A yoke structure for a compressor is disclosed, which is applied to a scotch yoke type reciprocating compressor. The yoke structure comprises a crankshaft (10); a crankpin (20) connected to the crankshaft (10), to rotate along a predetermined round trajectory which has the crankshaft at its pivot, as the crankshaft rotates; a frame having a pair of slide ways (41) formed on two parallel inner faces of the frame (40) opposing each other, one or more pistons (30) to be fixed to outer faces of the frame outside the slide (41) ways; a sliding block (30) positioned between the pair of slide ways (41) and rotatably connected to the crankpin (20); and a pair of self-lubricating materials (32) attached to the sliding block (30) so as to be in contact with opposing faces of the slide ways (41).

There are positive displacement type compressors and centrifugal type compressors in the compressors used in refrigerators and air conditioners. In the displacement type compressors, there are reciprocating type, rotary type, scroll type, and screw type, in light of structure, in which, basically, a gas pressure is boosted by reducing volume of drawn gas.
The centrifugal compressor increases a moving speed of gas by rotating an impeller, and transforms a kinetic energy of the gas to a pressure in a diffuser fitted to an outlet of the impeller. In the reciprocating type compressors, there are connecting rod type, scotch yoke type, and plunger type depending on a mechanism that reciprocates the piston.
A related art scotch yoke type compressor will be explained, with reference to FIG. 1.
The related art scotch yoke type compressor is provided with in general a crank shaft 10, a crank pin 20, a sliding block 30, a frame 40, and one or more than one piston 50.
The crank shaft 10 is connected to a driving shaft of driving means (not shown), such as a motor, or an engine, and the crank pin 20 is connected to the crank shaft 10, for revolving along a fixed circular locus around the crank shaft 10 as the crank shaft 10 is rotated. The sliding block 30, rotatably coupled to the crank pin 20, moves on a fixed plane along a fixed locus as the crank pin 10 moves, and the frame 40, enclosing the sliding block 30 to impose a certain limitation to the movement of the sliding block 30, reciprocates in one direction according to the movement of the sliding block 30. The piston 50 fixed to the frame 40 draws and compresses a gas in a cylinder (not shown) as the frame 40 reciprocates.
A structure of the sliding block 30 fitted to an inside of the frame 40 will be explained in detail.
The frame 40 has one pair of parallel buffer plates 31 fitted to opposite two inside surfaces thereof, each supported on a plurality of springs 33 having both ends fixed to the inside surface thereof and the buffer plate 31. There is the sliding block 30 between the one pair of buffer plates 31, and there are a plurality of rolling needle bearings 35 between the sliding block 30 and each of the buffer plates 31. The sliding block 30 and the rolling needle bearings, and the buffer plate 31 and the rolling needle bearings 35 are pressed by the plurality of springs 33 by appropriate pressures to make close contact to each other. U.S. Pat. No. 5,846,059 discloses a structure of a scotch yoke similar to the foregoing structure.
The operation of the foregoing scotch yoke type compressor will be explained.
When the crank pin 20 is revolved along a fixed circular locus around the crank shaft 10 as the crank shaft 10 is rotated upon reception of a driving force from the driving means, the sliding block 30, rotatably coupled to the crank pin 20, also revolves around the crank shaft 10, too. Since rotation of the frame 40 is held back by the piston 50 having one end fixed to the frame 40 and the other end placed in the cylinder, rotation of the sliding block 10 is held back by the buffer plates 31 and the rolling needle bearing 35 fitted to the frame 40. Therefore, the sliding block 30 is revolved around the crank shaft 10 while maintaining a fixed angle with the frame 40.
As the sliding block 30 moves while maintaining a fixed angle with the frame 40, i.e., the sliding block 30 makes no rotational movement with respect to the frame, the movement of the sliding block 10 may be analyzed into a translational motion in a movement direction of the piston 50, and a translational motion in a direction parallel to the buffer plates 31. The translational motion in the direction parallel to the buffer plates 31 is not transmitted to the frame 40 by action of the rolling needle bearing 35. However, since the translational motion in the movement direction of the piston 50 is transmitted to the frame 40, the frame 40 reciprocates in the movement direction of the piston 50. One or more than one piston 50 fixed to an outside of the frame 40 reciprocates to draw or compress a gas as the frame 40 reciprocates. When two pistons 50 are fitted to outside of the frame 40 oppositely, movements of the two pistons 50 have a 180 degree phase difference.
If two scotch yokes are coupled to the same crank pin, with movement directions of the pistons fixed to each of the scotch yokes made different from one another by a predetermined angle, four pistons each making a reciprocating movement having a fixed phase difference from a reciprocating movement of an adjacent piston will be obtained. Accordingly, it is possible that one driving unit is made to drive four pistons at a time. Taking the problem of vibration into account, it is preferable that the angle is 90 degrees, when movement of each of the pistons has a 90 degree phase difference from movement of the adjacent piston.
For obtaining a high pressure compressed gas, while an excessive temperature rise of the compressed gas is prevented, a multi-stage type compressor is employed, in general, three, or four stages, with four cylinders. FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate related art three stage four cylinder compressor systems in related art multi-stage compressor systems, schematically.
Referring to the drawings, the three stage four cylinder compressor system is provided with two first stage compression cylinders 60, one-second stage compression cylinder 70, and one third stage compression cylinder 80.
Of the different stages of cylinders, the two first stage cylinders 60 may be arranged adjacently as shown in FIG. 2, or oppositely as shown in FIG. 3. In view of piston movement, the two first stage compression pistons 62 in the three stage compression system in FIG. 2 have a 90 degree phase difference of movement, and the two first stage compression pistons 62 in the three stage compression system in FIG. 3 have a 180 degree phase difference of movement. The second stage compression piston 72 and the third stage compression piston 82 are arranged at positions remained after the two first stage compression pistons 62 are arranged.
The foregoing related art scotch yoke has the following problems.
First, lubrication is required between the rolling needle bearings, the buffer plates, and the sliding block for assuring proper movements and appropriate wear, and cooling elements heated by friction. Therefore, it is required to apply grease to the parts, which is however leaks to contaminate other components, or mixed with gas being compressed.
Second, consequently, it is required to maintain air tightness for prevention of the grease leakage, which is, not only difficult, but also requires additional cost.
Third, appropriate setting, or selection of a pre-locking force, and a stiffness of the springs, is difficult.
If the pre-locking force is too small, the rolling needle bearings fail to roll, to cause sliding friction, of which friction force is greater than the rolling friction force, that causes a poor efficiency. Opposite to this, if the pre-locking force is to great, putting excessively great force to the rolling needle bearings, defective operation and short lifetime of the rolling needle bearings are caused.
Moreover, if the spring is too soft, a position of the sliding block relative to the frame varies any time, resulting in a difficulty in maintaining a clearance between the piston and the cylinder at a proper level. Opposite to this, if the spring is too stiff, it is difficult to adjust a position of the frame for setting the clearance between the piston and the cylinder to the proper level, and, if an environmental temperature rises, an excessive force is applied to the buffer plates and the rolling needle bearing due to thermal expansion of the springs.


Disclosed are optical arrangements including: a disk-shaped laser-active medium, a deflecting device, having a plurality of mirror elements on which mirror faces for deflecting a laser beam are formed, and having a base body on which the mirror elements are fastened, the mirror faces of the mirror elements being oriented in such a way that the laser beam is deflected by a respective mirror face via the disk-shaped laser-active medium to another mirror face. The mirror elements are formed in one piece or are monolithically joined, and have a connecting section that is formed rotationally symmetrically with respect to a center axis and is rigidly connected by a material-fit connection or a direct connection to the base body.

In the article, "Thin-Disk Yb:YAG Oscillator-Amplifier Laser, ASE, and Effective Yb:YAG Lifetime," by A. Antognini et al., IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, Vol. 45, No. 5, August 2009, a multipass disk laser amplifier is disclosed, in which an array of 24 plane mirrors is used to deflect the laser beam to the laser disk. The mirrors are arranged on a common base plate, and the orientation of each individual mirror can be varied individually so that, on each pass of the laser beam through the laser disk, its beam profile can be adapted individually. In the article "High-repetition-rate chirped-pulse-amplification thin-disk laser system with joule-level pulse energy", by J. Tümmler et al., Optics Letters, Vol. 34, No. 9, May 1, 2009, a multipass amplifier is disclosed, in which an array of 7×4 mirrors is used to deflect the laser beam, the mirrors likewise being arranged on a common base plate and being individually adjustable.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,463,667 B2 has disclosed a laser system having a solid-state laser amplifier material module (LGM module), as well as a multipass resonator, which comprises a plurality of pairs of relay mirrors, each having a first and a second mirror. The laser beam is reflected to and fro between the same position on the LGM module and each pair of the plurality of pairs of relay mirrors. The LGM module and the resonator are accommodated in a resonator housing, and the plurality of mirrors are held in a holding arrangement that maintains the orientation and the positioning of the mirrors relative to one another and with respect to the LGM module, to achieve the effect that the laser beam is reflected correctly to and fro between the mirror pairs and the LGM module.
Optical amplifier arrangements in the form of disk laser amplifiers or disk lasers comprise a disk-shaped laser-active medium having a small thickness (laser disk). In such an optical arrangement in the form of a linear disk laser amplifier, i.e. a laser amplifier in which no feedback through a resonator takes place as is the case with a regenerative amplifier, a laser beam is intended to be amplified to higher powers and, in the case of pulsed radiation, to higher pulse energies. The relatively low gain on one pass through the laser disk typically requires a large number of passes through the laser disk. This high number of passes is often achieved with a relatively long beam path. Linear disk amplifiers are suitable in particular for scaling in the high-power range and short- or ultrashort-pulse range, since because of a large beam diameter in the entire disk laser amplifier low intensities and nonlinearities can be achieved with only small optical aberrations. An optical amplifier arrangement in the form of a disk laser amplifier is sensitive in relation to misalignment because of the long beam paths and the relatively large number of optical components for carrying out the passes through the laser disk.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,817,704 B2 discloses a monoblock laser that comprises a support extending along its axis, on which an adjustable element rotatable about the axis bears. The adjustable element may be rotatably mounted in a support configured as a V-block. As an alternative, the adjustable element, for example in the form of a mirror, may have a spherically shaped bottom and the substrate of the support may comprise a spherically shaped recess for receiving the adjustable element.
EP 2 816 386 A1 disclosed an optical arrangement, having an optical element, that is adhesively bonded by means of at least one holding element on a base body, the optical element and the holding element bearing directly on one another via a curved junction side on the optical element side and/or a curved junction side on the holding element side along a contact line, and being adhesively bonded by means of an adhesive, that is introduced into at least one joint present next to the contact line between the junction sides.
WO 2012/013512 A1 describes an optical arrangement, having a base plate that comprises a recess with a wall having a bearing region, as well as an optical holder that holds an optical element and which comprises a lower side having a contact region. Formed between the lower side of the optical holder and the bottom of the recess, there is a cavity that is filled with a curable adhesive that is used for fixing the optical holder. By additional soldering or spot welding or spot laser welding, an improvement of the fixing of the optical holder can be achieved.

Optical arrangements with disk-shaped laser-active mediums


A system involves a first SerDes link from a first integrated circuit (IC) to a second IC and a second link from the second IC to the first IC. Power consumption settings in circuitry of the first link are adjusted to control power consumption such that the bit error rate of the first link is maintained in a range, where the lower bound of the range is substantially greater than zero. Power consumption settings in circuitry for the second link are adjusted to control power consumption such that the bit error rate of the second link is maintained in range, where the lower bound of the range is substantially greater than zero. In one example, circuitry in the second IC detects errors in the first link and reports back via the second link. The first IC uses the reported information to determine a bit error rate for the first link.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to Serial/Deserializer (SerDes) devices.
2. Background Information
Traditionally, the bus in a computer between the computer's Central Processing Unit (CPU) and the computer's main memory was a parallel bus. As the processing throughput of computers increased, and as demands on memory bandwidth increased, it became increasingly common for the bus between the CPU and memory to be implemented as one or more Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) links. These SerDes links have tended to be relatively expensive and generally have consumed large amounts of power. SerDes links have therefore generally not been considered suitable for use in mobile devices (such as cellular telephones) where keeping power consumption low is very important. Recently, however, there has been a movement to use SerDes or SerDes-like technologies in low power mobile devices such as cellular telephones. For example, there is a JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) proposed standard under discussion for a SerDes interface. This proposed standard includes power saving features to make the proposed SerDes interface more suitable for low power mobile devices. In addition to the SerDes interface in the proposed JEDEC standard, there are numerous other known SerDes designs. These standards and known designs have included numerous features and methods for reducing power consumption.
A first example of such a power saving feature involves placing the SerDes interface in a low-power mode when the interface is not being actively accessed by the processor. Because of the inherent random-access use of memory by a typical CPU, however, the memory must essentially be available to the processor most of the time (with the exception of sleep mode operation). As a result, this first example of power saving is only minimally effective in reducing power consumption. A second example of a power saving feature involves cutting power to and disabling the PLL (Phase-Locked Loop) and (CDR) Clock and Data Recovery circuitry of the SerDes. Each side of a SerDes link includes a PLL and CDR. This circuitry may consume a lot of power. It is possible to turn these circuits off to reduce power consumption when the interface is not active. Unfortunately, there is an amount of time required to turn these circuits back on (settling and lock time of the PLL) and have them functional again. If these circuits are in their off states when the processor needs access to the memory, there will be a delay until the memory can be accessed via the SerDes links and that delay effectively stalls the processor. This is undesirable. A third example of a power saving feature is set forth in Published U.S. patent application US2006/0115316. In this example the signal swing of the SerDes transmitter is made only as large as it has to be to prevent transmission errors. However, for mobile applications there remains a need for more power savings, and in both the first and second examples principal power savings is achieved by making the SerDes interface unusable and inactive for part of the time such that processor use of the interface is complicated and partially compromised.

SerDes power throttling as a function of detected error rate


A method for determining a difference between a reference image and a further image of a pattern, the method including determining a reference imaging function; determining parameters of a difference function representative of a difference between the reference imaging function and a further imaging function; calculating a difference between the reference image and the further image of the pattern based on the difference function and the determined parameters.

Lithographic apparatuses can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In such a case, the mask may contain a circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the IC, and this pattern can be imaged onto a target portion (e.g. comprising one or more dies) on a substrate (silicon wafer) that has been coated with a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). In general, a single wafer will contain a whole network of adjacent target portions that are successively irradiated via the projection system, one at a time. In one type of lithographic projection apparatus, each target portion is irradiated by exposing the entire mask pattern onto the target portion in one go; such an apparatus is commonly referred to as a wafer stepper. In an alternative apparatus, commonly referred to as a step-and-scan apparatus, each target portion is irradiated by progressively scanning the mask pattern under the projection beam in a given reference direction (the "scanning" direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate table parallel or anti-parallel to this direction. Since, in general, the projection system will have a magnification factor M (generally <1), the speed V at which the substrate table is scanned will be a factor M times that at which the mask table is scanned. More information with regard to lithographic devices as described herein can be gleaned, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,792, incorporated herein by reference.
The manufacturing process of an integrated circuit involves imaging multiple layers of circuit patterns onto a semiconductor wafer. To address the increasingly demanding needs of the semiconductor industry where the dimensions of the circuit elements are continually being reduced, technologies such as customized illumination schemes, phase shifting masks, and optical proximity correction (OPC) may be used. Numerical methods known as "computational lithography" are often required to simulate the lithography process to ensure the printed patterns meet the design target and to keep experimental costs under control. It is desirable that these numerical methods be highly accurate in order to predict the changes in aerial images (AIs) and critical dimensions (CDs) caused by small perturbations, also known as "sensitivities", to the optical settings.

Delta TCC for fast sensitivity model computation


A halogen lamp coupling structure for an electric heater allowing a fitting plate of a halogen lamp to be fitted into and coupled with a lamp fixing recess of a base serving as an insulation block. The halogen lamp coupling structure comprises a strap coupling type of elastic fixing member having a fixing strap fixed to the halogen lamp to surround the halogen lamp and an auxiliary fixing strap supported by an inner wall of the lamp fixing recess of the base. The fixing strap and the auxiliary fixing strap are connected with each other in a vertical direction by a bent piece.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a halogen lamp coupling structure for an electric heater in which a lamp terminal of a halogen lamp is directly fitted into and coupled with a base. More particularly, the present invention relates to a halogen lamp coupling structure for an electric heater, wherein an elastic fixing member of which an upper strap fixes the halogen lamp and a lower strap is fitted into and secured in a fixing recess of a base is connected with the halogen lamp so that the halogen lamp with the elastic fixing member connected therewith is fitted into and coupled with the fixing recess of the base.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, there have been provided various kinds of heating appliances. Among them, electric heating appliances convert electric energy into thermal energy by means of resistors and perform heating by using heat generated as such. As for methods of radiating the heat, there have been provided a method of reflecting heat, which is generated from a heating element, by a reflector so that the heat is diffusively radiated forward, and a method of radiating the heat forward by using a blower.
One of the electric heating appliances using the blower can be constructed, by way of example, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a heat generating device for a conventional heater, FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing a major portion of the heat generating device for the conventional heater, and FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view showing an essential portion of the heat generating device for the conventional heater. Referring to these figures, a cover plate body 1-1 is constructed by a generally hemispherical plate and provided with a ventilation hole 1-1a at the center thereof. An entire surface of the cover plate body 1-1 is formed with heat dissipating apertures 1-1b for dissipating heat generated inside of the cover plate body 1-1.
A safety cover 1-2 is coupled with a front peripheral portion of the cover plate body 1-1 for preventing inflammables or an adjacent human body from coming into contact with halogen heating lamps 1-8 to be described later.
A reflecting mirror 1-3 is installed in front of an inner surface of the cover plate body 1-1 for forward reflecting light and heat which are emitted from the halogen heating lamps 1-8.
The reflecting mirror 1-3 is composed of a hemispherical plate by depositing aluminum having superior reflectability onto an inner surface of the hemispherical plate. The reflecting mirror 1-3 is formed with ventilation holes 1-3a at a central portion thereof. Further, an inclined surface 1-3b is formed at an outer periphery adjacent to the ventilation holes 1-3a. The reflecting mirror 1-3 is disposed in front of and fixed to the cover plate body 1-1 with a predetermined gap therebetween by using fasteners 1-3c.
A rear cap 1-4 having a plurality of heat dissipating apertures 1-4a is connected with a rear central portion of the cover plate body 1-1.
A blower fan 1-5 driven by a driving motor 1-5a is installed in the rear cap 1-4 so that it cause air to blow toward the ventilation hole 1-1a of the cover plate body 1-1.
An air guide plate 1-6 is disposed in front of the ventilation holes 1-3a of the reflecting mirror 1-3 for forward guiding the air, which has passed through the ventilation holes 1-1a, 1-3a of the cover plate body 1-1 and the reflecting mirror 1-3, along an inner surface of the reflecting mirror 1-3.
The air guide plate 1-6 is in the form of a disk with a protruding plate portion 1-6a formed at the rear thereof and with a forward-flared guide wing portion 1-6b at a front outer periphery thereof. The protruding plate portion 1-6a is fixed to a central inner surface of the reflecting mirror 1-3 by spot welding.
With the structure of the air guide plate 1-6 constructed as such, an air passage AT is formed between the air guide plate 1-6 and the ventilation holes 1-3a of the reflecting mirror 1-3. The air blown by the blower fan 1-5 is guided forward through the air passage AT and along the inner surface of the reflecting mirror 1-3.
An insulation block 1-7 is fixed to a front surface of the air guide plate 1-6 by a fastener 1-7a.
The insulation block 1-7 is provided with two pairs of connection terminals 1-7b therein so that connection pins of the halogen heating lamps which will be introduced from the front of the terminals can be connected with the respective terminals. A front face of the insulation block 1-7 is formed with a pair of lamp coupling grooves 1-7c. Further, electric wires are connected with the connection terminals 1-7b for supplying electricity thereto.
The pair of halogen heating lamps 1-8 are coupled with the insulation block 1-7.
Each of the halogen heating lamps 1-8 comprises a heating lamp body 1-81 for generating heat, and a holding block 1-82 for holding trailing ends of the heating lamp body 1-81. At this time, the heating lamp body 1-81 is constructed such that a heating body 1-81b made of tungsten is installed in a U-shaped quartz tube member 1-81a filled with halogen and the heating body 1-81b is connected with the connection pins 1-81c which are exposed from trailing ends of the tube member 1-81a. The holding block 1-82 is molded with ceramic to enclose and connect the both trailing ends of the tube member 1-81a.
The holding of the trailing ends of the tube member 1-81a by means of the holding block 1-82 prevents the quartz tube member 1-81a from being broken by external force upon handling of the halogen heating lamp 1-8.
The holding block 1-82 of the halogen heating lamp 1-8 is fitted into and coupled with the relevant lamp coupling groove 1-7c of the insulation block 1-7, and the connection pin 1-81c is inserted into and coupled with the relevant connection terminal 17b.
The reason why the halogen heating lamp 1-8 detachably coupled with the insulation block 1-7 is employed in the prior art for generating the heat is that the halogen heating lamp 1-8 which has been completely used up can be easily replaced and superior heating effects can be obtained.
A hollow tubular stay 1-9 is disposed at a front central portion of the insulation block between the holding blocks 1-82 of the halogen heating lamps 1-8. A reflector 1-10 for reflecting the heat and light generated from the halogen heating lamps 1-8 onto the inner surface of the reflecting mirror 1-3 is firmly attached to a leading end of the stay 1-9. The stay 1-9 and the reflector 1-10 are coupled with each other by using a fastening bolt 1-11 axially passing through the interior of the stay 1-9 and a nut 1-11a screwed over a leading end of the fastening bolt 1-11 which has passed through the holding block 1-82 and a cover plate 1-7d of the insulation block 1-7.
In this case, the heating lamp body 1-81 is fitted into and bonded with the holding block 1-82 by using an adhesive or the like. Then, the holding block is coupled and assembled with the lamp coupling groove 1-7c of the insulation block 1-7. Therefore, there is convenience of assembly thereof. However, since the both ends of the heating lamp body 1-81 are bonded with the holding block 1-82, there is a problem in that the both ends of the heating lamp body 1-81 may be easily broken when being subjected to impact.
Meanwhile, a specific example of a conventional electric heater using reflected heat by means of a reflector is shown in FIGS. 4 to 6. FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view showing a coupling structure of a conventional halogen heater tube, FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line Cxe2x80x94C of FIG. 4 in a state where all components of FIG. 4 are coupled with one another, and FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along line Dxe2x80x94D of FIG. 4 in the coupled state. In a halogen lamp fixing device for the conventional electric heater, a fitting plate 2 of a halogen lamp 1 is fitted into and fixed in a lamp fixing recess 50 of a base 6. The halogen lamp fixing device comprises an elastic fixing member 10 having fixing straps 20, 30 for fixing the halogen lamp 1. The lamp fixing recess 50 has a size capable of simultaneously accommodating the fitting plate 2 of the halogen lamp 1 and the elastic fixing member 10 therein and is formed at a fixing position of the halogen lamp in the base 6. A bottom surface of the fixing recess 50 is formed with fixing lever slits 51. Reference numeral 1-1 designates an insulation fabric for performing an insulation function when the halogen lamp 1 is coupled with the elastic fixing member 10; 3 is a lamp terminal; 21 is a fitting boss inserted into a fitting hole 22; 40 is a bent piece for connecting the fixing strap 20 and the auxiliary fixing strap 30; 31 are fixing levers; 32 are fixing pieces; and 5-2 is a hole for an electric wire.
According to the above constitution, as shown in FIG. 4, the base 6 is formed with the fixing recess 50 having a diameter corresponding to that of the coupled halogen lamp 1 and the elastic fixing member 10, and the halogen lamp 1 is coupled with the elastic fixing member around the insulation fabric 1-1 of the halogen lamp 1 by inserting the fitting boss 21 of the fixing strap 20 into the fitting hole 22 thereof. The fixing levers 31 of the elastic fixing member coupled with the halogen lamp are fitted into the fixing lever slits 51 formed in the bottom surface of the fixing recess 50 and then fixed to the base 6 by bending the fixing pieces 32 exposed beyond the bottom surface of the base 6, as shown in FIG. 6. Of course, a separate electric wire (not shown) is connected to the lamp terminal 3.
However, since the halogen lamp 1 is coupled with the elastic fixing member 10, the fixing levers 31 of the elastic fixing member 10 are fitted into the fixing lever slits 51 and fixed to the base, and the lamp terminal 3 simultaneously penetrates through the base 6 and is additionally connected to the separate connection electric wire (not shown), there are problems in that workability is lowered and considerable time and skill are required for repair of the halogen lamp 1 upon breakage thereof, thereby increasing repair costs.
The present invention is conceived to solve the problem. An object of the present invention is to provide a halogen lamp coupling structure by which the life of a halogen lamp can be prolonged and the maintenance of the halogen lamp can be facilitated.
To this end, the present invention is directed to a halogen lamp coupling structure in which a lamp terminal of a halogen lamp is directly fitted into and coupled with a base. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a halogen lamp coupling structure, wherein an elastic fixing member of which an upper strap fixes the halogen lamp and a lower strap is fitted into and secured in a fixing recess of a base is connected with the halogen lamp so that the halogen lamp with the elastic fixing member connected therewith is fitted into and coupled with the fixing recess of the base.
That is, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a halogen lamp coupling structure for an electric heater for allowing a fitting plate of a halogen lamp to be fitted into and coupled with a lamp fixing recess of a base serving as an insulation block. The halogen lamp coupling structure comprises a strap coupling type of elastic fixing member having a fixing strap fixed to the halogen lamp to surround the halogen lamp and an auxiliary fixing strap supported by an inner wall of the lamp fixing recess of the base. The fixing strap and the auxiliary fixing strap are connected with each other in a vertical direction by a bent piece. The base serving as the insulation block is formed with the lamp fixing recess which takes the shape of an elliptical recess and accommodates the elastic fixing member therein and of which the bottom is provided with a fitting contact member for causing a lamp terminal of the halogen lamp to be fitted into an elongated hole.
The fitting contact member may include a cover plate which defines a bottom surface of the elliptical fixing recess and has the elongated hole corresponding to the lamp terminal, and a connection terminal which is installed in a bottom groove below the cover plate, is in contact with the lamp terminal fitted through the elongated hole by means of elastic force of a spring and is connected to an electric wire.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a halogen lamp coupling structure for an electric heater for allowing a fitting plate of a halogen lamp to be fitted into and coupled with a lamp fixing recess of a base serving as an insulation block. The halogen lamp coupling structure comprises an elastic fixing member including a receiving bore having a depth capable of accommodating the fitting plate and a portion of a body of the halogen lamp, and an insertion hole formed in a bottom surface of the elastic fixing member so that a lamp terminal of the halogen lamp can penetrate through the insertion hole. The base serving as the insulation block is formed with the lamp fixing recess which takes the shape of an elliptical recess and accommodates the above elastic fixing member therein and of which the bottom is provided with a fitting contact member for causing the lamp terminal of the halogen lamp to be fitted into an elongated hole.

Halogen lamp coupling structure for electric heater


A humidity sensing structure having a cantilever resistor and a method for fabricating the same are disclosed. The method includes providing a substrate having a first surface and a second surface; performing an oxidation process on the first surface and the second surface to form a first oxide layer and a second oxide layer respectively; forming a resistance sensing layer on the first oxide layer; forming a humidity sensing layer on the resistance sensing layer; forming in the substrate a through-hole penetrating the first oxide layer and the second oxide layer; and forming a cantilever in the through-hole such that both the humidity sensing layer and the resistance sensing layer are secured in position on the cantilever. In response to humidity changes, the humidity sensing layer varies in volume and in consequence the resistance sensing layer varies in length, allowing ambient humidity to be measured.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to humidity sensing devices, and more particularly, to a humidity sensing structure having a cantilever resistor and a method for fabricating the same.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, temperature/humidity sensing devices are not only designed to be readable, but they also work with other portable electronic devices such as a cellular phone and applications in a smart car for comfortable and safe driving. As regards environmental safety monitoring, a temperature/humidity sensing component is required to be highly sensitive and high response speed. However, no temperature/humidity sensing component presently available in the market is good enough to satisfy these two requirements.
There are four types of temperature/humidity sensing components in the market, namely integrated electrode (IDE), piezoresistive type, surface acoustic wave (SAW), and optic temperature/humidity sensing component. They have their own advantages, but they have some disadvantages in common, such as low sensitivity, poor stability, poor linearity, low response speed, and that it is hard to compensate a drift value due to variance of temperature. In order to solve the drawbacks of the prior art and satisfy the demand for compact, portable sensing modules and their integration with a system, an integrated humidity sensor is introduced to the market.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a micro-sensor disclosed by Taiwanese Publication No. 200508590 "MICRO-SENSOR AND METHOD FOR FABRICATING THE SAME AND SENSING DEVICE HAVING THE MICRO-SENSOR". The micro-sensor comprises a first base 11 having a cantilever beam 110, a second base 12 opposite to the first base 11, a bridge board 13 installed on the first base 11 and the second base 12, a first electrode layer 14 formed on the bridge board 13, a humidity sensing layer 15 formed on the first electrode layer 14, a groove 130 formed on a bottom portion of the bridge 13, and a second electrode layer 16 formed in the groove 130 and corresponding in position to the first electrode layer 14. The first electrode layer 14 combines with the second electrode layer 16 to form a capacitor.
The humidity sensing layer 15 contracts or elongates, depending on humidity and the corresponding amount of water it absorbs. In consequence, the cantilever beam 110 bends to different degrees. A resultant change in the distance between the first electrode layer 14 and the second electrode layer 16 causes the capacitance of the capacitor to change. The aforesaid mechanism can be applied to the measurement of ambient humidity.
A method for fabricating the micro-sensor is described in FIGS. 2A to 2G. As shown in FIG. 2A, the method involves providing a substrate 10 having two mask layers 101 formed on a top surface and a bottom surface of the substrate 10. As shown in FIG. 2B, the method involves depositing the first electrode layer 14 on the mask layer 101 formed on the top surface of the substrate 10. As shown in FIG. 2C, the method involves forming the humidity sensing layer 15 on the first electrode layer 14. As shown in FIG. 2D, the method involves etching the mask layers 101 formed on the top and bottom surfaces of the substrate 10 to form two notches 102 and 103 respectively. As shown in FIG. 2E, through the notches 102 and 103, the substrate 10 is etched so as to form the first and second bases 11 and 12 and form the cantilever beam 110 on the first base 11. As shown in FIG. 2F, the method involves depositing metal in the groove 130 of the bridge board 13 to form the second electrode layer 16. As shown in FIG. 2G, the method involves connecting the groove 130 of the bridge board 13 to the first and second bases 11 and 12 such that the groove 130 faces downward and abuts against the first and second bases 11 and 12, to ensure that the second electrode layer 16 in the groove 130 is corresponding in position to the first electrode layer 14 on the cantilever beam 110, so as to form a capacitor required for the micro-sensor.
However, the micro-sensor is formed by stacking the first electrode layer 14 above the cantilever beam 110, which is movable, on the second electrode layer 16 below the bridge board 13, which is unmovable, the formation of the first and second electrode layers 14 and 16 and the stacking of the first electrode layer 14 on the second electrode layer 16 include three individual fabricating processes, and thus the micro-sensor of the prior art has a complicated fabricating process and a high fabricating cost.
Therefore, an existing issue which needs urgent resolution is about providing a micro-sensor having a simplified fabricating process and a low fabricating cost, but still having the original sensing characteristics.

Humidity sensing structure having a cantilever resistor and method for fabricating the same

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A bill storage unit has a bill storage portion for storing bills and a bill validator which takes in a bill to validate the bill. A feeding device feeds the bill delivered from the bill validator to the bill storage portion along a feeding path. A correcting device removes a fold in the bill by applying a force stretching the bill, while the bill is being supported and guided along at least part of the feeding path.

The present invention relates to a bill handling machine used in various game machines such as a slot machines, pinball machines, and card game machines, vending machines and the like (hereinafter referred to as game machines and the like) and to a bill storage unit constituting the bill handling machine.
In general, the game machine as described above uses a bill handling machine which validates the validity of a bill inserted by a user, and stores a bill validated as being legitimate. Such a type of bill handling machine is incorporated into the game machine, or into an apparatus (the-so-called sandwich apparatus installed between game machines) related to the game machine, and is comprised of a bill validator that validates the validity of a bill inserted from a bill insertion slot, and a bill storage apparatus that successively stores a bill validated as being legitimate, for example, as disclosed in JP H08-123991.
The bill validator of the bill handling machine has a bill detecting sensor that detects passage of a bill, an validating sensor to validate the validity of the bill, a driving motor that feeds the bill, a controller that controls actuators of these sensors and motor, while validating the validity of the bill based on a detection signal from the validating sensor, and the like. Further, the bill storage apparatus has a feeding mechanism provided with a driving motor, feeding roller and the like to feed the bill validated as being legitimate to a bill storage portion, a pushing mechanism that stacks bills to place in the bill storage portion, and the like.
Among bills handled by the bill handling machine, there are some bills with folds and the like. Accordingly, when such bills with folds are taken in the bill handling machine without correction, problems arise that bills cannot be stacked and stored in good shape in the bill storage portion, and/or the number of bills stored in the bill storage portion is restricted by the clearance formed between bills in the bill storage portion due to the folds.
Such problems are resolved by the pushing mechanism as disclosed in JP H08-123991, but such a pushing mechanism is complicated in structure, and has problems that its assembly is also complicated and the manufacturing cost becomes high. Further, another problem may arise that it is not possible to reserve a large capacity of the bill storage space (it is not possible to reserve a large number of bills to store) due to the existence of the pushing mechanism.
Accordingly, there are required a bill handling machine and bill storage unit enabling correction of a fold and the like of a bill in a simple structure inexpressibly with high bill storage efficiency.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Bill handling machine and bill storage unit


A controller implantable within the body of a patient as part of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) system and a method therefore are provided. According to one aspect, the controller includes processing circuitry configured to receive inputs from at least one of: at least one internal component of the LVAD system, at least one external component of the LVAD system, and at least one clinician's device, and determine a charging rate for charging a battery of the LVAD system internal to the patient based on at least one of the received inputs.

Referring to FIG. 1, an implantable LVAD system 10 has internal components (in the body of the patient) and external components. The LVAD system 10 may typically include an LVAD pump 12 an implanted controller (i-controller) 14 having an internal battery 16, an implanted internal transcutaneous energy transfer system (TETS) coil (i-coil) 18, an external TETS coil (e-coil) 20 and an external power transmitter 22 with a detachable battery 24. In operation, power is supplied from the external power transmitter 22 to the i-controller 14 via mutual coupling of the coils 18 and 20, in order to charge i-controller 14 and to power the LVAD pump 12. The coils 18 and 20 transfer power by mutual induction of electromagnetic energy over the air and through the body. The power supplied by the external power transmitter 22 may come from the detachable battery 24 or from a wall outlet, for example.

Algorithm for utilizing multiple inputs to modulate the charging rate of a fully implantable system


Type-II semiconductor heterojunction light emitting devices formed on a substrate are described wherein a graded injection layer is used to accelerate electrons over the electron barrier formed by the junction. Further, wide band gap semiconductor LEDs and lasers are proposed formed of II-VI materials which emit light in the blue and green wavelengths. Particularly, a system composed of n-CdSe:Al/Mg.sub.x Cd.sub.1-x Se/Mg.sub.y Zn.sub.1-y Te/p-ZnTe are described where the value of y determines the wavelength of the emitted light in the green or blue region and x varies across the graded injection layer for raising the energy levels of excited electrons.

Semiconductor light emitters are well-known and fall broadly into two categories: light emitting diodes (LEDs) and semiconductor lasers. The applications of these devices are numerous. LEDs are used extensively as displays, warning lights and indicating lights. Semiconductor lasers find wide application in the communications fields, such as for transmitting signals down optical fibers, writing information on compact discs and for use in projection televisions. While LEDs and semiconductor lasers are both light emitters, in many applications the two different devices are not interchangeable. Light emitting diodes are the devices of choice for many display applications. The low operating current, low power consumption, dispersal of light, and typical low cost of manufacturing are all advantages that light emitting diodes have over lasers for displays. They exhibit very long lives and maintain high efficiency and thus, have begun to replace many incandescent lamps in a number of applications . Semiconductor lasers, on the other hand, find wide application where coherent beams of light are required as described above.
While versatile and wide in their application, LEDs and semiconductor lasers suffer one serious deficiency; the wide variety of selection among them is severely limited in the green or blue wavelengths. While yellow and red semiconductor light emitters are popular and well-developed, blue and green light emitters have remained elusive. Blue and green light emitters would lend themselves to numerous applications. They would provide for advanced displays in the blue and green, where the human eye is most sensitive. They would provide the third primary color, the other two being red and yellow, whereby any color can be generated by combining those primaries in particular combinations. Also, because seawater shows the lowest absorption in the blue and green wavelengths, a blue or green semiconductor laser would provide an underwater optical communication means not currently available. In the recording industry, the density of information that may be recorded on an optical disc is currently limited by the wavelengths of the laser. These densities could be greatly increased, by a full order of magnitude, with the development of an inexpensive compact blue light emitter.
The mechanisms by which semiconductors emit light have been well-studied and are fairly well understood. LEDs and semiconductor lasers emit light as a result of electronic excitation of a material. An electron in an excited energy state, upon relaxing to a lower energy state, can emit a photon corresponding to the energy difference between the excited state and the lower energy state. The methods of exciting electrons vary, but for semiconductor light emitters the primary method is by injection electroluminescence. Energy is added to the system to coax electrons to a higher energy state. The energy states of concern in semiconductor light emitters can be characterized as the conduction band and the valence band.
Semiconductors are of three types, p-type, n-type and intrinsic. Intrinsic semiconductors can be made either p-type or n-type by introducing impurities, also called dopants of p-type or n-type, respectively. Semiconductor light emitting devices are essentially characterized by p-type material and n-type material having a pn-junction therebetween. Light emitting semiconductor devices have a recombination region between or within the p-type and n-type regions. At equilibrium, no light will be emitted by the device. However, if electrons from the n-type material can be coaxed into the conduction band over the holes of the p-type material, a situation arises where a number of electrons are excited. This coaxing is carried out by applying a forward bias across the junction. Electrons, once excited, after a period of time will relax from their excited energy level either spontaneously or by stimulation. This relaxation from the conduction band to the valence band often results in the emission of a photon.
The wavelength of an emitted photon will depend primarily on the energy difference between the conduction band and the valence band. This energy difference is referred to as the band gap of the material. The energy difference of the band gap is inversely related to the wavelength of emitted light by the well-known formula E.sub.g =hc/.lambda. where h is Planck's constant and c is the speed of light. Blue and green light is light of shorter wavelengths than red or yellow light. Therefore, to emit blue or green light requires a greater energy difference between the conduction band and valence band of the materials used. Red and yellow light emission results from a band gap in the range of 1.77 to 2.16 eV. Green and blue emission requires a band gap in the range of about 2.2 to 2.9 eV and beyond that to go into the violet. Sometimes the emitted light is slightly less energetic than the value E.sub.g, because carriers transition between shallow energy levels near the band edges.
Thus, to use direct emission of light as an approach to blue/green semiconductor light emitting devices, one has to obtain a band gap that exhibits the appropriate energy difference. Further, one has to be able to construct electronic devices with both n-type and p-type doping and to make appropriate electrical contact for easy conversion of current to emitted photons. A quick survey of the periodic table in the semiconductor region indicates that three primary groups of semiconductors are potentially useful for this application: the so-called III-V semiconductors in which the compound is made of an element from column III and an element from column V, the II-VI compounds in which the compound is made up of an element from column II and an element from column VI, and the compounds from the elements of column IVa of the periodic table.
For the III-V semiconductors, those with relevant band gaps for the blue and green involve either GaP in the green or GaN in the ultraviolet. GaP, while it can be doped both p-type and n-type, suffers the problem that it has an indirect band gap. An indirect band gap makes it difficult to produce high efficiency light emitting devices because the assistance of a phonon is necessary carry out the required electron transitions. To avoid this difficulty, manufacturers utilizing such materials have had to resort to quaternary alloys of AlGaInP to obtain direct transitions and this fix is only good to 2.30 eV in the green. Furthermore, compositions in quaternary systems are very difficult to control. On the other hand, compounds of GaN are extremely difficult to dope p-type and hence, there has been great difficulty in making pn-junction light emitting devices from them.
Examination of the properties of the II--VI compounds indicates that the materials with the appropriate band gaps for emission in the green and blue are ZnTe, ZnSe, ZnS and CdS, though CdS incurs the problems of ZnS without offering a large band gap like ZnS. All of these compounds are direct band gap materials and hence, suitable for making light emitters. Again, it has been difficult to obtain doping of the required levels in these systems for making light emitting pn-junctions. Notably, ZnTe can be doped p-type but it is extremely difficult to dope n-type. ZnSe has been historically easily doped n-type but difficult to dope p-type, and the sulfides have been relatively easily doped n-type but difficult to dope p-type.
Semiconductors produced by elements from group IV are limited. The only material of practical interest is SiC. Some crystal forms of this substance have band gaps that put them in the blue and can be doped to p- and n-type. However, difficulties controlling crystal quality have resulted in only low efficiency light emitters.
Recent attempts at producing blue and green light emitters have focused heavily on two areas. One is the bulk doping of p-ZnSe. Although blue light emission lasers have been reported, the problems inherent in bulk doping are significant. Another approach has been the utilization of heterojunctions, particularly ZnTe/ZnSe. This heterojunction configuration suffers from a large lattice mismatch of 7%, and neither material can be doped both types.
Accordingly, there is room for much advancement in the quest for blue and green semiconductor light emitting devices that solve the problems of the existing state of technology.

Wide bandgap semiconductor light emitters


The present invention provides a golf club head at least the face portion of which is composed of composite materials characterized by aluminum or aluminum alloy either of which are combined with ceramics which are powdery. The golf club head has high strength, high hardness, high elasticity and a good wear resistance, and the face portion of the golf club head of the present invention shows little wear so that the durability of the club head is remarkably high. Moreover, by this invention it is easy to produce a large quantity of golf club heads so that the cost of production is largely diminished and so that a golf club head which is more practical is now available.

1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to an improvement of a golf club head whose face portion is composed of composite materials of aluminum or aluminum alloy either of which are combined with ceramics.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, several golf club head materials have been used and such golf club heads are produced by using several methods. For example, it is common that the cutting and processing of wood including persimmon is used and that synthetic resins for example ABS resin, etc., are inserted in the face portion, and that metals, for example aluminum, brass and stainless steel, are used for the sole portion of the club head. Also, golf club heads made from aluminum alloy formed by casting, stainless steel forming and as others, graphite fiber (carbon fiber) reinforced plastics (C-FRP) by compression moulding and whisker strengthened aluminum alloy (FRM) by the squeeze casting are known to the public.


A developing device includes a toner bearer to rotate while bearing toner and a toner regulator including a bend on a free end side. The bend is disposed in contact with a surface of the toner bearer and defines a regulation nip to adjust an amount of the toner on the toner bearer. The toner regulator further includes an area having a water contact angle greater than or equal to 70 degrees. The area having the water contact angle includes, at least, a downstream end of the bend in a rotation direction of the toner bearer.

Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a developing device and an image forming apparatus, such as a copier, a printer, a facsimile machine, or a multifunction peripheral having at least two of copying, printing, facsimile transmission, plotting, and scanning capabilities, that includes the developing device.
Description of the Related Art
There are developing devices that include a regulator (e.g., a regulation blade) pressed against a surface of a toner bearer (e.g., a developing roller). The regulator adjusts the amount of toner borne on the toner bearer while giving electrical charges to the toner through triboelectric charging.

Developing device and image forming apparatus incorporating same


In a silicon-controlled rectifier, an anode region includes p-type anode well regions which are laterally surrounded by an n-type well region. A length of a p-type anode well region, as measured in a first direction, is greater than a width of the p-type anode well region, as measured in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. A p-type well region meets the n-type well region at a junction, wherein the junction extends between the p-type well region and n-type well region in the second direction. A cathode region includes a plurality of n-type cathode well regions which are formed in the p-type well region. A length of an n-type cathode well region, as measured in the first direction, is greater than a width of the n-type cathode well region, as measured in the second direction.

FIG. 1A shows a schematic symbol of an SCR device 100, which acts like a diode with a control gate. As shown in FIG. 1B, SCR 100 has four layers of alternating N-type and P-type material, which are implemented as a pair of tightly coupled bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) 102A, 102B. In such an SCR device 100, when a gate current or gate-to-cathode voltage exceeds a certain threshold (e.g., when an electrostatic discharge (ESD) event occurs), SCR 100 turns "on". SCR 114 will remain "on" even after gate current is removed so long as current/voltage through SCR 100 remains above a holding current/voltage. Once current/voltage falls below the holding current/voltage for an appropriate period of time (e.g., once an ESD event has passed), SCR 100 will switch "off" and normal blocking operation will resume.

Silicon controlled rectifier for high voltage applications

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


This disclosure relates to a linear polymer obtained by reacting a polyethylene glycol, a polypropylene glycol; a diol; and a diisocyanate, as well as a controlled release composition containing the linear polymer together with an active agent. The active agent can have a molecular weight of 200 g/mol to 20,000 g/mol.

Certain cross-linked polyurethane hydrogel polymers are known from European Patent Publications EP0016652 and EP0016654. These patent specifications describe cross-linked polyurethanes formed by reacting a polyethylene oxide of equivalent weight greater than 1500 with a polyfunctional isocyanate and a trifunctional compound reactive therewith, such as an alkane triol. The resultant cross-linked polyurethane polymers are water-swellable to form a hydrogel but are water-insoluble and may be loaded with water-soluble pharmaceutically active agents. One particular polyurethane polymer is the reaction product of polyethylene glycol 8000, Desmodur (DMDI i.e. dicyclohexylmethane-4,4-diisocyanate) and 1,2,6-hexane triol and which has been used commercially for vaginal delivery of prostaglandins.
However, such polyurethane polymers possess a number of practical disadvantages. Whilst the use of a triol cross-linking agent is effective in providing polymers of relatively reproducible swelling characteristics, the percent swelling is typically 200-300% (i.e. the increase in weight of the swollen polymer divided by the weight of the dry polymer). Pharmaceutically active agents are loaded by contacting the polymer with an aqueous solution of pharmaceutically active agent, such that the solution becomes absorbed into the polymer, forming a hydrogel. The swollen polymer is then dried back to the chosen water content before use. A consequence is that with the conventional cross-linked polyurethane, the degree of swelling limits the molecular weight of the pharmaceutically active agent which can be absorbed into the hydrogel structure to below about 3000 g/mol. A further disadvantage is that only water-soluble pharmaceutically active agents may be used. Finally, since the conventional cross-linked polyurethane polymer is essentially a non-thermoplastic polymer (thermoset), insoluble in both water and organic solvents, the further processing of the formed polymer into other solid forms, such as films, monolithic devices, foams, wafers, composites, sandwich structures, particles, pellets, foams or coatings, is not possible. In addition, the thermoset nature of the conventional cross-linked polyurethane polymer rules out the possibility of melt mixing drug with the polymer, in order to load the polymer with a suitable active agent without using solvents or water.
Certain thermoplastic polyurethane hydrogel polymers are known from patent Publication WO2004029125. This patent specification describes linear thermoplastic polyurethanes formed by reacting a polyethylene glycol of molecular weight of greater than 4000 g/mol with a polyfunctional isocyanate and a bifunctional compound reactive therewith, such as an alkane diol or diamine. The resultant thermoplastic polyurethane polymers are water-swellable to form a hydrogel but are water-insoluble and may be loaded with water-soluble pharmaceutically active agents. One particular polyurethane polymer is the reaction product of polyethylene glycol 8000, Desmodur (DMDI, i.e., dicyclohexylmethane-4,4-diisocyanate) and 1,10-decane diol, which has shown percentage-swelling from 600% up to 1700% or even above. This type of polymer has shown a suitability for diffusion loading and short-term delivery of relatively water-soluble drugs e.g. clindamycin phosphate, oxytocin, and misoprostol.
However, such a high-swelling thermoplastic polyurethane polymer possesses many practical disadvantages. Due to the high weight content and block length of PEG, the polymer is only suitable for relatively short-term release (i.e. controlled release from 10 min to only a few hours) of active agents, especially in the case of highly water-soluble drugs. In addition, the low hydrophobic content, i.e. low amount of hydrophobic compound e.g. decanediol (DD) or dodecanediol (DDD) makes the polymer inappropriate for hydrophobic drugs and thus restricts its use. Hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs need to have interactions with both of the phases in order for their release to be controlled by the polymer structure. Further, the imbalance between hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds hampers microphase separation, which reduces the mechanical strength of the polymer in both the dry and wet state. In addition, due to the high crystallinity of polymer and the formation of hard blocks, the final polymer is rigid and the processing temperature relatively high.
The swelling percentage of high-swelling thermoplastic polyurethanes is typically 200-1700% and is dependent on the PEG content and/or the length of PEG block. Pharmaceutically active agents can be loaded by using the same method as described above for the conventional cross-linked polyurethane, as well as melt mixing drug and polymer. The release time and profiles obtained for the high swelling and crosslinked polyurethane polymers are, however, very similar.
Patent specification WO 94/22934 discloses the production of a linear random block copolymer from polyethylene oxide (number average molecular weight 1000 to 12,000), a diamine and a diisocyanate. Yu et al. Biomaterials 12 (1991) March, No. 2, page 119-120 discloses the use of polyurethane hydrogels formed of polyethylene glycol (number average molecular weight of 5830) and a low molecular weight polypropylene glycol (molecular weight 425) and a diisocyanate. Patent specification U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,880 discloses the production of polyurethanes from polyethylene glycol (molecular weight 400-20,000), an alkaline glycol containing from 2-6 carbon atoms and a diisocyanate. Patent specification U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,988 is a similar disclosure, although the preferred PEG range is 600-6,000.


Method and apparatus for providing random bits are described. In one embodiment, random bits are provided by storing a succession of random bits in a buffer. A quantity of bits is selected from the buffer at a source location and used as a basis of a new quantity of random bits. The content of the buffer is altered and the source location is advanced to the next position in the buffer. The source location is placed at the beginning of the buffer plus an offset when the next location is beyond the limit of the buffer.

Random numbers are difficult to generate in a digital environment that constitutes a computer platform. With the expansion of computer networking, the need for secure network transactions is on the rise. Secure network transactions often depend on encryption algorithms. These encryption algorithms require copious amounts of random bits as they operate to provide secure network transactions. Some encryption algorithms require truly random bits in order to provide high levels of security.
Truly random numbers are generally attainable through the use of a hardware-based random number generator embodied as a peripheral that can be accessed by a computer. A hardware-based random number generator typically relies on some natural phenomenon as a source of entropy. For example, one example of a hardware-based random number generator uses radioactive decay as a source of entropy. Yet another example of a hardware-based random number generator relies on thermal noise as a source of entropy. The term "entropy" refers to the state of disorder in a system and is considered to be one metric by which the randomness of a random number is measured.
Given that a random number is attainable in a computing environment, there are some other problems associated with the use of random numbers. For example, where a process needs random numbers in order to function properly, that process, which is also known as a consumer (or consuming) process, may require random numbers at a rate that is significantly greater than a random number generator can provide. In this scenario, the random number generator, which is also known as a producer, is simply not able to keep up with the quantity of random numbers demanded by the consumer.
One manner in which this problem has been overcome in the past was through the use of a buffer. Accordingly, a producer would populate a buffer with random numbers as quickly as possible. The hope was to have a sufficient quantity of random numbers available in the buffer by the time a consumer needed them. Unfortunately, this method only serves to smooth out the demand over time, but it simply does not solve the problem of "too little, too late". Hence, in any situation where demand for random number truly exceeds supply, the buffer does not really help.
Many have attempted to resuscitate the buffer concept just described by allowing the buffer to continually provide "random numbers", even if the same random number was previously supplied to the consuming process. This, of course, would provide a continuous flow of numbers to the consuming process even if the producer could not keep up with demand. The problem with this concept is a matter of quality. By providing a consuming process with a number that was already provided, the quality of randomness (i.e. the entropy) of the overall system is compromised.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A depth sensing apparatus with self-calibration and a self-calibration method thereof are provided. The depth sensing apparatus includes a projection apparatus, an image capturing apparatus and a calibration module. The projection apparatus projects a calibration pattern and a depth computation pattern to a reference plane based on a predefined calibration pattern and a predefined depth computation pattern. The image capturing apparatus captures an image including the calibration pattern and the depth computation pattern. The calibration module coupled to the image capturing apparatus adjusts apparatus parameters of the depth sensing apparatus to calibrate a depth computation deviation according to the calibration pattern of the image, the predefined calibration pattern and a predefined lookup table corresponding to the predefined calibration pattern.

Technical Field
The disclosure relates to a depth sensing apparatus with self-calibration and a self-calibration method thereof.
Description of Related Art
Along with development of technology, today's depth sensing apparatus has been able to obtain and store three-dimensional (3D) information of objects and environment. In collaboration with different post-processing algorithms, the 3D information can be further applied to 3D modelling, motion recognition, etc.
The depth sensing apparatus based on stereo vision requires accurate apparatus information to calculate depth information. Therefore, before the official start of use, the depth sensing apparatus is required to be calibrated to obtain the accurate apparatus information. For example, a conventional calibration method is to use an external calibration mechanism to assist obtaining the apparatus information. On the other hand, the depth sensing apparatus may also analyse information of feature points of images captured in different viewing angles to obtain the apparatus information.
Generally, a calibration effect achieved through a specific calibration mechanism is preferred, though non-professionals are not easy to obtain the aforementioned calibration mechanism, and are lack of related operation training. Therefore, once the depth sensing apparatus sustains a temperature variation, an external force impact, shock, etc., to cause distortion of the depth information, the depth sensing apparatus generally has to be sent back to the manufacturer for calibration, which is rather inconvenient in application. Therefore, how to effectively calibrate the depth sensing apparatus is still a target pursued by related technicians of the field.

Depth sensing apparatus with self-calibration and self-calibration method thereof


A low-profile dryness indicator for point-of-use operation in an air/gas line delivering compressed air or gas to an air/gas-driven tool. The apparatus includes a vessel having a first end, a second end, and a central portion formed by a light transmissive wall that defines a containment chamber containing a dryness-indicating material, such as a color-changing desiccant or moisture sensitive paper. A rigid protective housing is disposed around the vessel wall and has one or more view ports for viewing the dryness-indicating desiccant in the containment chamber. The protective housing is closed by first and second end cap fittings that are each configured for connection to a compressed air/gas line, or to an air tool, and include a passage for transferring air or gas to or from an adjacent one of the plenum-defining cavities.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of compressed air and gas systems, and more particularly to dryness indicators designed to visually indicate the moisture content of compressed gas or air delivered to a point of use.
2. Description of Prior Art
Typical compressed air or gas produced by a compressor apparatus is saturated with 50% to 100% relative humidity. Removal of this moisture vapor requires that an air/gas drying system be used, such as a refrigerated dryer or an adsorbent type of dryer. Such apparatus are generally very effective, the latter being typically capable of drying compressed air or gas to below-zero dew point levels. Notwithstanding such drying measures, there is unfortunately no guarantee that the compressed air or gas will have the desired dryness by the time it arrives through an air/gas feed system to a downstream point of use. Compressed air lines, various fitting and regulation devices, or improper operation of the dryer system all represent sources of residual moisture vapor entrainment in the air/gas feed system. This means that moisture-treated compressed air or gas may be carrying unwanted moisture vapor when it goes into use as an application.
One area where this problem tends to occur is in paint booth operations where compressed air or gas is used as a propellant to atomize and expel paint from a paint gun. Even though extraordinary measures are often implemented to eliminate moisture vapor at the compressed air/gas source, moisture can still be delivered to the paint gun. In some cases, this may be due to the drying system losing effectiveness due to a malfunction or other problem. However, even if the drying system is operating at full operational efficiency, the lengthy hoses connecting the air source to the paint gun can introduce unwanted moisture vapor into the system. In particular, these hoses can be disconnected and re-connected any number of times throughout the course of a painting application. Each time a disconnection occurs, moisture-laden ambient air is allowed to enter the air/gas line, and will feed through the paint gun until such time as it evacuated from the line and replaced by dry air/gas coming from the air/gas source. Any time there is excess moisture vapor in a paint gun, unwanted fouling can occur that results in a bad and unacceptable paint job. In most cases, the unsuspecting painter will assume the air/gas quality is satisfactory, particularly when there is sophisticated drying equipment operating at the air/gas source.
Various dryness indicators have been proposed for use in compressed air, gas and refrigerant applications. These typically involve the use of a moisture-adsorbing silica gel desiccant that is impregnated with a chemical moisture indicator, such as a cobalt salt. This particular chemical indicator is normally a deep blue color when it is dry, but gradually turns a light pink color in proportion to the amount of moisture that is present as the salt hydrates. The color-indicating desiccant is placed in a transparent or translucent container so that it can be viewed during operations. In a dryness indicator, the color-indicating desiccant is placed in contact with a compressed air/gas stream within a transparent or translucent container, so that the desiccant can be viewed during operations.
Prior art dryness indicators tend to have design features that prevent them from being optimally suited for point-of-use operation adjacent a hand-held air/gas-driven tool, such as a paint gun, where moisture monitoring is most needed. In all of the reference materials reviewed, the prior art dryness indicators form part of a filter/dryer that requires a relatively large quantity of desiccant to effectively remove moisture for a reasonable length of time. This quantity of desiccant is more than that which is required to indicate dryness. The filter/dryers in which prior art dryness indicators are incorporated also tend to include additional elements to condense and remove moisture droplets from the air/gas stream, and to trap oil, line debris and other contaminants. As a result of the foregoing design features, most prior art dryness indicators are large or bulky, and not suitable for attachment to a hand-held tool. Other prior art indicating devices are less bulky, but may not be rugged enough to withstand the environmental conditions in which a point-of-use dryness indicator must operate. Such conditions include shock forces when the tool is disconnected and the dryness indicator (still attached to air/gas hose) is dropped onto the floor. While on the floor, the dryness indicator can also be stepped on and thus subjected to crush forces and other abuses.
It is to solving the foregoing problems that the present invention is directed. What is particularly needed is an improved compressed air/gas dryness indicator that is optimized for point-of-use installation between an air/gas hose and an air/gas-driven tool, such as a paint gun. Ideally, the dryness indicator needs to provide a visual indication identifying the exact state of dryness of the compressed air/gas line, yet must be unobtrusive and afford full freedom of movement at the point-of-use without any impediment of bulky filters, desiccant containers, cumbersome vessels, etc. The dryness indicator additionally needs to be rugged and durable, so as to withstand the shock and crush forces that are likely to be experienced during everyday use when the indicator is mounted at the end of an air/gas hose. Finally, the dryness indicator should be easy to install and use, should be simple and inexpensive, and should require no maintenance.

Inline, point-of-use air/gas dryness indicator


A time measurement device includes a first measurement unit configured to measure a clock number of a first reference clock signal within a specific cycle of a second reference clock signal; a calculation unit configured to calculate a physical amount indicating a variance amount of the clock number relative to a reference clock number; a compensation unit configured to compensate an expected measurement value indicating the clock number of the first reference clock signal corresponding to a time as a measurement target according to the physical amount calculated with the calculation unit; and an output unit configured to output time information indicating that the clock number of the first reference clock signal reaches the expected measurement value when the clock number of the first reference clock signal measured with the first measurement unit reaches the expected measurement value compensated with the compensation unit.

The present invention relates to a time measurement technique using a timer in a device performing a computer process. More specifically, the present invention relates to a time measurement device, a micro-controller, and a method of measuring a time capable of performing a time measurement operation with high accuracy at a low cost especially at a high speed operation.
In general, as a device performing a computer process, a conventional micro-controller has been known, in which an entire computer system is integrated on one single semiconductor chip. The conventional micro-controller may be provided with a plurality of oscillators constituting an operation clock. Accordingly, it is possible to switch the operation clock for a CPU (Central Processing Unit) or a peripheral circuit of a timer according to a usage or a purpose of the computer process.
For example, in the conventional micro-controller, a low speed clock is selected as the operation clock in a normal operation for conserving power consumption. When it is necessary to operate at a high speed, the operation clock is switched to a high speed clock.
As an example, in a conventional system for performing wireless communication, it is configured that until reception of a command through wireless transmission is started, the conventional system is operated with a low speed clock to become an idle state for waiting for the command. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce power consumption during the idle state for waiting for the command.
It is supposed that the conventional system for performing the wireless communication may include a first device and a second device. The first device may be configured such that a state thereof is continuously changed in a specific interval, and the state of the first device is transmitted through the wireless transmission. The second device may be configured to receive the state of the first device so that the second device changes an operation thereof in the same interval according to the state of the first device. With such a configuration, even when the wireless transmission from the first device is interrupted due to interference, it is possible to continuously perform the operation of the second device according to the interval received previously.
In the conventional system for performing the wireless communication described above, in order for the second device to synchronize with the first device even when the wireless transmission from the first device is interrupted, it is necessary to accurately measure the time interval of the command thus received. Accordingly, it is necessary to provide a timer with high accuracy for measuring the time interval of the command.
In general, the timer disposed in the conventional micro-controller includes the oscillator such as a crystal oscillator and an RC oscillator. The crystal oscillator is provided with a crystal oscillation element as an external part, and is capable of generating a clock with high accuracy.
In the RC oscillator, it is not necessary to provide the external part to the conventional micro-controller, and it is possible to integrate inside the conventional micro-controller. Accordingly, it is possible to produce the RC oscillator at a relatively low cost as compared with the crystal oscillator. However, in the RC oscillator, it is difficult to generate a clock with high accuracy as compared with the crystal oscillator. Accordingly, it is difficult to apply the RC oscillator to an application in which it is necessary to measure the time accurately.
In order to solve the problem described above, Patent Reference 1 has disclosed such a conventional technique capable of measuring the time accurately even when the timer is formed of the RC oscillator. FIG. 15 is a time chart showing an operation of the conventional micro-controller disclosed in Patent Reference 1.    Patent Reference 1: Japanese Patent Publication No. 10-49251
In the conventional micro-controller disclosed in Patent Reference 1, the RC oscillator and the crystal oscillator are configured to generate reference clocks. Further, an interruption request register is provided for generating an interruption request signal.
As shown in FIG. 15, the interruption request signal of the interruption request register is raised at a rise of the reference clock of the RC oscillator. From the rise of the interruption request signal, it is configured to detect a start of one cycle of the reference clock (indicated with "A" in FIG. 15) of the RC oscillator and an end of one cycle of the reference clock (indicated with "B" in FIG. 15) of the RC oscillator. During the one cycle of the reference clock of the RC oscillator, a count value (a measurement value) of the reference clock of the crystal oscillator that possesses high accuracy and a high frequency is measured.
As described above, with the crystal oscillator that possesses high accuracy and a high frequency, one cycle of the reference clock of the RC oscillator is measured, so that the actual cycle of the RC oscillator can be accurately measured. In the next step, it is configured to calculate a ratio of the actual cycle thus measured to a cycle (an expected measurement value) of the RC oscillator in a normal operation, so that a compensation coefficient is determined according to the ratio thus calculated. At last, the compensation coefficient is multiplied by the measurement value of the timer to which the RC oscillator is input.
In the conventional micro-controller disclosed in Patent Reference 1, however, there are the following problems.
As for the first problem, in the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Reference 1, it is necessary to provide the crystal oscillator capable of directly measuring the clock cycle of the RC oscillator. The crystal oscillator with a high frequency tends to be expensive. Accordingly, even though the RC oscillator is used, it is difficult to reduce a cost.
In general, when the crystal oscillator has a higher frequency, the cost thereof tends to increase. Accordingly, when a computer system is provided with the crystal oscillator with a high frequency for controlling a time, the cost of the computer system is increased as well.
In order for the conventional micro-controller to operate at a high speed and a low cost, it is desirable to increase the clock of the RC oscillator as the system clock. However, in this case, according to the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Reference 1, it is necessary to provide the crystal oscillator with the high frequency.
It is noted that in the conventional micro-controller disclosed in Patent Reference 1, the clock of the crystal oscillator is used as the system clock for the high speed operation. However, in order for the conventional micro-controller to operate at a higher speed, it is necessary to provide the crystal oscillator with the higher frequency, thereby increasing the cost.
As for the second problem, in the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Reference 1, in order to determine the compensation coefficient accurately, the RC oscillator must have a frequency lower than that of the crystal oscillator. Accordingly, it is difficult to increase a resolution of the timer to which the reference clock of the RC oscillator with a low frequency is input.
In order to increase the resolution of the timer, it is necessary to use the RC oscillator capable of oscillating the reference clock at a high frequency. It is possible to increase the frequency of the RC oscillator at a relatively low cost. However, in the conventional micro-controller disclosed in Patent Reference 1, in order to increase the resolution of the timer, it is necessary to provide the crystal oscillator with the higher frequency, thereby increasing the cost.
It should be noted that as Patent Reference 1 has disclosed, when the frequency of the RC oscillator is divided, it is possible to increase the resolution of the timer with the crystal oscillator having a low frequency. However, in this case, it is necessary to provide a frequency dividing unit. Patent Reference 2 has disclosed such a frequency dividing unit.    Patent Reference 2: Japanese Patent Publication No. 05-48433
When the frequency dividing unit is provided, one cycle of the reference clock of the RC oscillator is divided and extended. Accordingly, when the compensation coefficient is determined, it takes a long time to measure the clock of the crystal oscillator generated during one cycle of the reference clock of the RC oscillator.
As for the third problem, in the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Reference 1, when the compensation coefficient is determined, the start point and the end point of the clock of the crystal oscillator are detected through polling. Further, the compensation coefficient is used for outputting through a port through the polling. Accordingly, in the conventional micro-controller disclosed in Patent Reference 1, the CPU is operated all the time, so that it is difficult to switch the CPU to a power save mode. Further, during the polling, it is difficult for the CPU to perform other process.
As for the fourth problem, in the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Reference 1, when the compensation coefficient is determined, one cycle of the reference clock of the RC oscillator with the low frequency is measured by the timer to which the clock of the crystal oscillator with the high frequency. Accordingly, when a difference in the speeds between the RC oscillator and the crystal oscillator is increased, the measurement value of the timer tends to be overflowed.
Patent References 3 and 4 have disclosed a conventional technique for controlling the measurement operation of the clock of the oscillator by the timer.    Patent Reference 3: Japanese Patent Publication No. 2006-309479    Patent Reference 4: Japanese Patent Publication No. 08-139593
In the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Reference 3, in order to compensate an error in a frequency of a first clock signal, a second clock signal having a lower frequency than that of the first clock signal is input. In the next step, a pulse number of the first clock signal contained in one cycle of the second clock signal is measured with a pulse number counter.
In the next step, a calculation unit calculates compensation information using the pulse number measured with the pulse number counter and a reference pulse number determined in advance. In the next step, a compensation signal output unit outputs a clock compensation signal according to the compensation information calculated with the calculation unit. At last, an output of the first clock signal is compensated at an output gate according to the clock compensation signal output from the compensation signal output unit.
In the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Reference 3, however, the first clock signal generated with the RC oscillator and to be input into the timer is partially cut-off according to one cycle of the second clock signal generated with the crystal oscillator, so that a part of the first clock signal is not transmitted to the timer. Accordingly, it is necessary to modify the timer, thereby increasing the number of components in the configuration.
In the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Reference 4, the frequency of the RC oscillator is measured per one cycle of the reference oscillator. When the measurement value exceeds a specific value, the number of switch transistors is increased, so that the total capacity of the RC oscillator is increased and the output oscillation frequency is decreased. When the measurement value is below a specific value, the number of the switch transistors is decreased, so that the total capacity of the RC oscillator is decreased and the output oscillation frequency is increased.
In the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Reference 4, the process described above is repeated, so that the oscillation frequency is automatically controlled and stabilized at a target value with a separate internal reference oscillator. However, similar to the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Reference 3, it is necessary to increase the number of the switch transistors to modify the clock, thereby increasing the number of the components in the configuration.
In view of the problems described above, an object of the present invention is to provide a time measurement device, a micro-controller, and a method of measuring a time. In the present invention, it is possible to perform a time measurement operation with high accuracy and a low cost especially when a high speed operation is performed with a timer disposed in a computer device.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.

Time measurement device, micro-controller and method of measuring time