnetic flux density distribution in a space axially spaced from one end face of the permanent magnet is considered on an arbitrary plane including the center line of the permanent magnet, a curve representing the magnetic flux density distribution has a narrow radial region in which the curve has a moderate inclination near the peak. For this reason, when so-called decentering in which the center of the columnar permanent magnet and the center of the same circumference on which the plurality of magnetic sensors are arranged are relatively decentered occurs, each of the magnetic sensors enters a diametric region having a sharp magnetic flux density change, an output different from an output from a magnetic sensor corresponding to an actual rotating angle is obtained, and an angle detection error between a rotating angle calculated by a rotating angle detecting sensor and the actual rotating angle between the two members easily becomes large. In order to reduce the angle detection error, the rotating angle detecting sensor disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-291942 employs a permanent magnet having a crucible former or a stepped shape at one end in place of the columnar permanent magnet. However, the permanent magnet is difficult to be designed by the special shaping.


In a method of recording and reading optical information in a recording medium using holography, a first recording operation is performed for recording optical information in a first recording region in an overlapping manner by allowing a reference beam and a signal beam with data loaded to interfere with each other in the first recording region, the reference beam being angularly multiplexed at predetermined intervals. Furthermore, a second recording operation is performed for recording optical information in a second recording region adjacent to the first recording region in an overlapping manner by allowing the reference beam and the signal beam to interfere with each other in the second recording region, the reference beam being angularly multiplexed between the predetermined intervals. Consequently, optical information can be recorded so as to easily detect and determine a selected reproducing beam, thus increasing the reading efficiency of the optical information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of reading optical information and a method of recording optical information, and more particularly, to methods of reading and recording optical information in a recording medium using holography.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as information and computer industries are rapidly being developed, there is an increasing demand for storage devices that can satisfy requirements for mass storage capability and high-speed data input/output. Therefore, a compact disc (CD), a digital versatile disc (DVD), a high definition DVD (HD DVD), a blue-ray disc (BD), a holographic digital data storage (HDDS), and the like are in the limelight as optical information storage devices capable of storing massive data and inputting/outputting data at a high speed.
Among various storage devices, a device of processing optical information using a holographic digital information storage, which will hereinafter be referred to as 'optical information processing device', records optical information using interference fringes formed by splitting a beam emitted from a light source into a reference beam and signal beam, and then allowing the reference beam and the signal beam to interfere with each other at a recording medium made of a refractive material such as a photopolymer. To read optical information, the reference beam input during the recording of the optical information should be restored and irradiated to the interference fringes of the recording medium. Thus, a reproducing beam generated by the diffraction at the interference fringe is detected, and the optical information is then acquired from this reproducing beam.
Meanwhile, the optical information processing device may use various kinds of multiplexing methods to increase the recording capacity.
Examples of the multiplexing method may include an angular multiplexing method, a phase-code multiplexing method, a wavelength multiplexing method, a shift multiplexing method, a peristrophic multiplexing method, a correlation multiplexing method, a fractal multiplexing method, and so forth.
In line with the development of multiplexing methods as described above, it is necessary to develop a method of efficiently detecting and determining a reproducing beam intended to be reproduced among reproducing beams generated from recording regions where several bits of optical information are recorded in an overlapping manner.
The present invention provides a method of recording optical information and a method of reading optical information that can easily detect and determine a selected reproducing beam intended to be reproduced.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method of reading optical information and method of recording optical information


A merchandising system comprises an anchor rail that is attached in a substantially horizontal position to a supporting surface, such as a wall. The anchor rail releasably supports a hanger that extends vertically to a position remote from the anchor rail. The hanger can be located at substantially any position horizontally along the anchor rail. The hanger is supported by the upright surface at a position remote from the anchor rail but is free of permanent attachment to the upright surface at this position so that it can be freely moved horizontally. The hanger includes an upright portion that extends substantially vertically and also includes a support arm that extends outwardly from the upright portion to support a shelf or other object thereon.

One of the problems with display/shelving systems particularly those used in shops is that they are often based on arrangements where fixed uprights are screwed to the walls at pre-determined intervals. For instance, the uprights could be spaced apart on one meter centres. The problem with such fixed upright systems is that they are configured in such a way that they limit the lateral flexibility of the system and their installation can require structural or substantial building work which a shop owner may not want.
The aim of the invention is to provide a versatile shelving/display system which is not limited by its configuration to having its uprights or main supports in any pre-determined vertical positions.
It is an object of the invention to provide a shelving/display system which is cheap and easy to manufacture and simple to install.


The reinforcement combining apparatus includes: a stage having a pressing surface; and a tool having a pressing surface opposite to the pressing surface of the stage, wherein the stage and the tool sandwich and press a flexible wiring substrate and a reinforcement, thereby combining the reinforcement with the flexible wiring substrate. A heat conduction rubber having elasticity which allows the heat conduction rubber to transform at an arbitrary area is provided as a part of the pressing surface of the tool, and the tool exerts pressure to the flexible wiring substrate via the heat conduction rubber. Thus, it is possible to bond the reinforcement to the flexible wiring with them uniformly appressed to each other.

A liquid crystal panel has been required to be thinner, lighter, more durable, and to consume less power. The liquid crystal panel having these characteristics are utilized not only in mobile devices such as a cellular phone but also in display sections of a personal computer, a home television, and the like. With popularization of the liquid crystal panel, various techniques in packaging have been developed and applied. For example, as a packaging technique of a liquid crystal driver IC which has been developed recently, there has been used a packaging technique utilizing a flexible wiring substrate of a TCP, a COF, and the like, thereby realizing high-density package and a thinner and lighter liquid crystal panel.
The flexible wiring substrate is constituted of (i) a tape base material made of polyimide or the like and (ii) a conductive wiring formed thereon. The conductive wiring is formed by photo-etching with Cu or the like. It is often that installation parts and the like are soldered on an outermost surface of the conductive wiring. Further, when Cu is used to form the conductive wiring, it is often that the surface of the conductive wiring is coated by Sn, Au, and the like. Further, on the flexible wiring substrate's surface having the conductive wiring, a solder resist is formed on an area other than portions connected to external circuits so as to protect the conductive wiring.
Meanwhile, it is general that the flexible substrate is formed in a long tape manner in manufacturing steps of the TCP and COF in which semiconductor chips are installed. Thus, it is possible to sequentially transport the flexible wiring substrate to production apparatuses used in the respective manufacturing steps, so that it is possible to efficiently form a module on an assembly line. Further, the flexible wiring substrate is formed in a tape manner, so that it is possible to supply and collect the flexible wiring substrate by rolling it up with a reel. Thus, the flexible wiring substrate formed in a long tape manner is advantageous in mass-production of semiconductor devices.
As described above, as to the flexible wiring substrate, a module is formed by installing semiconductor chips and other parts. In this case, connectors may be formed on the flexible wiring substrate as connection terminals, which allow connection with external circuits, for the sake of convenience in assembling and replacing installation parts. Thus, in the periphery of the connectors of the flexible wiring substrate, reinforcement is required so that the flexible wiring substrate is not damaged by a mechanical load exerted in connecting the external circuits to the connectors. Accordingly, it is necessary to enhance the strength of the flexible wiring substrate by combining a reinforcement with a surface positioned on a back side of a connector-installation area of the flexible wiring substrate.
The following description explains examples of a conventional reinforcement combining apparatus and a method of combining the reinforcement with the flexible wiring substrate with reference to FIG. 7 to FIG. 9.
FIG. 7 is a cross sectional view schematically showing an important portion of a reinforcement combining apparatus for combining a reinforcement with the flexible wiring substrate. As shown in FIG. 7, a pressing surface 102 of a stage (lower holding member) 101 and a pressing surface 104 of a tool (upper holding member) 103 are positioned opposite to each other in parallel. Between them, a flexible wiring substrate 105 formed in a long tape manner is disposed so that its surface having conductive wiring (not shown) faces upward. The flexible wiring substrate 105 is disposed at the foregoing position by means of a sprocket and a transport reel (that are not shown). Then, a reinforcement 106 is disposed on the pressing surface 102 of the stage 101.
The reinforcement 106 is made of polyimide, PET, and the like, and adhesive 107 used to bond the reinforcement 106 to the flexible wiring substrate 105 is applied to a bonded surface of the flexible wiring substrate 105 in advance.
FIG. 8 shows a condition under which the reinforcement 106 is combined with the flexible wiring substrate 105 by using the reinforcement combining apparatus of FIG. 7. As shown in FIG. 8, a position of the reinforcement 106 disposed on the stage 101 and a position of the flexible wiring substrate 105 are adjusted, and the stage 101 is raised, and the tool 103 is made to descend. The stage 101 and the tool 103 press the flexible wiring substrate 105 and the reinforcement 106 so that they are combined with each other.
Here, the adhesive for bonding the flexible wiring substrate to the reinforcement is described. As the adhesive, it is possible to use a normal temperature type having an adhesive force at normal temperature and a thermosetting type having an adhesive force when heated. In case of using the normal temperature type, when a bonding condition is set so that: bonding temperature is normal temperature, and a bonding time is 0.5 seconds, and a bonding pressure is 0.5 Kg/cm2, it is possible to preferably bond the flexible wiring substrate and the reinforcement to each other.
However, in case of bonding the normal temperature type adhesive, when a heating process such as solder reflow is performed after bonding the reinforcement, the adhesive which comes out due to the heating is sometime transcribed to an unnecessary portion or spattered, so that this deteriorates the quality of the semiconductor device. Further, the normal temperature type adhesive has an adhesive force after the bonding, so that this raises such problem that: when an external shape of the flexible wiring substrate is punched out, the adhesive adheres to a punching die.
Meanwhile, in case of adopting the thermosetting type as the adhesive, when a bonding condition is set so that: bonding temperature (of both the tool 101 and the stage 103) is 200° C., and a bonding time is 3 seconds, and a bonding pressure is 28 Kg/cm2, it is possible to preferably bond the flexible wiring substrate and the reinforcement to each other. In steps performed thereafter, the adhesive completely sets, so that it is possible to avoid the foregoing troubles brought about by using the normal temperature adhesive.
In this manner, the thermosetting type adhesive is used as the foregoing adhesive, so that troubles caused by the adhesive can be solved. However, the following problems are brought about in pressing the flexible wiring substrate and the reinforcement so that they are combined with each other.
FIG. 9 shows an enlarged view of a connection portion between the flexible wiring substrate and the reinforcement that are pressed by the reinforcement combining apparatus shown in FIG. 8. As shown in FIG. 9, a solder resist 1011 is an outermost layer of the flexible wiring substrate, so that mainly the solder resist is in contact with the pressing surface 104 of the tool 103 with it pressed by the pressing surface 104. Thus, the adhesive 107 corresponding to an area having the solder resist 1011 receives pressure, but the adhesive 107 corresponding to an area having no solder resist 1011 receives less pressure.
Here, the adhesive 107 has an adhesive force. Thus, even when the adhesive 107 does not completely receive the pressure, it is possible to bond the reinforcement 106 and the flexible wiring substrate 105 to each other. However, air bubbles may occur in (i) an interface between the adhesive 107 and the reinforcement 106 or the flexible wiring substrate or (ii) the adhesive 107, so that the air bubbles may deteriorate the bonding property. That is, in order to remove the air bubbles, it is necessary to press the adhesive 107 to some extend.
Thus, when the adhesive 107 has a portion which receives less pressure, there occurs a portion which is not sufficiently bonded, so that this raises such problem that the reinforcement 106 exfoliates from the flexible wiring substrate 105.
Further, in the flexible wiring substrate to which the reinforcement has been bonded, in case of installing the connectors positioned on the backside of the surface bonded to the reinforcement, the connectors are subjected to reflow process by using solder and the like, thereby installing the connectors. Here, in case where the air bubbles occur in the adhesive 107, when the flexible wiring substrate is put into a reflow oven, the air bubbles swell due to the drastic rise of temperature, so that this deteriorates the bonding property.
Further, when the air bubbles swell in the adhesive 107, this brings bout not only the deterioration of the bonding property but also the following problem. For example, in a flexible wiring substrate used as a driver of a liquid crystal display, a large number of terminals for receiving a signal such as a voltage, timing, data, bias for operating a semiconductor device, are installed. Thus, it is required to provide a larger number of connector pins on the flexible wiring substrate so as to cover the large number of terminals. Accordingly, it is necessary to make a pitch of the pins for surface mounting finer. Further, it is required to set the flatness in a connection surface of each connector to be within an error range of approximately dozens μm so as to realize preferable connection. However, when the air bubbles occur in the adhesive 107, the flatness of the connector is deteriorated, so that the connection property between the connectors and the external circuits is deteriorated. As a result, so-called connection failure occurs.
Meanwhile, as a method of combining the reinforcement with the flexible wiring substrate, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 170031/1995 (Tokukaihei 7-170031)(Publication date: Jul. 4, 1995) proposes a method in which: (i) a reinforcement having holes for positioning, (ii) a flexible wiring substrate having holes for positioning, and (iii) a buffer material having escape holes are sequentially put into a positioning pin which is provided on a drag, and these members are pressed by a top force, thereby combining them with each other. However, this method requires a combining operation for each process, so that it is impossible to freely provide a combination of the flexible wiring substrate and the reinforcement. Thus, the foregoing method does not cover sequential processes for combining the reinforcement with the flexible wiring substrate in manufacturing a TCP and a COF by means of a general reel-to-reel process which allows the reinforcement and the flexible wiring substrate to be freely combined. Thus, the method is not suitable for mass-production.

Reinforcement combining apparatus and method of combining reinforcement


The present invention provides binder directed to and binding to a DPP3 protein or functional derivative thereof and its use in a method of prevention or treatment of diseases or acute conditions in a patient, wherein said disease or acute condition is associated with oxidative stress. With this context, specifically the present invention provides a binder being directed to and binding to an epitope according to SEQ ID NO.: 2, wherein said epitope is comprised in a DPP3 protein or a functional derivative thereof, and wherein said DPP3 binder recognizes and binds to at least three amino acids of SEQ ID NO.: 2.

Dipeptidyl peptidase 3 (DPP3)
Dipeptidyl peptidase 3—also known as Dipeptidyl aminopeptidase III, Dipeptidyl arylamidase III, Dipeptidyl peptidase III, Enkephalinase B or red cell angiotensinase; short name: DPP3, or DPPIII—is a metallopeptidase that removes dipeptides from physiologically active peptides, such as enkephalins and angiotensins. Hereinafter, the expression "DPP3" will be used throughout the text as abbreviated form of the above described dipeptidyl peptidase 3.
DPP3 was first identified and its activity measured in extracts of purified bovine anterior pituitary by Ellis & Nuenke, 1967. The enzyme, which is listed as EC 22.214.171.124, has a molecular mass of about 83 kDa and is highly conserved in procaryotes and eucaryotes (Prajapati & Chauhan, 2011).
The amino acid sequence of the human variant of DPP3 is depicted in SEQ ID No.: 1. DPP3 is a mainly cytosolic peptidase, which is ubiquitously expressed. Despite lacking a signal sequence, a few studies reported membranous activity (Lee & Snyder, 1982).
DPP3 is a zinc-depending exo-peptidase belonging to the peptidase family M49. It has broad substrate specificity for oligopeptides from three or four to ten amino acids of various compositions and is also capable of cleaving after proline. DPP3 is known to hydrolyze dipeptides from the N-terminus of its substrates, including angiotensin II, III and IV; angiotensin 1-7 (Cruz-Diaz et al., 2016); Leu- and Met-enkephalin; endomorphin 1 and 2. The metallopeptidase DPP3 has its activity optimum at pH 8.0-9.0 and can be activated by addition of divalent metal ions, such as Co2+ and Mg2+. Structural analysis of DPP3 revealed the catalytic motifs HELLGH (hDPP3 450-455) and EECRAE (hDPP3 507-512), as well as the following amino acids, that are important for substrate binding and hydrolysis: Glu 316, Tyr 318, Asp 366, Asn 391, Asn 394, His 568, Arg 572, Arg 577, Lys 666 and Arg 669 (Prajapati & Chauhan, 2011; Kumar et al., 2016; numbering refers to the sequence of human DPP3, see SEQ ID No.: 1). Considering all known amino acids or sequence regions that are involved in substrate binding and hydrolysis, the active site of human DPP3 can be defined as the region between amino acids 316 and 669.
Recent findings for DPP3 indicate its role for being a part of the protein metabolism but also playing a role in blood pressure regulation, pain modulation, inflammatory processes and oxidative stress regulation (Prajapati & Chauhan, 2011).
DPP3 has been also shown to be a promising biomarker in several publications. It has been shown that DPP3 activity is elevated in homogenates of ovarian and endometrial tumors. DPP3 activity even increases with the severity/malignancy of said tumors (Simaga et al., 1998 and 2003) Immune histology and western blot analysis of glioblastoma cell lines also revealed elevated DPP3 levels (Singh et al., 2014).
DPP3 was also proposed to be a potential arterio-risk marker (US 2011008805) and as a marker for rheumatoid arthritis (US 2006177886). The patent application WO 2005/106486 describes DPP3-expression and activity as diagnostic marker and DPP3 as therapeutic target in all kinds of diseases, due to ubiquitous expression of DPP3 in or at surface of cell. EP 1498480 mentions the potential diagnostic and therapeutic use of hydrolytic enzymes, including DPP3.
The relevant prior art can be further summarized as follows:
WO 2005/106486 describes in a general manner a method of screening for therapeutic agents which may be useful in the treatment of diseases, comprising cardiovascular diseases, infections, respiratory diseases, cancer, endocrinological diseases, metabolic diseases, gastroenterological diseases, inflammation, haematological diseases, muscle skeleton diseases, neurological and urological diseases. In said method of screening, a test compound is contacted with a DPP3 polynucleotide and the binding between said test compound and said DPP3 polynucleotide is detected. Further, the document describes in a general manner compounds, which may bind to and/or activate or inhibit the activity of DPP3. Further, the invention describes pharmaceutical compositions, which comprise such compounds.
Liu et al. 2007 describe a relation between activation of the antioxidant response element (ARE) and overexpression of DPP3 and Sequestome 1 in IMR-32 cells. Overexpression of DPP3 and Sequestome 1 stimulated the Nrf2 translocation and led to increased levels of NAD(P)H:quinone oxireductase 1, a protein which is transcriptionally regulated by the ARE.
Hast et al. 2013 describe a comparison of the spectrum of KEAP1 interacting proteins with the genomic profile of 178 squamous cell lung carcinomas characterized by The Cancer Genome Atlas and reveal amplification and mRNA over-expression of the DPP3 gene in tumors with high Nrf2activity but lacking Nrf2 stabilizing mutations. They further describe that tumor-derived mutations in KEAP1 are hypomorphic with respect to Nrf2 inhibition and that DPP3 over-expression in the presence of these mutants further promotes Nrf2 activation.
Overexpression of DPP3
Thus, according to the prior art, overexpression of intracellular DPP3 is known to be closely linked to oxidative stress regulation. DPP3 was identified as an activator of the antioxidant response element (ARE) in an unbiased screen of a cDNA library consisting of approximately 15,000 full-length human expression cDNAs (Liu et al. 2007).
DPP3 disrupt the KEAP1-Nrf2 complex by competing with Nrf2 about the KEAP1 binding site (Hast et al. 2013). This disruption prevents NRF2 degradation and subsequently leads to translocalization of Nrf2 into the nucleus and ARE activation. Overexpression of DPP3 in neuroblastoma cells (Liu et al. 2007), in HEK293T cells (Hast et al. 2013) or in MCF7 breast cancer cells (Lu et al. 2017) activates Nrf2-mediated transcription. Active and inactive variants of DPP3 were overexpressed in MCF7 cells and showed the same regulatory effect on oxidative stress (Lu et al. 2017). Hast et al. (2013) also showed a loss-of-function effect: silencing of DPP3 using specific siRNA Nrf2-mediated transcription was decreased down to levels of Nrf2-silencing.
Although DPP3 is known as an intracellular protein, DPP3 activity was detected in some bodily fluids as well: retroplacental serum (Shimamori et al. 1986), seminal plasma (Vanha-Perttula et al. 1988) and CSF (Aoyagi et al. 1993). In CSF there were elevated DPP3 activity levels measured in patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease (AD, Aoyagi et al., 1993).
DPP3 is known for being expressed as membranous, intracellular or circulating DPP3.
DPP3 has been not only proposed as potential biomarker but also as potential therapeutic target due to its ability to cleave several bioactive peptides. Influenca A virus changes host DPP3 levels for own replication (cell culture studies, Meliopoulos et al. 2012). Enkephalin and/or angiotensin degrading enzymes in general, including DPP3, have a therapeutic potential as targets for treatment of pain, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and cancer and the corresponding inhibitors as potential treatments of pain, mental illnesses and CVD (Khaket et al. 2012, Patel et al. 1993, Igic et al. 2007).
Inhibition of DPP3
The activity of DPP3 can be inhibited unspecifically by different general protease inhibitors (e.g. PMSF, TPCK), sulfhydryl reagents (e.g. pHMB, DTNB) and metal chelators (EDTA, o-phenantroline) (Abramić et al. 2000, EP 2949332).
DPP3 activity can be further inhibited specifically by different kinds of compounds: an endogenous DPP3-inhibitor is the peptide spinorphin. Several synthetic derivatives of spinorphin, e.g. tynorphin, have been produced and shown to inhibit DPP3 activity to varying extents (Yamamoto et al. 2000). Other published peptide inhibitors of DPP3 are propioxatin A and B (U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,676) and propioxatin A analogues (Inaoka et al. 1988).
DPP3 can also be inhibited by small molecules such as fluostatins and benzimidazol derivatives. Fluostatins A and B are antibiotics produced in Streptomyces sp. TA-3391 that are non-toxic and strongly inhibit DPP3 activity. So far, 20 different derivatives of benzimidazol have been synthesized and published (Agić et al., 2007; Rastija et al., 2015), of which the two compounds 1′ and 4′ show the strongest inhibitory effect (Agić et al., 2007). Several dipeptidyl hydroxamic acids have been shown to inhibit DPP3 activity as well (Cviteŭić et al., 2016).
Oxidative Stress
Oxidative stress reflects an imbalance between the systemic manifestation of reactive oxygen species (hereinafter ROS)/reactive nitrogen species (hereinafter RNS) and antioxidants in favour of excessive generation of free radicals. This process leads to the oxidation of biomolecules with consequent loss of its biological functions and/or homeostatic imbalances, whose manifestation is the potential oxidative damage to cells and tissues. Accumulation of ROS/RNS can result in a number of deleterious effects such as lipid peroxidation, protein oxidation and DNA damage (including base damage and strand breaks). Further, some reactive oxidative species act as cellular messengers in redox signalling. Thus, oxidative stress can cause disruptions in normal mechanisms of cellular signalling.
"ROS" and "RNS" are the terms collectively describing free radicals and other non-radical reactive derivatives, which are also called oxidants. Radicals are less stable than non-radical species, although their reactivity is generally stronger. A molecule with one or more unpaired electron in its outer shell is called a free radical. Free radicals are formed from molecules via the breakage of a chemical bond such that each fragment keeps one electron, by cleavage of a radical to give another radical and, also via redox reactions. Free radicals related to oxidative stress include hydroxyl (OH.), superoxide (O2.−), nitric oxide (NO.), nitrogen dioxide (NO2.), peroxyl (ROO.) and lipid peroxyl (LOO.). Also, hydrogen peroxide (HNO2), ozone (O3), singlet oxygen (1O2), hypochlorous acid (HOCl), nitrous acid (HNO2), peroxynitrite (ONOO−), dinitrogen trioxide (N2O3), lipid peroxide (LOOH), are not free radicals and generally called oxidants, but can easily lead to free radical reactions in living organisms.
Formation of ROS and RNS can occur in the cells by two ways: enzymatic and non-enzymatic reactions. Enzymatic reactions generating free radicals include those involved in the respiratory chain, the phagocytosis, the prostaglandin synthesis and the cytochrome P450 system. Free radicals can be produced from non-enzymatic reactions of oxygen with organic compounds as well as those initiated by ionizing radiations. The non-enzymatic process can also occur during oxidative phosphorylation (i.e. aerobic respiration) in the mitochondria. For a review see Pham-Huy et al. 2008. Int J Biomed Sci 4 (2): 89-96.
Diseases Associated with Oxidative Stress
In view of the stated above and with the context of the present invention, oxidative stress islinked to a number of diseases, including but not limited to neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disorders, autoimmune diseases, inflammatory lung diseases, kidney diseases, liver diseases, digestive diseases, viral infectious diseases, cancer and inflammation, and thus associated therewith.
According to the prior art, intracellular DPP3 is known to be closely linked to oxidative stress regulation. DPP3 was identified as an activator of the antioxidant response element (ARE) in an unbiased screen of a cDNA library consisting of approximately 15,000 full-length human expression cDNAs (Liu et al. 2007; see also above). ARE regulates the expression of a number of cytoprotective antioxidant enzymes and scavengers, contributing to endogenous defence against oxidative stress. This antioxidant effect of DPP3 is due to the interference of DPP3 with the KEAP1-Nrf2 signalling pathway. Nrf2 is a transcription factor that controls the basal and induced expression of an array of antioxidant response element-dependent genes to regulate the physiological and pathophysiological outcomes of oxidant exposure. Under normal or unstressed conditions, Nrf2 is bound to Kelch like-ECH-associated protein 1 (KEAP1) via its ETGE and its DLG motif. Within this protein cluster Nrf2 is kept in the cytoplasm, quickly ubiquinated and degraded by proteasome. Under oxidative stress, Nrf2 is not degraded, but instead translocates to the nucleus where it binds to a DNA promoter and induces expression of an array of antioxidant response element (ARE)—dependent genes. A variety of chemicals, including phytochemicals and derivatives (CDDO, sulforaphane), therapeutics (oltipraz, auranofin), environmental agents (paraquat, arsenic), and endogenous chemicals [NO, 15d-PGJ2, nitro-fatty acids, and 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE)], induce ARE genes through Nrf2 (Ma 2013).

DPP3 binder directed to and binding to specific DPP3-epitopes and its use in the prevention or treatment of diseases / acute conditions that are associated with oxidative stress


To obtain a zoom lens easily performing image blur correction and maintaining optical performance while performing image blur correction while restricting an increase in size of the lens. A zoom lens including, in order from an object side: a positive first unit; a negative second unit; a positive third unit; and a rear group that has one or more units. Spacings between adjacent units change during zooming. First and second correction systems rotatable about first and second centers on or in the vicinity of an optical axis during blur correction are respectively constituted by at least a part of the second unit and at least a part of an optical system disposed on image side of the second unit. The first and second centers are on image side of a surface vertex of the respective first and second correction systems closest to the object side.

There is a demand for a zoom lens, of which a total lens length (a distance from a first lens surface to the image plane) is short and a size of the zoom lens is small and which has high optical performance in the entire zoom range with a high zoom ratio, as an optical image pickup system used in an image pickup apparatus. Further, there is also a demand for a zoom lens having means for correcting image blur.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a zoom lens that performs image blur correction by integrally rotating a plurality of lens systems, which move along loci different from one another during zooming, about a barycentric position or a position in the vicinity of the barycentric position as a center. Further, Patent Literature 2 discloses an optical image pickup system in which an optical system for image blur correction including a first lens having a negative power and a second lens having a positive power is disposed on an object side of a main lens system. During image blur correction, at least one of the first lens and the second lens rotates.
Generally, for a zoom lens having an image stabilization function, there is a demand to accurately execute image blur correction, and there is a demand to have less fluctuation in aberrations at the time of image blur correction. In order to satisfy such demands, it is important to appropriately set a lens configuration of a zoom lens, a lens configuration of an image stabilization lens system for image blur correction, and the like. Unless the lens configuration of the image stabilization lens system moving for image blur correction is appropriate, image blur correction is insufficient, and an amount of occurrence of decentering aberration increases at the time of image stabilization. As a result, it is difficult to keep optical performance excellent at the time of image stabilization.
In the photography lens having an image blur correction function of Patent Literature 1, a plurality of lens units is integrally rotated. Hence, a degree of freedom of correction in the decentering aberration, which is caused at the time of image blur correction, is restricted. Hence, it is difficult to keep optical performance favorable at the time of image blur correction.
Further, in the zoom lens of Patent Literature 2, by rotating at least one of the first lens and the second lens, image blur correction is performed. In Patent Literature 2, an image blur correction system is mounted on a front surface of a main lens system. Hence, a size of the entire optical system tends to increase.

Zoom lens and image pickup apparatus having the same


A ceramic mass includes one ceramic material and at least a second different ceramic material. Glass material is arranged between the ceramic materials. The glass material reduces the sintering temperature of the ceramic mass and prevents the various ceramic materials from forming a mixed crystal when the ceramic mass is sintered. The ceramic mass is suitable for use in LTCC technology for the production of capacitors whose permittivity is dependent upon a specific temperature range.

The invention relates to a ceramic mass having a ceramic material and at least one further ceramic material which is different than the ceramic material. In addition to the ceramic mass, the invention also describes a method for the production of the ceramic mass and a use of the ceramic mass.
A ceramic mass of the said type is known, for example, from WO 97/44797. The ceramic mass is part of a multilayer capacitor of thin-film design. The multilayer capacitor comprises alternating electrode layers and ceramic layers. The ceramic layers consist of different ceramic material. The joint basis of the ceramic materials is, for example, a barium-strontium titanate system. A stoichiometric composition of the barium-strontium titanate changes from ceramic material to ceramic material. Each ceramic layer inherently has its own, relatively high temperature dependency of the relative permittivity. By contrast, the overall ceramic mass of the multilayer capacitor has a relatively low temperature dependency of the permittivity, taken as a mean of the temperature dependencies of the individual ceramic materials. In this way, by way of example, a temperature change of the ceramic mass with a X7R characteristic is produced.
To obtain this characteristic of the temperature change of the ceramic mass or the multilayer capacitor, a laminated stack comprising electrode layers and green ceramic sheets with different ceramic material is sintered. During the sintering, each green sheet becomes a ceramic layer. A contact surface between two adjacent green sheets or between two adjacent ceramic layers is relatively small compared to the volume of the green sheets or of the ceramic layers. Since interdiffusion of individual elements between the ceramic layers approximately takes place only in the contact region, there is a change in the stoichiometric composition of the ceramic materials only in the region of the contact surfaces. Only here is a solid solution formed. The stoichiometric composition of the ceramic materials of the ceramic layers is substantially retained. The characteristic of the temperature change of the ceramic mass can therefore be defined substantially by the choice of ceramic materials.
A sintering temperature used during the sintering of the laminated stack is relatively high. Therefore, to produce the multilayer capacitor for the electrode layers, it is necessary to use an electrode material with a relatively high melting point. An example of a material of this type is platinum.
A process which allows the sintering temperature to be reduced, so that even a low-melting metal with a high electrical conductivity, such as silver or copper, can be fed to a sintering process, is based on the LTCC (low temperature cofired ceramic) technology (cf. for example D. L. Wilcox et al., Proceedings 1997, ISHM, Philadelphia, pp. 17-23). In this case, the ceramic mass used is low-sintering glass ceramic. Glass ceramic consists of a ceramic material and a glass material.
It is an object of the present invention to describe a ceramic mass which has a sintering temperature which is as low as possible and a certain permittivity.
To achieve the object, the invention describes a ceramic mass having a ceramic material and at least one further ceramic material which is different than the ceramic material. The ceramic mass is characterized in that at least one glass material is arranged between the ceramic materials.
The ceramic mass may be a sintered ceramic, a green product or a loose bed of the ceramic materials comprising individual ceramic particles. The ceramic mass includes at least two different ceramic materials. In particular, more than two different ceramic materials are also conceivable. By way of example, the glass material is a borosilicate glass which is mixed with alkaline-earth metal oxides. In general, any glass material which is known from the LTCC technology is suitable. In particular, a mixture of various glass materials is also conceivable. In particular, a starting material (precursor) of a glass is also suitable as the glass material. This starting material is, for example, an alkali metal alkoxide or an alkaline-earth metal alkoxide. The glass is formed from the starting material.
The basic idea of the invention consists in reducing the size of the contact surface between the different ceramic materials with the aid of the glass material arranged between the ceramic materials. In this way, the interdiffusion of individual elements between the different ceramic materials is reduced. The ceramic mass can be subjected to a sintering process, during which the formation of a solid solution takes place to a reduced extent. The stoichiometric composition of the ceramic materials is substantially retained. In this context, it is particularly advantageous if there is scarcely any contact surface between the ceramic materials. The ceramic materials are separate from one another. The formation of a solid solution is substantially suppressed. Consequently, the permittivity of the ceramic mass is also independent of a ratio of the volume of the ceramic material to its contact surface areas with adjacent ceramic materials. The temperature change of the permittivity of the ceramic mass can be easily and reproducibly set by means of the ceramic material used.
In a particular configuration, at least one of the ceramic materials includes a ceramic powder with a powder surface at which the glass material is arranged. The ceramic powder is a form of comminution of the ceramic material. The comminution is obtained, for example, by milling using a mill. The ceramic powder comprises individual powder particles (grains) and is distinguished by a powder morphology. The powder morphology is given by the shape and size of the powder particles. The shape is, for example, round or polygonal. The size results from a diameter of a powder particle. The diameter may range from 10 nm to a few xcexcm. The powder surface is a surface of the individual powder particles. The advantage of the ceramic powder is that a homogeneous batch of the ceramic materials can be obtained, and therefore a homogeneous temperature change of the ceramic mass can be set. The temperature dependency of the permittivity is substantially equal over the entire ceramic mass. There are no local differences in the temperature dependency. This is possible in particular if not just one ceramic material but rather all the ceramic materials used are present as ceramic powders in the ceramic mass.
To prevent powder particles comprising different ceramic materials from adjoining one another, the ceramic mass may be a more or less loose batch of powder particles and the glass material in the form of glass particles. In this case, the proportion of the glass material is so great that the likelihood of powder particles of the ceramic materials being in contact with one another is as low as possible.
In one particular configuration, the glass material is a homogeneous coating of the powder surface. The homogeneous coating allows effective separation of powder particles comprising different ceramic materials. The homogeneous coating may be a single, continuous coating. In this case, the powder surface is completely covered by the coating. It is also possible for a plurality of separate partial coatings to, be present. There may be a free powder surface which is not covered by the coating. The free powder surface is dimensioned in such a way that contact between powder particles made from different ceramic materials is substantially ruled out. Furthermore, it is conceivable for the coating to be formed by glass particles with a smaller diameter than the diameter of the powder particle which adjoin one another at the surface of a powder particle and are fixedly joined to the powder surface.
As the proportion of the glass material in the ceramic mass increases, the sintering temperature drops. However, to obtain a permittivity which is as high as possible, as may be necessary, for example, in a capacitor, the proportion of the glass material should be as low as possible. This problem can be solved by the homogeneous coating and the effective separation between the ceramic materials which it provides. The homogeneous coating allows the proportion of the glass material to be kept at a low level while achieving a highly efficient separation. Therefore, sintering temperature and permittivity of the ceramic mass can be set substantially independently of one another.
In a particular configuration, the ceramic material and the further ceramic material include at least one identical chemical element, in which case the proportion of the element in the ceramic material and the proportion of the element in the further ceramic material differ. By way of example, the ceramic materials are based on a common ceramic base system. The stoichiometric composition of this system changes from ceramic material to ceramic material. An example of a ceramic base system of this type is barium strontium titanate (Ba1xe2x88x92uSruTiO3, BST) or barium-zirconium titanate (BaZrxTi1xe2x88x92xO3, BZT). However, it is also conceivable for the ceramic materials to belong to different base systems.
In particular, the ceramic mass has a temperature dependency of a relative permittivity, which is lower within a defined temperature range than a temperature dependency of a relative permittivity of one of the ceramic materials in the temperature range. The fact that different ceramic materials are used allows the temperature change to be set. By way of example, an X7R or at least a Z5U characteristic can be set. The decisive factor is that the formation of a solid solution as a result of interdiffusion between the ceramic materials is suppressed by the glass material during the sintering.
In a particular configuration, the ceramic material and/or the further ceramic material include at least one substance which is selected from the group consisting of Ba1xe2x88x92uSruTiO3 and/or BaZrxTi1xe2x88x92xO3, with u and x selected from a range from zero to one inclusive. By way of example, the ceramic mass includes seven ceramic materials, having the stoichiometric compositions Ba0.4Sr0.6TiO3, Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3, Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3, Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3, Ba0.8Sr0.2TiO3, Ba0.9Sr0.1TiO3 and BaTiO3.
In a particular configuration, lead is present in an amount of less than 0.1% by weight, in particular less than 0.001% by weight. A low-sintering ceramic mass as an alternative to a relaxer system, such as lead magnesium niobate (PMN), is accessible with the aid of the base systems barium-strontium titanate and/or barium-zirconium titanate and the glass material.
In addition to the ceramic mass which has been described, the object is also achieved by a method for producing the ceramic mass. In this method, a coating which includes the glass material is produced at a surface of at least one of the ceramic materials. In a preferred configuration, a ceramic powder of the ceramic material and, as the surface, the powder surface of the ceramic powder are used.
In particular, the following method steps are carried out: a) production of a batch comprising at least one of the ceramic materials and the glass material, and b) milling the batch.
The milling homogenizes the batch of ceramic material and glass material. The particle surfaces of the ceramic material are covered with the glass material. The glass material therefore forms the coating of the particle surfaces. It is conceivable for only one of the ceramic materials to be treated in this way and then mixed with the further ceramic material. It is also possible for in each case one ceramic material to be milled together with the glass material, or alternatively for both ceramic materials to be milled simultaneously with the glass material. The coating reduces the likelihood of grain-grain contact between ceramic particles made from different ceramic material occurring.
For effective coating of the ceramic materials and/or of the powder surfaces, it is advantageous to use a glass material which consists of glass particles which have a smaller diameter than the ceramic particles used. In particular, a glass material with nanometer-scale glass particles is used for this purpose. The diameter of a glass particle may be selected from the range from 10 nm to 1 xcexcm inclusive.
In a particular configuration, solution coating of the surface of the ceramic materials is carried out. In particular, a sol-gel process is carried out during the solution coating. Other methods, such as for example an emulsion process, are also conceivable. During the solution coating, it is preferable for a starting material of a glass to be applied to the surface. A coating comprising the starting material is formed.
According to a further aspect of the invention, the ceramic mass described above is used for the production of a green ceramic product. The green ceramic product is distinguished by the fact that the ceramic mass can be compacted further by sintering. The green product may be a green sheet comprising the ceramic mass and an organic binder or an aqueous dispersion binder. The green product may also consist only of the compressed ceramic mass. A loose bed is also conceivable, inside a shaping envelope. It is also possible for the ceramic mass to be used as a ceramic screen-printing paste to produce the green product. Furthermore, it is conceivable for the ceramic mass to be in the form of a sintered ceramic body and to be fed in this form to a further sintering process.
The green product comprising the ceramic mass is used, for example, to produce a capacitor. An example of a capacitor of this type is a multilayer capacitor. For this purpose, ceramic green sheets which have been printed with electrode layers, arranged on top of one another to form a stack, laminated, have had the binder removed and have been sintered, are produced with the aid of the ceramic mass. Each of the green sheets preferably includes the same ceramic mass. However, it is also conceivable for the ceramic mass to differ from green sheet to green sheet.
The capacitor may also be a decoupling capacitor. For this purpose, by way of example, a screen-printing paste is produced from the ceramic mass and is used to produce a dielectric layer of the decoupling capacitor by means of a screen-printing process. The decoupling capacitor can easily be integrated in a multilayer ceramic substrate and does not have to applied to a surface of the ceramic substrate. The capacitor may be locally integrated in the ceramic substrate, for example directly at an IC connection which is to be blocked off. The ceramic mass is particularly suitable for integrating decoupling capacitors in ceramic substrates which are produced with the aid of the LTCC technology. By way of example, the ceramic substrate has a high-quality, compact conducting structure (stripline, triplate) for a resonator, a coupler and/or a bandpass filter. For this purpose, low-melting metals such as silver or copper with a high electrical conductivity are used in the LTCC technology. With the aid of the ceramic mass, decoupling capacitors with a capacitance of from 30 pF to 3 nF inclusive can be integrated in these ceramic substrates, which are sintered at a sintering temperature below 950xc2x0 C.
To summarize, the invention results in the following advantages:
The different ceramic materials of the ceramic mass are separated from one another by the glass material. There is no formation of a solid solution during the sintering of the ceramic mass. Ceramic materials of different compositions are retained. A dense ceramic can, be obtained without the properties of the individual ceramic materials changing. In this way, it is possible, for example, to obtain a relatively high permittivity in the ceramic mass with a low temperature change.
In particular with the aid of a homogeneous coating of the powder surfaces of the ceramic materials, it is possible to set the sintering temperature and the permittivity or the temperature change in the permittivity of the ceramic mass without difficulty. Ceramic masses with a sintering temperature of below 950xc2x0 C. can be obtained and can be used as dielectric material for decoupling capacitors with a capacitance of 30 pF to 3 nF inclusive.
The ceramic mass is suitable for LTCC technology. Consequently, it is possible to produce high-quality, compact conducting structures.

Ceramic mass, method for the production of a ceramic mass and use of a ceramic mass