A semiconductor device is provided. The semiconductor device includes a storage part storing an address for weak cells in a nonvolatile state; and a dynamic semiconductor memory device including: a memory cell array having normal cells and the weak cells to be refreshed; and a refresh control part performing a refresh operation for the weak cells, wherein a refresh period for the weak cells is shorter than a refresh period for the normal cells when the address applied in a refresh operation mode coincides with the address stored in the storage part.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a semiconductor memory device that provides varying refresh periods to its memory cells in accordance with a data retention capability of the memory cells.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A semiconductor device typically includes a semiconductor memory device such as a DRAM for storing data. In a DRAM memory cell, data is stored as electrons in a capacitor. However, data may be lost due to a leakage current of the capacitor. To prevent the loss of data due to a leakage current, a refresh operation is performed in the DRAM memory cell.
FIG. 1 illustrates a refresh operation in a DRAM memory cell of a conventional semiconductor device. Referring to FIG. 1, a refresh command is initiated (2) and input to a refresh counter of the semiconductor device. The refresh counter then determines a row address to be refreshed (4), the address generator generates the address to be refreshed (6) and the memory cell associated with the address is refreshed (8).
In more detail, the refresh operation is performed by turning on a word line of a DRAM memory cell array, which corresponds to a row address, with a high row address strobe (RAS), and activating a bit line sense amplifier connected to the row address. This operation is known as an RAS refresh operation. At this time, all the cells connected to the word line are refreshed concurrently by reading out stored data and rewriting the stored data before the stored data is lost. The refresh operation is then repeated until all the rows of the DRAM memory cell array are selected so that the entire DRAM can be refreshed.
Since data retention time is not the same in all the cells, a refresh time is determined based on the cell having the shortest retention time. Thus, the refresh operation is performed before the cell having the shortest retention time loses data. In other words, the refresh operation is performed before electrons stored in the capacitor of the memory cell having the shortest retention time are discharged. Otherwise, a refresh period may not be uniform since it becomes difficult to identify between data values of '1' and '0' in the memory cell.
Since many mobile electronic products such as cellular phones are battery dependent and employ dynamic memories for storing data, low power consumption, particularly that resulting from the reduction of a stand-by current used for self-refresh in a DRAM, is becoming an increasingly important design constraint. Accordingly, there is a need for reducing the power consumption of a dynamic memory employed by a mobile electronic product.

Non volatile semiconductor memory device having a multi-bit cell array


A system is disclosed for managing waste services. The system may include a waste detector mounted onboard a service vehicle and configured to capture image data of a receptacle encountered by the service vehicle. The system may also include a display, and a controller in communication with the waste detector and the display. The controller may be configured to recognize the receptacle within the image data, and to determine a fill status of the receptacle based on the image data. The controller may also be configured to selectively determine a customer recommendation for a different sized receptacle based on the fill status, and to cause a dispatch to provide the different sized receptacle based on the customer recommendation.

Waste service providers typically dispatch haul vehicles to customer properties according to a predetermined pickup schedule. The pickup schedule is often designed to provide periodic waste removal services within a particular geographical area in an efficient manner. Under a traditional service model, each customer along an established pickup route within a common geographical area receives waste removal services on the same day each week. On this day, waste receptacles on each customer property are emptied by the service provider, regardless of how full each receptacle is. Customers that subscribe to traditional waste removal services are billed on a periodic basis (e.g., monthly, quarterly, etc.) for their subscription.
Although traditional waste removal services can be useful in some instances, they can also be problematic. For instance, some customers fill their receptacles before their next regularly scheduled pickup. In these instances, the customers may be required to use additional on-demand services in order to avoid waste overflow. When the on-demand services are not available or not utilized, the waste may pile up on or around the customer's receptacle and create unsanitary conditions. In other instances, the same or different customers may produce less waste and not require emptying of their receptacle at the scheduled time of service. In this situation, the customers may overpay for their subscription.
The disclosed system is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems of the prior art.

Service detection and recommendation system


A liquid level indicator for storage tanks including a cover member for covering an opening at the top of the storage tank, a central rod extending downwardly from the cover member into the storage tank, and a float movably disposed on the central rod. A vertically movable first rod assembly is connected to an upper portion of the central rod, and a vertically movable second rod assembly is connected to a lower portion of the central rod, with the float being disposed therebetween so that the float contacts and moves the first rod assembly when the storage tank is substantially filled, and the float contacts and moves the second rod assembly when the storage tank is near empty. Switches are associated with each of the first and second rod assemblies to activate signal members when either of the first and second rod assemblies are vertically moved to indicate when the storage tank is substantially filled or when the storage tank is near empty. Such signal members can include colored light bulbs, for example, a red light bulb to indicate that the storage tank is substantially filled, and a yellow light bulb to indicate the storage tank is near empty.

This invention relates to an indicator and, more particularly, to a liquid level indicator for storage tanks to indicate when the liquid in the storage tank has substantially reached the rim or top portion of the storage tank when filling the storage tank with the liquid, and also to indicate when the liquid is at or near a low level in the storage tank so that the storage tank can be refilled with the liquid.
The use of liquid level indicators is well known in the art, where such indicators can be used in storage tanks, such as fuel oil storage tanks, in domestic, commercial and industrial fields. These indicators alert the person filling the storage tank at the time when the storage tank is filled, thereby preventing the liquid from spilling on the basement floor, on sidewalks and on streets and, accordingly, thus avoid foul odors, hazardous fumes, accidents, fires and the like which can be caused by the spilled liquid. Furthermore, these indicators alert the owner or person in charge of the storage tank when the liquid in the storage tank is at or near a low level so that the storage tank can be refilled without an interruption in the drawing of the liquid from the storage tank. Accordingly, these indicators reduce human errors and compensate for the inexperience of the person filling the storage tank.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,838,135 discloses a high low gravity tank alarm float to indicate both a high level and a low level of the liquid in the tank, where a float moves up and down on a rod to contact either an upper stop or a lower stop secured to the rod Accordingly, when the float contacts either of the stops on the rod, the float moves the contacted stop which thus moves the rod either upwardly or downwardly to activate an operating bar which is connected to an electrical switch arrangement to give a signal when the level of the liquid in the tank is above or below the predetermined levels.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,646,293 discloses an electrical signal generator and a liquid level indicator associated therewith to indicate different levels of the liquid in a tank. A float is mounted on a tube for up and down movement thereof, where magnets are carried within the float to activate stationary switches which are mounted at predetermined levels within the tube in order to produce pulses to indicate the different levels of the liquid in the tank, where the switches are connected to an electrical system to indicate the particular position of the float at each time a particular switch is activated.

Liquid level indicator for storage tanks

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A magnetic immersion field emission electron gun has a vacuum vessel having a central axis in a predetermined direction, a cathode arranged along the central axis of the vacuum vessel for generating an electron beam, an anode for forming an electron beam path by accelerating a generated electron beam in the central axis direction, an electrostatic lens arranged between the cathode and anode for generating an electric field which focuses an accelerated electron beam toward the central axis, a magnetic field generating element arranged around the electron beam path for generating a magnetic field for focusing the electron beam in order to preventing a diameter of the electron beam from expansion by an aberration of the electrostatic lens, and a moving mechanism for moving the magnetic field generating element at a position where a peak point of a strength of the magnetic field generated by the magnetic field generating element coincides with a portion where the aberration of the electrostatic lens becomes most conspicuous. The electron gun having such a configuration can provide an effect of reducing a spherical and chromatic aberration by efficiently providing a lens characteristic to the electrostatic lens even though the entire length of electrostatic lens is long.

The present invention relates to an improvement of a field emission electron gun systems which are used in electron beam applied apparatus such as a scanning electron microscope (SEM), an electron beam exposure device, a size measuring scanning electron microscope, and the like, using an electron beam, and more particularly relates to an improvement of a magnetic immersion field emission electron gun which is used in the electron beam applied apparatus and capable of reducing an aberration of an electrostatic lens by focusing an electron beam by means of a superposition of a magnetic field over an electrostatic lens system.
In the electron beam applied apparatus, an electron gun assumes an important part for generating electron beam. Recently, there becomes to be used an electric field emission type electron gun which has the high luminance in comparison with a conventional hot cathode. A tip of a cathode in the electric field emission type electron gun is formed in an extremely small needle shape (a radius on or less than 1 .mu.m), and an electron is radially emitted from the cathode. Since a large opening angle of the beam needs to obtain a large current, a beam diameter is caused to be extended because of a spherical aberration of an electrostatic lens system provided in the electron gun, thereby reducing a luminance. Accordingly, a magnetic field superposes over the electrostatic lens system including the cathode to focus the electron beam to thus decrease an aberration of the electrostatic lens. An electron gun having such a construction is called as a magnetic immersion field emission electron gun system.
FIG. 1 is a section view showing an example of a conventional magnetic immersion field emission electron gun. The electron gun is a three-electrode field emission type electron gun which comprises a cathode 101, a first anode 102, and a second anode 103. The second anode 103 is connected with a vacuum vessel 104 to be grounded. A power source 105 supplies to the cathode 101 with an acceleration voltage which is negative to the vacuum vessel 104. Furthermore, the cathode 101 is heated by a power source 107. The first anode 102 is connected to a power source 106 to be positive voltage to the cathode 101.
A single-pole magnetic field lens 108 is provided outside the vacuum vessel 104 to superpose a magnetic field over the electron gun. The single-pole magnetic field lens 108 comprises a coil 109 for generating a magnetic flux, and a magnetic substance 110 for forming a magnetic path.
The electrostatic lens system of the conventionally used magnetic immersion field emission electron gun is a two-polar electron gun comprising a cathode and an anode, or a three-polar electron gun comprising a cathode, a first anode and a second anode. Since these electron guns configured above have a little number of polar and short length of the entire electron gun (a distance from the cathode to the anode), the magnetic superposition near the cathode contributes to a reduction of a spherical aberration.
On the other hand, since the necessity happens to independently set an emission current and cross-over position (a focal point) in the electron beam applied apparatus, the necessity starts the use of the electron gun which independently has a leader electrode and a lens electrode, wherein the leader electrode determines an emission current and the lens electrode determines the cross-over position. However, when the electron gun is comprised of a four-polar construction having a cathode, a leader electrode, a lens electrode, and an anode, it is impossible for the conventional magnetic immersion field emission electron gun superposing the magnetic field near the cathode to sufficiently reduce the spherical aberration. Because aberration occurring positions do not concentrate near the cathode on the basis that there are large numbers of the electrodes in a multi-electrode construction over four electrodes and the electron gun has the long length. Furthermore, in order to obtain the high magnetic strength along the entire electrostatic lens system, there becomes large size of a electromagnet or permanent magnet for generating a magnetic field, thereby lacking usefulness.
For example, in "an electron beam gun" disclosed in the official gazette of Japanese patent laid-open number Heisei 2-37651(1990), which comprises a cathode and three-polar portion of a first to third polar, there is provided a permanent magnet generating a magnetic field for reducing a diameter of an electron beam, which is arranged near a passing hole of the electron beam of the second electrode and within a thickness range of the axial direction of the second electrode. As has been immediately understood from viewing FIG. 1 disclosed in this official gazette, the permanent magnet is arranged in a groove of the second electrode which is formed in U-shape in section, and the magnetic field generated by the permanent magnet makes a flux size of the electron beam be slender for improving a spherical aberration of a main lens.

Magnetic immersion field emission electron gun systems capable of reducing aberration of electrostatic lens


An imaging method includes determining a gazed object of a user according to an image at the user's eye fundus; and changing a size of a target image of the gazed object according to a predetermined zooming rule. A device comprises: an object determination unit configured to determine a gazed object of a user according to an image at the user's eye fundus; and a processing unit configured to change a size of a target image of the gazed object according to a predetermined zooming rule. The size of the target image can be changed by optical zoom processing, so that the user feels that the gazed object is observed with an appropriate size of the image at the eye fundus at an appropriate distance, thereby facilitating the user to observe the gazed object and improving the observation efficiency.

For a user with healthy eyes, when viewing a relatively small or relatively far object, it is hard to observe desired details by the eyes. For example, when people sit at a relatively far position watching a ball game, it is hard to observe the details of body motion and emotional expression of a player. For a user whose eyes already have problems of myopia or hypermetropia, when viewing a relatively small or relatively far object, it is harder to identify the details of an observed object or person by the eyes. On the other hand, when viewing a relatively large or relatively near object, it is hard to observe the panorama information of the gazed object. For example, when a user stands in front of a high building or a big mountain, it is hard to observe their panorama.
Conventional optical zooming devices, such as a telescope or a magnifier, rely on manual setting of zooming parameters, and are not convenient for use.


A method and apparatus for cultivating vegetation at an arid location includes rooting immature vegetation in a mat combined with a super absorbent polymer (“SAP”) and, in embodiments, fertilizer, sand, and/or soil; placing the mat at the arid location; and covering the mat with a perforated, transparent or semi-transparent cover. Most or all of the apparatus can be biodegradable or removable, and the sand or soil can be similar to indigenous sand or soil. A water barrier can be placed below the mat. The cover can be placed on or suspended above the mat. SAP, seeds, and/or additional water barriers can be placed between mats in a stack. The opacity of the cover can be increased to emulate shade from natural vegetation. A water distribution system can be included for continued support of the vegetation, and can include a water reservoir and/or at least one solar still.

While arid environments such as deserts and semi-deserts are often somewhat inhospitable to vegetation, nevertheless there are varieties of succulents and other vegetation that can survive and even thrive unassisted in all but the harshest environments. Under certain circumstances, it can be desirable to introduce new vegetation into an arid environment so as to stabilize the underlying sand or soil, reduce the prevalence of blown dust and sand, beautify the landscape, and/or re-establish an ecosystem after it has been damaged by industrial activity or by a natural disaster. Unfortunately, the initial introduction of such vegetation can be difficult and time consuming, due to the poor water retention of the sand or soil, the slow growth that is typical of desert and semi-desert vegetation, and the fragility of immature vegetation until it has established a sufficient root system to allow it to obtain water and to resist wind and excess sun exposure.
Furthermore, it may be desirable to grow vegetation such as edible food plants in arid environments while minimizing the cost and labor associated with initiating and maintaining the vegetation.
Of course, scarcity of water is the feature that more or less defines an arid environment. When an arid location is devoid of mature vegetation this scarcity of water is typically multiplied, because high temperatures and the prevalence of unshaded sunshine can tend to quickly evaporate any moisture that is present. In addition, the ground in an arid environment is often very sandy, such that any precipitation that falls as rain or forms on the surface as dew tends to be absorbed quickly into the sand, wherein it settles to a depth that is beyond reach of the root systems of vegetation.
Once vegetation is well established in an arid location, it can play a significant autogenic role in improving the environment by blocking direct sunlight and by capturing and retaining available moisture before it is absorbed or evaporated. Furthermore, over time, decomposing vegetation can reduce the porosity of the soil and thereby further improve the retention of water near the surface. However, even newly-planted vegetation that is adapted to arid environments often has a very difficult time surviving until it has matured. And, of course, food plants and other vegetation that is not adapted to arid environments requires continued support when cultivated in an arid environment.
Existing methods for introducing and growing vegetation in arid ecosystems are typically expensive and risky, and the benefits are often short-lived. Current approaches to arid ecosystem rehabilitation are extensions of traditional agronomic technologies developed under more hospitable climates, and require intensive tending and excessive use of irrigation to have any chance of success. Often, such an expenditure of time and resources is not practical, and serves as a barrier to the restoration and/or improvement of arid environments, and to farming and other cultivation of non-arid vegetation in arid environments.
Furthermore, traditional approaches to introducing such vegetation typically require construction and use of extensive irrigation systems and other structures and maintenance equipment that are not natural to the environment. Even if they are subsequently removed, the environmental damage that is left behind can remain for an extended period of time.
What is needed, therefore, is an apparatus and method for introducing and growing vegetation in arid environments while minimizing both initial and long term maintenance requirements, including water usage.

Apparatus and method for establishing and growing vegetation in arid environments


A light-emissive device including first and second electrodes, and a light-emissive layer located between the electrodes and containing organic light-emissive material including a plurality of particles spaced from each other by the light-emissive material, at least some of the particles being capable of injecting positive charge carriers into the light-emissive material and at least some of the particles being capable of injecting negative charge carriers into the light-emissive material; whereby electrical charge may pass between the electrodes via at least some of the particles to cause light to be emitted by the light-emissive material between those particles.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to multi-step light-emissive devices and light-emissive organic materials.
2. Related Technology
An emerging class of display devices uses an organic material for light emission. Light-emissive organic materials are described in PCT WO90/13148 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,507, the contents of both of which are incorporated herein by reference. The basic structure of these devices is a light-emissive organic layer, for instance a film of a poly(p-phenylenevinylene ("PPV"), sandwiched between two electrodes. One of the electrodes (the cathode) injects negative charge carriers (electrons) and the other electrode (the anode) injects positive charge carriers (holes). The electrons and holes combine in the organic layer, generating photons. In PCT WO90/13148 the organic light-emissive material is a polymer. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,507 the organic light-emissive material is of the class known as small molecule materials, such as (8-hydroxyquinolino)aluminium ("Alq3"). In a practical device, one of the electrodes is typically transparent, to allow the photons to escape the device.
FIG. 1 illustrates the cross-sectional structure of a typical organic light-emissive device ("OLED"). The OLED is typically fabricated on a glass or plastic substrate 1 coated with a transparent first electrode 2 such as indium-tin-oxide ("ITO"). Such coated substrates are commercially available. This ITO-coated substrate is covered with at least a layer of a thin film of an electroluminescent organic material 3 and a final layer forming a second electrode 4, which is typically a metal or alloy. Other layers can be added to the device, for example to improve charge transport between the electrodes and the electroluminescent material.
Typically, the film 3 of organic material is around 60 to 100 nm thick. At these thicknesses the turn-on voltage for an OLED of the type shown in FIG. 1 is normally around 2V. Peak efficiency generally occurs at an applied voltage in the range from 2 to 6V. Once the voltage drop across the OLED is high enough to inject both carrier types satisfactorily into the device any additional voltage causes additional light to be emitted, but at a lower efficiency since extra work is done in transporting the carriers through the polymer at the higher electric field. For thicker devices the efficiencies are also lower because extra work has to be done in transporting the carriers further. At significantly higher applied voltages the device breaks down.
It would be desirable to use OLED technology for general lighting applications, such as domestic and commercial building lighting and external lighting such as street lighting. To do this efficiently it would be desirable for OLED devices to be capable of being driven efficiently from higher voltages than are currently employed for OLEDs: preferably by mains voltages of 220V or 110V, or higher.
One way to achieve this would be to form a stacked device by laminating together a number of devices of the type shown in FIG. 1, so that the cathode of one device feeds current to the anode of the next. This arrangement is illustrated in FIG. 2, in which like parts are numbered as for FIG. 1. If, say, 4V were dropped across each device in the stack, and the stack comprised 50 devices then 200V would be dropped across the entire stack. However, a device of this sort has a great number of electrode layers. Therefore, it is very difficult to arrange for the electrodes to be sufficiently transparent that they do not block a great deal of the light that is emitted by the devices of the stack. This is a major problem in building an efficient device to this architecture.
FIG. 3 shows the structure of a dispersed-type inorganic electroluminescent device. A device of this type uses an entirely different principle to emit light. Phosphor particles 10, for example comprising ZnS, are dispersed in a transparent conductive matrix 11 between anode and cathode electrodes 12, 13. When a suitable voltage is applied between the electrodes electrons are lifted from deep traps in the phosphor particles and accelerated to high energy. The high-energy electrons can then collide with light-emitting centres at the particles, where ionisation takes place. Thus, in a device of this type the emission is from the phosphor particles, not the matrix.

Multi-step organic light-emissive devices


An exemplary apparatus comprises a housing attachable to a touchscreen-equipped computing device wherein one or more image sensors in the housing obtain images of an object in the vicinity of the touchscreen and a processor analyzes the images to compute the position of the object relative to the touchscreen and communicates to the computing device attribute data pertaining to the imaged object. Exemplary methods are also described.

In recent years, mobile communication and computing devices using touch-sensitive displays, such as the 'iPhone'™ and 'iPad'™ from Apple Inc., have become commonplace. Users are typically able to directly manipulate graphically-depicted interactive elements on the user interface display by placing one or more fingertips in contact with the screen and making gestures such as tapping, sliding and pinching. Touchscreens typically comprise transparent, capacitance-sensing layers and, using well-known techniques, can sense the position of multiple simultaneous points of contact between a user's fingers and the display surface. In terms of interaction with graphical interface elements, users can simulate typing on a displayed keyboard, select icons to open applications, select text fields for subsequent textual input and scroll through lists or other contents. With many such devices, users may even scroll an entire 'home screen' or 'desktop' that displays an array of icons that each represent an application to launch or a feature to invoke.
Touchscreen devices like the iPhone and other so-called 'smartphones' rely mainly upon the visual display and touchscreen to support user interaction and consequently provide minimal physical buttons or other input mechanisms for which a user could employ tactile sense to locate and actuate. This minimization of mechanical buttons makes the user interface heavily software-driven and graphically-oriented. In some cases, however, as the finite number of gestures that are intuitive, easily remembered and readily discernible are dedicated to specific interactions, the gesture mappings become quickly exhausted. As described below, this is especially true when special needs or accessibility tools are layered on top of normally used touchscreen paradigms. Furthermore, where nearly every user interaction must take place via the touchscreen, a user who wants to freely alter some functional attribute of the device or an application must navigate through a menu hierarchy to reach a particular setting and is thus impeded from making momentary or dynamic changes to certain settings.
Blind users of such touchscreen devices are unable to see user interface elements displayed on the screen, such as simulated keyboard keys, icons, buttons and the like. However, some accommodations have been introduced, such as Apple's 'VoiceOver' accessibility feature, so that sound effects or synthesized speech inform a blind user of content or controls that correspond to the position of the user's finger as they touch the screen. To support this, application developers add descriptive textual labels in their application's interfaces so that, ideally, each visual page or control element also has a corresponding textual description that can be announced to a user by speech synthesis. Without seeing the display, a user can nevertheless probe the display and elicit audible responses until finding a desired function or control or content.
In addition to having software applications provide descriptive labels for the displayed elements, additional measures have been instituted to discriminate between a single-point touching gesture used by a blind user to explore the display and a similar single-touch that would normally signify a user's intent launch an application or act upon a control element, such as a displayed pushbutton control. As an example of this disambiguation, Apple's VoiceOver accessibility mode notably shifts the interpretation of touchscreen gestures.
Normally, in the case where a sighted user wishes to launch an application, the user locates a corresponding icon on the home screen, selected based on the icon's visual appearance that suggests its function, and then simply taps the icon once with their fingertip. The 'tap' gesture is easy to directly target with one's finger given the size and spacing of the icons.
When the 'VoiceOver mode' is active, however, the user's single-fingered input is interpreted as an attempt to probe the environment and elicit descriptive sounds. Without this provision, a blind user's attempt to merely explore the displayed icons could not be distinguished from an intent to invoke an application or otherwise act upon touchscreen-actuated visual elements. In order for a user, during VoiceOver mode, to actually take action upon an element in the same way a single-tap gesture would normally work, the user must instead perform a 'double-tap'. To be more specific, the user typically performs a preparatory exploration of the interface by touching the screen in various locations and hearing descriptive sounds for elements displayed under their fingertips. As various elements are contacted, a VoiceOver 'cursor' is shifted around to highlight the currently or most recently contacted element for which a sound was elicited.
Once the VoiceOver cursor has been used to select a user interface element, the user may subsequently execute a double-tap gesture anywhere on the screen to activate the selected control. The double-tap gesture anywhere on the screen will perform the same action that a single-tap directed at the selected element would have performed if VoiceOver mode were not active. Thus, with VoiceOver mode active, single-touch gestures effectively become intercepted and used for exploratory interaction whereas double-tap gestures are, in effect, converted to single-tap gestures as if executed upon the element that is currently highlighted.
The VoiceOver mode also entails modification of other user inputs via the touchscreen. A scrolling action, typically performed by a single finger sliding in a scroll direction, also has to be disambiguated from the motion of simply sliding around to find displayed features without activating them. Accordingly, while in VoiceOver mode, scrolling is only engaged when three fingers come into contact with the screen. (In the VoiceOver approach, two-fingered gestures are already assigned to control page-wise reading.)
While the above measures improve basic accessibility of touchscreen interfaces for blind or low-vision users, further improvements may be realized in terms of agility, ease of use, efficient use of available gestures or in facilitating a common experience to be shared among both sighted and blind users.

Apparatus for detecting proximity of object near a touchscreen


A power tool with a metal housing (12) has motor (20) positioned within the housing (12). An output (22), positioned within the housing (12), is coupled with the motor (20) and is adapted to drive a tool. An activation member (26) is coupled with the motor (20). A battery pack (30) is electrically coupled with the activation member (26). The activation member (26) energizes and deenergizes the motor (20), which in turn, drives the output (22).

The present invention relates to power tools and, more particularly, to battery operated power tools with metallic housings.
In the power tool field, as battery technology continues to improve, tradesmen continue to switch to battery operated tools. Battery operated tools have housings that are of a polymeric material. The polymeric material provides lightweight characteristics with acceptable durability. Corded tools have long since utilized metallic housing. While the metallic housings do not adversely deter from the tools weight, they provide enhanced durability characteristics.
The present invention provides the art with a battery operated power tool with a metallic housing. The present invention provides the art with a lightweight battery operated tool with excellent durability. The power tool provides the corded user with a non-corded metallic housing tool.
In accordance with the first aspect of the invention, a power tool comprises a metallic housing. A motor is positioned inside the metallic housing. An output is coupled with the motor. The output is adapted to drive a tool. An activation member is coupled with the motor. A battery power source is electrically coupled with the activation member. The activation member energizes and deenergizes the motor which, in turn, rotates the output member. The activation member includes a switch which is electrically coupled with the battery power source and the motor. A polymeric subhousing surrounds the switch and is positioned in the metallic housing. The polymeric subhousing shields the activation member and motor from the metal housing. The polymeric subhousing includes a first subhousing shielding the activation member and a second subhousing shielding the motor. A barrier plate is positioned in the housing between the battery and an inner cavity of the metal housing. The barrier plate is a polymeric material. The output includes a transmission for changing speeds and torque of the output. The transmission includes a polymeric housing, first pinion or sun gear, first set of planetary gears, a first gear carrier and an insulating member. The insulating member is positioned between the first gear carrier and the first pinion gear to provide insulation against a possible failure route. The battery source has a polymeric housing coupled with the metal housing.
In accordance with a second embodiment of the invention, a battery operated power tool comprises a housing defining a cavity. The housing includes a pair of mating members each formed from a metallic material. A motor is received in the housing cavity. An activation member extends from the housing and is coupled with the motor. An output member is coupled with the motor and is adapted to drive a tool. A battery pack is coupled with the housing. The battery pack is electrically coupled with the activation member to energize and deenergize the tool. The power tool further includes a battery level indicator electrically coupled with the battery pack mounted on the housing. The power tool further includes a level indicator coupled with the housing which determines the levelness of the power tool in vertical and horizontal positions. The power tool further includes a gripping member. The power tool housing pair defines a handle portion. The activation member is housed in the handle portion and includes a switch electrically coupled with the battery. A polymeric housing surrounds the switch and is positioned in the handle portion of the metal housing. A barrier plate is positioned between the battery and the cavity of the metal housing. The output includes a transmission to change speed and torque of the output. The transmission includes a polymeric housing, first pinion or sun gear, first set of planetary gears, a first gear carrier and an insulating member. The insulating member is positioned between the first gear carrier and the first pinion gear to provide insulation against a possible failure route.
In accordance with the third aspect of the invention, a cordless drill comprises a metallic housing. A motor is positioned inside the metallic housing. An output is coupled with the motor. The output is adapted to drive a tool. An activation member is coupled with the motor. A battery power source is electrically coupled with the activation member. The activation member energizes and deenergizes the motor which, in turn, rotates the output member. The activation member includes a switch which is electrically coupled with the battery power source and the motor. A polymeric subhousing surrounds the switch and is positioned in the metallic housing. The polymeric subhousing shields the activation member and motor from the metal housing. The polymeric subhousing includes a first subhousing shielding the activation member and a second subhousing shielding the motor. A barrier plate is positioned in the housing between the battery and an inner cavity of the metal housing. The barrier plate is a polymeric material. The output includes a transmission for changing speeds and torque of the output. The transmission includes a polymeric housing, first pinion or sun gear, first set of planetary gears, a first gear carrier and an insulating member. The insulating member is positioned between the first gear carrier and the first pinion gear to provide insulation against a possible failure route. The battery source has a polymeric housing coupled with the metal housing.
Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiment, and the appended claims and accompanying drawings, or may be learned by practice of the invention.


A downhole tool is operated to pump fluid from a subterranean formation while obtaining fluid property measurements pertaining to the pumped fluid. The downhole tool is in communication with surface equipment located at the wellsite surface. The downhole tool and/or surface equipment is operated to estimate a first linear, exponential, logarithmic, and/or other relationship between compressibility and pressure of the pumped fluid based on the fluid property measurements. The downhole tool and/or surface equipment may also be operated to estimate a second linear, exponential, logarithmic, and/or other relationship between formation volume factor and pressure of the pumped fluid based on the first relationship. The downhole tool and/or surface equipment may also be operated to measure and correct optical density of the pumped fluid based on the first relationship.

The formation volume factor (FVF) of a reservoir fluid may be utilized in the determination of fluid properties downhole. For example, FVF may be utilized during reserve estimation, material balance equations, production and reservoir simulations, and equations of state tuning, among other examples. However, these and other examples of utilizing FVF may be inaccurate as FVF varies in response to pressure changes downhole.
FVF and other reservoir fluid properties may be determined utilizing a downhole tool operable to obtain optical density (OD) measurements of the reservoir fluid downhole. However, the OD measurements may also be rendered inaccurate in response to pressure changes downhole.

Determining formation fluid variation with pressure


A method of transmitting an interference information signal in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes receiving a neighbor sounding signal from a mobile station (MS) in a neighbor cell, obtaining an interference information signal based on the neighbor sounding signal and transmitting the interference information signal to a neighbor base station (BS), the neighbor BS which is a BS in the neighbor cell.

Wireless communication systems are being widely deployed in order to provide various kinds of communication services, such as voice or data. The object of the wireless communication systems enables a number of users to perform reliable communication with each other irrespective of their position and mobility. However, a wireless channel has an abnormal characteristic, such as path loss, noise, shadowing, fading due to multipath, intersymbol interference (ISI), or the Doppler effect due to mobility of user equipment. Accordingly, a variety of techniques for overcoming the abnormal characteristic of the wireless channel and increasing the reliability of wireless communication are being developed.
Meanwhile, the wireless communication system is a cellular system. The cellular system is configured to divide a service region into a number of cells each served communication services in order to overcome a restriction in the service region and a restriction in the number of users accommodated in the service region. However, users placed at the boundary between cells are subject to inter-cell interference because of interference signals generated from neighbor cells. Base stations are also subject to inter-cell interference because of interference signals generated from neighbor cells. Inter-cell interference is one of the major causes to restrict the performance of a wireless communication system. Inter-cell interference may result in the depletion of transmission and reception signals of cell boundary users, a reduction in throughput, transmission power consumption, etc. They cause several problems in the support of various services for cell boundary users, the maintenance of Quality of Service (QoS), and cell coverage. Accordingly, to solve the inter-cell interference problem and to improve the performance of a system become the important requirements of a next-generation wireless communication system. In systems, such as 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 (WiMAX), and IEEE 802-20, a variety of techniques for improving the performance of a system by overcoming inter-cell interference are being used.
The IEEE 802.16 standard provides a technique and protocol for supporting broadband wireless access. The standardization had been conducted since 1999 until the IEEE 802.16-2001 was approved in 2001. The IEEE 802.16-2001 is based on a physical layer of a single carrier (SC) called 'WirelessMAN-SC'. The IEEE 802.16a standard was approved in 2003. In the IEEE 802.16a standard, 'WirelessMAN-OFDM' and 'WirelessMAN-OFDMA' are further added to the physical layer in addition to the 'WirelessMAN-SC'. After completion of the IEEE 802.16a standard, the revised IEEE 802.16-2004 standard was approved in 2004. To correct bugs and errors of the IEEE 802.16-2004 standard, the IEEE 802.16-2004/Cor1 (hereinafter referred to as 'IEEE 802.16e') was completed in 2005 in a format of 'corrigendum'. An IEEE 802.16m which is a new technique standard is being standardized based on the IEEE 802.16e. In the IEEE 802.16m system, the throughput of a cell boundary user is required to be twice that of the IEEE 802.16e system. In order to satisfy the requirement, plenty of parts of the IEEE 802.16e system have to be improved and a method of controlling inter-cell interference also needs to be improved.
Methods of controlling inter-cell interference may differ depending on the requirements and characteristic of a wireless communication system, and the performance thereof may differ. If the system knows interference information such as information about a neighbor cell from which inter-cell interference is generated and information about intensity of the inter-cell interference, the inter-cell interference may be controlled efficiently. Accordingly, there is a need for a method of transmitting an interference information signal for efficiently controlling inter-cell interference.

Method of transmitting interference information signal in wireless communication system


This invention relates to an apparatus, system, and method for computing with neuromorphic circuit architectures that have neurons with interconnected internal state information. The interconnected internal state information allows the neurons to enable or strengthen the input to other neurons. Furthermore, neuron internal state information provides insights on the characteristics of the input data that can be used to enhance the performance of the neuromorphic system. The neuromorphic system can be implemented with an artificial phase-change-based neurons.

In conventional computers, complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) transistor technology and Von Neumann architectures are used to implement the computing elements. However, these computers, as commonly implemented, can have disadvantages. Notably, the power requirements are often higher for these systems. For some Big Data applications, the conventional computing paradigm can require over an order of magnitude greater power usage versus competing paradigms, such as neuromorphic systems.
In biological systems, the point of contact between an axon of a neuron and a dendrite of a second neuron is referred to as a synapse. It is widely viewed that the synapse plays an essential role in the formation of memory. As a neurotransmitter activates a receptor across a synaptic cleft, the connection between the two neurons is strengthened when both neurons are active at the same time, as a result of the receptor's signaling mechanisms. The strength of two connected neural pathways is thought to result in the storage of information, resulting in memory. This process of synaptic strengthening is known as long-term potentiation. That is, the synaptic conductance changes with time as a function of the relative spike times of pre-synaptic and post-synaptic neurons, as per spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP). The spike-timing dependent plasticity increases the conductance of a synapse if its post-synaptic neuron fires after its pre-synaptic neuron fires, and decreases the conductance of a synapse if the order of the two firings is reversed.
Neuromorphic or artificial neural network systems are computational systems that function in a manner analogous to that of biological neural systems. Neuromorphic systems generally do not follow the traditional model of manipulating binary data. Instead, neuromorphic systems have connections between processing elements that attempt to mirror the neurons of a biological neural system. As such, neuromorphic systems may include various electronic circuit elements that are modeled on neurons.
Neuromorphic computers may allow machines the ability to perform complex functions by mimicking the brain. The natural ability of the brain to perform a high number of complex functions in parallel that have significantly better capabilities than many computers along several metrics. These future neuromorphic processors may have a major impact of computing, particularly in terms of efficiency. Application areas, such as database manipulation and searches, image processing for radar application, simultaneous localization and mapping, and medical imaging processing, can see substantial benefits from the technology. As data sets become larger, there is a need for a fundamental change in how computers are architected. Neuromorphic architectures can scale to these data sets, while providing better performance in terms of size and power requirements.
Previous neuromorphic computing implementations have demonstrated the feasibility of mimicking brain functionality. However, current implementations of neuromorphic computing elements have shortcomings in their overall effectiveness. Some previous neuromorphic circuits have focused on using inhibitory links. These architectures may use the output of a neuron to disable other neurons. For example, each neuron may inhibit the integration of all the other neurons during a time interval after a spike. In such a winner-take-all configuration, only the neuron with the highest activation stays active while all other neurons shut down. However, these configurations can have poor performance in learning multiple correlations compared to other configurations. Also, these configurations have limited reliability and insight on the features of the input data. There still remains the potential for substantial improvement through novel circuit architectures.

Neuromorphic architecture with multiple coupled neurons using internal state neuron information

International Business Machines Corporation


A method is provided for calibrating a thermal conductivity sensor in a first medium A from measurements in a second medium B. The method includes maintaining the sensor at a substantially fixed temperature T1, and measuring a heat flux IB(T1) from the thermal element in the second medium B. A corresponding heat flux IA(T1) in the first medium A is calculated using known thermal conductivities of the first medium A and the second medium B.

Methane is a common gas that makes up a large proportion of natural gas, which is used for heating, cooking, and other applications. In its naturally occurring state, methane is odorless, tasteless, colorless, and non-toxic. In an enclosed space, however, methane may cause suffocation, if it displaces oxygen. Methane is also flammable and presents a risk of explosion if the gas is not detected and/or controlled.
One type of methane detector includes a thermal conductivity sensor that detects methane by measuring the thermal conductivity of a gaseous mixture. It is a universal practice to calibrate this sensor with pure methane. Calibration with pure methane requires an available methane supply and equipment for storing and delivering it. Also, suitable precautions (e.g. a laboratory exhaust hood, odorization, etc.) must be taken since pure methane raises potential safety concerns.
There is therefore a need for improved methods of calibrating thermal conductivity sensors for a target species (e.g., methane or propane) in a gaseous medium (e.g., air). In particular, there is a need for a method of calibrating such sensors without using the pure target species as a calibration gas.

Gas sensors and methods of calibrating same


A power supply system includes a plurality of power supply units that each includes an output terminal connected each other in parallel to other output terminals each included in other power supply units and connected to a plurality of load units, a power supply section that inputs an input voltage and outputs a first output voltage from the output terminal to the plurality of load units, and a shut-off control section that shuts off the output of the first output voltage from the output terminal based on an inputted stand-by signal, and a management control unit that inputs a configuration information representing a configuration of each of the plurality of load units in which the first voltage is inputted, and outputs the stand-by signal to any of the plurality of power supply units based on the configuration information.

Progress of advanced information society in recent years has caused increasing power consumption of electronic apparatuses, such as computers, which are served as information processing apparatuses. Therefore, the electronic apparatuses have been designed to include a plurality of power supply devices by which electric power can be supplied. For example, there is a known technology for a power supply system in which four power supply devices with a power capacity of 1,500 W are mounted on an electronic apparatus with a power consumption of 6,000 W.
In addition, another technology, which has been known in the art, is to change the number of power supply devices to be operated depending on load variation.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 9-56064, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-201244, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 10-201090, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-348819 are examples of related art.
A power supply device (hereinafter, also referred to as a power supply unit), which has been used in the conventional electronic apparatus, is designed to adapt to both the operating state and the stand-by state of the electronic apparatus. That is, the power supply unit is constructed of a high-efficiency main power supply and a built-in stand-by power supply with efficiency lower than that of the main power supply. The power supply unit has two or more outputs, one from the main power supply and the other from the stand-by power supply. The electronic apparatus is provided with a service processor for system management. The service processor checks the hardware configuration of the apparatus including a central processing unit (CPU), a memory, a power supply unit, a cooling fan, and so on in the electronic apparatus in the stand-by state. Then, the service processor performs the start-up of the power supply unit and the fan when the electronic apparatus changes from the stand-by state to the operating state. Also, the service processor performs the shut off of the power supply unit and the fan when the electronic apparatus changes from the operating state to the stand-by state.
In the power supply unit with a plurality of outputs, including the main power supply and the stand-by power supply, the main power supply has been designed to have high efficiency to prevent the main power supply from generating internal heat due to a large output current from the main power supply. On the other hand, the stand-by power supply has been designed to have small efficiency when compared with the main power supply because of a small output current from the stand-by power supply.
However, in recent years, the trends to lower power consumption of the electronic apparatus is to enhance the efficiency of power supply in the state ranging from the low-load idle state where the operating load factor of the electronic apparatus is low to the high-load state where the operating load factor of the electronic apparatus is high. Therefore, the presence of the stand-by power supply, which has low efficiency compared with the main power supply, has been a barrier that prevents the power supply unit from becoming high efficiency.
Since the power supply unit with a plurality of outputs having the stand-by power supply includes two or more power supply circuits, the overall power supply circuit of the power supply unit is complicated. Thus, there is a problem in that a volume per power of the power supply unit is larger than that of a power supply unit only having the output of a main power supply. Furthermore, a power supply unit provided with both the main power supply and the stand-by power supply results in additional manufacturing cost for the circuit of the stand-by power supply.
The power loss of the power supply unit can be roughly classified into the following two types: one is power loss due to the flow of current, i.e., a conduction loss represented by I×I×R; and the other is power loss due to the presence of a power-supply control circuit, a switching drive circuit, and so on irrespective of current, i.e., driving loss Pd.
The conduction loss I×I×R increases in proportion to the square of current. Thus, the power supply unit depicts high efficiency at a load factor of approximately 75% of rated power. For example, the power supply unit becomes 90% of efficiency at a load factor of 80%.
In general, the power supply unit is preferably used with an appropriate load factor for assuring high efficiency of power supply efficiency. It is common to mount a plurality of power supply units on the electronic apparatus that requires the power supply ability of "n" power supply units in practical operation. Specifically, for example, it can be attained by way of "n+1" redundant configuration in which an additional power supply unit is placed, a duplicated power receiving system configuration in which the power supply line is doubled, or several additional power supply units which are mounted in consideration of future enhancement. Therefore, the electronic apparatus having a plurality of power supply units, for example four units, has a small load factor per unit. Thus, each of these power supply units is used with a low load factor. As a result, there is a program in that power supply efficiency decreases each of these power supply units is used with a low load factor. For example, each power supply unit may be used with a load factor of 20% and then each power supply unit may result in an efficiency of 25%. Furthermore, depending on the operation state of the electronic apparatus, a decrease in power supply efficiency may occur even in the case of a decrease in load factor.
For electronic apparatuses of recent years, the types and the numbers of memories, CPUs, and different units to be mounted have been increased. In addition, such electronic apparatuses may use large scale integrated circuits (LSI) that require setting of initial operating conditions. In the stand-by state before the electronic apparatus will shift to the operating state, a stand-by current tends to be increased because the service process for setting the initial operating conditions and checking errors operate in the stand-by state.
However, there is a disadvantage in that a high-current stand-by power supply with low efficiency leads to an increase in heat generation. In addition, there is another disadvantage in that mounting a high-current stand-by power supply with high efficiency requires a complicated control circuit and leads to increases in size and cost of the power supply unit.
Furthermore, there is a problem in that the power supply unit with a low stand-by voltage, such as the power supply unit with a 3.3V (volt) power supply unit or a 5V power supply unit, is difficult to prevent system down when a voltage reduction occurs. That is, the original voltage is as low as 3.3V. In some cases, therefore, the 3.3V-operating electronic apparatus may hardly continue its operation because of short circuit in any of other circuit boards. In the case of the configuration of the electronic apparatus in which a fuse-resistance-diode-capacitor circuit is placed on the input side of a resident power supply line that supplies electric power to a board, the output voltage of the power supply may decrease from 3.5V to a minimum of 2.5V.
In addition, when connecting an alternating current (AC) cable to each power supply unit, a voltage reduction may occur due to over-current if the stand-by current required for the units of the electronic apparatus is large and exceeds the ability of an AC power supply device to supply electric power to each of the power supply unit.
Therefore, the configuration of the electronic apparatus in which a plurality of power supply units having two or more outputs is installed has several disadvantages, such as a reduction in efficiency.
The technology disclosed herein have been made in consideration of the above description and intends to provide a power supply system, an electronic apparatus, and a method for controlling such a power supply system in which the efficiency of power supply is improved.
In the power supply system, the electronic apparatus, and the method for controlling the power supply system disclosed in the present application, a plurality of power supply units where their output terminals are connected to one another in parallel inputs first voltage to a plurality of load units. Then a management control unit outputs a stand-by signal based on configuration information representing the configuration of each load unit to any of the power supply units. The plurality of power supply units shut off the output of the first output voltage in response to the stand-by signal.
In addition, the power supply system, the electronic apparatus, and the method for controlling the power supply system disclosed in the present application outputs first output voltage from a power supply section of a power supply unit in the power supply system to the load unit. A voltage-dividing part of the load unit receives the first output voltage as an input, outputs a second output voltage to an operation part of the load unit in response to instructions from the management control unit, and outputs a third output voltage as long as an input voltage is input.
The power supply system, the electronic apparatus, and the method for controlling the power supply system disclosed in the present application exert advantageous effects of providing those with improved power supply efficiency.

Power supply system with a plurality of power supply units capable of powering a plurality of load units depending on the type and operation state of each load unit


An LCD includes: a first substrate; first, second, and third gate lines extending along a first direction, formed over the first substrate and being parallel with each other; data lines insulated from the first gate line, the second gate line, and the third gate line and extending along a second direction that intersects the first direction; first, second, and third thin film transistors connected with the first gate lines, the second gate line, the third gate line, respectively and connected with the data lines; a passivation layer covering the first thin film transistor, the second thin film transistor, and the third thin film transistor; and first, second, and third pixel electrodes formed over the passivation layer and connected with the first thin film transistor, the second thin film transistor, and the third thin film transistor, respectively.

1. Field
The described technology relates generally to a liquid crystal display (LCD).
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) is one of the most commonly used flat panel displays, and it includes two substrates with electrodes formed thereon and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the two substrates. In the LCD, a voltage is applied to the electrodes to realign liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer to thereby regulate the transmittance of light passing through the liquid crystal layer.
The liquid crystal display also includes a switching element connected to each pixel electrode and a plurality of signal lines including gate lines and data lines for applying the voltage to the pixel electrode by controlling the switching element. The gate line transmits a gate signal generated from a gate driving circuit, the data line transmits a data voltage generated from a data driving circuit, and a switch transmits the data voltage to the pixel electrode according to the gate signal. an LCD has a triple gate structure in which the gate driver is formed through the same process of the switch and then integrated to the substrate. The pixels are arranged in a direction such that the number of gate lines is tripled but the number of data lines is maintained to be ⅓ of the number of the gate lines. Thus, the same resolution is realized with reduced costs.
Meanwhile, an organic layer structure in which a thick organic layer covers the data line is applied to improve the aperture ratio, but the aperture ratio is not significantly improved even though the organic layer structure is applied to the LCD having the triple gate structure. Since the gate line is formed on the same layer of the storage electrode line, the gate line should have a gap with the storage electrode line, and an additional storage electrode is required to assure storage capacity in the organic layer structure so that the aperture ratio is decreased. Further, since the gate line and the source electrode have a large overlapped area, the gap between a gate line and the pixel electrode should be increased to reduce a kickback voltage due to parasitic capacitance between the gate electrode and the source electrode such that the aperture ratio is decreased.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the described technology and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.


A method for determining the size of a leak in the liquid-containing tank device of a vehicle, in particular of a motor vehicle, the liquid influencing the pressure in the tank device by evaporation, with the following steps: generating a first pressure as a reference pressure in the tank device at a first instant, detecting a first pressure characteristic up to a second instant, generating a second pressure at a third instant, the first pressure and the second pressure being chosen to be different, detecting a second pressure characteristic up to the fourth instant, determining the pressure gradient of the first pressure characteristic at the second instant and of the pressure gradient of the second pressure characteristic at the third instant, determining the first pressure difference of the pressure at the second instant from the reference pressure, determining the second pressure difference of the pressure at the third instant from the reference pressure, computing the size of the leak depending on the determined pressure gradient and the pressure differences, and the assumption that the evaporation rate is constant in the tank device, and that a leak rate is established which is proportional to the square root of the respective pressure difference.

Methods for detecting and determining a leak in a tank device are disclosed in the prior art. Thus, for example, DE 102 54 986 A1 discloses a method for tank leak diagnosis in a tank ventilation device in which the pressure increase in the tank ventilation device is computed based on the outgassing or evaporating fuel by means of the mass balance and is also considered in the determination of a leak, for tank leak diagnosis the tank ventilation device being "evacuated," so that a negative pressure is formed.
Current methods for detecting or determining a leak while the engine is running, i.e., during operation of an internal combustion engine which has a tank device, due to physical boundary conditions are not able to reliably detect a leak of 0.5 mm. In these cases a downstream diagnosis is necessary after "engine-off", that is, with the internal combustion engine turned off, which is more sensitive than required and leads to a high closed-circuit current load in the vehicle.
It is therefore the object of the invention to reliably detect a leak of up to 0.5 mm in size, the size of the leak being defined by the diameter (for example, d=0.5 mm).

Method for determining the size of a leak


Provided herein are metal halide perovskite nanoplatelets, methods for making metal halide perovskite nanoplatelets, and devices and composite materials that include metal halide nanoperovskite nanoplatelets. The metal halide perovskite nanoplatelets may be stable at ambient temperature and pressure, thereby easing device fabrication.

Solution-processable electronic materials have attracted attention, because they may have the potential to permit the low-cost, scalable fabrication of lightweight, flexible devices (see, e.g., Friend, R. H. et al. Nature 1999, 397, 121; and Shirasaki, Y. et al. Nat. Photon. 2013, 7, 13). Recently, earth-abundant organometal halide perovskites that can be solution processed have emerged as a new class of semiconductors for photovoltaic devices. They have the potential to offer one or more advantages, such as low temperature processing, tunable optical band gap, and favorable charge transport. These solution-processed perovskites have also shown promise in light emitting diodes (LEDs).
However, the performance of perovskite-based LEDs (PeLEDs) reported to date has not reached the level of performance typically associated with organic or quantum dot based LEDs that share similar device architecture and operating mechanisms (see, e.g., Shirasaki, Y. et al. Nat. Photon. 2013, 7, 13; and Yang, Y. et al. Nat. Photon. 2015, 9, 259). Effort has been made to optimize the device configurations and thin film morphology to improve the brightness and the quantum efficiency of PeLEDs. For example, interfacial engineering has been investigated to reduce the electron or hole injection barriers for efficient electroluminescence (EL) (Yu, J. C. et al. Adv. Mater. 2015, 27, 3492). Other devices that have been fabricated include an ionic conductive poly(ethylene oxide) that was used to form uniform perovskite/polymer composite thin films as emitting layers (Li, J. et al. Adv. Mater. 2015, 27, 5196).
It has been observed that the film quality and/or optical properties of bulk perovskite films can depend heavily on the choice of substrate (Wang, J. et al. Adv. Mate. 2015, 27, 2311).
Provided that bulk perovskite thin films often suffer from poor morphology and/or low luminescent quantum yield, researchers have attempted embedding highly luminescent perovskite nanocrystals in a pinhole-free matrix of dielectric polymer to generate better LED performance (Li G. et al. Nano Lett. 2015, 15, 2640).
Although luminescent colloid organometal halide perovskite nanoparticles with high quantum yields have been reported, no efficient PeLEDs that include perovskite nanoparticles have been demonstrated (see, e.g., Zhang, F. et al. ACS Nano 2015, 9, 4533; Jang, D. M. et al. Nano Lett. 2015, 15, 5191; Tyagi, P. et al. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2015, 6, 1911; Schmidt, L. C. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 850; and Noel, N. K. et al. ACS Nano 2014, 8, 9815).
Therefore, there remains a need for nanoscale perovskites and PeLEDs that include nanoscale perovskite materials that offer one or more of the following advantages: efficiency, bright luminescence, high charge carrier mobility, broadband color tunability, color purity with narrow-band emission, and/or morphological and/or optoelectronic properties that are not substantially influenced by the surface properties of substrates. Facile methods for producing nanoscale perovskite materials also are desired, including methods that do not require the preparation of amine halide salts and/or the use of inert conditions when fabricating devices or handling the nanoscale perovskites.

Organometal halide perovskit nanoplatelets, devices, and methods

Florida State University Research Foundation, Inc.


The disclosure relates to a method, computer program product or data processing system for performing graph-based static timing analysis, GBA, of an integrated circuit design having a set of timing paths. The method comprises identifying a subset of the set of timing paths and performing path-based analysis, PBA, of the subset of timing paths to determine at least one PBA timing parameter for each timing path of the subset of timing paths. The method further comprises determining at least one optimized GBA timing parameter for at least one timing path of the subset of timing paths by minimizing a function that is based on a difference between the at least one optimized GBA timing parameter and the at least one PBA timing parameter of the at least one timing path.

The present disclosure relates generally to electronic design automation, and in particular, to a computer implemented method for reducing pessimism in graph-based static timing analysis, GBA, of integrated circuits.
Current integrated circuit, IC, designs, may include an extremely large number, for example in the order of 107-108 or even more, of cells such as logic gates and synchronous or sequential devices connected by interconnects. The synchronous or sequential devices include flip-flops and latches. Herein, a register denotes a synchronous or sequential device comprising at least one flip-flop or latch.
In such synchronous designs, violations of timing constraints may occur. Such violations may include setup time violations and hold time violations. A setup time violation occurs when a signal arrives too late at a register, while a hold time violation occurs when an input signal changes too soon after an active transition of a corresponding clock signal. The arrival time of a signal is subject to variations of several sources including variations in temperature, voltage, manufacturing processes and so forth.
Static timing analysis, STA, for example in the course of electronic design automation, EDA, is tasked with analyzing a circuit design to determine if timing constraints are met despite said variations to ensure proper operation of the IC. For example STA analyzes, whether all timing signals arrive at constrained cells or interconnects of the circuit design within a respective required time. The difference between arrival and required time may be measured as slack, wherein a negative slack means an arrival time of the respective timing signal violates the respective required time and may lead to unstable circuit behavior. Designers may have to ensure that there are no violating or negative slacks in the design in order to sign-off the design.
Path-based static timing analysis, PBA, may analyze each timing path in isolation. Unfortunately, analyzing all timing paths is a problem of exponential complexity in the size of the circuit. Thus, performing PBA on an entire circuit may be infeasible for large circuits due to a large runtime and/or memory overhead.
In contrast to PBA, where individual timing paths are analyzed in isolation, in GBA a multitude of timing paths is analyzed simultaneously. GBA may determine slack values with linear complexity in the size of the circuit. GBA may combine information from different timing paths which may lead to overestimation of delays and hence a pessimistic slack. A delay value is associated to each cell and each interconnect of the design to evaluate a delay of the timing paths of the design. To account for variations such as on-chip variations due to manufacturing variability, a global derating factor may be applied for the delay values of all cells and interconnects across the whole chip. However, such global derating factor leads to an overestimation in the number of violating paths in the circuit design and results in a too pessimistic estimation for the derated delay in particular with the increasing influence of on-chip variations.
Advanced on-chip variation, AOCV, analysis is an STA methodology whereby the derating factor of a cell or an interconnect in a timing path is taken to be a function of the path depth, that is the number of logic stages in the path, and a physical distance covered by the path. Both depth and distance are measured from the common point of a timing path, defined as the output pin of the last cell in the portion of the clock path common to launch and capture segments of the timing path.
However, due to its path-base nature, presently known AOCV analysis introduces a large amount of pessimism, i.e. under estimated path slack values, into GBA due to exaggerated derating factors. This pessimism originates for example from the following two sources:
i) signals launched at a register are associated with the common point resulting in the most conservative, that is worst-case, among the common points of all timing paths launched by that register, and
ii) the AOCV metrics, that is logic depth and distance, applied at a given timing arc are dictated by the worst-case metrics for all timing paths which traverse that timing arc.
Any amount of extra pessimism in STA is harmful as it has a direct effect on both the development and verification effort and the performance and power profiles of the final product.


This optical receptacle has the following: a concavity formed in a contact surface that contacts a substrate; a first optical surface, located at the bottom of said concavity, via which either light outputted from a photoelectric conversion element is inputted or light that is outputted from an end face of a light-transporting body and passes through the interior is outputted towards the photoelectric conversion element; a second optical surface via which either light that is inputted via the first optical surface and passes through the interior is outputted towards the end face of the light-transporting body or light outputted from the end face of the light-transporting body is inputted; a reflective surface, located in the path that light takes between the first optical surface and the second optical surface; and a connecting part that connects the interior of the concavity to the outside thereof.

Conventionally, in optical communications using an optical transmission member such as an optical fiber and an optical waveguide, an optical module including a light emitting element such as a surface-emitting laser (for example, a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL)) has been used. The optical module includes one or more photoelectric conversion elements (light emitting elements and light receiving elements), and a light coupling element for transmission or reception (hereinafter referred to also as "optical receptacle") (see, for example, PTL 1).
FIG. 1 illustrates a configuration of optical module 10 disclosed in PTL 1. FIGS. 2A to 2D illustrate a configuration of light coupling element 40 disclosed in PTL 1. FIG. 2A is a plan view of light coupling element 40, FIG. 2B is a bottom view of light coupling element 40, FIG. 2C is a front view of light coupling element 40, and FIG. 2D is a right side view of light coupling element 40.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, optical module 10 disclosed in PTL 1 includes substrate 20, photoelectric conversion element 30 disposed on substrate 20, and light coupling element 40 disposed on substrate 20. Substrate 20 includes substrate main body 21, and first positioning protrusion 22 disposed on substrate main body 21. As illustrated in FIGS. 2A to 2D, light coupling element 40 includes recess 41 disposed on the surface facing substrate 20, first lens surface 42 (incidence surface) on which light from photoelectric conversion element 30 is incident, total reflection surface 43 (reflection surface) configured to reflect light incident on first lens surface 42, second lens surface 44 (emission surface) configured to emit light reflected by total reflection surface 43 toward an end surface of optical fiber 50, second positioning protrusion 45 configured to set the position of optical fiber 50 with respect to light coupling element 40, and second positioning recess 46 configured to set the position of photoelectric conversion element 30 with respect to light coupling element 40 at substrate 20.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, at the time of assembling optical module 10 disclosed in PTL 1, first, second positioning recess 46 of light coupling element 40 is fit to first positioning protrusion 22 of substrate 20 on which photoelectric conversion element 30 is disposed. Next, first positioning recess 52 of ferrule 51 supporting optical fiber 50 is fit to second positioning protrusion 45 of light coupling element 40. In this manner, in optical module 10 disclosed in PTL 1, photoelectric conversion element 30 and optical fiber 50 are optically connected with each other.


A multi-carrier communications system with a programmable interleaver and de-interleaver that can change the interleaving rate for data transmitted and received in the communications system is presented. The programmable interleaver and de-interleaver permits a level of flexibility in determining the immunity of the communications system to errors and sources of interference. The multi-carrier communications system is able to vary the interleaving rate based on input from a user or from data that it maintains from actual network performance. The multi-carrier communications system can change the interleaving rate during the initial installation of the multi-carrier communications system or whenever the system is reset or restarted or on any individual transmission unit.

Interleaving is a technique used in modern communications systems to help increase immunity to errors and interference during transmission. Interleaving involves dispersing contiguous bits of data in a data stream across a transmission unit so that the data bits that are adjacent in the data stream are no longer adjacent in the transmission unit. As a result of dispersing the data bits, a randomly occurring error or some other source of interference that may be several bits wide that destroys several bits in a transmission unit will only destroy several bits of data from various positions throughout a data stream and not several contiguous data bits.
In communications systems, it is common to use an error correcting code that is designed to correct random errors. Such an error correcting code is not well suited to correct for the loss of several contiguous bits of data, resulting in an error that is not recoverable and requiring that the transmission unit be retransmitted. However, if the several destroyed bits of data were spread throughout the data stream, it is possible for such error correcting codes to correct the resulting randomized data bit errors. Additionally, as data coding schemes become more complex (required to transmit greater data rates) correcting multiple-bit errors becomes more difficult. As error correcting codes are required to correct more multiple-bit errors, they become more expensive in terms of reduced data-rates because of the redundancy required by the error correcting codes themselves becomes a larger percentage of the transmitted data stream.
Typically, the amount of interleaving is specified during the design stage of a communications system. The specification of the amount of the interleaving is crucial to the proper operation of the communications system. If devices in a communications system do not use a consistent amount of interleaving, then the devices would not be able to communicate with each other. Therefore, in most communications systems, the interleaving rate is specified (and is fixed) and is the same for all devices in the system.
However, communications system designers cannot foresee the future and it is impossible for them to anticipate all future sources of errors and interference. For example, according to the IEEE 802.11a technical standard, which is a multi-carrier communications system, adjacent data bits are separated by three subcarriers after they are interleaved. With each subcarrier being 312.5 KHz wide, errors and other sources of interference with bandwidths up to 600 MHz (approximately) can be tolerated without losing adjacent data bits using the specified interleaving rate.
The advantages of the IEEE 802.11a technical standard have become well known and the application of similar modulation techniques (known as multi-carrier modulation techniques) are under consideration for use in new standards. The IEEE 802.11a technical standard uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) while another technical standard with application for high-speed digital data transfer using twisted-pair telephone lines uses Discreet Multitone (DMT). Both OFDM and DMT are multi-carrier modulation techniques. While the multi-carrier modulation techniques used in different standard may have differences with one another, the basic idea of using multiple subcarriers to transmit data is a basic foundation of all multi-carrier modulation techniques.
Since the adoption of the IEEE 802.11a technical standard in 1999, a new wireless network standard referred to as the Bluetooth standard has come into widespread use. According to the Bluetooth technical standard, information is transmitted in approximately one-MHz wide frames. Should a one-MHz wide Bluetooth frame collide with a multi-carrier data symbol, such as an IEEE 802.11a data symbol using the interleaving rate specified in the IEEE 802.11a technical standard, multiple adjacent data bits can be destroyed. When such a collision takes place and multiple adjacent data bits are destroyed, often the only remedy is to retransmit the data symbol.
Therefore, a need has arisen for a method that will permit communications systems to adapt to new sources of errors and interference as they develop.

Interleaving to avoid wideband interference in a multi-carrier communications system


A defect portion in a signal is processed by receiving an input signal. A location of a defect portion within the input signal and an amplitude of the defect portion is determined. An adjusted signal is generated by adjusting the amplitude of the defect portion using the determined location of the defect portion and the determined amplitude of the defect portion. Information associated with the adjusted signal is decoded.

Amplitude defects are characterized by a drop or reduction in the amplitude or signal level, for example in a signal that is read back from storage (e.g., magnetic storage). One cause of an amplitude defect in magnetic storage applications is an uneven distribution of magnetic media on a storage disk. The signal read back from the part of the disk having a thinner distribution of magnetic media will have a lower signal amplitude than a signal read back from a thicker part of the disk. It would be desirable to develop new techniques for handling amplitude defects.

Amplitude defect detection and correction in magnetic storage


A semiconductor device having a low on resistance and high integration level with respect to the surface area of a substrate is provided. In the semiconductor device, a first trench, a second trench, and a third trench are provided in an element formation region provided on a semiconductor substrate. Metal is deposited within the first trench and second trench, to form a drain electrode and a source electrode, respectively. Polysilicon is deposited inside the third trench with a gate insulating film intervening, and a gate electrode is formed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a semiconductor device and to a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device, and in particular relates to a MOSFET with a three-dimensional structure in which a MOS structure portion is formed in a direction perpendicular to a semiconductor substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, horizontal-type MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors), formed in a planar manner on a substrate, and TFTs (Thin Film Transistors), in which silicon is evaporation-deposited on a substrate, are well-known. MOSFETs and TFTs have evolved, accompanying demands for device miniaturization, with smaller element pitches through reduced gate lengths (hereafter "L lengths"), as well as the ability to pass larger currents by increasing gate widths (hereafter "W lengths"). Here the gate length is the length of the gate electrode in the direction in which carriers move between source and drain, and the gate width is the length of the gate electrode in the direction perpendicular to the gate length.
However, because of the need to secure a breakdown voltage for the element, there are limits to the extent to which the L length can be reduced. And, in a planar-structure device there is a limit to the extent to which the W length can be increased. On the other hand, among discrete type MOSFETs, vertical type MOSFETs are known in which the drain and source are formed above and below the substrate, and current flows perpendicularly to the substrate.
Further, a trench lateral power MOSFET (TPLM) is known, in which a gate electrode is formed on a trench side wall, and current flows from the upper face of the substrate toward the trench bottom face (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2006-216863). FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram showing the cross-sectional structure of a trench lateral power MOSFET. As shown in FIG. 16, the trench lateral power MOSFET 1600 is provided with an n-type well region 1602 in the surface region of a p-type semiconductor substrate 1601. A trench 1605 is formed from the substrate surface in the well region 1602. And, an n-type extended drain region 1603 to serve as a drift region is formed so as to surround the bottom portion of the trench 1605.
A high-concentration n-type drain region 1606 is provided in the substrate surface layer on the side of the trench 1605. Between the n-type drain region 1606 and the extended drain region 1603 is provided an n-type offset region 1608. And, on the opposite side of the trench 1605 from the n-type drain region 1606 is provided a p-type offset region 1604 to serve as the channel region, in contact with the extended drain region 1603. In the substrate surface layer of the offset region 1604 is provided a high-concentration n-type source region 1607, in contact with the trench 1605.
Further, in the trench 1605, on the side wall on the side in contact with the offset region 1604, are provided a gate oxide film 1613 to become the gate insulating film and a gate polysilicon electrode 1611 to serve as the gate electrode. In the trench 1605, on the side wall on the side in contact with the n-type drain region 1606, are provided a field plate oxide film 1614 to serve as a field plate insulating film and a field plate 1612. And, an interlayer insulating film 1615 fills between the gate polysilicon electrode 1611 and the field plate 1612.
In a trench-type MOSFET, the structure in the length direction of an ordinary MOSFET is formed perpendicularly to the substrate. Consequently in a trench-type MOSFET the element pitch can be made small compared with an ordinary MOSFET, so that the W length of the entire element can be increased. Also, because the current flowing in the element is proportional to the W length, in a trench lateral MOSFET the on resistance can be made smaller.
If it were possible to form an element with a structure in which the W length was extended in the substrate interior direction, then the W length of the overall element could be made markedly longer, and a device with a low on resistance could be formed. Based on this concept, MOSFETs with three-dimensional structures, such as Fin-gate MOSFETs and similar devices, have been developed (see for example Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 51-147269, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2005-136150 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,921,942 B2), and Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-26311 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,469,349 B2 and one other)).
For example, in the case of a 20 V-class device, the pitch of a planar DMOSFET is 4 μm, and the pitch of a trench lateral power MOSFET is 2.5 μm. On the other hand, in the case of MOSFETs with a three-dimensional structure, if the two dimensions along the substrate surface are the X direction and the Y direction, and the substrate internal direction is the Z direction, then the pitch in the X direction is the same 4 μm as for a planar device, and the pitch in the Y direction is 1.5 μm. The Y-direction pitch is smaller than the pitch for a trench lateral power MOSFET because there is no need to perform ion implantation to form the source region and drain region. In this case, if the drain-gate depth (Z-direction dimension) is 1.5 μm, then the W length is the same as for a planar device. And, if the trench gate depth is 2.4 μm, then the W length is the same as for a trench lateral power MOSFET. Hence if the trench gate depth is 5 μm, then a W length twice that of a trench lateral power MOSFET can be secured.
However, a Fin gate MOSFET requires that accurate patterning be performed within the trench, and there is the problem that as the trench aspect ratio rises, fine device formation becomes impossible. Further, in order to increase the device W length, a deep trench must be formed; but in order to keep the aspect ratio from becoming high, the trench width must also be made broad. As a result, there is the problem that in a Fin gate MOSFET the density of the MOS structure which can be formed on trench side walls is decreased, and the area efficiency is worsened.

Semiconductor device with low on resistance


An electric motor comprises a plurality of electromagnets arranged annularly in parallel, an electric switching circuit connected to each electromagnet, an iron cylinder arranged inside the electromagnets and having peripheral surface to be attracted partially arbitrarily by part of the electromagnets, a main axle positioned at the center of the iron cylinder and coaxially arranged with an axial core of the iron cylinder via bearings, and eccentric axles provided at both ends of the main axle so that the eccentric axles are arranged in accord with the center of the electromagnets to define a power generating axle.

A prior art electric motor for producing mechanical energy from electric energy is illustrated in FIG. 4. The electric motor comprises a rotary axle a, a commutator b and brushes c combined with the commutator b positioned around the rotary axle a, an armature d composed of an iron core and a coil wound around the iron core, and a pair of magnets e positioned outside the armature d whereby the armature d is turned by the attraction between the electromagnets to thereby produce the turning force or the mechanical force. The prior art electric motor has however the problem that, inasmuch as the direction of mutual induction between the armature d and the magnets e fixed outside the armature is circumferential, the inductance distance in the successive attractive and repellent movement effected during the operation of the electric motor, namely, the distance from the start of the mutual attraction between the fixed magnets e and the poles of the armature d to the point at which the attractive force therebetween is directed radially, cannot be smaller than the distance which is defined by dividing the circumferential length of the fixed magnets e by the number of switching poles produced by the armature d when rotated 360.degree., irrespective of whether a brush type or a non-contact type of motor is used.
In an inertia type motor, there is a shortcoming in that the inertia type motor is delayed in actuation thereof and much power is wasted because the inertia type motor cannot operate with its inherent capacity when energized until it arrives at a fixed speed of rotation.


A floor covering or floor mat is disclosed for use with an automotive vehicle having a floor and control pedals positioned at the front of the floor. The floor mat includes a plurality of steps which extend laterally across the floor of the vehicle rearwardly of the vehicle control pedals. The steps decrease in height rearwardly from the control pedals by a preset depth and each step has a preset width which extends longitudinally with respect to the vehicle. Both the preset depth and preset width of the steps are selected so that, with the operators's shoe heel positioned on one step and the sole in engagement with one control pedal, a back of the operator's shoe is spaced upwardly from the step rearwardly adjacent the step on which the operator's heel is positioned to protect the back of the shoe from scuffing.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides a floor covering which is particularly suited for use in an automotive vehicle.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Automotive vehicles, such as cars, trucks vans and the like, typically include a relatively flat floor with operator control pedals positioned at the front of the floor on the driver's side. These control pedals include the accelerator, brake and, in some cases, the clutch.
Although most vehicles include carpeted floors, it is also conventional to employ a car mat on top of the car floor behind the control pedals. These floor mats are typically flat and are constructed from a dirt and water absorbent material.
One disadvantage of these previously known floor mats for vehicles is that, when the operator's foot is positioned on one of the control pedals for the vehicle, the back of the operator's shoe as well as the operator's pant cuff contacts the floor mat. This in turn results in scuffing of the back of the operator's shoe from dirt and stones contained in the floor mat.