An electrical or electrochemical cell, c a cathode layer, an electrolyte layer, and an anode layer is disclosed. The cathode layer includes a first material providing a cathodic electric transport, charge storage or redox function. The electrolyte layer includes a polymer, a first electrolyte salt, and/or an ionic liquid. The anode layer includes a second material providing an anodic electric transport, charge storage or redox function. At least one of the cathode and anode layers includes the ionic liquid, a second electrolyte salt, and/or a transport-enhancing additive.

The reduction of electronic device form factors and their power demands have made it possible to realize new devices that are thin, compact, curved, and flexible. The evolution of portable devices can be, in part, attributed to the combination of the advancements in battery electrode materials and their compatibility with electrolyte materials. For example, the development of more effective high energy density lithium and lithium-ion electrode materials has enabled portable, compact, high capacity batteries. The introduction of lithium and lithium-ion solid polymer and gel electrolytes has relaxed the battery's requirement for rigid and hard packaging, spurring the widespread adoption of thinner batteries, hermetically sealed with plastic and foil materials in pouch constructions. In addition to performance and form factor benefits, the use of solid-state, polymer, and gel electrolytes have introduced additional improvements in battery manufacturability, cost, and inherent safety. Thus, considerable efforts have been dedicated to solid-state, polymer, and gel electrolyte development, as well as coating and printing fabrication approaches to deposit these electrolytes and the other cell layers.
The demand for thin, miniature, and low-cost batteries has been propelled by the increased ubiquity of low power sensors, wireless devices, smart cards, wearable devices such as Bluetooth audio devices, headsets, fitness monitors, health monitors, and other devices worn on the human body. Also, there is continuing interest in developing thinner phones, tablets, e-readers, and laptops as well as flexible devices such as flexible OLED displays, flexible memories, and flexible photovoltaic modules, which may be incorporated in curved or flexible integrated devices. Even in larger capacity formats, such as in vehicles or airborne applications, thinness, conformability, and flexibility can allow for more efficient use of space, greater robustness, and greater safety. Such curved or flexible devices would benefit from thinner, conformable, or flexible batteries that have high energy densities, long storage and operational lifetimes, and cycling capability.
Of the existing battery systems that are being considered for these applications, thin-film, lithium polymer, and semi-printed batteries are of interest, though each has shortcomings that have limited their widespread adoption. Vapor deposited thin-film lithium and lithium-ion batteries have relatively low energy storage capacities and power capabilities due to materials deposition limitations. Lithium polymer batteries have leveraged the rapid advancements of pouch cell battery manufacturing, but like thin-film lithium and lithium-ion batteries, are plagued by stringent hermetic encapsulation requirements due to its sensitivity to contamination or corrosion from the environment, fire, and safety issues. There have been recent developments in printable polymer electrolyte devices that show significant promise for producing high energy density, thin, flexible and safe rechargeable batteries based on multivalent ion chemistries (PCT/US2011/051469), and that can be processed by additive coating and printing processes.
This "Description of the Background" section is provided for background information only. The statements in this "Description of the Background" section are not an admission that the subject matter disclosed in this section constitutes prior art to the present disclosure, and no part of this "Description of the Background" section may be used as an admission that any part of this application, including this section, constitutes prior art to the present disclosure.
Capacity reduction and capacity fade in batteries can be due to insufficient ionic and ionic transport enhancing species. This is particularly true in battery cell structures, including electrolyte-surrounding layers that have significant fractions of materials that may have some significant solubility, porosity, permeability, and/or diffusivity for ionic species critical for electrolytic performance. One such battery cell type is the solid polymer and gel electrolyte ion transport battery, including the lithium polymer battery, which may contain electrodes composed of ceramic or metal particles in a more permeable matrix composed of a polymer material, for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,318 INTERCALATION BATTERY WITH HYBRID POLYMERIC ELECTROLYTE. Of further interest are printed polymer gel-based battery structures such as that disclosed by WO12037171, which describes fully-printed polymer cell constructions and compositions, which can include particle and matrix-based electrodes and current collectors, and metal salt and ionic liquid mobile species which can redistribute into electrodes, collectors or packaging. This problem can also be aggravated by the use of high ionic conducting binders in electrode formulations, which are used because they can beneficially increase the ion transport, electrochemical reaction kinetics, and utilization in those electrodes, as these promote faster and higher absolute magnitude species redistribution. An example binder material, which may promote electrode kinetics, but which is susceptible to redistribution of ionic species, is PVDF-HFP (poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropene)). Note that this redistribution of species can also cause mechanical issues due to volume and stress redistributions associated with the mass transfer. Specifically, this can mean increases in volume, pressure, or swelling in the electrodes or current collectors. As ions from the electrolyte redistribute to the electrolyte-surrounding layers, it also creates a mass loss in the electrolyte, which can manifest itself as a volume change and/or high-stress state, and induce porosity of the electrolyte. The stress states induced by the mass transfer can result in delaminations, curling or other mechanical problems. The overall transfer properties of the electrolyte can also be significantly degraded due to this phenomenon.
In these cases where there is a matrix or active component in an electrolyte adjacent layer that has some significant solubility or mass transport capability for the ionic species, ionic transport enhancing species, buffering agent (organic acids, chelating agents, etc.), or solvent species in the electrolyte layer, these species can be lost by the mass transport of those species into the matrix of the electrodes, and from the electrode into the current collector as well via redistribution during processing, migration, or diffusion. This can occur during processing, potentially accelerated during subsequent high-temperature drying, curing, or forming steps. Redistribution of these species into electrolyte adjacent and electrode adjacent layers can also occur during subsequent printing steps, where a solution or ink that is applied to the electrolyte or electrode layer may dissolve or induce the transport of electrolytic species from the electrolyte or electrodes into the liquid ink, which can contain carriers that may be solvents for the species. Redistribution of the species can also occur during storage and end-consumer use of the product due to diffusion in response to concentration gradient distributions, thermal exposures, or the application of an electric field, causing ion migration through the battery.
In general, the unwanted redistribution of these materials can result in lower concentrations of these materials in electrolyte or electrode layers, leading to degraded performance due to increases in electrochemical impedance, loss in capacity, and/or loss in high rate-handling capacity. This can happen immediately after processing, or it can lead to performance fade or loss over time and/or use as the species continue to redistribute in the cell structure.
FIG. 1 shows discharge capacity data (1 cm2 active area, 100 microamps constant current charge and discharge) for a series of printed battery samples after different storage periods (room ambient conditions) before testing. The cells were printed in a top cathode structure with ionic permeable cathode matrix materials and ionic permeable current collector binders. Electrolyte and cathode formulations followed the procedure disclosed in WO12037171, and the top cathode current collector was composed of a mixture of graphite, acetylene black, and a polyvinylidene fluoride-based copolymer. The electrolyte formulation can demonstrate ionic conductivities over 10{circumflex over ( )}-3 Ohm-cm in impedance measurements. For the completed cells in this experiment, the significant capacity fade was observed with longer storage time intervals out to ˜1 month storage time. The electrolyte, cathode, and current collector contained ionic liquid and metal salt-solvating polymers. The cathode electrode and the current collector had a composite structure with continuous percolation paths of polymer that interconnect, and that would allow ionic liquid and metal salt molecular and ionic drift, or migration or diffusion through their structures.
After the 1 month storage and test cycle, cells from this fabrication lot were then exposed to ionic liquid and ionic liquid+zinc salt mixtures, such that ionic species could diffuse through the current collector and cathode and into the cathode and electrolyte layers. This resulted in a significant increase in capacity for the exposed samples versus control, non-exposed samples (see FIG. 2 and FIG. 3). This improvement in measured capacity is consistent with the diffusion of ionic liquid and metal salt through the current collector and cathode into the electrolyte layer, where it enhances ionic conductivity in the cathode and electrolyte and increases effective cell capacity. Some of the reduction in capacity observed over time in FIG. 1 may be associated with ionic transport of species out of the electrolyte and electrolyte cathode interfacial areas into the current collector, resulting in reduced ionic conductivity in these layers.
Additional experiments with subsequent printed layers of printed conductors and electrolytes show the specific interactions between an ionic liquid+metal+salt+PVDF-HFP layer and a conductive particle+PVDF-HFP layer. Samples were prepared by stencil printing a conductive pattern of PVDF-HFP+Ni particle ink, drying the printed ink, and subsequently stencil printing and drying an ionic liquid+metal+salt+PVDF-HFP layer on top of the Ni particle-containing ink pattern in the following configuration and measuring the end-to-end resistance. This experiment showed that the resistance of the nickel layer increased significantly immediately after the electrolyte was printed on top of the nickel current collector bar, and that the conductivity continued to rise over time, on the scale of hours, after the electrolyte was dried, indicating that liquid phase redistribution and longer term, solid phase diffusion effects can be active when these types of electrolyte interact with adjacent layers. Additional experiments with exposure of particle+binder conductors to neat ionic liquid showed a similar resistance increase. Further experiments with methacrylate binder-based nickel particle conductors, which show little tendency to swell with exposure to electrolyte materials, showed substantially reduced resistance changes for printed conductors in contact with ionic liquid. The conductivity loss mechanism is likely dominated by swelling of the binder of the conductive layer with the ionic liquid and/or metal salt from the electrolyte. This swelling of the conductive layer due to diffusion, drift, migration, or redistribution during deposition of electrically active species out of the electrolyte and/or electrolyte cathode interfacial areas and into the current collector, results in the observed reduction in ionic conductivity.
For the structure 10 in FIG. 4, the components, compositions, and processing conditions are as follows                Printed nickel bar 12 dimensions: 1 cm×8 cm        Printed electrolyte bar 14 dimensions: 1 cm×2.5 cm        Nickel ink: Strem Ni powder+Arkema PVDF-HFP+Sigma Aldrich NMP        Ni Drying: 30 minutes @ 60° C.        Nickel to binder weight ratios were as follows:                    1. PVDF-HFP:Ni=1:9            2. PVDF-HFP:Ni=1:12            3. PVDF-HFP:Ni=1:14                        Electrolyte ink: Merck BMIM triflate+zinc triflate+Arkema PVDF-HFP+Sigma Aldrich NMP (following WO2012/037171 A2)        Electrolyte Drying: 2 hrs @ 60° C.
The following table shows end-to-end resistance measurements for the composition variants in the printed Ni/Printed electrolyte experiment versus time after electrolyte layer printing and drying:
PVDF-HFP:NiPVDF-HFP:NiPVDF-HFP:NiRatio by weightRatio by weightRatio by weightHours1:9 (ohm)1:12 (ohm)1:14 (ohm)038518619414833004762262512121264188118722773521254000034600002050000138OverloadOverloadOverload
Prior to electrolyte deposition, the resistance of the printed Ni conductors measured end-to-end varied from 23.4 to 24.5 ohms.

Electrolytic doping of non-electrolyte layers in printed batteries


Provided is a method and an apparatus for controlling a NEW MESSAGE alert in a portable wireless terminal. In a sender-side terminal, a NEW MESSAGE alert is set after a message is written. The NEW MESSAGE alert setting is designated at a header of the message. The message having the header with the NEW MESSAGE alert setting is transmitted. In a receiver-side terminal, a message is received and it is determined whether a NEW MESSAGE alert is designated at a header of the received message. If a NEW MESSAGE alert is designated at the header of the received message, the designated NEW MESSAGE alert is generated. Therefore, both a sending user and a receiving user can have equal authority over the NEW MESSAGE alert.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a message communication method in a portable wireless terminal, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for controlling a NEW MESSAGE alert in a wireless communication terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the continuing development of the electronic and communication industries, usage of portable wireless terminals is becoming more popular, and portable wireless terminals are now being developed to have multi-functional features for satisfying user's demands. In addition to a call function, portable wireless terminals provide various additional functions such as a phone book, game function, scheduler, short message service (SMS), Internet access, and e-mail.
Among the additional functions, the SMS function is most frequently used. Recently, as portable wireless terminals have become multi-functional, the SMS is being developed into a multimedia messaging service (MMS) that can transmit images as well as text messages. In the following description, the term "message" will be used to include a multimedia message as well as a conventional text-oriented short message.
Conventionally, when receiving a message from a transmitting terminal, a receiving terminal generates a NEW MESSAGE alert using one of a ringtone, a vibration, and a lamp (silence) depending on settings preset by a receiving user. However, if a receiving user is sleeping or doing an important business, the NEW MESSAGE alert (e.g., ringtone) may disturb the receiving user against the sending user's will. On the other hand, if a NEW MESSAGE alert of a receiving terminal is set to "silence", a receiving user may fail to detect an urgent message received from a sending user.
As described above, because the NEW MESSAGE alert is unilaterally set by the receiving user, it is impossible to give consideration to the situation of the sending user.

Method and apparatus for controlling new message alert in portable wireless terminal


Catalytic hydroesterification of alkyl lactates give alkyl 2-(propionyloxy)propanoates, starting from alkyl lactate, carbon monoxide, ethylene gas, and a palladium catalyst. Pyrolysis of alkyl 2-(propionyloxy)propanoates gives acrylate esters.

The global acrylic market is very large and it is expected to grow at a moderate rate to nearly 20 billion dollars per year by the end of the next decade at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of about 6%. The acrylic acid market by derivative type is segmented into acrylic esters, acrylic polymers, and other derivatives. The main driver of the market is the use of this precursor chemical in absorbent applications, with end-user markets in diapers, surface coatings, adhesives and sealants, plastic additive industry, water treatment industry, textiles, surfactants, and others. Currently, acrylic acid is heavily consumed in manufacturing diapers as polyacrylic acid and cross-linked polyacrylic acid, super absorbent polymers. Diapers are the fastest growing segment, at CAGR of 7.7%, and is expected to dominate the global acrylic acid market beyond 2020. Increasing geriatric population in the U.S. and Canada are projected to drive adult incontinence products demand. Geographically, the Asia Pacific market is projected to lead the global industry. Industrially important acrylate esters include methyl acrylate, butyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, 2-ethylhexyl acrylate and others.
Inexpensive feedstocks derived from petrochemicals have sustained the production of plastic materials on a massive scale, but the limited nature of these resources has necessitated the development of synthetic routes derived from renewable resources. Stringent government regulations pertaining to the environmental safety and human health, and volatile prices of the raw materials are restricting the growth of the acrylate market globally. A key challenge lies not only in finding a viable route from renewable feedstocks, but also in developing an overall process that itself is sustainable, of low environmental impact, and economically competitive with traditional petroleum products (Hillmyer, M. A. Science (2017) 358:868-870). In this regard, lactic acid has shown particular promise given its ready availability from carbohydrates via fermentation (Bicker, M. et al, J. Mol. Catal. A (2005) 239:151; Holm, M. S. et al, Science (2010) 328:602; Kishida, H. et al, Carbohydr. Res. (2006) 341: 2619; Zeng, W. et al, Catal. Lett. (2009) 133:221; Rasrendra, C. B. et al, J. Chem. Sus. Chem (2011) 4:768) and its facile conversion into a number of commodity chemicals including polylactide (Mäki-Arvela, P. et al, Chem. Rev. (2014) 114:1909-1971; Chen, G. Q. et al, Chem. Rev. (2012) 112:2082-2099).
Direct conversion of lactic acid and the corresponding alkyl lactates into acrylic acid and acrylate esters, respectively, has been reported (U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,859,240; 4,729,978; US 2017/0057900; Zhang, J. et al, Can. J. Chem. Eng. (2008) 86:1047-1053; Zhang, Z. et al, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. (2009) 48:9083-9089; US 2014/0155653; JP 2014189513 A; Tang, C. et al, Catalysis Communications (2014) 43:231-234; Blanco, E. et al, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental (2016) 180:596-606; Yan, B. et al, ACS Catal. (2014) 4:1931-1943). One such route is the direct dehydration of lactic acid using alkali and alkali earth metal catalysts (U.S. Pat. No. 5,252,473). However, these routes generally suffer from limited conversions and yields (Zhang, J. et al ACS Catal. (2011) 1:32; Sun, P. et al, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. (2010) 49:9082; Ghantani, V. C. et al, Green Chem. (2013) 15:1211; Hong, J.-H. et al, Appl. Catal., A (2011) 396:194). Alternatively, pyrolysis of alkyl 2-acetoxy propanoate derivatives, which can be obtained from alkyl lactates directly by acetylation, also has been demonstrated to give the corresponding alkyl acrylates in varying yields with acetic acid as a coproduct (U.S. Pat. No. 2,477,293; Smith, L. T. et al, Ind. Eng. Chem. (1942) 34:473-479; Fisher, C. H. et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc. (1943) 65:763-767; Fein, M. L. et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc. (1944) 66:1201-1203; Filachione, E. M. et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc. (1944) 66:494-496; Fisher, C. H. et al, Ind. Eng. Chem. (1944) 36:229-234; Ratchford, W. P. et al, Ind. Eng. Chem. (1945) 37:382-387; Nezam, I. et al, Org. Process Res. Dev. (2017) 21:715-719). The nature of the alkyl (R) group of the starting lactate was shown to significantly affect the yield of the acrylate ester obtained (Burns, R. et al, J. Chem. Soc. (1935) 400-406; Rehberg, C. E. et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc. (1945) 67:56-57). Nickel catalyzed acetylation of lactide (the cyclic dimer of lactic acid) with acetic acid has been shown to give 2-acetoxypropionic acid, which can be subsequently pyrolyzed to give acrylic acid or converted to the methyl ester for production of methyl acrylate (U.S. Pat. No. 9,290,430). This route is attractive in that it gives high yields of acrylic acid or methyl acrylate from lactide, and utilizes readily available nickel(II) nitrate and nickel(II) acetate as the acetylation catalysts, but requires somewhat harsh conditions.
Currently, acrylic esters are derived from acrylic acid directly, which itself is produced from the oxidation of propene, a byproduct of ethylene and gasoline production, and requires expensive transition metal catalysts and high temperatures. Moving away from petroleum based feedstocks towards a biorenewable starting material is of key interest. The catalytic conversion of alkyl lactates into acrylate esters may have good potential for entry into the bio-renewable chemical commodity market. The shift away from petroleum chemical feedstock is an increasing driving force in the global market. Existing technologies can be complemented by the methods described herein.

Process for the preparation of acrylate esters from alkyl lactates


In an embodiment, a battery includes a housing, a power terminal, a power cell, a switch, and a circuit. The power cell is disposed within the housing, and the switch is disposed within the housing and is coupled between the power cell and the power terminal. And the circuit is disposed within the housing and is configured to receive a control signal from a source external to the housing and to control the switch in response to the control signal.

We are increasingly surrounded by a "cloud" of electronic devices that are network compatible and are capable of exchanging data and programs with the Internet. This has been termed the "Internet of Things" (IoT). To track or monitor each device in the IoT, very large numbers of unique identifiers (UUID) may be needed, billions or trillions in fact. However, many devices are relevant only to one user or a group of users in a local environment such as a living space or a work space. Thus the Internet of Things presents a level of complexity that increasingly has become out of reach for most people, either as too difficult and time-consuming to organize, too big, or too costly. The IoT is suitable for large scale operations such as retail sales and inventory control (replacing in many cases RFID tagging) or urban environments (as in the "smart cities" concept), and for big science (such as environmental monitoring) but in order to penetrate home markets and smaller businesses, simpler systems are needed.
In addition, modern households contain large numbers of batteries used to power electronic devices. Some are essential for safety, such as the batteries that power portable smoke alarms and warn of potential fire hazards, and batteries needed emergency situations such as a power loss, a heavy snowfall, a tsunami, or an earthquake. Merely inventorying the stocks of batteries on hand is not sufficient; batteries must also be routinely tested and replaced as they reach the end of their useful life. Ideally, results of any testing are electronically recorded and archived, with appropriate notifications being sent to those responsible for their upkeep.
These systems are not readily implemented without obsoleting a whole generation of installed devices and consumer products. And where networking is implemented in the devices, the needed communications links require complex setup that is beyond the skill of the average user and programming or firmware that may be incompatible with newer generations of mobile devices.
These combined problems call for a combined solution. Integrating a level of intelligence into a battery is part of the answer, but a network communications system is also needed so that batteries can share relevant information with a user's smart device or a system operator's network. Thus there is a need for a battery:radiobeacon system capable of assisting the consumer with managing battery operated distributed power systems and serendipitously, providing tracking, locating, and a sensor web for the user or for user communities. These and other problems are addressed by the invention described below.

Battery beacon systems and methods of use


A vertical axis driver drives a vertical axis for azimuth angle tracking. A horizontal axis driver drives a horizontal axis for elevation angle tracking. A cross horizontal axis driver drives a cross horizontal axis to which an antenna is attached, that is rotatable around an axis orthogonal to the horizontal axis. An arithmetic processing controller generates a drive signal of a constant azimuth angle the vertical axis when a maximum elevation angle of the antenna is greater than or equal to a set angle in a path of the target object in a single time of continuous tracking. When the maximum elevation angle of the antenna is less than the set angle in the path of the target object in the single time of continuous tracking, the controller issues a drive command of an azimuth angle direction to the vertical axis.

As an antenna device for tracking an orbiting satellite, for example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a three-axis control antenna device that drives and controls individually a vertical axis for azimuth angle tracking, a horizontal axis for elevation angle tracking, and a cross horizontal axis which is on the horizontal axis and orthogonal to the horizontal axis. The three-axis control antenna device in Patent Literature 1 performs switching so that when a beam direction of an antenna is less than or equal to a set elevation angle, inputs are given to drive inputs of two axes out of three axes, whereas when the beam direction of the antenna is greater than or equal to the set elevation angle, inputs are given to the drive inputs of all of the three axes. Also, after the switching to this three-axis driving, a value of a specific axis obtained by calculating the present values of the three axes is provided to the drive input of the specific axis out of the three axes. When tracking a satellite passing near the zenith, the three-axis control antenna device in Patent Literature 1 performs real-time tracking by commanding the vertical axis to drive in an azimuth angle direction and aligning the beam direction of the antenna with a target object for the horizontal axis and the cross horizontal axis.
Even though the rotation speed of the azimuth angle (for the vertical axis) of the three-axis control antenna device in Patent Literature 1 is limited to its own maximum speed, the tracking shortage is compensated by rotating the cross horizontal axis, thereby enabling continuous tracking of a satellite near the zenith.


A ball screw mechanism is equipped with a ball screw shaft formed from a metallic material, a displacement nut inserted over an outer circumferential side of the ball screw shaft, steel balls installed between a first screw groove formed on the ball screw shaft and a second screw groove formed in the displacement nut, and a pair of first and second return members, through which the steel balls are circulated between one end side and another end side of the displacement nut. The first and second return members include main body parts mounted respectively onto one end and another end of the displacement nut, and cylindrical parts that project outwardly with respect to the main body parts. A return passage, through which the steel balls are circulated, is formed inside of the main body parts and the cylindrical parts.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ball screw mechanism in which a nut member is screwed on a ball screw shaft through balls, and by which the nut member is displaced axially along the ball screw shaft under the driving action of a rotary drive source.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, a ball screw mechanism has been known, which is equipped with a screw shaft having helical grooves engraved on an outer circumferential surface thereof, a cylindrical shaped nut member disposed on the outer circumferential side of the screw shaft, and balls disposed via the helical grooves between the screw shaft and the nut member.
In such a ball screw mechanism, for example, a rotary drive source such as a motor or the like is connected with respect to the screw shaft, and by rotation of the screw shaft, the rotational motion of the screw is converted through the balls into linear motion of the nut member, whereby the nut member is displaced linearly along the axis of the screw shaft.
With the aforementioned ball screw mechanism, it is necessary for balls to be circulated between the nut member and the screw shaft accompanying displacement of the nut member in the axial direction. Owing thereto, for example, as in the ball screw mechanism disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-048845, end members are provided respectively on both ends of the nut member having circulation passages therein, and a return passage is disposed along the axial direction of the nut member interconnecting the end members. Then, when the nut member is displaced along the screw shaft, the balls mounted between the nut member and the screw shaft are circulated by being moved from the helical grooves on one end side of the nut member, through the circulation path in one of the end members, to the ball return passage, through the circulation path of the other end member, and once again the balls are moved into the helical grooves at the other end side of the nut member.
However, in the aforementioned conventional art, because a ball return passage through which the balls are circulated is disposed on an outer circumferential side of a hole through which the screw shaft is inserted through the nut member, it is necessary that the nut member be diametrically expanded in a radial outward direction, by an amount corresponding to the portion of the ball return passage. As a result, the nut member becomes larger in size.
Further, the process steps for forming the ball return passage, for returning the balls along the axial direction with respect to the nut member, are troublesome. Also, because the end members are constructed so as to be installed inside both ends of the nut member, the shape of the end members and the shapes at the attachment regions of the end members in the nut member are complex. As a result, fabrication and assembly of the nut member is complicated and productivity of the ball screw mechanism is lowered.


Apparatuses and methods for providing a capability to prevent an automatic transfer switch from automatically switching from a primary to a secondary power source are illustrated. The automatic transfer switch includes a transfer inhibitor that is configured to receive a transfer inhibit signal. In response to receiving the transfer inhibit signal, a switching logic is configured to prevent a contactor of the automatic transfer switch from automatically connecting the secondary source to a load.

Today more and more residential and commercial sites are employing some type of secondary or backup power source to protect against power outages. When a secondary source is installed, a transfer switch is also typically installed to provide a switchable connection between a primary source and a load or the secondary source and the load. In the event that the primary source is not able to provide power to the load, the transfer switch will switch automatically from the primary source to the secondary source.

Automatic transfer switch with transfer inhibitor


A design for an RF electron gun having a gun cavity utilizing an unbalanced electric field arrangement. Essentially, the electric field in the first (partial) cell has higher field strength than the electric field in the second (full) cell of the electron gun. The accompanying method discloses the use of the unbalanced field arrangement in the operation of an RF electron gun in order to accelerate an electron beam.

Electron guns are employed in a variety of applications in the world today. The components of the electron gun and the method of operation depend upon the particular application. Radio frequency guns are a type of electron gun used as particle sources in certain applications. An RF electron gun uses a time varying electric field to accelerate electrons emitted from a cathode. In a common scenario, an RF electron gun can be employed as a particle source for a free electron laser apparatus designed to generate x-ray radiation. Such x-ray light sources have aggressive electron beam quality requirements, e.g. maximum brightness, lowest transverse emittance beam, and in some cases, sufficient charge in the electron bunches to achieve self-amplified spontaneous emission.
The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) Free Electron Laser in Hamburg (FLASH) are two test facilities which operate x-ray radiation generating free electron lasers (FEL). Each FEL, in turn, includes an RF electron gun as the initial particle source. One RF electron gun currently employed at FLASH developed at the Photo Injector Test Facility at the DESY's Zeuthen location (PITZ) is a Cs2Te photocathode device accelerated by a 1.5 cell copper cavity operating in the it mode at 1.3 GHz (hereinafter referred to as the PITZ device). Another example of a state-of-the art electron gun currently in use can be found at the LCLS facility. The LCLS electron gun (hereinafter LCLS device) is an RF electron gun comprised of 1.6 cells. Both devices use an electric field to accelerate photo-emitted electrons.
In both cases the RF electron gun design is such that the cathode is disposed in, or immediately adjacent to, the first cell. In these designs, the first cell is always the partial cell. Moreover, the primary design goal for such RF electron guns has historically been to maintain overall electric field flatness in order to achieve a balanced electric field in both the first (partial) cell and second (full) cell. In such cases, the peak on-axis electric field is the same magnitude in both cells.
Alternatively, an unbalanced field is sometimes used in such electron guns, with the peak electric field being of greater magnitude in the second, full cell. Finally, it is also known in the art to marginally increase the field strength in the first cell relative to the second cell in order to reduce the space charge effect. In such cases, the field strength disparity is marginal, at best, and would not vary by more than ten or fifteen percent.
When generating x-ray radiation under such conditions, it is always preferable to have an electron beam of the highest possible quality with the lowest transverse emittance and, consequently, the smallest electron beam spot size. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an apparatus and method which improves electron beam quality and other beam characteristics in an RF electron gun.


The invention relates to a steam power plant which consists essentially of a steam generator (1), a turbo group comprising a condensing steam turbine (2) and generator (3), a water-cooled condenser (4) and a bled-steam-heated preheating system. In said steam power plant all components, including the fuel storage area (6), are situated at ground level and in the open air. The turbo group (2, 3) and the condenser (4), the preheating system with associated pumps and the transformers (7) are arranged such that a gantry crane is able to pass over them. The steam generator (1), flue gas cleaning system (16) and the chimney (17) are positioned in a row along a common flue gas axis (18) and the turbo group (2, 3) arranged in the immediate vicinity and parallel thereto. As seen from the main wind direction (9), the coal storage area (6) is positioned downwind from the turbo group (2, 3) and the steam generator (1).

The invention relates to a steam power plant, comprising essentially a steam generator, a turbo group with condensation steam turbine and generator, a water-cooled condenser, and a bleeder steam-heated pre-heater system.
Such power plants are usually produced according to customer specification and site requirements and therefore involve lengthy project development, planning, and construction times and, as a result, high costs. Especially the construction time in these customer specification-oriented power plants is influenced by the fact that a very detailed advance engineering is not possible, and essential aspects of the work, for example the construction portion, which should be processed as early as possible, only can be started with a delay.
It is known per se to reduce the construction time by building power plants using open air construction. But this type of construction again causes a number of disadvantages with respect to their operation as well as maintenance and repair. In this connection, DE 1426918 A1 discloses the concept of a steam power plant designed to be built in a shorter construction time and reduced investment costs, and which is supposed to hereby reduce said disadvantages. This concept is essentially based on the fact that the turbo group is arranged in a lane between the steam generators and a portal crane is mounted on the steam generators in order to facilitate both their assembly as well as the assembly of the turbo group. In addition, the principle of multipurpose use has been realized in such a way that the support frames of the steam generator or the coal bunker are at the same time equipped for receiving secondary installations, and the portal crane is able to serve both steam generator and power generator parts. The steam power plant constructed according to this concept is very compact and is brought together within a tight outline. The main emphasis of this solution is the reduction of construction time and expenditures. The price for the advantages of a small space requirement and multipurpose use of support frames is a vertical arrangement of numerous installation parts. But it is especially this vertical arrangement of numerous installation parts whose assembly is facilitated with the highly positioned portal crane during the construction phase, that excludes a use of the crane for necessary repair and maintenance purposes of the same installation parts in the operation phase. After the construction phase, the crane ""s use is essentially limited to the turbo group, since it is unable to access the installation parts of all intermediate planes.
The invention is designed to remedy this problem. Starting with the mentioned state of the art, the invention is based on the objective of creating a steam power plant characterized by very friendly maintenance and repair friendliness. In addition, a steam power plant should be created that achieves substantial standardization and can be built at a variety of possible sites.
The invention therefore is based on a steam power plant comprising essentially a steam generator, a turbo group with condensation steam turbine and generator, a water-cooled condenser, and a bleeder steam-heated pre-heater system and a portal crane and is characterized in that all components of the steam power plant, including the fuel storage site, are located at ground-level and placed in an open air arrangement and the portal crane swings over an area in which the turbo group with the condenser, pre-heater system and associated pumps as well as the transformers are arranged.
If the steam generator, flue gas cleaning system and chimney are located in series within a common flue gas axis, it is useful that the turbo group is located immediately adjacent and parallel to them.
If the fuel storage site is a coal heap, it would be suitable to locate it down-windxe2x80x94seen in the main wind directionxe2x80x94behind the turbo group and steam generator.
The advantage of all these measures is in particular that the standardization of the installation engineering and of the components reduces the investment costs to a remarkable degree. The outline of the power plant is formed by a clearly defined rectangle. This makes it possible to expand the installation at any time by simply placing such rectangles next to each other. The previously common, very extensive project engineering is no longer required hereby. The power plant blocks that will be located next to each other are identical; only the access roads must be minimally adapted. Another advantage is the consistently realized open air placement. This makes it possible to forego the expensive and time-consuming construction of buildings, such as boiler and machine house. The measure of arranging the turbo group with the condenser, pre-heater system and associated pumps, as well as with at least the own-demand transformers in such a way that a portal crane can swing over them also defines a rectangular cross-section for these components. This makes it possible to arrange the installation parts in the tightest space directly next to each other without negatively affecting operation and maintenance. Maintenance and repair work can be performed with the crane. This arrangement also enables the shortest possible connections between the various installation parts, which again has a positive effect on assembly and maintenance.
The sensible measure of locating the coal heap down-wind behind the turbo group and the steam generator in no way has an adverse effect on the requirement of a rectangular cross-section of the installation and can be performed independently from the wind direction. This makes it possible to avoid coal dust emissions in the area of the technical installations and administrative operations. The desired rectangular cross-section in any case can also be realized in relation to the geographical location of the body of water necessary for cooling purposes. The respective situation plan in each case naturally takes into account this water location, whereby the emphasis here is also on the shortest possible connection paths.
A flatbed feeder located at ground level is provided for depositing the unground coal onto the inclined belt to the coal breaker. This means that the large and deep, concrete-lined, subterranean feeder pit that usually was required up to now is no longer necessary, which greatly reduces civil engineering work.
The steam generator is preferably supplied with roughly ground coal from coal silos. It is hereby reasonable that the coal silos associated with the steam generator are connected with the coal breaker located upstream from the steam generator by an at least approximately horizontally extending conveyor device with subsequent vertical conveyor device. The ground-level placement of the horizontally extending conveyor device makes it possible to eliminate complicated steel frames.
The steam turbine has an axial exit so that the steam condenser is located in the axial extension of the steam turbine. This solution, which is advantageous because of the almost ground-level placement of the turbo group, as well as the open air placement, allows unlimited access to the condenser. If condenser pipes must be replaced, this does no longer require removal facade elements from a building, as was the case in the past. In addition, the portal crane swinging over the condenser can be used for such maintenance procedures.
It is advantageous if all pre-heaters are designed for the same pressure on their water side, have essentially the same dimensions, and are located adjacent to the turbo group. This measure guarantees the shortest connections both on the water and steam side and also allows use of the portal crane for maintenance work.
Starting with the recognition that because of lacking advance planning and customization to client specifications the construction time for a power plant is extraordinarily long today, the invention, as characterized in the claims, is based on the task of achieving substantial standardization and creating a power plant that can be built at a variety of possible sites.


A substrate includes a base made of a metal material, a thermally conductive, light-reflective ceramic insulating layer, and a buffer layer formed between the base and the ceramic insulating layer and having a smaller linear expansion coefficient than the base.

There are known light-emitting devices including a substrate and light-emitting elements provided thereon, such as light-emitting devices including a ceramic substrate and light-emitting devices including a metal substrate and an organic resist layer disposed thereon as an insulating layer.
PTL 1 discloses a technique for forming a laminate with high tracking resistance by spraying a ceramic onto one surface of a copper foil to form a ceramic layer, applying an adhesive to the ceramic layer, and laminating a sheet of paper impregnated with a phenolic resin on the surface coated with the adhesive.
PTL 2 discloses a thermoelectric transducer including a metal substrate having an insulating coating formed from a ceramic coating composition.
PTL 3 discloses a technique for forming an insulating coating by applying a ceramic coating composition to a base such as an aluminum base.

Light-emitting device substrate, light-emitting device, and method for manufacturing light-emitting device substrate


A display device includes: a display panel assembly; and a backlight unit. The backlight unit includes an optical sheet, a reflective sheet and a light source. One of the optical sheet and the reflective sheet includes a material which supplies a sound by receiving an electrical field.

(a) Field
The invention relates to a display device, and more particularly, to a display device which displays an image and generates a sound or vibration.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Display devices have been developed from a cathode ray tube ("CRT") type using an existing cathode ray tube to various flat panel display devices such as a liquid crystal display ("LCD"), a plasma display panel ("PDP"), an organic light emitting diode ("OLED") display, an electrowetting display ("EWD"), an electrophoretic display ("EPD"), an embedded micro cavity display ("EMD"), and a nano crystal display ("NCD").
The LCD which has been in the limelight among the flat panel display devices has advantages such as reduced size, reduced weight and low power consumption. With such advantages, the LCD has gradually received attention as a replacement means capable of overcoming a disadvantage of the existing CRT. The LCD is mounted and used on almost all information processing apparatuses requiring a display device.
The LCD includes a LCD panel which generates an electrical field in a liquid crystal material between an upper substrate including a common electrode, a color filter and the like, and a lower substrate including a thin film transistor, a pixel electrode and the like, and applying different electrical potentials to the pixel electrode and the common electrode to change alignment of liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal material. As a result, the LCD displays images by controlling transmittance of light through the changes in alignment of the liquid crystal molecules.
In the LCD, since the LCD panel is a non-emissive element which does not emit light itself, the LCD further includes a backlight unit provided below the LCD panel for supplying light to the LCD panel.
Since the OLED display among the flat panel display devices includes a light emitting diode which emits light itself, the OLED display has an advantage in that the backlight unit is not used.


In a lateral test flow immunoassay device, a saliva sample and a buffer solution are delivered into a mixing chamber to mix with a second reagent. The resulting test mixture is allowed to incubate for a pre-determined period of time and then selectively delivered to a test strip.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to testing of saliva samples for drugs of abuse, more particularly, to a device and process which permits the saliva sample to be treated and incubated for a predetermined period of time prior to being introduced to an immunoassay test strip.
2. Description of Related Art
The increased availability and use of drugs of abuse by the general population has caused employers, governmental agencies, sports groups and other organizations to utilize drug screening both as a condition of employment and in order to maintain safety in the work place. Screening tests for the detection of drugs of abuse range in complexity from simple immunoassay tests to very complex analytical procedures. Over the years the speed and specificity of immunoassays have made them one of the most accepted methods for screening for drugs of abuse in body fluids. Typical drug screening tests are performed for the purpose of quickly identifying on a qualitative basis the presence of drugs in a body fluid which may be urine or saliva. A complete analysis of the sample may then be carried out in a laboratory only if the preliminary screening results are positive. More and more such drug screenings are taking place on site or at the work place and are generally carried out by testing personnel who are generally not technically trained, such as laboratory technicians. It is thus important that the drug screening procedure is simple but yet reliable. Further, the test apparatus must be such so as to enable the testing personnel to avoid all contact with the fluid specimen which is being tested.
While blood and urine samples have long been the primary fluids used for testing for disease as well as for evidence of substance abuse, there is increasing interest in testing of saliva specimens. Some advantages in testing saliva are that it is relatively easy to obtain a saliva sample and that a saliva sample cannot be adulterated. Also, testing of saliva gives a result in real time within a span of several hours as compared to urine which gives a test result after-the-fact.
However, the collection and analysis of saliva for diagnostic purposes is complicated by the relatively high viscosity of the fluid. Thus, once a saliva test sample is introduced into a test device, there is little user control over the subsequent events since the fluid flow determines the speed and timing of all of the reactions. Also, if the sample requires pre-treatment with specific reagents to dilute or denature interferants, modify analyte structure, or release analyte from binders, such treatments are generally performed outside the confines of the test device. It has become apparent that numerous advantages would be derived from a self-contained saliva sample test device that allows control over the test sample and is simple to use so that more accurate test results may be obtained.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,634,243—Wickstead is such a prior art device which has an inadequate and ineffective provision for control of the test sample. Other relevant prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,722—Anderson et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,214,629—Freitag et al and U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,986—Charlton et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,576,193—Cui et al is a prior art device which has a fluid metering valve to control the volume of test fluid released to the test strip, but is not concerned with testing of saliva samples nor with control of speed or timing of reactions involving a saliva test sample.


Vinylamide oligomers having molecular weights between about 280 and 7,500 are prepared by the cationic polymerization of vinylamides in the presence of a Lewis acid at a temperature between -100.degree. and 100.degree. C. The resultant vinylamide oligomers are characterized in that they have a proton initiating group at one end and an aldehyde equivalent at the other end. These vinylamide oligomers can optionally be hydrolyzed under acidic or basic conditions to form the corresponding vinylamine oligomers.

Oligomeric materials containing primary amine groups are desirable in numerous applications, particularly coatings, adhesives and curatives for epoxy, isocyanate, aminoplast and other reactive systems. Preparation of low molecular weight or oligomeric primary amine containing polymers has previously been impossible even using the desired precursor monomer N-vinylformamide. Even with use of large amounts of chain transfer agents suitably low molecular weights could not be achieved.
Polymerization of N-vinylformamide (NVF) has been widely reported under free radical conditions to give high molecular weight homo and copolymers. Polymers containing mixtures of primary, secondary and tertiary amine groups (e.g., polyethyleneimine) or oxidatively unstable ethyleneamines (mainly secondary, with terminal primary amines) have been prepared by other routes and used previously.
Vinylamine polymers with molecular weights (Mw) from 3,000 to 6.7 million have been reported. U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,826 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. Reissue Re.30,362 disclose the preparation of poly(vinylamine) salts of mineral acids by polymerizing vinylacetamide with a free radical polymerization catalyst and hydrolyzing the polymer to the desired amine salts by contacting the p-vinylacetamide with an aqueous solution of the corresponding mineral acid. Poly(vinylamine) product of about 3,000 to about 700,000 molecular weight (4000 to about 1,000,000 for the salt product) is suggested. U.S. Pat. No. 4,808,683 discloses making high molecular weight N-vinylformamide copolymer by free radical polymerization.
Zurakowska-Orszagh, et al., J. Polym. Sci, Polym Chem Ed., 19, 1981, 363-369, describes the synthesis of stable complexes of Lewis acids with acrylamide monomers. These complexes have monomer/Lewis acid molar ratios of 2 to 4, and therefore are basically stoichiometric complexes. These complexes are not polymerized, nor do they polymerize spontaneously. Zurakowska-Orszagh, Mirowski and Chajewski, J. Polym. Sci, Polym Chem Ed., 20, 1982, 1775-84 describes the polymerization of acrylamide monomers in the presence of zinc halide Lewis acids. These polymerizations are not ionic, but clearly initiated by radiation induced free radical processes. The authors specifically cite inhibition by added oxygen, a known free radical inhibitor, as proof of the free radical mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,656 discloses polymerization of NVF to extremely high molecular weight polymers above 3 MM using inverse emulsion conditions. NVF polymers and copolymers have the unusual ability to be hydrolyzed easily under acid or base conditions to the corresponding polyvinylamine, giving polymers with highly reactive primary amine groups or, when protonated, high levels of cationic charge. Such materials have numerous applications as curatives in coatings and adhesives, for papermaking, water treatment, enhance oil recovery, for personal care polymers, in biomedical applications and in mineral recovery.
To prepare free radical polymers, it is well known that oxygen and other radical inhibitors must be removed in order to allow the radical chains to grow, consuming the monomer, without excessive use of expensive initiators. The resulting polymers are also rather high in molecular weight, 600,000 to 2 million under bulk polymerization techniques for vinylamide monomers. Such polymers are highly viscous and difficult to process, even in solution (typically in water, one of the few good solvents for poly-N-vinylformamide (PNVF) or poly-vinylamine (PVAm)). For many applications it is desired to have very low molecular weight polymer, e.g., to give low viscosities or better miscibility and solubility, or in reactive systems to give moderate crosslink densities that prevent the system from becoming too brittle. This is typically done with free radical polymerizations with the addition of chain transfer agents, such as dodecanethiol, bromotrichloromethane, or isopropanol. Such agents add unwanted cost and co- or by-products (such as halogens) to the polymer and result in unwanted high polydispersity or too high molecular weights. Unreacted chain transfer agents are also difficult to remove from the mixture.
Alternatively, the free radical polymerization may be run by delay feeding monomer and/or at high dilution in a solvent. This option gives poor kettle utilization, requires the use of much solvent which may be expensive, toxic or hard to remove and, with NVF, still gives polymers with molecular weights in the 50,000 range at reasonable (10%) monomer levels. Running the polymerization at high temperature with excess initiator, particularly with the delay feeds as described above, is not suitable because of the low thermal stability of NVF in the condensed phase and its tendency to auto decompose to colored byproducts. The added initiator is also a significant cost factor.
In addition to free radical polymerization, amine and formamide containing polymers have been made via other means, such as the condensation of ethylene glycol and ammonia, ethanolamine or ethylenediamine or combinations of these compounds at high temperatures in the presence of a catalyst to give polyethylenepolyamines. Such materials give complex mixtures with mainly secondary and tertiary amines and numerous cyclic, substituted piperazine structures. Such materials have limited thermal and oxidative stability and frequently have color problems. Similar materials can be made using ethylenedichloride and ammonia or ethylenediamine, along with a base. These materials produce significant salt byproducts and may also give some quaternary nitrogens.
Polymerization of aziridine produces highly branched polyamines with nearly equal quantities of primary, secondary and tertiary nitrogens. In addition to the problems cited for condensation reactions, the monomer is highly toxic, carcinogenic and explosive.
German Patent Application DE 4030-380-A discloses an anionic N-vinylformamide polymerization process using a basic catalyst to form primarily an NVF dimer and an oligomer with a hydrolytically unstable nitrogen containing backbone.
M. Sawamoto, TRIP 1 No 4, April 1993, 111-115 discloses cationic polymerization of vinyl monomers using an initiator such as a protonic acid or metal halide. Hashimoto, et al., Poly. Sci., 26, 3361-3374 (1988) disclose cationic polymerization of functional vinyl ethers with pendant primary amino groups in which phthalimide is used as a protecting group for the amino pendant. The polymerization is initiated using a hydrogen iodide/iodine (HI/I.sub.2) system.

Functional oligomeric vinylformamides and vinylamines


A flexible shaft comprising a flexible outer tube (10) containing a shaft core with specially designed links (18) that closely fit within the smooth interior of the outer tube (10). The links (18) are substantially rectangular and have construction which limits a flex angle between links. The links (18) may include stop surfaces (17) which limits the flex angle to prevent kinking or limit longitudinal movement of the links (18) with respect to one another.

The invention relates to rotatable flexible shafts and particularly to a flexible shaft capable of driving high torque loads with the shaft at unusual angles and with minimum backlash.
Conventional flexible shafts comprise an outer casing of flexible material and an inner rotational power transmission shaft formed by either (1) wrapped successive layers of wire around a central core wire or by (2) a conventional chain. In the first mentioned shaft, the successive layers of wire are wound in opposite directions with the outermost layer determining the direction of rotation in which the shaft is designed to rotate. If rotated in the opposite direction, the outer layer and the alternate under layers tend to unwind and become loosened, resulting in a reduced torque handling capability of the shaft. Conversely, as the shaft is rotated in the direction for which it was designed, the layers tend to become tight, increasing the torque handling capability but reducing the flexibility
In the second mentioned shaft, chain cores made of conventional links have medium torque handling capability with low flexibility provided the chain is kept under tension. If the chain tension is not maintained and becomes only slightly loose in the tubular shell of the casing, it will kink and form knots. Continued rotation of a knotted chain will soon tear apart the casing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,554,073, overcomes the problem of chain knotting within the tubular shell by forming each link of the chain with two attached loops at a right angle to each other and each having a diameter that fits within the bore of the outer cashing. Each loop in the link therefore holds the other loop along the diameter of the shell and prevents misalignment and resulting knotting if the chain becomes loose.
Torque load capability of any drive shaft is a function of its material strength and its construction. A shaft made of copper or a readily frangible material will not have as long a life as a shaft made of strong steel.
Backlash, or the lost rotation between entry and exit of a shaft being reversed, is a problem in flexible shafts having chain cores when reversing is required because there is a considerable amount of backlash between each successive pair of links in the chain.
It has been found that a shaft having a single link construction with specially designed links will perform as well as the two loop chain described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,554.073 if the links are prevented from tumbling, that is, remain erect along the diameter of the tubular outer shell so that the links cannot tip forward or backward along the axis of the tubing.
The flexible shaft of the invention includes a flexible tubular outer casing containing a flexible shaft formed of a plurality of interconnected links of a design that prevents tumbling and knot-forming and permits unusually high torque loads with less than the usual amount of backlash. This design eliminates the right-angled connection of the two loop link of the above-mentioned patent and facilitates ease of manufacture of various sized links but also results in a stronger, simpler, more durable low cost product. It is contemplated that the flexible shafts to be described shall be constructed of steel or some equally strong composite for heavy duty, high torque loads.


A light detecting IC has a single light receiving element, a first signal processing circuit for processing signals outputted from this light receiving element, a pair of input terminals for receiving signals from outside, a second signal processing circuit for processing signals received from outside through the input terminals, and a switch circuit for selecting one from these two signal processing circuits and outputting results of processing by the selected signal processing circuit. A divided photodiode with two light receiving elements may be connected to the input terminals. Alternatively, another light receiving element which has a larger light receiving surface than the single light receiving element installed on the IC may be connected to one of the pair of input terminals.

This invention relates to a light detector such as a photoelectric switch and a light detecting IC used therefor.
Photoelectric switches of a type using an IC loaded with a light receiving element and a processing circuit therefor have been known. Such an IC will be hereinafter referred to as light detecting IC. FIG. 11 shows the structure of a conventional photoelectric switch of the so-called reflection type using a light detector 75 having a printed circuit board 74 loaded with a light emitter 73 provided with an LED 72 and a light detecting IC 70. Numeral 76 indicates a casing which constitutes the main body of the photoelectric switch. Numerals 77 and 78 indicate lenses respectively for projecting and receiving light and positioned respectively opposite the LED 72 and a photodiode 71 on the light detecting IC 70.
Light emitted from the LED 72 is projected forward through lens 77. If a target object to be detected is present in the travel path of this light, reflected light from a surface of the object is led through lens 78 to the light detecting IC 70. The light detecting IC 70 carries thereon not only the photodiode 71 for receiving the reflected light but also a processing circuit (not shown) for determining the presence or absence of a target object by processing the signal from this photodiode 71. The processing circuit makes this determination by comparing the level of the received signal with a specified threshold value and outputs a signal indicative of the result of the determination to an external device.
There have been other types of conventional photoelectric switches such as the so-called transmission type with a light emitter and a light receiver disposed opposite each other and the so-called optical fiber type using an optical fiber to transmit the light from the emitter or the reflected light from the target object.
Among the photoelectric switches of the reflection type, furthermore, there is also a so-called distance-setting type. A photoelectric switch of this type comprises a light detecting IC with a photodiode with two separated elements (hereinafter referred to as the divided photodiode) and capable of detecting the presence of a target object within a specified range of distance from the point of observation, for example, by considering the difference between the output signals from these photodiode elements and comparing the level of this differential signal with a specified threshold value.
In general, a photodiode with a large area must be used in a photoelectric switch if its detection distance (that is, the range of distance within which a target object is detectable) is to be set relatively long such that light from a large distance can be dependably received. Similarly, each element of a photoelectric switch of the distance-setting type must have a large area such that the difference in quantity of light received by the two elements of the divided photodiode can be accurately detected for a high-precision detection.
With a photoelectric switch of the optical-fiber type, it is also desirable to use a photodiode with a large area, especially when an optical fiber with a large diameter is used to transmit reflected light from a target object through an optical fiber to a light receiving element, such that divergent light propagating out of the end surface of the optical fiber facing the light receiving element can be dependably captured by the light receiving element.
If it is attempted to use a single light-detecting IC in common for a photoelectric switch with a long detection distance, a photoelectric switch of a distance-setting type, a photoelectric switch with an optical fiber having a large diameter so as to receive light efficiently and a photoelectric switch which does not require its detection distance to be too long, such that the effect of mass production will be improved, it becomes necessary to load a photodiode with a large diameter. Thus, the light detecting IC becomes large as a whole and its production cost is adversely affected. Even if the idea of using a single light-detecting IC is discarded and light-detecting ICs each loaded with a photodiode suited for a different kind of photoelectric switch are produced, the IC becomes large if loaded with a large photodiode or a divided photodiode. If an IC is produced such that the photodiode is to be connected externally, on the other hand, different ICs will have to be provided for different photoelectric switches because they have different processing circuits.
A brief survey reveals that most conventional photoelectric switches are of the transmission or reflection type, being used for purposes for which the detection distance need not be set too long and a photodiode with a modest area would be sufficient. Thus, it is cost-wise inefficient and increases the cost of an IC unnecessarily if light detecting IC loaded with a photodiode with a large area or a divided photodiode with two elements is produced for only infrequently used applications.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a cost-wise effective light detection IC having only one light receiving element with only a modest light receiving area but being connected to two separate light receiving elements or one large light receiving element such that output signals from such an externally connected element can be processed on the IC and hence that it can be used not only for situations where the detection distance need not be set long but also for situations where the detection distance is long, a distance is intended to be measured or an optical fiber with a large diameter is used.
It is another object of this invention to provide an inexpensive light detector of a type generating a signal for measuring distance by connecting such a light detecting IC with two separated light receiving elements and using output signals therefrom.
A light detecting IC embodying this invention, with which the above and other objects can be accomplished, may be characterized as comprising a single light receiving element, a first signal processing circuit for processing signals outputted from this light receiving element, an input terminal for receiving signals from outside, a second signal processing circuit for processing signals received from outside through the input terminal, and a switch circuit for selecting one or the other of these two signal processing circuits and outputting results of processing by the selected signal processing circuit.
The single light-receiving element is for receiving light from a light emitter disposed at a specified position or reflected from a target object of which the presence or absence is to be detected. A photodiode is usually used for this purpose. The first signal processing circuit serves to receive a signal from the light receiving element and to output the result of a signal processing carried out thereon according to the condition of the received light such as the result of comparison between the quantity of the received light and a specified threshold value. It may include an amplifier for amplifying the received signal, a comparator for comparing the amplified signal with the threshold value and an output circuit for outputting the signal received from the comparator to the exterior of the IC. The second signal processing circuit, like the first signal processing circuit, is structured so as to receive light from a light receiving element and to output a signal according to the condition of the received light. The switch circuit is for selectably connecting the single light receiving element with the first signal processing circuit or the input terminal with the second signal processing circuit. For making these connections, the switch circuit may include external terminals provided to the IC and its connecting lines. Suitable ones of these terminals are connected in order to select one of the signal processing circuits. The switch circuit may be installed on the IC. It may be placed anywhere with respect to the first and second signal processing circuits. It may be placed on the downstream side of the amplifier or of the comparator. It may be placed downstream to the first comparator and upstream to the second amplifier.
If the switch circuit selects the first signal processing circuit, the IC can be used for the ordinary purpose of a photoelectric switch (of either the transmission or reflection type) since the result of signal processing according to the condition of light received by the single light receiving element is outputted. If a light receiving element divided into two parts or a large light receiving element with a larger light receiving surface than that of the single light receiving element on the IC is connected to the external terminal and the switch circuit selects the second signal processing circuit, on the other hand, the result of processing in accordance with the condition of light received by the externally connected light receiving element is outputted. Thus, the IC can be used for a light detector of the distance-setting type or for a detection which would require a large light receiving area such as a detector using an optical fiber. Since light receiving elements of different kinds can be easily attached to the external terminals, an appropriate kind of light receiving element can be selectively attached to the external terminals, depending on the kind of light emitter used for the light detection.
In order to have a light receiving element of the type divided into two parts connected to the light detecting IC thus structured, the IC must be provided with a pair of external terminals. The second signal processing circuit is then structured with differential amplifiers for generating a differential signal representing the difference between the signals inputted through the external terminals and a comparator for comparing the level of this differential signal with a specified threshold value.
The light receiving elements of such a divided photodiode are individually connected to the external terminals. If these light receiving elements are placed at different positions with respect to the light emitter, a detection signal indicative of whether a target object is present within a specified range of distance from the point of observation can be outputted. If the differential signal is compared with a plurality of threshold values, it is possible to output a signal indicative of the distance or of the target object from the observation point.
If a light receiving element with a larger light receiving surface than that of the single light receiving element on the IC is connected, it is connected to one of the pair of the external terminals, the other terminal being grounded. In this case, the differential signal is indicative of the quantity of light received by this larger light receiving element. The differential signal thus obtained may now be processed (such as for comparing the signal level with a threshold value) by the first signal processing circuit.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the first signal processing and the second signal processing circuit may be structured so as to share a single common circuit for the output of the result of processing. The circuit for outputting the result of signal processing is for outputting a final detection signal indicative of the presence of absence of a target object. If a circuit is required for matching the levels of the input signals through the internal light receiving element and the input signal through the external terminal, such a circuit may also be shared between the first and second signal processing circuits. When there is such a circuit connected in common to both the first and second signal processing circuits, the switch circuit serves to switch the connection between its common part and its individually dedicated parts.
A light detector embodying this invention is characterized as comprising such a light detecting IC provided with a pair of external terminals and a light detecting element divided into two parts connected to this pair of terminals. It is preferable to have both the IC and the divided light receiving element mounted to a single printed circuit board.

Light detector and light detecting IC therefor


A press switch includes a base, a contractible pulling rod, an upper casing, and an actuator, and when the actuator is pressed to compress a resilient spring between the upper casing and the actuator, such that the contractible pulling rod and its press terminal move downward until two movable contact points are in contact with two fixed contact points of input/output terminal on both sides of the base to electrically connect to power supply If the actuator is released, the extension of the resilient spring lifts the contractible pulling rod and its press terminal, and thus the two movable contact points are forced to be detached from the fixed contact points of the input/output terminals on both sides, so as to disconnect the power supply. The invention can assure the safety of the use of an electric appliance product such a tool machine.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to press switches, and more particularly to a press switch having a force-to-detach function for assuring the safety of a use of electric appliances such as the use of a tool machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
A switch provided for electric connection has been used for years, and switches are a necessary device for controlling power supply. With the installation of a switch, we can disconnect a power supply as needed to prevent any accident caused by a continual use of power supply. The constantly connected power always keeps the power on and disconnects the power when the power is not needed. Therefore, all electric appliances and products require switches, and the basic operating principle of a switch is to electrically connect two electrodes to form a circuit for accessing electric power. If the two electrodes are not connected, the power will be disconnected, and thus the electric power cannot be accessed.
In general, a switch makes sure the connection and disconnection of electric power, and also takes safety into consideration. For example, electric leakages and wrong connections should be prevented. Tool machines such as electric drills, electric saws, or electric grinders involve a certain risk for their operations, and thus these machines adopt the constantly disconnected power. In other words, if the machines are not in use, their power is kept disconnected all the time. Such an arrangement assures that the machine is not operable without electric power supply when they are not in use and assures the safety of the operators. However, the tool machine produces a high temperature due to the high current or repeated contacts, and the two contact points may be melted or become a sticky status, and thus causing a short circuit to the tool machines. Since most constantly disconnected power measures use a single point for the electric contact, therefore the sticky contact terminals cannot be detached from each other, and it will jeopardize the safety of users. Therefore, finding a way of improving the press switch structure having a force-to-detach function and solving the problem of a short circuit of the tool machines caused by the sticky contacts, the high current, or repeated contact under a high temperature of operation demands immediate attentions and feasible solutions.

Press switch having a force-to-detach function


A valve spring retainer for an internal combustion engine includes a body having a lower portion and an upper portion. The lower portion defines a radial flange and a first opening extending axially therethrough. The upper portion includes a first wall and a re-entrant lip. The first wall extends at least partially axially away from an outer perimeter edge of the radial flange. Together, the first wall and the radial flange define an open reservoir for receiving and retaining oil therein. The re-entrant lip extends from an outer end of the first wall at least partially radially inward toward a central axis of the first opening. The re-entrant lip extends over a portion of the reservoir defined by the first wall and the radial flange.

Internal combustion engine systems include intake and exhaust valves for directing the flow of fresh air and combustion gases into and out of the combustion cylinder. The valves are generally located in a cylinder head of the engine, above the combustion cylinder and within an enclosed space between the top of the engine block and the valve cover. The valves engage with a rocker arm extending from a camshaft of the internal combustion engine system, which controls actuation of the valves.

Valve spring retainer incorporating lubrication oil trap


A LCD panel including an active device array substrate, an opposite substrate, a liquid crystal layer, a conductive sealant and restraining elements is provided. The active device array substrate includes common lines, transfer pads and a dielectric layer. The dielectric layer has openings exposing the transfer pads. The opposite substrate has a common electrode. The liquid crystal layer and the conductive sealant are disposed between the active device array substrate and the opposite substrate. The conductive sealant surrounds the liquid crystal layer. The openings are corresponding to corners of the conductive sealant. The conductive sealant fills the openings and the common electrode is electrically connected to the transfer pads through the conductive sealant. Further, the restraining elements are between the active device array substrate and the opposite substrate and are distributed around the corners of the conductive sealant such that the conductive sealant is forced to fill into the openings.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to a display panel, and in particular to a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel.
2. Description of Related Art
Nowadays, the performance requirements of the market for the LCDs are high contrast ratio, no gray scale inversion, little color shift, high luminance, high color vividness, high color saturation, quick response, wide-viewing angle and so forth.
In the conventional thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCDs), an organic passivation and pixel electrodes electrically connected to thin film transistors are formed on an inorganic passivation that covers the thin film transistors so as to increase aperture ratio. Since the thickness of the organic passivation is about 40000 angstroms, the pixel electrodes formed on the organic passivation can extend above and overlap with scan lines and data lines. In the pixel design with high aperture ratio, since the thickness of the organic passivation is great (about 40000 angstroms), parasitic capacitance between the pixel electrodes and the scan lines and parasitic capacitance between the pixel electrodes and the data lines can be ignored.
In the conventional TFT-LCDs, a plurality of openings are required to be formed in the organic passivation to electrically connect transfer pads of a TFT array substrate and a common electrode of a color filter substrate. Further, silver paste is required to be dispensed at positions corresponding to the transfer pads. Since sealant and the aforesaid silver paste are formed by different dispensing processes, the dispensing of silver paste lowers throughput of the conventional TFT-LCDs. In addition, due to the dispensing of silver paste, the cell gaps of the conventional TFT-LCDs cannot be precisely controlled thereby display mura generates.

Liquid crystal display panel having conductive sealent


A device includes: a surface mount device carrier configured to be mounted to a metal submount of a transistor package, said surface mount device carrier includes an insulating substrate includes a top surface and a bottom surface and a first pad and a second pad arranged on a top surface of said surface mount device carrier; at least one surface mount device includes a first terminal and a second terminal, said first terminal of said surface mount device mounted to said first pad and said second terminal mounted to said second pad; and at least one of the first terminal and the second terminal being configured to be isolated from the metal submount by said insulating substrate, where at least one of the first pad and the second pad are configured as wire bond pads.

Radio frequency (RF) power amplifier transistor products use high-quality Q capacitors in close proximity to the transistor die to achieve higher video bandwidth for the transistors. Silicon based capacitors (trench CAPs or similar capacitors) are being used as they can be attached onto the heat sink right next to the semiconductor transistor die. However, silicon-based capacitors are expensive and provide limited capacitance. Such silicon-based capacitors use trenches or vias to increase its Q but are limited to the nF range in capacitance. This results in the need for a greater number of silicon-based capacitors to provide a desired capacitance and thereby further driving up costs. Additionally, the greater number of silicon-based capacitors needed increases the cost of manufacturing associated with die attach, increases the amount of wire bonding as well as increasing the complexity of manufacturing, which lowers the yield.
Surface mount device (SMD) ceramic capacitors are cheap, have a high Q and provide increased capacitance (in the ρF range) compared to the silicon based capacitors (in the nF range). These surface mount devices are intended to be mounted directly to traces or contacts on circuit boards. Surface mount devices are not compatible with typical RF transistor packages in that the surface mount devices cannot be mounted on the metal heatsinks typically used in RF packages. Surface mount device (SMD) capacitors have both terminals on their bottom surface—which will short out when mounted on a metal flange (heat sink) of typical RF transistor packages. Additionally, the surface mount devices (SMDs) cannot be connected using the wire bonds typically used in RF transistor packages.
Accordingly, what is needed is a RF product that can implement a device carrier that can utilize various component configurations to reduce package cost, reduce package manufacturing cost, reduce manufacturing complexity, and/or the like.

Device carrier configured for interconnects, a package implementing a device carrier having interconnects, and processes of making the same


An apparatus and method for matching information between a first and a second processor to preserve a call includes determination units each provided in the respective processor. When a communications link experiences a fault, the determination units determines whether or not information items, respectively, in first and second processors, are to be preserved. A transmission unit notifies a match unit in a second processor of a determination of the call preservation. The match unit in the second processor compares the received information with an information to be preserved by the information of the second processor, and notifies the first processor of a result of a match or a non-match. A first initialization unit and a second initialization unit initialize their information items, respectively in the first and second processors, based on the result.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a packet exchange and a stored program controlled switching system, and more particularly to a call information matching system for matching information on calls in call processors in the packet exchange when a severed communcations link is restored.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional stored program controlled-switching system (SPCS).
A stored program controlled switching system (SPCS) has a plurality of processors which handle the calls. An SPCS shown in FIGS. 1 & 2 comprises a line concentrator (LC), a digital switching module (DSM), a call processor (CPR) and a main processor (MPR). The line concentrator (LC) directly terminates plural pieces of terminal equipment (TE), multiplexes and transmits cells to intraoffice highways, performs a scan and signal distribution (SCN/SD) call control from each piece of the terminal equipment (TE) on a time slot sixteen (TS16) for an analog subscriber, and extracts D channel call control information for a digital subscriber. The switching module (DSM) switches a data frame, e.g. a packet or a cell, over to output highways. The call processor (CPR) performs a call control by commanding the switching digital module (DSM), based on call control information from the line concentrator (LC). The main processor (MPR) controls the entire exchange system and its communications with other offices.
For example, an eight megabit per second [8 Mbps] optical communications link connects the most subordinate processor with a subscriber loop carrier shelf (SLCSH) for accommodating an analog subscriber, having thirty-two [32] time slots every two megabits per second [2 Mbps]. A change in the scan and signal distribution call control (SCN/SD) detected by the hardware is notified as TS16 information to the most subordinate processor for its processing.
The line concentrator (LC) shown in FIG. 1 comprises a digital loop carrier shelf (DLCSH) for accommodating a digital subscriber, a subscriber loop carrier shelf (SLCSH) for accommodating an analog subscriber, a digital terminal shelf (DTSH) for accommodating a digital terminal, a signal controller (SGC) for exchanging TS16 data or D channel call control information, a line switch (LSW) for switching over to the signal controller (SGC) various input/output data from the digital loop carrier shelf (DLCSH), the subscriber loop carrier shelf (SLCSH) and the digital terminal shelf (DTSH), and a line processor (LPR) for supervising the line switch (LSW) and the signal controller (SGC).
In case of a digital loop carrier shelf (DLCSH), a D channel is one of time slots zero [0] (TSO), which is a time slot in an eight megabits per second (8 Mbps) optical communications link, as a link control access protocol for a D channel link (LAPD link) for use in a call processing control.
FIG. 2 is a sketch outlining a processor control by a stored program controlled-switching system (SPCS).
As described above, the line processor (LPR) controls communications with the terminal equipment (TE), the call processor (CPR) controls stored program communications and other services (such as numerical translations and connections), and the main processor (MPR) controls the switching system (SPCS).
It is still possible that statuses of calls controlled by these processors, do not match each other, when the processors resume a phase-B/C or when a communications link between the processors is restored. To overcome such a possibility, the prior art system is arranged such that the processors for call processing temporarily suspend all of their monitoring functions for matching calls on completion of a phase-B/C resumption or a communications link restoration, and then restart respective monitoring functions for detecting a subscriber action (e.g. an OFF-HOOK event and an ON-HOOK event) on completion of a matching process for preserving a call.
A phase resumption is to invoke a system initialization caused by a hardware fault or a software fault related to an intra-processor CC control. B/C refers to a severity of a fault.
FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram illustrating a conventional call preservation process.
More specifically, FIG. 3 shows in detail the procedure outlined in the description of FIG. 2.
Both, a superordinate processor (e.g. a call processor or a CPR) and a subordinate processor (e.g. a line processor or LPR) cover an interruption thereby ignoring a request for processing a subscriber action. Then, the superordinate processor creates lists of calls to be preserved and notifies the subordinate processor of the lists of the calls to be preserved. Each list itemizes a plurality of calls to be preserved. The subordinate processor determines whether or not a call in the list can be preserved by its own information items or pieces and notifies the superordinate processor of the determination in a matching result response.
After repeating the procedure for all the lists of calls to be preserved, both the superordinate processor and the subordinate processor initialize calls not to be preserved, thereby completing a call matching for preserving a call. Then, they announce a resumption of a call processing and restart respective monitoring functions.
However, a conventional call preservation process requires a considerable amount of time for matching call information held by the respective processors in addition to time required for communications between them. Currently, it requires about one [1] to two [2] minutes. Meantime, a subscriber action, such as a call origination, generated during the call preservation is completely blocked. The reason why the respective processors suspend their monitoring functions for all calls generated during the call preservation process through an exchange of lists of calls to be preserved between them is that the next process cannot be phased in by responding to a subscriber action without having a call preservation between the respective processors.
That is, the prior art has a problem that a user cannot expect a normal service immediately after a completion of a communications link restoration or a phase-B/C resumption, due to lack of response for a subscriber action such as a call origination.

Call information based matching system for stored program-controlled switching system


The proposed device comprises an outer tube having a central canal and perforations at its one end, a stylet fitted in the central canal of the outer tube, an inner tube, which is in fact a non-return valve and with its one end tightly connected to the outer tube and with its opposite end stretched over the stylet with a possibility of slipping off the latter and getting everted. The device has a receptacle for collecting the pleural fluid, tightly connected to the outer tube and the inner tube, and a retainer for fixing the device in position.

One state-of-the-art device for draining the pleural cavity in rendering medical aid to patients with thoracic injury (SU, Patent Application No. 1,521,492) is known to comprise a drainage tube introducible into the pleural cavity by a stylet or mandrin and having a plugged nozzle, a non-return valve for expelling the air from the pleural cavity into the outer atmosphere, and an elastic receptable for accumulating pleural blood.
However, the afore-discussed known device fails to provide tightness of the pleural cavity during its drainage, which is of special importance when the surrounding atmosphere is infected laden with toxic agents, since air is free to penetrate into the pleural cavity as soon as the stylet is removed from the drainage tube introduced into the pleural cavity and until the plug is fitted into drainage tube nozzle.
Another state-of-the-art device for draining the pleural cavity (SU, Patent Application No. 1,223,920) is known to comprise a drainage tube having a central canal and perforations at one of its ends, a non-return valve provided at the opposite tube end, a stylet fitted in the tube central canal, and a retainer of the device shaped as an eyed strip. The device functions as follows. A skin incision is made in, e.g., the sixth intercostal space along the midaxillary line. The drainage tube is introduced, with one of its ends, into the pleural cavity, using a stylet, as far as the strip thrusts against the thoracic wall, whereupon the stylet is withdrawn. Then the non-return valve is fixed at the opposite tube end through a threaded joint.
In the aforesaid device air-tightness of the pleural cavity is disturbed after the stylet is withdrawn from the tube completely and until the non-return valve is fitted at the tube end, with the result that the air from the ambient atmosphere and particles suspended therein are easy to penetrate into the pleural cavity. As a result, the device in question cannot be used in mass destruction foci containing infectious agents, toxic substances, radioactive substances, and the like.
It is an essential object of the present invention to provide air-tightness of the pleural cavity during its draining and a possibility of transportation of a victim, wherein his/her pleural cavity is maintained air-tight.
It is another object of the present invention to cut down the time required for carrying out the procedure of draining the pleural cavity.
It is one more object of the present invention to obviate the danger of infecting the pleural cavity when the proposed device is used in the foci, wherein the ambient atmosphere contains infectious agents, toxic substances, radioactive substances, and the like.