A keypad assembly includes a keypad having at least one elastic layer and at least one key button on the elastic layer, a waveguide for transmitting and guiding light therethrough, the waveguide being placed below the elastic layer and having at least one reflection pattern to reflect light toward a respective key button, and a switch substrate under the waveguide and having at least one switch corresponding to the respective key button.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a keypad assembly for use with a terminal, and more particularly to a keypad assembly for use with a terminal, which includes lighting elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a keypad assembly of a conventional portable terminal, including without limitation portable, wireless communication terminals, comprises a keypad and a switch substrate. The keypad includes a plate-shaped elastic layer and a plurality of key buttons. The plurality of key buttons is formed on a first surface of the elastic layer. In the keypad, letter, numbers and characters, etc., are respectively printed on a surface of each key button. The switch substrate has a plurality of switches integrated therewith to provide electric contact as each key button is pushed. The switch substrate converts a depression of a respective key button into an electric signal.
The portable terminal has lighting elements enabling a user to use the keypad in the dark. A plurality of light emitting diodes and inorganic electro luminescence are used as the lighting elements. The light emitting diodes are generally arranged on a printed circuit board, while the inorganic electro luminescence is inserted in an elastic pad.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a conventional keypad assembly 100 including a plurality of light emitting diodes. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional keypad assembly 100 includes a switch substrate 120, a plurality of diodes 122 and a keypad 110.
The keypad 110 includes a plate-shaped elastic layer 111, a plurality of key buttons 112, and a plurality of protrusions 111a formed on a second surface of the elastic layer 111 opposite to the first surface. Characters and the like are printed on a first surface of each key button 112. Each key button 112 and the corresponding protrusion 111a are aligned vertically.
The switch substrate 120 includes a plate type printed circuit board 120a and a plurality of switches 121. The plurality of switches 121 is formed on an upper surface of the printed circuit board 120a while being opposed to the keypad 110. Each switch 121 includes a conductive contact member and a conductive dome fully covering the contact member. The light emitting diodes 122 are mounted on the upper surface of the printed circuit board 120a.
In order to ensure operation of the switch 121, each light emitting diode 122 is preferably prevented from being located in vertical alignment with a corresponding key button 112. That is, the light emitting diodes 122 are respectively placed between the switches 121, so as to emit the light to the respective key buttons 112 at an oblique angle. This in turn causes the light to unevenly reach each key button 112. Therefore, the respective key buttons may be shaded in darkness.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, some conventional keypad assemblies have been proposed which includes a keypad having an elastic layer and inorganic electro luminescence inserted in the elastic layer. However, a separate AC electric source is necessary in order to use the inorganic electro luminescence. That is, such a keypad assembly requires an inverter for converting DC to AC. As a result, the volume and manufacturing cost of the keypad assembly increases. In addition, DC to AC conversion generates noise in the portable terminal.


This disclosure is directed to widen an adjustable range of the spectral linewidth of laser light output from a laser apparatus. This laser apparatus may include: (1) an excitation source configured to excite a laser medium in a laser gain space, (2) an optical resonator including an output coupler arranged on one side of an optical path through the laser gain space and a wavelength dispersion element arranged on the other side of the optical path through the laser gain space, and (3) a switching mechanism configured to switch a beam-width magnification or reduction factor by placing or removing at least one beam-width change optical system for expanding or reducing a beam width in or from an optical path between the laser gain space and the wavelength dispersion element or by inverting orientation of the at least one beam-width change optical system in the optical path.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to a laser apparatus for outputting laser light.
2. Related Art
The spectral linewidth of laser light output from a laser apparatus is narrowed by a wavelength dispersion element disposed in the optical path of the laser apparatus. Line narrowing of laser light is performed, for example, to reduce chromatic aberration in optical systems of a semiconductor exposure apparatus in which laser light output from a laser apparatus is used.


A system and method for to modify a setup to allow a restart despite a faulty hardware component is disclosed. The system includes a management controller storing a system error log. The computer system includes hardware components in communication with the management controller. A basic input output system (BIOS) includes a start-up routine that successfully completes if all of the hardware components are functional. The start-up routine determines an error in one of the hardware components from the system error log. The routine disables the hardware component. The routine then completes a power-on self-test routine.

Servers are employed in large numbers for high demand applications, such as network-based systems or data centers. The emergence of cloud computing applications has increased the demand for data centers. Data centers have numerous servers that store data and run applications accessed by remotely-connected computer device users. A typical data center has physical rack structures with attendant power and communication connections. Each rack may hold multiple computing servers and storage servers. Each server generally includes hardware components such as processors, memory devices, network interface cards, power supplies, and other specialized hardware. Each of the servers generally includes a baseboard management controller (BMC) that manages the operation of the server, as well as communicates operational data to a central management station that manages the servers of the rack. The BMC relieves the need for the Central Processing Unit (CPU) of the server to monitor server operations. As with all computer systems, servers have a basic input/output system (BIOS) that is typically a flash memory chip. The BIOS is executed to test basic inputs and outputs to components of the server before booting up the server.
A computer system may crash when encountering errors in its memory, CPU, peripheral devices, or other components of the system. After a crash, such error issues must be analyzed to determine a possible broken or faulty component, and thus allow the broken component to be replaced. This process is often time-consuming and tedious for computer system operators. For example, a computer system may accidentally crash due to a catastrophic error (CATERR) event from the CPU. If the faulty CPU is still present in the computer system, the computer system cannot power on when subsequent power-ups are attempted. The computer system, thus, is not capable of booting normally. Traditionally, technicians will power off the computer system, perform debug procedures, and replace the faulty CPU onsite at the data center. However, this process results in costly downtime as the server is not functional during this period.
Another way to solve certain catastrophic errors is providing an update to the BIOS to facilitate the debug process. In this instance, a technician will power off the computer system and use a supported BMC to update a debug BIOS for debugging purposes. In this case, if the BMC does not support updates to the BIOS, the computer system still cannot boot into the operating system (OS). The only way to update the BIOS for the debug function is by swapping a debug BIOS with the existing BIOS chip. This technique is unsuitable for remote solutions, such as those required for a data center, because technicians must perform the change of the BIOS chip on site. Although this solution is workable, it is also inconvenient and time-consuming.
FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of the process of a known shutdown of a computer system that is initiated to allow technicians to troubleshoot the computer system. This process is triggered when an error occurs in a hardware component, such as a CPU, memory, or a peripheral device (10). During the POST routine, the computer system detects the error and shuts down the computer system (12). A technician then must perform an analysis of the potential sources of the error (14). The technician then addresses the likely faulty component by either repairing or replacing it (16). This cycle is repeated to attempt to debug the system (18). Once the likely faulty component is repaired, the troubleshooting process is completed (20). The system then may be restarted successfully (22). However, this process from the system shutdown phase 12 to the troubleshooting phase 20 is time-consuming and results in downtime for the serer.
Thus, there is a need for a BIOS for computer systems that allows system operation by disabling components automatically that prevent power-up. There is a further need for a routine that avoids the necessity to update the BIOS to perform a debug process.

Method and apparatus for selective boot-up in computing devices


A semiconductor device has a gate electrode which is formed on a first conductive-type well set in semiconductor substrate, with a gate insulating film lying therebetween; a LDD structure in which, on either side of said gate electrode, there are formed a LDD region and a source/drain region; an interlayer insulating film to cover said gate electrode as well as said LDD regions; and contact sections. A contact section connecting to one side of the source/drain regions having a potential equal to a potential of said first conductive-type well is disposed so as to come into contact with the LDD region lying thereunder; and a contact section connecting to the other side of the source/drain region having a potential different from the potential of said first conductive-type well is disposed so as not to come into contact with the LDD region lying thereunder. The present invention can develop technology capable to reduce the memory cell area while suppressing the generation of the leakage, and provide a semiconductor memory device of high integration with excellent element characteristics having a low standby current.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and is applicable to a semiconductor device having a SRAM (Static Random Access Memory).
With reference to drawings, the basic structure of a SRAM cell that is a semiconductor memory element is described below.
As shown in a circuit diagram of FIG. 1, a SRAM cell is composed of a flip-flop circuit that functions as an information storage section and a pair of transmission transistors T1 and T2 that control the conduction between data lines (bit lines, BL1 and BL2) which serve for writing and reading of the information and the flip-flop circuit. The flip-flop circuit is made of, for example, a pair of CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) inverters, and each CMOS inverter contains a driver transistor D1 (D2) and a load transistor P1 (P2).
One side of source/drain regions in each transmission transistor T1 (T2) is connected to drains of a load transistor P1 (P2) as well as a driver transistor D1 (D2), and the other side thereof is connected to a bit line BL1 (BL2). Further, gates of a pair of the transmission transistors T1 and T2 each form a part of a word line WL and are connected with each other.
The gates of the driver transistor D1 and the load transistor P1 which constitute one of the CMOS inverters are connected to the drains (the storage node N2) of a driver transistor D2 and a load transistor P2 which constitute the other of the CMOS inverters. Further, the gates of the driver transistor D2 and the load transistor P2 which constitute the latter of the CMOS inverters are connected to the drains (the storage node N1) of the driver transistor D1 and the load transistor P1 which constitute the former of the CMOS inverters. In effect, a pair of CMOS inverters are arranged such that the input/output section of each CMOS inverters may be cross-coupled with the gate of the other CMOS inverter through one of a pair of interconnections L1 and L2, which are called the local interconnections.
Further, a reference voltage (Vss, for example, GND) is applied to the source region of each one of the driver transistors D1 and D2, and a supply voltage (Vcc) is applied to the source region of each one of the load transistors P1 and P2.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the ordinal layout of a conventional SRAM cell which corresponds to the circuit diagram of FIG. 1.
In the drawing, AR indicates an active region, in which a dopant diffusion region to constitute one of the transistors is formed. Further, an area shown by a chain line in the drawing is a region for one memory cell, and a number of memory cells are arranged side by side along the direction of the length of the word line to form an array, and arrays of memory cells are regularly disposed in the direction perpendicular to this direction of the length.
Referential numerals 117 and 118 indicate contact sections for the bit line BL1 and the bit line BL2, respectively; 121 and 122, contact sections for the supply voltage line; 123 and 124, contact sections for the reference voltage line (ground line). Contact sections 116, 111 and 113 are connected to one another through a local interconnection L1 which is not shown in the drawing, while contact sections 115, 112 and 114 are connected to one another through a local interconnection L2 which is neither shown in the drawing. The transmission transistor T1 is composed of a portion of the word line WL lying between the contact sections 113 and 117 and diffusion regions lying on both side thereof, and the transmission transistor T2, a portion of the word line WL lying between the contact sections 114 and 118 and diffusion regions lying on both sides thereof. The driver transistor D1 is composed of a portion of an interconnection 131 lying between the contact sections 113 and 123 and diffusion regions lying on both sides thereof, and the driver transistor D2, a portion of an interconnection 132 lying between the contact sections 114 and 124 and diffusion regions lying on both sides thereof. The load transistor P1 is composed of a portion of the interconnection 131 lying between the contact sections 111 and 121 and diffusion regions lying on both sides thereof, and the load transistor P2, a portion of the interconnection 132 lying between the contact sections 112 and 122 and diffusion regions lying on both sides thereof.
The SRAM cell described above has excellent element characteristics such as the high noise tolerance and the small stand-by power. Further, for the SRAM cell of this sort, in view of element characteristics, selection of the materials and layout are carefully made so as not to lose symmetry of the element structure (in other words, to prevent imbalance from occurring) within the limits of possibility,.
However, such a SRAM cell has a problem that a cell area tends to become considerably large, due to requirements to have 6 transistors in one memory cell and isolate p-type MOSFETs from n-type MOSFETs within one and the same cell as well as the need of numerous interconnections.
Accordingly, for a semiconductor memory device having a SRAM of this sort, an improvement in the integration level is one of the prime issues. Even if a reduction made in one memory cell is small, the degree of integration can be greatly raised, as a whole, in a semiconductor memory device of high integration. It is, therefore, important to make the area of the memory cell as small as possible. For that purpose, accompanying the recent progress in manufacturing technology, great efforts have been made to achieve, in addition to miniaturization of fabrication size and improvement of layout design, further reduction of the spacing of the interconnections as well as the distance between the interconnection and the contact section.
However, when the distance between the gate electrode of the transistor and the contact section disposed on the dopant diffusion region becomes excessively small, a problem of the leakage arises. This phenomenon occurs notably in the p-type MOSFETs which constitute the load transistors P1 and P2, and the standby current in the memory cell may increase, owing to the leakage generation. Such a phenomenon causes a serious problem, particularly in the Low Power type SRAM.
The generation of the leakage becomes marked, if the contact section for the source/drain region is in contact with the LDD (Lightly Doped Drain) region. One of the reasons for that is considered to be the movement of the dopants in the LDD region, being drawn to the side of the contact section. Since the dopant concentration in the LDD region is lower than that in the source/drain region which is a dopant diffusion layer of high concentration, the LDD region is readily affected by the dopants drawn thereto, with its dopant concentration being easily changed, and this may lead to a failure to form the junction as prescribed.
Further, the reason why the leakage is notable in the p-type MOSFETs is thought to lie in a fact that boron used as p-type dopants is liable to be drawn heavily to the contact section. Especially when a titanium-based metal film is employed as a barrier film to constitute the contact section, the leakage becomes marked. The explanation is considered to be made as follows. Due to the effects of a heat treatment conducted in fabrication, a titanium silicide layer is formed on a contact interface between the titanium-based metal film and the silicon substrate, and it is chiefly this titanium silicide layer that draws boron thereat.
Meanwhile, for the purpose of lowering the sheet resistance and the contact resistance caused by the contact section, a refractory metal silicide layer may be set over dopant diffusion regions which constitute source/drain regions. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 177067/1994, there is described a problem that, in such a structure, especially in a structure wherein a titanium silicide layer is formed over the dopant diffusion layer into which boron ions are implanted as dopants ions, some of the boron in the dopant diffusion layer may be drawn into the titanium silicide layer to form a low concentration layer therein. Against this, another dopant ion implantation is, in that publication, carried out to complement the very amount of a decrease in dopant concentration in the low concentration layer, and thereby non-ohmic characteristics are suppressed and the parasitic resistance is prevented from increasing.
However, for the LDD region where the dopant concentration is low and a shallow junction is formed, it is difficult to estimate, beforehand, the amount of the decrease in dopant concentration and complement that amount accurately by performing another ion implantation. Further, in forming such a LDD region, it is also difficult to set, accurately, the dopant concentration to be higher than the original one by the amount enough to compensate the subsequent decrease in concentration. Moreover, as described in the above publication, because the low concentration layer formed by the drawing movement of dopants is limited in the vicinity of the contact interface, the junction section may maintain a high dopant concentration and, as a result, a LDD region having a concentration profile of this sort may be produced. In this instance, original functions of the LDD structure are hard to be fulfilled so that deterioration of element characteristics may be brought about.
An object of the present invention is to develop technology capable to reduce the memory cell area while suppressing the generation of the leakage and to provide a semiconductor memory device of high integration with excellent element characteristics.
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device having:
a gate electrode which is formed on a first conductive-type well set in semiconductor substrate, with a gate insulating film lying therebetween;
a LDD structure in which, on either side of said gate electrode, there are formed a LDD region which is a second conductive-type dopant diffusion region with a low dopant concentration and a source/drain region which is a second conductive-type dopant diffusion region with a high dopant concentration;
an interlayer insulating film to cover said gate electrode as well as said section of LDD structure; and
contact sections which are formed by filling up openings made in said interlayer insulating film with a conductive metal; wherein:
a contact section connecting to one side of the source/drain regions having a potential equal to a potential of said first conductive-type well is disposed so as to come into contact with the LDD region lying on this side of the source/drain regions; and
a contact section connecting to the other side of the source/drain regions having a potential different from the potential of said first conductive-type well is disposed so as not to come into contact with the LDD region lying on this side of the source/drain regions.
Further, the present invention relates to a semiconductor device having a SRAM in which a memory cell comprises a pair of transmission transistors and a flip-flop circuit containing a pair of driver transistors and a pair of load transistors; wherein:
each one of said load transistors has:
a gate electrode formed on a semiconductor substrate, with a gate insulating film lying therebetween; and
a LDD structure in which, on either side of said gate electrode, there are formed a LDD region which is a dopant diffusion region with a low dopant concentration and a source/drain region which is a dopant diffusion region with a high dopant concentration; and, therein,
a contact section connecting to the source region is disposed so as to make a distance therefrom to the gate electrode in the direction of the gate length smaller than a width of the LDD region lying between the gate electrode and the source region in the direction of the gate length; and
a contact section connecting to the drain region is disposed so as not to come into contact with the LDD region lying on the side of the drain region.
Further, the present invention relates to a semiconductor device having a SRAM in which a memory cell comprises a pair of transmission transistors and a flip-flop circuit containing a pair of driver transistors and a pair of load transistors; wherein:
every one of said load transistors and said driver transistors has:
a gate electrode formed on a semiconductor substrate, with a gate insulating film lying therebetween; and
a LDD structure in which, on either side of said gate electrode, there are formed a LDD region which is a dopant diffusion region with a low dopant concentration and a source/drain region which is a dopant diffusion region with a high dopant concentration; and, therein,
a contact section connecting to the source region is disposed so as to make a distance therefrom to the gate electrode in the direction of the gate length smaller than a width of the LDD region lying between the gate electrode and the source region in the direction of the gate length; and
a contact section connecting to the drain region is disposed so as not to come into contact with the LDD region lying on the side of the drain region.
Further, the present invention relates to the semiconductor device as set forth above, wherein each one of said transmission transistors has:
a gate electrode formed on a semiconductor substrate, with a gate insulating film lying therebetween; and
a LDD structure in which, on either side of said gate electrode, there are formed a LDD region which is a dopant diffusion region with a low dopant concentration and a source/drain region which is a dopant diffusion region with a high dopant concentration; and, therein,
a contact section connecting to the source/drain region is disposed so as not to come into contact with the LDD region lying on the side of the source/drain region.
Further, the present invention relates to the semiconductor device as set forth above, wherein, at least, a bottom section of each contact section is composed of titanium or a titanium-containing material.
Further, the present invention relates to the semiconductor device as set forth above, wherein the dopant diffusion regions of said load transistors contain boron.
Further, the present invention relates to the semiconductor device as set forth above, wherein a refractory metal silicide layer is formed over a surface of every source/drain region in said load transistors, driver transistors and transmission transistors.
Further, the present invention relates to the semiconductor device as set forth above, wherein:
a contact section connecting to a drain region of a first load transistor which is one of said pair of load transistors and a contact section connecting to a drain region of a first driver transistor which has a gate electrode formed from a first conductive film interconnection A, the gate electrode being in common to said first load transistor, are formed, as one body, to constitute an inlaid interconnection set in a first insulating film which is an interlayer insulating film, and
said inlaid interconnection serves as one of a pair of local interconnections cross-coupling a pair of input/output terminals in said flip-flop circuit; and
a second conductive film interconnection formed from a second conductive film which is set on said first insulating film, with a second insulating film lying therebetween, constitutes the other one of said pair of local interconnections.
Further, the present invention relates to the semiconductor device as set forth above, wherein
said second conductive film interconnection is disposed so as to overlap at least a portion of a top surface of said inlaid interconnection, with said second insulating film lying therebetween; and
said inlaid interconnection and said second conductive film interconnection, separated by said second insulating film, constitute a capacitor element.
Further, the present invention relates to the semiconductor device as set forth above, wherein
said inlaid interconnection is disposed so as to make connection with
said drain region of the first driver transistor which is one of said pair of driver transistors;
said drain region of the first load transistor which is one of said pair of load transistors; and
a first conductive film interconnection B which constitutes a gate electrode of a second driver transistor which is the other one of the pair of driver transistors as well as a gate electrode of a second load transistor which is the other one of the pair of load transistors, and
said second conductive film interconnection is connected with
a contact section connecting to said first conductive film interconnection A which constitutes said gate electrode of the first driver transistor and the first load transistor;
a contact section connecting to a drain region of said second driver transistor; and
a contact section connecting to a drain region of said second load transistor.
The present invention can develop technology capable to reduce the memory cell area while suppressing the generation of the leakage, and provide a semiconductor memory device of high integration with excellent element characteristics having a low standby current.


The invention relates to a process for optimizing and balancing the composition of the ration feed given to a ruminant by taking a single sample or urine or milk from the ruminant and evaluating the nutrient status of the fore-stomachs with reference to energy and protein. The process comprises: measuring the excretion of urea in the sample; measuring the excretion allantoin in the sample in relation to the excretion of creatinine to calculate an allantoin:creatinine ratio; evaluating the nutrient status of the fore-stomachs as to protein and energy; and adjusting the protein and/or energy content of the ration feed to an optimum level. The calculation of the allantoin:creatinine ratio allows for a single sample of urine or milk to be used in the evaluation of the nutrient status of the ruminant's fore-stomachs.

The present invention relates to a process for optimizing and balancing the composition of a ration feed given to a ruminant by evaluating the nutrient status of the fore-stomachs with reference to energy and protein. The invention also relates to a process to qualitatively determine the health status of a ruminant through assessment of the fore-stomach function.
The nutrient supply to a ruminant is largely dependent on the processes taking place in the rumen and reticulum. Also several diseases (for example lack of apetite, ketosis, acetonemia). mainly affecting high producing dairy cows, can be derived from a disturbed reticulo-rumen function.
Despite this we still lack simple methods which in a field situation can be of use in judging the ruminant fore-stomach (rumen-reticulum) function both in terms of nutrient supply and animal health.
The ruminant fore-stomachs contain approximately 10 milliards of bacteria and 0.1-1.0 millions of protozoa per ml rumen fluid. The fluid volume in a normal dairy cow can be 75 to 100 liters. Consequently the cow has a very numerous microbial population in the fore-stomachs which will affect the metabolism of the ration feed and also the nutrient absorbed by the animal. Roughly, the fiber degrading bacteria make up 20% of the total bacterial population while the non-fiber degrading bacteria make up 80%. Thus, there is a continuous competition for the most easily available carbohydrates in a ration feed and between these two kinds of rumen microorganisms. This will influence, among other things, the extent of fiber degradation and the production of volatile fatty acids and microbial protein.
For optimum fermentation the rumen bacteria require a suitable source of nitrogen. The fiber degrading bacteria require, among other things, ammonia for normal functions. A mixed microbial population probably also requires a certain proportion of amino acids and small peptides.
A high intake of free long-chain fatty acids has a depressing effect on rumen fiber degradation. This effect can probably be explained by a negative influence both on rumen bacteria and protozoa. Another factor of importance for the competition between different kind of bacteria and the nutrients available is the population of protozoa. The latter can fluctuate greatly, both in numbers and in composition, depending on, among other things, pH and osmolarity. In addition to a direct competition from the rumen protozoa for easily available soluble sugars they also compete indirectly by eating bacteria (predation) to a large extent.
These roughly outlined interactions between the nutrient content of the feed and the microbial population in the fore-stomachs will determine the nutrient supply to the host animal (the ruminant) and the efficiency in utilizing a given combination of feeds.
There is a strong relationship between ammonia produced in the rumen, as a result of microbial degradation of feed proteins, and the concentration of urea in plasma. Urea, a small and water soluble molecule, diffuses from the blood into i.a. the milk. The concentration in the milk fairly well reflects the concentration in the plasma. Several studies have shown that the ratio between crude protein and metabolizable energy in the ration feed is strongly related to the milk urea content. A difficulty in judging the nutrient balance in a ration feed from the milk urea content solely is that the plasma urea content, with which the milk urea content is related, arises from ammonia produced in the fore-stomachs, the caecum-colon as well as in various organs in the body. It is consequently not possible to determine from the urea content only, in milk for example, the nutrient balance in the fore-stomachs of an animal.
Milk is produced continuously by the mammary tissue and shows a day-to-day variation in urea content closely related to the urea content in plasma. A similar picture is true also for the urine. In a pooled milk sample, containing both morning and evening milk, possible diurnal variations have been even out, which can be of interest to reflect the rumen metabolism of crude protein in the feed. A single sample of milk or urine, adjusted in time to the rumen metabolism of the feed, could give a more clear picture of the activities in the fore-stomachs.
The rumen microbial mass contains a high proportion of nucleic acids. Approximately 15% of the total nitrogen content in bacteria are made up of nucleic acid nitrogen. The nucleic acids contains phosphate, sugar (ribose or deoxyribose), pyrimidines and purines. The purines are metabolised to allantoin, uric acid, hypoxanthine and xanthine in ruminants. These catabolites are excreted in the urine, in quantity in the above given order.
My research within this area has, among other things, shown the following. The excretion of allantoin in the urine of ruminants is linearly related to the flow of microbial protein to the small intestine. The endogenons (from the body) excretion of allantoin and other purine derivatives is fairly low and appears to be affected to a small extent by the animals intake of energy and protein. Previous studies have shown that nucleic acids in the feed is metabolized to a large extent in the rumen and probably leaves only a small contribution to the total flow of purine derivatives to the ruminant small intestine.
The urinary excretion of allantoin in ruminants appears to be the indicator for microbial activity in the fore-stomachs that we lack today.

Process for optimizing and balancing the composition of feed given to a ruminant


A bird housing module is used to form a housing complex in a system for creating a habitat for nesting birds. The module includes a housing shell with an open front and an open-topped nest drawer that slideably fits into the shell. The nest drawer has a front drawer panel with an entryway for nesting birds. Ventilation openings and drain openings may be employed, and a predator guard panel may also be disposed in the nest drawer. A plurality of such modules may be connected to and extend radially from a carriage to form the housing complex. The system then includes a pole assembly having a pole and having a pulley and a cord for raising and lowering the carriage and housing complex on the pole. A plurality of housing complexes may be stacked for increasing the number of housing modules available for nesting.

The present invention generally relates to shelters for wild birds. More particularly, the present invention concerns a birdhouse assembly that attracts purple martins and encourages the successful breeding of this species.
Bird watching is a highly prevalent past time in both urban and rural areas. The world is full of birds of numerous varieties in an astounding array of colors and designs. Many people enjoy viewing birds of various types, and an industry has evolved around products directed to improving the ability of persons to closely observe birds in their natural environment. On one hand, many people venture into the outdoors, where binoculars and spotting scopes may be utilized to better view various birds in their natural habitats. Such an approach requires a certain degree of skill, however, in finding and spotting various species of birds. Another approach utilizes various means of attracting birds to one's residence or a desired viewing location, such as adjacent a home's porch or window, where birds may be viewed at one's leisure. For example, persons have used bird feeders, birdbaths, and the like to attract birds of various types to their homes.
Various species of birds can be attracted by providing suitable nesting sites that accommodate their needs and protect them from predators. Certain birds, such as purple martins and bluebirds are welcome additions to one's backyard because of the mutually beneficial relationship that exists between these birds and their "landlords". Purple martins, in particular, are highly desirable additions to one's backyard because they play such an important role in the control of mosquito population. In fact, studies have indicated that a single purple martin can eat up to 2,000 mosquitoes and other insects a day. In addition, purple martins are interesting and beautiful creatures that enjoy living together in colonies that enable one to observe their interactions with one another. They also possess superior flight capabilities that enable them to perform daily aerial acrobatics, which provides much enjoyment to many a birdwatcher.
Purple martins were first attracted to hollowed out gourds, which were placed about Native American villages. However, as Native American villages began to disappear, so did the gourds, and by the middle of the twentieth century, purple martins were nearly extinct. The near extinction of these remarkable birds prompted great efforts to understand their habits and provide housing suitable for nesting. Today, purple martins are totally dependent upon man-made housing and studies continue to reveal new ways to improve their nesting sites and encourage breeding.
There are general specifications that a suitable purple martin house should have to provide attract purple martins. For example, purple martin houses should be set between fifteen (15) and twenty (20) feet off the ground. Also, the nesting compartments should be large enough to accommodate both the adult-sized parents and approximately four (4) to six (6) nearly grown fledgings. Accordingly, many specifications recommend that the nesting compartment be at least 6″×6″, but deeper compartments, such as those that measure between 8-12″ from front to back, have been observed to offer better protection against predators. Textured floors in the nesting compartments are also beneficial because they help prevent abnormalities that develop if the infant slips while moving about in the compartment. Since purple martins prefer to live together in colonies, a plurality of individual nesting compartments can be grouped together to accommodate as many as a couple dozen pairs of purple martins.
Entryways into the nesting compartments should also be sized to permit entry by an adult sized purple martin and are preferably of a pattern that keeps out predator birds such as starlings. For example, studies have indicated that some predator birds, such as starlings, are unable to gain access to the nesting compartment through a crescent shaped entryway.
Additionally, to increase breeding success, it is important that the nesting compartments be properly managed. Interestingly, access to the individual nesting compartments during the nesting season has shown to encourage successful breeding because it allows for the regular monitoring and care of the nesting compartments. These so-called nest checks allow the landlord to discover whether the nests are being preyed upon by owls at night, or by hawks or other predator birds by day. Early detection of predator activity will enable a landlord to take certain precautions to save the remainder of the nest. Nest checks also permit the landlord to remove unwanted nests such as those made by birds not welcome in a purple martin house.
In order to carry out these nest checks, it is helpful for the purple martin house to be easily lowered in way that does not harm the eggs or infant birds. In fact, many purple martin houses currently in use or on the market are not capable of being lowered and their respective landlords may never realize that the nests are being preyed upon.
As a result, some purple martin houses appearing in the market place are capable of being lowered so as to permit the landlord to conduct nest checks. Assemblies that enable the birdhouses to be lowered, however, preferably return the birdhouse to its original position so that each nesting compartment is in the same relative position and compass direction. This is because after the purple martin house is again elevated back to its original location, the adult purple martins will typically only return to the nesting compartment based upon its compass direction. If the birdhouse is repositioned causing the adult purple martins to trespass on another's nest, the adult purple martin becomes confused, which often results in abandonment of the nests and eventual loss of the eggs or fledglings.
To encourage the successful breeding of purple martins, then, improved housing assemblies are needed that protect purple martin nests from predators and enable their landlords to perform nest checks. While various housing assemblies currently in use today meet some of the minimum specifications, such as compartment sizes and entryway dimensions, nesting compartments are still readily accessible by predators. Additionally, typical nesting compartments are easily exposed to wind-blown rain, which dampens the nest and may result in a loss of the featherless infants that will become chilled in a damp nest. Further, now that studies have indicated the importance of monitoring the nesting compartments of the purple martin houses during the nesting season, it is desirable to provide an improved assembly that safely and efficiently permits the landlord to perform the nest checks.


An over-voltage protected integrated circuit is provided, which includes a discharge node, an input-output pad, a signal trace, which is coupled to the input-output pad, and a pair of back-to-back diodes, which is coupled between the first signal trace and the discharge node.

The present invention relates to semiconductor integrated circuits and, more particularly, to an ESD/over-voltage protection circuit for low amplitude signals.
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is an event that can occur during the handling or processing of semiconductor devices. During a typical ESD event, a large amount of charge is deposited on a pad of an integrated circuit. If the charge is sufficient to increase the voltage level on the pad above the voltage level at which the circuit is intended to operate, the semiconductor devices connected to that pad can become damaged.
Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices are particularly susceptible to damage from ESD events because CMOS devices have a thin gate oxide layer. In addition, advancements in fabrication technology have enabled the geometries of semiconductor devices to be reduced progressively so that more devices can fit on a single integrated circuit. This has resulted in further reductions in the thickness of the gate oxide layers, making CMOS devices even more susceptible to damage by ESD events. Future thin oxide devices can also be damaged by repetitive exposure to voltages only slightly larger than a supply voltage.
Typical CMOS devices have therefore been protected by various types and combinations of resistors, punch-through devices, diodes, parasitic bipolar transistors, and silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCRs). For example, a typical ESD protection circuit includes a reverse-biased diode coupled between the signal trace and the relatively positive voltage supply rail, VDD and another reverse-biased diode coupled between the signal trace and the relatively negative voltage supply rail, VSS. However this ESD protection method is expected to be inadequate as the supply voltages and device sizes within integrated circuits continue to reduce.
A reverse-biased diode coupled between the signal trace and VDD does not begin to conduct current until the voltage on the signal trace rises above the voltage on VDD by 0.7 volts. If the integrated circuit has a nominal supply voltage of 1.0 volts, the resulting ESD diode turn-on voltage is about 1.7 volts. With the very thin gate oxide layers in technologies having such a low supply voltage, a voltage of 1.7 volts can damage the semiconductor devices that are coupled to the signal trace. Thus, this method ESD protection may not be sufficient for some current and future semiconductor technologies.
Improved protection circuits are therefore desired, which are capable of protecting against ESD events and repetitive exposure to voltages only slightly larger than a supply voltage.
One embodiment of the present invention is directed to an over-voltage protected integrated circuit, which includes a discharge node, an input-output pad, a signal trace, which is coupled to the input-output pad, and a pair of back-to-back diodes, which is coupled between the first signal trace and the discharge node.
Another embodiment of the present invention is directed to an integrated circuit, which includes a discharge node, first and second input-output pads, and first and second differential signal traces, which are coupled to the first and second input-output pads, respectively. A first voltage protection circuit is coupled between the first signal trace and the discharge node and conducts current if a voltage on the first signal trace is at least a threshold voltage greater than or less than a voltage on the discharge node. A second voltage protection circuit is coupled between the second signal trace and the discharge node and conducts current if a voltage on the second signal trace is at least the threshold voltage greater than or less than the voltage on the discharge node.
Yet another embodiment of the present invention is directed to a method of protecting semiconductor devices that are coupled to an input-output signal trace from over-voltages on the signal trace. The method includes: (a) biasing the semiconductor devices between first and second voltage supply terminals; and (b) conducting current between the first signal trace and a discharge node when a voltage on the first signal trace is greater than or less than a voltage on the discharge node by at least a threshold voltage.

ESD protection circuit for low amplitude signals


A stimulation system and method for providing training therapy to a human subject having a weakened voice includes an activating switch configured to generate a first signal, and a processor configured to receive the first signal from the sensing electrode and to generate at least one stimulation parameter based on the first signal. The system further includes a stimulating electrode configured to receive the stimulation parameter from the processor and to activate a recurrent laryngeal nerve or vagus nerve of the subject in response to the stimulation parameter.

Voicing occurs when air is expelled from the lungs through the glottis, creating a pressure drop across the larynx. When this drop becomes sufficiently large, the vocal folds start to oscillate. The minimum pressure drop required to achieve phonation is called the phonation threshold pressure, and for humans with normal vocal folds, it is approximately 2-3 cm H2O. The motion of the vocal folds during oscillation is mostly laterally, though there is also some superior component as well. However, there is almost no motion along the length of the vocal folds. The oscillation of the vocal folds serves to modulate the pressure and flow of the air through the larynx, and this modulated airflow is the main component of the sound of most voiced phones.
The vocal folds will not oscillate if they are not sufficiently close to one another, are not under sufficient tension or under too much tension, or if the pressure drop across the larynx is not sufficiently large. In linguistics, a phone is called voiceless if there is no phonation during its occurrence. In speech, voiceless phones are associated with vocal folds that are elongated, highly tensed, and placed laterally (abducted) when compared to vocal folds during phonation.
Fundamental frequency, the main acoustic cue for the percept pitch, can be varied through a variety of means. Large scale changes are accomplished by increasing the tension in the vocal folds through contraction of the cricothyroid muscle. Smaller changes in tension can be effected by contraction of the thyroarytenoid muscle or changes in the relative position of the thyroid and cricoid cartilages, as may occur when the larynx is lowered or raised, either volitionally or through movement of the tongue to which the larynx is attached via the hyoid bone. In addition to tension changes, fundamental frequency is also affected by the pressure drop across the larynx, which is mostly affected by the pressure in the lungs, and will also vary with the distance between the vocal folds. Variation in fundamental frequency is used linguistically to produce intonation and tone.
The voicing mechanism that is specifically designed for voice production is the larynx. The larynx is between the pharynx and the trachea. It communicates with the mouth and the nose though the laryngeal and oral parts of the pharynx. Although the larynx is part of the air passages, the larynx normally acts as a valve for preventing swallowed food and foreign bodies from entering the lower respiratory passages. The larynx is located in the anterior portion of the neck.
The laryngeal skeleton comprises nine cartilages that are joined by various ligaments and membranes. Three of the cartilages are single (thyroid, cricoid and epiglottis), and three are paired (arytenoid, corniculate, and cuneiform).
The extrinsic muscles of the larynx move the larynx as a whole. The infrahyoid muscles (omohyoid, sternohyoid, and sternothyroid) are depressors of the hyoid bone and the larynx, whereas the suprahyoid muscles (stylohyoid, digastric, mylohyoid and geniohyoid) and the stylopharyngeus are elevators of the hyoid bone and larynx.
The intrinsic muscles of the larynx are concerned with the movements of the laryngeal parts, making alterations in the length and tension of the vocal folds and in the size and shape of the rima glottidis in voice production. All intrinsic muscles of the larynx are supplied by the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN), a branch of the vagus nerve (CN X) except the cricothyroid muscle, which is supplied by the external laryngeal nerve.
The adductors of the vocal folds include the lateral cricoarytenoid muscles which arise from the lateral portions of the cricoid cartilage and insert into the muscular processes or the arytenoid cartilages. These muscles pull the muscular processes anteriorly, rotating the arytenoid cartilages so that their vocal processes swing medially. These movements adduct the vocal folds and close the rima glottidis.
The principle abductors of the vocal folds are the posterior cricoarytenoid muscles. These muscles arise on each side from the posterior surface of the lamina of the cricoid cartilage and pass laterally and superiorly to insert into the muscular processes of the arytenoid cartilages. They rotate the arytenoid cartilages, thereby deviating them laterally and widening the rima glottidis.
The main tensors of the vocal folds are the triangular cricothyroid muscles. These are located on the external surface of the larynx between the cricoid and thyroid cartilages. The muscle on each side arises from the anterolateral part of the cricoid cartilage and inserts into the inferior margin and anterior aspect of the inferior horn of the thyroid cartilage. These muscles tilt the thyroid cartilage anteriorly on the cricoid cartilage, increasing the distance between the thyroid and arytenoid cartilages. As a result, the vocal ligaments are elongated and tightened and the pitch of the voice is raised.
The principle relaxers of the vocal folds are the broad thyroarytenoid muscles. They arise from the posterior surface of the thyroid cartilage near the median plane and insert into the anterolateral surfaces of the arytenoid cartilages. One band of its inferior deep fibers, called the vocalis muscle, arises from the vocal ligament and passes to the vocal process of the arytenoid cartilages anteriorly. The thyroarytenoid muscles pull the arytenoid cartilages anteriorly, thereby slackening the vocal ligaments. The vocalis muscles produce minute adjustments of the vocal ligaments (e.g., as occurs during whispering). They also relax parts of the vocal folds during phonation and singing.
The laryngeal nerves are derived from the vagus nerve (CN X) through the superior laryngeal nerve and the RLN. All intrinsic muscles, except cricothyroid, are innervated by the RLN with fibers from the accessory nerve (CN XI). The external laryngeal nerve supplies the cricothyroid muscle. The supraglottic portion of the laryngeal mucosa is supplied by the internal laryngeal nerve, a branch of the superior laryngeal nerve. The infraglottic portion of the laryngeal mucosa is supplied by the RLN.
Most people (doctors and the general public) do not realize that something can be done to improve a voice that is unsatisfactory or even one that is adequate, but not optimal. Historically, some techniques for voice improvement (e.g., singers, actors, and public speakers have sought out "voice lessons") go back years. However, techniques for voice improvement have expanded and improved recently.
Vocal weakness, breathiness, instability, impaired quality and other characteristics can interfere with social and professional success. Many problems (particularly, breathiness, softness, instability, tremor and change in habitual pitch) are associated commonly with aging. For most people, these vocal characteristics, which lead people to perceive a voice (and its owner) as "old" or "infirm," can be improved or eliminated.
Voice problems that people ascribe to aging, or even to their natural genetic makeup, may be caused or aggravated by medical problems. The possibilities are numerous and include such conditions as reflux, low thyroid function, diabetes, tumors, and many others. It is not surprising that when exercises and medications alone do not provide sufficient improvement, many patients elect voice surgery in an attempt to strengthen their vocal quality and endurance and to improve their quality of life.
Typically, several different procedures have been used to strengthen weak or injured voices. The selection of the operation depends upon the individual persons' vocal condition, physical examination, and consideration of what the person wants. In most cases, surgery is directed toward bringing the vocal folds physically closer together so that they close more firmly. This eliminates the air leak between the vocal folds that occurs as a consequence of vocal aging (atrophy or wasting of vocal muscles or other tissues) or as a result of paresis or paralysis (partial injury to a nerve from a viral infection or other causes). In some cases, the operation is done by injecting a material through the mouth or neck into the tissues adjacent to the vocal fold, to "bulk up" the vocal tissues and bring the vocal folds closer together. This is called injection laryngoplasty and is performed usually using fat, collagen, or hydroxylapatite. Alternatively, the problem can be corrected by performing a thyroplasty. This operation involves making a small incision in the neck. The skeleton of the voice box is entered and the laryngeal tissues are compressed slightly using Gor-Tex or silastic implants.

Stimulation system and method for voice lift


A disposable absorbent article that includes an elastic film material. The elastic film resists the growth of a tear and include an SEEPS block copolymer having a Tm of between about 10° C. and about 20° C. The film has a time-to-fail of greater than 1 hour.

Absorbent articles are widely used to receive and store liquid contaminants for disposal. Commonly known absorbent articles include diapers, pull-on, pant-type diapers, adult incontinence articles, sanitary napkins, and panty liners. It is not uncommon for absorbent articles to include film materials, especially elastic films, to control the movement of liquids and provide a comfortable, conforming fit when the article is worn by a wearer. However, conventional elastic film materials have been known to form holes or tears when subjected to the normal wear and tear of the article when in use. Such damage may be related to, for example, material defects, contact with sharp objects, pulling and stretching by a wearer, rigorous activity of a wearer, and/or repetitive mechanical stress experienced during wear. Additionally, it is not uncommon for film materials incorporated into disposable absorbent articles to be subjected to vigorous mechanical and/or thermal stress during various manufacturing processes (e.g., incremental stretching processes or bonding processes such as high pressure bonding, thermal bonding, and ultrasonic bonding), which may result in undesirable tears and/or holes in the film. In certain applications, it may even be desirable to intentionally include in a disposable absorbent article a film that has one or more pre-formed discontinuities (e.g., one or more apertures that extend at least partially through the thickness of the film), for example, to control the breathability, permeability to liquids and/or solids, opacity, and/or extensibility of the article or article component.
Initially, openings in the film, whether desired or undesired, may start out small and be relatively inconsequential with regard to the desired function of the film, article component and/or article. But as the size of the opening grows, it may ultimately lead to partial or complete (catastrophic) failure of the film, article component and/or article. Unintended catastrophic failure of an article or article component is almost always undesirable, but when the article is a disposable absorbent article such as a diaper or training pant, the consequences of catastrophic failure of the article or component may be especially acute due to, for example, the possibility of bodily exudates escaping from the article and/or the article separating from the wearer. To further compound the potential problems associated with conventional films, at least some manufacturers desire to use thinner and/or lower basis weight films to reduce material costs. The aforementioned problems associated with the formation of tears, holes, and apertures in a film may be even more acute in thinner/lower basis weight films.
To reduce the possibility that an elastic film will fail due to the presence and/or formation of tear, hole, and/or aperture, the strength of the film may be increased. Increasing the strength of the film typically means increasing the thickness of the film or forming the film from different materials, both of which may undesirably impact the cost and/or complexity of manufacturing the film or the suitability of the film for a particular use. For example, using a stronger film in an absorbent article such as a diaper or pant may result in an undesirable amount of pressure being applied to the skin of a wearer, which may lead to red-marking and/or discomfort. Additionally, increasing the overall strength of the film may only improve the film's resistance to the initial formation of a hole, tear, or aperture and not its subsequent growth.
Another method for reducing the possibility of undesired growth of a tear, hole, or aperture in a film, especially in a low basis weight film, includes joining one or more reinforcing layers to the film. For example, the film may be sandwiched between two or more nonwoven layers and/or the film may be formed with one or more commonly known "skin layers" (e.g., through a co-extrusion process). However, adding additional layers of material to improve the performance of the film may undesirably increase the cost and/or complexity of producing a particular article or article component that incorporates the film and/or make the film unsuitable for its intended purpose. Thus, there remains a need to provide a film suitable for use in an absorbent article that exhibits resistance to the growth of tears, holes, and/or apertures in a variety of circumstances (e.g., at a low basis weight) without the use of additional reinforcing materials.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an absorbent article that includes a film having an improved resistance to the growth of a tear, hole, or aperture.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Absorbent articles with tear resistant film


An image stitching method includes: obtaining a control object of a first image; obtaining a control object of a second image; identifying a same control object of the first image and the second image, and location information of the same control object, where the location information includes first location information and second location information, the first location information indicates a location of the same control object in the first image, and the second location information indicates a location of the same control object in the second image; and stitching the first image and the second image into a third image according to the location information of the same control object.

In the mobile Internet era, people usually take a screenshot on a mobile phone for sharing. However, when content of more than one screen needs to be shared, screenshots need to be consecutively taken for content in a plurality of screens. Operations are relatively complex, and readability is poor. Therefore, applications such as "long screenshot" and "scrolling screenshot" appear. Key experience of the long screenshot application or the scrolling screenshot application is whether a final stitched "long image" is accurate. However, for whether the long image can be stitched accurately, a key technology is to accurately identify an overlapped area between to-be-stitched screenshots, and remove the overlapped area for stitching.
An image comparison method is usually used in the prior art. Whether there is an overlapped area between the "bottom" of a screenshot (an (N−1)th screenshot) and the "top" of a next screenshot (an Nth screenshot) is analyzed pixel by pixel. According to the existing image comparison method, for a scenario using a solid-color chat background, an overlapped area between the two images can be accurately identified. However, once the user uses a non-solid-color chat background, a relative location of the "chat background" always changes, and the overlapped area between the two images cannot be found by using only the image comparison method. As a result, the stitched image has overlapped content, and accuracy of similar image stitching needs to be further improved.

Image stitching method and electronic device


A method of generating optimized input/output (IO) pair and inter-chip connection combinations for two chips is described. In this method, first and second designs for two chips can be specified. Then inter-chip signals based on the first and second designs can be specified. IO pairs for the first and second chips can be determined based on the inter-chip signals. At this point, electrical contacts between micro-bumps (MBs) of the first and second chips can be formed. Inter-chip paths with through-silicon-vias (TSVs) and MBs of the first and second chips can also be formed. At this point, the costs of assigning the IO pairs to the inter-chip paths can be determined. A cost matrix can be built based on these costs. A bipartite matching algorithm can be applied to the cost matrix to determine the optimized IO pair and inter-chip path combinations.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to stacked (i.e. three-dimensional) integrated circuits (ICs) (also called chips herein), and in particular to processing the designs of two chips simultaneously to achieve global optimum solutions using a standard single-chip electronic design automation (EDA) tool.
2. Related Art
In three-dimensional (3D) IC technology, multiple dies can be stacked vertically with inter-chip connections using through-silicon-vias (TSVs) and micro-bumps (MBs). The TSV is a standard 3D object that forms electrical interconnection between a front metal 1 layer and a back metal 1 layer of a chip. Thus, the TSV can be used to carry a signal (e.g. power or other signals) from one side of a chip to its other side. Note that the back metal 1 layer has no transistors, unlike the front metal 1 layer. Note further that the TSVs are on the order of 5-10 microns wide, which based on a standard cell size of 1 micron, can be considered a valuable chip resource.
The MB is a spherical piece of metal on the top-most metal layer or on the bottom-most back metal layer of the chip. MBs are used to form the electronic contacts between two neighboring chips in a stack. Note that although a MB is described below, other embodiments of the two-chip co-design technique may use other types of "bumps", which could be larger or smaller than MBs. Therefore, the term MB, as used herein, can be broadly described as any bump.
The locations of TSVs are typically formed in an array, which spacing may vary based on the design. In current state of the art designs, thousands of TSVs may be needed. In one embodiment, the TSVs of the chip may be placed every 50 microns. Although theoretically the MBs may be placed directly above the TSVs, in actual practice, the MBs are placed adjacent the TSVs, with the connections (i.e. wires) therebetween being part of the RDL (re-distribution layer). In general, once a design is designated, the TSVs and MBs can be considered a "given" with minimal or no user discretion allowed for TSV and MB placement.
The net assignment flow for 3D IC designs currently includes a single-chip net assignment step, which assigns and connects TSVs to MBs to form intra-chip paths. An inter-chip net assignment step then assigns and connects inter-chip signals to these paths while attempting to minimize total wire length.
Notably, the inter-chip net assignment is a two-chip co-design and co-optimization problem. After the connection on one chip is determined, the connection on the other chip can be derived. The objective of inter-chip net assignment is to optimize the total wire length of all the inter-chip nets between the two chips.
Thus, the problem is, given two chips and the inter-chip paths between them, finding an assignment of inter-chip signals to inter-chip paths while minimizing the total weighted wire length. Optimally, wires on signal routing layers and wires on RDL routing layers should be weighted differently in the wire length calculation.

Two-chip co-design and co-optimization in three-dimensional integrated circuit net assignment


URL shortening and redirection, as provided by the systems and methods herein, allow advertisers and influencers to: (1) generate links that aid in helping make a clear disclosure about the nature of the link or content where the link is intended; (2) redirect the users by both placing a disclosure statement directly into: (a) the URL structure and (b) into the interstitial page that is displayed after clicking on the URL and prior to redirection to the destination address.

There are number of regulations, including Federal U.S. regulations, for example, FTC (Federal Trade Commission) that requires publishers of the information, for example, social media influencers, make an explicit disclosure about, for example, using an affiliate links, sponsored links or advertisement links in their posts in order to make the audience completely aware of the nature of the shared links and the relationships between the influencer and brands or businesses they are sharing the information about. In particular, FTC requires "URL links for posting or sharing in social media or email should include a disclosure at the beginning of the native ad's URL", meaning that the disclosure (e.g. "ad", "advertisement", "sponsored", "affiliate" etc.) shall be part of the URL in order to comply with FTC guidelines.
What is needed is a system and/or method for ensuring that consumers understand that the content is advertising. Advertisers should ensure that the format of any link for posting in social media does not mislead consumers about its commercial nature.

Method of using a portion of a URL and an interstitial page to make a disclosure statement for regulation compliance


A method and system, the method including transmitting a unique identifier of at least one radio frequency (RF) transmitter to a device in a vicinity of the RF transmitter; acquiring images of objects by a vision system, the vision system comprising at least one image capturing device and an image processing unit to determine objects in the images acquired by the image capturing device; determining, by a controller, a location of the device based on, at least in part, the unique identifier of one of the at least one RF transmitters; and determining, by the controller, a precise location of the device based on a correlation between the location of the device determined based on the unique identifier and the objects captured in the images acquired by the image capturing device.

Indoor positioning systems are known that use beacons to transmit an identifier. These systems are known to use omni-directional antennas to broadcast a signal including the identifier. The signal broadcast by the beacon and its associated omni-directional antenna may be detected and received by a receiver device that operates to determine its position based on, for example, a strength of the signals that it receives. The identifier from the strongest signal received by the receiver is generally equated with being the closet beacon. However, the strongest signal received by the receiver device may not be transmitted from the beacon closest to the receiver. Some indoor positioning systems may calculate a position based on signals received from multiple beacons. A common problem associated with some indoor positioning systems is the low accuracy of indoor positioning using beacons, even if directional antennas and/or improved positioning algorithms are used.
Therefore, it would be desirable to efficiently provide improved methods and apparatus for providing indoor positioning determinations for a variety of different applications.

Indoor positioning system using beacons and video analytics


The present disclosure relates to a mobile crane comprising a superstructure having a revolving deck and at which a preferably telescopic boom is pivotably arranged around a pivot point, with a winch being additionally present for the hoist rope. In accordance with the present disclosure, the winch is arranged beneath the pivot point of the telescopic boom in the revolving deck.

A vehicle crane typically has an undercarriage and a superstructure as well as a swiveling crown and a boom. The superstructure can be rotated with respect to the undercarriage via the swiveling crown. The boom, which is designed to be telescopic as a rule, is pivotably arranged around a pivot point on the superstructure. The superstructure furthermore carries a winch onto which the hoist rope can be wound.
A mobile crane in accordance with the prior art is shown by way of example in FIG. 1. The mobile crane 10 shown there has a biaxial undercarriage 12 and an upper carriage 14 arranged on and rotatable by means of a swiveling crown not shown in any more detail here. The superstructure 14 has a telescopic boom 16 which is arranged pivotably around a pivot axis 18 on the revolving deck 20 of the superstructure 14. In the embodiment shown here, the mobile crane has a driver's cabin 22 and a crane operator's cabin 24 which is arranged on the revolving deck of the superstructure. In the mobile crane in accordance with the prior art, a hoist rope winch 26 is arranged behind the pivot point of the telescopic boom formed by the pivot axis 18. This arrangement of the winch 26 extends the boom length to the rear in the transport condition. This means that the swivel radius of the crane is enlarged by the installation length of the winch or that the boom projects to the front, that is in the direction of the driver's cabin 22 in the present case, comparatively far beyond the vehicle in the transport condition.
It is the object of the present disclosure to be able to equip a mobile crane with a comparatively longer boom without enlarging the swivel radius of the crane or the overhang of the boom in the transport condition.
This object is solved in accordance with the present disclosure by a mobile crane comprising a superstructure having a revolving deck and at which a telescopic boom is pivotably arranged around a pivot point; and a winch for a hoist rope. The winch is arranged below the pivot point of the telescopic boom in the revolving deck. On the basis of this arrangement, the boom can be offset to the rear by the length of the winch so that the boom itself projects comparatively less far beyond the driver's cabin. If the same total vehicle length should be achieved, the telescopic boom set on the revolving deck of the superstructure can be made comparatively longer.
The hoist rope is accordingly advantageously guided via a pulley block arranged on the boom. The pulley block is particularly advantageously arranged laterally displaceably on the pivot axle of the telescopic boom.
Further features, details and advantages of the present disclosure result from an embodiment shown in the drawing.


The thermal noise generated through the feedback capacitor of a delta-sigma modulator is attenuated by transferring a reference voltage through the capacitor in two separate steps during each sampling period. This permits a reduction in the size of the feedback capacitor, thereby reducing thermal noise, without increasing the voltage on the switching capacitors on the summing node side of the feedback capacitors which would induce degradation due to hot electron effects.

Switched capacitor delta-sigma modulators are widely used in such applications as digital audio and industrial process control instrumentation. In such modulators the negative feedback around the modulator loop is provided by a switched capacitor which is connected between the output of the quantizer of the modulator and the input summing node of the modulator.
FIG. 1A is a block diagram of such a prior art delta-sigma modulator. As shown in FIG. 1A, the delta-sigma modulator 10 includes a summing node 12 which sums an input signal 14 with a feedback signal on line 16. The summing node is connected to the input of an integrator 18, and the output of the integrator is filtered through a loop filter 20. The output of the loop filter 20 is connected to the input of a quantizer or A/D convertor shown as a comparator 22. The output of the comparator 22 forms the output, DOUT, of the modulator on line 24 and also forms the input to the switched capacitor feedback circuit shown generally as 26. The output of the switched capacitor feedback circuit is the feedback signal to the summing node 12.
The switched capacitor feedback circuit 26 includes a first single pole, double throw switch 28, which switches between a reference voltage, Vref, and ground in response to the output signal DOUT on line 24. The feedback capacitor 30, shown as C.sub.FB, has a first terminal connected to the pole of a switch 28, shown as element "a" of switch 28, and its opposite terminal connected to a node 32 which is also connected to the pole of another single pole, double throw switch 34. The pole of switch 34, shown as element "a" of switch 34, is either connected to throw "c" which is connected to ground, or to throw "b" which is connected the summing node 12 in a timing sequence that is well known in the art and shown in FIG. 2B.
More particularly, during the first part of each sampling period, switch 28 is connected to either throw "b" which is connected to Vref, or to throw "c" which is connected to ground, depending on the state of the DOUT signal on line 24 while switch 30 is coupled to ground. After the capacitor C.sub.FB has been charged, switches 28 and 30 are switched in order to provide the appropriate charge onto the summing node 12 as determined by the DOUT signal on line 24.
In FIG. 1B the timing signals for switch 28 and the voltage signal node 32 show a solid line when switch 28 is switching from the a-b to the a-c position and a dotted line when switch 28 is switching from the a-c position to the a-b position. The shaded area in the timing diagram for switch 28 indicates that the switches may be either closed or open depending on the output of the comparator 22 on line 24.
In delta-sigma modulators, it is desirable to minimize thermal noise induced on the feedback capacitor C.sub.FB by the sampling process occurring when a connection within switch 34 opens. (Switch 34, formed generally by two MOS transistors, operates in a "break-before-make" sequence.) This thermal noise voltage creates a thermal noise charge on C.sub.FB defined by ##EQU1## where k is Boltzmann's constant and T is temperature in degrees Kelvin. It is desirable to minimize this thermal noise charge Qnoise. Since Qnoise is independent of Vref, Qnoise can be reduced by simultaneously reducing C.sub.FB by the same amount that vref is increased. The result keeps the feedback charge constant while simultaneously reducing Qnoise. This implies that Qnoise is at a practical minimum when C.sub.FB is made as small as possible, usually limited to the maximum practical value of Vref for a given circuit technology.
An important limitation is the limit on Vref imposed, by MOS transistor hot electron effects. See, for example, Sakurai et al., "Hot-Carrier Generation in Submicrometer VLSI Environment," IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. SC-21, No. 1, February 1986, pp. 187-192; Saletti et al., "Correlated Fluctuations and Noise Spectra of Tunneling and Substrate Currents Before Breakdown in Thin-Oxide MOS Devices." IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 37, No. 11, November 1990, pp. 2411-2413; Tzou et al., "Hot-Electron-Induced MOSFET Degradation at Low Temperatures," IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol EDL 6, No. 9, September 1985, pp. 450-452; and Lo et al., "Hot-Carrier-Stress Effects on Gate-Induced Drain Leakage current in n-channel MOSFET's," IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 12, No. 1, January 1991, pp. 5-7.
Therefore, there is an upper limit on the applied voltage to the MOS transistor switch, switch 34, before the hot electron effects become undesirably large. The substrate current in switch 34 can be responsible for charge transfer errors as well as a potential second source of noise. It is therefore unproductive to increase Vref and decrease C.sub.FB to minimize Qnoise while at the same time inducing degradation due to hot electron effects. As shown in FIG. 1B, with the prior art circuit of FIG. 1A the magnitude of the voltage swing at node 32 is approximately Vref.
Various methods have been used in the past to minimize these effects including the use of fully differential input signals in which the hot electron effects become common mode noise and are therefore attenuated to some degree in the fully differential circuit. Also, in p-channel devices, where "hot holes" are generated rather than hot electrons, the amount of "hot holes" generated is approximately an order of a magnitude less than the corresponding number of hot electrons generated in an n-channel device. Therefore, using p-channel transistors inside switch 34 ameliorates hot carrier effects somewhat. However, a further problem can occur when using p-channel devices in a p well technology. When n-channel devices are fabricated in a p well technology, the p wells can be connected to a reference voltage to thereby desensitize the circuit to power supply noise. However, p-channel transistors in a p well technology share a common substrate, and it is not possible to drive an n substrate with a reference voltage. Therefore, the p-channel devices in these circumstances are more susceptible to power supply noise.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that a circuit which allows the use of a large reference voltage without the hot carrier induced problem is highly desirable.

Detent switching of summing node capacitors of a delta-sigma modulator


A power management unit (PMU) for supplying electrical energy to a circuitry of a portable electronic device includes a power supply module, a power detection module connected to the power supply module, and a power control module connected to the power detection module and the circuitry. The power supply module includes a battery, a charge controller, and an adapter. The power detection includes a detection resistor connected to the battery, the charge controller, and the adapter. The battery or the adapter provides electrical energy to the circuitry. The adapter further charges the battery to charge the battery when it is used to provide electrical energy to the circuitry. The charge controller detects the current for charging the battery via the detection resistor, and regulates the current for charging the battery when the charging current exceeds a predetermined value.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to power management units (PMU) used in portable electronic devices, and particularly to a PMU capable of protecting portable electronic devices from over-current.
2. Description of Related Art
Portable electronic devices are continuously required to achieve higher quality, for example, higher data processing speeds, improved display quality, and improved communication quality. However, when these functions of the portable electronic devices are enhanced, the portable electronic devices generally need to consume more power and use higher working currents. Sometimes the working currents will go too high and damage the portable electronic device, or cause the portable electronic devices to automatically switch themselves off as protection from the over-current.
Therefore, there is room for improvement within the art.

Power management unit for portable electronic devices


A protocol control circuit for a data bus system in which data is communicated through a data bus and an acknowledgement signal is transmitted from a receiving unit through the data bus to a transmitting unit when data from the transmitting unit is received by the receiving unit. The protocol control circuit provides a buffer register unit including: a transmitting buffer register for storing at least one unit for data to be transmitted; an acknowledgement buffer register for storing the acknowledgement signal; and a selector connected to the transmitting buffer register and the acknowledgement buffer register. The selector carries out switching between the transmission of the output signal of the transmitting buffer register and the transmission of the output signal of the acknowledgement buffer register in correspondence with detection of proper timing of delivery of the acknowledgment signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a protocol control circuit for a data bus system. The protocol control circuit according to the present invention is applicable to a home bus system as one kind of data bus system.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Recently, a data communication system in a home has been developed in which data for the control of household electrical apparatuses in the home is communicated through a trunk data bus called a "home bus". Examples of known data communication systems using a home bus are illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B attached to this specification. As shown in FIG. 1A, a house is equipped with electrical units such as a broadcast receiving antenna, a security switch device, a smoke detector, a personal computer, an interphone, an air conditioner, a telephone set, a television receiver, an electric heated bath, a gas leakage detector, an electric cooking range, an electric lamp, a camera, an electric key device, a home controller, and the like, and each of these electrical units are interconnected by a home bus through a junction box for information transmission. A schematic diagram of the arrangement of the home bus system is shown in FIG. 2, in which a broadcast receiving antenna device, a tuner for television, a camera, a telephone set, an adapter for data communication, a device for hard copying information, a disk storage, and a work station are connected by a home bus. The work station includes a keyboard, a touch panel, a processor, a storage unit, and the like, and is connected to a video tape recorder, a display device, and a disk player.
In a data bus system such as a home bus system, however, a problem occurs in that, when it is desired to carry out transmission of data from this equipment connected to a data bus such as a home bus, if this equipment is receiving incoming data from the data bus, the desired transmission of data cannot be carried out until the equipment receives acknowledgement data from the data bus after receipt of the incoming data is completed.
This problem prevents an increase in the efficiency of transmission of acknowledgement data, and increases the burden on software of a central processor unit, and thus a data bus system having a satisfactory high operation efficiency has not yet been realized.

Protocol control circuit for data bus system


A device detracts fluid from a flow line into a repository for temporary storage and later use. Before an infusion set is changed, medication from the infusion set is detracted into the repository, where it is temporarily stored. Once the new infusion set is connected, medication is dispensed from the repository into the flow line of the new infusion set. The device thus reduces or eliminates waste of medication that was in the flow line of the infusion set, by saving the medication in the repository while the infusion set is being changed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medication delivery device and method of using same, and more particularly, to a device and method for detracting fluid from a flow line into a repository for temporary storage and later use.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many individuals suffer from chronic conditions that require them to self-administer medication via injection, either at regular intervals to manage chronic conditions such as diabetes, or in response to certain emergency conditions.
To be effective, an injection device delivers medication to subcutaneous tissue located below the skin. For management of chronic conditions requiring periodic medication, a source of medication, such as a pump, may operate in connection with an infusion set that provides constant access to the patient's subcutaneous tissue. The infusion set consists of two parts: an infusion site including a plastic housing that contains a subcutaneous needle, and a tubing and connector assembly. The injection device can be attached to the tubing and connector assembly when medication is to be administered.
A pump is an example of a medication delivery device that allows self-administration of medication according to well known techniques for diabetes patients and other patients with chronic conditions. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a pump 102 according to the prior art, shown connected to a flow line 104 which can pass medication to an infusion site. In operation, pump 102 can remain tethered to the infusion site, via flow line 104, to deliver a gradual flow of medication.
FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an infusion set 200 that can be used in connection with a pump 102 for self-administration of medication according to the prior art, for example for intensive insulin therapy. Infusion set 200 includes flow line 104, which may be constructed from plastic or rubber tubing, adhesive mount 202 for connection to the patient, and subcutaneous cannula (not shown) housed in the adhesive mount, for delivering medication to the patient. Flow line 104 is connected to pump 102 via pump connector 201 and is connected to adhesive mount 202 via site connector 203.
In general, infusion sets 200 must be replaced periodically, such as every two to three days, in order to prevent infection. When an infusion set 200 is discarded, any medication in flow line 104 is wasted. What is needed is a mechanism for reducing or eliminating waste by avoiding or limiting the need to discard medication when changing an infusion set 200. What is further needed is waste reduction device that is easy to use and that does not contaminate the medication.

Device for detraction of fluid from flow line for temporary storage and later use


The disclosure is directed to an ensemble learning prediction apparatus. The apparatus includes a loss module, a diversity module, a sample weight module, and an integrating weight module. The loss module, the diversity module and the sample weight module calculate a loss, a diversity and a sample weight, respectively. An ensemble weight is learned by an object function built by the loss, diversity and the sample weight. The integrating weight module calculates an adaptive ensemble weight by integrating the ensemble weight and previous ensemble weights at a plurality of previous time points.

Prediction is crucial to the manufacturing industries and other industries as well, and is an important part in the analysis of mega data. Future events can be predicted through the analysis of historical data. Of the many prediction methods available in existing literature, the ensemble learning method is one of the supervised learning methods of the machine learning methods. According to the ensemble learning method, a result is obtained by integrating various prediction methods (that is, basic hypotheses) through a combination of weights. Normally, the result obtained by the ensemble learning method is more accurate than the result obtained by one single prediction method. However, in practical application, as the environment varies with the time, concept drifting phenomenon may occur, and the accuracy of the ensemble learning model created according to historical data will decrease. Under such circumstances, the prediction model must be re-trained or adjusted by use of newly created data to restore the prediction accuracy within a short period of time, lest the manufacturing cost or risk might increase due to the drip in prediction accuracy.
According to the prior art, the sample weight is positively proportional to the number of erroneous predictions generated under basic hypotheses, and a larger sample weight is assigned to the sample data generating erroneous predictions under more basic hypotheses. When the sample weight is assigned in this way, these samples are overemphasized, and the influences of other correctable sample data are sacrificed.

Ensemble learning prediction apparatus and method, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium

INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE


A non-contacting aligning method for planes in a three-dimensional environment is disclosed. The method includes: projecting a light beam in a predetermined incident angle onto a transparent first object and an opaque second object that are facing each other; and calculating a distance between the first and second objects basing on the tangent trigonometric function of the incident angle of the light beam.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to methods for measuring overlay errors of facing objects, and more particularly to a non-contacting method for detecting overlay errors in X and Y axes between two objects facing each other, and detecting a vertical distance between the two objects (in Z axis) as well as parallelism therebetween.
2. Description of Related Art
As to the conventional lithography process, in course of transferring a pattern of a photo mask to a circuit substrate and transferring a pattern predefined on a photo mask to a wafer, measures for error measuring and object aligning are implemented so as to ensure accurate transfer of the patterns. On this note, X-Y positioning, Z positioning, and parallelism between two objects to be mutually overlaid are important. In addition to the lithography process, in course of installing a probe to a superconducting quantum interference microscope (SQUID Microscope), the relative distance and the parallelism between the probe and the assay sample have to be accurately controlled in order to ensure proper sensitivity of the device.
Herein the lithography process is described as an example for illustrating how the prior art deals with the need of three-axis positioning.
Using image capturing devices on the Z axis to monitor overlay between XY-axis marks of overlaid objects is known. Therein, a movable camera may be used to monitor images of overlaid objects in its focal plane and thereby achieve the Z-axis monitoring process. During the process, once the focus changes in the focal plane, it indicates that an inclining angle exists between the two facing objects. However, this known approach is infeasible to get the inclining angle accurately when the image definition of the camera is poor.
Alternatively, two or more image capturing devices are arranged to take images from different view angles for comparison in order to obtain the distance in the Z axis. Nevertheless, this approach needs complicated calculation and operation, yet is defective in accurately giving the inclining angle between overlaid objects.

Non-contacting aligning method for planes in three-dimensional environment


The invention relates to a method for handling a rectifier of a turbojet of an aircraft, the rectifier having an axis defining the asymmetry thereof, said method comprising a step of placing the rectifier on the rollers of a supporting structure, the structure and the rollers thereof being arranged such that the axis of the rectifier is inclined at a non-null acute angle in relation to the horizontal, and a step of controlling, maintaining, assembling, handling, storing, deburring and/or cleaning the rectifier, during which the rectifier is pivoted about the axis thereof. The invention also relates to a trolley for handling a rectifier for an axial turbojet, said trolley comprising at least two of the lower rollers that have axes inclined in relation to the horizontal of said angle and at least one upper roller, the axis of which is inclined in relation to the vertical of said angle.

Axial turbine engine compressor rectifiers are assemblies that can weigh several tens of kilos and can measure up to 3 meters in diameter. A number of operations are carried out on rectifiers during their life cycle, such as assembly, storage, maintenance, cleaning, inspection, disassembly, etc. To do this, the rectifiers are handled using a hoist or an overhead crane. This handling method presents risks of accidents for operators or risks of damage to the rectifier. In addition, the rectifier is positioned vertically when it is suspended by the overhead crane, and this is not ergonomic for operators. Finally, the various operations to be carried out on the rectifier are generally carried out on different workplaces or workstations and the handling of the rectifier from an overhead crane to another overhead crane can be tedious and logistically complex.

Method and trolley for handling a rectifier