The intrinsic base region of a bipolar transistor is formed to avoid a chemical interaction between the chemicals used in a chemical mechanical polishing step and the materials used to form the base region. The method includes the step of forming a trench in a layer of epitaxial material. After this, a base material that includes silicon and germanium is blanket deposited, followed by the blanket deposition of a layer of protective material. The layer of protective material protects the base material from the chemical mechanical polishing step.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bipolar transistors and, more particularly, to a bipolar transistor with an ultra small self-aligned polysilicon emitter and a method of forming the silicon germanium base of the transistor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A bipolar transistor is a three-terminal device that can, when properly biased, controllably vary the magnitude of the current that flows between two of the terminals. The three terminals include a base terminal, a collector terminal, and an emitter terminal. The charge carriers, which form the current, flow between the collector and the emitter terminals, while variations in the voltage on the base terminal cause the magnitude of the current to vary.
Due to the increasing speed of, and demand for, battery-powered devices, there is a need for a faster bipolar transistor that utilizes less power. Increased speed can be obtained by using a silicon germanium base. Lower power consumption can be obtained by reducing the maximum current that can flow between the two terminals.
One approach for reducing the maximum current is to reduce the size of the base-to-emitter junction, preferably to sub-lithographic feature sizes. FIG. 1 shows a cross-sectional diagram that illustrates a portion of a prior-art bipolar transistor 100 that has a base-to-emitter junction with a sub-lithographic width.
As shown in FIG. 1, transistor 100 includes a collector layer 110, a base layer 112 that is formed on collector layer 110, and a field oxide region FOX that adjoins layer 112. In addition, transistor 100 includes a thin oxide layer 114 that is formed on a portion of base layer 112 and the field oxide region FOX, and an n+ extrinsic emitter 116 that is formed on thin oxide layer 114.
As further shown in FIG. 1, transistor 100 also includes an n+ intrinsic emitter region 118 that is formed in base layer 112, and an n+ poly ridge 120 that is connected to extrinsic emitter 116 and n+ intrinsic emitter region 118. Extrinsic emitter 116, intrinsic emitter region 118, and poly ridge 120 form the emitter of transistor 100.
Transistor 100 additionally includes a base silicide contact 122 that is formed on base layer 112, and an emitter silicide contact 124 that is formed on extrinsic emitter 116. In addition, an oxide spacer 126 is formed on base layer 112 between poly ridge 120 and base contact 122.
During fabrication, poly ridge 120 is formed to have a maximum width (measured laterally) that is smaller than the minimum feature size that is obtainable with a given photolithographic process. After poly ridge 120 has been formed, emitter region 118 is formed during an annealing step which causes dopants to outdiffuse from poly ridge 120 into base layer 112.
As a result, a very small base-to-emitter junction results. A small base-to-emitter junction limits the magnitude of the current that can flow through transistor 100. Reduced current, in turn, provides lowpower operation. (See xe2x80x9cPoly Emitter Transistor (PRET): Simple Low Power Option to a Bipolar Process,xe2x80x9d Wim van der Wel, et al., IEDM 93-453, 1993, pp. 17.6.1-17.6.4.)
One drawback of transistor 100, however, is that transistor 100. requires the added cost and complexity of a double polysilicon process (extrinsic emitter 116 is formed from a first polysilicon (poly-1) layers while poly ridge 120 is formed from a second polysilicon (poly-2) layer). In addition, emitter dopant diffusion into base 112 can be less, compared to a conventional single-poly device architecture, due to the possible presence of oxide at the poly1-to-poly2 interface (emitter 116 to poly ridge 120 interface).
Another drawback of transistor 100 is that, although FIG. 1 shows oxide spacer 126 formed on poly ridge 120, in actual practice it is difficult to form an oxide side-wall spacer on a sloped surface. Gaps can result which, in turn, can lead to an electrical short circuit between base layer 112 and extrinsic emitter 116 following the salicidiation process (the process that forms base suicide contact 122 and emitter silicide contact 124). Silicide is not formed on oxide. Thus it is critical that a uniformly thick layer of oxide (spacer 126) separate base layer 112 from extrinsic emitter 116.
A further drawback of transistor 100 is that the slope of the end wall of extrinsic emitter 116 can effect the width of poly ridge 120. Although FIG. 1 shows extrinsic emitter 116 with a vertical end wall, in actual practice, the end wall is often non-vertical, and non-uniform across a wafer that has a number of bipolar transistors. This, in turn, can result in the bipolar transistors having varying performances.
An additional drawback of transistor 100 is that poly ridge 120 is formed around and in contact with each side wall of extrinsic emitter 116. A plan view of extrinsic emitter 116 would show emitter 116 with a square or rectangular shape with poly ridge 120 surrounding emitter 116. As a result, transistor 100 has a large base-to-emitter contact area and a high base-to-emitter capacitance.
The parent invention discloses a bipolar transistor that has a base and an ultra small self-aligned polysilicon emitter. The base, in turn, includes silicon and germanium. The parent invention also discloses a method of forming the transistor that includes a step of chemically-mechanically polishing the base material to limit the base material to a predefined window.
One drawback of this method is that the chemicals used in the chemical-mechanical polishing step could interact with, and change the characteristics of, the base material. One alternate approach to limiting the base material to a predefined window is to use a photo masking step. Although this approach is workable, additional photo masking steps are expensive.
The selective deposition of base material is another alternate approach. This process, however, is very complex and typically has poor process yields due to various manufacturing issues. Thus, there is a need for a method of forming a base without subjecting the base material to damaging chemicals.
The present invention provides a method of forming a bipolar transistor that protects the base material from chemical interactions that occur during a chemical-mechanical polishing step. The wafer has a buried layer and an epitaxial layer of a first conductivity type that is formed over the buried layer. The epitaxial layer has a smaller dopant concentration than the buried layer.
The method of the present invention includes the steps of forming a trench in the epitaxial layer, and forming a layer of base material on the epitaxial layer and the trench. The method also includes the step of forming a layer of base protection material on the layer of base material.
The method additionally includes the step of chemically mechanically polishing the layer of base protection material, the layer of base material, and the epitaxial layer until a top surface of the epitaxial layer and a top surface of the layer of base protection material are substantially coplanar.
The method further includes the steps of forming an isolation region on the layer of base material and the layer of base protection material, and removing a portion of the layer of base protection material to expose a portion of the layer of base material.
The present invention also includes a bipolar transistor that is formed on a wafer. The wafer has a buried layer and an epitaxial layer of a first conductivity type that is formed over the buried layer. The epitaxial layer has a top surface and a smaller dopant concentration than the buried layer.
The transistor includes an intrinsic base region of a second conductivity type that is formed on the epitaxial layer. The intrinsic base region includes silicon and germanium, and has a first top surface and a vertically spaced-apart second top surface. The transistor also has an isolation region formed on the first top surface of the intrinsic base region and over the second top surface of the intrinsic base region.
The transistor further includes an extrinsic emitter region that is formed on the isolation region and the intrinsic base region. The extrinsic emitter region has a side wall that is substantially aligned with the side wall of the isolation region.
The transistor additionally includes an intrinsic emitter region that is formed in the intrinsic base region. The intrinsic emitter region contacts the extrinsic emitter region. The transistor further includes a spacer that is formed on the intrinsic base region to contact the extrinsic emitter.
A better understanding of the features and advantages of the present invention will be obtained by reference to the following detailed description and accompanying drawings that set forth an illustrative embodiment in which the principles of the invention are utilized.

Method of forming the silicon germanium base of a bipolar transistor


Embodiments of a wager gaming network that includes handheld wager gaming units and hotspots are described herein. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, in a handheld wager gaming unit, a wager associated with a wagering game. The method can also include wirelessly connecting the handheld wager gaming unit to a wireless access point in a wager gaming network. The method can also include transmitting, via the wireless access point, information from the handheld wager gaming unit to a device on the wager gaming network.

Wager gaming machines, such as slot machines, video poker machines, and the like, have been a cornerstone of the gaming industry for several years. Generally, the popularity of such machines depends on the likelihood (or perceived likelihood) of winning money at the machine and the intrinsic entertainment value of the machine relative to other available gaming options. Where the available gaming options include a number of competing machines and the expectation of winning at each machine is roughly the same (or believed to be the same), players are most likely attracted to the most entertaining and exciting of the machines. Consequently, shrewd operators strive to employ the most entertaining and exciting machines available because such machines attract frequent play and increase profitability for the operator. In the competitive wager gaming machine industry, there is a continuing need for manufacturers to produce new game types or to enhance entertainment and excitement associated with existing wager gaming machines.

Wager gaming network with wireless hotspots


A semiconductor device of the present invention includes: transistor Tr1 arranged on a semiconductor substrate; transistor Tr2 arranged such that a carrier drift direction thereof viewed on the semiconductor substrate is identical to a carrier drift direction of transistor Tr1; diffusion layer 51c connecting diffusion layers 51a and 51b on carrier supply sides of transistors Tr1 and Tr2; and contact plug 61 that is connected to a surface of diffusion layers 51a and 51b on the carrier supply sides of transistors Tr1 and Tr2 or that is connected to a surface of diffusion layer 51c connecting the diffusion layers to each other, and that supplies diffusion layers 51a and 51b with electricity.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device including a pair of transistors.
2. Description of Related Art
A current mirror circuit and the differential input stage of an operational amplifier employ a pair of transistors, in which two transistors are arranged as a pair, in order to output an output current having a current value equivalent to or a certain times that of an input current.
In a case where MOS (metal oxide semiconductor) transistors configure the pair of transistors, the gates of both transistors are connected to each other and the sources are connected with a power source. In one of the transistors, the drain is connected with the gates of both the transistors. Hereinafter, the transistor whose drain is connected with the gates of both the transistors will be referred to as an input-side transistor, and the other transistor will be referred to as an output-side transistor.
Since the gates are connected to each other, when a drain current flows through the input-side transistor, the gate voltage of input-side transistor is applied to the gate of the output-side transistor and the drain current also flows through the output-side transistor and is output as the output current.
Here, even in a case of adopting a design so as to output an output current equivalent to or a certain times that of the input current, if the characteristics of the input-side and output-side transistors greatly vary, an error of the current value of the actually output current becomes large. Thus, characteristics of the transistors configuring the pair of transistors require a high ratio accuracy (relative accuracy).
JP2009-147881A discloses a current mirror circuit in which transistors connected in parallel to a power source via fuses are used as output-side transistors and trimming for adjusting the current value of an output current is performed by disconnecting the fuse.
JP2003-318278A discloses a mirror MOSFET including a mirror MOSFET structure in which two gate electrodes are formed in parallel in one active region, a source diffusion layer is formed in a region sandwiched by the two gate electrodes, and a drain diffusion layer is formed in a region opposite to the two gate electrodes with respect to the source diffusion layer. JP2003-318278A also discloses a current mirror circuit having a configuration in which two of the above mirror MOSFETs are arranged.
As described above, it is ideal that currents as designed flow through the transistors included in the pair of transistors. Achievement of this requires that characteristics of each transistor have a high ratio accuracy.
However, factors determining the characteristics of a transistor vary, depending upon the manufacturing process. Accordingly, the characteristics of the transistor also vary.
Here, since the drain current Id in a saturated region is represented by current Id∝μW/L·(Vgs−Vth)2, the factors determining the characteristics of the transistor include, for instance, a carrier mobility (μ), a channel length (L), a channel width (W) and a threshold voltage (Vth).
The factors determining the characteristics of the transistor also include a parasitic resistance.
According to the current mirror circuit disclosed in JP2009-147881A, the current value of the output current is adjusted by trimming, thereby reducing the error of the output current. According to the current mirror circuit disclosed in JP2003-318278A, the configuration in which two of the above mirror MOSFETs are arranged is adopted. This reduces variation in channel length, thereby reducing the error of the output current.
On the other hand, the inventor of the invention of this application has discovered that, as to the characteristics of the transistors in which high ratio accuracies are required, there is room to reduce the variations in characteristics owing to the parasitic resistance and the threshold voltage.
The variation in characteristics of the transistor owing to the parasitic resistance and the threshold voltage will hereinafter be described.
First, the variation in characteristics owing to the parasitic resistance will be described.
It is provided that, in a pair of transistors employed for a current mirror circuit or in the differential input stage of an operational amplifier, electrodes on a carrier supply side are set to a common potential. Hereinafter, it will be described such that the electrode on the carrier supply side is the source diffusion layer of the MOS transistor. Typically, in order to supply the diffusion layer with electricity, the diffusion layer and the wiring are connected to each other by a contact plug. In this case, there is contact resistance at the connection between the contact plug and the diffusion layer or the wiring. The contact resistance acts as parasitic resistance.
Variation in the contact resistances among transistors in which high ratio accuracies are required causes variation in characteristics of the transistors. Accordingly, the current value as designed cannot be achieved. Particularly, in a current mirror circuit, an output current with an output scaling factor as designed cannot be acquired.
Variation in the contact resistance further becomes obvious in a case where miniaturization of the semiconductor device increases the resistance of the contact plug itself.
Next, variation in characteristics owing to the threshold voltage will be described.
In some cases, in order to form a source/drain diffusion layer of the transistor, ion injection is applied to right and left regions of the gate electrode from an oblique direction with respect to the substrate. It is typically designed such that the source diffusion layer and the drain diffusion layer are symmetrical with each other. However, there is a case where the symmetry is reduced owing to oblique ion injection. In this case, a phenomenon may be caused in which the threshold voltage becomes different according to which one is employed as the source or the drain among the diffusion layers formed by the oblique ion injection. Variation in the threshold voltages among transistors in which high ratio accuracies are required causes the variation in characteristics of the transistors.


A heater for dental impression compound includes an insulative holder made of two hinged Teflon leaves which hold a metal container against an electrically heated plate to elevate the temperature of the compound to a working temperature. The holder enables manual handling of the heated container.

The invention relates to method and apparatus for preparing a dental impression compound for use. It is particularly adapted for using the dental impression composition disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,774, the entire patent of which is incorporated herein by reference. The product disclosed in that patent has been marketed under the trademark Zonarex which is a trademark for Zonarex Corporation. The impression compound is a thermal plastic material which must be heated to a working temperature for application to the tray. Dentists have used the Zonarex impression compound by heating a metal container in which the compound is sold with a tripod and an alcohol lamp. The dentists would manually manipulate the lamp to control the heat and thus the viscosity of the compound. An upper or lower jaw impression tray is then loaded with the impression compound to make the actual impression. The heated container is difficult and inconvenient to handle and manipulate. The use of alcohol lamps and tripods also involves some hazards.


A method includes receiving a signal indicative that a first access point can transmit data over a first number of spatial streams, and a second access point can transmit data over a second number of spatial streams. The method includes receiving a probe request from a set of client devices. A first portion of the set of client devices is configured to transmit data over the first number of spatial streams and a second portion of the client devices is configured to transmit data over the second number of spatial streams. The method includes sending a signal to the first portion associated with authorizing the first portion to connect to the first access point and sending a signal to the second portion associated with authorizing the second portion to connect to the second access point.

Some embodiments described herein relate generally to load balancing of wireless access points. More particularly, some embodiments described herein relate to systems and methods for efficient radio frequency (RF) load balancing in high density deployments of wireless access points according to spatial stream capabilities.
More and more networks are established via wireless communication. In some instances, wireless access points (WAPs) are configured to connect wireless client devices with other portions of a wireless local area network (WLAN). In such instances, a WAP and the client devices can form a basic service set (BSS). In the simplest form, the WAP can act as a master to control the client devices within the BSS and to provide access to the network. In some instances, an extended service set (ESS) can be established by interconnecting multiple BSSs. For example, in some instances, the interconnected BSSs can operate on the same channel with a minimal overlap to expand the coverage of the wireless network.
With the evolution of mobile computing and communication devices (e.g., laptops, tablet personal computers (PCs), smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), or the like), the number of client devices attempting to connect to such ESSs has dramatically increased. In an effort to accommodate a higher density of client devices, an ESS can be established by interconnecting multiple BSSs operating on different channels and having an overlapping coverage. For example, in some instances, multiple WAPs can be connected to provide the client devices access to the network. In such instances, RF load balancing techniques can be used to control the association of client devices to a specific WAP included in the ESS. For example, in some instances, a wireless controller can perform RF load balancing based on the number of client devices connected to a WAP. In such instances, a WAP with a higher number of client devices connected thereto at a given time can be more difficult to access than a WAP with a lower number of connected client devices.
In some instances, the wireless controller can perform RF load balancing based on the load present on a WAP. For example, in some instances, a WAP can be connected to a client device with a high bandwidth such that the load on the WAP is greater than a load on a second WAP included in the ESS. In such instances, the wireless controller can prevent additional client devices from connecting to the WAP with the higher load regardless of the number of client devices connected thereto.
In some instances, wireless access points having differing spatial stream capabilities can be interconnected to form an ESS. For example, an ESS can include WAPs capable of transmitting one, two, or three spatial streams. Known RF load balancing techniques, however, generally ignore the throughput capabilities of the WAPs and the client devices and, therefore, do not associate the spatial stream capabilities of the client devices with the spatial stream capabilities of the WAPs. For example, in some instances a wireless controller may associate a client device capable of transmitting three spatial streams with a WAP capable of transmitting a single spatial stream. In this manner, the potential throughput of the client device is not realized.
Thus, a need exists for improved systems and methods of RF load balancing in high density deployments according to spatial stream capabilities.

Methods and apparatus for load balancing in high density depolyments of wireless access points according to spatial stream capabilities


A semiconductor device, a semiconductor package, and an electronic device are provided. The electronic device includes a first semiconductor package disposed on a circuit substrate. A second semiconductor package is provided on the circuit substrate and spaced apart from the first semiconductor package. An insulating electromagnetic shielding structure is provided on the top and the lateral surfaces of the first semiconductor package. A conductive electromagnetic shielding structure is provided on the circuit substrate to cover the first and second semiconductor packages and the insulating electromagnetic shielding structure.

1. Field of the General Inventive Concept
Embodiments of the present general inventive concept relate to a semiconductor device, a semiconductor package, an electronic device, and an electronic system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In electronic systems and devices, the demand for electronic components free from electromagnetic waves has increased. For example, electromagnetic waves generated by portable devices, such as hand-held phones or mobile phones, may detrimentally affect the human body and/or generate electromagnetic interference (EMI) that causes malfunctions in internal semiconductor chips and/or degrades the receiving sensitivity of antennas.
Conventional techniques for reducing EMI include covering a plurality of electrical components with a single shielding, usually consisting of a single layer shielding layer. However, conventional shielding techniques do not sufficiently inhibit near-field EMI existing between by a plurality of devices.

Semiconductor device, semiconductor package, and electronic device


To enable inflected word forms to be derived, a method and a data processing unit are provided for inflecting a given word and for adapting the lexical data of the word correspondingly by reference to a classification scheme containing inflection rules for a given natural language. The effect achieved is that inflected word forms do not have to be contained in an electronic word register, and this results in a considerable reduction in memory space occupied by the word register.

1. Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates to a method of inflecting words, and more specifically to a word inflection method and to a data processing unit suitable for performing such a method.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A method and data processing unit for word inflection are known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,523. The method described therein has the object, inter alia, of providing efficient storage of digital signals representing linguistic data by the use of inflection routines. As a result, it is no longer necessary to store all the inflected words in a memory, and the technical effect of this is that there is a considerable savings in memory space. However, such a system is not without its disadvantages. A first disadvantage of the inflection routines described is that these routines require frequent access to a mass storage system, and this results in a considerable decline in performance. A second disadvantage is that the linguistic data relating to inflection categories is spread over various memory segments, with the result that it is a difficult process to make inflection routines suitable for a different language.

Method of inflecting words and a data processing unit for performing such method


Provided are an LCD device and a method for manufacturing the same. The LCD device includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a spacer interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, and a barrier. The barrier is disposed at least one of the first substrate and the second substrate to control the movement of the spacer. In the method, the first substrate is formed. The second substrate is formed. The barrier is formed on at least one of the first substrate and the second substrate. The spacer is disposed within the barrier. Since the LCD device controls the movement of the spacer, a high aperture ratio is realized.

The present disclosure relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, and more particularly, to an LCD device that can improve image quality reduction generated by spacer movement, and a manufacturing method thereof.
As an information-oriented society develops, a request for display devices increases in various ways. To meet such a request, a variety of flat display devices such as LCD devices, plasma display panels (PDPs), and electro luminescent displays (ELDs) are used.
The LCD devices having characteristics of excellent image quality, a lightweight and slim profile, and low power consumption replace cathode ray tubes (CRTs) as mobile image display devices, and are most widely used.
The LCD device as a general screen display device should have characteristics of high brightness and a large size while maintaining characteristics of a lightweight and slim profile, and low power consumption.
The LCD device includes a color filter substrate, a thin film transistor (TFT) substrate facing the color filter substrate, and a liquid crystal (LC) layer interposed between the two substrates.
A cell gap between the color filter substrate and the TFT substrate should be maintained to realize a high quality image. Therefore, a spacer is used to maintain the cell gap between the two substrates.
Examples of the spacer include a ball spacer formed of elastic plastic corpuscles, and a column spacer fixed on the color filter substrate or the TFT substrate.
Since the column spacer is fixed on the color filter substrate or the TFT substrate, they do not move to a pixel region through which light passes. However, an LCD device maintaining a cell gap using the column spacer has weak restoring force when it is touched or pressed by a user.
Meanwhile, an LCD device maintaining a cell gap using a ball spacer has strong restoring force when it is touched or pressed by a user. However, since the ball spacer can move to the pixel region through which light passes, an aperture ratio and brightness are reduced and light leakage is generated by the ball spacer arranged in the pixel region.

Plane switching type liquid crystal display device having ball spacers formed on a barrier between the gate line and the common line


A process is provided for forming a conductive line between a conductor and a spacer formed on a substrate of a field emission display. In one embodiment, the process performs the steps of disposing a screen between the substrate and a distributing member, the screen having an opening which permits the extrusion a conductive material, and moving the distributing member relative to the screen to extrude the conductive material through the opening and form a conductive line connecting the conductor and the spacer, wherein the snap off distance is varied according as the distributing member moves along the substrate.

This invention relates to the field of electronic displays, and, more particularly, field emission display (xe2x80x9cFEDxe2x80x9d) devices.
As technology for producing small, portable electronic devices progresses, so does the need for electronic displays which are small, provide good resolution, and consume small amounts of power in order to provide extended battery operation. Past displays have been constructed based upon cathode ray tube (xe2x80x9cCRTxe2x80x9d) or liquid crystal display (xe2x80x9cLCDxe2x80x9d) technology. However, neither of these technologies is perfectly suited to the demands of current electronic devices.
CRT""s have excellent display characteristics, such as, color, brightness, contrast and resolution. However, they are also large, bulky and consume power at rates which are incompatible with extended battery operation of current portable computers.
LCD displays consume relatively little power and are small in size. However, by comparison with CRT technology, they provide poor contrast, and only limited ranges of viewing angles are possible. Further, color versions of LCDs also tend to consume power at a rate which is incompatible with extended battery operation.
As a result of the above described deficiencies of CRT and LCD technology, efforts are underway to develop new types of electronic displays for the latest electronic devices. One technology currently being developed is known as xe2x80x9cfield emission display technology.xe2x80x9d The basic construction of a field emission display, or (xe2x80x9cFEDxe2x80x9d) is shown in FIG. 1. As seen in the figure, a field emission display comprises a face plate 100 with a transparent conductor 102 formed thereon. Phosphor dots 112 are then formed on the transparent conductor 102. The face plate 100 of the FED is separated from a baseplate 114 by a spacer 104. The spacers serve to prevent the baseplate from being pushed into contact with the faceplate by atmospheric pressure when the space between the baseplate and the faceplate is evacuated. A plurality of emitters 106 are formed on the baseplate. The emitters 106 are constructed by thin film processes common to the semi-conductor industry. Thousands of emitters 106 are formed on the baseplate 114 to provide a spatially uniform source of electrons.
FIG. 2 shows a basic construction of a typical field emission display device. As shown, there is a substrate 200 formed of a transparent material, for example, glass. On the substrate 200, there is formed conductors 202 and spacers 204. When the FED is finally assembled, conductors 202 will form the contact points necessary to connect the FED into an electronic circuit. Spacers 204 provide the required separation between die 206 and substrate 200. Without spacers 204, the die 206 would be forced together with substrate 200 by atmospheric pressure when the device is evacuated. Die 206 has surface 208 which has formed thereon the emitters which will emit electrons to form an image on phosphor layer 210. Also formed on surface 208 of die 206 are a plurality of contact pads 212 which will be connected to conductors 202 to allow operation of the device.
One method for connecting the bond pads on surface 208 to the conductors 202 is a method referred to as xe2x80x9cflip chipxe2x80x9d bonding. This technique is described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 3 shows an example of a die 300 suitable for flip chip bonding. In this example, die 300 has contact pads 302a-302n for providing electrical connection to emitters 306. Bonding pads 302a-302n have formed thereon conductive xe2x80x9cbumpsxe2x80x9d 304a-304n. Bumps 304a-304n provide the electrical connection necessary to the corresponding conductors on the spacers as shown in FIG. 4.
FIG. 4 is a diagram of a substrate 400 having formed thereon a phosphor layer 402, a spacer 404 and a plurality of conductors 406a-406n. Formed on the upper surface of spacer 404 are a plurality of conductors 408a-408n for providing electrical connection to bond pads 302a-302n by conductive bumps 304a-304n (see FIG. 3). However, it is still necessary to provide electrical communication between conductors 408a-408n formed on the spacer and conductors 406a-406n formed on the substrate 400. One method for providing this communication is shown in FIG. 5.
FIG. 5 is a top view of a substrate 500 having the conductors 506a-506n on the spacer 504 electrically connected to the conductors 510a-510n on the substrate 500. As shown in FIG. 5, substrate 500 has formed thereon phosphor layer 502, spacer 504 and conductors 510a-510n. Spacer 504 has formed, on an upper surface, conductors 506a-506n. Spacer conductors 506a-506n are electrically connected to substrate conductors 510a-510n by bonding wires 508a-508n. However, the connecting scheme shown in FIG. 5 is undesirable because it requires that additional manufacturing steps be taken to bond each bonding wire 508a-508n between the proper conductors on the substrate 500 and the spacer 504.
There has therefore been a need in the industry for a method and apparatus to connect substrate conductors to spacer conductors without the use of bond wires.
According to one embodiment of the invention, a process is provided for forming a conductive line between a conductor and a spacer formed on a substrate of a field emission display, the process comprising disposing a screen between the substrate and a distributing member, the screen having an opening which permits the passage of conductive material, and moving the distributing member along the screen to pass the conductive material through the opening and form a conductive line connecting the conductor and the spacer.
According to another embodiment of the invention, an apparatus is provided for forming a conductive line between a conductor and a spacer with the aid of a screen, the conductor and the spacer being formed on a substrate of a field emission display, the screen being disposed between the substrate and a distributing member and having an opening which permits the passage of conductive material. According to an aspect of the invention, the apparatus comprises a control circuit which moves the distributing member along the screen to pass the conductive material through the opening and form a conductive line connecting the conductor and the spacer.

Multiple level printing in a single pass


An attachment system for a ventilated rain screen cladding system that is ASHRAE 90.1 compliant eliminating thermal breaks where anti-crush brackets have threaded horizontal apertures which engage threaded horizontal fasteners that are secured by threads into the wall studs and where anti-crush brackets have threaded diagonal apertures which engage threaded diagonal fasteners that are secured by threads into wall studs.

Ventilated rain screen cladding systems are known in the prior art. Typically in a ventilated rain screen cladding system insulation is affixed exterior to the structural wall and a framework is attached exterior to the structural wall, often having brackets that traverse the exterior insulation. To the framework, cladding is attached, wherein the framework creates an air space between the exterior insulation and the cladding. The cladding is arranged such that the air space is ventilated to the outside air. Ventilated rain screen cladding systems partially dissipate heat from the sun because of the ventilated air space between the cladding and the exterior wall. The air space also serves to evacuate water and humidity that might have penetrated behind the cladding and serves to prevent condensation in the structural wall. Further, as the insulation is affixed exterior to the structural wall, the structural wall is protected from all but minor temperature variations.
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. standard 90.1 is a standard that provides minimum requirements for energy efficient designs for buildings except for low-rise residential buildings. In order to attach a ventilated rain screen cladding systems to a building and be compliant with ASHRAE standard 90.1 regarding thermal breaks through the exterior foam insulation, only fasteners such as screws may traverse the exterior foam insulation.
Attachment systems of the prior art for ventilated rain screen systems where only fasteners traverse the exterior foam insulation are succeptible to compressing the exterior foam insulation, thereby reducing its insuating value. The exterior foam insulation employed is typically of an isocyanurate, styrofoam or similar type; typically, compressive force of 25 psi or greater is sought to be avoided so that crushing of these types of exterior foam insulations is reduced. In some of these prior art attachment systems, vertical load placed upon brackets attached by fasteners through the exterior foam insulation allows the brackets to be deflected downward causing the lower end of the bracket to make additional compressions at the lower end of the brackets. In other prior art attachment systems, the compression problems associated with the downward deflection of brackets is reduced by attaching long vertical members, typically of a c-channel configuration, with fasteners through the exterior foam insulation, to which brackets are then attached; This results in increased material costs and increased installation diffuculty.
Accordingly, objectives of the present invention are to provide a metal attachment system for ventilated rain screen cladding systems, that exceeds ASHRAE standard 90.1 regarding thermal breaks through exterior foam insulation, that prevents exterior foam insulation crushing, that is constructed on site of components of manageable size and minimal weight, that is of reduced cost, that is not sucseptible to insulation crushing through overtightening of fasteners, and that may also be utilized with lower density exterior insulation, such as mineral wool.

Cladding attachment system to enable an exterior continuous insulation barrier


This invention provides methods and apparatus which provide a solution to the problem of server load balancing. Log files are collected from each server within a server cluster. The log files are analysed by the monitoring process to find file relations. The analysis uses a window to search for requests such that a file relation is established. Other techniques are described to establish file relations. Based on file relations files are merged into groups such that these groups of files can be distributed to N servers within a server cluster. The file merging process continues until there are N groups corresponding to the N servers. The files for each group are either distributed to each server, or all files are distributed to all servers and each server activates only the subset which comprises the group of files for that server. Once all files have been distributed to the servers, each server updates any links that point to other files that now may reside in a different location due to the redistribution of files.

This invention is directed to the field of computer networks. It is more particular directed to computer servers, server clusters, server content and server administration.
There is a continuous desire to reduce the time it takes for a client to obtain the content it requests from a server. This applies for example both within the context of a corporate Intranet as well as the Internet. An example of a typical server is a web server used within the context of a web site. A common problem among high performance and/or popular web sites is that the web servers cannot serve pages at a fast enough rate when the maximum capacity of a particular web server is reached. A common architecture for high performance web sites consists of a set of web servers using a static configuration for web content. Other sites often use one of the methods described below.
One method provides load balancing by having a network dispatcher first receive web based client packets on an ingress interface. The dispatcher modifies the destination address to be that of one particular web server from the set of web servers located at the egress point of the network dispatcher. The network dispatcher determines which web server is least heavily loaded in order to forward the client""s request to that server. The network dispatcher is generally limited to a local area network (LAN) environment in that all web servers are at a point behind the network dispatcher. In addition, the network dispatcher becomes the bottleneck for all network traffic destined to the servers and needs to have a minimum connection rate which is the sum of the connection rates of all the servers it is handling for optimal performance. Also, the dispatcher becomes a single point of failure. Given these issues, use of the network dispatcher method does not scale well.
Still another approach uses a dynamic Domain Name Service (DNS). This approach is accomplished by having a dynamic DNS server which receives requests from clients requesting a network address of well known host names. The DNS server responds to the client by selecting one network address from a set of available addresses for the particular host name typically in a round robin manner. This approach allows a server""s name to be mapped to a set of multiple servers, each with a different network address. This approach is limited in that it does not take into account the current or recent load on the server.
Another approach uses a broadcast medium whereby the client""s request is broadcast to all servers within a group. Each server decodes the client""s address and makes a determination as to whether or not to handle this request based on the client""s address. This implementation requires that all web servers listen to all client requests and discard those that are not within the configured range.
It is therefore an aspect of the present invention to provide a method for restructuring server content so as to distribute network traffic over a group of servers. The method provides a monitoring process which collects log files from a set of servers and analyzes them to find file relations. It merges files into groups based on a relation and on a specified configuration of the servers. The analysis also includes employing measurements of server traffic on a file basis and establishing a traffic load target for each server. The results of the analysis are then distributed to the set of servers within the group where the content is either distributed to a specific server or made active on a specific server.
It is another aspect of the invention to provide a method whereby files are relocated among servers and links to file locations are updated to show the new location of the files.
It is a further aspect of the invention to provide an apparatus, a computer product and an article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing a computer process to be capable of restructuring and distributing the content among a set of servers. These implement a method such as to enable dynamic load balancing of a set of servers in a server cluster.
In an example of the invention, a web site monitoring process collects web server logs from a set of web servers. An algorithm is run on the web server logs to determine the number of times each file is requested and the size of each request and to determine any related files. The monitoring process creates groups of files based on these criteria and further combines groups of files until there exists a set of N groups of files where N is the number of servers in the cluster. All of the newly created sets of files are communicated to all servers in the group through an auxiliary process, or though the CGI based URL in the case of a web server. The content at each server is made active by transferring the content to each server.
In an alternative embodiment all content is stored on every server. Only a subset of the stored files is activated on each server as required by the utilization. Each server searches the content local to itself and modifies any content having a link to files that have been moved or deactivated by the monitoring process to another server in the group.
In an example embodiment the server site monitor includes a server log store to store log file information about each server in a server cluster, a file statistic database used to build relations about files, and a file group database where files groups are stored in order to send group information to each server within the server cluster.

International Business Machines Corporation


Environments for testing are deployed. A library of different topology groupings is provided. An interface is presented to a user for receiving environment definitions. Elements from the library of different topology groupings are automatically provided to the user for creating a test environment according to the received environment definitions. The platform delivers fully configured instantaneous topology deployments of all flavors for product development and testing efforts. The topology deployment service platform is used to create reliable topologies of varying layers of complexity, varying machine providers, different roles, different product builds, integration with partners and varying product configurations. The ability to launch and create multiple test and development environments trivially in an automated reliable fashion allows complicated customer scenarios and configurations to be deployed.

Software is ubiquitous and touches almost everyone either directly or otherwise. Thus, software has the potential for wide reaching impact. A chief determinant of the nature of the impact of any software product hinges on the quality of the software produced. Accordingly, software testing, just like software development, is a valuable function of the process for producing quality software products. Software testing directly contributes to improving the quality of software by detecting defects and enabling such defects to be addressed before the product ships.
Software defects that are not detected, and consequently left un-addressed, result in user's experiencing some type of failure during operation of the software. These failures can have significant cost implications for the producer of the software, including the costs to address failure issues reported from customers and to issue patches, the loss of customer confidence and credibility, the loss or corruption of customer data, legal implications due to failure or non-compliance, etc. The consequences of releasing poorly tested software may be avoided by preventing and eliminating defects during software production. Preventing software defects from shipping involves a much smaller investment upfront compared to the cost incurred later in addressing those defects. Software testing also provides an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to appreciate and understand the risks of software implementation.
Software testing normally occurs in several phases, for example, engineering test, development test, alpha testing, and beta testing. Numerous tools have been developed to facilitate software testing. These testing tools generally automate functional testing to ensure that applications work as expected. Moreover, software test tools can handle administration, reporting and sequencing of tests, and provide a common user interface for a test administrator to develop tests.
Many companies are moving to a centralized testing environment. A centralized testing environment provides process consistency through the consistent deployment of standard testing methodology and processes, which helps improve the quality and efficiency of testing. In addition, centralized testing environment provides benefits from economies of scale and centralized spending
However, a centralized testing environment is becoming increasingly more difficult to maintain due to the numerous builds that are integrated into that one environment. As online services grow and dependencies become increasingly more tangled, having an easily targeted and deployed environment that developers can use to validate their fixes becomes critical. Being able to maintain multiple releases of a software product requires a rich testing environment to ensure a software patch or hot fix, i.e., quick fix engineering (QFE), and rollups are validated properly using test passes.
Currently, a tester may take about a week to deploy a multi-machine environment for testing software for developers. In addition, each of these kinds of components is accessed individually. Others have solved these problems using automated tasks to replicate the environment in real time after a user selects the choice, manually building configurations one at a time and stringing them together, and using different tools for each of the different tasks such as machine retrieval, followed by setup tools etc.
It can be seen then that there is a need for a method, a system, and a computer readable storage device for deploying environments for testing by providing instantaneous availability of prebuilt environments.

Deploying environments for testing by providing instantaneous availability of prebuilt environments


The invention provides a tilt detecting device, in which a fixed member and a tilting plate are relatively rotatably provided via a pivot member, either one of the fixed member or the tilting plate is integral with the pivot member, comprising a tilt detecting unit provided on either of the fixed member or the tilting plate which relatively rotates with respect to the pivot member, and an angle detection pattern formed on the pivot member, wherein the tilt detecting unit comprises a light source for projecting an illumination light to the pivot member, a photodetection element for receiving the illumination light reflected by the pivot member, an optical system for projecting a pattern image to the photodetection element and an arithmetic unit for detecting a rotation of the pivot member based on a projecting position of the pattern image projected onto the photodetection element when the pivot member rotates.

The present invention relates to a tilt detecting device and a rotary laser apparatus which is capable of detecting a tilt based on a pattern.
As a tilt detecting means for use in a tilt detecting device, an encoder such as a linear encoder or a circle encoder or the like is extensively used.
However, in order to make a tilt detection accuracy more accurate, a size of the encoder must be increased. Further, since a portion with a large moving amount must be determined as a detection target, an increase in size of a device itself is unavoidable. Therefore, it had been difficult to achieve both a miniaturization of the device and the improvement of the tilt detection accuracy.

Tilt detecting device and rotary laser apparatus


A communication method of a mobility management (MM) function is provided. The communication method includes receiving, from a terminal, a signaling message including first information for determining a session management (SM) function to transmit the signaling message, determining an SM function based on the first information, and transmitting the signaling message to the determined SM function.

To meet a demand for radio data traffic that is on an increasing trend since commercialization of a 4th generation (4G) communication system, efforts to develop an improved 5th generation (5G) communication system or a pre-5G communication system have been conducted. For this reason, the 5G communication system or the pre-5G communication system is called a beyond 4G network communication system or a post long-term evolution (LTE) system. To achieve a high data transmission rate, the 5G communication system is considered to be implemented in a very high frequency (mm Wave) band (e.g., like 60 GHz band). To relieve a path loss of a radio wave and increase a transfer distance of the radio wave in the very high frequency band, in the 5G communication system, beamforming, massive multiple input, multiple output (MIMO), full dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antenna, analog beam-forming, and large scale antenna technologies have been discussed. Further, to improve a network of the system, in the 5G communication system, technologies such as an evolved small cell, an advanced small cell, a cloud radio access network (RAN), an ultra-dense network, a device to device (D2D) communication, a wireless backhaul, a moving network, cooperative communication, coordinated multi-points (CoMP), and reception interference cancellation have been developed. In addition to this, in the 5G system, hybrid frequency-shift keying (FSK) and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) modulation (FQAM) and sliding window superposition coding (SWSC) that are an advanced coding modulation (ACM) scheme and a filter bank multi carrier (FBMC), a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), and a sparse code multiple access (SCMA) that are an advanced access technology, and so on have been developed.
Meanwhile, the Internet is evolved from a human-centered connection network through which a human being generates and consumes information to the internet of things (IoT) network that transmits/receives information between distributed components such as things and processes the information. The internet of everything (IoE) technology in which the big data processing technology, etc. is combined with the IoT technology by connection with a cloud server, etc. has also emerged. To implement the IoT, technology elements, such as a sensing technology, wired and wireless communication and network infrastructure, a service interface technology, and a security technology, have been required. Recently, technologies such as a sensor network, machine to machine (M2M), and machine type communication (MTC) for connecting between things have been researched. In the IoT environment, an intelligent internet technology (IT) service that creates a new value in human life by collecting and analyzing data generated in the connected things may be provided. The IoT may apply for fields, such as a smart home, a smart building, a smart city, a smart car or a connected car, a smart grid, health care, smart appliances, and an advanced healthcare service, by fusing and combining the existing information technology (IT) with various industries.
Therefore, various tries to apply the 5G communication system to the IoT network have been conducted. For example, the 5G communication technologies, such as the sensor network, the M2M, and the MTC, have been implemented by techniques such as the beamforming, the MIMO, and the array antenna. The application of the cloud RAN as the big data processing technology described above may also be considered as an example of the fusing of the 5G communication technology with the IoT technology.
On the other hand, there may be logical devices performing several network functions for controlling the terminal in a mobile communication system. In such a situation, there is a need to support an operation of network devices to efficiently operate network resources.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

Method for transferring signaling messages of terminal between network functions


An apparatus in one embodiment comprises at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory. The processing device is configured, in a first phase of a given write operation of a data integrity test process, to associate with each of a plurality of pages of the given write operation at least one additional field having a designated signature, and in a second phase of the given write operation, to modify the signature of the additional field for each of the pages. The processing device is further configured, in a given read operation of the data integrity test process, to determine integrity of each of at least a subset of the pages based at least in part on the signature of its associated additional field. The data integrity test process may be configured to confirm consistency of the pages written by the given write operation relative to a corresponding point-in-time replica.

In many information processing systems, data integrity tests are performed in order to ensure that a storage system is functioning properly. For example, data integrity tests may be used to confirm that the storage system is generating consistent point-in-time (PIT) replicas of a set of one or more logical storage volumes, possibly in conjunction with performance of a replication process involving the logical storage volumes. In these and other data integrity testing contexts, problems can arise if write data of a given write operation of the data integrity test is larger than a native page size of the storage system. For example, an undesirable phenomenon known as "page tearing" can occur in such contexts due to the disparate sizes of the write data and the native pages of the storage system, which allow a single write operation for the write data to cross one or more page boundaries. A write operation occurring close in time to the generation of the PIT replica may therefore not be fully reflected in the PIT replica, leading to potential inaccuracies in the data integrity test results.

Processing device configured for data integrity testing utilizing signature-based multi-phase write operations


A software application for monitoring the performance of other software applications on mobile devices using efficient crowd sourced data and recommending third party software apps based on a user's demographics and mobile device data.

The present invention relates to mobile phone applications and methods of use thereof. In particular, the invention relates to a software system for monitoring and reporting upon the performance of mobile phone applications. The most novel element of this invention is the crowd-source dynamic feedback mechanism which pushes all of the app quality and performance data to the cloud based servers for analysis and then pushes aggregated crowd-source statistics, flagged app alerts and recommendations down to the consumer based on their specific applications, operating system version, device and wireless carrier network they are on.
A significant fraction of mobile phone applications (hereinafter referred to as "apps") are not efficient, optimized, or safe for mobile device performance and for the quality of a consumer's user experience. A leading cause of this problem is that a vast majority of apps in the iPhone and Android markets are designed and coded by hobbyists or other programming amateurs who do not employ sufficient quality controls. To further the problem in the Android market there are over 10,000 different device types on over 300 carrier networks, each of which performs differently. The largest Android app market, the Google Play Store, is growing at an enormous rate of approximately 1000 new apps added into the market every day. The market for iPhone apps is experiencing similar growth. The vast majority of app developers do not have the capability to properly test their apps to work on all of the different devices and carrier networks.
Flagged apps are those that are poorly designed, poorly optimized, poorly quality tested, and/or unsafe, cause consumer frustration and result in device returns for Wireless Carriers and Device OEMs. The problem of flagged apps concerns performance and quality. Additional examples of flagged apps would be malware or viruses infecting apps. Sophisticated mobile phone users deal with flagged apps by downloading 10 or more app performance and quality monitoring tools. These existing app monitoring tools enable sophisticated users to track their applications across essential performance and quality metrics. M2AppMonitor is designed to provide a complete solution, eliminating the need for users to download and install multiple applications. More importantly, the M2AppMonitor data that is gathered, is pushed to the cloud on a timed basis, integrated with data from other M2AppMonitor users and then crowd-sourced statistics, app recommendations and flagged app alerts are pushed to the consumers based on their applications, operating system version, device type and carrier network.
There has been a tremendous push in technology and big data statistical analysis to infer a user's profile and demographics from the user's smartphone behavior. This analysis can identify specific company products and target marketing in a stealthy manner. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,631,122 issued to Kadam, et. al. ("Kadam") discloses a method of determining demographics based on user interactions. Kadam relies on reviewing social media and scraping together data from "likes" and other relational behavior to analyze and make predictive product marketing information. While it is possible to make relatively accurate assumptions about a user's demographics it does not require any guess work if the software application just makes the demographics data entry available for a user to enter voluntarily. And, the computing power, overall energy consumption is reduced, and there is a lower likelihood of errors because there is no guessing at the user's profile. Also, in U.S. patent publication number US2010/0203876 filed by Krishnaswamy discloses a method of inferring user profile properties based upon mobile device usage. Again, similar principles are used to guess at a user's profile. Thus, there is a need to reduce power consumption and increase predictive matching based on demographics.
The present invention reduces the power consumption and inaccuracies of guessing at a smart phone user's profile and demographics. In a preferred embodiment a user may provide their profile and demographics directly into the M2AppMonitor. Based on the user profile and demographics the M2AppMonitor cloud based servers will recommend software apps based upon the user's profile. For example, age and sex are important for targeting specific markets such as video games for young males or contraception for young women. Based on crowd source information from other users it will be possible to identify users that are likely to adopt or purchase suggested software apps for the user's specific smart device.
The above referenced patents and patent applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Furthermore, where a definition or use of a term in a reference, which is incorporated by reference herein, is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.

Mobile device application monitoring software


A pressure gauge for measuring the pressure of a tire, which can also measure the depth of grooves in the tread of a tire includes a housing, which has a face with indicating scales and a side with an opening, the side being perpendicularly connected to the face of the same. It also has tube member with two open ends, the first open end extending outward from the housing and the second open end extending inward into the same. An elongated rod with two ends, the first end being retractably disposed in the tube member and the second end protruding from the opening in the housing and a neck portion is integrally formed and connected with the opening in the housing. An outer member is fitted over the neck portion.

This invention relates to a pressure gauge for measuring the pressure of a tire, more particularly to a pressure gauge with a new construction which can also measure the depth of the grooves in the tread of a tire.
FIG. 1 is a cross sectional view of a pressure gauge according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,222. Accordingly, a pressure gauge for measuring the pressure of a tire includes a housing having an indicating board on one side thereof; an axle rotatably mounted in the housing; a pinion member fixedly mounted on the axle; an indicator for displaying the degree of rotation of the axle; a pair of supporting rods fixedly mounted in the housing to support a sheet; a tube member including an inner end extending to the housing and in a perpendicular position relative to the axis of the axle and an outer end extending away from the housing and said outer end being adapted to communicate with the valve of a tire; a seal member movably disposed in the outer end of the tube member, the position of which when engaged with a tire will be determined by the pressure of that tire; an abutting member disposed in and forming a seal with the outer end of the tube member abutting the seal member; a compression spring disposed in the tube member biasing the abutting member and hence the seal member against the pressure exerted on the seal member; a rack member movably disposed in the tube member and having a lower end extending outward from the tube member so as to mesh with the pinion member to rotate the axle; a tension spring connecting the abutting member with the rack member; a post fixedly mounted in the housing for incorporating with the pinion member to restrict the rack member to pass therebetween; a pin pivotedly mounted in the housing as a spring mount; a blocking member normally brought into engagement with the surface of the axle to create friction therebetween when the axle is driven to rotate by the rack member as the abutting member is forced downward by the pressure of a tire, the force of said friction being adjusted higher than the tension force of the tension spring. Only when the blocking member is released from the axle, will the rack member be pulled by the tension spring back to its original position.
In the prior art the pressure gauge can only measure the air pressure of a tire. But cars traveling on long journeys also need good traction and if the grooves on the tread of a tire wear out, that traction is lost and the car can slip or slide on the road. To check the depth of the grooves in the tire tread, the driver needs to carry another device. This situation is inconvenient.


An exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a power train for a hybrid vehicle can achieve three or more fixed gear ratio modes where a vehicle is driven at a fixed gear ratio, such as shift stages of common transmission, only by the driving force of an engine without driving a motor generator, as well as an electric vehicle mode, which is the basic drive modes of a hybrid vehicle, and two or more power division modes including an input division mode and a composite mode, thereby driving the vehicle with high efficiency in accordance with traveling conditions of the vehicle and improving fuel efficiency.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power train for a hybrid vehicle, and more particularly, to a technology of transmitting power from power sources to the driving wheels in a hybrid vehicle equipped with two or more different power sources, including an internal combustion engine.
2. Description of Related Art
Hybrid vehicles using an engine and a motor generator improve fuel efficiency of the vehicles by implementing an idle stop function and a regenerative braking function, on the basis of a technology of using power from the motor generator having relatively excellent low-velocity torque characteristics, as driving force at low velocity, and driving the vehicles using power from the engine having relatively excellent high-velocity torque characteristics at high velocity.
Further, hybrid vehicles do not produce exhaust gas from the engine when being driven only by a motor generator, which is recognized as an environmental-friendly vehicle technology having advantages of improving fuel efficiency and reducing exhaust gas.
A power train for a hybrid vehicle is provide with a variety of driving modes, such that, preferably, it can be efficiently driven while improving fuel efficiency and acceleration performance by shifting the driving modes in accordance with the traveling conditions of the vehicle, thereby improving the traveling performance of the vehicle.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.


A pressure sensor of the MEMS and/or NEMS type is disclosed, including:                at least one first deformable cavity (20) to receive pressure variations from an ambient atmosphere, this first deformable cavity being made in a first substrate and including at least one mobile or deformable wall (25), arranged at least partially in the plane parallel to the first substrate, called plane of the sensor, pressure variations from an ambient atmosphere being transmitted to said cavity,        a detector (24, 24′) for detecting a displacement or deformation, in the plane of the sensor, of said mobile or deformable wall, under the effect of a pressure variation of the ambient atmosphere.

The present application relates to the field of MEMS micro-sensors or MEMS dynamic sensors, in particular to produce microphones or pressure sensors, in particular of the relative type.
MEMS microphones are increasingly present in general public applications (such as mobile telephones, camcorders, cameras, . . . ).
These components generally use a membrane able to deform as a function of the pressure exerted by the sound to be detected, and a means for detecting that vibration via capacitive means associated with said membrane.
The principle of this sensor is explained in the article by S. Chowdhury et al. "Nonlinear Effects in MEMS Capacitive Microphone Design." Proceedings of the International Conference on MEMS, NANO and Smart Systems (ICMENS 2003.
FIG. 1A shows the structure of a microphone 1, as explained by Matthias Winter et al. in "Influence of a chip scale package on the frequency response of a MEMS microphone"—Microsystem Technologies, December 2009, DOI 10.1007/s00542-009-0994-z. This publication also provides the equivalent electrical diagram illustrated in FIG. 1B.
A MEMS chip 12 and an ASIC 14 are fastened by connecting rods 18 to a ceramic substrate 2, which has through holes 4, making it possible for a pressure wave to reach the sensor strictly speaking, made up of a perforated counter electrode 6 and a circular membrane 8. The latter part has small openings forming vents to make it possible to offset the static pressure. Behind the membrane is a space 10 closed by a polymer layer and protected by a copper metallization.
The diagram of FIG. 1B show the (acoustic) resistance Rp brought by the presence of the holes 61 into the stationary electrode 6 that the pressure wave must pass through before being able to exert a force on the membrane 8. A second acoustic resistance (Rgap) comes from the damping of the membrane 8 due to the displacement of the air gap 19 between it and the stationary electrode 6. These two resistances therefore need to be minimized to increase the sensor's sensitivity.
The reduction of the resistance Rp is done in particular by increasing the number of holes 61 in the stationary electrode 6. These perforations can reach close to 20% of the total surface of the electrode as explained in the article by A. Dehe "Silicon microphone development and application."—Sensor and Actuators A 1333:283-287.
These perforations decrease the useful surface of the measuring capacitance proportionately, and therefore the sensitivity. A compromise must therefore be found.
In the aforementioned article, the author provides characteristic dimensions of these microphones.
It is also specified that the bandwidth of the sensor is also highly dependent on the sizing of the perforations 61 and the air gap 19.
The air gap 19 and the perforations 61 also play a decisive role in the noise of these microphones as indicated by M. Brauer et al. "Improved signal-to-noise ratio of Silicon microphones by a high-impedance resistor," J. Micromech. Microeng. 14 (2004) 86-89.
In all of the known examples, the following problems are seen.
The membrane 8, which serves both as mechanical spring and mobile electrode, recovers the acoustic signal, and is still correlated to the detection electrode 6. It is consequently not possible to optimize the acoustic part of the sensor separately from the electrical measuring part. This is characterized in particular by:                a significant loss of sensitivity due to the presence of a large number of holes in the membrane 6, necessary from an acoustic perspective to reduce the acoustic resistance, but which greatly reduces the opposite surfaces for the capacitive detection; a reduction of the opposite surfaces of up to nearly 20% is also noted,        a viscous damping, determined, among other things, by the air gap 19 between the membrane 8 and the stationary detection electrode 6. The gap itself depends on the pressure range to be measured (maximum bending allowed by the membrane) and the reading voltage ("pull-in" limit).
All of the known microphone structures are based on the use of a flexible membrane 8 embedded on its periphery. This means that, under the effect of outside pressure, the membrane deforms primarily in the center, but practically not at all on its periphery. As a result, only a fraction of the deformation can be used for capacitive detection.
Furthermore, it is necessary to apply a voltage between the membrane 8 and the reading electrode 6 to read the capacity variation resulting from the deformation of the membrane under the effect of the acoustic pressure to be measured. To limit the measuring noise and increase the sensitivity of said microphone, this voltage must be maximized. However, this maximization is difficult to ensure because it assumes taking several parameters into account, and in particular the size of the air gap and the maximum pressure to be measured (operation near the "pull in" voltage, i.e. the voltage for which the membrane adheres on the control electrode, is sought).
Other problems should be signaled:                the known components are very sensitive to variations in the production method. The sensitivity of the microphone is in fact quite varied as a function of the thickness of the membrane and stresses in the material,        the response is nonlinear as a function of the acoustic pressure, the detection capacity being proportionate to the opposite of the distance between the electrode 6 and membrane 8,        the pressure range and the resistance to pressure shocks are very limited, the structure and the production method making it difficult to place stops in the air gap.
The problem therefore arises of finding a new sensor or micro-sensor structure of the MEMS type or a dynamic sensor of the MEMS type not having the above drawbacks and limitations.
The problem also arises of finding a new method embodiment for such a structure.

MEMS dynamic pressure sensor, in particular for applications to microphone production

Commissariat à{grave over ( )} l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives


A data recording disk drive has an improved breather filter assembly that removes both chemical contaminants and particulate matter. The filter assembly includes a housing having an internal passage and a recess that supports and contains the chemical and particulate filter elements, The passage in the filter housing provides fluid communication between the breather opening and a sheet of chemical filter material. A barrier plate is also located in the filter housing recess adjacent to the side of the chemical filter sheet not exposed to air from the passage. The barrier plate prevents air from flowing through the chemical filter material and redirects the air flow across the surface of the chemical filter sheet. After the air flows by the chemical filter sheet, it is redirected through the particulate filter element and into the disk drive enclosure. The air entering the disk drive enclosure does not generally enter into the interior of the chemical filter material by forced conduction, but flows by the surface of the material so that the chemical filter does not significantly increase the flow impedance of the filter assembly, as in prior art breather filter assemblies. The flow across the surface of the material allows contaminants to diffuse into the getter material and become trapped.

Disk drives, also called disk files, are information storage devices that use a rotatable disk with concentric data tracks containing the information, a head or transducer for reading and/or writing data onto the various tracks, and an actuator connected to a carrier for the head for moving the head to the desired track and maintaining it over the track centerline during read and write operations. The head may be a single-element inductive read/write head or a dual element inductive write/magnetoresistive read head. There are typically a number of disks mounted on a hub that is rotated by a disk drive or spindle motor, and a number of head carriers connected to the actuator for accessing the surfaces of the disks. A walled enclosure, including a base and a cover, supports the drive motor and head actuator and surrounds the heads and disks to provide a substantially sealed environment. The enclosure has a breather opening to equalize pressure differences between the drive interior and the ambient atmosphere, and provides a defined source of makeup air for enclosure leaks. A particulate filter is located near the breather opening to prevent particulate matter from entering the drive interior.
In conventional magnetic recording disk drives, the head carrier is an air-bearing slider that rides on a bearing of air above the disk surface when the disk is rotating at its operational speed. The slider is maintained next to the disk surface by a biasing force from a suspension that connects the slider to the actuator. The disk has a liquid lubricant film on its surface to minimize head and disk damage that may be caused by inadvertent slider-disk contact during operation, and to facilitate starting of the disk drive when the slider is at rest on the disk surface.
In contrast to conventional air-bearing disk drives, contact or near-contact disk drives have been proposed that place the head carrier in constant or occasional contact with the disk or a liquid film on the disk during read and write operations. Examples of these types of disk drives are described in IBM's U.S. Pat. No. 5,202,803 and published European application EP 367510; U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,368 assigned to Conner Peripherals; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,041,932 assigned to Censtor Corporation.
Magnetic recording disk drives are very sensitive to chemical contaminants. High molecular weight organic vapors can adsorb on the very smooth surfaces of the disks and sliders and modify the properties of the liquid lubricant. Other chemical contaminants, such as SO.sub.2, may also induce corrosion of the metallurgy of the disks and heads, especially the magnetoresistive read elements. For these reasons, many disk drives use a chemical filter, in addition to a particulate filter, near the breather opening.
In conventional disk drives with a filter near the breather opening, the pressure gradient between the ambient atmosphere and the drive interior forces the air through the filter. This is desirable because it maximizes contact of the chemical vapors with the chemical filter material. The breather opening is typically located at the lowest pressure point in the drive to ensure that all air enters the drive through the breather filter attached to the breather opening. However, the impedance of a combined flow-through chemical and particle filter is increased by the addition of the chemical filter media. This can lead to contaminants entering the drive enclosure through other leaks or openings.
What is needed is a disk drive breather filter assembly that maximizes the gettering of chemical contaminants with the lowest possible flow impedance.

Disk drive with flow-by chemical breather filter

International Business Machines Corporation


A security system having an inner door handle of a door for a vehicle. The door is brought into a locked and unlocked state with a locking system. The security system includes an actuator triggering an actuation process for opening a lock of the locking system when activated, and an identification element detecting an approach around a zone of the actuator or a contact with the actuator when the identification has been positive. The locking system has an unblocked mode wherein the locking system is in the unlocked state and the actuator is effectively connected to the lock. A control unit is in data communication with the locking system and identification element. The control unit puts the locking system in the unblocked mode once the identification has been positive and the vehicle outputs an unblocking signal such that the actuation process is triggered by activating the actuator.

A method and device to avoid collision on opening of a vehicle door is shown in DE 10 2005 014 581 A1. The objective of the device is to prevent an approaching obstacle from coming into contact with the vehicle door. To achieve this, the device proposes a proximity sensor, which detects approach of a hand to the inner door handle of the vehicle. Monitoring of a vehicle environment for approaching obstacles is triggered on this account. In the event that an obstacle is found, the device issues a warning signal for an occupant of the vehicle, so that he refrains from opening the vehicle door. A drawback here has been that, despite acoustic or optical warning, the door can be opened. The described device therefore does not prevent the occurrence of undesired accidents.


A pulsed ion source is disclosed wherein the ion source is energized one or more times to generate a first group of ions and a second group of ions. The first and second groups of ions are simultaneously transmitted through an ion guide whilst keeping the first and second groups of ions isolated from each other.

The present invention relates to a method of mass spectrometry and a mass spectrometer.
Mass spectrometers configured for Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation ("MALDI") are known. MALDI is a soft ionisation technique for mass spectrometry in which analyte molecules are prepared on the surface of a target plate. The analyte molecules are supported in a solid polycrystalline matrix. A pulse of laser radiation, with a typical duration of a few nanoseconds, is directed onto the MALDI sample. The laser radiation is strongly absorbed by the matrix molecules.
The pulse of laser energy results in rapid heating of the region that is irradiated. This heat causes a proportion of the matrix material to be vaporised and explosively ejected from the surface as a plume of gaseous material (desorption). Analyte ions embedded within the matrix that is desorbed are transferred to the gaseous phase along with the matrix.
Reactions between the matrix ions and the analyte molecules can result in the analyte molecules being ionised either through protonation/deprotonation or through the removal or addition of an ion. Upon dispersal of the initial MALDI plume, the remaining analyte ions are predominantly singly charged.
Although the absorption of the laser radiation occurs at all levels of laser fluence, there is a threshold energy density required in order to obtain desorption of material under illumination.
MALDI imaging is a growing technique where the sample to be analysed may be a thin (typically 15 μm) section of tissue, with a layer of matrix deposited upon the surface of the sample. The sample is scanned in a raster manner, with the laser firing at specific locations or ranges of locations spaced along the raster pattern. Mass spectra are acquired at each location or range of locations and the relative abundance of ion masses are then displayed as an ion image of the tissue section.
Large matrix arrays can be generated to cover entire tissue sections (i.e. ion imaging) or smaller arrays can be used to study different areas within the tissue (e.g. depth profiling).
The aim of depth profiling is to obtain information on the variation of composition with depth below the initial surface of the sample. The information which is obtained is particularly useful for the analysis of layered structures such as those produced in the semiconductor industry.
Laser Desorption Ionisation relies upon the removal of ions from the surface of a sample and hence is, by its nature, a destructive technique. Laser Desorption Ionisation may be used for depth profiling applications. A depth profile of a sample may be obtained by recording sequentially spectra as the surface is gradually eroded away by the incident laser beam probe. A plot of the intensity of a given mass or mass to charge ratio signal as a function of time may be produced which is a direct reflection of the variation of its abundance or concentration with depth below the surface.
MALDI tissue profiling and ion imaging techniques have become valuable tools for rapid, direct analysis of tissues to investigate spatial distributions of proteins.
However, the production of mass spectra relating to each of the different areas within a tissue sample requires discrete analyses which is time consuming and reduces instrument yield.
US 2005/0116158 (University of Manitoba) discloses an ion transmission device or interface between a pulsed ion source and a mass spectrometer. The ion transmission device comprises a multipole rod set and includes a damping gas to damp spatial and energy spreads of ions generated by the pulsed ion source. The disclosed arrangement attempts to homogenise ions emitted by the pulsed ion source into a quasi-continuous beam. Broadening the pulse increases the probability of a pusher region of a Time of Flight mass analyser having ions present in the pusher region at the time when the electrodes forming the pusher region are energised. If the packets of ions were still of a size comparable to the time of ion formation (i.e. approx. 3 ns laser pulse duration) then the probability of ions being in the pusher region would be relatively low.
It is known to address this problem in a different manner by timing and synchronising the release of ion packets from a device with energisation of the pusher electrodes. As a result, ions can always be arranged to be present in the pusher region at the precise time when the pusher electrodes are energised. This results in a High Duty Cycle ("HDC") mode of operation.
Operating a mass spectrometer in a HDC mode in conjunction with a travelling wave ion mobility spectrometer enables ions within a desired mass range of interest to be present in the pusher region when the pusher electrodes are energised. As a result, there is no need to broaden the pulses of ions to ensure that the ions are sampled. The delay time between releasing ion packets and the timing of energising the pusher electrode may be calibrated for the expected mass range of ions emerging from e.g. the ion mobility spectrometer.
It is desired to provide an improved method of mass spectrometry and an improved mass spectrometer.


Embodiments disclosed herein generally relate to a system and method for tracking virtual reality experiences. A computing system receives a plurality of location coordinates of a user during a VR simulation. The computing system uploads the plurality of location coordinates to a database. The computing system prompts a client device that an API linking the client device of the user to functionality of the database is available. The computing system receives a query via the API. The computing system translates the received query to a query compatible with the database. The computing system queries the database using the received query for according to criteria set forth in the received query to retrieve a set of location information. The computing system generates a heat map based on the retrieved location information. The computing system prompts the remote client device that the heat map is available for display.

As virtual reality (VR) technology continues to rapidly improve, the applications of VR technology to existing fields continues to grow. Virtual reality technology may be implemented into a variety of fields, such as, for example, healthcare, advertisement, entertainment, travel, and the like. Similarly, VR devices continue to improve, and have become more readily available as the price of the technology decreases. With this combination, VR technology has become ever more prevalent in the digital age.

Method and system for tracking virtual reality experiences


A covering for an aseptic treatment site is described and which includes a substrate defining an aperture which permits selective access to an aseptic treatment site on a patient; and a transparent cover is borne by the substrate and which is removably affixed in substantially aseptic covering relation relative to the aperture.

The prior art is replete with numerous examples of surgical drapes which have been designed and utilized, through the years, to aid clinicians in the treatment of patients having various maladies. Typically, such surgical drapes have been adapted for use with a wide variety of electronic and mechanical devices which are used for treating the patient's medical conditions. Depending on the nature of the condition, such medical devices, can for example, be surgically implanted, connected externally to the patient receiving treatment, or even used during a surgical technique.
Fenestrated surgical drapes have been used, heretofore, to maintain sterile conditions, maintain patient privacy, absorb bodily fluids, and further provide a clear and clean work area for the clinician. The prior art surgical drapes, such as the one shown in FIG. 1 employ a fenestration or opening in the surgical drape which provides the clinician with access to the desired site on the patient's body while preserving the function of the surgical drape which is utilized to cover other areas of the patient's body.
In a typical utilization of such fenestrated surgical drapes, a medical treatment site, such as a surgical site is located, and thereafter the site is prepared for surgery by making it substantially aseptic. Thereafter, the surgical drape having the fenestration is placed over the surgical site and the medical procedure or surgery is initiated. Following completion of the surgery, the typical practice is to remove the entire surgical drape because portions of the drape may have absorbed body fluid during the surgery. The patient is then moved from the surgical theater to a recovery room. Some surgical procedures require that the surgical site be monitored for a period of time in order to detect any abnormalities in the recovery of the patient. On some occasions, irregularities may occur either at the surgical site, or elsewhere in the patients' body which indicate that the previous surgical procedure has been unsuccessful or another situation has arisen in the patient's body which indicates that further surgical intervention is required by the clinician. In these circumstances, immediate surgical intervention is not possible inasmuch as the original surgical site is no longer in an aseptic condition. Consequently under these conditions, the surgical site must be again rendered aseptic before a clinician can gain access to same. This time delay to render a surgical site aseptic can be significant, and may under some circumstances be life threatening.
Therefore, a covering for an aseptic treatment site which addresses the perceived shortcomings of the prior art practices and devices utilized heretofore is the subject matter of the present application.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.