An organic light emitting device and a method of manufacturing the same are disclosed. The organic light emitting device includes a substrate, a gate electrode on the substrate, a first insulating film insulating the gate electrode, a semiconductor layer positioned opposite to the gate electrode, a second insulating film insulating the semiconductor layer, source and drain electrodes connected to the semiconductor layer, a first electrode connected to one of the source and drain electrodes, a third insulating film including an opening that exposes the first electrode, a second electrode positioned opposite to the first electrode, and a light emitting layer positioned between the first electrode and the second electrode. A taper angle of an edge area of the third insulating film contacting the first electrode lies substantially in a range between 10° and 50°.

1. Field
An exemplary embodiment relates to a display device, and more particularly, to an organic light emitting device.
2. Description of the Related Art
The importance of flat panel displays has recently increased with the growth of multimedia. Various types of flat panel displays such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), field emission displays (FEDs), and organic light emitting devices have been put to practical use.
In particular, an organic light emitting device may have a high response speed (of 1 ms or less), a low power consumption, and a self-emitting structure. The organic light emitting device may also not have viewing problems. As such, the organic light emitting device has been considered as a next generation display device.
The organic light emitting device and an active matrix type organic light emitting device depending on a driving manner. In the passive matrix type organic light emitting device, an anode electrode and a cathode electrode cross each other at a right angle, and signal lines are selected to thereby drive the organic light emitting device. In the active matrix type organic light emitting device, a thin film transistor is connected to each pixel electrode, and the organic light emitting device is driven depending on a voltage maintained by capacitance of a capacitor connected to a gate electrode of the thin film transistor.
The organic light emitting device may include a light emitting diode including a first electrode, a light emitting layer, and a second electrode. More specifically, the light emitting diode includes the first electrode supplying holes to each subpixel, the second electrode supplying electrons to each subpixel, and the light emitting layer interposed between the first electrode and the second electrode. The light emitting layer forms excitons by combining the holes received from the first electrode and the electrons received from the second electrode to thereby emit light.
The light emitting diode is formed by evaporating a metal having a high work function such as indium-tin-oxide (ITO) and indium-zinc-oxide (IZO) and then patterning the evaporated metal to form the first electrode in each subpixel, and forming a third insulating film that covers a portion of the first electrode and defines each subpixel.
The light emitting layer is formed on an exposed area of the first electrode exposed by the third insulating film. The light emitting layer may include an organic material or an inorganic material. In case that the light emitting layer may include an organic material, the light emitting layer formed of the organic material may be formed using a thermal evaporation method in which the light emitting layer is evaporated upward by applying heat to an evaporation source.
In the thermal evaporation method, in case that the substrate is close to the evaporation source, an evaporation thickness is uniform. On the contrary, in case that the substrate is far away from the evaporation source, a scattering angle of the evaporation source in an outermost area of the substrate is small. Therefore, an evaporation shadow phenomenon, in which a predetermined area of the light emitting layer is not evaporated, occurs. Accordingly, the evaporation shadow phenomenon reduces the reliability of the organic light emitting device and generates dark spots on an image.

Organic light emitting device and method of manufacturing the same


A method of managing electronic media content items starts with a server system receiving a first electronic communication from a first client device in communication with the server system over a network. The server system then generates a first media content item based on the first electronic communication and causes the first media content item to be displayed on a display screen of a second client device. The server system receives a request from the second client device to store the first media content item and stores the first media content item in a storage that is associated with the first user and the second user. The server system then generates a notification to be displayed on a display screen of the first client device that indicates the first media content item is stored in the storage. Other embodiments are disclosed herein.

The popularity of electronic messaging, particularly instant messaging, continues to grow. Users increasingly share electronic media content items such as electronic images, audio, and video with each other. Users also increasingly utilize their mobile devices to communicate with each other using chat and message programs. Over time, a user may accumulate a large amount of media content associated with various events and time periods.
The popularity of electronic messaging, particularly instant messaging, continues to grow. Users increasingly share media content items such as electronic images and videos with each other, reflecting a global demand to communicate more visually.
Each messaging system is thus presented with the challenge of providing a graphical user interface that organizes and manages the large amount of media content items being exchanged between the network of individuals on the system.

System and method of managing electronic media content items


A resonant fiber optic gyro has a tapered polarizer in the ring to produce a single resonant polarization mode. A fused coupler closes the ring and provides inlet and outlet paths, with the entire device fabricated from a single PM fiber, thereby eliminating sources of backscatter and drift. In a preferred embodiment MSR fiber is used, and preferably the fused coupler is fabricated to achieve high finesse and modulation depth with its splitting ratio approximately equal to ring transmission coefficients. Apparatus and methods for forming the polarizer and the coupler are described.

The present invention relates to optical fiber sensor devices employing a fiber optic resonant ring. A fiber optic resonant ring, in conjunction with appropriate signal processing optoelectronics, responds to rotation with respect to a fixed inertial frame of reference, and can be employed as a highly sensitive and stable gyroscope in an inertial measurement system such as a vehicular navigation system. The sensitivity and utility of resonant fiber optic gyroscopes is limited by various environmental perturbations which can produce signal effects dominating the rotationally induced effects of interest. The architectures for resonant fiber optic gyroscopes (RFOGs) have evolved toward constructions yielding greater sensitivity, and the different architectures have progressively overcome each of the previously troublesome sources of environmental noise, while in each case being subject to a further environmental effect as its limiting constraint. The development of RFOGs has proceeded generally as follows.
The first RFOGs used resonant ring cavities fabricated out of single-mode (SM) optical fibers. The ring resonator consists of a closed loop of fiber configured as a coil and directionally coupled to an input/output fiber path. See FIG. 1. A fiber optic coupler, a four-port device with a given coupling ratio, is used to apply probe signals and to read out the transfer function (dips) of the cavity.
Single-mode fibers guide two nearly degenerate orthogonal polarization modes, which can easily couple to one another because of nearly matching propagation constants β. The degeneracy allows changing of the state of polarization, denoted SOP herein, of the light propagating in the fiber, so that multiple time-varying resonances occur as environmental conditions perturb the RFOG. Amplitude and separation will change for both SOPs. The signal processing generally consists of a servo of laser probe wavelength locked to cavity resonant dip; the detector cannot distinguish SOP and the electronics has problems locking to multiple dips. The drift in resonances and varying SOP is manifested as random drift in the sensed parameters constituting the gyro output, rendering the SM fiber construction useless for navigation-grade applications.
Subsequently, with the development of effective polarization-maintaining (PM) optical fibers, RFOGs were fabricated using this type of fiber and a resonant ring configuration essentially like that of the early SM fiber devices. In a PM fiber, a high degree of anisotropy, usually created by stress-induced fiber birefringence, breaks the degeneracy between the two orthogonal polarization modes. Because the modes in a PM fiber propagate at different β velocities, polarization cross-coupling, denoted PCC herein, is reduced to negligible levels, yielding a predictable SOP of light guided in the fiber. For example, if linearly polarized light is launched into the fiber such that the direction of polarization is aligned with one of the fiber's axes of symmetry, the SOP remains linear. There is a small cross-coupled component which arises when the light has traversed a great length of fiber, the magnitude of which is a function of fiber design and fabrication, winding, and input axis alignment; there are also PCC effects in the coupler and in other PM fiber components, e.g., splices used in construction of a complete gyroscope. When a resonator is fabricated out of PM fiber and the two modes propagate at different velocities, there are two resonances of differing orders. These two resonances are nominally independent for low PCC values in the ring assembly. When a pair of well-aligned polarizers are used on the input and outputs of the resonator, one resonance is greatly reduced with respect to the orthogonal dip. When this system is used in conjunction with the servo electronics to lock on a single dip it results in less output parameter drift when this type of fiber is used in an RFOG. Unfortunately, since the two resonances are of different order, environmental perturbations cause them to overlap occasionally, again resulting in unacceptable gyro drift and loss of output signal tracking. Even for extreme polarization isolation in the resonator components and assembly, when the resonances overlap, large coupling can occur due to phase matching conditions.
The next improvement to RFOG design included single-polarization (SP) optical fiber, again using essentially the same general resonant ring architecture as shown in FIG. 1. This design involves a modification of the PM fiber design, which, in addition to the aforementioned property of mode isolation, has the property that it preferentially attenuates one of the polarization modes. The quality of an SP fiber depends on the difference of mode attenuation for a given length of fiber, and is called the polarization extinction ratio (hereinafter PER). It is limited by the PCC of the fiber. When SP fiber is used in a resonant ring, the preferred mode resonates as before, and the attenuated mode does not resonate because it is extinguished at a rate that prevents a resonance from occurring in that mode. This approach results in a ring having only one resonant mode, yielding a truly single-channel resonant ring. Such RFOGs are capable of low drift rates and navigation-grade performance.
The foregoing is believed to represent the state-of-the-art technology for the construction of RFOG resonant rings.
The resonant ring used in the best RFOGs is presently made by a lapped coupler method, in which the pigtails of a wound fiber coil are each bonded into one of a pair of coupler block substrates, and surface region of each substrate is polished to almost reach the fiber core. When the two polished halves are assembled, evanescent coupling is effected between the entrance and exit pigtails so that the intermediate segment of the fiber forms a closed ring path making a resonant cavity of the fiber coil. During assembly the coupling ratio of the coupler so formed is optimized to equal the sum of cavity losses, and the two halves are then bonded in place to form a permanent assembly.
One problem with this approach is that the bond formed does not remain stable over environmental extremes, but causes the coupling ratio to shift, which reduces resonance amplitude, and the performance of the resonator to degrade. Another problem with the lapped coupler approach is that when this technique is used with a PM or especially with an SP fiber, the internal fiber stress which maintains fiber birefringence is perturbed by the partial removal of the fiber cladding and stress regions. SP fiber, which is the preferred fiber for RFOGs, is expensive and particularly difficult to fabricate into a reliable coupler using lapping, since the high stress value within the fiber is prone to degradation when the fiber is worked.
Catastrophic failure, polarization cross-coupling degradation, and extreme coupling ratio shift are often observed for this type of fiber even in a laboratory environment.
Because of these instabilities, applicant has determined that fused couplers are a preferred coupler technology for the fabrication of RFOGs. As demonstrated for SM fiber, fused components are well suited for mass production, have low losses and polarization cross-coupling, and most importantly, have been repeatably demonstrated to be environmentally rugged. However, these couplers, if made with PM or SP fiber, require the fiber stress regions be of the same refractive index as the surrounding. This property is incompatible with current SP fiber design. Special fibers with a matched stress region (MSR) design may be required to achieve low loss PM fused couplers.
Reverting to an RFOG design with a PM fiber rather than an SP fiber for the coil would allow the use of fused couplers, but would require the incorporation of a polarizer into the ring itself in order to obtain the instrument sensitivity of a single polarization resonant ring. But polarizer constructions made from PM fibers tend to have a lapped surface, and thus might be expected to re-introduce the environmental instabilities or manufacturing complexities of lapped coupler technology. A polarizer could be made by simply splicing in a length of SP fiber, by an arc fusion splice, but this would tend to introduce back reflections due to the mismatch of the fiber properties.

Fused PM fiber single-polarization resonator

The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.


An air flow meter for an internal combustion engine comprises an intake air passage of an internal combustion engine, which is composed of a primary flow passage and an auxiliary flow passage having a specified length and a portion adapted to project within the primary flow passage and made substantially parallel to the direction of the air flow passing through the primary flow passage. A sensor for measurement of an intake air flowrate is disposed within the auxiliary flow passage. The primary flow passage is provided with a portion where the cross-sectional area of the primary flow passage is gradually reduced. In the vicinity of this cross-sectional area reducing portion, there is disposed an outlet of the auxiliary flow passage.

The present invention relates to a hot-wire type air flow meter based on the use of an auxiliary flow passage and, more particularly, to an engine control device which is suitable for use as an intake air flow-rate sensor for a gasoline engine of an automobile.
In various internal combustion engines, particularly in a gasoline engine of an automobile, the range of control thereof is very wide in respect of the number of revolutions and output and the engine is subjected to strict regulation of exhaust gas. Therefore, an accurate air fuel ratio control is always required to be performed irrespective of the operational conditions of the engine.
Under the above-mentioned existing circumstances, a microcomputer-control type engine control device has in recent years been widely adopted in which the air fuel ratio or the ignition timing is controlled using a microcomputer operating on the basis of a synthetic decision on various operational conditions of the engine including an intake air flow thereof.
Meanwhile, what is called "hot-wire type air flow meter" has recently been employed as an air flow sensor for such engine control. Examples thereof are disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publications Nos. 58-109815 and 58-109816. In these prior art examples, an intake air passage of an internal combustion engine is constituted by a primary flow passage and auxiliary flow passage allowed to project within the primary flow passage and having a specified length, the auxiliary flow passage having a portion extending substantially in parallel with the flow of the air passing through the primary flow passage. Namely, said prior art examples show the hot-wire type air flow meter of auxiliary flow passage system, in which a sensor element for an intake air flowrate is disposed in said auxiliary flow passage.
An outlet of the auxiliary flow passage is opened in the vicinity of an enlarged section of the primary flow passage, or is opened at a straight pipe section.
However, in the above-described prior art, no consideration is given to the stability of air flow at the outlet of the auxiliary flow passage where the sensor element is disposed. Namely, the turbulence of air flow, which has nothing to do with the pulsation of air flow due to the revolutions of the engine involved, vigorously occurs at said outlet, thus raising a problem that such turbulence of air flow is likely to have undesirable effects upon the metering of the intake air flow rate.
To cope with this problem, a means for solving the same has been proposed in which a rectifying member such as a mesh member or honeycomb member is provided over the intake air flow passage so as to stabilize the flow of intake air. In this proposal, however, a considerable increase in manufacturing cost, inherently results.

Air flow meter for internal combustion engine

Hitachi Automotive Engineering Co., Ltd.


An automated information technology standards management system for managing information standards that specify the procedures by which data is stored, manipulated, and retrieved within a computer system. The automated information technology standards management system manages information technology standards contained within a standards document stored on a permanent storage device. A download program converts the standards document into a displayable standards document that may be displayed on users' computers, and a dissemination process transmits the displayable standards document to users' computers for display. The automated information technology standards management system provides management services to users, including services for proposing changes to the information technology standards, for requesting changes to the information technology standards, scheduling on-line conferences for users to discuss proposed changes and requested exceptions to the information technology standards, and for voting on proposed changes and requested exceptions to the information technology standards.

The information assets of large organizations have traditionally been stored and managed on centralized computer systems. These centralized computer systems contain both raw information, such as accounting information, inventory information, and employee records, along with a suite of programs, including database management systems, that store, process, and retrieve the information assets. A large number of different hardware resources and software programs are used for managing the information assets, or data. For example, critical data must be backed up on multiply redundant, nonvolatile storage media. To manage this back-up task, an archiving system is generally run at regular time intervals to write out the data in a meaningful format to tapes or magnetic disks. As another example, database management systems may be employed to store, meaningfully categorize, and manipulate data within the computer system.
There are a great number of different alternatives and possibilities for managing the data for an organization. An organization may, for example, elect to make incremental tape backups of critical data on a monthly, daily, or even hourly basis, depending on the cost of the incremental backups versus the potential risks and associated costs of loosing cumulative data. As another example, database management systems support a virtually infinite number of ways to organize data within a computer system. An organization must therefore select a set of operating procedures and standards for defining the particular methods by which the organization has chosen to manage data within a computer system
The procedures and standards that control the management of computer data are generally stored in a large text-based document hierarchically organized into a number of levels of sections and subsections. FIG. 1 displays the first page of an example standards document. The example standards document of FIG. 1 contains standards for a document and billing control system, as indicated by the title of the document on the first line 101. Standards documents usually comprise many tens to hundreds of pages of text. In the example standards document of FIG. 1, the section heading 102 for section 1.1 indicates that section 1.1 relates to standards for developing new programs. A general description 103 follows the section heading 102. After the general description are more specific subsections on topics introduced in the general description, including a section on standards for proposals 104 and a section on standards for program design 105.
The text of a standards document may contain references to other sections within the document. Such references are indicated by a specific notation, for example, bracketing with "#" symbols 106 and 107 in the example standards document of FIG. 1. This type of reference is called an internal reference. The standards document may also contain references to various external sources of information. For example, the example standards document of FIG. 1 contains references to several commercial web pages 108 and 109 as well as a reference to a file available on the intranet. This type of reference is called an external reference. In addition to conforming to notational conventions for external and internal references 110, standards documents are written to conform to formatting conventions, including a numbering scheme for numbering sections, an indentation convention, and other conventions that specify the visual appearance of the standards document.
The standards document must itself be managed in some regular and intelligent fashion so that the standards document is made available to computer users and program developers and so that the standards document can be updated to reflect necessary changes and additions. The procedures and mechanisms for managing and disseminating the standards document is called an information technology standards management system ("ITSMS").
FIG. 2 displays a traditional manual ITSMS comprising a centralized computer system 201, an administrator's station 202, and computer user's stations 203. The standards document resides in a standards dataset stored on a nonvolatile storage device within the centralized computer system 204. This standards dataset, or portions thereof, is transmitted via 3270 terminal emulation and a subnetwork access protocol (SNA) link to the administrator's terminal 205 where it is displayed in an editable format. The administrator manually manages the standards document using keyboard input and terminal display. Information contained in the standards document, or portions thereof, is disseminated by the administrator to the various computer users and program developers via a separate e-mail system 206, printed documents 207, or by telephone 208. The administrator collects proposed changes and conducts discussions about the standards with computer users and program developers in a relatively ad hoc fashion using e-mail, printed documents, telephone conversations, and personal interviews and meetings. Various computer users and program developers may be designated as the owners of particular standards and may additionally be organized into a number of different committees that are responsible for discussing proposed changes and voting on them. The results of committee actions are returned to the standards administrator who then edits the displayed standards via keyboard entry to the terminal and causes the updated standards to be propagated back to the standards dataset stored on the centralized computer system.
The manual ITSMS displayed in FIG. 2 is inefficient and error prone. For example, the standards administrator may neglect to inform committee members of proposed standards changes or forget to poll committee members for their votes. Dissemination of the standards document via printed listings or e-mail incurs significant time delays since the standards administrator must manually extract, print, and disseminate portions of the standards document. The scheduling and transmission times related to in-person or telephone information exchanges is quite high. A need has therefore been recognized within the information technology departments of large organizations to automate ITSMS systems.

Automated information technology standards management system


In one aspect of the present invention, a multiple wavelengths semiconductor laser device may include a supporting member, a first semiconductor laser element provided on a first substrate, mounted on the supporting member as face up, and configured to emit a first wavelength laser, and a second semiconductor laser element provided on a second substrate which has lower heat conductivity ratio than the first substrate, mounted on the supporting member as face down, and configured to emit a second wavelength laser toward in substantially a same direction as the first wavelength laser, and in another aspect of the invention, a multiple wavelengths semiconductor laser device may include a supporting member, a first semiconductor laser element provided on a first substrate, mounted on the supporting member as face up, and configured to emit a first wavelength laser, a second semiconductor laser element provided on a second substrate which has lower heat conductivity ratio than the first substrate, mounted on the supporting member as face down, and configured to emit a second wavelength laser in substantially a same direction as the first wavelength laser, and a third semiconductor laser element provided on the second substrate, as face down, and configured to emit a third wavelength laser in substantially a same direction as the first wavelength laser.

Research and development of a semiconductor laser device having a 400 nm wavelength for next generation DVDs is proceeding.
On the other hand, a semiconductor laser device having 650 nm band and 780 nm band wavelengths is used for recording and reading current generation DVDs and CDs. For purposes herein, a semiconductor laser device that generates two or more bands of wavelengths is referred to as a multiple wavelengths semiconductor laser device.
It is difficult to form a multiple semiconductor laser device, which is capable of emitting 400 nm, 650 nm, and 780 nm, on single a semiconductor substrate.

Multiple wavelengths semiconductor laser device


The present disclosure is directed toward systems, methods, and computer readable media for providing dynamic digital content via a webpage without flicker. For example, systems described herein include receiving a web document including action items associated with rendering dynamic digital content via a display device. The systems and methods described herein can reduce flicker in rendering the dynamic digital content by identifying dynamic digital content, pre-fetching external resources, and selectively hiding dynamic visual elements. In addition, the systems and methods described herein further reduce flicker by generating a dependency graph that reflects dependencies between the action items and then rendering digital content in accordance with an action queue generated based on the dependency graph. Furthermore, systems can individually reveal dynamic visual elements as action items for rendering dynamic digital content via the dynamic visual elements from the dependency graph are completed.

Recent years have seen an increase in digital systems that provide dynamic web content to client devices across computer networks. Indeed, it is now common for websites hosted at remote servers to include personalized and adaptive content tailored to individual users of client devices based on user interests, characteristics, or behavior. Delivering dynamic web content from a remote server to client devices based on characteristics of a viewer can result in delivery of more efficient, relevant web content; nevertheless, various problems and drawbacks exist with conventional web content delivery systems.
For example, conventional web content delivery systems routinely cause flicker when loading and rendering dynamic web content as part of providing a webpage display. In particular, conventional web content delivery systems render webpages with certain elements or portions that abruptly change (i.e., flicker) as the webpage loads. This flicker generally appears as conventional web content delivery systems render dynamic content in place of default content within the website. As a result, conventional web content delivery systems often render webpages in a jolting and disruptive manner, particularly where a large number of dynamic elements are modified while loading the webpage.
Improper delivery of content due to flicker is not only jarring, but can result in erroneous impressions and/or selections. For example, conventional web content delivery systems can expose users to conflicting or inaccurate information (e.g., provide default content that is then replaced with more accurate or conflicting targeted content on a webpage). Moreover, conventional web content delivery systems can cause users to errantly select improper links of a webpage as default content is replaced by dynamic content. Flicker caused by conventional web content delivery systems often leads viewers to abandon a webpage in favor of other digital destinations.
Some conventional systems attempt to reduce or eliminate flicker by masking or hiding a webpage display until a webpage finishes loading. For example, many conventional systems hide an entire webpage (by providing a blank screen for display) and then reveal the webpage when all the web content has been prepared for display. Hiding a webpage display, however, results in unnecessary delay in web content delivery, which leads to user dissatisfaction. Thus, in seeking to resolve problems caused by flicker, these conventional systems lead to the same result: webpage abandonment.
The problems associated with conventional systems are only exacerbated by the time required by conventional processes to load dynamic content on a web page. Indeed, conventional systems generally process web documents utilizing a brute force method that performs actions sequentially based on how the actions are encoded in a web document. Thus, conventional systems often inefficiently perform actions in a manner that slows the time required to render the webpage. This exacerbates the problems described above, prolonging flicker and/or unnecessary time periods displaying blank content.
These and other problems exist with regard to providing dynamic web content.

Providing dynamic web content without flicker


A method of generating a parameterized cell is disclosed herein. The method comprises performing a compiling interpretation on a structure layout. The compiling interpretation includes i) determining and analyzing shape relationships of the structure layout, and ii) mapping shapes and calculating properties of mapped shapes. The method also includes generating code in response to the compiling interpretation, wherein the generated code is representative of one or more parameterized cells of a pcell library of an electronic design automation software program.

The present disclosures relate to compiling methods, and more particularly, to a parameterized layout or parameterized cell compiler and a method of compiling a parameterized cell.
Creating parameterized cells (hereinafter referred to as pcells) of a structure layout is a large task with prior known approaches. A structure layout can include, for example, a semiconductor device layout. The prior known approaches are very time intensive and cumbersome to write code for a parameterized cell given that the structure layout can be very complex. For any given library, there may exist on the order of 30-50 devices needing pcells to be created per technology. In addition, there may exist a number of different technologies that are in use concurrently. Furthermore, a number of new technologies can be introduced over a period of time. Accordingly, development and maintaining of a pcell library can be critical for various technology developments and designs.
FIG. 1 is a flow diagram view 10 of a prior known method of generating a parameterized cell. Upon an initiation of the method, at step 12, the compiler receives a structure layout as an input. The structure layout can be in the form of a file, such as a standard graphical design file for transferring and archiving graphical design data (i.e, a gds file). In response to receiving the input at step 12, the process continues at step 14 with a scanning operation. The scanning operation includes scanning of the structure layout for layer and basic coordinate information of shapes within the layout.
In step 16, the method queries whether there are any user added parameters, shape relationships, and/or specifications to be processed. If there are user added parameters, shape relationships, and/or specifications to be processed, the method proceeds to step 18 for adding the same. User added parameters, shape relationships, and/or specifications are associated with shape data as appropriate. The method then proceeds to step 20. On the other hand, if in step 16 there are no user added parameters, shape relationships, and/or specifications to be processed, the method proceeds directly to step 20.
In step 20, responsive to data generated by the scanning operation and optional user added parameters, the method generates code. The generated code includes computer readable instructions, wherein the computer readable instructions define a limited parameterized structure generation algorithm. Thereafter, the method ends.
The method of FIG. 1 suffers from various disadvantages. For example, the method of FIG. 1 does not address scalability. In addition, the shape generation algorithm of the method of FIG. 1 is coordinate based alone, and not easily adaptable to improved parameterization. Still further, the method of FIG. 1 does not provide any interpretation or mapping. As a result, the generated code produced by the method of FIG. 1 is inefficient, making it difficult to maintain and use.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method and apparatus for overcoming the problems in the art as discussed above.

Method and apparatus for compiling a parameterized cell


By providing an implantation blocking material on the gate electrode structures of advanced semiconductor devices during high energy implantation processes, the required shielding effect with respect to the channel regions of the transistors may be accomplished. In a later manufacturing stage, the implantation blocking portion may be removed to reduce the gate electrode height to a desired level in order to enhance the process conditions during the deposition of an interlayer dielectric material, thereby significantly reducing the risk of creating irregularities, such as voids, in the interlayer dielectric material, even in densely packed device regions.

1. Field of the Invention
Generally, the present disclosure relates to the formation of integrated circuits, and, more particularly, to the formation of a dielectric interlayer between and over circuit elements including closely spaced lines, such as gate electrodes, polysilicon interconnect lines and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
During the fabrication of integrated circuits, a large number of circuit elements are formed on a given chip area according to a specified circuit layout. Generally, a plurality of process technologies are currently practiced, wherein, for complex circuitry, such as microprocessors, storage chips and the like, MOS technology based on silicon is currently the most promising approach due to the superior characteristics in view of operating speed and/or power consumption and/or cost effectiveness. During the fabrication of complex integrated circuits using MOS technology, millions of transistors, i.e., N-channel transistors and/or P-channel transistors, are formed on a substrate including a crystalline semiconductor layer, such as a silicon-based layer. A MOS transistor, irrespective of whether an N-channel transistor or a P-channel transistor is considered, comprises so-called PN junctions that are formed by an interface of highly doped drain and source regions with a lightly doped channel region disposed between the drain region and the source region. The conductivity of the channel region, i.e., the drive current capability of the conductive channel, is controlled by a gate electrode that comprises a line-like portion and is formed above the channel region and separated therefrom by a thin insulating layer.
Typically, the circuit elements, such as the MOS transistors, capacitors, resistors and the like, are formed in a common layer, which will be referred to hereinafter as a device layer, whereas the "wiring," i.e., the electrical connection of circuit elements according to the circuit design, may be accomplished only to a certain degree by means of polysilicon lines and the like within the device layer so that one or more additional "wiring" layers formed over the device layer may be required. These wiring layers include metal lines embedded into an appropriate dielectric material, such as silicon dioxide, silicon nitride and the like, or, in advanced devices, low-k materials having a permittivity of 3.0 or less are used. The metal lines and the surrounding dielectric material will be referred to hereinafter as a metallization layer. Between two stacked adjacent metallization layers and also between the device layer and the first metallization layer, respective dielectric interlayers are formed through which metal-filled openings are formed to establish the electrical connection between metal lines or between circuit elements and metal lines. In typical applications, the dielectric interlayer separating the device layer from the first metallization layer is essentially formed from silicon dioxide that is deposited above a dielectric etch stop layer by well-established plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) techniques, which enable the formation of a smooth and dense silicon dioxide film with sufficient conformality at moderately high deposition rates. Due to the continuous device scaling resulting in gate lengths of MOS transistors on the order of 50 nm or less, the distances between neighboring circuit elements, such as polysilicon lines, gate electrodes and the like, are also reduced and have now reached, in modern CPUs, approximately 200 nm and less, which translates into approximately 100 nm or less for the space width between the densely packed polysilicon lines. It turns out, however, that the gap-fill capabilities of well-established high rate PECVD techniques for the deposition of silicon nitride, which is frequently used as material for the etch stop layer, and silicon dioxide, which is often used as interlayer dielectric, may no longer suffice to reliably form a dielectric interlayer, as will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 1a-1b.
FIG. 1a schematically illustrates a cross-sectional view of a semiconductor device comprising a plurality of transistor elements wherein, for convenience, only two transistor elements 150A, 150B are shown. The transistors 150A, 150B may be formed in and above a semiconductor layer 102, for instance a silicon-containing semiconductor material, or any other appropriate material for forming therein appropriately shaped dopant profiles as may be required for sophisticated transistor elements and other circuit features, such as capacitors and the like. The semiconductor layer 102 is formed above a substrate 101 which may represent a semiconductor material, such as a silicon material and the like. The semiconductor layer 102 and the substrate 101 may represent a "bulk" configuration in which the substrate 101 may be comprised of substantially the same crystalline material as the semiconductor layer 102. In other cases, the substrate 101 and the semiconductor layer 102 may represent a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) configuration, wherein at least a portion of the substrate 101 may comprise an insulating material, such as a silicon dioxide material, on which is formed the semiconductor layer 102. Moreover, in the manufacturing stage shown, the transistors 150A, 150B may each comprise a gate electrode structure 152 comprised of an electrode portion 153, which may be comprised of a suitable electrode material, such as polysilicon. Furthermore, the gate electrode structures 152 may comprise a gate insulation layer 154 including any appropriate material composition, such as silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, high-k dielectric materials in sophisticated applications and the like. Furthermore, a sidewall spacer structure 156 may be provided on sidewalls of the gate electrode structure 152, wherein the spacer structure 156 may comprise two or more individual spacer elements, possibly in combination with respective etch stop materials, as is well known in the art. Furthermore, respective drain and source regions 151 are provided in the semiconductor layer 102 with a suitable vertical and lateral profile for obtaining the desired transistor characteristics.
The semiconductor device 100 as shown in FIG. 1a may be formed on the basis of well-established conventional process strategies, which may include the following processes. After forming appropriate isolation structures (not shown), which may define respective active regions in the semiconductor layer 102 to form therein circuit elements, such as the transistors 150A, 150B, the gate insulation layer 154 may be formed, for instance, by oxidation and/or deposition techniques, in order to obtain a desired thickness and material composition. Thereafter, a gate electrode material, such as polysilicon, may be deposited, for instance, by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) techniques, wherein a thickness of the polysilicon material may be selected in accordance with process requirements for the device 100. That is, in sophisticated applications, a thickness of the polysilicon material, which may thus determine the finally obtained height 152H of the gate electrode structure 152, may be selected such that, on the one hand, the functionality of the gate electrode structure 152 may be achieved and, on the other hand, in view of acting as an efficient implantation mask during the definition of the drain and source regions 151, a sufficient shielding effect is achieved to suppress the introduction of dopants in a channel region 155. Thus, after the deposition of the electrode material with the required thickness 152H, sophisticated lithography and patterning process are performed in order to define the lateral size of the gate electrode structure 152. Thereafter, a first portion of the drain and source regions 151 may be formed, for instance, on the basis of a respective offset spacer (not shown) by ion implantation, wherein, typically, a shallow dopant profile is to be established while using the gate electrode structure 152, possibly in combination with any offset spacers, as an efficient implantation mask. Next, the spacer structure 156 may be formed using well-established deposition and etch techniques to obtain the desired lateral shielding effect of the gate electrode structure 152 in combination with the spacer structure 156. Thereafter, an implantation process 103 is performed with appropriately selected process parameters, such as implantation energy and dose, to position a required dopant concentration at a desired depth within the semiconductor layer 102, while the spacer structure 156 defines a lateral profile of the dopant concentration. Furthermore, during the implantation process 103, penetration of dopant species into the channel region 155, which is substantially positioned below the gate electrode structure 152, may have to be avoided since any additional dopant species positioned therein may significantly alter the finally obtained transistor characteristics, for instance, in terms of threshold voltage, control of short channel effects and the like. Thus, the height 152H and the gate electrode structure 152 is selected such that the implantation blocking capability of the polysilicon portion 153 is sufficient to substantially avoid the penetration of the gate insulation layer 154 and the underlying channel region 155. After the implantation process 103, an appropriately designed anneal process may be performed in order to activate the dopants in the drain and source regions 151 and also re-crystallize implantation-induced damage in the semiconductor layer 102.
FIG. 1b schematically illustrates the semiconductor device 100 in a further advanced manufacturing stage, in which metal silicide regions 157 may be formed in the drain and source regions 151 and also in the polysilicon electrode portions 153. Additionally, a first portion of an interlayer dielectric material, for instance, in the form of a silicon nitride layer 104, is provided above the first and second transistors 150A, 150B. As previously explained, in advanced semiconductor devices, a spacing 105 between closely spaced circuit elements, such as the transistors 150A, 150B may be reduced with the advance to a new technology standard, which may thus require enhanced gap-filling capabilities of deposition processes for forming an interlayer dielectric material, such as the silicon nitride layer 104. Consequently, after the forming of the metal silicide regions 157, which may be accomplished on the basis of well-established techniques, typically a PECVD process is performed to deposit the silicon nitride material 104, wherein, however, the moderately high aspect ratio defined by the distance 105 and the height 152H of the gate electrode structure 152 may result in irregularities, for instance, in the form of voids 104A, which may be caused by the non-sufficient conformal deposition capabilities of the respective PECVD process. The irregularities 104A may thus result in process non-uniformities during the further deposition of a further interlayer dielectric material, such as a silicon dioxide material, and may also result in contact failures, when forming respective openings for contacts in order to connect the transistors 150A, 150B with a metallization level to be formed above the transistors 150A, 150B. Since the layer 104 may be used as an etch stop layer and, in sophisticated applications, may also be used as a strain-inducing source as silicon nitride may be deposited with high internal compressive and tensile strain, an arbitrary reduction of the layer thickness of the layer 104 in view of enhancing the conformal deposition behavior may be less than desirable.
The present disclosure is directed to various methods and devices that may avoid, or at least reduce, the effects of one or more of the problems identified above.

Method for adjusting the height of a gate electrode in a semiconductor device


An image reading apparatus includes a first scanner provided in a housing, a conveyance unit, and a first calibration member. The conveyance unit is provided with a separation unit which separates the first calibration member upward from the first scanner. When the first calibration member is separated, the separation unit releases connection between the conveyance unit and the housing.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus and an image forming system.
Description of Related Art
Conventionally, in a copying machine or the like capable of reading images, maintenance work is performed by taking out a unit to be maintained. For example, it has been proposed to locate a paper conveying section in a low position of an apparatus for improving the operability of replacing a toner cartridge (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Published Application No. 2005-173171).
On the other hand, for example, it has been proposed to retract an intermediate transfer belt in a position where the intermediate transfer belt does not come in contact with a photoreceptor member when replacing an intermediate transfer unit (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Published Application No. 2001-183957).
Meanwhile, in the case where a scanner is directly linked with a calibration member which is located to face the scanner, flickers may occur in a read image because of vibration due to rotation of the calibration member, vibration occurring when a sheet collides with the calibration member, vibration occurring when a sheet collides with a conveying route or the like vibration transmitted to the scanner. The reading accuracy of the scanner is thereby lowered to degrade the image quality.
Also, in the case where a scanner is not directly linked with a calibration member which is located to face the scanner, when withdrawing the scanner and a conveyance unit on which the calibration member is mounted, the conveyance unit may be lowered by its own weight. The scanner and the calibration member may interfere with each other.
On the other hand, when the calibration member is separated from the scanner by drawing the calibration member upward obliquely, there has to be reserved a certain space in an apparatus to increase the whole size of the apparatus for the purpose of preventing the calibration member from interfering with a member located upward obliquely. It is thereby desired that the calibration member is designed to be withdrawn in the horizontal direction in order to avoid enlargement of the entire apparatus.
The present invention is made in order to solve such a prior art problem and it is an object of the present invention to provide an image reading apparatus and an image forming system capable of preventing image quality from being degraded, and a scanner and a calibration member from interfering with each other.

Image reading apparatus and image forming system


A carried material is carried only on a surface of nano-fibers. It includes a raw material liquid spray step that sprays raw material liquid, which is a raw material of nano-fibers, into a space, a raw material liquid electrically charging step, which applies an electric charge to the raw material liquid and makes the raw material liquid electrically charged, a nano-fiber manufacturing step that manufactures the nano-fibers by having the electrically charged and sprayed raw material liquid explode electrostatically, a carried material electrically charging step that electrically charges a carried material carried on the nano-fibers with a polarity opposite to a polarity of the electrically charged nano-fibers, and a mixing step that mixes the manufactured nano-fibers and the electrically charged carried material in a space.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a fiber manufacturing apparatus that manufactures fibers by using an electrospinning method (an electrostatic stretching phenomenon), and especially relates to a fiber manufacturing method and a fiber manufacturing apparatus that can add various types of functions to fine fibers of which diameter is in a nano order (nano-fibers).
Moreover, the present invention relates to a fiber manufacturing method for manufacturing fibers that make up a catalyst substance layer used as a fuel electrode or an oxygen electrode for a proton-exchange membrane fuel cell.
2. Background Art
Conventionally, an electrospinning (an electrostatic stretching phenomenon) method is known as a method for manufacturing filamentous (fibrous form) substances (nano-fibers) made of polymeric substances and having a diameter in a submicron scale.
In the electrospinning method, raw material liquid in which polymeric substances and such are dispersed or dissolved in a solvent medium is injected (outpoured) to a space, through a nozzle or such, while the raw material liquid is charged by applying an electric charge and the raw material liquid that flies in the space is electrostatistically exploded, so that nano-fibers can be obtained.
More specifically, regarding the raw material liquid that is electrically charged and outpoured, as the solvent medium is evaporated from the raw material liquid flying in the space, volume of the raw material liquid decreases. On the other hand, the electric charge applied to the raw material liquid remains in the raw material liquid. As a result, a particle of the raw material liquid flying in the space is made to a higher electric charge density. Moreover, because the solvent medium in the raw material liquid keeps evaporating on an ongoing basis, the electric charge density of the raw material liquid is further increased, and the polymer solution undergoes a phenomenon (an electrostatic stretching phenomenon) in which the polymer solution is explosively stretched into filament at a point when coulomb force acting oppositely generated in the raw material liquid exceeds the surface tension power of the raw material liquid. Because this electrostatic stretching phenomenon occurs one after another at an exponential rate in the space, fibers (nano-fibers) made of polymeric substances of which diameter is in a submicron scale (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-330624) is manufactured.
The fibers manufactured by the above electrospinning method are used as a raw material for a string or a nonwoven fabric cloth. Additionally, there has been an attempt to improve functionality of the string or the nonwoven fabric cloth by having the nano-fibers carry functional substances such as a catalyst or an absorbent substance.
For example, an applicant of the present invention has filed a manufacturing method of nano-fibers carrying a carried material through manufacturing such nano-fibers by pre-mixing a functional carried material into raw material liquid and manufacturing nano-fibers from the concerned raw material liquid through the electrospinning method.
In addition, a power fuel cell has been drawing attention in recent years. The reason for that is as follows. Namely, the fuel cell, contrary to its name, is not like a battery that electrically discharges pre-charged power such as a primary cell like a dry-cell battery or a secondary cell like a lead acid battery. It is something closer to a power generation apparatus that allows us to take out the power on an on-going basis if a fuel such as hydrogen and an oxidizing agent such as oxygen are supplied continuously. The fuel cell is not like a conventional power generation apparatus that uses a thermal engine and it allows for obtaining of electric energy directly from chemical energy without going through motion energy, so that it has a high power generation efficiency with less noise and less vibration. Therefore, it is expected to be used as a power source of a portable apparatus, a power source for domestic use or a power source of automobiles, trains and so on.
The following actions are taken as a method to generate power by the fuel cell. In short, in a catalyst substance layer of a fuel electrode, hydrogen is divided into an electron and a proton (a hydrogen ion) by using a catalyst substance. The divided electron is supplied to the outside of the fuel cell via an electric conductor. The proton is moved to an oxygen electrode via a proton conductive polymer within the fuel cell. The proton going through the proton conductive polymer reacts with oxygen in the solvent layer of the oxygen electrode and turns into water, but because it requires an electron at this point, the electron conveyed to the outside of the fuel cell is collected and provided for the aforementioned reaction.
Consequently, a difference in an electric potential is created between the fuel electrode, which has an excessive amount of electrons, and the oxygen electrode, which requires more electrons, and the power can be generated.
As described above, in order for hydrogen to be divided into an electron and a proton in the catalyst substance layer of the fuel electrode, and for the proton, oxygen and the electron to react and turn into water in the catalyst substance layer of the oxygen electrode, it is necessary that the oxygen makes contacts with the catalyst substance, and that the proton, the oxygen and the electron make contacts among themselves. Moreover, in order to move the electron, it is necessary to have an electric conductor close to the aforementioned catalyst substance. In order to move the proton, it is necessary to have a proton conductive polymer close to the catalyst substance.
Furthermore, for improving a power generation efficiency of the fuel cell, it is necessary to be the location where the catalyst substance, the electric conductor and the proton conductive polymer all coexist. In the catalyst substance layer of the fuel electrode, it is necessary to have many locations with a high probability for making contacts with hydrogen, and in the catalyst substance layer of the oxygen electrode, it is necessary to have many locations with a high probability for making contacts with oxygen.
Conventionally, the following method has been proposed to form the catalyst substance layer as described above (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-214008). In short, a carbon carrying a catalyst substance and a proton conductive polymer are put in the solvent medium and made into a liquid form. The concerned liquid is injected from one electrode to another electrode to which high voltage is applied. As described above, an electrostatic stretching phenomenon is created, and fibers made of the proton conductive polymer that carries the catalyst substance and the carbon are manufactured. A porous catalyst substance layer is formed by depositing the concerned fibers.
However, as an inventor of the present invention further researched the aforementioned fiber manufacturing method, the inventor discovered there is a case that fibers having a desired function are difficult to manufacture depending on a type of a resin consisting of fibers or a type of a carried material to be carried. As the inventor was dedicated to doing further research, the inventor discovered there is a case that the carried material cannot perform its function because the carried material is contained within the fibers, and there is a case that a mechanical strength of the fibers is weakened because the carried material is intruded into the fibers too much.
Also, for the fuel cell, in the aforementioned method, the catalyst substance is built in the proton conductive polymer in a process the proton conductive polymer is turned into fibers so that there are so many catalyst substances that do not make contacts with hydrogen or oxygen and are not provided for reaction necessary for power generation. The fuel cell containing such a catalyst substance layer does not have a good power generation efficiency as it is compared to an amount of the catalyst substance used.

Fiber manufacturing method, fiber manufacturing apparatus and proton-exchange membrane fuel cell


A rotor hanging tool includes a beam extending in parallel to an axial direction above a rotor main body, a pair of ring support portions disposed at an interval in the axial direction, connected to the beam, and attachable to and detachable from a support ring, a pair of rotor support portions disposed at an interval in the axial direction, connected to the beam, attachable to and detachable from the rotor main body at positions different from the ring support portions in the axial direction, and respectively supporting the rotor main body from below, and a vertical position adjustment unit for adjusting a position of each of the rotor support portions in a vertical direction with respect to the beam.

A rotary machine such as a centrifugal compressor and a steam turbine is provided with a rotor rotating about an axis and a casing covering the rotor. The rotor has a rotor main body extending in the axial direction that is about the axis and a plurality of impellers disposed on a rotor shaft. As disclosed in Patent Document 1, such rotary machines include those having a structure in which the casing can be divided into one upper half portion and one lower half portion. The upper half portion of the casing is removed from the lower half portion and the upper half of the rotor in the casing is exposed during rotor maintenance or replacement. Subsequently, the rotor is lifted and taken out of the lower half portion and the rotor is maintained or replaced.
In a case where the rotor is lifted and taken out of the lower half portion of the casing, a rotor support jig is used at a plurality of axially spaced locations. The rotor is taken out of the lower half portion of the casing by the jig being lifted with the jig supporting the rotor.

Rotor hanging tool, rotor support jig, rotor lifting method, and rotary machine disassembly method

MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES COMPRESSOR CORPORATION

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Compressor International Corporation


A process for manufacturing a toner having improved relative humidity sensitivity is described. The process comprises forming polyester toner particles by emulsion/aggratation, fluidizing the toner particles with a stream of inert gas while spraying the toner particles with a solution containing an additive affecting relative humidity sensitivity, and wherein the additive contacts a surface of the toner particles and the additive remains on the surface of the toner particles.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention is directed to methods of applying an additive to the surface of a toner created by the emulsion/aggregation (EA) technique. In particular, the reduction of relative humidity (RH) sensitivity of the toner is accomplished by applying the additive to the surface of the toner during a fluidized bed spraying procedure.
2. Description of Related Art
EA polyester toner particles are very hydrophilic, and thus susceptible to poor or unpredictable triboelectric charging upon exposure to atmospheric humidity. More in particular, EA polyester toners have hydrophilic functional groups on the surface of the toner, causing humidity sensitivity. Such toner particles thus need to be treated with a hydrophobic agent in order to perform over a wide range in humidities.
Low humidity is frequently referred to as C-zone (approximately 20% relative humidity), and high humidity is frequently referred to as A-zone (approximately 80% relative humidity). In practical use, this is referring to the humidity of the environment during use of a printer. This difference leads to large RH sensitivity ratios, which means that the toner is effective in low humidity conditions but not in high humidity conditions. For reference purposes, the RH sensitivity ratio of untreated EA polyester toner particles can range from approximately 5 to 12. The ultimate goal is for the RH sensitivity ratio to be as close to one as possible. When such an RH sensitivity ratio is achieved, the toner is equally effective in both high humidity and low humidity conditions. Said another way, the toner has low sensitivity to changes in RH.
One method of improving RH sensitivity of EA polyester toner has included forming a hydrophobic shell around the toner particles. However, this method has not proven viable because fusing characteristics of the toner are too adversely affected.
Another method of improving RH sensitivity is to treat EA polyester toner particles with a hydrophobic agent in the wet chemistry stage to improve RH sensitivity as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,143,457 to Carlini et al., which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The wet chemistry method is a surface treatment method that occurs after toner particles have been grown to the desired size by the EA technique. During the wet chemistry method, surface additives are added to EA polyester toners prior to any removal of the liquid from toner mixture, i.e., additives are added to the toner slurry.
The wet chemistry method is very limiting. In practice, as the wet chemistry treatment proceeds, the more hydrophobic treated toner will precipitate from the solution before the treatment is complete, and will agglomerate. This presents a problem because once the toner particles agglomerate, it is very difficult to separate them, particularly if the temperature is high enough to cause particles to fuse together.
The EA polyester toner particles are hydrophilic because of sulfonate groups on their surface. As part of the wet chemistry method, a phosphonium bromide salt, such as stearyltributylphosphonium bromide (STBP), is added to mask the sulfonate groups. During this wet chemistry method, an ion exchange occurs, and the resulting toner has hydrophobic stearyl phosphonium groups deposited/bonded on its surface.
Once the polyester toners are coated with a hydrophobic surface additive, the water is removed from the toner slurry. The toner particles are usually approximately 10 to 15 percent of the total weight of the toner slurry. The first step in removing the water is a filtration step. The product collected in the filter is called a wet cake which consists of the toner and some residual water. The water in the wet cake is approximately 40 percent of the total weight of the wet cake. The wet cake is the product of any filtration method, not just the wet chemistry method.
Once the wet cake has been produced, it is still necessary to remove the remaining water to be able to effectively use the created toner particles. This is usually done by a fluidized bed or equivalent drying equipment.
Another problem of the wet-chemistry method is that the additive has to be soluble in water. This means that significant quantities of water are necessary to dissolve the additive. This requires additional reactor capacity, which is expensive. Furthermore, a relatively high temperature is necessary to keep the additive dissolved in solution. However, a high temperature may cause the toner particles to start to coalesce and deviate from the desired particle size and particle size distribution.
The problems of the wet chemistry method have resulted in a continued processing problems of the treated EA polyester toners. In particular, the wet chemistry additive application process of the prior art has resisted scale-up to date and is cumbersome and time consuming.

Fluidized bed spray coating of polyester chemical toners with additives


A method for driving an active matrix electrophoretic display is provided. In a resetting period Tr, reset data Drest is supplied to a data line drive circuit and a reset voltage is applied to each pixel electrode. Next in a writing period, an image data is supplied to a data line drive circuit and a gradation voltage is applied to each pixel electrode. Subsequently a common voltage is applied to it, in order to take charge which is accumulated between the electrodes away, applying no electric field to a dispersal system. Then a displayed image is held.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophoretic display, a method and apparatus for driving it, and an electronic device using it.
2. Description of Related Art
In the conventional art, electrophoretic displays are known which consist of a pair of panels or substrates spaced apart in opposing relation, each of which is provided with an electrode. Between these electrodes a dyed dielectric fluid is provided. Suspended in the fluid are electrically charged particles having a pigment color different to the fluid in which they are suspended (hereinafter referred to simply as pigment particles). In a display update operation, differing voltages are applied via a switching element to the electrodes to generate an electrostatic field in the dielectric fluid, causing the pigment particles to migrate in the direction of the applied field.
Electrophoretic displays utilizing an electrophoresis phenomenon are classed as non-luminous devices. In electrophoresis, pigment particles migrate under the action of Coulomb force which is generated when an electrostatic field is applied to a dielectric fluid in which the particles are dispersed.
However, prior art electrophoretic displays suffer from a problem in that they afford poor viewing characteristics. The present invention has been made to overcome this problem, and provides for the first time an active matrix electrophoretic display, which display has superior viewing characteristics.
As stated above, the object of the present invention is to provide an active matrix electrophoretic display. Also provided is a drive circuit integral to the device, and a method for driving the display by using the circuit. In addition there is provided is an electronic device attached to the electrophoretic display.
A method provided by the present invention is applied to an electrophoretic display comprising a common electrode, a plurality of pixels and a plurality of switching elements, each of which is assigned to a corresponding one of a plurality of switching elements. Each of the pixels is comprised of a pixel electrode which is connected to a corresponding switching element, with the pixel electrode being provided in spaced opposing relation to the common electrode, and a dispersal system comprising a colored fluid in which pigment particles are suspended being provided between the common electrode and the pixel electrode.
In the method of the present invention, a 1st voltage is applied to the common electrode. A 2nd voltage is then applied for a set period of time via a corresponding switching element to a pixel electrode, to generate an electrostatic field in the dispersal system of the pixel, to cause the pigment particles to migrate in the direction of the thus generated field to a desired position, which corresponds to a desired color gradation of the pixel. Next, the 1st voltage is applied via a corresponding switching element to the pixel electrode, to cancel the electrostatic filed and fix said pigment particles in a desired position.
In the present invention, in addition to these steps, which are common to the prior art, a new method is employed whereby differential voltages are applied which are calculated on the basis of a difference between a current average position of pigment particles and a subsequent desired position. By continually updating the voltage gradient using these parameters, positions of pigment particles can be updated without the need for an initialization step. Since no initialization step is required, display updates can be affected rapidly.
In the present invention, to further improve display image characteristics, it is preferable for there to be variations in the properties of pigment particles employed, such as charge and mass. As noted above, in the present invention pigment particles do not need to be initialized before a display update is made. This helps to overcome a problem which conventional electrophoretic displays suffer from, whereby after a voltage differential between electrodes is cancelled, pigment particles continue to move under their inertia. This residual movement of pigment particles causes fluctuations in an image displayed. In the case that minimal fluid resistance acts against pigment particles, inertial movement of the particles and resulting display fluctuations become pronounced. To overcome this problem of inertial particle movement, in the method of the present invention, after a differential voltage is applied to a second electrode, a further xe2x80x98brakexe2x80x99 voltage is applied to the dielectric fluid to stop movement of the pigment particles rapidly. Since a direction of motion of a particle is determined by a direction and polarity of an applied electrostatic field, a brake voltage to be applied has a polarity which is opposite to that of a voltage applied to a pixel electrode. Different from prior art displays, in the electrophoretic display of the present invention a plurality of discrete dispersal systems are employed in electrical communication with a common electrode. The dispersal systems comprise a colored dielectric fluid in which contrasting pigment particles are suspended; a plurality of data lines; a plurality of scanning lines; and a plurality of switching elements, which are provided at intersections between scanning and data lines. In addition, a plurality of pixel electrodes is also provided, and each of these pixel electrodes is connected to a corresponding switching element, and is also subject to a charge applied by the common electrode. In the method of driving the display of the present invention, a voltage is applied to the common electrode, and scanning lines are then subjected to sequential selection. In a next step, a voltage corresponding to a required screen update is applied by the pixel electrodes to the data lines, and a differential voltage is applied to the pixel electrodes via their respective switching elements, causing pigment particles suspended in the dielectric fluid of respective display systems to migrate in the direction of the applied field. To fix a position of the particles, a uniform voltage is then applied to respective pixel electrodes via their switching elements, and the switching elements are then turned off.
It is to be noted that in the present invention, voltages are applied as required, via switching elements, to respective pixel electrodes, thereby creating a matrix in the electrophoretic display In the method for driving the electrophoretic display of the present invention, each of the pixel electrodes is first subject to a preset uniform voltage applied by the common electrode. Scanning lines are then selected sequentially. Next, a voltage differential corresponding to a desired display update is applied via the switching elements to their respective pixel electrodes, whereby designated pigment particles are caused to migrate. To maintain a desired display state, a uniform voltage is applied to each of the pixel electrodes via respective switching elements, and, further, a break voltage is applied to counter inertial movement of the suspended pigment particles in each of the particle dispersion systems, and finally the switching elements are turned off.
According to the present invention, an active matrix electrophoretic display can be realized by applying differential voltages via a plurality of switching elements to a plurality of corresponding pixel electrodes.

Method and circuit for driving electrophoretic display, electrophoretic display and electronic device using same


A digital decoder, used in a reconfigurable circuit, for decoding digital pulses includes a phase indicator module having inputs coupled to a reference pulse input and a data pulse input. The phase indicator module has timing information outputs that provide logic values indicative of rising and falling edges of pulses occurring on the reference pulse input and the data pulse input. A phase decoder module has inputs coupled to the timing information outputs, and outputs decoded binary data values. In operation, the phase decoder module compares at least two of the logic values at the timing information outputs with a signal representative leading and trailing edges of a pulse applied to one of the phase inputs to determine a pulse arrival order sequence on the phase inputs and thereby provide the decoded binary data values.

The present invention relates to a decoder for decoding digital pulses, and reconfigurable circuit that includes a digital pulse decoder.
Semiconductor die packages are being manufactured with increased circuit functionality to package pin count (external terminal count). However, due to the limited number of external terminals or pins, the controllability and observablity of internal circuit nodes can often be inadequate unless testability is designed into the circuit.
Testability is designed into circuits by the use of dedicated test pins. These dedicated test pins are often used in structured Design For Testability (DFT) techniques such as Scan Path, Level Sensitive Scan Design (LSSD), Built In Self-Test (BIST) and Random Access Scan. However, because the number of external pins is limited, these dedicated test pins are provided at the cost of reduced functionality and normal run-time accessibility of functional modules of the circuit.

Reconfigurable circuit and decoder therefor


Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with selective notch filtering for howling suppression are described. According to one embodiment, an apparatus includes a howling detector that detects howling by performing a time domain analysis of speech signals to identify a speech signal that may be exhibiting howling and performing frequency domain analysis to confirm that the speech signal is exhibiting howling. The apparatus also includes a suppression selector configured to select a suppression technique, a signal processor configured to process the speech signal according to a selected suppression technique. The apparatus outputs, without suppression-related processing, speech signals that are not identified based on the time domain analysis. In another embodiment a method includes analyzing a speech signal to detect howling and when howling is detected, selecting, based on the howling analysis, a howling suppression technique from a set of howling suppression techniques that includes at least two different howling suppression techniques.

"Howling" is a type of audible signal noise that occurs during speech communication when positive feedback occurs between a transmitting device and a receiving device. Some microphones and speech devices employ anti-howling measures that involve notch filtering. However, notch filtering techniques can be expensive to implement in terms of computational resources. Further, in many instances, notch filtering is not the most efficient and effective way to suppress howling.

Selective notch filtering for howling suppression


An automated multiplex detector system includes: (a) a nucleic acid amplification compartment for amplifying nucleic acid of one or more targets in a sample, and (b) an analysis compartment in fluid communication with the amplification compartment, the analysis compartment housing a nanoparticle-based multiplex detector capable of using the amplified nucleic acid of the amplification compartment and producing a signal that correlates with the presence of the one or more targets in the sample.

Most of widespread infectious diseases in developing countries may be treatable if addressed with proper therapy or medication at the early stage of infection; nonetheless, the identification of infected patients for rapid response to the disease remains a major challenge in the field [Mabey, D.; Peeling, R. W.; Ustianowski, A.; Perkins, M. D. Diagnostics for the developing world. Nat Rev Micro 2004, 2, 231-240]. Consequently, there is an increasing demand for cost-effective and portable point of-care (POC) diagnostic device [Hauck, T. S.; Giri, S.; Gao, Y.; Chan, W. C. W. Nanotechnology diagnostics for infectious diseases prevalent in developing countries. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 2010, 62, 438-448]. Ultimately, such a diagnostic device should be ease-to-use and detect multiple infectious agents with high sensitivity and specificity for it to be applicable in resource-poor settings.
Nanoparticles are important components in many diagnostic and detection systems. These nanoparticles may possess unique properties that enable them detect biological molecules in both patient and non-patient samples. However, nanoparticle detection system, especially for detecting genomic materials, have limited sensitivity and therefore, these technologies may not be useful in the real world. The sensitivity of conventional QD barcode assay is not high enough to detect many infections that have low-abundance target analytes and stringent detection limit specifications, and current DNA extraction procedures highly depend on manual and laborious sample processing. For example, current quantum dot barcode system technology for detecting HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, is limited for properly diagnosing patients because the technology can only detect 1 femtomole (10-15 mol of the DNA target). Considering that many of these nanoparticle detection systems will be used at point-of-care, the nanoparticle-based assay will always measure a negative detection, but such measurements will not be accurate. There is a need, therefore, to develop a diagnostic system that can easily detect genomic materials from clinical samples and achieve highly reliable clinical sensitivity and specificity for POC testing.
Detection of genomic material such as DNA as biomarkers is currently a widely used technique for pathogenic detection. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is one of the most common techniques used in current infectious disease diagnostic tests. PCR, however, is not well suited for use in POC settings due to the use of an expensive thermal cycler, and also trained technicians are needed to operate the test [Hauck et al. Adv. Drug Delivery Reviews, 62, 438-448, 2009]. As a result, there is an increasing demand for developing PCR-less amplification strategies, which can effectively enrich the amount of target DNA and which can effectively and synergistically co-operate with naoparticle-based technologies.
Isolation of genomic material from a crude sample is an important step involved in molecular biology. Traditional DNA extraction methods using phenolchloroform or spin columns are difficult to scale-down sample volumes, time consuming, laborious and hard to automate making them not suitable for POC applications [Berensmeier, S. Magnetic particles for the separation and purification of nucleic acids. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 2006, 73, 495-504; Chung, Y.-C.; Jan, M. S.; Lin, Y.-C.; Lin, J.-H.; Cheng, W.-C.; Fan, C.-Y. Microfluidic chip for high efficiency DNA extraction. Lab Chip 2004, 4, 141]. Many studies have investigated using a microfluidic device combined with either magnetic beads or immiscible organic phase to automate the extraction of nucleic acids, and demonstrated the potential for parallelizing experiments while reducing the operational complexity and cost [Breadmore, M. C.; Wolfe, K. A.; Arcibal, I. G.; Leung, W. K.; Dickson, D.; Giordano, B. C.; Power, M. E.; Ferrance, J. P.; Feldman, S. H.; Norris, P. M.; Landers, J. P. Microchip-Based Purification of DNA from Biological Samples. Anal. Chem. 2003, 75, 1880-1886; Zhang, R.; Gong, H.-Q.; Zeng, X.; Lou, C.; Sze, C. A Microfluidic Liquid Phase Nucleic Acid Purification Chip to Selectively Isolate DNA or RNA from Low Copy/Single Bacterial Cells in Minute Sample Volume Followed by Direct On-Chip Quantitative PCR Assay. Anal. Chem. 2013, 85, 1484-1491]. Nonetheless, these devices relied on using syringe pumps to pass fluids through the microfluidic channels, which is not desirable in POC settings due to limited availability of the instruments. Therefore, there is a demand for technology that can automate DNA extraction, DNA amplification and multiplex detection of the amplified DNA that can be used for POC applications.
A microfluidic device has been developed to automate the assay [Gao, Y.; Lam, A. W. Y.; Chan, W. C. W. Automating Quantum Dot Barcode Assays Using Microfluidics and Magnetism for the Development of a Point-of-Care Device. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2013, 5, 2853-2860]. This device achieved a detection limit of 1.2 nM, and demonstrated multiplexed detection of genetic biomarkers for HIV, HBV and syphilis diseases. Although this device demonstrated automation of the assay, it does not include an automated sample pretreatment for DNA extraction and amplification.

Amplification of nanoparticle based assay

The Governing Council of the University of Toronto


A control method and a system for controlling the piston of a resonant linear compressor including at least one electronic control unit, the electronic control unit including at least one observing electronic circuit and at least one control circuit associated to each other. The observing electronic circuit is configured for: measuring at least one electric magnitude of the electric motor; estimating at least one set of electric parameters and at least one set of mechanical parameters of the resonant linear compressor; and estimating and providing at least one control parameter of the system for the control circuit based on the measured electric magnitude measured and on the estimated set of electric and mechanical parameters. The control circuit is configured for actuating the electric motor from the at least one control parameter.

Alternating-piston compressors generate pressure by compressing the gas inside a cylinder through axial movement of the piston, so that the gas on the low-pressure side, i.e., the side of suction or evaporation pressure, goes into the cylinder through the suction valve. The gas is then compressed inside the cylinder by piston movement and after having been compressed it comes out of cha cylinder through the discharge valve to the high-pressure side, i.e., the side of discharge pressure or condensation.
Especially for resonant linear compressors, the piston is actuated by a linear actuator, which is formed by a support and magnets that can be actuated by one or more coils. The linear compressor further comprises one or more springs, which connect the moveable part (piston, support magnets) to the fixed part, the latter being formed by the cylinder, stator, coil head and frame. The moveable parts and the springs form the resonant assembly of the compressor.
Such a resonant assembly, driven by a linear motor, has the function of developing a linear alternating movement, causing the movement of the piston inside the cylinder to exert a compression action of the gas admitted through the suction valve as far as it can be discharged through the discharge valve into the high-pressure side.
The operation amplitude of the linear compressor is regulated by balance of the power generated by the motor, with the power consumed by the compression mechanism, besides the losses generated in this process. In order to achieve maximum thermodynamic efficiency and maximum cooling capacity, the maximum displacement of the piston should come as close as possible to the end of stroke, thus reducing the dead gas volume in the compression process.
In order to make this process feasible, it is necessary for the piston stroke to be known in great accuracy, so as to prevent the risk of piston impact at the end of the stroke on the equipment head. This impact might generate an acoustic noise, loss of efficiency of the apparatus or even breakdown of the compressor.
Thus, the greater the error in estimating/measuring the piston power the greater the safety coefficient required between maximum displacement and the stroke end, to operate the compressor in security, which leads to loss of performance of the product.
On the other hand, if it is necessary to reduce the cooling capacity of the compressor due to less need to use the cooling system, it is possible to reduce the maximum piston-operation stroke, thus reducing the power supplied by the compressor, and so it is possible to control the cooling capacity of the compressor, thereby obtaining a varying capacity. An important additional characteristic in operating resonant linear compressors is the actuation frequency thereof. A few prior techniques show that actuating the compressor at its resonance frequency causes the equipment to work at its maximum efficiency.
However, such techniques usually make use of position and/or velocity sensors for operating the system, which increases the final costs of the product considerably.
Hereinafter one makes a brief description of prior-art solutions employed today for knowing the compressor-piston stroke. The documents cited below make use of position sensors, for example the Brazilian case PI 0001404-4. This document further has the disadvantages of difficulty of isolation and electric contact noise.
Document PI 0203724-6 relates to a fluid pump and a fluid-transfer plate, such elements being particularly applicable to linear compressors for detecting the position of the respective piston and preventing the latter from colliding with the fluid-transfer plate or the valve plate upon variations in the operation conditions of the compressor, or even variations in the feed voltage. Such a technique employs en inductive sensor mounted on the valve plate, in order to measure the piston/plate distance directly at the piston top. This is a high-precision solution, but it requires space for installing the sensor on the valve plate and is more expensive, besides requiring calibration.
Other prior-art solutions, like those described in documents U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,296, JP 1,336,661 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,269, make use of a position sensor. Therefore, such applications exhibit greater implementation and/or maintenance complexity, besides a higher cost. It should be further pointed out that, in these latter cases, there is a need for a greater number of wires and external connections to the compressor, which makes difficult the use thereof in environments of great variation in temperature and pressure.
On the other hand, a few prior-art technique that do not use position sensors, like documents U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,342,176, 5,496,153, 4,642,547 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,176,683, besides KR 96-79125, KR 96-15062, WO00079671 and WO03044365, do not exhibit good accuracy or operation stability, for which reason it is necessary to employ other types of sensors, such as temperature meters or accelerometer for detecting impact, besides a more expensive sizing for the compressor in view of the requirements of performances for its correct functioning.
On the basis of the foregoing, the present invention foresees a system and a method for controlling the pistons of a resonant linear compressor, especially designed for actuating the compressor at its maximum efficiency, without using sensors to measure mechanical magnitudes or variables.

System for controlling a resonant linear compressor piston, method for controlling a resonant linear compressor piston, and resonant linear compressor

Fundacao Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina-UDESC