Providing a method for manufacturing a package capable of achieving reliable anodic bonding between the bonding material and a base board wafer even when the bonding material having a large resistance value is used. Providing a method for manufacturing a package by anodically bonding a bonding material, which is fixed in advance to an inner surface of a lid board wafer made of an insulator, to an inner surface of a base board wafer made of an insulator, the method including an anodic bonding step where an auxiliary bonding material serving as an anode is disposed on an outer surface of the lid board wafer, a cathode is disposed on an outer surface of the base board wafer, and a voltage is applied between the auxiliary bonding material and the cathode, wherein the auxiliary bonding material is made of a material that causes an anodic bonding reaction between the auxiliary bonding material and the lid board wafer in the anodic bonding step.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a package, a method for manufacturing a piezoelectric vibrator, and an oscillator, an electronic device, and a radio-controlled timepiece each having the piezoelectric vibrator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a piezoelectric vibrator utilizing quartz or the like is used in a cellular phone and a portable information terminal as the time source, the timing source of a control signal, a reference signal source, and the like. Although there are various piezoelectric vibrators of this type, an SMD-type piezoelectric vibrator is known as one example thereof. As the piezoelectric vibrator of this type, a three-layered piezoelectric vibrator in which a piezoelectric board having a piezoelectric vibrating reed formed thereon is interposed between a base board and a lid board is known. In this case, the piezoelectric vibrator is accommodated in a cavity (sealed space) that is formed between the base board and the lid board.
Moreover, in recent years, instead of the three-layered piezoelectric vibrator, a two-layered piezoelectric vibrator has also been developed. The piezoelectric vibrator of this type has a two-layered structure in which a base board and a lid board are directly bonded and packaged, and a piezoelectric vibrating reed is accommodated in a cavity formed between the two boards. The packaged two-layered piezoelectric vibrator is suitably used in that it is excellent in achieving a thin profile compared with the three-layered structure.
As a method of directly bonding the base board and the lid board which are made of a glass material, anodic bonding is proposed. For example, JP-A-2001-72433 disclosed an anodic bonding method that involves fixing a bonding material to an inner surface of one board, and then connecting a probe to the bonding material to be used as an anode, disposing a cathode on an outer surface of the other board, and applying a voltage between the bonding material and the cathode to bond the bonding material to an inner surface of the other board. As a material of the bonding material, Al is used.
However, there is a problem in that when the bonding material used for the anodic bonding is exposed to the outside of the bonded package, the bonding material made of Al will be corroded, and airtightness of the package will be degraded.
Therefore, in recent years, the use of Si as material of the bonding material has been investigated.
However, since the Si film has a large sheet resistance, when the thin bonding material is made of Si, the resistance value will increase. For this reason, when the probe is connected to the bonding material during the anodic bonding, a voltage drop will increase in proportion to a distance from a probe connection point. As a result, there is a problem in that the potential of the bonding material will be uneven, and anodic bonding is not achieved at positions distant from the probe connection point although anodic bonding is achieved near the probe connection point.
In order to achieve the anodic bonding at positions distant from the probe connection point, it is necessary to perform anodic bonding by applying a high voltage, which may however increase the amount of energy consumption.
In addition, in order to form a Si film having a low resistance value, it is necessary to form the Si film by sputtering, CVD, and the like at a high temperature (800° C. or higher). However, since the softening point of a glass board that forms the Si film is about 600° C., it is difficult to form the Si film on the glass board at a high temperature.

Method of manufacturing piezoelectric vibrators


An image processing apparatus includes a first control unit configured to control the whole apparatus and not to be energized in a power saving mode; and a second control unit configured to be energized in the power saving mode. The second control unit includes a detecting unit configured to detect a return trigger for returning from the power saving mode to a normal mode; an identifying unit configured to identify the return trigger; a storage unit configured to store the identified return trigger into a storage medium; and a starting unit configured to start energizing the first control unit in accordance with the detection of the return trigger. The first control unit includes a reading unit configured to read the stored return trigger after the first control unit is energized; and a first-control-unit control unit configured to determine a function to be activated preferentially based on the return trigger.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and a control method for the image processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, information tends to be computerized, and image processing apparatuses such as a printer or a facsimile used to output computerized information and a scanner used to computerize documents have become indispensable devices. Such an image processing apparatus is often constituted as a multifunction peripheral (MFP) which can be utilized as a printer, a facsimile, a scanner, and a copying machine by having an image capturing function, an image forming function, a communication function, and the like.
In the MFP, it is possible in many cases to enter a power saving mode besides the normal running mode. Such an image processing apparatus enters the power saving mode when the MFP is not used, besides the normal running mode, in order to reduce the consumed power. In the power saving mode, a major part of the MFP is brought into an unenergized state when the MFP is not in the normal running mode, in order to reduce power consumed by the MFP. Often, even energization of a random access memory (RAM) and the like which constitute a control unit is cut off. At the time of return from the power saving mode to the normal mode, therefore, it becomes necessary for the MFP to read a program from a hard disk or a nonvolatile memory and develop the program into the RAM again.
On the other hand, the MFP provides users with various functions such as a copying machine, a printer, a scanner, a FAX and the like, and these functions go on increasing. At the time of return from the power saving mode to the normal mode, therefore, it is necessary to read respective application programs for implementing these functions again and consequently the return time from the power saving mode to the normal mode becomes long. Even when, for example, the user wants to use a scanner, therefore, it is necessary for the user to wait until an application program for implementing the scanner function is read, if the MFP is in the power saving mode. As a result, a state in which the function the user wants to utilize cannot be used readily is brought about.
As a technique for shortening a waiting time lasting until it becomes possible for a user to use an MFP, therefore, a technique of causing the user to select a function to be used, loading a program corresponding to the selected function preferentially from a hard disk to a RAM at the time of return from the power saving mode, making the function available, and then activating another program is disclosed (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-194876).
According to the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-194876, the time over which the user is caused to wait can be shortened, as many selection units as functions to be restored preferentially must be prepared, resulting in increased power consumption. Furthermore, there is a problem that user's operations become troublesome as the selection units increase.
In addition, in operations of the MFP, there are operations executed according to a user's operation of an operating unit and operations executed according to a command which is input via a network. In the case of the latter operations, the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-194876 cannot be used.
Therefore, there is a need for an apparatus capable of shortening the return time of the apparatus from the power saving mode according to a user's intention with a simple configuration and without requesting the user to conduct extra manipulations.

Image processing apparatus and control method for image processing apparatus


A method and apparatus for identifying resources available at a device in a communication network. A Resource Directory Proxy node receives a first message from the device. The first message relates to a change in at least one resource available at the device. The Resource Directory Proxy then sends, to a Resource Directory node selected from a set of Resource Directory nodes, a second message. The second message includes the change in the at least one of the resources available. There is also provided a method and apparatus for providing data from the device is provided. A Mirror Proxy Proxy node receives from the device a data message that includes an identity of the device and data obtained by the device. The Mirror Proxy Proxy node selects, from a set of Mirror Proxy nodes, a Mirror Proxy node, and sends to the selected Mirror Proxy node a further data message, the further data message including the identity of the device and the data obtained by the device.

Communications devices, such as mobile telephones or personal computers, allow a subscriber to attach to a communication network and communicate with other devices. Furthermore, a growth area is that of machine to machine (M2M) communication, in which communications are sent between different devices without human intervention. Examples of the use of M2M communication include sensor networks (for example, networks for monitoring weather conditions), surveillance equipment (for example alarm systems, video monitoring, and so on), vehicle fleet management, vending machines, monitoring manufacturing and so on.
It is predicted that in the long term future, there will be billions of M2M devices, and the number of M2M devices will far exceed the number of devices used for communication between humans (such as mobile telephones, personal computers and so on).
M2M devices may include actuators in order for the M2M device to receive an instruction and act upon the instruction. There are many uses of M2M devices, and they can potentially consume a lot of network resources.
A typical feature of such devices is that they have limited energy resources, and so are termed "energy constrained". Energy is consumed when the device is activated and communicates with a network, and takes readings or operates an actuator. It is advantageous to limit the amount of energy used by the device and to minimise any unnecessary use of energy in order to prolong the useful life of the device.
Energy constrained sensor and actuator devices typically register their resources and capabilities thereof to directory services (e.g. the IETF CoRE Resource Directory or RD for short in the rest of the text) for the purposes of reachability, discoverability by applications and inventory maintenance. A Resource Directory (RD) is required because the devices may often be in a sleep mode or in a network where multicast traffic is inefficient. An RD hosts descriptions of resources held on other servers which allows applications to look up available resources. A device may register with one or more RDs. The RD maintains all the metadata that describe the sensor and the produced data.
Devices can also benefit from the existence of a data cache service where they push the current sensor resource representations (e.g. the IETF CoRE Mirror Proxy). A Mirror Proxy (MP) allows applications to obtain the data pushed to the MP without contacting the device. The MP maintains the last known snapshot of the sensor data, e.g. the last vibration measurement for an industrial motor, which is refreshed periodically.
The use of RDs and MPs allows applications to obtain information from the device while eliminating the need for the device to remain in full power mode at all times, which would otherwise deplete the device's energy resources. The RD 2 and the MP 3 also protect the device 1 from Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary network in which a device 1 registers with a RD 2 and pushes data to a MP 3. Applications 4, 5, 6 can query the RD 2 and the MP 3 directly without needing to contact the device 1. The dashed lines in FIG. 1 represent resource description related messages (registrations, queries), while the solid lines represent data access related messages. The placement of these functions in the topology of a network can vary. For example the RD 2 may be placed on a sensor gateway (e.g. building GW) or in the cloud. The RD 2 and the MP 3 may be co-located at one node or separately located at different nodes.
A type of network in which a device 1 communicates with RDs 2 and MPs 3 may require the device 1 to send multiple messages to RDs with registration information and sensor data to multiple MPs. This is also the case for devices that may run multiple applications from different stakeholders. While the example of FIG. 1 shows one device 1 registration to one RD 2, and one MP 3, the device may need to register with several RDs and push data to several MPs.
The device 1 (and applications 4, 5, 6) must initially perform discovery to determine the existence of at least one RD 2. The discovery of one or more MPs 3 can be done by the use of the RD 2 itself since, in the IETF architecture, the MP 3 is considered as another resource. Although the RD 2 is also considered in IETF as another resource, there is currently no solution for the device 1 to discover the RD 2.
A further problem arises in the case where the device 1 must communicate with multiple RDs and MPs. A device may be required to register with multiple RDs and push its data to multiple MPs in order to provide load balancing in the network, or for commercial reasons (for example, if multiple network operators are involved). If application developers would like to discover any resource and access any resource representation regardless of the telecom operator they are cooperating with, a network support function must be provided that allows the applications 4, 5, 6 to perform resource discovery and have resource access across different domains.
In the case where there are multiple RDs and MPs, the device 1 must initiate multiple registration requests to multiple RDs and push its data to multiple MPs assuming a full replication policy. Moreover, if the device 1 includes a multi-sensor platform (e.g. it has sensors for different conditions, e.g. light, temperature etc.), the device's 1 resource description includes all of the primitive sensor modalities and the MP 3 would need to maintain all the sensor resources corresponding to the different modalities. For reasons of load balancing on the network, there may be a need for dedicated MPs for specific sensor modalities (e.g. electricity meter readings only and not device management information). Communication with multiple RDs and MPs further drains the energy resources of the device 1.

Identifying resources from a device in a communications network


Subterranean formations are fractured by use of an aqueous fracturing fluid containing an effective amount of a copolymer of acrylamide and potassium acrylate crosslinked with a titanium or zirconium compounds. The fracturing fluid also contains an oxidative gel breaker. The method is particularly suited for treatment of deep, high temperature formations.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the hydraulic fracturing of subterranean formations. In one aspect, the invention relates to the use of a non-damaging polymeric thickener for aqueous fracturing fluids capable of use in deep, high temperature wells.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hydraulic fracturing has been widely used as a means for improving the rates at which fluids can be injected into or withdrawn from subterranean formations surrounding oil wells, gas wells, water injection wells, and similar boreholes. The fracturing methods employed normally involve the injection of a viscous fracturing fluid having a low fluid loss value into the well at a rate and pressure sufficient to generate a fracture in the exposed formation, the introduction of fluid containing suspended propping agent particles into the resultant fracture, and the subsequent shutting in of the well until the formation is closed on the injected particles. This results in the formation of a vertical, high-conductivity channels through which fluids can thereafter be injected or produced. The conductivity obtained is a function of the fracture dimensions and the permeability of the bed of propping agent particles within the fracture.
In order to generate the fracture of sufficient length and width and to carry the propping agent particles into the fracture, it is necessary for the fluid to have relatively high viscosity, low friction loss, and non-damaging properties. The viscosity in aqueous liquids is provided by the addition of polymers, frequently called thickeners. Following the treatment of the well, it is desirable to return the aqueous liquids to its low viscosity state to enhance cleanup, thereby permitting the fracturing fluid and polymer to be removed from the formation and the propped fracture. The highly viscous liquid if left in the fracture would reduce formation permeability and impede the production of formation fluids through the propped fracture. Moreover, the residue of the polymer on the fracture face and in the pores of the propped fracture would significantly reduce fluid permeability therethrough.
The polymers used as aqueous thickeners must impart sufficient fluid viscosity at the temperature of the formation to generate the desired fracture and suspend the proppant. The polymers are frequently crosslinked to achieve the necessary viscosity. One problem associated with some crosslinked polymers (i.e. polymer crosslinked with borate compounds) is their thermal stability (see SPE Paper 18 862). Many crosslinked polymers degrade at temperatures of 180.degree. F. Other crosslinkers, such as certain chromuim compounds are falling into disuse because of their known toxicity.
In order to avoid the undesirable after effects of the polymer and polymer residue, it is now common practice to employ in the fracturing fluid chemicals ("breaker") which degrade the polymers. U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,401 discloses a number of oxidizing agents contained in capsules for breaking the fracture fluid. U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,594 discloses the use of sodium hypochlorite solution, acid, micellar solutions, and surfactants for degrading the fracturing fluid polymers. As described in detail in SPE Paper 18862, published March 13-14, 1989, some breakers in fracturing fluids for shallow, low temperature (100.degree. F.) treatments are satisfactory for certain polymer gels.
These conventional breakers, however, are not particularly effective with organometallic crosslinked polymers. Moreover, in deep high temperature wells, particularly wells at temperatures in excess of 250.degree. F., many breakers tend to degrade the polymer prior to completion of fracture generation phase of the operation.
Finally, the aqueous fracturing fluid must not cause damage to the formation by swelling formation clays. Formations typically contain clays, particularly montmorillinite, that have the property of swelling when wet. Clay swelling can reduce formation fluid permeability.
In summary, the fracturing fluid must be formulated to: (a) achieve sufficient viscosity, preferably delayed viscosity to minimize friction loss; (b) possess high temperature stability; and (c) have non-damaging properties. As described in detail below, the present invention employs a crosslinked copolymer which exhibits these properties.
Prior art references which disclose copolymers used in well operations are: U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,182 discloses acrylamide/methacrylate copolymer crosslinked with chromium ions (crosslinker) in presence of carbonate ion activator, oxylate ion (stabilizer), and persulfate ion (breaker);. U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,594 discloses acrylamide/Na.sup.+ acrylate copolymers crosslinked with chromium ions; U.S. Pat. No. 4,210,206 discloses acrylamide/ammonium acrylate copolymers crosslinked with dialdehyes; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,935 discloses titanium and chromuim crosslinkers for a variety of polymeric thickeners.

Method of treating subterranean formations using a non-damaging fracturing fluid


Disclosed is a cardiac biopotential analysis system and method for detecting and quantifying in a noninvasive manner nonlinear dynamic patterns of depolarization and repolarization on a beat to beat basis in real time using bispectral analysis. A suitable body surface electrode acquires the signal from a region of interest. The signal is then amplified, digitized, and transmitted to a host microcomputer where an arrhythmia-free QRST complex is chosen interactively. Using standard cross-correlation methods a suitable number of complexes are extracted from the record. The extracted complexes are used to compute bispectral parameters using a frequency domain or a parametric based approach. A reference clinical database is used to identify frequency pairs most sensitive to particular interventions or diagnostic states of interest. The values at these frequency pairs are then extracted from the patient's bispectral arrays. The ensemble of values for the particular diagnostic determination under consideration is used to compute a single value index which serves as the diagnostic criterion by which the patient's state is judged. In this way the quantification of nonlinear dynamic properties of the frequency structure of the QRST yields information about the presence and extent of coronary artery disease (CAD), myocardial ischemia, cardiac electrical stability, risk of malignant ventricular arrhydthmia, site(s) of origin of malignant arrhythmias, extent of malignancy of arrhythmias, degree of antiarrhythmic drug efficacy, neural and humoral inputs to the heart, pump function/ejection fraction, and ongoing organ rejection in cardiac transplant patients.

The present invention relates to a high-frequency, high-resolution cardiac biopotential analysis apparatus and method, and more particularly to a microcomputer-based cardiac biopotential analysis apparatus for qualitatively determining in a noninvasive manner, cardiac phenomena that can be ascertained by analyzing cardiac electrical activity.
Cardiac biopotentials arise from the discharge of hundreds of thousands of electrically active cells. The signal detected at the body surface is a composite determined by different types of tissue, differing locations of that tissue, and the type of organization (or disorganization) of the wavefront of activation. When transmitted to the body surface the signal is altered in morphology and frequency content as a result of such factors as body fat, rib cage size, and position of the heart in relation to the lungs. All these variables lead to challenging signal processing problems.
Despite nearly a century of use, the conventional scalar electrocardiogram ("ECG") has major shortcomings. Its value for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) is limited. It is very useful when there has been an antecedent myocardial infarct (MI) ("heat attack") which leads to localized fibrosis extensive enough to be detectable. In the absence of previous MI, the abnormalities induced by CAD in the resting ECG in an asymptomatic individual are of limited sensitivity and specificity.
The scalar ECG is of much greater value for the detection of active, ongoing ischemia. Monitoring of the ST segment during chest pain is a reliable indicator of cardiac ischemia and is used diagnostically when chest pain spontaneously presents itself or when chest pain is deliberately provoked for diagnostic purposes as in exercise stress testing. However even for this diagnostic application there occur significant numbers of false positives often requiring further, more expensive noninvasive tests (nuclear imaging) or invasive assessment through the use of cardiac catheterization and coronary angiography.
For the assessment of the risk of sudden cardiac death due to malignant ventricular arrhythmias the conventional ECG is of practically no use whatsoever. Twenty four hour continuous ambulatory monitoring of the scalar ECG ("Holter monitoring") is of some value in the minority of individuals with significant amounts of ventricular extrasystoles, but at considerable expense and inconvenience to the patient.
Advances in computer technology have led to attempts to improve the diagnostic information extracted from the surface ECG. One such approach is the cardiointegram (CIG) which has been used for the detection of coronary disease. This approach, as described in "The Cardiointegram: Detection of Coronary Artery Disease in Males with Chest Pain and a Normal Resting Electrocardiogram", J. Electrocardiography. 19(3): pp. 257-267 (1986), applies a process of integration over the various sections of the QRST signal thereby highlighting information about the interrelationships of positive to negative deflections from the ORS to the TO interval and T wave amplitude. Using this technique it has been shown that coronary artery disease can be detected from the resting, normal ECG with a sensitivity and specificity slightly less than exercise stress electrocardiography.
More recently Abboud et. al in "High Frequency Electrocardiography Using an Advanced Method of Signal Averaging for Non-Invasive Detection of Coronary Artery Disease in Patient with Normal Conventional Electrocardiogram", Electrocardiography. 19(4): pp. 371-380 (1986) showed that high frequency components of the ECG (150-250 Hz) averaged in the frequency domain after the fast-Fourier transform exhibited a characteristic "zone of reduced amplitude" in patients with CAD. The sensitivity of this technique was 75%. CIG had similar sensitivity.
A second area in which new computer based techniques have been applied to electrocardiography is in the detection of patients at risk for malignant ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. Simson in "Use of Signals in the Terminal QRS Complex to Identify Patients with Ventricular Tachycardia After Myocardian Infarction", Circulation. 64(2): pp. 235-242 (1981) showed that signal averaging in the time domain reveals the presence of low amplitude high frequency deflections in the terminal portion of the QRS complex, so-called 'late potentials". These late potentials have been correlated with inducibility of serious arrhythmias in the electrophysiology (EP) lab and with an increased risk of sudden death during longterm follow up of survivors of heart attack. However, the detection of late potentials has a poor predictive accuracy due to the problem of false positive tests.
An alternative approach to the detection of risk for arrhythmia uses indices of the power spectrum of the signal averages QRS. Cain et al in "Fast-Fourier Transform Analysis of Signal-Averaged Electrocardiograms for Identification of Patients Prone to Sustained Ventricular Tachycardia", Circulation. 69(4): pp. 711-720 (1984) showed that this approach can distinguish arrhythmia patients from controls and correlates with inducibility of arrhythmias in the EP lab. Recent attempts to reproduce such results have met with varied success, due to fundamental problems in defining length of segment for FFT and in distinguishing the end of the QRS from noise. Haberl et. al in "Comparison of Frequency and Time Domain Analysis of Signal Averaged Electrocardiogram in Patients with Ventricular Tachycardia and Coronary Artery Disease: Methodologic Validation and Clinical Relevance. JACC. 12(1): pp. 150-158 (1988) applied successive FFTs that are shifted in time to the terminal portion of the signal averaged QRS to address some of the problems with the Cain method. Neither the time-domain indices of "late potentials" nor the power spectral indices of Cain or Haberl have been shown to be influenced by drugs. This has limited the application of these technologies to diagnostics, where the problem of false positives leads to their use as additional procedures at additional cost. Judgement of therapeutic efficacy continues to require additional costly invasive and noninvasive procedures.
The fundamental limitation of techniques applied to the ECG to date is their linear nature. The cardiac electrical signal is a complex summary of spatial and temporal inputs and many nonlinear dynamic features should be expected. In particular, neural inputs to the heart will have significant nonlinearities. What is true in health is at least equally true in disease. Thus a disease process can be expected to lead to characteristic alterations in nonlinear properties as well as linear ones. An ability to quantity abnormalities in nonlinear dynamics would therefore be expected to enhance diagnostic power and improve the assessment of therapeutic efficacy.
It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide a noninvasive system and method for reliably determining myocardian physiologic properties.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a noninvasive system and method for quantifying linear and nonlinear properties of phase and energy components within the frequency structure of the electrocardiogram.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a noninvasive system and method for diagnosing and quantifying coronary artery disease.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a noninvasive system and method for the detection and quantification of myocardial ischemia in real time, for example as a part of intraoperative monitoring.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a noninvasive system and method for the detection of successful reperfusion of the infarct-related artery in patients given thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardian infarction.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a noninvasive system and method for the assessment of coronary artery restenosis after successful percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a noninvasive system and method for the quantification of cardiac electrical stability fixed or real time and the propensity for arrhythmias whether due to drugs, heart disease, or neural factors.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a noninvasive system and method for the quantification of the extent of malignancy of cardiac arrhythmias.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a noninvasive system and method for the identification of wide-complex supraventricular tachycardia from sustained vertricular tachycardia.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a noninvasive system and method for assessing the efficacy of therapy for arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death whether that therapy is drugs or surgery.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a noninvasive system and method for quantifying the effects of neural and humoral inputs to the heart, including the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a noninvasive system and method for evaluating pump function and quantifying ejection fraction.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a noninvasive system and method for quantifying the effects of ongoing organ rejection in cardiac transplant patients.

Cardiac biopotential analysis system and method


A food pasteurization system includes a vacuum breaker valve having a valve element in an axial passageway normally maintained in a closed, raised position by a coil spring on the top side of the valve. Multi-purpose drain and air openings are provided in the valve body and are positioned below the upper end of the valve passageway such that material moving upwardly through the valve is automatically drained out of the valve rather than back into the food conduit.

Cleanliness and cleanability are two important objectives in the food processing industry involving food pasteurization. A problem area in this regard is the vacuum breaker, a representative drawing of which is shown in FIG. 6. The vacuum breaker will be placed between the raw material and the holding tank, for example, and when the system is shut down, it is important that the material in the connecting conduit be allowed to return by gravity to either the raw material source, if it has not been processed, and if it has been processed, moved on to the holding tank. It is important that unprocessed, raw material not flow on to the holding tank. Vacuum breakers currently being used do not have openings for draining material on the atmosphere side of the valve to the outside of the valve.
The operation of the vacuum breaker valve should be positive and the valve should be maintained in a normally closed position and adapted to open only when the system is shut down. The conventional vacuum breaker used in this industry suffers from not providing a positive shut-off when the system is operating, thereby allowing material being processed to flow through the valve and be splattered all over it and outside the valve. The cleaning on the inside and outside of the vacuum breaker valve is a continuous, ongoing chore. A particular problem is that material being processed accumulates on the atmosphere side of the valve element and the cover must be removed to clean the valve. If this material is not removed from the atmosphere side of the valve, it will then drain back into the food processing conduit, thereby contaminating the food being processed.

Food pasteurization system vacuum breaker


A zoom lens has a lens group of negative refractive power at the enlarging end and a lens group of positive refractive power at the reducing end, both of which are fixed during zooming. The lens group of negative refractive power includes two lens components of negative refractive power, and at least one of the lens groups includes a thin plastic lens element with a lens surface bonded to a lens surface of a glass lens element, with the other lens surface of the plastic lens element having an aspheric shape. The lens group of negative refractive power consists of lens elements of negative refractive power. One of the two lens components is at the enlarging end of the zoom lens and includes a meniscus lens element of negative refractive power. The other lens component is adjacent the one lens component and is a biconcave lens component.

There is a great demand for zoom lenses with wider projection angles and greater brightness in projection systems, such as projection televisions using liquid crystal display elements or digital micromirror devices (DMD). An optical system that is telecentric on the reducing side is used in prior art projection systems that employ an X-shaped dichroic prism or a totally reflecting prism on the reducing side. However, the use of a telecentric optical system makes it difficult to correct distortion in zoom projection lenses.
Japanese Laid Open Patent Applications H10-268193 and 2000-292701 disclose improved zoom lenses, each of which uses a positive lens component that is outermost on the enlarging side of the zoom lens in order to reduce distortion. However, having a positive lens component as the outermost lens component on the enlarging side requires a larger lens diameter in order to maintain image brightness and a wide projection angle, which reduces the desired compactness of the zoom lens.
Additionally, it is known that an aspherical lens surface is useful for correcting aberrations, including distortion. An aspherical lens surface can be obtained by processing a glass lens or a plastic lens so as to form an aspherical surface on it. However, obtaining an aspherical lens surface on a glass lens is a costly process, especially for a larger diameter lens. Moreover, in order to prevent distortion, aspherical surfaces are required on the outermost surface of both the enlarging side and the reducing side of projection zoom lenses. Further, when an aspherical plastic lens element is used, the optical properties of the lens element fluctuate significantly with temperature. When a plastic lens element is used that has a large refractive index, it is especially difficult to design a compact projection lens with small temperature-dependent fluctuations in optical properties. Aberrations, including distortion, are usually better corrected if plastic lens elements that are used do not have a large refractive index. However, in such a case, it is difficult to produce a zoom projection lens that is compact.
The present invention is a zoom lens useful for image pick-up devices, such as CCDs and camera tubes, film cameras, and particularly for use as a projection lens for projection televisions that use digital image devices, such as digital micro devices (DMDs). The present invention provides a bright, compact, and inexpensive zoom lens having less temperature dependent fluctuations in optical properties as well as reduced aberrations, especially distortion.

Zoom lens with distortion correction and projection optical apparatus using it


A unitary metal connector pin formed by a cold heading die has a body with a disc-like expanded portion on a first end thereof which is adapted to engage and retain a first body when the pin is inserted through a first aperture in the first body. On a second, opposed end of the pin are disposed plural spaced flexible fingers each having a respective outwardly projecting, radially expanded portion. The radially expanded portions form a segmented outer ring on the pin capable of first undergoing inward deflection, followed by outward radial expansion for engaging a second body when the fingered end of the pin is inserted through a second aperture in the second body for securely coupling the two bodies together. The cold heading die includes a first stage for forming in a connector pin blank a first hollowed-out end portion with the flexible fingers and a second stage for forming the second radially expanded end portion and the outer projections on the flexible fingers.

Push-type fasteners are commonly used to fasten together a pair of bodies, or parts, wherein the fastener is inserted through aligned apertures in the two bodies. This type of fastener typically includes a moveable expansion member which engages one of the bodies through which the connector is inserted by means of outward radial movement. The fastener also typically includes a second expanded member adapted for securely engaging the other body. These types of connectors typically involve a "push to latch" action for coupling the two bodies, and a "pull to unlatch" for disconnecting and separating the two bodies. The engaging element is typically in the form of a spherical ball which is biased outwardly such as by means of a spring to expand the radial dimension of the connector and prevent its withdrawal from the aligned apertures in the two connected bodies. These types of connectors also frequently include a control sleeve, or outer slider, adapted for linear displacement along the length of the connector for urging the outwardly biased ball inwardly and out of engagement with one of the connected bodies, permitting the pin to be withdrawn from the bodies which can then be separated. Examples of these types of push-pull connectors can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,375 to Jackson; U.S. Pat. No. 7,225,709 to Liao; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,432 to Kamiyama. The last patent contemplates forming the connector by deep drawing of a sheet metal.
The above described push-pull connectors are characterized as including various components, some of which are movable and thus require assembly, increasing the complexity and cost of the connector. The use of non-integral moving parts also increases the likelihood of component failure and limits the useful lifetime of the connector. In addition, contact between one moveable component with one or more other components limits the types of environments in which these types connectors are capable of extended use.
The present invention addresses these limitations of prior art push-pull types of connectors by providing a one piece, or unitary, connector pin comprised of a hard, durable metal and adapted for manufacture using a single cold heading die.

Unitary connector pin formed by two-stage cold heading die


Embodiments employ an inference method for neural networks that enforces deterministic constraints on outputs without performing post-processing or expensive discrete search over the feasible space. Instead, for each input, the continuous weights are nudged until the network's unconstrained inference procedure generates an output that satisfies the constraints. This is achieved by expressing the hard constraints as an optimization problem over the continuous weights and employing backpropagation to change the weights of the network. Embodiments optimize over the energy of the violating outputs; since the weights directly determine the output through the energy, embodiments are able to manipulate the unconstrained inference procedure to produce outputs that conform to global constraints.

Machine learning can encode, within trained models, classification algorithms to classify sequential data (such as: natural language sentences; a series of events resulting from user interaction with a website; network streams; etc.). Classification algorithms classify portions of sequential data with labels, and accurate classification algorithms can be used to glean information from sequential data without intervention of a human. For example, a machine learning algorithm uses a small amount of labeled data to learn an algorithm that classifies English sentences as having positive, negative, or neutral sentiments. As further examples, such a machine learning algorithm can learn whether the behavior, of a consumer represented as a time-series of an online profile, has changed; or to detect attackers in network traffic; or even to automatically find semantic mistakes in computer programs.
Recurrent Neural Networks
A recurrent neural network (RNN, also referred to herein as a "network") is a machine-learning model that is implemented with a network of neural units where connections between units form a directed cycle. The network captures information that has been computed in past iterations of the network, which allows the RNN to exhibit dynamic temporal behavior. Thus, unlike feedforward neural networks, RNNs can use their internal memory to process arbitrary sequences of inputs. For additional information about recurrent neural networks, see A Critical Review of Recurrent Neural Networks for Sequence Learning by Zachary C. Lipton, John Berkowitz, and Charles Elkan, published Jun. 5, 2015, the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
Training a Recurrent Neural Network
Before a model, such as a recurrent neural network, can be used to classify unlabeled data (i.e., during a testing phase), the model must be trained using labeled data (also known as "training data") during a training phase. Once a model has been trained based on labeled data (or, in other words, has completed the training phase), the model may be applied to classify unlabeled data during a testing phase.
Backpropagation (or "backward propagation of errors") is a technique that is generally used to train a RNN based on a set of training data. During the training phase of an RNN, backpropagation assigns values to parameters within the RNN to assign parameters values within the RNN. This assignment of values to parameters within the RNN causes the RNN to reflect a particular model that is derived from the training data. The values that are assigned to the parameters within the RNN are based on value derivatives that are propagated through the neural network during backpropagation. Additional information about backpropagation is found in "Learning Representations By Back-Propagating Errors", by David E. Rumelhart, Geoffrey E. Hinton, and Ronald J. Williams; Letters to Nature, Vol. 323 (1986), the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) can be used in connection with backpropagation to efficiently train a RNN. SGD is a stochastic approximation of the gradient descent optimization method for minimizing an objective (or "loss") function. Additional information about SGD is found in "A Stochastic Approximation Method", by Herbert Robbins, and Sutton Monro; Ann. Math. Statist. Vol. 22, No. 3 (1951), the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
Outputs and Constraints of Recurrent Neural Network
A trained neural network is used to perform inference on an input to produce an output based on the model that the trained neural network implements. Inference is an efficient feed-forward step that transforms an input, through one or more intermediate representations via hidden layers of the network, into an output.
Many neural networks have discrete-valued output units that correspond to an inference or prediction about an input. Often, a problem might involve multiple discrete outputs. Unlike multiclass classification, which associates a single discrete output with each input, so-called structured prediction problems associate multiple outputs with each input. For example, in multi-label classification, instead of predicting a single relevant class pertaining to an input (such as an image or natural language sentence), all classes that are relevant to the input must be predicted, e.g., a given image contains a dog, a tree, and a sky.
In sequence prediction problems, the discrete outputs might be a sequence of words or symbols that must form a coherent translation of a source language sentence, description of an image, answer to a question, a parse-tree for an input sentence, etc. Crucially, in structured prediction, the output values are interdependent. Even though neural networks usually predict outputs independently or sequentially (one output at a time), the hidden units allow them to successfully capture many dependencies.
Sometimes, the outputs must obey hard (or deterministic) constraints. For example, in sequence labeling with BILOU encoding, a 'begin' marker B cannot immediately follow an 'inside' marker I. In clustering, pairwise binary decisions must obey transitivity so that they yield a valid equivalence class relation over the data points. In syntactic/dependency parsing, the output sequence must encode a valid parse tree. In formal language generation or neural compilers, the output must belong to a context-free language or compile. In dual decomposition approaches to joint inference, copies of variables must satisfy equality constraints. Finally, in some ensemble methods, the outputs of multiple conditionally independent classifiers must reach a consensus on the output class. Indeed, there are a tremendous number of problems that require hard constraints on the outputs. Unlike softer dependencies, violating a hard-constraint is often unacceptable because the output of the network would not "type-check", causing problems for downstream components.
Unfortunately there is no way of explicitly encoding, into a neural network, deterministic constraints on output variables or of ensuring that a global constraint (i.e., a constraint on the entire output of a network) is satisfied for a given output of the network. Further, in practice, neural networks are not always able to exactly learn deterministic constraints on outputs from training data alone.
As an example, a sequence-to-sequence network inputs a given sentence and outputs a sequence of "shift-reduce" commands that describe the sentence's parse tree. Briefly, the shift-reduce commands control a parsing algorithm by indicating how and when to use a stack. Each command controls whether to shift(s) a token onto the stack, reduce(r) the top of the stack into a parent tree node, or push(!) the current reduction back onto the stack.
To be successful, the network must generate commands that imply a valid tree over the entire input sentence. However, the decoder outputs just a single command at a time, producing some outputs that are not globally-consistent, valid shift-reduce programs. Indeed, a network trained on shift-reduce training data may not be sufficient to learn a rule that would allow the network to satisfy all output constraints for every possible input. As such, the output of the network may not have enough shifts to include every input token in the tree or may attempt to reduce when the stack is empty.
To further illustrate, the following input sentence "So it's a very mixed bag." comprises ten space-delimited tokens (the quotations are part of the input), but a trained and unconstrained sequence-to-sequence network outputs an invalid sequence with only nine shifts ssr!sr!ssssrrr!rr!ssrrrrrr!. Another shi f t must be introduced so the last token is pushed onto the stack and another reduce must be issued so all of the input tokens are inserted into the tree.
One way to enforce constraints on the incorrect output of the network is to perform a discrete search for all possible values, or, in other words, test all combinations of output variables against the constraints, until a combination of output variables is found that satisfies the constraints. Such a discrete search is necessarily exhaustive, and it is expensive to search over such a large solution space.
Alternatively, an attempt could be made to fix the output with post-processing of the network outcome. According to post-processing, if a particular output of a network does not satisfy applicable constraints, one or more rules or heuristics that are specific to the violating output are formulated to correct the constraint violation in the particular outcome. However, it is a difficult task to determine where the right place is to insert or remove commands, in the sequence of commands, as required to satisfy the output constraints. Continuing with the previous example, there are 406=choose(29, 2) candidate locations for insertion of the additional required shift and reduce commands within the output string ssr!sr!ssssrrr!rr!ssrrrrrr!. Further complicating the post-processing dilemma is the fact that an output may contain errors that are seemingly unrelated to the output constraint, as with the example above.
Instead of using post-processing or discrete search, an attempt could be made to fix a constraint violation problem with a more sophisticated decoder, but it is difficult to formulate a more sophisticated decoder because decoders output a single character at each time-step, limiting corrections to enforce the global output constraints to the end of sequence production when it is too late to rectify an earlier decision.
A beam search, which is a heuristic search algorithm that explores the most promising options in a limited set of options, is less myopic than a discrete search. However, in practice most of the network's output mass is peaked on the best output token, and application of a beam search results in little improvement.
It would be beneficial to utilize an inference method for neural networks that effectively enforces hard output constraints without requiring performance of post-processing, decoders, a beam search, or expensive discrete search over the feasible space.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.

When output units must obey hard constraints


A method for fabricating a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) capacitor includes forming a first electrode layer, forming a catalytic layer on the first electrode layer, optionally annealing the catalytic layer, forming a dielectric layer on the catalytic layer, optionally annealing the dielectric layer, forming a second electrode layer on the dielectric layer, and optionally annealing the capacitor stack. Advantageously, the electrode layers are TiN, the catalytic layer is MoO2−x where x is between 0 and 2, and the physical thickness of the catalytic layer is between about 0.5 nm and about 10 nm, and the dielectric layer is ZrO2.

Dynamic Random Access Memory utilizes capacitors to store bits of information within an integrated circuit. A capacitor is formed by placing a dielectric material between two electrodes formed from conductive materials. A capacitor's ability to hold electrical charge (i.e., capacitance) is a function of the surface area of the capacitor plates A, the distance between the capacitor plates d (i.e. the physical thickness of the dielectric layer), and the relative dielectric constant or k-value of the dielectric material. The capacitance is given by:
                    C        =                  κ                                                                          ɛ            o                                          A            d                                              (                  Eqn          .                                                    1                )            where ∈o represents the vacuum permittivity.
The dielectric constant is a measure of a material's polarizability. Therefore, the higher the dielectric constant of a material, the more electrical charge the capacitor can hold. Therefore, for a given desired capacitance, if the k-value of the dielectric is increased, the area of the capacitor can be decreased to maintain the same cell capacitance. Reducing the size of capacitors within the device is important for the miniaturization of integrated circuits. This allows the packing of millions (mega-bit (Mb)) or billions (giga-bit (Gb)) of memory cells into a single semiconductor device. The goal is to maintain a large cell capacitance (generally ˜10 to 25 fF) and a low leakage current (generally <10−7 A cm−2). The physical thickness of the dielectric layers in DRAM capacitors could not be reduced unlimitedly in order to avoid high leakage current caused by tunneling mechanisms, which exponentially increases as the thickness of the dielectric layer decreases.
Traditionally, SiO2 has been used as the dielectric material and semiconducting materials (semiconductor-insulator-semiconductor [SIS] cell designs) have been used as the electrodes. The cell capacitance was maintained by increasing the area of the capacitor using very complex capacitor morphologies while also decreasing the thickness of the SiO2 dielectric layer. Increases of the leakage current above the desired specifications have demanded the development of new capacitor geometries, new electrode materials, and new dielectric materials. Cell designs have migrated to metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) and now to metal-insulator-metal (MIM) cell designs for higher performance.
Typically, DRAM devices at technology nodes of 80 nm and below use MIM capacitors wherein the electrode materials are metals. These electrode materials generally have higher conductivities than the semiconductor electrode materials, higher work functions, exhibit improved stability over the semiconductor electrode materials, and exhibit reduced depletion effects. The electrode materials must have high conductivity to ensure fast device speeds. Representative examples of electrode materials for MIM capacitors are metals, conductive metal oxides, conductive metal silicides, conductive metal nitrides (i.e. TiN), or combinations thereof. MIM capacitors in these DRAM applications utilize insulating materials having a dielectric constant, or k-value, significantly higher than that of SiO2 (k=3.9). For DRAM capacitors, the goal is to utilize dielectric materials with k values greater than about 40. Such materials are generally classified as high-k materials. Representative examples of high-k materials for MIM capacitors are non-conducting metal oxides, non-conducting metal nitrides, non-conducting metal silicates or combinations thereof. These dielectrics may also include additional dopant materials.
One class of high-k dielectric materials possessing the characteristics required for implementation in advanced DRAM capacitors are high-k metal oxide materials. Zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) is a metal oxide dielectric material which displays significant promise in terms of serving as a high-k dielectric material for implementation in DRAM capacitors.
Generally, as the dielectric constant of a material increases, the band gap of the material decreases. This leads to high leakage current in the device. As a result, without the utilization of countervailing measures, capacitor stacks implementing high-k dielectric materials may experience large leakage currents. High work function electrodes (e.g., electrodes having a work function of greater than 5.0 eV) may be utilized in order to counter the effects of implementing a reduced band gap high-k dielectric layer within the DRAM capacitor. Metals, such as platinum, gold, ruthenium, and ruthenium oxide are examples of high work function electrode materials suitable for inhibiting device leakage in a DRAM capacitor having a high-k dielectric layer. The noble metal systems, however, are prohibitively expensive when employed in a mass production context. Moreover, electrodes fabricated from noble metals often suffer from poor manufacturing qualities, such as surface roughness, poor adhesion, and form a contamination risk in the fab.
Conductive metal oxides, conductive metal silicides, conductive metal nitrides, or combinations thereof comprise other classes of materials that may be suitable as DRAM capacitor electrodes. Generally, transition metals and their conductive binary compounds form good candidates as electrode materials. The transition metals exist in several oxidation states. Therefore, a wide variety of compounds are possible. Different compounds may have different crystal structures, electrical properties, etc. It is important to utilize the proper compound for the desired application.
Generally, a deposited thin film may be amorphous, crystalline, or a mixture thereof. Furthermore, several different crystalline phases may exist. Therefore, processes (both deposition and post-treatment) must be developed to maximize the formation of the desired crystalline phase and to minimize the presence of unwanted phases. The DRAM electrode materials and dielectric materials may be formed using any common formation technique such as atomic layer deposition (ALD), plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD), atomic vapor deposition (AVD), ultraviolet assisted atomic layer deposition (UV-ALD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), or physical vapor deposition (PVD).
The capacitance of a DRAM capacitor can be increased by increasing the area of the capacitor plates as illustrated in Eqn. 1 above. This is a common technique used in the design of MIM capacitor structures and results in structures with severe morphologies. Examples of typical DRAM MIM structures include deep tranches, stacked structures, fin-type structures, crown-type structures, etc. The step coverage (a measure of film thickness uniformity) must be very good for both the electrode materials and the dielectric materials over these severe morphologies. Therefore, ALD, PE-ALD, AVD, UV-ALD, and CVD are preferred methods of deposition of these materials. Advantageously, ALD is a preferred method of deposition.
A disadvantage with most ALD deposition technologies is that the deposition rate of the materials is slow. A typical ALD technology comprises the steps of exposing a surface to a first precursor to form a monolayer of an adsorbed species. The process chamber is then purged and a second reactive gaseous species is introduced into the process chamber to react with the first precursor and form the desired material. The process chamber is then purged again and the cycle is repeated until the desired material thickness is reached. The surface coverage of the monolayer of the first precursor is rarely 100% and the apparent deposition rate per ALD cycle can be less than 0.1 nm per cycle. The apparent deposition rate is calculated by repeating the ALD cycle a number of times and then measuring the resultant film thickness. The slow deposition rate for ALD technologies adds time and expense to the manufacture of DRAM devices.
The use of ZrO2 as a high-k dielectric material in DRAM capacitors is generally paired with the use of TiN as the electrode material. This combination works well because TiN has high conductivity, a high work function (4.7 eV), and does not interact with the ZrO2 to form unwanted interfacial layers. However, the deposition rate of ZrO2 on TiN using ALD technologies is slow (˜0.8 nm/cycle in the case of the ZrMCTA precursor). This adds time and cost to the manufacture of DRAM devices using ZrO2 as the high-k dielectric material and TiN as the electrode material.
Therefore, there is a need to develop methods for improving the deposition rate of a ZrO2 high-k dielectric material in a DRAM capacitor without degrading the performance of the capacitor.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Semiconductor stacks including catalytic layers


To provide an electro-optical device which has the high degree of freedom with regard to changes in the area of a pixel region, and which can adjust brightness or a life span between light-emitting elements, easily control the white balance, and lengthen the life span of the overall display device. A top emission type of electro-optical device comprises first wiring lines, second wiring lines substantially orthogonal to the first wiring lines, and pixel regions selected by the first and second wiring lines. The electro-optical device has a plurality of pixel regions, and at least one of the pixel regions is provided so as to exceed a unit region surrounded by one of the first wiring lines and one of the second wiring lines, which select the at least one pixel region, and another of the first wiring lines and another of the second wiring lines respectively adjacent to one of the first wiring lines and one of the second wiring lines.

The present invention relates to an electro-optical device for emitting light from a self-emitting element by using a pixel driving circuit.
In an electro-optical device such as an organic electroluminescence (hereinafter, referred to as 'EL'), it has been widely used a method that pixel regions emitting different color light components from each other are arranged in a matrix and light components emitted from the respective pixel regions are synthesized, such that the full color display is realized. As an example, there is a RGB method in which the pixel regions for red (R), green (G), and blue (B) are arranged side by side. The color light components emitted from the respective pixel regions depend on a light-emitting material included in a light-emitting element of each pixel region.
However, since light-emitting efficiency is different according to the type of the light emitting material used, if each pixel region emits light under the same condition, the quantity of light of a specific color is generally reduced. Thus, when light components emitted from the pixel regions are synthesized, a desired color cannot be displayed with high definition. In particular, in the case of the RGB method, three color light components are synthesized to display white light. However, when the brightness balance (that is, white balance) for displaying white is poor, the overall quality of the display device is degraded.
In this case, the light-emitting element such as the organic EL element is known to have a feature that the quantity of light is proportional to current value, and thus large current preferably needs to be supplied to the light-emitting element for emitting a large quantity of light.
However, in the organic EL element, when a large current per a unit area is needed, the light emitting material deteriorates exponentially. Accordingly, when a large current flows into a specific light-emitting element, the life span of the light-emitting element becomes short as compared to other light-emitting elements. As a result, the color irregularity is caused and the overall display device deteriorates rapidly.
As a countermeasure against these problems, a method in which the light emitting area of the light emitting region emitting the color light component having the highest light-emitting efficiency decreases as compared to the light emitting areas of the light emitting regions emitting other color light components, thereby lengthening the life span and controlling the white balance is disclosed (Patent Document 1). According to Patent Document 1, a display pixel is formed on a region surrounded by a gate signal line 51 and a drain signal line 52.
On the other hand, it has been also known that the life span of the light-emitting element (the time that brightness deteriorates) is different according to the type of the light-emitting material used. Therefore, even though the same amount of current is supplied to the respective light-emitting elements, the difference in brightness between the respective color light components occurs as the time passes, and thus the white balance is collapsed and the color irregularity is caused.
As another countermeasure against these problems, a method in which the light emitting area of the self-emitting device that represents the shortest half brightness time is made to be larger than that of the self-emitting device that represents the longest half brightness time is disclosed (Patent Document 2). According to Patent Document 2, by changing the interval of the signal lines, the area of the pixel region is changed.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-290441.
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-168561.


An image forming apparatus that generates a synchronization signal without breaking laser diodes (LDs). The LDs output beams, which in turn are deflected to scan a photosensitive member. The synchronization signal is generated upon detecting the deflected beams. The LDs output the beams so as to generate the synchronization signal, based on which the output timing of the beams from the LDs is controlled. It is possible to select a first mode in which at least two of the LDs output the beams so as to generate the synchronization signal, and a second mode in which one of the LDs output the beams so as to generate the synchronization signal. The value of drive current supplied to at least two of the LDs when the first mode is selected is smaller than the value of drive current supplied to one of the LDs when the second mode is selected.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that forms an image by scanning a photosensitive member with a plurality of beams.
2. Description of the Related Art
For electrophotographic image forming apparatuses such as laser beam printers which form an image by scanning a photosensitive member with beams, a scanning optical system in which beams output from light-emitting devices (hereafter referred to as "LDs") are collected by a lens system, the collected beams are deflected by a polygon mirror with rotation of a scanner motor, and the deflected beams scan the photosensitive member has been widely used.
For image forming apparatuses having this scanning optical system, the technique to form an image by scanning a plurality of beams at the same time from an increased number of LDs has been proposed so as to realize higher speed image formation and higher resolution. Particularly in a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (hereafter referred to as a "VCSEL"), light emission points can be arranged in a two-dimensional pattern, and many emission points can be arranged on one chip.
Examples of techniques relating to image forming apparatuses that form an image by scanning beams on a photosensitive member include a technique to perform auto power control (hereafter referred to as "APC") so as to maintain the light quantity of beams on the photosensitive member constant during image formation. Methods of APC include a method in which LDs are lighted up for a predetermined time period, the light quantity of beams is detected by light quantity detecting units (PD: photodiodes) provided inside or outside the LDs, and drive current for outputting beams according to the detected quantity of emitted light is feedback-controlled.
In general, a PD detects a beam (rear light) going out from an end face of an LD opposite to a light-emitting end face of the LD from which a beam (front light) goes toward a photosensitive member. APC is performed during a time period over which a beam scans a non-image region (a time period over which a beam does not scan the photosensitive member in one scanning cycle). Because APC is performed during this time period, APC can be performed without exposing the photosensitive member to the front light.
It is difficult in terms of layout to provide the same number of PDs, which correspond to respective beams, as the number of LDs, and even if they can be laid out, this would cost much. For this reason, APC is performed by causing a single PD to receive a plurality of beams and successively lighting up a plurality of LDs. Thus, when APC is to be performed, a plurality of LDs are successively lighted up at different times during a time period over which beams scan a non-image region.
However, in a VCSEL whose LDs can be increased with ease, beams are output in a direction perpendicular to a semiconductor substrate, and no beams are output in a direction opposite to that direction. For this reason, APC is difficult in an arrangement in which PDs are placed in the same package as with an edge emitting semiconductor laser, and hence there has been a technique to separate front light using a half mirror and cause the front light to fall on PDs.
There has been disclosed a method in which pencils of light obtained by turning light output from a surface emitting laser into parallel light by a collimator lens and limiting the same by an aperture are separated by a half mirror into light going toward a photosensitive member and light going toward a PD, and APC is performed using a single PD (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-40350).
The method disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-40350 is a method in which front light is separated by a half mirror method, and the separated beams are caused to fall on a PD to perform APC. In this method, it is necessary to ensure the light quantity of beams going toward a photosensitive member, and thus the light quantity of beams output from LDs has to be large. Moreover, because the light quantity of beams going toward the PD cannot be large, the amplification rate of the PD has to be high, but this will deteriorate responsiveness and signal-to-noise ratio. Moreover, the response speed of the PD generally varies according to its light-receiving area, and hence even if the light-receiving area is widened to increase the quantity of incident light, the response speed of the PD will decrease, and the amount of time for APC will increase. Also, the placement of the half mirror brings about cost increase.
For this reason, there has been proposed a method in which a PD is placed on a beam scanning line, and APC is performed according to the light quantity of received beams (hereafter referred to as "scanning light APC). In this method, the light quantity of beams can be detected only at times when beams fall on the PD on the scanning line.
Moreover, an apparatus that performs scanning light APC has problems explained hereafter. To perform scanning light APC, it is necessary to generate a synchronization signal. However, an initial state in which image formation is going to be started, APC has not been performed yet, and hence it is uncertain how much drive current should be supplied to LDs to generate a synchronization signal. In a case where a synchronization signal is to be generated by supplying drive current of a predetermined value to one LD, the drive current may break the LD because it is overcurrent.

Image forming apparatus that forms image by scanning photosensitive member with multiple beams


The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image output apparatus that effects an image output operation by recording on a cloth recording medium. The image processing apparatus supplies first image data as original image data to the image output apparatus, and supplies second image data, different from the first image data, to be used for processing the cloth recording medium after the image output operation. The second image data can include a pattern for cutting or sewing the cloth. The apparatus further designates information associated with the second image data, so as to form the second image data on the cloth recording medium on which the first image data is recorded. The output of the first and second data is controlled in accordance with the designated information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image supply system for supplying image data associated with recording, an image output apparatus for outputting a color image on a recording medium upon reception of the supplied image, and an image forming system having these apparatuses and, more particularly, to a printing system for printing an image on a piece or roll of cloth used as a recording medium.
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus which is used in an image forming apparatus for repetitively forming a basic image on a recording medium, for example, a printing apparatus for printing an image on a piece of cloth used as a recording medium, and calculates consumption amounts of expendables, and an image forming system using the same.
2. Related Background Art
It is often desired to record another image data overlapping original image data (first image data) on a recording medium. For example, in the field of dressmaking, in order to cut a piece of cloth into a shape to be used in sewing, the same dress pattern as a cutting pattern is placed on a piece of cloth, and the curve of the cutting pattern is formed along the outer shape of the dress pattern on the cloth using a writing tool such as a tailor's chalk. Also, the dress pattern is placed on a piece of cloth via transfer paper such as chalk paper, and a stitch pattern drawn on the inner surface of the dress pattern is traced, thereby transferring a stitch pattern of, e.g., a pocket on the cloth.
Furthermore, information required upon sewing such as portions to be sewed up, kinds of sewing methods, and the like is often formed on a piece of cloth on the basis of information described on a dress pattern or in a manual.
Conventionally, formation of a cutting pattern, a stitch pattern, and other information on a piece of cloth is a work required in dressmaking as a process after printing. However, since this work utilizes a dress pattern or a manual, the manufacture and use of the dress pattern or the manual require much time and cost. More specifically, in the case of a manufacturer, a process of designing a dress pattern by a calculation from a human body by a skilled person or computer simulation, and then manufacturing a dress pattern or a manual which finally becomes unnecessary, is required.
On the other hand, in the case of a user, troublesome work for drawing a cutting pattern, a stitch pattern, and other information on a piece of cloth by utilizing a dress pattern is required. The stitch pattern and other information cannot be drawn without using transfer paper, and the transfer paper must also be prepared. In particular, when a normal user performs dressmaking, the user must purchase a dress pattern, and then do such troublesome task at home, thus requiring much cost and time until actual sewing work is started. Furthermore, it is timeconsuming to continue dressmaking with reference to dressmaking information described in, e.g., a manual, and a user may often refer to a wrong portion of the manual.
In order to solve these problems, an attempt has been made to record, e.g., a cutting pattern, on a piece of cloth on which an image has been recorded. However, two processes for recording images on a piece of cloth are required in correspondence with an original image, and a cutting image and the like, and a recording liquid for recording a cutting image must be devised. For example, a recording liquid which suffers less blurring must be used so as not to influence an original image, or a recording liquid which can be completely removed in postprocessing must be used, thus posing problems associated with cost.
Conventionally, an image output apparatus such as a color printer normally forms a color image received from an image supply apparatus such as a host computer on a recording medium such as a paper sheet. Most of image output apparatuses such as color printers do not accept supply of other image data during an image output operation. However, some printers, which can accept supply of other image data during an image output operation, temporarily store only image data in a separate recording apparatus, and execute the image output operations in the order of reception of image data. A printer may inform the end of recording to a host computer. A printer may receive image output requests generated from a plurality of host computers by a plurality of users.
When the recording time of an image output apparatus is long, the next image data cannot be accepted. In particular, in a printing system for forming an image on a roll of cloth, the length of cloth as a recording medium is often as large as several tens of meters, and hence, a recording time of several hours is inevitably required. As a result, the above-mentioned problem becomes more conspicuous. Also, a host computer cannot detect the image output end time. Furthermore, a user who requested output of an image cannot be specified.
In the dyeing work industries, strong demand has arisen for small-quantity/multi-item production, a short delivery term, a quick response to a change in specifications, and the like due to the nature of fashion designs, and the like. Since dyeing processes require skills, a problem associated with lack of talent is also posed. Furthermore, strong demand has arisen for an environmental countermeasure against disposal of waste dyes. Thus, as a technique for solving these problems, a plateless print technique for directly printing image data from, e.g., a computer on a piece of cloth has been developed in place of screen printing and roller printing, which use plates. In particular, application of an ink-jet print technique, a thermal transfer print technique, and the like to printing is considered as a means effective for the plateless print technique.
In the field of printing, upon cost calculation of print cloth, some items such as design cost, cloth cost, dyeing work cost, and the like are added. In the case of plateless print, ink cost and consumption cost of devices of a recording unit account for a large portion of the entire cost.
Note that the consumption cost of devices of the recording unit corresponds to a so-called ink-jet head in the ink-jet technique, and particularly corresponds to a heater unit in the thermal transfer technique. In an ink-jet system, which is expected to be a future mainstream system of the plateless printing technique, the current level of the service life of discharge openings and heating means inside these openings, which constitute a head, is about 10.sup.8 to 10.sup.9. In high-density print, since the frequency of use of the head increases, the head is used up earlier, and hence, its consumption amount becomes large. A printing ink requires a dye concentration about 10 times that of an ink of a printer for normal office equipment, which results in high cost.
In this manner, in a plateless printing apparatus which can meet demand for small-quantity/multi-item production, and the like, head cost and ink cost account for a relatively large portion of the entire cost upon execution of a cost calculation of print cloth which is performed to estimate cost or to improve productivity. For this reason, it is strongly demanded to attain easy calculations of the consumption amounts and cost of these expendables with highest precision possible.

Textile image forming apparatus and method for forming original image data and secondary image data for use in post-processing


In a handheld power tool having a reduction gear unit, drivable by a motor, for driving a drive shaft, the reduction gear unit being situated in a gear housing and being shiftable via a gearshift at least between a first gear having a comparatively high torque and a second gear having a comparatively low torque, the reduction gear unit is assigned a mechanical overload protection device which is designed to limit the reduction gear unit during operation of the handheld power tool, if a torque, transferred from the drive shaft to the reduction gear unit, exceeds a machine-specific limiting value.

Such handheld power tools often have a reduction gear unit for driving a drive shaft, using which a predefined motor speed may be reduced to a speed range of the drive shaft which is necessary for a particular application. For example, motor speeds of approximately 20,000 RPM are reduced to a speed range of approximately 150 RPM to 2,000 RPM in cordless screwdrivers, cordless combi drills, and/or cordless percussion drills. The reduction gear units are, for example, designed as multistage planetary gear sets having at least two gears, so that a user of such a handheld power tool is, for example, able to shift this handheld power tool between a first, slower, gear having a comparatively high torque and a second, faster, gear having a comparatively low torque. Moreover, the reduction gear unit may be assigned a torque clutch using which it is possible to prevent the drive shaft from being driven by the reduction gear unit during operation of the handheld power tool, if a torque, transferred from the drive shaft to the reduction gear unit, exceeds a threshold value settable by a user.
The disadvantage of the above-described power drills is that in the case of cordless combi drills, the torque clutch or a clutch functionality provided by the torque clutch is deactivated in the drilling mode, thus setting the threshold value settable by the user virtually to "infinitely." If, however, the cordless combi drill set to the drilling mode is used for screwing, a kinetic energy of rotation conveyed to the drive shaft may be converted into a rotation of the cordless combi drill or a tool housing assigned thereto, for example, in the event of so-called hard screw applications which may occur during metal screw fittings, for example, and may cause a spontaneous blocking of the drive shaft. This may result in an impact-like load on components of a drive train assigned to the cordless combi drill and in a failure of the components of the drive train involved.

Handheld power tool having a reduction gear unit


The present invention relates to silica filled multi-viscoelastic response rubber which is thermomechanically mixed with an organosilicon compound during the non-productive mix stage and zinc oxide is added during the productive stage of mixing.

A wide variety of rubber products are made with styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR). For instance, large quantities of SBR are utilized in manufacturing tires for automobiles, trucks, aircraft and other types of vehicles. SBR is commonly used in manufacturing tires because it generally improves traction characteristics over polybutadiene rubber.
SBR can be synthesized by utilizing either solution or emulsion polymerization techniques. SBR made by solution polymerization (solution SBR) typically exhibits much better rolling resistance and treadwear characteristics in tire treads. For this reason, solution SBR is often considered to be preferable to emulsion SBR and currently sells at a premium price to emulsion SBR.
For further details on emulsion SBR and the "standard recipe", see The Vanderbilt Rubber Handbook, George G. Winspear (Editor), R. T. Vanderbilt Company, Inc. (1968) at Pages 34 through 57.
EP 942042 discloses a method for the preparation of multi-viscoelastic response (MVR) rubber and its use in pneumatic tires. These polymers show advantages over conventional emulsion SBR in processing and wear characteristics when used in tires.

Silica filled multi-viscoelastic response rubber


A vehicle convertible top is moved by hydraulic cylinders between extreme raised and lowered positions. The cylinder ends are connected to ports in a reversible hydraulic pump in one end of an elongated housing, which has a reservoir in the other end, separated by a pump cap. The pump cap houses two fluid circuits connecting the pump to the ends of the cylinders. Each circuit has an end of cycle hydraulic locking device comprising a normally-closed valve and a valve actuator. The circuit valves are alternately opened by pump pressure to pressurize one end of the cylinders to alternately raise and lower the top. The opened valve closes when the pump ceases operation, preventing fluid backflow through the one circuit to the pump. This hydraulically locks the top in extreme raised and lowered positions to facilitate top latching and tonneau installation. A groove in the valve seat forms a leakage path which bypasses the closed valve to slowly reduce hydraulic pressure in the actuator at a predetermined rate until pressure is relieved after a predetermined period of time sufficient to accomplish top latching or tonneau installation. A manually-operated pump bypass in the pump cap vents both circuits to the reservoir to enable manual top operation when the pump is inoperative. The pump cap includes makeup valving for accommodating the displacement differential in the cylinder.

Passenger vehicles having convertible tops that can be raised to cover the passenger compartment and lowered to open the compartment predate the closed sedan type of vehicle and have been manufactured for many years. Recently, vehicles having convertible tops have become more popular with purchasers because of their ability to quickly convert from a closed vehicle to an open roadster by lowering the top. Consequently, automobile manufacturers are manufacturing a greater variety of these sporty vehicles.
The usual convertible top comprises an articulated top frame that supports a fabric cover. The frame includes a plurality of spaced transverse bows interconnecting articulated side rails that support the fabric cover. The rear of the cover is attached to the vehicle body or, in some cases, to a movable rear bow, as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,768 to Roderick C. Fischbach and assigned to the assignee herein. The front edge of the cover is attached to the front bow, called the top header.
The top header engages the top of the vehicle windshield frame, or windshield header, in top raised position. Header latches, such as shown in U.S. Pat. 4,741,571 to Godette, clamp the headers together and compress a seal between them. Upon releasing the latching mechanism, the top is folded and lowered into a well located behind the passenger compartment. This action may be accomplished manually or by a power operator, usually a pair of hydraulic cylinders.
The top is raised by reversing this procedure, with switch actuation causing the hydraulic cylinders to raise and unfold the top until the top header is in close proximity to the windshield header. The latches are then manually engaged and operated to compress the seal and secure the headers together. One requirement of all convertible vehicles is that the top cover fit snugly on the frame so as to present a smooth, sleek appearance. This snug fit also reduces the vehicle's coefficient of drag, which affects gasoline mileage--a critical vehicle attribute. A snug fit is accomplished by stretching the cover taut over the frame. Cover stretching occurs at the end of the top raising cycle by fully extending the top frame and operating the header latches.
In a power-operated top, a switch is manually operated to actuate the power operator to raise the top. When a power-operated top is fully raised, the fabric cover is stretched when the hydraulic cylinders fully extend the frame linkage to move the top header into close proximity to the windshield header at the end of the cycle. When the power operator is turned off by releasing the manual actuation switch, hydraulic pressure quickly diminishes in the cylinders and the top "springs back" as the stretched fabric contracts, moving the headers apart. The top header must then be manually forced down onto the windshield header to enable the latches to be engaged and closed. Since this action again stretches the fabric cover, it requires a significant amount of manual effort.
This problem is exacerbated during cooler weather when the top fabric stiffens, requiring increased effort to manually stretch the cover fabric to engage the headers, followed by added effort to close the latches. The added manual effort required to accomplish top latching can be quite aggravating to the vehicle owner.
Although power latches have been devised, they are expensive and complex. Consequently, most convertible tops feature manual latches, the operation of which are plagued by the problem described above.
As a styling feature, it is desirable to have the top stored invisibly. Thus the top must store as fully within the well as possible. It is also desirable to store the top in as little space as possible, since the well volume subtracts from the vehicle's luggage capacity. As a result, the well is minimally dimensioned and the top is designed to fold into a compact package, with the tonneau fitting tightly over the stored top.
When the top is lowered, the power operator compresses the linkage and the folded fabric cover. When the power is turned off upon release of the switch, the top will "spring up" due to the elasticity of the top linkage and cover. This necessitates the use of additional manual effort to recompress the top and install the tonneau over the stored top. This problem is also exacerbated by cold weather, when the fabric cover stiffens.
It is quite desirable to reduce the manual effort required to latch a convertible top header to a windshield header.
It is also desirable to reduce the effort required to install a tonneau over a stored convertible top.

Controlled convertible top hydraulic lock


This present invention is a system and method to adjust a searcher threshold parameter of a RAKE receiver. The adjusting system includes a searcher, a power estimator, and a parameter control apparatus. When the searcher finds and acquires a new path signal, the power estimator will estimate the power of the new path signal and that of the other path signals. The parameter control apparatus will calculate and monitor the power ratio corresponding to the new path signal. If the power ratio remains smaller than a predetermined power ratio parameter for a first predetermined times, the parameter control apparatus will increase the value of the threshold parameter. If the power ratio remains unchanged for a second predetermined times, the parameter control apparatus will lower the value of the threshold parameter. After that, the searcher will acquire the path signals among the multipath signal being searched in accordance with the adjusted threshold parameter. With this adjusted threshold parameter, the present invention can improve the sensitivity of the searcher, acquire the correct path signals in various environments, and provide the correct position of the path signal to the RAKE receiver.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an adjusting system and, more particularly, an adjusting system for adjusting a threshold parameter in a wireless receiver in a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) communication system. The wireless receiver receives a plurality of external multipath signal. The adjusting system could minimize the probability of acquiring undesired path signals or losing desired path signals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Spread-spectrum communication systems have been broadly used in the recent years. The Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) communication technology is adopted in Third Generation Mobile Telephony, and the utilization of the rake receiver is to separate multipath propagated signal components in the CDMA system.
In general, the path signal components must be separated from each other by at least one chip of a spreading code. The rake receiver comprises rake fingers and a delay estimator. Each of these fingers are dispreading and diversity combination, and the delay estimator has a matched filter for each antenna branch and an allocation block for the rake fingers. A signal, received by a spreading code used for signal spreading, of the matched filter is correlated by different delays. The timing of the spreading code then is changed in steps of one chip. When the correlation is high, a multipath propagated signal component can be found and received at the delay found.
The signal will include not only the desired signal but also noise and interference caused by other users or systems. In systems utilizing diversity, the interference of noise can be decreased by a Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC) method. Signals of this method were received via separate antennas weighted in proportion to the signal power of the separate antenna branches. However, this method presumes that the interference of each antenna is independent. This presumption is not always true in actual cellular radio networks, but it is conceivable that the same interference is present at each antenna.
The key point is that the larger ratio of desired signal to noise the less errors will be made. Two important issues are necessary: one is the correction of the timing of the spreading code corresponding to the multipath signal, and the other is that the data of the power ratio and phase corresponding to the multipath signal must be clear. The maximum ratio combiner combines the power ratio and phase of path signal obtained from the tracking unit.
The threshold parameter is a very important criterion when the searcher acquires the multipath signal. The system receives the effective path signal when the power ratio of the path signal is higher than the predetermined threshold parameter. Other path signals are regarded as noises. Consequently, the probability of acquiring undesired path signal or losing desired path signal is highly related to the determining of threshold parameter. Accordingly, it is desirable to determine a proper value of the threshold parameter for receiving the desired path signal, and decreasing the probability of acquiring undesired path signal or losing desired path signal.

System and method to adjust searcher threshold parameter of rake receiver


An electrical connector includes an insulating housing, a plurality of terminals, a main shielding shell and an auxiliary shielding shell. The insulating housing includes a base body and a tongue portion. The insulating housing defines a plurality of terminal grooves of which each includes a receiving slot passing through a rear surface and a bottom surface of the base body. The terminals are received in the terminal grooves with soldering portions disposed in the receiving slots. A bottom face of the soldering portion is in alignment with the bottom surface of the base body to be soldered on a circuit board. The main shielding shell surrounds the tongue portion with the terminals. The auxiliary shielding shell has a base plate positioned to the rear surface of the base body to cover up top portions of the soldering portions, and two bending plates attached to the main shielding shell.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector with electromagnetic shielding function.
2. The Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional electrical connector 200 includes an insulating housing 50, a plurality of terminals 60 and a shielding shell 70. The insulating housing 50 defines a plurality of terminal grooves 51 extending longitudinally to pass through a top of the insulating housing 50 and a rear of the insulating housing 50. Each of the terminals 60 has a fastening portion (not shown) disposed levelly. A rear end of the fastening portion extends upward and then is bent rearward to form a soldering portion 61. The terminals 60 are assembled in the insulating housing 50 with the fastening portions being fastened in the terminal grooves 51, and the soldering portions 61 projecting beyond the rear of the insulating housing 50 from the terminal grooves 51. The shielding shell 70 surrounds the insulating housing 50 together with the terminals 60. However, the soldering portions 61 of the terminals 60 are exposed outside the insulating housing 50 and the shielding shell 70 after the soldering portions 61 of the terminals 60 are soldered on a circuit board (not shown) that causes an electromagnetic interference when the conventional electrical connector 200 is in use.