This invention relates to methods for treating distillates obtained during the process of deodorizing various oils. More particularly, this invention relates to methods for recovering fatty acids, tocopherols, and sterols from a distillate obtained from the deodorizing of various oils.

This invention relates to methods for treating distillates obtained during the process of deodorizing various oils. More particularly, this invention relates to methods for recovering fatty acids, tocopherols, and sterols from a distillate obtained from the deodorizing of various oils.
Oils derived from plants and animals are valuable sources of fatty acids, tocopherols, and sterols. During the process of refining such oils, however, significant amounts of these components, especially the tocopherols and sterols, are lost to various intermediate byproducts and waste streams, which include acidulated soapstocks, deodorizer distillates, or both, depending on the refining method selected. Accordingly, numerous methods have been proposed for recovering fatty acids, tocopherols, and sterols from various refining intermediates, including deodorizer distillates that are obtained as byproducts of a high-temperature distillation step (commonly termed deodorization) during the production of oils and fats.
Deodorization is usually the final step in producing oils and fats from plant and animal sources. Vegetable oils such as soybean oil typically contain volatile impurities that can impart objectionable odor and taste. These volatile compounds generally must be removed to produce edible oils. Deodorization generally involves a steam stripping process wherein steam is contacted with oil in a distillation apparatus operating at low pressure and a temperature sufficient to vaporize objectionable volatile impurities at the operating pressure. This process, commonly known as vacuum-steam deodorization, relies upon volatility differences between the oil and the objectionable impurities to strip the relatively more volatile objectionable impurities from the relatively less volatile oil. In a typical vacuum-steam deodorizing process, vegetable oil is introduced into a distillation apparatus having a plurality of vertically spaced trays, commonly termed stripping trays. Within each stripping tray, steam injected into the vegetable oil entrains objectionable volatile impurities. The combined steam and entrained distillation vapors are usually collected and condensed to form a distillate that can be disposed of or processed further to recover valuable materials.
The major constituents of deodorizer distillates are fatty acids, tocopherols, and sterols, which are present in various relative amounts depending on the oil source and the refining steps the oil is subjected to prior to deodorization. Deodorizer distillate itself has a certain commercial value. However, greater value can be realized when deodorizer distillate is split into a fatty acid-enriched fraction and a fraction enriched in sterols and tocopherols.
Fatty acids isolated from deodorizer distillates are utilized in several nonfood applications and are particularly useful as fluidizing agents for lecithin. Such fatty acids also can be utilized as precursors in a wide variety of molecular synthesis schemes. Typically, the fatty acid portion of deodorizer distillate comprises C10-C22 saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. Soybean deodorizer distillate in particular contains about 50 percent by weight fatty acids.
Deodorizer distillates also contain sterols, which are valuable precursors in the production of hormones. Stigmasterol is used in manufacturing progesterone and corticoids. Sitosterol is used to produce estrogens, contraceptives, diuretics, and male hormones. Soybean deodorizer distillate in particular contains from about 10 to about 18 percent by weight total sterols, of which about 50% is sitosterol, about 20% is stigmasterol, about 20% is campesterol, and about 10% is other minor sterols.
The final major component of deodorizer distillates is tocopherol. Tocopherols are valuable natural antioxidants that help prevent oxidation and spoilage. Tocopherols are also utilized in the production of Vitamin E. Distillates obtained from soybean oil deodorization generally contain a mixture of xcex1, xcex2, xcex3, and xcex4 tocopherol isomers in a ratio of about 15:5:30:50. Alpha tocopherol has the most powerful biological Vitamin E activity. The other tocopherols have weaker Vitamin E activity but stronger antioxidant activity. If maximum Vitamin E activity is desired, non-alpha tocopherols can be converted into the alpha form by well-known techniques, such as methylation.
In the past, recovering tocopherols and sterols from deodorizer distillates and related mixtures has proved complicated and expensive. One difficulty associated with isolating one or more distillate fractions enriched in fatty acids, tocopherols, and/or sterols from deodorizer distillates is that the boiling points of sterols and tocopherols are roughly in the same range. Another difficulty is that deodorizer distillate can undergo thermal degradation if it is processed for extended periods at the temperatures at which sterols and tocopherols vaporize, such temperature conditions which can cause fatty acids to convert into undesirable trans isomeric forms.
Numerous methods have been proposed for treating deodorizer distillates to isolate and recover one or more components. In many of these methods, a first essential process step involves subjecting the fatty acids to an esterification or saponification reaction. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,153,055 teaches a process for isolating sterols and tocopherols from deodorizer distillate by esterifying the fatty acids with a monohydric alcohol under strongly acidic conditions. The sterols and tocopherols are then fractionally extracted from the esterification product mixture with a combination of polar and nonpolar solvents.
In an alternative esterification method, U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,817 teaches esterifying the sterols with the fatty acids and then distilling the resulting mixture to obtain a residue containing sterol esters and a distillate containing tocopherols. Sterols are then isolated from the residue by subjecting the sterol esters to cleavage under acidic conditions.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,349,270 discloses that deodorizer distillate can be treated with lime soap to saponify the fatty acids, followed by extraction of the unsaponifiable fraction (tocopherols and sterols) with acetone, in which the saponification products are insoluble. The extract is then washed and concentrated, as for example by solvent distillation, and then cooled to crystallize sterols which are removed by filtration, leaving a high purity tocopherol fraction. The fatty acid soaps formed by the process can be acidulated and converted into free fatty acids.
Extractive separation methods also have been employed in treating deodorizer distillates to isolate one or more components. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,138,075 describes a method for recovering tocopherols from a deodorized distillate which comprises contacting the distillate with liquid water at elevated temperature and pressure, thereby producing a raffinate phase stream having a relatively high concentration of tocopherols and an extract phase stream having a relatively high concentration of fatty acids. The raffinate stream and the extract stream are then cooled to a temperature at which the organic components thereof are immiscible with liquid water, whereupon removal of water produces a tocopherol-enriched fraction and a fatty acid-enriched fraction, respectively.
None of the above methods for isolating one or more components from a deodorizer distillate has proved satisfactory, however. Methods employing an esterification step or saponification step introduce processing complexity and require later processing steps that often involve use of strong mineral acids in order to convert the respective esters or soaps into free sterols and free fatty acids. Mineral acids can be dangerous in handling and can induce discoloration or other degradation of distillate components. Methods requiring extractive steps are expensive and create the potential for contamination by residual solvent.
Previously known methods for isolating one or more components from a deodorizer distillate generally have required lengthy and costly processing steps. Consequently, further improvements in methods for treating deodorizer distillates have been sought. The present invention relates to improved processes having advantages over those previously disclosed. The methods of the invention produce a fatty acid-enriched distillate fraction directly and simply from a vaporized distillate. The methods of the invention also produce a distillate fraction enriched in sterols and tocopherols, which can be treated further by various methods to isolate a sterol fraction and a tocopherol fraction.
One aspect of the present invention relates to methods for isolating one or more components from vaporized distillates obtained from the deodorization of various oils.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to methods for producing mixtures enriched in free fatty acids from distillates obtained from the deodorization of various oils.
Yet another aspect of the invention relates to methods for producing mixtures enriched in sterols and tocopherols from distillates obtained from the deodorization of various oils.
One embodiment of the invention is a process for isolating components from a vaporized distillate that comprises the steps of introducing a vaporized distillate comprising sterols, tocopherols, and fatty acids into a first condensing zone of a condensing unit having at least two condensing zones and operating at a pressure of less than about 10 mm Hg, the first condensing zone operating at a temperature of from about 330 to about 450xc2x0 F.; condensing a first fraction of the vaporized distillate in the first condensing zone to produce a first condensate enriched in sterols and tocopherols, leaving a remaining fraction of vaporized distillate; introducing the remaining fraction of vaporized distillate into a second condensing zone of the condensing unit, the second condensing zone operating at a temperature of from about 100 to about 170xc2x0 F.; and condensing a second fraction of the remaining fraction of vaporized distillate in the second condensing zone to produce a second condensate enriched in fatty acids, leaving a waste vapor.
Another embodiment of the invention is a process for isolating components from a vaporized distillate that comprises the steps of introducing a vaporized distillate comprising sterols, tocopherols, and fatty acids into a first condensing zone of a condensing unit having at least two condensing zones and operating at a pressure of less than about 10 mm Hg, the first condensing zone operating at a temperature of from about 330 to about 450xc2x0 F.; condensing a first fraction of the vaporized distillate in the first condensing zone to produce a first condensate enriched in sterols and tocopherols, leaving a remaining fraction of vaporized distillate; introducing the remaining fraction of vaporized distillate into a second condensing zone of the condensing unit, the second condensing zone operating at a temperature of from about 100 to about 170xc2x0 F.; condensing a second fraction of the remaining fraction of vaporized distillate in the second condensing zone to produce a second condensate enriched in fatty acids, leaving a waste vapor; recovering the first condensate; and recovering the second condensate.
Yet another embodiment of the invention is a process for isolating components from a vaporized distillate that comprises the steps of introducing a vaporized distillate comprising sterols, tocopherols, and fatty acids into a first condensing zone of a condensing unit having at least two condensing zones and operating at a pressure of less than about 10 mm Hg, the first condensing zone operating at a temperature of from about 330 to about 450xc2x0 F.; condensing a first fraction of the vaporized distillate in the first condensing zone to produce a first condensate enriched in sterols and tocopherols by passing the vaporized distillate through a first packing where it is contacted with recycled first condensate maintained at a temperature of about 380xc2x0 F., leaving a remaining fraction of vaporized distillate; introducing the remaining fraction of vaporized distillate into a second condensing zone of the condensing unit, the second condensing zone operating at a temperature of from about 100 to about 170xc2x0 F.; and condensing a second fraction of the remaining fraction of vaporized distillate in the second condensing zone to produce a second condensate enriched in fatty acids by passing the remaining fraction of vaporized distillate through a second packing where it is contacted with recycled second condensate maintained at a temperature of about 135xc2x0 F., leaving a waste vapor.
A further embodiment of the invention is a process for isolating components from a vaporized distillate that comprises the steps of introducing a vaporized distillate comprising sterols, tocopherols, and fatty acids into a first condensing zone of a condensing unit having at least two condensing zones and operating at a pressure of less than about 10 mm Hg, the first condensing zone operating at a temperature of from about 330 to about 450xc2x0 F.; condensing a first fraction of the vaporized distillate in the first condensing zone to form a first condensate enriched in sterols and tocopherols by passing the vaporized distillate through a first packing where it is contacted with recycled first condensate maintained at a temperature of about 380xc2x0 F., leaving a remaining fraction of vaporized distillate; introducing the remaining fraction of vaporized distillate into a second condensing zone of the condensing unit, the second condensing zone operating at a temperature of from about 100 to about 170xc2x0 F.; condensing a second fraction of the remaining fraction of vaporized distillate in the second condensing zone to produce a second condensate enriched in fatty acids by passing the remaining fraction of vaporized distillate through a second packing where it is contacted with recycled second condensate maintained at a temperature of about 135xc2x0 F., leaving a waste vapor; recovering the first condensate; and recovering the second condensate.
These and other aspects of the invention will become apparent in light of the detailed description below.

Methods for treating deodorizer distillate


A ratchet screwdriver and method of making same wherein there is a handle and there are a ratchet gear and pawls inside the handle. An adjuster is inside the handle and is movable by a tool extending into the handle for positioning the adjuster relative to the gear and thereby eliminating play between the gear and the handle. Ball bearings are interposed between the handle and the gear and the bearings rotatably support the gear and transmit the anti-play forces that act on the gear.

Ratchet screwdrivers are well known in the prior art, and they exist in a variety of utilitarian designs. They commonly include a handle and a driven gear, and pawls are disposed intermediate the handle and gear for selective engagement of the pawl with the gear for rotation in selected directions and for ratchet action. In those arrangements, the gear can desirably rotate relative to the handle, and it is common to have clearance between the gear and the handle to accommodate the relative rotation.
The present invention provides for that desired ratchet action, and it does with a tool that eliminates the axial and radial play which are the relative movements between the gear and the handle and other tool parts. Further, the screwdriver of this invention is capable of transmitting rotation and axial forces in a firm transmission through the assembled parts of the screwdriver, and thus be devoid of play between the parts. The adjuster can then be locked in its desired adjusted position.
An adjuster is dispposed in the tool handle and is threadedly connected with the handle and is adjustable relative to the handle and from the tool exterior and thus at the completion of assembling the tool.
The aforementioned objects are accomplished with easily manufactured and assembled parts, and with a resultant screwdriver which is sturdy and firm and free of unwanted so-called shake action between the parts.
Also, this screwdriver permits cannulation action therethrough in that it accommodates the necessary parts to accomplish the aforementioned objectives while presenting a passageway through the axial length of the screwdriver. In the physical arrangement, there are ball bearings which serve the dual purposes of freedom of rotation of the gear relative to the handle and for eliminating play between the handle and the gear, both axially and radially.
Still another object is to provide a method of making a screwdriver having the aforementioned merits, and to do so in an easily assembled and facile manner and with a reliable method.
Objects, other than those expressly mentioned herein, will become apparent to those skilled in the art.


The present disclosure provides a method and a device for realizing remote login. The method includes: a terminal server responding to a login request to an internal system from an end user, and recording and saving login information of the end user for logging in to the internal system; and the terminal server judging and analyzing the way the end user logs in to the internal system according to the login information and pre-configured rule, and allowing the end user to log in to and access the internal system if the analyzed result matches the pre-configured rule. The method and device allows for implementations of the SSO authentication and user bind authentication on the aspect of the data flow in the terminal server, simplifies the process of logging in to and accessing the internal system, and improves the information security of the system.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to computer technologies and, particularly, to a method and a device for realizing remote login.
2. Description of Related Art
Remote application publication belongs to application virtualization technology, which separates the human-machine interactive logic (application interfaces, operations of keyboard and mouse, audio inputs and outputs, card readers, and printouts) from computational logic; when users access one application with the server thereof being virtualized, the user end only needs to send the remote desktop protocol to the server end via RDP/ICA (Remote Desktop Protocol/ Independent computing Architecture) to the server end. The server end thereafter creates independent conversation space for the user in which the computation logic of the application program is executed to send the changed human-machine interactive logic to devices of the user end. The changed human-machine interactive logic can be displayed in the corresponding display of the user end, allowing the user to feel like accessing the local application program.
As the internal applications in the company increases, hundreds of business systems are used within a large-scale company. Thus, the same employee in the company may use dozens of, even hundreds of accounts and passwords, which brings forward standard authentication plans of the different kinds of business systems. Among the standard authentication methods, single sign-on (SSO) and user bind are the two most commonly used kinds of authentication methods.
In the traditional SSO authentication, after the user logs in and is centrally authenticated, the control in the client is used to simulate the user input or the server end is used for inserting authentication data flow which can simulate the user input when the user is accessing other applications, which saves the user the trouble of inputting the user name and the password again when accessing the other applications. Another traditional SSO authentication replaces the manual input by plug-ins in the client after the information of the application program is recorded. In this type of SSO authentication, a central authentication issued server is required and the plug-ins are installed in the client. However, after using the remote application, there is no authentication issued server and there are various clients, making it impossible to add plug-ins which can be initiated as the application program is started in the client or terminal sever to simulate the user input. The traditional user bind authentication logs in to and gets access to the business systems by analyzing the data flow of the client on aspect of the data flow of the client. Since the traditional SSO authentication and the traditional user bind authentication cannot analyze the data flow in the terminal server, therefore, remote login cannot be finished by using the SSO authentication and the user bind authentication on the aspect of data flow of the terminal server.

Method and device for realizing remote login


A semiconductor device manufacturing method is provided in which, in the dummy gate pattern formation process, the pattern formation process is simplified and costs are reduced. A semiconductor device manufacturing method including: forming a mask element on a substrate; patterning the mask element into a prescribed shape, and forming a depression in the mask element; placing a functional liquid in the depression; drying the functional liquid placed in the depression so as to form a functional film; annealing the functional film; and, removing the mask element so as to form a dummy gate pattern of a residue of the functional liquid.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of manufacture of a semiconductor device.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-325070, filed Nov. 9, 2004, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
LSI devices and other integrated circuits have been mounted in portable telephone sets, notebook-type personal computers, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), and other electronic equipment, in efforts to make electronic equipment more compact and provide sophisticated functions. Such LSI devices and other integrated circuits contain field effect transistors (MOSFETs), capacitors, resistors and similar, integrated and stacked on a semiconductor substrate.
However, trends toward greater compactness of electronic equipment in recent years have led to increased demands for smaller device components, and it has become increasingly necessary to reduce the film thickness of gate oxide films in MOSFETs. In light of such circumstances, it is anticipated that reduced gate oxide film thicknesses will give rise to problems of degradation of the reliability of the gate oxide film (TDDB degradation, increased leakage currents, reduced withstand voltages, and similar) in such processes as impurity doping using the gate electrode as a mask and plasma damage during gate electrode processing, and ion implantation into channel regions, source regions, and drain regions.
As one solution to such problems, a MOSFET formation method using a dummy gate pattern has been proposed (see for example Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2004-241751). This dummy gate pattern formation method is described briefly as follows. First, a dummy insulating film, which is a thin silicon oxide film, is formed on the silicon substrate surface. Next, a polysilicon film for use as a dummy gate pattern is formed on the dummy insulating film. Then, photolithography and etching are used to pattern the polysilicon film in the shape of the dummy gate pattern. Next, the dummy gate pattern is used as a mask to perform ion implantation of the silicon substrate with the dummy insulating film intervening, forming a channel region and source and drain regions. Then, the dummy gate pattern and pad oxide film are removed, and a trench portion is formed. A buried gate insulating film and gate electrode are formed in this trench portion.
In this method, after ion implantation using the dummy gate pattern as a mask, the dummy gate pattern and dummy insulating film are removed, and then a new gate insulating film and gate electrode are formed. By this means, plasma damage during gate electrode shaping, damage upon ion implantation into the channel region and source and drain regions, and other data to the newly formed gate insulating film and gate electrode can be avoided.
However, in the method disclosed in the above patent document, a plurality of processes, including formation of a dummy gate pattern oxide film, deposition of a polysilicon film, patterning of the polysilicon film, etching, and formation of a dummy gate pattern, are necessary in order to form the dummy gate pattern. Further, the polysilicon used as the material of the dummy gate pattern is generally expensive. Also, processing at high temperatures is required in order to pattern the polysilicon to the prescribed shape, so that large amounts of energy are necessary.
In addition, despite the fact that the dummy gate pattern requires these numerous processes, entails high costs, and requires large amounts of energy, the dummy insulating film and dummy gate pattern formed on the silicon substrate in the above disclosed patent document are removed from the substrate after ion implantation.
Hence in the case of a pattern which is ultimately removed, there is thought to be an urgent need for proposals of a method of formation of a dummy gate pattern which can be formed at low cost, and which can withstand the elevated temperature and other conditions of ion implantation processes even when formed at low cost.

Semiconductor device manufacturing method


A slinger ring for a vehicle water pump shaft is given a scalloped outer lip, which causes the lip to undulate back and forth past vent holes in the bearing race as the pump shaft rotates. This provides a continual vent hole cleaning and scraping action.

Vehicle water pumps have a rapidly rotating pump shaft with an impeller mounted to the inner end and a pulley at the outer end. The pump shaft extends through a cylindrical housing, where it is supported by a bearing, and is surrounded by a spring loaded face seal that retains coolant in the pump housing. However, such seals often leak a small amount of coolant. It is generally desired not to let the stray coolant collect, as it might reach the pump shaft bearing. Therefore, vent holes, often called weep holes, are provided in the housing to let leaking coolant continually escape. Some designs also provide a slinger ring on the pump shaft, which is intended to fling stray coolant toward the vent holes, assisting its escape. However, if the vent holes become clogged by outside contaminants, their venting function may be jeopardized, requiring that they be cleaned out.

Vehicle water pump with improved slinger


An improved method and system for two way communications between multimedia providers and subscribers utilizes encryption technology for embedding a watermark containing specific data, or a pointer to specific data relating to a multimedia program in the principal program itself. The principal program may include, but is certainly not limited to a television broadcast, cable or satellite program, multimedia over the Internet, a paging service, or radio broadcast. The specific data may include web addresses, hyperlinks, telephone numbers, advertisements or any information related to the principal program. A decoder decodes the embedded data which may point to the related data stored in a database, or may include the related data. The related data is then delivered to the subscriber of the principal program through an appropriate medium, such ADSI, Internet, or radio. The subscriber receives the specific data, which may be delivered simultaneous with the delivery of the principal program, on an appropriate device, such as an ADSI enabled telephone, remote control or wireless telephone, or directly in a web browser. The specific data may also be available for retrieval at a later time. The decoding of the embedded data may occur at the subscriber's receiver, or preferably at a central location, such as the head end of a cable operator, satellite transmitter or Internet service provider.

Various communication media exist for delivering content to subscribers. Many of these networks allow for two-way communication between the deliverer of the content and the subscriber. For example, cable television head-end systems provide two way transport of data between the cable head-end location and the home subscribing to the service. This architecture is used for applications such as pay-per-view, interactive television, subscription services and billing arrangements. Satellite broadcast companies also provide a two-way communications path between the transmission location and the subscriber home. The up-link path sometimes utilizes a telephone or modem. Another known architecture uses an FM radio signal to send secondary data corresponding to a television broadcast, into homes. Telephone or modems are used for the up-link.
While somewhat popular and useful, these architectures suffer from various limitations, especially with respect to delivering mixed media content. For example, two-way cable head-end equipment is expensive to deploy and functions only within a limited number of cable miles. In addition, specialized equipment is needed at the receiver's home, as well as a subscription(s) to the service.
Furthermore, advertisers and syndication companies may broadcast their content nationally, regionally, locally, or in other manners. The above architectures provide little in the way of target marketing based upon individual household composition, except by neighborhood or subscription. Some advertisers, especially those with a limited, local presence, may not be able to afford a subscription to interactive architectures.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,267, issued on Sep. 23, 1997 for "Interactive System for Communications Between a Cordless Telephone and a Remotely Operated Device" describes a handheld cordless telephone that is also able to remotely operate another electronic device, as well as be used as an interface to interact with other devices. It can mute television volume when an incoming call is detected. It can receive a telephone number relating to an advertisement and store it in memory for later retrieving and dialing. U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,267 is hereby incorporated as if fully set forth herein.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,929,920, issued on Jul. 27, 1999 for "System and Method for Encoding Digital Information in a Television Signal" relates to a method for encoding data into a video signal in a manner that does not interfere with the video signal but can be perceived by a photo-detector and thereby enabling recovery of the data. The energy of the encoded signal is added in a portion of the video signal that contains little energy so that a viewer of the video signal will not perceive the embedded signal. U.S. Pat. No. 5,929,920 is hereby incorporated as if fully set forth herein.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,295 issued on Oct. 29, 1996 to Isenberg and Tuomenoksa for "System and Method of Capturing Encoded Data Transmitted Over a Communications Network in a Video System" relates to data representing the telephone number of the service provider transmitted over a communications network that also carries a video signal. The data is captured by a telephony-capable component of the viewer's video system, illustratively a set-top box. The set-top box is connected to the telephone network so that information such as voice signals and data signals may be transmitted between the viewer's video system and the service provider. The set-top box may include an interface for a telephone or another communication device, such as a speaker phone, by which the viewer may communicate with the service provider. The communication device may also be directly integrated into the set-top box. U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,295 is hereby incorporated as if fully set forth herein.

Method and system for capture of location specific media related information and delivery through communications network


A telecommunications system and method is disclosed for improving the quality of data calls within a cellular network by dynamically changing the air interface data rate for transparent and non-transparent data services. As the quality of a higher data rate radio link deteriorates below a specified upper quality threshold due to interference, a change of channel coding to a lower data rate is ordered by the network. If the radio link quality measurements after a specified period of time indicate that the quality level has exceeded a specified lower quality threshold, the data rate is changed back to the higher data rate.

Many cellular networks are currently providing data services, also known as bearer services, for their subscribers. These bearer services provide a transmission path between two access points for data communications, and also provide a user-network interface. To provide these bearer services, cellular networks have established interworking functions for supporting these bearer services within the cellular networks and between the cellular networks and other external networks.
For example, in the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) system, each Mobile Switching Center (MSC), has a dedicated GSM Interworking Unit (GIWU) for handling data calls. The main functions of the GIWU include performing modem connections and rate adaptation. Based on the particular bearer service and transmission rate chosen by a mobile subscriber involved in a data call, the GIWU connects the correct modem for the data call. Since the data rate of data received at the MSC from the network is typically higher than the data rate allowed over the air interface, it is typically necessary to adapt the data rate of data received at the MSC from the network to data rates allowed over the air interface before connecting to the modem. Likewise, it is necessary to adapt the data rate of data received at the MSC from the mobile subscriber back to the data rate for the network.
For example, if the data rate received at the MSC from the network is 22.8 kilobits per second (kbps), but the air interface data rate is only 9.6 kbps per traffic channel, the GIWU must adapt the 28.2 kbps data rate to the 9.6 kbps data rate over the air interface. Typically, this involves the GIWU allocating three is separate 9.6 kbps traffic channels to the mobile subscriber to provide the data to that mobile subscriber.
In addition to providing modem connection and rate adaption functions, the GIWU also ensures the quality of service (QoS) for data calls. The two types of QoS attribute values defined for bearer services are transparent service and non-transparent service. For transparent services, data is transmitted transparently through the MSC without any error detection or correction being performed at the MSC. The data rate is negotiated by the mobile subscriber, which ensures a constant and known transmission speed. However, the error rate is not controlled by the system in transparent data calls. By contrast, with the non-transparent service, the data is signal-processed to ensure an error-free transmission of the data received at the MSC from the mobile subscriber. However, due to retransmission capabilities, the actual transmission rate over the air interface may not be constant.
Due to the low band width of the radio channels used in GSM networks, the maximum data rate over the air interface has, in the past, been only 9.6 kbps. However, recently, cellular networks have begun to selectively deploy 14.4 kbps data services. Although the 14.4 kbps data service provides a higher transmission speed, the channel coding method used for the 14.4 kbps data calls is more susceptible to errors and interference over the air interface than 9.6 kbps data calls. This is due to the nature of the channel coding scheme utilized for 14.4 kbps data calls, which provides higher data throughput by using less error correction bits.
Therefore, to maintain good quality during ongoing data calls, a handover to another channel in the same or another cell is sometimes performed. However, in some cases, a handover would not be the best alternative for maintaining the quality. For example, the handover may be to a worse cell, which can increase the likelihood of a dropped call. To avoid these situations, automatic link adaptation (ALA) to change the channel coding for the serving cell for non-transparent data services has been suggested.
For example, in the standards contribution, version T1P1.5/96-227R3, entitled xe2x80x9cProposal for 14.4 and 7.2 kbps Service for PCS1900,xe2x80x9d a proposal for ALA for non-transparent data services was presented. In this Proposal, it was suggested to dynamically change the data rate from 14.4 kbps to 9.6 kbps to maintain the quality in non-transparent data calls. However, the Proposal only specified the signaling for ALA, not the implementation details, such as what signals to measure or what the decision threshold points should be. In addition, the Proposal specifically states that ALA can only be supported for non-transparent data services.
The present invention is directed to telecommunications systems and methods for improving the quality of data calls within a cellular network by dynamically changing the air interface data rate for transparent and non-transparent data services. As the quality of a higher data rate radio link deteriorates below a specified upper quality threshold, a change of channel coding to a lower data rate is ordered by the network. If the radio link quality measurements after a specified period of time indicate that the quality level has exceeded a specified lower quality threshold, the data rate is changed back to the higher data rate.

System and method for modifying the data rate for data calls in a cellular network


A process for resin transfer molding (RTM) with staggered injection of a resin is provided that injects resin into a plurality of injection ports of a mold. The temperature and pressure applied to the mold are controlled during injection to limit promote rapid filling of the mold cavity. The injection ports are activated for injecting the resin in any order of individually, in groups, or pairings. Fibers are readily added to the mold separately or within the resin. Cycle times of from 1 to 5 minutes are provided for the process.

Resin transfer molding (RTM) is a method of fabricating composite structures with high strength, complex geometries, tight dimensional tolerances, and part quality typically required for automotive and aerospace applications. RTM uses a closed mold commonly made of aluminum with a fiber "lay-up" such as graphite placed into the mold. The mold is closed, sealed, heated, and placed under vacuum. A room temperature (20° C.) or heated resin is then injected into the mold to impregnate the fiber layup. Having the mold heated and under vacuum assists the resin flow. The mold is then held at a temperature sufficient to cure the resin. Typically, a resin experiences three distinct states during the RTM process; a viscous state during injection, a jelling state during which the viscosity of the resin changes to a higher viscosity, and a cure time when the resin materials chemically crosslink and the resin hardens. Molds used for RTM have one or more injection ports for introducing the resin, and at least one exhaust port for gas and excess resin to leave the mold. Multiport injection molds are typically used for larger parts that have an increased processing time.
A common problem encountered during the RTM process is a non-uniform flow of the resin, where the resin experiences a change in viscosity as the resin travels away from the injection point. Furthermore, as shown in the graph of FIG. 1 as the time of processing progresses the pressure and temperature experienced by the resin decreases as a function of time. The aforementioned problems experienced during the RTM process contribute to defects in formed parts.
Existing RTM molds, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,943,078 to Sekido et al. have attempted to address some of the above mentioned shortcomings, however have presented their own limiting issues. As an initial matter, the U.S. Pat. No. 7,943,078 requires the laying up of a fiber substrate within the mold cavity as opposed to injecting a resin that contains fibers therein, which requires additional manufacturing steps, increases costs, and reduces throughput. Once the fiber substrate is pre-positioned within the mold cavity of the U.S. Pat. No. 7,943,078 patent, a fiberless resin is injected into the mold to impregnate the fiber substrate. The resin is injected from a plurality of injection ports in an indirect manner. That is, the resin is injected from injection ports into resin injection runners and once the resin has filled the resin injection runners, the resin flows through the resin injection film gates and finally into the mold cavity. The U.S. Pat. No. 7,943,078 patent provides an exhaust port on one side of the mold and injection ports on all other side of the mold, including an injection port that is in line and parallel to the exhaust port. To this end, the U.S. Pat. No. 7,943,078 teaches that the entire circumference of the product to be molded is covered by either an injection line or exhaust line namely, the resin film gates. Thus, the flow of the resin injected takes up a unidirectional flow pattern toward the exhaust port, so even if fibers were included in the injected resin, the fibers would orient in the direction of the resin flow, thereby resulting in a weak molded product. Additionally, given that the resin is indirectly injected in the U.S. Pat. No. 7,943,078 such that the resin is injected from injection ports into resin injection runners, which once the resin has filled the resin injection runners, flows through the resin injection film gates and finally into the mold cavity, the RTM mold of the U.S. Pat. No. 7,943,078 is incompatible with the injection of resin containing fibers. That is, if the injected resin were to contain fibers, those fibers would accumulate in the injection runners and injection gates and not make it into the mold cavity, resulting in wasted material at a wasted cost, clogged equipment, and additional labor time for cleaning the clogged equipment.
Thus, there exists a need for an improved RTM multiport injection process that minimizes both production defects and cycle time.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Resin transfer molding with rapid cycle time


A switching system in which a unique additional address is used for each session, and session information is transferred as it is without rewriting the session information when a communication device such as a server is switched, a switching method, and a switching program are disclosed. The switching system comprises a switching device (210) for selecting an address for each session from a first communication device, attaching the address to a packet from the first communication device in place of a destination address of the packet, and sending the packet, a dispatcher (240) for setting up a session with the first communication device, selecting a server to deal with the request from the first communication device, and transferring the set up session to a second communication device, and servers (250-1, . . . , 250-n) for taking over the session transferred by the dispatcher and dealing with the request from the first communication device.

Ordinarily, each of communication devices such as a server, client or a like connected to a network has a network address (hereinafter simply called an "address"). A communication device sets up a session with an address of a device of a party to be communicated with and carries out communication by sending or receiving a packet via the session.
It is not always necessary that an address assigned to each of communication devices is an address in one specified layer. For example, an address in a layer stacked directly above a lower layer can be mapped to an address in the lower layer. That is, for example, an IP (Internet Protocol) address in network layer can be mapped to a MAC (Media Access Control) address in data link layer. Also, a plurality of port numbers in transport layer can be mapped to one IP address. In communication devices, a packet can be received or transmitted by using an address assigned in any one of layers or its mapped address.
For example, in communication in the same domain (subnet), a communication device issues an ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) request for an IP address assigned to a communication device of a party to be communicated with. The communication device having the IP address returns a MAC address in response to the ARP request. The communication device having received the MAC address transmits a packet to the returned MAC address. Thus, by using the mapping of addresses in two layers, receipt and transmission of a packet between communication devices can be realized.
Although, in the descriptions below, for convenience of explanation, unless otherwise defined, an address denotes an IP address, the address is not limited only to IP address. Though the explanation is made assuming that communication is carried out between communication devices by using TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) as a communication protocol, there is no restriction on any protocol to be used between communication devices.
Next, operations of setting up a session between communication devices using the TCP are described briefly.
A communication device transmits a request for new connection to a communication device being a party to be communicated with to set up a bidirectional communication session. After that, via the session, data is transmitted and received between communication devices. The request for new connection using, for example, TCP begins with transmission of a SYN (Synchronized) packet. Then, a session is set up by operations referred to as a so-called "3-way handshake" process. At the time of setting up the session, an initial value of a sequence number is notified to each other between communication devices. When a communication device transmits a packet, sequence number of the packet is calculated by adding the initial value to a value corresponding to an amount of data of packets having been already transmitted. A receiver of the packet can check whether or not the packet has been received without a loss by confirming the sequence number of the received packet.
Next, a conventional switching device is described.
A communication system provided with the conventional switching system of this type is disclosed in Technical Reference 1 (F5 Network Japan, "BIG-IP Load Balancer 520"[online] and Internet:<URL,http://www.f5network.co.jp/ja/products/load index.Html>).
FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing a connection configuration of a conventional communication system provided with the switching device disclosed in the above Technical Reference 1. The communication system includes a switching device 121 connected in a local network 120, a plurality of servers 130-1˜130-n, a plurality of clients 100-1˜100-m, and a network 110 serving as a packet exchange network to connect the local network 120 to the clients 100-1˜100-m.
The switching operations of the server by the conventional switching device 121 are described by referring to the connection configuration shown in FIG. 18 and also to FIG. 19 which is a sequence diagram showing operations of server switching by the conventional switching device. The client (hereinafter, explained by using the client 100-1, address 18.104.22.168 in FIG. 19) sets up a session with the switching device having system address (188.8.131.52 in FIG. 19) being a destination representing a plurality of servers 130-1˜130-n.
The switching device 121 in the local network 120 performs load balancing on servers by dispatching requests to the servers 130-1˜130-n. The switching device 121, when receiving a request for setting up a session from the client 100-1, sets up a session between the client 100-1 and switching device 121 in accordance with the 3-way handshake procedure (packets 1901, 1902, and not-shown ACK packet between 1902 and 1903 transmitted from the client 100-1 to the switching device 121 in FIG. 19). Then, a request to the server is transmitted from the client 100-1 to the switching device 121 (1903 in FIG. 19).
The switching device 121 selects a server from the plurality of servers according to some selecting criteria and dispatches a request from the client 100-1. The server may be selected by using the information used for communication control such as a source address or a like written in a header part of a packet as a criterion or by using the application level information contained in a payload part of a packet as a criterion. Although flexible dispatch of requests to servers is made possible in a unit of a session by using the application level information, the processing load on the switching device 121 becomes higher. Servers may be selected according to a round robin method by which requests are dispatched to different servers in order of arrival of the requests.
It is now assumed that the server 130-1 is selected by the switching device 121 as a server to which a request from the client 100-1 is dispatched.
The switching device 121 sets up a session between the switching device 121 and the server 130-1 according to the 3-way handshake procedure (in FIG. 19, packets 1904, 1905, and not-shown ACK packet between 1905 and 1906 transmitted from the switching device 121 to the server 130-1). Then, a request to a server is transmitted from the switching device 121 to the server 130-1 (1906 in FIG. 19).
The header part of a packet has header information including a destination address, destination port number, source address, source port number, communication protocol type, sequence number, and number of bytes (size) of a packet. Moreover, in FIG. 19, the port number, communication protocol type are not required for explanation of operations and, therefore, their descriptions are omitted accordingly. Though an ACK packet notifying a sequence number of the received packet is also transmitted, which causes drawings to be complicated and its description is omitted accordingly.
As shown in FIG. 19, the switching device 121, when dispatching a packet received from the client 100-1 at the sequence 1904 and thereafter, rewrites its destination address (in some cases, simply shown as "Dst" in drawings and hereinafter), its source address (in some cases, simply shown as "Src"), and its sequence number, all which are written on the header part of the packet and sends out the packet having the rewritten addresses, sequence number, or a like to the server 130-1.
More specifically, as shown in FIG. 19, the switching device 121 rewrites the Src of the header part of a packet from 18.104.22.168 (address of client 100-1) into 192.168.1.99 (address assigned to the switching device 121 in the local network 120). The Dst is also rewritten from 22.214.171.124 (system address representing the server 130-1˜130-n) into 192.168.1.100 (address of the selected server 130-1).
Hereinafter, operations of rewriting a sequence number in the switching device 121 are described.
A sequence number of a packet is determined for every session in a every transmitting direction of the session. A sequence number of a SYN packet (10000 shown in 1901 in FIG. 19) in setting up a session and a sequence number (30000 shown in 1902 in FIG. 19) of a SYN-ACK packet (1902 in FIG. 19) in response to the SYN packet are determined as initial values for their own direction and, thereafter, a value obtained by adding a size of a packet to the sequence numbers is attached as the sequence number to the packet for their own direction. In the case of a packet containing an SYN and of a FIN packet showing the termination of a session, even if its size is 0, the addition of one to the sequence number is stipulated in the TCP/IP protocol.
Similarly, for a session between the switching device 121 and the server 130-1, an initial value of a sequence number in a direction from the switching device 121 to the server 130-1 is determined (50000 shown in 1904 in FIG. 19) and an initial value of a sequence number in a direction from the server 130-1 to the switching device 121 is determined (80000 shown in 1905 in FIG. 19).
The switching device 121 stores a difference between an initial value in the direction from the switching device 121 to the server 130-1 and an initial value in the direction from the client 100-1 to the switching device 121. In the example in FIG. 19, the number 40000 being a difference between 50000 and 10000 is stored. Then, when the switching device 121 relays a packet following the packet 1903 in FIG. 19 having received from the client 100-1 and transmits the relayed packet to the server 130-1, the sequence number to be attached to the packet received from the client 100-1 is rewritten into a value obtained by adding the difference to the sequence number.
Similarly, the switching device 121 stores a difference between an initial value in the direction from the switching device 121 to the client 100-1 and an initial value in the direction from the server 130-1 to the switching device 121. In the example in FIG. 19, the number −50000 being a difference between 30000 and 80000 is stored. Then, when the switching device 121 relays a packet following the packet 1907 in FIG. 19 having received from the server 130-1 and transmits the relayed packet to the client 100-1, the sequence number attached to the packet received from the server 130-1 is rewritten into a value obtained by adding the difference to the sequence number.
The switching device 121 having received a response packet (1907 and 1909 in FIG. 19) from the selected server 130-1, transmits the packet, with rewriting its Src, Dst, and sequence number in the header information, to the client 100-1 (1908, 1910 in FIG. 19). The server 130-1, after having completed the transmission of all response packets, attaches a termination flag (FIN) for terminating a session to a packet and transmits the packet (1911 in FIG. 19). In response to this process, a packet having the FIN flag is transmitted from the switching device 121 to the server 130-1 (1912 in FIG. 19).
Further, the switching device 121 transmits a packet having a FIN flag (1913 in FIG. 19) to the client 100-1. The packet having the FIN flag (1914 in FIG. 19) is transmitted from the client 100-1 having received the packet having the FIN flag. Thus, the session between the client 100-1 and switching device 121 and the session between the switching device 121 and the server 130-1 are terminated.
As described above, in the conventional switching device, communication is established between a client and a server by setting up a session independently between the client and a switching device and between the switching device and the server and by rewriting header information of each packet in each session and relaying each packet so that the two sessions are seen logically as one session. The method for logically setting up a session by rewriting header information of a packet as described above is disclosed in Technical Reference 2 (David Malts et al., "TCP Splicing for Application Layer Proxy Performance" IBM Research Report, RC21139).
To rewrite the above header information, table management of NAT (Network Address Translator) information as shown in FIG. 20 is required. Specifically, it is necessary to include, in a field in the table, the information about a system address representing each of the servers 130-1˜130-n and, even when a number of each address in a local network assigned to the switching device is only one, as shown on the line 2001 in the table in FIG. 20, at least, the information about an address of a client (client address), port number of a client (client port number), port number on the switching device side between a switching device and a server (switching device port number), an address of a server to which a request is dispatched, a difference (value to be added in a direction to a server) in sequence number values to be added when a packet of a client is relayed to a server, and a difference (value to be added in a direction to a client) in sequence number values to be added when a packet is relayed from a server to a client. For example, when operations shown in FIG. 19 are performed, a value as described on the line 2002 in the table shown in FIG. 20 is stored as a field value for each field. A client address and client port number are information required for the switching device to identify a session between a client and switching device and a switching device port number are information required for the switching device to identify a session between the switching device and server.
When a new request is issued, a server is again selected and an entry is added to the table in FIG. 20 and, when a session is terminated, a corresponding entry 20 is deleted from the table in FIG. 20.
The first problem of the above conventional technology is that the management of the NAT table for address conversion is complicated.
In the conventional server switching, an address is assigned to a server in a fixed manner and, therefore, when a server is switched, a process of replacing an address of a packet with another address is required. Due to this, whenever a server is switched without terminating the session, an address of an entry in the NAT table has to be changed. Additionally, when a sequence number used to manage the order of transmitting a packet is rewritten, it is necessary that information to be used for the rewriting is to be stored in the NAT table for the management.
The second problem is that load of rewriting a header of a packet is high. That is, in the conventional device, rewriting of a source address, destination address, sequence number of a packet, and other many values is required before transmission of the packet.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to simplify the management of the NAT table required to switch communication devices such as a server.
Also, another object of the present invention is to decrease processes of rewriting a packet and to provide a server switching device having high efficiency.

System for switching between communication devices, switching method, and switching program


The method provides for establishing a communication session in a hierarchical communication system between a source party and at least one destination party. Hierarchical communication systems generally have communication nodes at different levels of hierarchy. In one embodiment, connection information for the communication session is stored if establishing the communication session is blocked at a node as a result of a blocking condition at the blocking node. Establishment of the communication session is initiated based on the stored connection information if the blocking condition no longer exists at the blocking node.

Typical communication networks such as wide area wireless networks have a hierarchical infrastructure. For example, in wide area wireless networks, mobile devices communicate with base stations (or BTSs—base transceiver stations) deployed over a large area and multiple base stations are controlled by centralized nodes (such as BSCs—base station controllers or a RNCs—radio network controllers). These controllers may or may not be connected and/or controlled further by a next higher-level node, such as a mobile switching center (MSC).
In the converged voice/data network architecture, the next higher level node above the BSCs or RNCs may be an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) instead of a traditional MSC. Or, the IP IMS may be a node at a higher level than the MSC and connected to multiple MSCs.
The nodes in this hierarchical structure have various hardware and other resource limitations. Consequently, these nodes perform admission and overload control functions to ensure that a high load does not create unstable operating conditions and that there are enough resources to support end-to-end connectivity once a call is admitted to the system. When an extraordinary access load occurs, for example, such as due to an emergency situation, a significant number of call access attempts may be denied/blocked.
The blocking may occur at different levels of infrastructure hierarchy. Once the blocking has occurred, the call request is dropped at the node at which the blocking has occurred. The call originator is forced to retry access connection after some time.
In such a situation, the call target may never be notified that a call was intended for them.

Method for providing reliable communication session establishment in a communication infrastructure


A method and apparatus for identifying visibility of targets. A first function is selected to indicate whether locations in an environment are at a surface for objects in the environment, outside the surface, or inside the surface. First volumes are formed for the environment. Each volume in the first volumes has a size selected such that a difference between first interpolated values for each volume and first values generated using the first function for each volume is within a threshold. Second volumes are formed for the environment. Each of the second volumes has a size selected such that a difference between second interpolated values for each volume and second values generated using a second function for each volume is within a threshold. The second values are minimum values along lines from each volume in the second number of volumes to a target in the environment.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to identifying the visibility of targets and, in particular, to identifying the visibility of targets in an environment from locations in the environment.
2. Background
The visibility of targets in an environment may be important when gathering information about the targets in the environment. This information may include, for example, an identification of measurements for a number of parameters, a detection of movement, a detection of a speed of travel, a detection of a heat signature, a detection of a radio signal, and/or other suitable information about a target. This information may be gathered using, for example, sensors.
The sensors may need to be able to detect the targets to generate information about the targets. Further, the sensors may need to be placed in locations in the environment that will allow the sensors to detect the targets. For example, sensors may be attached to unmanned aerial vehicles. These unmanned aerial vehicles may be flown to, placed at, or attached to different locations in the environment that allow the sensors to detect the targets.
Typically, a sensor is configured to generate information for a target when a line of sight from the sensor to the target is unblocked. A line of sight is unblocked when objects in the environment do not block the line of sight from the sensor to the target. A line of sight is blocked when objects in the environment and/or portions of the objects are present along the line of sight.
Identifying a location for the placement of a sensor requires identifying a location in an environment that allows the sensor to have an unblocked line of sight to the target. In other words, the target may need to be visible from the location in the environment at which the sensor is placed.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus which takes into account one or more of the issues discussed above, as well as possibly other issues.


A bucket funnel has a funnel body which clips onto a bucket with a top flange. The funnel body has a semicircular lower edge which has about the same radius of curvature as the bucket, but only extends about halfway around. There are outer tabs with inward facing channels at the ends of the lower edge of the funnel body to clip into the flange of the bucket. There is also a spring loaded release clip at about the middle of the lower edge to clip onto the outer flange of the bucket. An inner apron extends down from the lower edge of the funnel body to form a seal against the inner wall of the bucket. An interchangeable conical nozzle attaches to the funnel body for dispensing of fluids of various viscosities, such as glue, paint or fresh concrete.

There is a long felt need for an effective way to transfer liquids from containers. FIG. 1 illustrates side view of a prior art pouring spout system 100. The system comprises a pouring spout 110 fitted into the top of a paint can 102. An example of this system is the Allway® "Spout and Can Cover". The pouring spout comprises a lower tapered circular skirt 112 and an upper rim 114. One end of the rim comprises a wide lip 116. The circular tapered skirt is wedged into the internal gutter 104 of the paint can to form a seal. The skirt may be made of plastic. If the paint can is tipped at an angle 124, the paint 106 within the can flows onto the rim, overflows the lip and descends as a stream 132.
This system is effective for transferring runny fluids from a can to another container. The system is not effective, however, if one wishes to transfer a more viscous fluid, such as caulking, from a container to a surface below as a continuous steady stream of material. The rate of flow in the descending stream from an Allway system is highly variable. Small changes in the tipping angle cause significant changes 125 in the head 122 of the poured liquid. This causes large changes in flow rate due to the wide open top lip. The variable flow rate 136 causes the deposited bead of the fluid 134 to sometimes be high and wide 128 or low and narrow 126. The wide open top lip also allows the stream to swing from side to side. There is need, therefore, for a system to transfer liquids from a container to a surface below that provides a uniform steady well-directed flow of material.


Disclosed is a semiconductor device facilitating a peripheral portion thereof with a breakdown voltage higher than the breakdown voltage in the drain drift layer without employing a guard ring or field plate. A preferred embodiment includes a drain drift region with a first alternating conductivity type layer formed of n drift current path regions and p partition regions arranged alternately with each other, and a breakdown withstanding region with a second alternating conductivity type layer formed of n regions and p regions arranged alternately with each other, the breakdown withstanding region providing no current path in the ON-state of the device and being depleted in the OFF-state of the device. Since depletion layers expand in both directions from multiple pn-junctions into n regions and p regions in the OFF-state of the device, the adjacent areas of p-type base regions, the outer area of the semiconductor chip and the deep area of the semiconductor chip are depleted. Thus, the breakdown voltage of breakdown withstanding region is higher than the breakdown voltage of drain drift region.

The present invention relates to vertical power semiconductor devices that facilitate a high breakdown voltage and a high current capacity, such as MOSFET (insulated gate field effect transistors), IGBT (conductivity-modulation-type MOSFET), bipolar transistors and diodes. The present invention relates also to the method of manufacturing such semiconductor devices.
Semiconductor devices may be roughly classified as lateral devices that arrange electrodes on a major surface, or vertical devices that distribute electrodes on both major surfaces facing opposite to each other. When a vertical semiconductor device is ON, a drift current flows in the thickness direction of the semiconductor chip (vertical direction). When the vertical semiconductor device is OFF, the depletion layers caused by applying a reverse bias voltage expand also in the vertical direction.
FIG. 28 is a cross sectional view of a conventional planar-type n-channel vertical MOSFET. Referring to FIG. 28, the vertical MOSFET includes an n+-type drain layer 11 with low electrical resistance, a drain electrode 18 in electrical contact with n+-type drain layer 11, a highly resistive nxe2x88x92-type drain drift layer 12 on n+ drain layer 11, p-type base regions 13 formed selectively in the surface portion of nxe2x88x92-type drain drift layer 12, a heavily doped n+-type source region 14 formed selectively in p-type base region 13, a heavily doped p+-type contact region 19 formed selectively in p-type base region 13, a gate insulation film 15 on the extended portion of p-type base region 13 extended between n+-type source region 14 and n-type drain drift layer 12, a gate electrode layer 16 on gate insulation film 15, and a source electrode 17 in electrical contact commonly with n+-type source regions 14 and p+-type contact regions 19.
In the vertical semiconductor device shown in FIG. 28, highly resistive nxe2x88x92-type drain drift layer 12 works as a region for making a drift current flow vertically when the MOSFET is in the ON-state. In the OFF-state of the MOSFET, n-type drain drift layer 12 is depleted by the depletion layers expanding from the pn-junctions between drain drift layer 12 and p-type base regions 13 to obtain a high breakdown voltage. Thinning highly resistive nxe2x88x92-type drain drift layer 12, that is shortening the drift current path, is effective for substantially reducing the on-resistance (resistance between the drain and the source) of the MOSFET, since the drift resistance is lowered in the ON-state of the device. However, when the drift current path in nxe2x88x92-type drain drift layer 12 is shortened, the space between the drain and the source, into that the depletion layers expand from the pn-junctions between p-type base regions 13 and n-type drain drift layer 12 in the OFF-state of the device, is narrowed and the electric field strength in the depletion layers soon reaches the maximum (critical) value for silicon. Therefore, breakdown is caused before the voltage between the drain and the source reaches the designed breakdown voltage of the device.
A high breakdown voltage is obtained by thickening nxe2x88x92-type drain drift layer 12. However, a thick nxe2x88x92-type drain drift layer 12 inevitably causes high on-resistance and loss increase. In short, there exists a tradeoff relation between the on-resistance (current capacity) and the breakdown voltage of the MOSFET. The tradeoff relation exists in other semiconductor devices, such as IGBT, bipolar transistors and diodes, which include a drift layer.
European Patent 0 053 854, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,216,275, 5,438,215, Japanese Unexamined Laid Open Patent Application H09(1997)-266311 and Japanese Unexamined Laid Open Patent Application H10(1998)-223896 disclose semiconductor devices, which include an alternating conductivity type drift layer formed of heavily doped vertical n-type regions and vertical p-type regions alternately laminated horizontally with each other.
FIG. 29 is a cross sectional view of the vertical MOSFET disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,275. Referring to FIG. 29, the vertical MOSFET of FIG. 29 is different from the vertical MOSFET of FIG. 28 in that the vertical MOSFET of FIG. 29 includes an alternating conductivity type drain drift layer 22, that is not a single-layered one but formed of n drift current path regions 22a and p partition regions 22b alternately laminated horizontally with each other. Even when the impurity concentrations in the alternating conductivity type layer are high, the alternating conductivity type layer facilitates obtaining a high breakdown voltage, since depletion layers expand laterally from the pn-junctions extending vertically across the alternating conductivity type layer in the OFF-state of the device, completely depleting drain drift layer 22.
Hereinafter, the semiconductor device including an alternating conductivity type drain drift layer will be referred to as the super-junction semiconductor device.
In the super-junction semiconductor device, a high breakdown voltage is obtained in the alternating conductivity type drain drift layer beneath p-type base regions 13 (an active region of the device) formed in the surface portion of the semiconductor chip. However, the electric field strength in the depletion layers soon reaches the maximum (critical) value for silicon in the circumferential region of the alternating conductivity type drain drift layer (the peripheral region of the device), since the depletion layers from the pn-junction between drain drift layer 22 and the outermost p-type base region 13 does not completely expand outward nor to the bottom of the semiconductor chip. Therefore, the local breakdown voltage in the peripheral region of drain drift layer 22, that is the local breakdown voltage in the peripheral region of the device, is not high enough.
The conventional guard ring formed for controlling the depletion electric field on the peripheral surface portion of the device or the conventional field plate structure formed for controlling the depletion electric field on the insulation film may be used to obtain a high local breakdown voltage in the peripheral region of the device adjacent to the outermost p-type base region 13. It is difficult, however, to optimize the integral structure integrating the alternating conductivity type drain drift layer 22 for obtaining a higher breakdown voltage and the conventional guard ring or the conventional field plate for obtaining a certain local breakdown voltage in the peripheral region of the device. In other words, it is difficult to correct the depletion electric field by an external means added from outside such as the integral structures described above. The reliability of semiconductor device having such an external means for correcting depletion electric field is not high. Since the deep portion of the device spaced apart from the guard ring is not depleted, the local breakdown voltage in the peripheral region of the device is not so high as the breakdown voltage in the drain drift layer 22. Therefore, the conventional guard ring or the conventional field plate is not effective to provide the entire device structure with a high breakdown voltage nor to fully utilize the functions of the alternating conductivity type drain drift layer. It is also necessary to employ the steps of forming masks for realizing the integral structure, implanting impurity, driving the implanted impurity atoms, depositing metal films, patterning the deposited metal films and such additional steps for manufacturing the super-junction semiconductor device.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a super-junction semiconductor device that facilitates providing the peripheral region thereof with a breakdown voltage higher than the breakdown voltage in the drain drift layer without employing a guard ring or field plate.
It is still another object of the invention to provide the manufacturing methods suitable for manufacturing the super-junction semiconductor devices described above.
To achieve this and other objects of the present invention, a semiconductor device comprises a semiconductor chip having a first major surface and a second major surface opposing the first major surface; an active region on a side of the first major surface; a layer of a first conductivity type on a side of the second major surface, the layer of the first conductivity type exhibiting relatively low electrical resistance; a first main electrode electrically connected to the active region; a second main electrode electrically connected to the layer of the first conductivity type; a drain drift region between the active region and the layer of the first conductivity type, the drain drift region providing a vertical drift current path in the ON-state of the device and being depleted in the OFF-state of the device; and a breakdown withstanding region around the drain drift region and between the first major surface and the layer of the first conductivity type, the breakdown withstanding region providing no current path in the ON-state of the device and being depleted in the OFF-state of the device, the breakdown withstanding region comprising an alternating conductivity type layer comprising first regions of the first conductivity type and second regions of a second conductivity type, the first regions and the second regions being arranged alternately with each other.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a semiconductor device comprises a semiconductor chip having a first major surface and a second major surface opposing the first major surface; an active region on a side of the first major surface; a layer of a first conductivity type on a side of the second major surface, the layer of the first conductivity type exhibiting relatively low electrical resistance; a first main electrode electrically connected to the active region; a second main electrode electrically connected to the layer of the first conductivity type; a drain drift region between the active region and the layer of the first conductivity type, the drain drift region providing a vertical drift current path in the ON-state of the device and being depleted in the OFF-state of the device; and a breakdown withstanding region around the drain drift region and between the first major surface and the layer of the first conductivity type, the breakdown withstanding region providing no current path in the ON-state of the device and being depleted in the OFF-state of the device, the breakdown withstanding region comprising a highly resistive region doped with an impurity of the first conductivity type and an impurity of the second conductivity type.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device. The method comprises (a) growing a highly resistive first epitaxial layer of a first conductivity type on a semiconductor substrate of the first conductivity type, the semiconductor substrate exhibiting relatively low electrical resistance; (b) selectively implanting an impurity of the first conductivity type into the first epitaxial layer through first windows and an impurity of a second conductivity type into the first epitaxial layer through second windows, the first windows and the second windows being arranged alternately with each other and spaced apart from each other regularly; (c) growing a highly resistive second epitaxial layer of the first conductivity type on the first epitaxial layer; (d) repeating the steps (b) and (c); and (e) thermally driving the implanted impurities from the diffusion centers thereof, whereby to connect unit diffusion regions of the same conductivity type vertically and whereby to form the first alternating conductivity type layer and the second alternating conductivity type layer.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device. The method comprises (a) growing a highly resistive first epitaxial layer of a first conductivity type on a semiconductor substrate with low electrical resistance; (b) implanting an impurity of the first conductivity type into the entire surface portion of the first epitaxial layer and selectively implanting an impurity of a second conductivity type into the first epitaxial layer through windows spaced apart from each other regularly; (c) growing a highly resistive second epitaxial layer of the first conductivity type on the first epitaxial layer; (d) repeating the steps (b) and (c); and (e) thermally driving the implanted impurities, whereby to connect unit diffusion regions of the second conductivity type vertically and whereby to form the first alternating conductivity type layer and the second alternating conductivity type layer.


An implantable tensile device and method of use thereof for flexibly securing skeletal parts. The device includes a planar tensile portion between fixation ends adapted to be fastened to skeletal parts. The tensile portion includes flexure slots extending from its sides beyond a longitudinal central axis to a terminal bottom. The flexure slots are keyhole shaped. The fixation ends are fastened to the skeletal parts with screw fasteners. The device can be fastened to the skeletal parts after pre-tensioning with an extension tool such that the skeletal parts to which the fixation ends are fastened are biased toward one another. Without pre-tensioning, the skeletal parts are flexibly secured and further expansion thereof is resisted. Abutment elements on the fixation ends are engaged by the extension tool for pre-tensioning.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of surgical implants for fixation of skeletal parts including bones and tendons. More particularly, the present invention relates to implantable tensile devices for fixation of skeletal parts and the use thereof whereby the skeletal parts to which the device is fastened are biased toward one another and/or expansion thereof is resisted.
2. Background
Devices for fixation of skeletal parts are today commonly used. These devices are made of biocompatible materials and are surgically implanted as needed, for example, in fastening fractured bones and torn tendons. Typically, they are fastened to the skeletal parts with treaded fasteners also made of biocompatible materials.
Some fixation devices are selectively flexibly deformable. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,882 discloses a flexibly deformable plate that includes flexure slots which enable a surgeon to more easily conform the plate to the surfaces of the skeletal parts. Fixation devices of this character are essentially rigid relative to the skeletal parts to which they are affixed and, therefore, do not provide any expansion that may be needed, for example, as a result of swelling.
Other fixation devices are flexibly elastic. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,761,719 discloses a spinal stabilization device made of shape memory material whereby, upon securement to vertebral bodies, the device will reform in response to the imposition of stress caused by displacement of the vertebral bodies and will recover to its initial configuration when the stress is removed.
Yet other flexible fixation devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,816 and US 2010/0076495 A1.

Implantable tensile device for fixation of skeletal parts and method of use thereof


One or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for creating an expanded or improved lexicon for use in search-based semantic tagging. A set of first documents can be identified using a set of first lexicon elements as queries, and one or more first document patterns can be extracted from the set of first documents. The document patterns can be used to find one or more second documents in a query log that comprise the document patterns, which are associated with query terms used to return the second documents. The query terms for the second documents can be extracted and used to expand the lexicon. Elements within the lexicon may be weighted based upon relevance to different query domains, for example.

In a computing environment, a search engine can be used to identify documents, such as webpages, related to user input search terms. A personal assistant system may be able process both spoken and textual queries, such as to a search engine, and help users with customized tasks, such as hotel booking or restaurant reservation. A natural language understanding can be unified with keyword query understanding for information retrieval and task completion applications. For example, given a spoken query "show me Gone with the Wind trailers" or simply a keyword query "Gone with the Wind trailers", a system may be able to understand that the user's intent is to find trailers of the movie titled "Gone With the Wind", and to take relevant actions accordingly, such as retrieving appropriate webpages, or directing the user to a location that shows the trailers.


A reliable caching mechanism is provided for client-side caching of data that captures user interaction with a remote service, where users interact with the remote service through a computing device. Such instrumentation items are cached in a client-side offline queue. Within the client-side queue, the gathered instrumentation items survive between user sessions with the remote service. Because the client-side does not lose the instrumentation items that were gathered in a session when the session ends, those instrumentation items do not all need to be transferred to the server-side at or prior to the termination of the session in which the instrumentation items are collected. Instead, the instrumentation items may be sent to the server-side at times that will have less impact on the user experience, such as when the computing device is otherwise idle.

Increasingly, people are obtaining services of one form or another over networks. For example, users of client devices may obtain news, television, weather information, and even a college education over a network from remotely-located computer services. Such client devices may take many forms, including but not limited to cell phones, personal digital assistants, laptops and desktop computers.
For a variety of reasons, it is useful to know how users are interacting with such remotely-provided services. For example, a service provider may find it useful to know that users frequently hover their input focus (such as a mouse pointer) over a certain portion of the display, or that users rarely use certain controls provided by the services. Service providers may collect data reflecting user interactions with remotely-provided services for the additional purposes of user personalization of the services, user profiling, system usage metrics, and other research purposes.
Remotely-provided services typically involve both client-side logic and server-side logic. The client-side logic of a service is typically responsible for generating a user interface through which a user may interact with the service. The server-side logic of a service is typically responsible for the content of the service, and for providing that content to the client.
Obtaining information about how users interact with services that are accessed using computing devices is referred to as "user tracking". The modifications that are made to perform user tracking are referred to as "instrumentation". Today most user tracking and web application instrumentation is performed either using cookies or by sending information about user actions and application performance immediately from the client-side to the server-side using "beacons". These mechanisms are highly restrictive and limit the amount of information that can be collected on the client-side in a reliable manner and without unduly degrading the user experience.
For example, the information captured by cookies and beacons is typically limited to the user's "clickstream". A clickstream indicates the controls, within the HTML pages provided by a service, on which the user has "clicked". However, a user's clickstream conveys only part of the user's interaction with a web service. For example, a clickstream may not indicate when and where users move their input focus while interacting with the service. As another example, a clickstream may not be able to indicate how a user made a particular selection. For example, some web pages may provide a number of alternative input mechanisms (e.g. a clickable button, menu option, and a keyboard shortcut) to accomplish the same operation (e.g. saving a document in the application). The clickstream may indicate that the user selected the operation, but not which of the input mechanisms was used to initiate the operation. As another example, a clickstream may not indicate user interactions that are handled by client-side code, such as JAVASCRIPT™ or FLASH®, that is embedded in a web page delivered to clients by the service. It may be just as important to know how a user interacts with the interfaces generated by client-side code as it is to know a user's clickstream.
Unfortunately, capturing more than a clickstream presents several technical challenges. For example, the communication bandwidth from the client-side logic to the server-side logic (the "upstream bandwidth") is often significantly lower than the communication bandwidth from the server-side logic to the client-side logic (the "downstream bandwidth"). Consequently, sending to the server-side detailed information about what a user is doing on the client-side may consume an unacceptably large amount of the relatively small upstream bandwidth.
In addition, Web application development has changed and more of the logic and user interface is now created or fully controlled on the client computer. Previously, the server would create the user interface elements and/or get a request for most, if not all, user actions via a post back (page reload). User tracking in these instances is accomplished by monitoring the user's clickstream generated by the user requests to the server as the user navigates the available resources. As "Web 2.0" technologies have proliferated, these mechanisms to track user actions are no longer sufficient to capture the variety of ways users interact with "Web 2.0" interfaces. Current solutions attempt to either immediately send all instrumentation data at the time it is gathered, or to queue information about a user's interaction with a page and then flush the queue by sending the information to the server-side when the page unloads. Unfortunately, sending the contents of a client-side queue to the server-side in response to the unloading of a page is not reliable, nor does it provide a good user experience when it is possible. Additionally, because current solutions keep user tracking data in volatile memory, the failed transmission of client-side queue data could result in the permanent loss of valuable user tracking data after a session is ended.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.

Highly reliable cross-session web application instrumentation


The present invention includes a C-type resin clip projecting from an exterior surface on a band tightener in a band-type wire harness mount or from a front surface on a middle portion of a substrate in a substrate-type wire harness mount, and a C-type metal clip having a length shorter than the C-type resin clip. The C-type metal clip is mounted between upper and lower tabs of the C-type resin clip. A pressing projection is provided on opposing interior surfaces of each of the upper and lower tabs of the C-type resin clip, and a press-down tab is provided on the upper and lower tabs of the C-type metal clip. When a bracket is pressed in between the upper and lower tabs of the C-type metal clip, the press-down tabs are lifted by the pressing projections and both the upper and lower surfaces of the bracket are pinched and held.

A clip 1 has been suggested as a wire harness clip to be mounted on a bracket made of metal or resin on a vehicle body, the clip 1 including, as shown in FIG. 6, a C-type resin clip 3 mounted on a bracket 6 by pinching and a wire harness mount 2 connected to the resin clip 3 and mounted on a wire harness (not shown in the drawing) (see Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. H7-99719 [Patent Literature 1]).
A C-type metal clip 4 is mounted on an interior surface of the resin clip 3, the metal clip 4 having the same shape as the interior surface of the resin clip 3. Claws 5 are raised from upper and lower tabs 4c and 4a, which are on either side of a curved portion 4b of the metal clip 4, the claws 5 raised into a hollow space on the metal clip 4. Accordingly, when the bracket 6 is pressed in between the upper and lower tabs 4c and 4a of the metal clip 4, the claws 5 are configured to pinch and hold both of an upper and lower surface of the bracket 6, thus anchoring the clip 1 to the bracket 6.

Wire harness clip and method of mounting wire harness clip onto vehicle


An image capturing device capable of simplifying characteristic value sets of captured images and a control method thereof. The image capturing device comprises a characteristic conversion module, a data storage module, a characteristic simplification module, a template storage module and a recognition module. The characteristic conversion module converts an image captured by the image capturing device into a characteristic image, and the characteristic image includes a group of first characteristic value sets. The data storage module stores a lookup table which comprises second characteristic value sets. The characteristic simplification module performs a simplification process according to the lookup table to produce a simplified group of characteristic value sets. Finally, compares the simplified group of characteristic value sets with the plurality of templates stored in the template storage module to recognize a specific object in the image.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image capturing device, and more particularly to the image capturing device capable of converting a captured image into a characteristic image, and simplifying a characteristic value set in the characteristic image to lower the memory requirements of the image capturing device and save the computing resources, and a control method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, electronic products come with increasingly lower prices and more powerful functions due to severe market competitions. Wherein, an object detection function has been introduced into various different image capturing devices such as digital still cameras, digital cameras, monitors and camera phones with different applications including human face recognition as well as recognitions of pedestrians, license plates, motor vehicles or other objects. However, an image capturing device with the object detection function generally requires lots of memories to store data such as human face characteristic templates and consumes a huge computing resource, so that the cost of the image capturing device will be increased significantly.
The aforementioned situation becomes more significant for compact handheld camera devices. With the consideration of costs, the resources of the compact handheld camera devices are very limited, particularly in the use of memories, since a high-end memory is expensive. Therefore, if it is necessary to integrate the objective detection function into the compact handheld camera device, the memory requirement is increased significantly, and the manufacturing cost is affected directly and the product competitiveness is dropped.
Therefore, it is an important issue for manufacturers to develop an image capturing device with the object detection function capable of saving the hardware cost of the image capturing device without affecting the accuracy of detecting the object.

Image capturing device capable of simplifying characteristic value sets of captured images and control method thereof


Provided herein are systems and methods for scoring a post-treatment tooth position of a patient's teeth. A patient's dentition may be scanned and/or segmented. Raw dental features, principal component analysis (PCA) features, and/or other features may be extracted and compared to those of other teeth, such as those obtained through automated machine learning systems. A classifier can identify and/or output the post-treatment tooth position of the patient's teeth.

Orthodontic procedures typically involve repositioning a patient's teeth to a desired arrangement in order to correct malocclusions and/or improve aesthetics. To achieve these objectives, orthodontic appliances such as braces, shell aligners, and the like can be applied to the patient's teeth by an orthodontic practitioner and/or by the patients themselves. The appliance can be configured to exert force on one or more teeth in order to effect desired tooth movements according to a treatment plan.
Orthodontic aligners may include devices that are removable and/or replaceable over the teeth. Orthodontic aligners may be provided as part of an orthodontic treatment plan. In some orthodontic treatment plans involving removable and/or replaceable aligners, a patient may be provided plurality of orthodontic aligners over the course of treatment to make incremental position adjustments to the patient's teeth. An orthodontic aligner may have a polymeric trough with an inner cavity shaped to receive and resiliently reposition teeth from one tooth arrangement to a successive tooth arrangement. Orthodontic aligners may include "active" regions that impose repositioning forces on teeth and "passive" regions that retain teeth in their current state.
Many orthodontic treatment plans, including at least some of those that involve removable and/or replaceable appliances that provide incremental forces on teeth over time, include a determination of post-treatment tooth position. The post-treatment tooth position can be used by a practitioner during treatment to guide the treatment plan. Existing systems tried to provide post-treatment tooth positions based on the raw vector of tooth point measurements, which turned out to be difficult due to multiple reasons: e.g., the rigid body constraints for each tooth, tooth collision, missing tooth/teeth handling etc. There is therefore a need for more accurately assessing and determining post-treatment tooth positions and generating recommendations for patients' post-treatment tooth positions.

Machine learning scoring system and methods for tooth position assessment