A patient position monitoring apparatus and method includes an article configured to be worn by a patient. The article includes a plurality of resonators with each resonator responsive to a wireless excitation signal for causing the unique change in the excitation signal or for outputting a unique wireless response signal. The resonators are stimulated with a first wireless excitation signal when the article is being worn by a patient. The unique change in the excitation signal and /or the unique response signal of each resonator responding to the first excitation signal is determined. From the thus detected response, a signal strength of the unique change in the excitation signal and/or the unique response signal for each responding resonator is determined. From the thus determined signal strengths, the relative locations of the responding resonators with respect to each other can be determined.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to incontinence monitoring and/or position monitoring of patients.
2. Description of Related Art
Incontinence is universal among the very young and increasingly common among the very old. Incontinence may also be a consequence of surgical procedures or neurological impairments. There is a need to determine when an absorbent product, e.g., a diaper or bed pad, for a patient who is incontinent is wet, without disturbing the patient.
A wide variety of means have been devised to detect when a diaper is wet without removing the diaper. These include visual indicators and electronic wetness detection systems. Visible indicators for disposable diapers typically are chemicals within the deep layers of the diaper, adjacent to a translucent moisture impermeable outer layer, that change color when wet. For a caregiver to see that the diaper is wet and needs to be changed, the indicator region of the diaper must be visible. This requires undressing the wearer of the diaper when the user is dressed, and pulling back blankets, sheets and bed clothes when the wearer is in bed. It also may require rolling a wearer over to view the rear of the diaper if the wearer is asleep on their back. The process of obtaining a view of chemical wetness indictors is clearly disruptive of the wearers activities. It may be particularly disruptive when checking for wetness awakes a sleeper whether or not their diaper is actually wet and in need of changing. The chief virtue of visible wetness indicators is that they are inexpensive to produce.
Various electronic diaper wetness detection indication systems have been developed specifically to provide remote sensing of when a diaper needs to be changed. These typically involve at least two components attached to the diaper. Systems dependent on radio transmitters also require a remote radio receiver. Electronic wetness detection systems usually have an inexpensive disposable sensor within the diaper and a reusable alarm or transmitter attached to the outside of the diaper that is connected to the wetness sensor within. Typically, the sensing element includes two or more conducting elements separated by a wetable membrane that insulates between the conductors when dry and conducts electricity or otherwise changes impedance between the sensor when wet with urine or other electrolyte solutions. The electrical power that activates the external signaling circuit may be sourced from a battery in the attached electronics package or by galvanic reaction between metallic electrodes in the diaper.
For audio alarms, the detachable reusable electronic package produces an audible signal to alert the caregiver when urine is sensed within the diaper. For radio frequency (RF) alerting systems, a radio transmission is made by the reusable external transmitter when urine is sensed within the diaper. This RF transmission is received by a remote device that is configured to alert a caregiver that the diaper is wet.
Audible electronic systems have the disadvantage of requiring the caregiver to be within hearing range at the time the audible alert is generated. Furthermore, sound generated can be disruptive of ongoing activities, such as sleep or social interaction, particularly for incontinent adults. Radio alerting systems can be more private in signaling the need to change a wet diaper or incontinence bed pad.
While the electronic systems described above have the advantage of not requiring a caregiver to physically disturb the wearer of the diaper in order to determine if the diaper is wet, the reusable electronics package attached to the diaper may be uncomfortably large and must be recovered after each diaper change for reattachment to a fresh diaper. The need to recover and reuse a relatively expensive electronics package attached to a soiled diaper every time the diaper is changed is onerous, especially when the diaper is soiled with feces. Experience shows that the detachable electronics packages are often misplaced or lost in institutional settings when diapers are removed because wearers are being bathed or changed or having a medical procedure.
All previous electronic wetness sensors for incontinence products require two or more sensing elements separated by an insulating region, attached to the electronic sensing circuit. Usually, these sense wetness by the increased conductance between two electrodes, but changing capacitance has also been used to detect wetness. A problem with the prior art incontinence detecting systems is that they require the attachment of a powered audible or radio-signaling device to the diaper and that they require sensing electrodes to function.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to overcome the above problems and others by providing a system and method of use thereof for remotely detecting when a diaper is wet without the need to attach a powered signaling device to the diaper. It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method of use thereof for remotely detecting the position of a patient. Still further objects will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading and understanding the following detailed description.
Accordingly, I have invented a patient monitoring system that includes a plurality of resonators, each responsive to at least one wireless excitation signal for causing a unique change in the excitation signal and/or outputting a unique wireless response signal. The system also includes an article configured to be worn by a patient. The article includes the plurality of resonators received at predetermined locations thereon. The article is configured to avoid movement of each resonator relative to a body of the patient when it is being worn. A transceiver supplies a first excitation signal, detects for each resonator responding to the first excitation signal a strength of the unique change in the first excitation signal and/or a strength of the unique response signal and determines therefrom a first relative position of each responding resonator with respect to each other.
The transceiver can also supply a second excitation signal, detect for each resonator responding to the second excitation signal a strength of the unique change in the second excitation signal and a strength of the unique response signal and determines therefrom a second relative position of each responding resonator with respect to each other.
The system can also include a detector responsive to a change in the first and second relative positions of one or more responding resonators for generating an indication related to a change in position of the patient between the first and second excitation signals, or a lack change in the first and second relative positions of one or more responding resonators for generating an indication related to an absence of a change in position of the patient between the first and second excitation signals.
The transceiver can include at least one antenna position adjacent a patient receiving surface for transmitting excitation signals. The system can further include a detector responsive to interaction between the at least one antenna at each resonator responding to each excitation signal for detecting the strength of the unique change in the excitation signal caused by each resonator. The patient receiving surface can be a surface of a mattress or a surface of a chair.
The transceiver can also include at least one antenna positioned adjacent the patient receiving surface for transmitting excitation signals and for receiving after each excitation signal is terminated the unique response signal output by each resonator responding thereto. The detector can be coupled to the at least one antenna for detecting the strength of each unique response signal received thereby.
The transceiver can also include at least one first antenna positioned adjacent the patient receiving surface for transmitting each excitation signal and the detector can be responsive to interaction between at least one second antenna and each resonator responding to each excitation signal during transmission thereof for detecting the strength of the unique change in the excitation signal caused by each resonator.
The transceiver can also include a plurality of antennas each positioned at a unique location adjacent the patient receiving surface, with each antenna individually selectable for transmitting at least one excitation signal. The detector can be selectively coupled to each antenna for receiving therefrom the unique change in the excitation signal caused by each resonator responding to the excitation signal.
The unique change in the first excitation signal can include energy absorption in one or more frequencies of the excitation signal. The unique response signal of each resonator can include a unique frequency.
I have also invented a patient position monitoring method that includes providing an article configured to be worn by a patient. The article includes a plurality of resonators affixed thereto. Each resonator is responsive to a wireless excitation signal for causing a unique change in the excitation signal and/or outputting a unique wireless response signal. The resonators are stimulated with a first wireless excitation signal when the article is being worn by a patient. For each resonator responding to the first excitation signal, the unique change in the excitation signal and/or the unique response signal is detected. For each resonator responding to the first excitation signal a signal strength of the unique change in the excitation signal and/or the unique response signal is determined. From these signal strengths, the relative locations of the resonators responding to the first excitation signal with respect to each other is determined.
The method can also include stimulating the resonators with a second wireless excitation signal and detecting for each resonator responding to the second excitation signal, the unique change in the excitation signal and/or the unique response signal. For each resonator responding to the second excitation signal, a signal strength of the unique change in the excitation signal and/or the unique response signal is determined. From the thus determined signal strengths, the relative locations of the resonators responding to the second excitation signal with respect to each is determined.
Lastly, I have invented a patient orientation monitoring system that includes an article configured to be worn by a patient and a plurality of resonators supported by the article, with each resonator responsive to a wireless excitation signal for causing a unique change in the excitation signal and/or outputting a unique wireless response signal. The system can also include means for outputting a first wireless excitation signal when the article is being worn by the patient and for receiving from each resonator responding to the first excitation signal the unique change in the excitation signal and/or the unique response signal therefor. A determining means can determine therefrom first relative positions of the responding resonators with respect to each other.
The determining means can include a detector programmed to determine from the first relative positions of the responding resonators with respect to each other an orientation of the patient.
The means for outputting and receiving can also output a second wireless excitation signal and can receive from each resonator responding to the second excitation signal the unique change in the excitation signal and the unique response signal. The determining means can determine therefrom second relative positions of the responding resonators with respect to each other. The determining means can include a detector programmed to determine from the first and second relative positions of the responding resonators with respect to each other whether the patient has changed orientation.
The means for outputting and receiving can include at least one antenna positioned adjacent a patient receiving surface for transmitting each excitation signal and for receiving from each resonator responding to the excitation signal the unique change in the excitation signal and/or the unique response signal. A determining means can include a detector responsive to each antenna for receiving therefrom for each resonator responding to the excitation signal the unique change in the excitation signal and/or the unique response signal.

Patient positioning monitoring apparatus and method of use thereof


A mass spectrometer includes a fragmentation cell having a plurality of ring or plate-like electrodes with apertures through which ions are transmitted. An axial DC gradient is preferably maintained along at least a portion of the length of the fragmentation cell in order to improve the transit time of ions through the device.

The present invention relates to mass spectrometers.
In many tandem mass spectrometers ions are fragmented in a collision or fragmentation cell. A known fragmentation cell comprises a multipole (e.g. a quadrupole or hexapole) rod set wherein adjacent rods are connected to opposite phases of an RF voltage supply. The quadrupole or hexapole collision cell is housed in a cylindrical housing which is open at an upstream end and at a downstream end to allow ions to enter and exit the collision cell. The housing includes a gas inlet port through which a collision or buffer gas, typically nitrogen or argon, is introduced into the collision cell. The collision cell is maintained at a pressure of 10xe2x88x923-10xe2x88x922 mbar.
Ions entering the collision cell are arranged to be sufficiently energetic so that when they collide with the collision or buffer gas at least some of the ions will fragment into daughter or fragment ions by means of Collisional Induced Dissociation/Decomposition (xe2x80x9cCIDxe2x80x9d). Ions in the collision cell will also become thermalised after they have undergone a few collisions i.e. their kinetic energy will be considerably reduced, and this leads to greater radial confinement of the ions in the presence of the RF electric field. In order to ensure that ions are sufficiently energetic so as to fragment when entering the collision cell, the collision cell is typically maintained at a DC potential which is offset from that of the ion source by approximately xe2x88x9230V DC or more (for positive ions). Once ions have fragmented and have been thermalised within the collision cell, their low kinetic energy is such that they will tend to remain within the collision cell. In practice, ions are observed to exit the collision cell after a relatively long period of time, and this is believed to be due to the effects of diffusion and the repulsive effect of further ions being admitted into the collision cell.
Accordingly, one of the problems associated with the known collision cell is that ions tend to have a relatively long residence time within the collision cell. This is problematic for certain types of mass spectrometry methods since it is necessary to wait until ions have exited the collision cell before further ions are admitted into it. For example, in MS/MS (i.e. fragmentation) modes of operation if a quadrupole mass filter Q1 (MS1) upstream of a collision cell Q2 is scanned rapidly compared to the typical empty time (xcx9c30 ms) of ions to exit the collision cell Q2, then the peaks in the resulting parent ion scanning mass spectrum will suffer from peak tailing towards higher mass and thus the resulting mass spectrum will suffer from relatively poor resolution. An example of this is shown in FIG. 16(a).
Similarly, in Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) experiments the upstream quadrupole mass filter Q1 (MS1) is switched rapidly to cyclically transmit a number of parent ions (e.g. P1, P2 . . . Pn) in a multiplexed manner, and the long empty times of ions to exit the collision cell Q2 may result in cross-talk between the various channels.
Long empty times of ions to exit the collision cell Q2 is also problematic when the mass spectrometer is being used in on-line chromatography applications since each peak only elutes over a short period of time and the mass spectrometer will have to acquire data very rapidly if a full parent (precursor) ion spectrum is desired.
It is therefore desired to provide an improved collision or fragmentation cell for use in a mass spectrometer which does not suffer from some or all of the problems discussed above.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mass spectrometer comprising: a fragmentation cell in which ions are fragmented in use, the fragmentation cell comprising a plurality of electrodes having apertures through which ions are transmitted in use, wherein at least some of the electrodes are connected to both a DC and an AC or RF voltage supply and wherein an axial DC voltage gradient or difference is maintained in use along at least a portion of the length of the fragmentation cell.
The preferred collision or fragmentation cell differs from a conventional multipole collision cell in that instead of comprising four or six elongated rod electrodes, the fragmentation cell comprises a number (e.g. typically  greater than 100) of ring, annular or plate like electrodes having apertures, preferably circular, through which ions are transmitted. Furthermore, an axial DC voltage gradient is preferably maintained across at least a portion of the length of the fragmentation cell, preferably the whole length of the fragmentation cell.
The fragmentation cell according to the preferred embodiment is capable of being emptied of and filled with ions much faster than a conventional collision cell. Mass spectra obtained using the preferred fragmentation cell exhibit improved resolution and greater sensitivity.
The fragmentation cell may comprise 10-20, 20-30, 30-40, 40-50, 50-60, 60-70, 70-80, 80-90, 90-100, 100-110, 110-120, 120-130, 130-140, 140-150, or  greater than 150 electrodes. The fragmentation cell may have a length  less than 5 cm, 5-10 cm, 10-15 cm, 15-20 cm, 20-25 cm, 25-30 cm, or  greater than 30 cm. Preferably, at least 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, or 95% of the electrodes are connected to both a DC and an AC or RF voltage supply. According to a one embodiment, an axial DC voltage difference of approximately 3V may be maintained along the whole length of the fragmentation cell (i.e. for positive ions, electrodes at the downstream end of the fragmentation cell are maintained at a DC voltage approximately 3V below electrodes at the upstream end of the fragmentation cell). In other embodiments the axial DC voltage difference maintained along at least a portion, preferably the whole length, of the fragmentation cell is 0.1-0.5 V, 0.5-1.0 V, 1.0-1.5 V, 1.5-2.0 V, 2.0-2.5 V, 2.5-3.0 V, 3.0-3.5 V, 3.5-4.0 V, 4.0-4.5 V, 4.5-5.0 V, 5.0-5.5 V, 5.5-6.0 V, 6.0-6.5 V, 6.5-7.0 V, 7.0-7.5 V, 7.5-8.0 V, 8.0-8.5 V, 8.5-9.0 V, 9.0-9.5 V, 9.5-10.0 V or  greater than 10V.
In terms of V/cm, the axial DC voltage gradient maintained along at least a portion of the fragmentation cell, and preferably along the whole length of the collision cell, may be 0.01-0.05 V/cm, 0.05-0.10 V/cm, 0.10-0.15 V/cm, 0.15-0.20 V/cm, 0.20-0.25 V/cm, 0.25-0.30 V/cm, 0.30-0.35 V/cm, 0.35-0.40 V/cm, 0.40-0.45 V/cm, 0.45-0.50 V/cm, 0.50-0.60 V/cm, 0.60-0.70 V/cm, 0.70-0.80 V/cm, 0.80-0.90 V/cm, 0.90-1.0 V/cm, 1.0-1.5 V/cm, 1.5-2.0 V/cm, 2.0-2.5 V/cm, 2.5-3.0 V/cm or  greater than 3.0 V/cm.
The voltage gradient may be a linear voltage gradient, or the voltage gradient may have a stepped or curved stepped profile similar to that shown in FIG. 4. The term xe2x80x9cvoltage gradientxe2x80x9d should be construed broadly to cover embodiments wherein the DC voltage offset of electrodes along the length of the fragmentation cell relative to the DC potential of the ion source varies at different points along the length of the fragmentation cell. This term should not, however, be construed to include arrangements wherein all the electrodes forming the fragmentation cell are maintained at substantially the same DC potential.
According to the preferred embodiment, the electrodes forming the fragmentation cell are supplied with an AC or RF voltage which can be considered to be superimposed upon the DC potential supplied to the electrodes. Preferably, adjacent electrodes are connected to opposite phases of an AC or RF supply but according to other less preferred embodiments adjacent electrodes may be connected to different phases of the AC or RF supply i.e. voltage supplies having more than two phases are contemplated. Furthermore, although according to the preferred embodiment the AC or RF voltage supplied to the electrodes has a sinusoidal waveform (with a frequency 0.1-3.0 MHz, preferably 1.75 MHz), non-sinusoidal waveforms including square waves may be supplied to the electrodes.
According to a particularly preferred embodiment, the fragmentation cell may comprise a plurality of segments. In one embodiment fifteen segments are provided. Each segment comprises a plurality of electrodes, with preferably either eight or ten electrodes per segment. Each electrode has an aperture through which ions are transmitted. The diameter of the apertures of at least 50% of the electrodes forming the fragmentation cell is preferably xe2x89xa610 mm, xe2x89xa69 mm, xe2x89xa68 mm, xe2x89xa67 mm, xe2x89xa66 mm, xe2x89xa65 mm, xe2x89xa64 mm, xe2x89xa63 mm, xe2x89xa62 mm, or xe2x89xa61 mm. The thickness of at least 50% of the electrodes forming the fragmentation cell is preferably xe2x89xa63 mm, xe2x89xa62.5 mm, xe2x89xa62.0 mm, xe2x89xa61.5 mm, xe2x89xa61.0 mm, or xe2x89xa60.5 mm. Preferably, at least 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% or 95% of the electrodes forming the fragmentation cell have apertures which are substantially the same size or area. All the electrodes in a particular segment are preferably maintained at substantially the same DC potential, but adjacent electrodes in a segment are preferably supplied with different or opposite phases of an AC or RF voltage.
In an embodiment, ions may be trapped within the fragmentation cell in a mode of operation. Embodiments are contemplated wherein ions may be trapped in a downstream portion of the fragmentation cell whilst ions may be continually admitted into an upstream portion of the fragmentation cell. V-shaped axial DC potential profiles may be used to accelerate and trap ions within the collision cell.
The fragmentation cell is preferably maintained, in use, at a pressure  greater than 1.0xc3x9710xe2x88x923 mbar,  greater than 5.0xc3x9710xe2x88x923 mbar,  greater than 1.0xc3x9710xe2x88x922 mbar 10xe2x88x923-10xe2x88x922 mbar, or 10xe2x88x924-10xe2x88x921 mbar.
The mass spectrometer preferably comprises a continuous ion source, further preferably an atmospheric pressure ion source, although other ion sources are contemplated. Electrospray (xe2x80x9cESIxe2x80x9d), Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionisation (xe2x80x9cAPCIxe2x80x9d), Atmospheric Pressure Photo Ionisation (xe2x80x9cAPPIxe2x80x9d), Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation (xe2x80x9cMALDIxe2x80x9d), non-matrix assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation, Inductively Coupled Plasma (xe2x80x9cICPxe2x80x9d), Electron Impact (xe2x80x9cEIxe2x80x9d) and Chemical Ionisation (xe2x80x9cCIxe2x80x9d) ion sources may be provided.
The fragmentation cell preferably comprises a housing having an upstream opening for allowing ions to enter the fragmentation cell and a downstream opening for allowing ions to exit the fragmentation cell.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mass spectrometer comprising: an ion source; one or more ion guides; a first quadrupole mass filter; a fragmentation cell for fragmenting ions, the fragmentation cell comprising a plurality of electrodes having apertures through which ions are transmitted in use, wherein at least some of the electrodes are connected to both a DC and an AC or RF voltage supply and wherein an axial DC voltage gradient or difference is maintained in use along at least a portion of the length of the fragmentation cell; a second quadrupole mass filter; and a detector.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mass spectrometer comprising: an ion source; one or more ion guides; a quadrupole mass filter; a fragmentation cell for fragmenting ions, the fragmentation cell comprising a plurality of electrodes having apertures through which ions are transmitted in use, wherein at least some of the electrodes are connected to both a DC and an AC or RF voltage supply and wherein an axial DC voltage gradient or difference is maintained in use along at least a portion of the length of the fragmentation cell; and a time of flight mass analyser.
Preferably, the fragmentation cell comprises a plurality of segments, each segment comprising a plurality of electrodes having apertures through which ions are transmitted and wherein all the electrodes in a segment are maintained at substantially the same DC potential and wherein adjacent electrodes are supplied with different phases of an AC or RF voltage.
The one or more ion guides may comprise one or more AC or RF only ion tunnel ion guides (wherein at least 90% of the electrodes have apertures which are substantially the same size) and/or one or more hexapole ion guides.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mass spectrometer comprising: a first mass filter/analyser; a fragmentation cell for fragmenting ions, the fragmentation cell being arranged downstream of the first mass filter/analyser and comprising at least 20 electrodes having apertures through which ions are transmitted in use, wherein at least 75% of the electrodes are connected to both a DC and an AC or RF voltage supply and wherein a non-zero axial DC voltage gradient or difference is maintained in use along at least 75% of the length of the fragmentation cell; and a second mass filter/analyser arranged downstream of the fragmentation cell.
Preferably, the first mass filter/analyser comprises a quadruople mass filter/analyser and the second mass filter comprises a quadrupole mass filter/analyser or a time of flight mass analyser.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mass spectrometer comprising: a fragmentation cell comprising xe2x89xa710 ring or plate electrodes having substantially similar internal apertures between 2-10 mm in diameter arranged in a housing having a buffer gas inlet port, wherein a buffer gas is introduced in use into the fragmentation cell at a pressure of 10xe2x88x924-10xe2x88x921 mbar and wherein a DC potential gradient or difference is maintained, in use, along the length of the fragmentation cell.
Preferably, the mass spectrometer further comprises an ion source and ion optics upstream of the fragmentation cell, wherein the ion source and/or the ion optics are maintained at potentials such that at least some of the ions entering the fragmentation cell have, in use, an energy xe2x89xa710 eV for a singly charged ion such that they are caused to fragment.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mass spectrometer comprising: an ion source; a fragmentation cell for fragmenting ions, the fragmentation cell comprising at least ten plate-like electrodes arranged substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the fragmentation cell, each electrode having an aperture therein through which ions are transmitted in use, the fragmentation cell being supplied in use with a collision gas at a pressure xe2x89xa710xe2x88x923 mbar, wherein adjacent electrodes are connected to different phases of an AC or RF voltage supply and a DC potential gradient xe2x89xa70.01 V/cm is maintained over at least 20% of the length of the fragmentation cell; and ion optics arranged between the ion source and the fragmentation cell; wherein in a mode of operation the ion source, ion optics and fragmentation cell are maintained at potentials such that singly charged ions are caused to have an energy xe2x89xa710 eV upon entering the fragmentation cell so that at least some of the ions fragment into daughter ions.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mass spectrometer comprising: a collision or fragmentation cell comprising at least three segments, each segment comprising at least four electrodes having substantially similar sized apertures through which ions are transmitted in use; wherein in a mode of operation: electrodes in a first segment are maintained at substantially the same first DC potential but adjacent electrodes are supplied with different phases of an AC or RF voltage supply; electrodes in a second segment are maintained at substantially the same second DC potential but adjacent electrodes are supplied with different phases of an AC or RF voltage supply; electrodes in a third segment are maintained at substantially the same third DC potential but adjacent electrodes are supplied with different phases of an AC or RF voltage supply; wherein the first, second and third DC potentials are all different.
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mass spectrometer comprising: a fragmentation cell in which ions are fragmented in use, the fragmentation cell comprising a plurality of electrodes having apertures through which ions are transmitted in use, wherein at least some of the electrodes are connected to an AC or RF voltage supply.
Preferably, at least some of the electrodes are also connected to a DC voltage supply and wherein an axial DC voltage gradient or difference is maintained in use along at least a portion of the length of the fragmentation cell.
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mass spectrometer comprising: a fragmentation cell in which ions are fragmented in use, the fragmentation cell comprising a plurality of electrodes having apertures through which ions are transmitted in use, wherein in a mode of operation at least a portion of the fragmentation cell is maintained at a DC potential so as to prevent ions from exiting the fragmentation cell.
According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mass spectrometer comprising: a fragmentation cell in which ions are fragmented in use, the fragmentation cell comprising a plurality of electrodes having apertures through which ions are transmitted in use, wherein the empty time taken for ions to exit the fragmentation cell is selected from the group comprising: (i) xe2x89xa60.5 ms; (ii) xe2x89xa61.0 ms; (iii) xe2x89xa65 ms; (iv) xe2x89xa610 ms; (v) xe2x89xa620 ms; (vi) 0.01-0.5 ms; (vii) 0.5-1 ms; (viii) 1-5 ms; (ix) 5-10 ms; and (x) 10-20 ms.
According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mass spectrometer comprising: a fragmentation cell in which ions are fragmented in use, the fragmentation cell comprising a plurality of electrodes having apertures through which ions are transmitted in use, and wherein in a mode of operation trapping DC voltages are supplied to some of the electrodes so that ions are confined in two or more axial DC potential wells.
According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mass spectrometer comprising: a fragmentation cell in which ions are fragmented in use, the fragmentation cell comprising a plurality of electrodes having apertures through which ions are transmitted in use, and wherein in a mode of operation a V-shaped, sinusoidal, curved, stepped or linear axial DC potential profile is maintained along at least a portion, preferably at least 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, or 95% of the length of the fragmentation cell.
According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mass spectrometer comprising: a fragmentation cell in which ions are fragmented in use, the fragmentation cell comprising a plurality of electrodes having apertures through which ions are transmitted in use, and wherein in a mode of operation an upstream portion of the fragmentation cell continues to receive ions into the fragmentation cell whilst a downstream portion of the fragmentation cell separated from the upstream portion by a potential barrier stores and periodically releases ions.
Preferably, the upstream portion of the fragmentation cell has a length which is at least 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, or 90% of the total length of the fragmentation cell. Preferably, the downstream portion of the fragmentation cell has a length which is less than or equal to 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, or 90% of the total length of the fragmentation cell. Further preferably, the downstream portion of the fragmentation cell is shorter than the upstream portion of the fragmentation cell.
According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mass spectrometer comprising: a fragmentation cell in which ions are fragmented in use, said fragmentation cell comprising a plurality of electrodes having apertures through which ions are transmitted in use, and wherein in a mode of operation an AC or RF voltage is applied to at least some of said electrodes and the peak amplitude of said AC or RF voltage is varied.
Preferably, the peak amplitude of the AC or RF voltage is increased in time.
Preferably, when ions having a mass to charge ratio  less than 500,  less than 400,  less than 300,  less than 200,  less than 100, or  less than 50 are admitted into the fragmentation cell the peak amplitude of the AC or RF voltage is xe2x89xa7200 VPp, xe2x89xa7150 VPp, xe2x89xa7100 VPp, or xe2x89xa760 VPp.
Preferably, when ions having a mass to charge ratio  greater than 500,  greater than 600,  greater than 700,  greater than 800,  greater than 900, or  greater than 1000 are admitted into the fragmentation cell the peak amplitude of the AC or RF voltage is xe2x89xa7100 VPp, xe2x89xa7150 VPp, xe2x89xa7200 VPp, xe2x89xa7250 VPp, or xe2x89xa7300 VPp.
According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of mass spectrometry, comprising: fragmenting ions in a fragmentation cell, the fragmentation cell comprising a plurality of electrodes having apertures through which ions are transmitted in use, wherein at least some of the electrodes are connected to both a DC and an AC or RF voltage supply and wherein an axial DC voltage gradient or difference is maintained in use along at least a portion of the length of the fragmentation cell.


A system for correcting phase errors in a space based radar system utilizing probes located in front of an array of lens elements of a phased array antenna. Included is a mechanism for supplying a stored perfect value signal indicative of the distance between the probes and lens elements for a perfect, nondeformed array, and the mechanism for receiving radiated pilot signals to supply an actual value signal indicative of the actual distance between the probes and the lens elements to determine an amount of structural deformation. A mechanism is provided for measuring the difference in phase between the perfect value signal and the actual value signal to supply a deformation phase correction signal to adjust the beam steering command to correct for phase error introduced as a result of the measured structural deformation. Further disclosed is a system and method for effecting phase coherence across the array by utilizing a radiated reference pilot frequency pulse to each lens element. Any difference in phase between the measured reference pilot frequency pulse and a stored value is utilized to command a phase correction at each lens element utilizing a feedback loop for effecting phase coherence for the array, both on transmit as well as receive. Further disclosed is a method and system incorporating a digitally synthesized phase error correcting module with each lens element. In one embodiment, the correcting modules are dispersed among the lens elements utilizing an interpolation method for phase error correction.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to phased array antennas. More particularly, this invention relates to a phased array antenna incorporating a phase error correction system in which phase adjustments are made to correct for array structural deformation, and individual array element phase errors. Phase adjustments are also made to affect phase coherence of all lens elements in the array by a feedback loop at each element.
2. Background Art
Phased array antennas are composed of a group of individual radiators distributed and oriented in a one or two dimensional spacial configuration. The amplitude and phase excitations of each radiator is individually controlled to form a radiated beam of any desired shape in space, such as a pencil beam or fan beam. The position of the beam in space is then controlled electronically by adjusting the phase of the excitation signals at each of the individual radiators. Computers are utilized to control the digital beam steering function for the phased array antenna. As is well known in the prior art, in general, most of the feed systems for forming beams for space based phased array antennas can be categorized into two basic groups, namely optical space feeds, and constrained feeds.
In optical space feeds, illumination of the array elements in an optically space fed antenna is accomplished by optically distributing the source signal (transmitter) through space for illuminating an array of pick-up horns or elements which are connected to the radiating elements. Two basic types of optical space feeds are the transmission type and reflection type. A conventional transmission type space feed is shown in FIG. 1A. While the advantage of the optical space feed is its simplicity, its major disadvantage is an excessive volume of physical space required to accommodate the feed system. Space feeds require large extended feeds which are essential to reduce beam sidelobes and reduce spill-over signals, but which are awkward to deploy in space. Furthermore large extended feeds present problems in beam steerage due to the displacement of the extended feed from its true focus position, and the difficulties in maintaining it at that position.
Constrained feeds utilize feed transmission lines to each element of the array. This is accomplished typically by end fed serial feed arrangements in which the elements are arranged serially along a main line, or a corporate fed arrangement where each lens element is individually fed from the energy source. A conventional corporate fed array is illustrated in FIG. 1B. In constrained feed systems the path length to each radiating element must be computed, and it is critical that the path length be correct to a very high degree. Unique to corporate or end fed arrays is the problem of maintaining of phase coherence to each element of the array through the feed transmission lines in the face of unequal exposure to the sun's radiations.
In addition, there are phase stability problems faced by any type of phased array antenna, whether space fed, corporate fed, end fed or otherwise. Phase stability problems can result from a change in array shape due to structural deformation and flexibility of the structures. These structural changes affect the signal path lengths, and thus cause unwanted shifts in signal phase resulting in phase errors. In addition to structural changes, there are varying phase shifts which are functions of temperature and aging of components. Such deformations and phase errors, if uncorrected, cause aperture phase errors which result in undesirable side lobes in the antenna beam.
Regarding space based radar systems utilizing phased array antennas, prior art systems are designed to minimize the large cost of placing a payload into orbit. Therefore, the antenna structures are typically designed to be as light in weight as possible. Unfortunately, such lightweight construction usually results in flexible antenna structures which are more prone to suffer deformations due to exposure to unequal solar radiations, heating, pressure, and orbital instabilities. Thus, the problems associated with phased array antennas for use in space based radar systems become even more acute.
The present invention recognizes the need for reducing feed tolerance problems of both space fed and corporate fed phased array lenses. In addition, the present invention automatically corrects for any remaining lens structural deformations in the phased array antenna, and compensates both for phase changes caused by component aging, and for phase changes caused by temperature changes or inequalities.
In light of the above, it therefore is an object of the present invention to provide a phase error correcting system which provides corrections in phase error due to any structural deformation of the phased array antenna.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a phase error correcting system which compensates for phase changes caused by component aging, temperature changes or variations, or any other causes of phase error.
It is yet another object of the present invention to reduce the feed tolerance problems encountered in both space fed and corporate fed phased array lenses.
A further object of the present invention is to eliminate the extended feed and its large feed boom associated with space fed phased array lenses.
It is yet another object of the present invention to correct within a few electrical degrees for path length differences which may occur in corporate fed arrays.
It is an object of the present invention to compensate for all types of phase errors from which spaced based radar lens phased arrays suffer.
Yet another object of the present invention is to achieve array phase coherence on both transmit and receive pulses without using conventional space fed or corporate feeds.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a phase error correcting system which is relatively easy to manufacture and which is cost effective in use.

Digitally synthesized phase error correcting system


A system for customizing display of a plurality of advertisements on a display terminal through a television distribution network comprises a scheduling module, a media grid in communication with the scheduling module, a head-end in communication with the media grid, and a set-top box in communication with the head-end. The scheduling module schedules a plurality of time slots for airing the advertisements on a default power-up channel. The media grid stores scheduling information of the advertisements which are to be aired at the respective time slots allocated by the scheduling module. The head-end broadcasts the advertisements scheduled for a particular time slot onto a default power-up channel. The set-top box displays the default channel on the display device during a power-up of the set-top box.

Technical Field
The embodiments herein generally relates to field of advertising and particularly relates to the field of advertising for a television system. The embodiments herein more particularly relates to a method and system for displaying advertisements during power-up of the television system.
Description of the Related Art
Television reception systems are typically designed to function in one of two ways: when the receiver is turned on for viewing programs, the receiver remains on the same channel that was being viewed when it was turned off; else the receiver always re-tunes to the same default channel when it is turned on. This power-up configuration of the receiver is observed in a stand-alone television device as well as in the television broadcast/distribution system with other tuning/reception devices (e.g., set-top boxes) which use a variety of delivery methods, including, for example, cable, satellite, and line-of-sight. Even though the first power-up configuration of the receiver is ideal for a television viewer, the configuration represents loss of revenue and promotional opportunities for the television service providers. That is, by receivers automatically tuning to the same channel that was viewed before turning off the receiver, the channel which is of viewer's choice, the service provider does not have the opportunity to more directly draw subscribers' attention towards the advertisements that form one of the means for generating revenue.
In the view of forgoing, there is a need for a system and method provided for displaying advertisements on the television system, when the television receiver is turned on. Thus, there is a need for a system which allows the advertisers to display a targeted advertising campaign to the television viewers, when the receiver is turned on, thus allowing the advertisers to reach more appropriate audience with their advertisements.
Furthermore, with the ever increasing number of consumer choices for television viewing, it is important for advertisers, content producers, and service providers such as cable television and satellite DTH television companies to accurately measure audience viewership. Traditional methods of measuring television viewership do not accurately measure lightly viewed channels.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a method and system for accurately measuring an audience viewership for the advertisements being displayed on the television system, when the television receiver is turned on.
The abovementioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed herein and which will be understood by reading and studying the following specification.

System and method for displaying advertisements


A foldable ski structure comprising a front slide and a rear slide connected by an intermediate link arm which maintains the two slide sections of the ski in a longitudinally aligned condition; the intermediate link arm is hinged to the front slide and to the rear slide of the ski to enable the ski to be folded; engageable and disengageable hooking members are provided between the intermediate link arm, the front slide and respectively between the intermediate link arm and the rear slide of the ski.

This invention refers to a ski structure formed in two parts which are linked in order to enable the ski to be folded in half for minimum bulk.
A conventional ski basically comprises one single slide, which extends continuously from the front end to the rear end of the ski. This ski is therefore uniquely based both on its structural continuity and on the continuity of its elastic properties as well as the lower sliding surface including the lateral blades on the side edges of the ski. A conventional ski therefore has constant dimensions of length which correspond to the maximum dimensions of the ski, which under no circumstances can be reduced or modified. Therefore the transport of skis requires a special ski-rack to be mounted on the car roof, since it is not always possible to place skis inside and may in any case be dangerous and result in damage or injury. Carrying skis on the shoulders of the skier on the ski-slopes may be also uncomfortable and inconvenient.
It would therefore be desirable to make available a ski capable of the performances of a conventional ski or rather improving on them, and which at the same time can be folded in half with minimum bulk to facilitate transport.
In this respect, the use of a simple intermediate connecting hinge between the two separate parts of a conventional ski, even if it has never been proposed, would not solve the problem of adequately folding the ski when not in use, at the same time maintaining unchanged the structural and functional characteristics of a conventional ski. In fact, the presence of an intermediate hinge would involve an inadmissible discontinuity in the flexible structure and could not however be restored since it would be virtually impossible to match the edges and side blades of the two separated ski parts perfectly, thus rendering the skis practically useless.
Likewise, from a previous European patent application 258648 of the same applicant, is known a ski composed of two separate slides joined by an intermediate link arm hinged to the front slide in proximity of its centre line and fixedly or hingedly connected to the front end of the rear slide; each slide has at its front end an upwardly turned tip portion which solves the problem of discontinuity of the lower sliding surface and of the lateral blades of the ski. The use of elastic or semi-elastic pad means between the intermediate arm and both slides, enables to restore the continuity of the structural characteristics of the ski. This ski structure also has constant length and cannot be folded in half for minimum bulk.
After various attempts and experiments, it has now been discovered that basing on a ski structure in two parts, for example according to the previous European patent application 258648, by modifying the configuration and disposition of the hinges and intermediate link arm, a foldable ski structure may be obtained at the same time designed to meet the requirement of folding the ski in half for minimum longitudinal bulk, when the ski is not in use, and to maintain unchanged, or rather improve, the characteristics of structure, flexibility and functionality of a conventional ski.


The present invention describes a method of preparing a catalytic composition used for oligomerization, co-dimerization or polymerization of olefins, wherein the compound obtained upon contacting at least one iron compound with at least one nitrogen-containing compound is subjected to an oxidation stage prior to being mixed with an activating agent and optionally with a solvent.

There are various prospects for linear α-olefins, notably those containing 4 to 20 carbon atoms, depending on the length of their carbon chain. For example, C4 to C8 olefins are mainly used as co-monomers for the production of low-density polyethylenes (LLDPE), C8 to C14 olefins as intermediates in the lubricant industry, and C10-C18 olefins for the production of detergents. These olefins experience a strong economic growth. Most industrial α-olefin production processes are ethylene oligomerization methods catalyzed by transition metal complexes (Ni, Ti, Zr) or AlEt3 (Alpha Olefins Applications Handbook, G. R. Lapin and J. D. Sauer Eds M. Dekker, NY, 1989). Most of these processes lead to Schulz-Flory type distributions, which can be quantified by value K. This value K represents the chain propagation probability and it is experimentally determined by the Cn+2/Cn molar ratio. The values of K that are encountered in industrial processes are of the order of 0.7-0.8, which corresponds to wide α-olefin distributions ranging from C4 to C20+. It is then difficult to upgrade all of the products formed, in particular the "waxes" (olefins>C30).
On the other hand, not insignificant amounts of branched or internal olefins can also be produced by such methods, olefins that are often difficult to separate and unwanted for industrial processes. It is therefore important to develop new methods allowing these olefins to be minimized.
Incessant research work has been done during the past years in order to find new catalytic systems allowing to obtain narrower olefin distributions, for example allowing to optimize the formation of C4-C10, more selective in linear alpha-olefins and more active.
Relatively recently, catalytic systems comprising group 8-10 transition metals such as iron, nickel, palladium and cobalt associated with diimine type chelate ligands have been developed and applied for ethylene polymerization or copolymerization of alpha-olefins or olefins carrying a function, such as methyl acrylate (see for example the review by V. Gibson in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1999, 38, 429). These systems most often use a co-catalyst that is an aluminium derivative such as an aluminoxane.
More recently, it has been shown (S. Svejda et al., Organometallics, 1999, 18, 65-74; WO-A-96/2310; WO-A-00/10,945; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,323) that systems comprising a nickel complex associated with an α-diimine type ligand in the presence of a Lewis acid or a Bronsted acid, more particularly an aluminium derivative such as an aluminoxane or an alkylaluminium chloride, allow to catalyze the oligomerization of ethylene to linear α-olefins. However, in these systems, the amounts of aluminoxane used are generally high (more than 100 equivalents per mole of nickel) and the distribution of the olefins formed is wide: from C4 to C20, with a Schulz-Flory constant generally above 0.6.
It has also been shown that some iron complexes associated with bis(imino)pyridine type trident chelate ligands, activated by an aluminium alkyl derivative and more particularly an aluminoxane, catalyze the oligomerization of ethylene (see the review by V. Gibson, Chem. Rev. 2007, 107, 1745; Du Pont de Nemours WO99/02472; WO 02/06192 A1; Britovek et al, Chem. Eur. J., 2000, 6, 12, pp 2221-2231, BP Chemicals WO 99112981; Chevron Phillips WO2005/080301A 1).
The distribution of the oligomers formed essentially depends on the nature of the bis(imino)pyridine ligand, in particular the substituents on the aromatic rings of the imines. These distribution generally follow a Schulz-Flory type law whose characteristic factor K ranges from 0.70 to 0.85 (M. Brookhart, S. Brooke, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1998, 120, 7143-7144).
Shell International Research (WO 01/58874 A1; WO 02/00339 A2, WO 2004/037415 A2; WO 2007/059015) teaches that the use of dissymmetric pyridine bis-arylimine ligands associated with iron complexes activated by an aluminoxane allows to obtain Schulz-Flory linear olefin distributions (no deviation) with a high minimization of the production of mass products.
Exxon Mobil describes, in patent application US-2005/0,192,470, a method of producing linear α-olefins whose chain length does not exceed 12 carbon atoms (short Schulz-Flory distribution, K=0.45) when using the 2,6-bis-phenylimine-pyridine ligand associated with a complex, preferably a Fe(II) complex, and an aluminoxane.
These complexes, which carry very weakly encumbered bis-aryliminie-pyridine ligands, lead to the shortest oligomer distributions. However, they involve the drawback of being poorly stable and they are rapidly deactivated, particularly with temperature.
Surprisingly enough, we have discovered that when the complexes resulting from the combination of a nitrogen-containing ligand obtained by reaction of a compound X with a compound Y, whose general formulas are described hereafter, with an iron compound are previously subjected to an oxidation stage, novel precursors of olefin oligomerization, co-dimerization or polymerization catalysts that do not involve the drawbacks of the aforementioned systems are obtained.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method of preparing a catalytic composition for dimerization, co-dimerization and oligomerization of olefins

Abstract: The present invention also describes the catalytic composition obtained by means of said preparation method and the use thereof for oligomerization, co-dimerization or polymerization of olefins.


A data processing apparatus includes a vector register bank having a plurality of vector registers, each register including a plurality of storage cells, each cell storing a data element. A vector processing unit is provided for executing a sequence of vector instructions. The processing unit is arranged to issue a set rearrangement enable signal to the vector register bank. The write interface of the vector register bank is modified to provide not only a first input for receiving the data elements generated by the vector processing unit during normal execution, but also has a second input coupled via a data rearrangement path to the matrix of storage cells via which the data elements currently stored in the matrix of storage cells are provided to the write interface in a rearranged form representing the arrangement of data elements that would be obtained by performance of the predetermined rearrangement operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data processing apparatus and method for performing a predetermined rearrangement operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Vector processing units are used in many data processing systems to allow processing operations to be performed in parallel on multiple data elements. The vector processing unit can be viewed as providing a plurality of lanes of parallel processing, with typically the same operation being performed within each lane when executing a particular vector instruction. Vectors of input data elements are provided to the vector processing unit, where typically an input vector provides a data element for each of the lanes of parallel processing.
It is common for a vector register bank to be used to hold the vectors of data elements required by the vector processing unit when executing vector instructions. A vector register bank will typically comprise a plurality of vector registers, where each vector register comprises a plurality of storage cells, with each storage cell storing one of the data elements in the vector.
There are many situations in vector processing where a particular operation needs to be applied to a matrix of data elements, also referred to herein as an array of data elements. Within a vector register bank, such a matrix can be constructed by accessing the contents of multiple vector registers, since as each vector register comprises multiple storage cells, such a plurality of vector registers will provide a matrix of storage cells, with each storage cell storing an individual data element.
Many of the operations that need to be applied to a matrix of data elements comprise rearrangement operations where the data elements themselves do not change, but they are moved to different locations within the matrix. For example, mirror operations may be used to flip the locations of the data elements within the matrix about a horizontal or vertical axis, transpose operations may be used to flip the locations of the data elements within the matrix about a diagonal axis, and various other complex rearrangement operations may also be performed.
The performance of such rearrangement operations within the vector processing unit often requires significant internal storage to be provided within the vector processing unit, and takes many clock cycles since typically the required rearrangement steps need to be performed multiple times on different data elements within the matrix. The problem is particularly acute when performing rearrangement operations that cause rearrangement of the data elements between one or more of the rows and one or more of the columns of the matrix. A transpose operation is a common example of such a rearrangement operation. By way of example, it will be appreciated that if the matrix is an 8×8 matrix, and individual vector registers store 8 data elements, then the contents of 8 vector registers need to be accessed and buffered within the vector processing unit before any result data representing the output of the rearrangement operation can be written back into the vector registers. For example, if we consider the 8 vector registers defining the matrix to be registers v0 to v7, then if a transpose operation is applied to that matrix of data elements it will be appreciated that the result data that needs to be written into the vector register v0 requires a data element from each of the vector registers v0 to v7. This is also true for all of the other registers v1 to v7.
Accordingly, when performing such rearrangement operations it is typically the case that all of the data elements in the matrix need to be read into the vector processing unit, a series of rearrangement steps needs to be performed on that data as buffered locally within the vector processing unit, and then the output data needs to be written back to the vector registers. It is typically the case that a vector register bank provides only a single write port, and accordingly it will be appreciated that with the example of an 8×8 matrix as discussed above, it will additionally take 8 clock cycles to write the results back into the register bank.
The time taken to perform such rearrangement operations has a significant performance impact in many vector processing systems, since it is common for such rearrangement operations to be performed frequently. For example, in the field of video processing, Fourier transform operations are performed frequently, and hence this requires the frequent performance of transform operations.
To seek to reduce this time penalty, it is known to increase the complexity of the register bank by allowing the registers to be accessed in two orthogonal directions. In particular, a register bank can be considered as comprising a plurality of rows of vector registers, and typically one or more read ports are provided for reading the contents of those horizontal registers, and one or more write ports are provided for storing data into those horizontal registers. In the above modified register banks, registers are also defined in the vertical direction, and separate read and write ports are added to allow data to be read from one or more vertically defined registers and written to those vertically defined registers.
Whilst such an approach does allow many rearrangement operations to be performed more quickly, it adds significant cost and complexity to the access control logic of the register bank, and also increases complexity within the vector processing unit due to the need to keep track of data elements that are shared by both a horizontal register and a vertical register.
Where both horizontal and vertical registers are defined within the register bank, it would be possible, for certain rearrangement operations, to perform those rearrangements implicitly by altering the way in which the registers were viewed by the software. For example, an implicit transpose operation might be performed by causing an arithmetic instruction that is intended to operate on "post-transpose" data to access the register bank vertically instead of performing the more usual horizontal access. However this would introduce significant complexities into the code and typically would significantly increase the code size. In addition, it still requires the use of a complex register bank with costly access control circuitry to support both the horizontal and vertical access to the storage cells within the register bank.
US 2003/0088600 provides a software program for transposing a matrix in a computer system. In accordance with the technique described, the matrix is partitioned into a plurality of columns, and then for each column data elements within the column are sequentially read row-wise and then sequentially written into a cache. Thereafter, the elements are sequentially read from the cache and written row-wise back into the matrix in the memory in a particular column, whereafter a permutation vector is applied. The approach described aims to reduce the number of permutation vectors required to perform a transpose of a matrix in order to allow for better parallel processing of transpose operations. However, in order to implement this software based approach within a processor, the transformation will require a larger number of clock cycles to be performed. This in turn requires much processing power, time, and/or current consumption.
It would be desirable to provide a more efficient mechanism for performing rearrangement operations.

Vector processor with vector register file configured as matrix of data cells each selecting input from generated vector data or data from other cell via predetermined rearrangement path


According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method and technique for vectorization of bit-level netlists is disclosed. The method includes: receiving a bit-level netlist defining a plurality of registers; analyzing propagation of read data associated with the registers through logic of the bit-level netlist; and forming a plurality of vector-level bundles of registers based on the propagation of read data through the logic, wherein the plurality of vector-level bundles differ based on differences in references to memory arrays of the bit-level netlist by respective registers of the vector-level bundles.

In integrated circuit and hardware design, verification refers to the process of proving that a design satisfies its specification. For example, digital logic circuits implement a logic function and represent the core of any computing processing unit. These designs are often of substantial complexity, comprising a diversity of bit-level control logic, data paths, and performance-related artifacts including pipelining, multi-threading, out-of-order execution, and power-saving techniques. Memory arrays are ubiquitous in hardware designs, representing caches, main memory, lookup tables, and the like.
Before a logic design is constructed in real hardware, its design is tested and the operation thereof verified against a design specification. Typically, the specification of a verification problem includes a netlist-based representation of the design and a set of expected values for specified nets under specified conditions. However, verification techniques generally require computational resources which are exponential with respect to the size of the design under test. In particular, many formal analysis techniques require exponential resources with respect to the number of state elements in the design under test. Thus, it's often desirable to reduce the complexity of a design under verification. For example, abstraction techniques may be used to reduce memory array sizes (e.g., to reduce the number of rows which need to be modeled), to enable reductions in the size of the netlist under verification, and thereby reduce verification complexity.

International Business Machines Corporation


A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to an embodiment includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry performs at least one of data collection for collecting first data of an imaging region of a subject at a plurality of time intervals after a tag pulse is applied to fluid flowing into the imaging region, and data collection for collecting second data of the imaging region by differing at least one of applying or not-applying the tag pulse and a position of the applying. The processing circuitry performs phase correction for at least one of the first data and the second data by using data in which the longitudinal magnetization of the fluid is a positive value, to generate an image for each time phase.

Conventionally, a method for after applying a tag pulse for labeling fluid flowing into an imaging region of a subject, collecting data of the imaging region to form an image of the fluid flowing through the subject, is known as an imaging method by a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus. Furthermore, in the method, there is a case in which both of an image referred to as a tag image and an image referred to as a control image are collected by differing applying or not-applying the tag pulse and a position of applying, and difference between both of the collected images is used, to acquire an image of fluid in which a signal of back ground tissue is inhibited. In this case, the control image is, for example, simply an image collected without being applied with the tag pulse that has been applied to the tag image, or an image collected by being applied with a similar pulse to the tag pulse in a different position from the position where the tag pulse is applied in the tag image. The similar pulse to the tag pulse, applied to acquire the control image is sometimes referred to as a control pulse to differentiate from the tag pulse. The above-described denominations such as the tag image and the control image are merely examples.


A method of treating a cold-start engine exhaust gas stream comprising hydrocarbons and other pollutants, the method comprising: flowing the exhaust gas stream over a molecular sieve bed, the molecular sieve bed comprising an alkali metal cation-exchanged molecular sieve having intersecting 10- and 12-membered ring pore channels, to provide a first exhaust stream; flowing the first exhaust gas stream over a catalyst to convert any residual hydrocarbons and other pollutants contained in the first exhaust gas stream to innocuous products to provide a treated exhaust stream; and discharging the treated exhaust stream into the atmosphere.

Future low emissions standards for vehicles are forcing automobile and catalyst manufacturers to focus on reducing cold start hydrocarbon emissions since a large portion of hydrocarbon emissions occur during the cold start period. Consequently, control of emissions during the cold start operation of a vehicle containing an internal combustion engine is essential. Vehicles equipped with a conventional three-way catalytic converter typically contain precious metals supported on a washcoat layer, which in turn is deposited on a monolithic carrier. Fresh catalysts start to operate at about 170° C., while aged catalysts work only at about 200° C. to 225° C. These catalysts usually require at least 1 to 2 minutes to reach such temperatures, and during this "cold start" period, 70 to 80% of the tailpipe hydrocarbon emissions occur.
The critical factors for any emission hydrocarbon trap are the adsorption capacity of the adsorbent, the desorption temperature at which adsorbed hydrocarbons are desorbed and passed to the catalytic converter (must be higher than the catalyst operating temperature), and the hydrothermal stability of the adsorbent. Molecular sieves such as zeolites have generally been found to be useful adsorbents for this application in part due to their hydrothermal stability under these conditions compared to other materials.
Various studies have focused on the use of molecular sieves, and zeolites in particular, as adsorbents, including medium and large pore zeolites, although, in some cases, the types of molecular sieves or zeolites used have not been identified. A series of zeolites (e.g., beta, ZSM-5, mordenite, and Y) have been investigated in such studies for their hydrocarbon adsorption capacity under a variety of conditions.
Previous investigations have thus far found zeolite-beta to be a promising material for this application. However, aged zeolite-beta catalysts demonstrate degraded performance in trapping hydrocarbons due to low hydrothermal stability when used as an exhaust gas adsorbent. Hence, despite advances in the art, an important need continues to exist for a material that possesses a better adsorption capacity, higher desorption temperature, and hydrothermal stability than current adsorbents such as zeolite-beta for use in emission control, particularly during the cold start operation of an internal combustion engine.


Embodiments for generating a higher frequency test clock signal for a semiconductor device are disclosed. In an example embodiment, a clock generator may be coupled to a clock input. A test clock generator may receive a clock signal generated by the clock generator, and the test clock generator may output a higher frequency test clock signal derived at least in part from the clock signal generated by the clock generator. The test clock generator may output the higher frequency test clock signal for a configurable number of clock periods.

Many semiconductor devices include circuitry intended to allow external testing equipment to cause testing procedures to occur within the semiconductor devices. External testing equipment may be coupled to a semiconductor device and may transmit and/or receive a variety of signals to and/or from the semiconductor device. Among the possible signals transmitted from the test equipment to the semiconductor device may be a clock signal and a test clock signal, as well as test data input and output signals.
During some testing procedures, it may be advantageous to cause the semiconductor device to operate at a clock frequency that may be approximately the frequency intended for use during normal full-speed operation of the semiconductor device. This may be accomplished by the testing equipment providing a full-speed clock signal to a semiconductor device clock input. The semiconductor device may also receive the test clock signal from the testing equipment at a test clock input. The test clock signal may be a slower frequency clock used to shift test data in and out of the semiconductor device.
Semiconductor device clock frequencies for normal full-speed operating conditions tend to increase over time, and now often exceed one Giga hertz. As these operating frequencies increase, it becomes more difficult and expensive to have test equipment provide full-speed clock signals during testing procedures.

Test clock generation for higher-speed testing of a semiconductor device


Transparent articles for use as outer surfaces of electronic devices and methods therefor are disclosed. A transparent cover can be provided over a display of portable electronic device to provide a protective outer cover over the display. The transparent cover can include material to mark, mask or color a portion of the transparent cover, such portion thereupon becoming opaque. The material can be provided in a recessed portion of an inner surface of the transparent cover, such portion being a portion of the transparent cover that is not over a usable portion of the display. The electronic device can, for example, be a portable electronic device.

Conventionally, a portable electronic device has a housing that encases the various electrical components of the portable electronic device. Often, the portable electronic device has a display arrangement that includes various layers. The various layers usually include at least a display technology layer that provides a display screen, and may additionally include a sensing arrangement (e.g., touch sensors or touch screen) and/or a cover window disposed over the display technology layer. The cover window can be a plastic or glass cover that provides a protective outer surface that protects the display arrangement. The cover window can form part of an outer surface for the housing of the portable electronic device. Conventionally, the cover window is partially covered with ink to provide masking of regions of the cover window not associated with the display screen. The cover window, for example, can be partially covered on an inner surface of the cover window to provide a masking effect so that internal components of the housing for the portable electronic device are not visible through the masked portion of the cover window. However, providing the masking on the inner surface often requires a non-trivial build-up of ink. For example, for a suitable visual appearance of the masking effect, a series of multiple layers of ink may be used. Unfortunately, however, such a stacking of layers of ink can impede the ability of the inner surface of the cover window to fit closely adjacent (e.g., directly adjacent) the display technology layer, which causes a decrease in effective optical performance for the display screen.

Exposed glass article with inner recessed area for portable electronic device housing


Piezoelectric switches and methods of forming piezoelectric switches. The piezoelectric switch includes first and second cantilever beam actuators. The second cantilever beam actuator has a projection that overlaps the first cantilever beam actuator in a contact region. The projection is mechanically separated from the first cantilever beam actuator by a nanogap such that the first and second cantilever beam actuators are electrically isolated from each other. Each of the first and second cantilever beam actuators includes a piezoelectric actuation layer.

Electronic systems typically use switches to route signals. A common type of switching device includes a micro-electromechanical (MEM) switch. Generally, MEM switches include a conductive beam that is coupled to one signal line, while being electrically and mechanically isolated from another signal line. When deflected downward, the conductive beam is capable of coming into mechanical and electrical contact with the other signal line, thus providing an electrical signal path between the two signal lines. Typically, electrostatic actuation is used to deflect the conductive beam. A first electrostatic plate is formed on the conductive beam and a second electrostatic plate is formed below the conductive beam. A voltage is applied to the second electrostatic plate, causing the first electrostatic plate, and thus the conductive beam, to be pulled downward. Electrostatically activated switches, however, typically require a high actuation voltage (for example, greater than about 50 V). Electrostatically activated switches may also suffer from actuation-induced non-linearity in their switch response.
Piezoelectric transducers, in general, convert electrical signals into mechanical vibrations or vice versa. Piezoelectric transducers typically utilize a piezoelectric film where electrical signals or mechanical vibrations induce a morphological change of the piezoelectric film (i.e., due to voltage application or due to a pressure applied to piezoelectric film). Piezoelectric transducers are generally used to actuate/sense different frequencies. Piezoelectric transducers may function as a resonator to provide a maximum response when operated at its resonance frequency.
One typical piezoelectric transducer includes a surface acoustic wave (SAW) transducer that, when excited, produces mechanical vibrations along the surface of the piezoelectric film. SAW piezoelectric transducers typically do not scale well to radio frequency (RF) applications due to a need for submicrometer lithography and decreasing power handling capabilities. Another type of piezoelectric transducer includes a contour-mode (CM) piezoelectric transducer that, when excited, produces mechanical vibrations throughout the piezoelectric film and where the fundamental frequency is defined by the in-plane dimensions of the piezoelectric film.

Piezoelectric ALN RF MEM switches monolithically integrated with ALN contour-mode resonators

The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania


A method includes receiving information indicative of an output dataset generated by a data processing system; identifying, based on data lineage information relating to the output dataset, one or more upstream datasets on which the output dataset depends; analyzing one or more of the identified one or more upstream datasets on which the output dataset depends. The analyzing includes, for each particular upstream dataset of the one or more upstream datasets, applying one or more of: (i) a first rule indicative of an allowable deviation between a profile of the particular upstream dataset and a reference profile for the particular upstream dataset, and (ii) a second rule indicative of one or more allowable values or prohibited values for each of one or more data elements in the particular upstream dataset, and based on the results of applying the one or more rules, selecting one or more of the upstream datasets. The method includes outputting information associated with the selected one or more upstream datasets.

This description relates to data quality analysis. The data quality of a set of data is an indication of whether the data records in the set of data have errors. Often, the data quality of a set of data is poor when an error occurs during processing of the set of data.


The present invention relates to new derivatives of sulphonamides, with the general formula (I), as well as to their physiologically acceptable salts, the processes for their preparation, their application as medicaments in human and/or veterinary therapy and the pharmaceutical compositions that contain them.

The superfamily of serotonin receptors (5-HT) includes 7 classes (5-HT1-5-HT7) encompassing 14 human subclasses [D. Hoyer, et al., Neuropharmacology, 1997, 36, 419]. The 5-HT6 receptor is the latest serotonin receptor identified by molecular cloning both in rats [F. J. Monsma, et al., Mol. Pharmacol., 1993, 43, 320; M. Ruat, et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 1993, 193, 268] and in humans [R. Kohen, et al., J. Neurochem., 1996, 66, 47]. Compounds with 5-HT6 receptor antagonistic activity are useful for the treatment of various disorders of the Central Nervous System and of the gastrointestinal tract, such as irritable intestine syndrome. Compounds with 5-HT6 receptor antagonistic activity are useful in the treatment of anxiety, depression and cognitive memory disorders [M. Yoshioka, et al., Ann. NY Acad. Sci., 1998, 861, 244; A. Bourson, et al., Br. J. Pharmacol., 1998, 125, 1562; D. C. Rogers, et al., Br. J. Pharmacol. Suppl., 1999, 127, 22P; A. Bourson, et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 1995, 274, 173; A. J: Sleight, et al., Behav. Brain Res., 1996, 73, 245; T. A. Branchek, et al., Annu. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxicol., 2000, 40, 319; C. Routledge, et al., Br. J. Pharmacol., 2000, 130, 1606]. It has been shown that typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs for treating schizophrenia have a high affinity for 5-HT6 receptors [B. L. Roth, et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 1994, 268, 1403; C. E. Glatt, et al., Mol. Med., 1995, 1, 398; F. J. Mosma, et al., Mol. Pharmacol., 1993, 43, 320; T. Shinkai, et al., Am. J. Med. Genet., 1999, 88, 120]. Compounds with 5-HT6 receptor antagonistic activity are useful for treating infant hyperkinesia (ADHD, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) [W. D. Hirst, et al., Br. J. Pharmacol., 2000, 130, 1597; C. Gérard, et al., Brain Research, 1997, 746, 207; M. R. Pranzatelli, Drugs of Today, 1997, 33, 379]. Patent application WO 01/32646 describes sulphonamides derived of bicycles, with 6 members each, aromatic or heteroaromatic with 5-HT6 receptor antagonistic activity. Patent application EP 0733628 describes sulphonamides derived of indole with an 5-HT1F receptor antagonistic activity useful for treating migraines. In general, the study of the scientific literature and patents indicates that small structural variations give rise to agonist or antagonist compounds of various receptors of serotonin that are useful for treating different diseases, depending on the receptor for which they show affinity.
After laborious research the inventors have managed to synthesize new compounds with the general formula (I) that show interesting biological properties making them particularly useful for use in human and/or veterinary therapy.

Derivatives of sulphonamides, their preparation and use as medicaments


A simulation framework for evaluating revenue that may use a pricing engine that runs at least one pricing algorithm with particular configurations and under particular model market conditions to provide revenue projections.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to revenue evaluation of online advertising systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Online advertising has become an emerging solution for organizations and individuals that wish to promote their goods and services, and providers of online advertising have reaped the rewards of this booming industry. Billions of dollars are now being spent per year on online advertising, and there seems to be no end to the growth of the Internet or online advertising.
One of the attractive features of online advertising is the various revenue models for online advertisement providers. Common revenue models can include cost per thousand impressions, cost per visitor, cost per view, cost per click, cost per action, cost per acquisition, cost per conversion, and fixed cost. Another attractive feature is the flexibility per revenue model. For example, in a cost per click model, a cost per click of a clickable advertisement or a cost per impression can vary depending on the content of the clickable advertisement or impression, respectively. Typically, advertisements that include content in high demand may warrant a higher associated cost. For example, an advertisement including the terms "free music download" is most likely in higher demand than an advertisement including "expensive paperclips." Therefore, the cost of the higher demand advertisement will be greater.
Despite the above features and countless other attractions that lure advertisers into online advertising, there are tradeoffs for advertisers and online advertisement providers. One tradeoff can be the complexity of determining pricing and potential revenue derived from an online advertisement; including determining revenue for the advertisement provider and revenue for the advertiser caused by an online advertisement. Because revenue evaluations for both the provider and the advertiser are complex and critical, both providers and advertisers would benefit from methods or systems for modeling advertising revenue.


A multi-contact character input method includes: setting an input character corresponding to each multi-contact operation, in which attributes of the multi-contact operation include a position of each contact in a plurality of contacts, or/and the number of contacts contacting a multi-point touch screen within the same time, or/and a sliding direction of each contact; a user performing a multi-contact operation; identifying the multi-contact operation of the user and obtaining a corresponding input character according to the attributes of the multi-contact operation; and inputting the corresponding character. The multi-contact character input method fully uses the advantages of multi-point touch sensing, implements the input of frequently used functional keys or character keys through a multi-point touch combination of a special manner, and provides input convenience for the user without requiring the user to change a click input mode.

1. Field of Invention
In the field of input technologies of a handheld device, the present invention relates to a character input method, and more particularly to a multi-contact character input method; meanwhile, the present invention further relates to a multi-contact character input system.
2. Description of Related Arts
In recent years, various handheld devices including a cell phone are increasingly widely applied, and various necessary input manners of operating the electronic devices emerge accordingly, such as a common 9-key keyboard and a qwerty keyboard on the cell phone. Both the 9-key keyboard and the qwerty keyboard may be presented in the following two manners. One is a pressing hard keyboard, such as a qwerty keyboard on BlackBerry 8830 of RIM Company. The other one is a virtual soft keyboard on a touch screen, such as a qwerty keyboard on iPhone or other cell phones with touch screens. Some cell phones have both a hard keyboard and a virtual soft keyboard on a touch screen, such as P1i cell phone of Sony Ericsson. In addition to that the touch screen has a touch sensing function, the hard keyboard may also have the touch sensing function, for example, the A668 cell phone of Motorola adopts a touch sensing keyboard, thereby implementing a function through which a user can directly write in a keyboard area through fingers.
The functions of both the touch screen and the touch sensing keyboard can be classified into the following two kinds. One is conventional single-point touch sensing, that is, states such as contacting, moving and leaving of only one touch point can be sensed in the touch sensing area. The other one is multi-point touch sensing represented by iPhone, that is, states such as contacting, moving and leaving of one or more touch points can be sensed in the touch sensing area.
The touch sensing keyboard, the 9-key keyboard or the qwerty keyboard, on the handheld electronic device has a common defect, that is, the keys are too small and it is inconvenient to click. For example, each key on the virtual qwerty keyboard on the touch screen is small due to the limitation of the touch screen space, and if the user presses the keys through fingers not through a special stylus pen during inputting, the user should be very careful to avoid mistakes.
United State patent application 20080316183 of Apple Company: Swipe Gestures for Touch Screen Keyboard discloses a method for implementing frequently used functional keys through swipes. The method implements the frequently used functional keys or character keys such as shift (that is, an uppercase/lowercase switch during input of English characters), space, backspace (that is, deleting a previously input character), and line feed through swipes in four directions of up, down, left, and right on the virtual keyboard displayed on the touch screen. A defect of the method lies in that, when the user makes swipes in four directions of up, down, left, and right during the process of clicking the keyboard for inputting the characters, a process of mode switch is implied, that is, it is required to first switch from a click input mode to a swipe input mode and then switch back to the click input mode after the swipes, which brings inconvenience to the user.

Multi-contact character input method and system


A gain-adjustable antenna has at least a first antenna unit with a first radiation element and a second antenna unit with a second radiation element. The first and second antenna units are detachably connected by way of connecting the first and second radiation element to form an array antenna to adjust the gain and the radiation pattern.

The invention relates to an antenna and more particularly to a gain-adjustable antenna.
The main function of antenna is to transform energy originally carried by a transmission line to the air by means of electromagnetic field and receives and transforms electromagnetic energy from the air to a transmission line.
Antennas are classified as directional or omni-directional depending on the direction of radiation. Some important antenna parameters include frequency range, pattern, VSWR and gain. Antenna gain may affect the transmission range. With the same transmission power and identical receiving amplifier, using high-gain antenna results in longer transmission distance. Antennas with higher gain achieve better communication quality. It is difficult, however, to provide a flexible antenna gain suitable for every environment, because antenna gain is typically a fixed value.


Embodiments of the invention include an improved diamond-based surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter device. The SAW device comprises polished, large-grained diamond in combination with a piezoelectric layer to enhance the acoustic velocity and operational frequency of the SAW device with reduced loss and increased efficiency. Also, the use of a pre-polished, large-grained diamond slab reduces processing complications such as contamination or stressing of delicate device circuitry adjacent to the diamond component. Alternative embodiments of the invention include planar or vertical interconnection schemes for packaging of the SAW device and also include planarization schemes for convenient deposition and patterning of the SAW device metallization layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. More particularly, the invention relates to SAW devices, having diamond films, used in high frequency operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are useful, e.g., for filtering unwanted frequency signals, for providing signal delay lines, and for generating high frequency oscillations in telecommunication and other apparatus and systems. SAW devices typically include a smooth piezoelectric substrate such as quartz, lithium niobate (LiNbO.sub.3) or lithium tantalate (LiTaO.sub.3), and an inter-digital-transducer (IDT) having a set of alternating or interpenetrating finger-shaped electrodes formed on the piezoelectric substrate surface. The electrodes are driven by a radio frequency (RF) source. A portion of the electrode pattern includes the input transducer, which converts an incoming electrical signal appearing across the input terminals to an alternating electric field and consequently to an acoustic wave traveling along the surface of the piezoelectric substrate. The surface acoustic wave is sampled continuously by another IDT acting as an output transducer.
SAW devices having frequency-selective elements are used as acoustic filters, with the sound radiation of certain frequencies being transmitted through the pass-band structure while other frequencies are attenuated. SAW filters typically are of a resonator type or a transversal type, depending on the device structure and the mode of operation.
Descriptions of SAW devices are included in articles such as C. Hartman and S. Wilkus, "Proc. 37.sup.th Annual Frequency Control Symposium", 1993, p. 354; R. Weigel et al., "Proceedings 1996 IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Conference", June 1996, Paper No. WE1A-4, p. 413; Y. Taguchi et al., "Proceedings 1996 IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Conference", June 1996, Paper No. WE1A-5, p. 417. These articles hereby are incorporated by reference herein. Also, a discussion of conventional SAW devices is included in the book M. Feldmann and J. Henaff, Surface Acoustic Waves for Signal Processing, Artech House, Boston, 1996, chapter 4.
A filter using a SAW device has a theoretical maximum filtering response at the signal frequency f=.nu..sub.p /.lambda., where .nu..sub.p is the acoustic phase velocity of the sound-transmitting medium and .lambda. is the geometric spacing in the IDT fingers. Diamond has a relatively high acoustic velocity, i.e., greater than 11,000 m/sec, and hence allows SAW devices incorporating diamond to be operated at higher frequencies. The use of diamond films as substrates for SAW devices is disclosed generally in articles such as Nakahata et al., "High Frequency Surface Acoustic Wave Filter Using ZnO/Diamond/Si Structure", Japan. Journal of Appl. Phys. Vol. 33, 324 (1994); and Shikata et al., "SAW Filters Based on Diamond", Proc. Applied Diamond Conf. 1995, Applications of Diamond Films and Related Materials, p. 29. Because diamond is not piezoelectric, an additional layer of piezoelectric material typically is used in SAW devices having diamond film substrates.
Although single crystal diamond films or high-quality heteroepitaxially-grown diamond films often are desirable, producing such films over a large area with convenient, relatively low-cost processing is not commercially available at present. Therefore, conventional SAW devices comprising diamond use relatively thin chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond films deposited directly on a silicon (Si) substrate. Such diamond films typically are thin, e.g., no more than approximately 50 microns (.mu.m), and typically exhibit a very fine grain size, e.g., approximately 1-5 .mu.m. See, for example, the article Graebner et al., "Large Anisotropic Thermal Conductivity in Synthetic Diamond Films", Nature, vol. 359, 401 (1992).
However, the deposition of a thin, fine-grained diamond film directly on a silicon substrate, as is done with conventional diamond SAW devices, induces additional complications of having to polish the rough diamond film surface, which often contaminates and/or stresses the delicate silicon device circuitry and associated components. Furthermore, the grain boundary area in diamond films is a disturbed surface and therefore is a source of acoustic wave attenuation, which causes a loss of efficiency in wave transmission.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have available a SAW device having large-grained diamond films incorporated therein for greater operating efficiency. Also, it is desirable to have available a convenient method for incorporating large-grained diamond films into SAW devices. Desirably, the diamond films coincide with the integrated circuit (IC) circuitry and the IDT transducer electrode patterns without suffering from conventional grain boundary induced losses and processing complications.

Surface acoustic wave devices comprising large-grained diamonds and methods for making