Suspension strut comprising a cylinder and a spring perch which is axially displaceable relative to the cylinder for adjustment of the position, wherein the spring perch has a sleeve portion by which the connection to the cylinder is carried out. A chamber is arranged on the cylinder side which is at least partly filled with a moldable material. The sleeve portion contacts the moldable material, which in a solid state transmits a supporting force from the cylinder to the spring perch.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a suspension strut including a cylinder and a vertically adjustable spring perch having a sleeve portion which is connected to the cylinder.
2. Description of the Related Art
DE 85 10 058 U1 discloses a suspension strut with a removable spring perch which is supported in a holder ring. The holder ring can be fastened to the cylinder of the suspension strut independent from the spring perch and coated as a component unit. The vertical adjustment of the spring perch is determined by the holder ring and can not be altered.
DE 198 51 019 C1 discloses a suspension strut whose cylinder has a holding ring for a fixedly adjustable spring perch. At least one groove is shaped into the holding ring, wherein a circumferential area of a sleeve portion of the spring perch can be deformed radially in this groove. The overlapping of the sleeve portion with the groove defines the maximum vertical adjustment of the spring perch.
Further, a spring unit for motor vehicles is known from DE 197 44 757 A1, wherein the height position of a spring perch is actively adjustable through the use of a hydraulic medium. A spring unit of this kind is provided particularly for raised vehicles in which it is necessary to adjust the spring perch frequently in connection with a height control of the vehicle body.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a suspension strut with a vertically adjustable spring perch, particularly relating to lasting vertical adjustment.
According to the invention, a chamber is arranged on the cylinder side which is at least partly filled with a moldable material, the sleeve portion contacts the moldable material, which transmits a supporting force from the cylinder to the spring perch in the solid state.
Both plastic and metallic materials can be used as moldable material. During vertical adjustment, the spring perch is held in its predetermined position and the chamber is filled with an appropriate amount of moldable material.
For this purpose, the cylinder-side chamber can be formed by a supporting ring which is axially fixedly connected to the cylinder.
In another advantageous construction, the supporting ring has a sleeve and a base and the sleeve portion is held at least partly within the sleeve of the supporting ring. In this variant, the supporting ring forms the chamber for the moldable material.
With regard to good accessibility for a corresponding device, the supporting ring has a connection opening for the moldable material.
In case of special installation space conditions, it may be necessary that the supporting ring has only a very small outer diameter. For such cases, the supporting ring determines the chamber for the moldable material with a mold sleeve of a device. After the material is fed into the chamber, the mold sleeve can be removed.
When a supporting ring with very simple geometry is required, the sleeve portion of the spring perch can be constructed in such a way that it surrounds the supporting ring radially. In the simplest case, the supporting ring can be formed by a disk.
In an advantageous further development, the sleeve portion has deformations which are oriented radially inward. These deformations serve to improve the axial connection between the moldable material and the sleeve portion, but offer the additional advantage that a safety stop is achieved for the spring perch with suitable dimensioning of the deformations in relation to the outer diameter of the supporting ring.
In a constructional variant, the chamber is formed at least partly by a radial shaped portion of the cylinder. Depending on the available shaping devices, a radial inner or radial outer shaped portion of the cylinder can be provided. Finally, the partial difference between a nominal diameter and the shaped portion diameter is used determine a chamber.
Depending on the selected material, it can be useful for the sleeve portion to have a radial outward shaped wall area which defines the chamber. This variant is usable particularly with metallic moldable material.
Further, a safety stop can be arranged on the cylinder side for the spring perch.
Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. It should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.

Suspension strut with vertically adjustable spring perch


This invention makes use of the technique known as CFAR (Constant False Alarm Rate). Its objective is to create a method of adjusting the detection threshold of a radar consisting in:. breaking down the area monitored by the radar in one sweep period, into sectors in which clutter can be assumed to be uniform, PA0 creating the histogram y(x) of received signal amplitudes in a sub-sample of distance-direction cells in each sector, PA0 in each sector, estimating the clutter histogram using a model m(x) defined analytically with coefficients adjusted so as to follow the shape of the recorded histogram y(x) at least in part of its variation interval, and PA0 calculating the value of the detection threshold S in each sector starting from a set value of the false alarm probability Pfa and the model analytical equation using the relation: ##EQU1## where N is the total number of events contained in the modeled histogram. The invention is particularly appropriate for adjustment of the detection threshold of a marine patrol radar.

This invention concerns adjustment of a radar detection threshold to minimize parasite echoes known under the general term of clutter, while minimizing desensitization of the radar to avoid the loss of interesting targets. It makes use of the technique known as CFAR (Constant False Alarm Rate). It is particularly concerned with adjustment of the target extraction threshold from a panoramic marine patrol radar.
In radar technique, an observable target is a target that creates an echo with an amplitude exceeding that of the surrounding noise. In order to distinguish it from the noise, a detection threshold has to be fixed lower than the amplitude of its echo and higher than the amplitude of the surrounding noise. Given the random nature of the noise, this threshold is defined as a function of an acceptable false alarm rate that we attempt to make constant, despite the various probability density functions that may represent clutter, and particularly sea clutter.
In order to use a radar reception signal, the signal is sampled over a period of time and samples are grouped by category each concerning a single cell corresponding to a given radar pointing direction and a given target distance in this pointing direction. A known manner of adjusting the detection threshold in a distance-direction cell is to evaluate the average value of the signal received on distance-direction cells surrounding the distance-direction cell considered for a given pointing direction and lower and higher distances, and to use two to four times this average value as a detection threshold.
This method of calculating the detection threshold has the disadvantage that it requires many calculations for a panoramic radar with a high number of distance-direction cells. Also in the case of a marine patrol radar, powerful coastal echoes increase the value of the detection threshold thus making the radar less sensitive in coastal areas.
In order to reduce the number of calculations, we could envisage breaking down the area monitored by the radar into sectors each containing several distance-direction cells within which clutter remains uniform and using a detection threshold S for each sector representing a set value of the false alarm probability Pfa. This could be done by defining a clutter histogram for each sector that, assuming that signals returned by interesting targets are the exception, becomes coincident with the histogram relating possible values, x, of signal moduli received by the radar for the sector considered with their appearance frequencies, y, and determining the threshold S using the relation defining the false alarm rate Pfa that is the limit of the following integral when the total number N of events contained in the histogram tends towards infinity: ##EQU2##
Unfortunately if it is required to limit the amount of calculation, the number of events contained in the histogram has to be limited such that the behavior of the histogram is not sufficiently accurate for high values of received signal moduli to be able to deduce a significant threshold value using the following relation: ##EQU3##
If the probability density function f(x) describing clutter is known, this difficulty can be overcome by replacing the histogram y(x)in the relation defining the false alarm probability Pfa by the probability density function f(x). We obtain: ##EQU4##
This is a known averaging method, known as "cell average" that is used when the main source of clutter is thermal noise and the probability density function is of the Rayleigh type ##EQU5## where m.sub.2 is the root mean square. In this method, the average is calculated on each sector and the root mean square of the clutter is deduced using a ratio of 1.25, such that the applicable Rayleigh function can be defined, and the threshold S is then obtained from tables of values containing results obtained from using relation (1) for the various possible values of the set false alarm probability and the root mean square.
However this cell averaging method can not be used in the case of a marine patrol radar subject to non-uniform clutter that depends on sea conditions and the direction of the prevailing wind, and for which the probability density function satisfies a log-normal type function at low radar distances particularly when the sea is rough, and a Rayleigh type function beyond a given "transition" distance. Moreover, it does not solve the problem caused by coastal echoes since they are too numerous in some sectors to remain an exception and have a non-negligible influence on the root mean square of received signal moduli assigned to clutter.

Method and equipment for adjusting a radar detection threshold


Methods for prophylactically treating a stress-induced affective disorder or stress-induced psychopathology in a subject are provided. Also provided are methods for inducing and/or enhancing stress resilience in a subject. In certain embodiments, an effective amount of (R,S)-ketamine or (2R, 6R)-hydroxynorketamine ((2R, 6R)-HNK) is administered to a female or male subject prior to a stressor.

MDD is the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting more than 300 million people, and results from social, psychological, and biological factors (1). In 80% of cases, a traumatic event triggers the first major depressive episode, after which symptoms persist throughout an individual's lifetime (2). MDD has a high comorbidity rate with other psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); approximately half of patients suffering from PTSD are concurrently diagnosed with depression, the majority of which are women (3-5). Regardless of age or socioeconomic status, women are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with depression and develop MDD earlier in life (1,5). fMRI data also suggest that women experience fear more strongly than men and process trauma through distinct brain circuits (6). Given these sex-specific differences, it is necessary to develop more specific and efficacious treatments for female populations.
Current treatments for MDD include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), lifestyle changes, and medication, but these treatments are not sex-specific. Moreover, antidepressant medications were developed in male, but not female, animal models and have been shown to exhibit sex-specific differences in efficacy. One study found that tricyclic antidepressants were more effective in men whereas selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) were more effective in women (7). Furthermore, the response rate to SSRI treatment was shown to be significantly higher in pre-menopausal women than in post-menopausal women (7). Another study found that SSRIs were more effective in post-menopausal women concurrently undergoing hormone replacement therapy (HRT) than in women who were not administered HRT (8). Thus, systemic levels of gonadal hormones, either endogenous or exogenous, may impact antidepressant efficacy and treatment outcome in women.
Despite the prevalence of antidepressants, these drugs are slow to take effect and fail to alleviate symptoms in up to 30% of patients (9). Alternatively, ketamine has become a promising antidepressant for treatment-resistant MDD (TRD) (10). When given at sub-anesthetic doses, ketamine has a rapid antidepressant onset of 2 hours in humans and 30 minutes in mice and can last up to 2 weeks (11-12). Moreover, antidepressant ketamine has been shown to act in a sex-specific manner (13-15). Controlling for weight, females are more sensitive than males to ketamine and require a lower concentration to reverse depressive-like behaviors; doses beneficial to males are depressogenic and anxiogenic in females (16-17). These data underscore the need for further sex-specific investigation into the use of ketamine in MDD treatment.
However, few studies have explored pharmacologically-based approaches to prevent the development of MDD. It has been shown that a single sub-anesthetic dose of ketamine, administered one week prior to a stressor, can protect against the onset of stress-induced depressive-like behavior and social avoidance, and attenuate learned fear in male mice, suggesting the possibility of developing resilience-enhancing pharmacotherapy (18-19). This effect has since been replicated in both mice and rats (20-21).
While the molecular mechanisms underlying ketamine's prophylactic efficacy remain unclear, exploring the metabolism of ketamine may offer insights into its in vivo actions. Ketamine is racemic mixture of R and S enantiomers, and studies to determine potential efficacy differences in enantiomers are ongoing (Paul et al., (R,S)-ketamine metabolites (R,S)-norketamine and (2S,6S)-hydroxynorketamine increase the mammalian target of rapamycin function. Anesthesiology. 2014 July; 121(1): pp. 149-59). Ketamine, and its metabolite hydroxynorketamine (HNK), have been shown in numerous studies to be an effective treatment for depressive symptoms in mice.
Ketamine is stereoselectively metabolized into a variety of compounds, including (R, S)-norketamine and (2R,6R;2S,6S)-hydroxynorketamine (HNK). (2R,6R;2S,6S)-HNK is the major metabolite found in the brain following ketamine infusion, comprising 15% of the original ketamine dose (22-23). Several studies have indicated that HNK may be an effective treatment route for MDD; however, the relative potency of each of its diastereoisomers ((2S,6S)-HNK; (2R,6R)-HNK) remains controversial. The lack of information on the influence of HNK stereoisomers and sex differences have limited its use. Although some studies suggest that the R enantiomer of HNK, (2R,6R)-HNK, may be necessary for the antidepressant effects of racemic ketamine, the data remain unclear. For example, whereas Zanos et al. have demonstrated that administering an altered form of (R,S)-ketamine that cannot be metabolized to (2R,6R)-HNK is not antidepressant, data from the Hashimoto group show that blocking the metabolism of ketamine using cytochrome P450 enzyme inhibitors does not impede the antidepressant actions of the precursor (24-25). Thus, further investigation is needed to determine if (2R,6R)-HNK may be developed for future use as an effective antidepressant or prophylactic. In addition, previous work has led to the widespread belief that only the S enantiomer of hydroxynorketamine is biologically active. Our study shows that (2R,6R)-HNK is more active than its S enantiomer in preventing depression in both sexes. This discovery could help form the basis for the development of novel compounds that can effectively prevent stress-induced depression in both men and women. Moreover, our identification of the active metabolite enantiomer could translate to more effective and longer-lasting prophylactics with fewer unintended side-effects.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Pharmacological prophylactics against stress-induced affective disorders in females

The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York

The Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc.


To provide an inexpensive image pickup lens ensuring mass productivity and preventing deterioration of images due to fluctuation of a paraxial image-point position caused by water absorption, image pickup device, digital apparatus, and a manufacturing method of the image pickup lens, the image pickup lens includes: at least one lens block including a lens substrate, and a lens portion or lens portions formed on at least one of an object-side surface or an image-side surface of the lens substrate. The lens portion is formed of an energy-curable resin material which is different from a material of the lens substrate. At least one lens portion has a dimension change rate caused by water absorption which is larger than a dimension change rate caused by water absorption of the lens substrate, and satisfies the predetermined expression about a change in refractive index the energy-curable resin material caused by water absorption.

A compact and thin-type image pickup device (which is also called a camera module, hereinafter) has come to be mounted on a mobile terminal representing a compact and thin-type electronic device such as a cell phone and PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), whereby, it has become possible to transmit mutually not only voice information but also image information to a remote location.
As image pickup elements used for these image pickup devices, a solid-state image pickup element such as an image sensor of a CCD type and an image sensor of a CMOS type are used. In recent years, increase of pixel numbers of the image pickup element have been advanced, and enhancement of its resolution and performance have been attained. As a lens for forming an image of a subject on the image pickup element, a lens made by resin that is suitable for mass production has come to be used for further cost reduction. A lens made of resin material has excellent workability and also has accurate transferability of a complicated shape of an aspheric surface, thus, it can cope also with an image pickup element with high resolution and high performance.
As an image pickup lens used in an image pickup device, there have been popularly known an optical system that is composed of lenses made of glass and an optical system that is composed of glass lenses and lenses made of resin material. Conventional optical systems are not enough to be used particularly for an image pickup device of a mobile terminal, and achieving both of much more compactness of the optical system and mass productivity required for the mobile terminal has been strongly demanded. However, it has been difficult to realize this requirement at low cost.
For overcoming the problem, there has been suggested the following method of manufacturing a large amount of camera modules. In the method, a large amount of arrayed lens elements are simultaneously formed through a replica method on a wafer in a size of several inches. After the wafer is joined with a sensor wafer, the joined body is cut to form a large amount of camera modules. Lenses manufactured by this method are sometimes called wafer-scale lenses, and camera modules manufactured by this method are sometimes called wafer-scale camera modules. Concerning such a technology, an image pickup lens in which a lens portion or lens portions are formed on a lens substrate is disclosed in each of Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2.
Patent Literature 1: JP-A No. 2006-323365
Patent Literature 2: JP-B No. 3929479

Image pickup lens including at least one lens block wherein a lens portion or lens portions are formed on a lens substrate, image pickup device, digital apparatus and manufacturing method of image pickup lens


A plasma arc torch which includes a torch body having a nozzle mounted relative to an electrode in the body to define a plasma chamber. The torch body includes a plasma flow path for directing a plasma gas to the plasma chamber in which a plasma arc is formed. The nozzle includes a hollow, body portion and a substantially solid, head portion defining an exit orifice. The torch also includes a shield attached to the torch body. The shield has a head portion and a body portion which defines a shield exit orifice that has an inlet and an outlet. The shield exit orifice is dimensioned such that the head portion of the nozzle extends, at least in part, to a position between the inlet and the outlet of the shield exit orifice. This configuration produces a substantially columnar flow of shield gas that does not substantially interfere with the plasma arc and prevents a substantial portion of splattered molten metal produced during marking or cutting of the workpiece from reaching the nozzle.

Plasma arc torches are widely used in the cutting or marking of metallic materials. A plasma torch generally includes an electrode mounted therein, a nozzle with a central exit orifice mounted within a torch body, electrical connections, passages for cooling and arc control fluids, a swirl ring to control fluid flow patterns in the plasma chamber formed between the electrode and nozzle, and a power supply. The torch produces a plasma arc, which is a constricted ionized jet of a plasma gas with high temperature and high momentum. Gases used in the torch can be non-reactive (e.g. argon or nitrogen), or reactive (e.g. oxygen or air).
In operation, a pilot arc is first generated between the electrode (cathode) and the nozzle (anode). Generation of the pilot arc may be by means of a high frequency, high voltage signal coupled to a DC power supply and the torch or any of a variety of contact starting methods.
One known configuration of a plasma arc torch includes an electrode and a nozzle mounted in a special relationship relative to a shield. The nozzle is surrounded by the shield and aligned relative to a longitudinal axis extending through the nozzle and the shield such that the nozzle orifice and shield orifice are concentric relative to one another. A relatively small plasma gas flow passes through the torch and exits through the nozzle orifice. A relatively large shield gas flow passes through the space between the nozzle and the shield. The plasma gas flow passes through the nozzle exit orifice along the axis, while the shield gas flow passes through the gap at an angle relative to the axis. As such the shield flow impinges on the plasma gas flow. After impingement, the plasma arc and shield flows pass through the shield orifice together. This process can disrupt the plasma gas flow, encouraging shield gas entrainment which can result in a degraded cutting performance.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide an improved torch tip for a plasma arc torch, which provides a substantially columnar shield flow that does not substantially interfere with the plasma arc.

Plasma arc torch tip providing a substantially columnar shield flow


Some embodiments provide a method for a hardware forwarding element. The method receives a packet to add to a buffer. The packet is assigned a packet class. The method determines an amount of buffer space available for the assigned packet class. Different packet classes have different amounts of buffer space available in the buffer. When the available buffer space for the assigned packet class is large enough for the received packet, the method adds the packet to the buffer.

Buffers are commonly used in network forwarding elements as temporary storages for data. For instance, a network forwarding element might use buffers to store packet data, either after that data is initially received (before the data is processed) or before the data is sent back out over the network. Forwarding elements may also use buffers to store packet data at various intermediate stages in packet processing. As hardware forwarding elements with easily configurable packet processing pipelines emerge, it would be beneficial to have various aspects of the buffer usage be configurable as well.

Buffer space availability for different packet classes


The present disclosure provides a gate on array (GOA) circuit. Each stages of GOA units of the GOA circuit includes a pull-up control unit, a hand-down unit, a feedback unit, a first pull-up unit, a second pull-up unit, a bootstrap capacitor unit, a pull-down unit, and a pull-down control unit. The bootstrap capacitor and the second pull-up unit of the GOA circuit make the first node have a non-symmetrical waveform. The right part of the waveform is as high as the highest voltage potential of the first node so that the decline time of the scan signal is reduced and the performance of the GOA circuit is improved.

Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays possess advantages such as self-luminance, backlight not required, high contrast, thin thickness, wide viewing angles, quick response, flexibility and bendability, wide operating temperature range, and simpler structure and manufacturing processes. Therefore, OLED displays are viewed as a progressive application of flat displays for the next generation.
Gate on array (GOA), i.e. gate driver on array, technology utilizes manufacturing processes of thin-film transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display to dispose gate scan driving circuits on a TFT array substrate for implementing sequential scan driving line by line. Thus, manufacturing cost is reduced and bezel of panel becomes narrower. GOA technology is applied on various displays. GOA circuits perform two basic functions. The first function is outputting gate scan driving signals to drive gate lines of panels and turning on TFTs in display areas for charging pixels. The second function is being a level shifter which sequentially outputs a gate scan driving signal of a next stage under the control of a clock signal after the gate scan driving signal of the present stage is outputted. GOA technology can reduce bonding processes so that the manufacturing cost can be reduced and the liquid crystal display panels are more suitable for narrower bezels.
OLED panels definitely require thinner thickness and variable structure on the basis of a characteristic of self-luminance GOA technology forms scan driving circuits together with the same manufacturing processes as forming the TFTs while an external circuit in GOA technology only provides several signals. Thus, cost of manufacturing is reduced, the yields of modules are enhanced, and the cost of integrated circuits (ICs) is reduced.
For large-size high-resolution display panels, due to the short effective charging time, the falling times of the waveforms outputted by the GOA circuits must be as short as possible. If the falling time is too long, switching TFTs in pixel circuits cannot be turned off in time. The voltage data is difficult to store in the storage capacitor which causes missing charging of data. The conventional method of reducing the charging time is to generate an additional right side waveform symmetrical to an output waveform a node Q. Electric charge is discharged by a buffer TFT. However, the fall times are still too long for high-resolution products thus performance requirements cannot be satisfied.

TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.


An object is to provide a communication terminal capable of using a newly-generated network slice or service. A communication terminal (10) according to the present disclosure includes a communication unit (11) configured to receive a parameter related to SM-NSSAI (Session Management-Network Slice Selection Assistance Information) from a core network when subscriber information of the communication terminal itself managed in the core network or a location of the communication terminal itself is changed, and a control unit (12) configured to update NSSAI by using the parameter related to the SM-NSSAI, the NSSAI being managed to select a network slice.

A network slice is a collection of logical network functions and a collection of resources for implementing a communication service in a certain use case. Network slicing is a process for dividing one physical network into a plurality of slices.
Non-patent Literature 1 discloses a process in which a UE (User Equipment) uses NSSAI (Network Slice Selection Assistance Information). Specifically, it discloses that the UE selects Network Slice Instances (NSIs). NSSAI includes a plurality of parameters. The NSSAI is set in the LIE in advance.
Further, the NSSAI is a collection of SM-NSSAIs (Session Management-NSSAIs). The SM-NSSAI further includes an SST (Slice/Service type) and an SD (Slice Differentiator).
The SST indicates features of a network slice and behavior of a network related to a service provided by the network slice. The SD is information that complements the SST that is used when a network slice instance is selected.

Communication terminal, core network apparatus, communication system, information management method, and computer readable medium


A system and method for providing lighting effects comprises an arrangement of low power lights mounted on a frame having an opening through which a camera can protrude. In one embodiment, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or light-emitting crystals (LECs) are arranged on the frame in a pattern of concentric circles, with the frame being ring-shaped and having a circular opening through which a camera can protrude, and a mounting bracket and assembly for attaching the frame to a camera. The LEDs or LECs may be electronically controllable so as to provide differing intensity levels, either collectively, individually, or in designated groups, and may be strobed, dimmed or otherwise controlled according to manually selected or programmable patterns.

1) Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention relates to lighting systems as may be used in film, television, close-up photography, and other applications.
2) Background
Lighting systems are an essential part of the film and photography industries. Proper illumination is necessary when filming movies, television shows, or commercials, shooting video clips, or taking still photographs, whether such activities are carried out indoors or outdoors. A desired illumination effect may also be desired for live performances on stage or in any other type of setting.
The general purpose of a lighting system is to illuminate a subject to achieve a desired effect. Often it is desirable to obtain even lighting that minimizes shadows. It may be necessary or desired to obtain lighting that has a certain tone, warmth or intensity. It may also be necessary or desired to have certain lighting effects, such as colorized lighting, strobed lighting, gradually brightening or dimming illumination, or different intensity illumination in different fields of view.
Various conventional techniques for lighting in the film and television industries, and various illustrations of lighting equipment, are described, for example, in Lighting for Television and Film by Gerald Millerson (3rd ed. 1991), at pages 96-131 and 295-349, and in Professional Lighting Handbook by Verne Carlson (2nd ed. 1991), at pages 15-40.
As one example illustrating a need for an improved lighting effects system, it can be quite challenging to provide proper illumination for the lighting of faces in television and film, especially for situations where close-ups are required. Often, certain parts of the face must be seen clearly. The eyes, in particular, can provide a challenge for proper lighting. Light reflected in the eyes is known as xe2x80x9ceye lightsxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9ccatch lights.xe2x80x9d Without enough reflected light, the eyes may seem dull. A substantial amount of effort has been expended in constructing lighting systems that have the proper directivity, intensity, tone and other characteristics to result in aesthetically pleasing xe2x80x9ceye lightsxe2x80x9d while also meeting other lighting requirements, and without adversely impacting lighting of other features.
Because of the varied settings in which lighting systems are used, the conventional practice in the film, commercial and related industries is for a lighting system, when needed, to be custom designed for each shoot. This practice allows the director or photographer to have available a lighting system that is of the necessary side, and that provides the desired intensity, warmth, tone and effects. Designing and building customized lighting systems is often an expensive and time-consuming process.
The most common lighting systems in film, commercial and photographic settings use either incandescent or fluorescent light elements. However, conventional lighting systems have drawbacks or limitations which can limit their flexibility or effectiveness. For example, incandescent lights have been employed in lighting systems in which they have been arranged in various configurations, including on ring-shaped mounting frames. However, the mounting frames used in incandescent lighting systems are often large and ponderous, making them difficult to move around and otherwise work with. A major drawback of incandescent lighting systems is the amount of heat generating by the incandescent bulbs. Because of the heat intensity, subjects cannot be approached too closely without causing discomfort to the subject and possibly affecting the subject""s make-up or appearance. Also, the heat from the incandescent bulbs can heat the air in the proximity of the camera, cause a xe2x80x9cwaveringxe2x80x9d effect to appear on the film or captured image. Incandescent lighting may cause undesired side effects when filming, particularly where the intensity level is adjusted. As the intensity level of incandescent lights change, their hue changes as well. Film is especially sensitive to these changes in hue, significantly more so than the human eye.
In addition to these problems or drawbacks, incandescent lighting systems typically draw quite a bit of power, especially for larger lighting systems which may be needed to provide significant wide area illumination. Incandescent lighting systems also generally require a wall outlet or similar standard source of alternating current (AC) power.
Fluorescent lighting systems generate much less heat than incandescent lighting systems, but nevertheless have their own drawbacks or limitations. For example, fluorescent lighting systems, like incandescent lighting systems, are often large and cumbersome. Fluorescent bulbs are generally tube-shaped, which can limit the lighting configuration or mounting options. Circular fluorescent bulbs are also commercially available, and have been used in the past for motion picture lighting.
A major drawback with fluorescent lighting systems is that the low lighting levels can be difficult or impossible to achieve due to the nature of fluorescent lights. When fluorescent lights are dimmed, they eventually begin to flicker or go out as the supplied energy reaches the excitation threshold of the gases in the fluorescent tubes. Consequently, fluorescent lights cannot be dimmed beyond a certain level, greatly limiting their flexibility. In addition, fluorescent lights suffer from the same problem as incandescent lights when their intensity level is changed; that is, they tend to change in hue as the intensity changes, and film is very sensitive to alterations in lighting hue.
Typically, incandescent or fluorescent lighting systems are designed to be placed off to the side of the camera, or above or below the camera. Because of such positioning, lighting systems may provide uneven or off-center lighting, which can be undesirable in many circumstances.
Because of their custom nature, both incandescent lighting systems and fluorescent lighting systems can be difficult to adapt to different or changing needs of a particular film project or shoot. For example, if the director or photographer decides that a different lighting configuration should be used, or wants to experiment with different types of lighting, it can be difficult, time-consuming and inconvenient to re-work or modify the customized lighting setups to provide the desired effects. Furthermore, both incandescent lighting systems and fluorescent lighting systems are generally designed for placement off to the side of the camera, which can result in shadowing or uneven lighting.
A variety of lighting apparatus have been proposed for the purpose of inspecting objects in connection with various applications, but these lighting apparatus are generally not suitable for the movie, film or photographic industries. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,417 describes a surface illuminator for directing illumination on an object (i.e., a single focal point). The surface illuminator has a large number of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) arranged in concentric circles on a lamp-supporting housing having a circular bore through which a microscope or other similar instrument can be positioned. The light from the LEDs is directed to a single focal point by either of two methods. According to one technique disclosed in the patent, a collimating lens is used to angle the light from each ring of LEDs towards the single focal point. According to another technique disclosed in the patent, each ring of LEDs is angled so as to direct the light from each ring on the single focal point.
Other examples of lighting apparatus used for the purpose of inspecting objects are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,893,223 and 5,038,258. In both of these patents, LEDs are placed on the interior of a spherical surface, so that their optical axes intersect at a desired focal point.
Lighting apparatus specially adapted for illumination of objects to be inspected are generally not suitable for the special needs of the film, commercial or photographic industries, or with live stage performances, because the lighting needs in these fields differs substantially from what is offered by object inspection lighting apparatus. For example, movies and commercials often require illumination of a much larger area that what object inspection lighting systems typically provide, and even still photography often requires that a relatively large subject be illuminated.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide a lighting apparatus or lighting effects system well suited for use in the film, commercial and photographic industries, and with live stage performances, that overcomes one or more of the foregoing disadvantages, drawbacks or limitations.
The invention is generally directed in one aspect to a novel lighting effects system and method as may be used, for example, in film and photography applications.
In one embodiment, a lighting effects system comprises an arrangement of low power lights mounted on a frame having an opening through which a camera can protrude. The low power lights may be embodied as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or light emitting crystals (LECs), for example, arranged on the frame in a pattern of concentric circles or other uniform or non-uniform pattern. The frame preferably has a circular opening through which a camera can protrude, and one or more mounting brackets for attaching the frame to a camera. The low power lights may be electronically controllable so as to provide differing intensity levels, either collectively, individually, or in designated groups, and, in some embodiments, may be controlled through preprogrammed patterns.
Further embodiments, variations and enhancements are also disclosed herein.


A stacking apparatus that stacks chip assemblies each having a plurality of chips disposed continuously with circuit patterns and electrodes, includes: a plurality of stages each allowed to move arbitrarily, on which the chip assemblies are placed; a storage unit that stores an estimated extent of change in a position of an electrode at each chip, expected to occur as heat is applied to the chip assemblies placed on the plurality of stages during a stacking process; and a control unit that sets positions of the plurality of stages to be assumed relative to each other during the stacking process based upon the estimated extent of change in the position of the electrode at each chip provided from the storage unit and position information indicating positions of individual chips formed at the chip assemblies and controls at least one of the plurality of stages.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stacking apparatus that stacks chip blocks each having a circuit pattern formed therein, one on top of another so as to assure electrical conduction of electrodes at the individual chip blocks and it also relates to a method for stacking integrated circuit elements.
2. Description of Related Art
Increasingly higher speed and higher performance in CMOS-FET (complementary MOS field effect transistors), the basic component in semiconductor devices today, have been realized through supermicro processing technologies, the primary example of which is lithography. However, beyond the 45 to 65 nm node range (when the DRAM gate half pitch is in the 45 to 65 nm range or beyond) the signal delay in the global wiring used to couple the individual IPs (functional circuit assemblies referred to as intellectual properties) within a chip becomes a crucial issue to be dealt with.
The conventional countermeasures having been taken so far against the signal delay, i.e., the use of wiring constituted with a low-resistance material such as Cu and the use of a low-K material to lower the capacitance, are no longer sufficiently effective and it is now necessary to use an additional compensating circuit (repeater). However, the addition of the compensating circuit inevitably increases the chip size and also increases the power consumption.
At the same time, to keep pace with the increasing popularity of portable telephones and the like, even smaller LSIs with more diverse functions are required. While the use of three-dimensional integrated circuits achieved by stacking vertically chips having formed therein two-dimensional circuit patterns is becoming increasingly common as a solution to meet those requirements, chips may be conceivably formed through stacking by adopting any of several different modes.
In a first mode, good LSI chips are selected, they are mounted in a low-profile package and then the individual packages are stacked one on top of another. In a second mode, entire chips or wafers are stacked together. Each mode has its own advantages and disadvantages.
While the yield can be sustained at a certain level by adopting the first mode, in which good chips are selected and stacked, the package cost is bound to be significant. In addition, additional connecting wiring must be disposed between the chips and the packages, setting limits to the signal speed that can be achieved.
The second mode may be achieved through either of two different methods. In the first method, after chips are stacked, pads at each chip are connected through wiring (wire-bonded). While this method is very advantageous, in particular in conjunction with inexpensive chips or memory modules, the chips are ultimately connected through wiring and thus, a wiring delay is bound to occur. For this reason, this option is not suitable for integrated circuits that have to assure high speed transmission. In the second method, through electrodes are mounted in advance in chips and they are directly connected via bumps or the like on the chips.
Accordingly, various next-generation systems for overcoming the limits to miniaturization set in consideration of the device cost and the design capacity requirements by, for instance, adopting special transistor structures, e.g., SOIs (silicon-on-insulator) structures and strained Si channel structures or adopting optical wiring have been put into practical use or have been proposed.
In view of the signal delay occurring in the ultimate mounting area, the Si through electrode system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,612,983 is considered to be very promising. This system is also effective when adopted in an integrated circuit that transmits signals in parallel at high speed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,270,261 and Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. H7-14982 disclose methods for achieving such integrated circuits by stacking wafers having formed therein circuit patterns one on top of another and achieving electrical conduction through direct contact of the chip electrodes formed at the individual wafers.


Semiconductor device and the manufacturing method thereof are disclosed herein. An exemplary semiconductor device comprises a substrate, at least two gate structures disposed over the substrate, each of the at least two gate structures including a gate electrode and a spacer disposed along sidewalls of the gate electrode, wherein the spacer includes a refill portion and a bottom portion, the refill portion of the spacer has a funnel shape such that a top surface of the refill portion of the spacer is larger than a bottom surface of the refill portion of the spacer, and a source/drain contact disposed over the substrate and between the spacers of the at least two gate structures.

The integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced exponential growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs, where each generation has smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. In the course of IC evolution, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while geometry size (i.e., the smallest component (or line) that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased. This scaling down process generally provides benefits by increasing production efficiency and lowering associated costs. However, such scaling down has also increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs and, for these advances to be realized, similar developments in IC processing and manufacturing are needed. For example, it has been observed that a shorter path between the metal gate and the source/drain (S/D) contact may be induced due to the hard mask overlay shifting during the formation the S/D contact and the tilting profile of the S/D contact (a top surface of the S/D contact is larger than a bottom surface of the S/D contact). Current leakage may occur due to the shorter path which may induce lower yield during circuit probing and thus decrease the performance of the semiconductor device. Accordingly, improvements are needed.

Semiconductor device with funnel shape spacer and methods of forming the same

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.


A coastal oil recovery system and method for clean up of land based contamination with a containment device having a reverse funnel shaped top hood, rigidly attached to vertical walled sides, a plurality of ground screws to pull the containment device into the soil, a plurality of water jets to fill the containment device and float oil from contaminated soil and vegetation upward into the top hood for extraction by discharge hoses. Due to the shape of the top hood, the depth of the floating oil will increase as it reaches the top of the top hood, facilitating extraction.

This invention relates to systems and methods for fast recovery of oil and waste from "dry land" including beaches, marshland, grasses, ditches and other surfaces including but not limited to coastal lands without physically removing the land.
Numerous devices and methods have been introduced in the past to deal with the environmental devastation caused by the spillage of oil and petroleum substances in waterways, seas and oceans. The need for effective devices and methods has never been more needed than now in light of the terrible oil spill/leak currently threatening the Gulf Coast of the United States. In addition to cleaning up the waterways, seas and oceans, there is also a desperate need to clean up beaches, marshland, grasses, ditches and other coastal surfaces ultimately spoiled by the spillage of oil and petroleum substances.
Unfortunately, there are few devices designed to get oil or waste from "dry land". Aside from the very involved process of "vacuuming" up the oil with a hose, the only other way is to remove the land with a "Bobcat" or similar land excavating vehicle.


A microfluidic continuous flow device comprising a channel which comprises a first and a second area wherein the first area of the channel is a compartment which is defined by partitioning elements and the second area of the channel is a space outside the compartment; wherein through passages which are formed between the partitioning elements are dimensioned such as to retain a biological material and optionally a sustained release composition which can be comprised in the compartment within the compartment; wherein the channel has a first inlet to the compartment through which biological material can be introduced into the compartment; a second inlet for introducing a cultivation medium into a space of the channel arranged outside of the compartment, and an outlet. The present invention further refers to methods of using the devices of the present invention and kits comprising the microfluidic continuous flow devices of the present invention.

Cells exist within a complex microenvironment consisting of soluble factors (e.g. growth factors, cytokines, and chemokines), an insoluble extracellular matrix which contains proteins for cell adhesion and cell-matrix interactions, and neighboring cells that allow for extensive cell-cell interactions (Lutolf, M. P., Hubbell, J. A., et al., 2005, Nat. Biotechnol., vol. 23, no. 1, p. 47). In cell culture, the microenvironment experienced by the cells can reflect the physiological relevance to in vivo environment and affect cellular behavior (Bhadriraju, K., Chen, C. S., 2002, Drug Discovery Today, vol. 7, no. 11, p. 612). Currently, plenty of powerful tools have been developed at our convenience to create controllable microenvironments that mimic in vivo situations for experimental and therapeutic applications. Progenitor and stem cells for regeneration of desired tissue act in synergy with the soluble factors present in the extracellular microenvironment to navigate multiple differentiation pathways and produce corresponding cell types (Langer, R., Vacanti, J. P., 1993, Science, vol. 260, no. 5110, p. 920). Thus, the microenvironment experienced by stem cells, or known as stem cell niche, is considered to be meaningful in tissue engineering.
Bhadriraju, K. and Chen, C. S. (2002, Drug Discovery Today, vol. 7, no. 11, p. 612) has demonstrated that engineering in vivo-like cultures by creating cellular microenvironments can improve cell-based drug testing.
In order to create more in vivo-like microenvironments for cell culture, both natural and synthetic biomaterials have been chosen for fabricating platforms. Natural ECM, such as Matrigel™ (Kleinman, H. K., Martin, G. R., 2005, Semin. Cancer Biol., vol. 15, no. 5, p. 378) and small intestinal submucosa (SIS) (Badylak, S. F., 2004, Transplat Immunol., vol. 12, no. 3, p. 367), which contain a variety of encapsulated growth factors, have been isolated. They can serve as valuable tools to study the interplay between microenvironments and consequent cellular responses. It has been discovered that vascular endothelial cells cultured in Matrigel™ are able to form capillaries with a central lumen (Grant, D. S., Tashiro, K., 1989, Cell, vol. 58, no. 5, p. 933). However, natural systems complicate the process of identifying the role of individual factors in tissue formation.
Therefore, a need exists to provide further systems which allow creation of in vivo like cell micro environments.

AGENCY FOR SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & RESEARCH


A piston pump as a return pump of a slip-controlled, hydraulic vehicle braking system is disclosed. There is a mushroom-shaped shut-off body as a spring-loaded outlet valve, the shaft thereof extending through a center hole of a tubular damper piston. The shut-off body is movable transversely to the opening and closing direction thereof, so that said shut-off body aligns with a valve seat upon closing. Upon opening, the damper piston forces brake fluid out of a damping chamber in which it is housed so that an opening movement of the outlet valve is dampened.

The disclosure relates to a piston pump for a hydraulic vehicle braking system. Piston pumps of this type are known from slip-controlled vehicle braking systems and they are also designated as recirculating pumps.
A piston pump of this type is disclosed in the laid-open publication DE 10 2006 035 055 A1. The known piston pump has a pump piston which can be driven in a to-and-fro lifting movement in a pump bore. What serves as the drive is a rotatably drivable eccentric which is arranged on one end face of the pump piston and against the circumference of which the pump piston bears with its end face.
To control a brake fluid throughflow direction, the known piston pump has two spring-loaded nonreturn valves, one of which forms an inlet valve and the other of which an outlet valve of the piston pump. Balls are customary as shut-off bodies of the nonreturn valves. In the known piston pump, one of the two nonreturn valves has a disk-shaped shut-off body, to be precise the inlet valve which is arranged on an eccentric-remote end face of the pump piston.

Discharge valve and damper for a piston pump


A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for managing a merger or an acquisition. A plurality of statistics are tracked relating to a merger or an acquisition for reporting purposes. Further, a plurality of decisions are stored relating to the merger or acquisition. Such decisions may be accessed by a plurality of users involved in the merger or acquisition. In addition, a plurality of items associated with the merger or acquisition are inputted into a database. Each item is associated with at least one of the users. The users may be search for the items in the database.

In the past, instructional databases have been commonly used to provide users with a plethora of information. Such information may be used to execute various tasks or enable the users to accomplish a goal. Often, such instructional databases may be stored on a centralized server and provide access to a plurality of client computers via a network. In some instances, such network is the Internet in which case the database is accessed via a web site.
Such prior art instructional databases, however, often utilize a conventional hypertext system which makes it particularly difficult to navigate the information in a progression that the original designers intended without sacrificing the ability of the user to freely navigate the information. Further, none of such prior art instructional databases allow an effective exchange of ideas in order to achieve a goal at hand.
Still yet another feature that the prior art instructional databases lack is the ability to track a progression of an effort to achieve an intended goal. Finally, the prior art instructional databases have never been used to facilitate a merger and acquisition situation.


A circuit is configured to supply a first gate voltage (PG1) at a first voltage bias (VP1) to a source of a first transistor providing an output (WLS), providing the first voltage bias (VP1) to a second transistor and supplying a second voltage bias (VN1) and a second gate voltage (NG1) to a third transistor, the second transistor coupled in series to the third transistor and in parallel with the first transistor, to supply a third voltage bias (VP2) and a third gate voltage (PG2) to a fourth transistor, and a fourth voltage bias (VN2) and a fourth gate voltage (NG2) to a fifth transistor, the fourth transistor coupled in series to the fifth transistor, and the fourth and fifth transistors coupled to a gate of the second transistor, and to provide a fifth voltage bias (VN3) to a line connecting the third transistor to the fifth transistor.

Programmable non-volatile memories (NVM) are useful in many applications because they retain stored information even when power is removed from the memory. There are many different types of programmable non-volatile memory including, but not limited to, programmable read only memory (PROM), electrically erasable ROM (EEPROM) and Flash memory. These memory types have several methods of charge storage including but not limited to placing charge on a Floating Gate or Silicon-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon (SONOS) storage material or node.
Like other types of memory, programmable NVMs are usually constructed as an array of bit cells arranged in rows and columns. For programmable NVMs, high voltage signals are used to erase and write data to the memory cells of the non-volatile memory. These high voltage signals include voltages which are outside of a normal power supply range of the integrated circuit. For example, a high voltage signal for newer devices includes high voltage levels VPOS and VNEG (e.g., +4.7V and −3.6V), which are applied to SONOS devices for program and erase modes. The high voltage signals applied to the SONOS device is the sum of VPOS and VNEG, and thus, the voltage bias may reach up to 8.3V across the terminals.
As the interest for smaller and faster devices has increased, interest in SONOS device scale down has increased as well. However, the aforementioned high voltage signals used on devices with thicker gate oxides may cause stresses on the devices with thinner gate oxides. Although additional devices can be employed to mitigate such stresses, inclusion of such devices may increase costs and complicate circuit fabrication.


A device for filtering and purifying tap water in combination with a conventional water cooler and bottle includes a generally circular annular flange having an outer diameter sufficient to prevent insertion of the flange into the water-receiving chamber of a conventional water cooler, and having an inner diameter dimensioned to accept a water bottle for use in the water cooler, and having a rigidity capable of supporting the water bottle. Depending from the flange, a generally cylindrical canister of water-impervious material, having an outer diameter and length is dimensioned to fit within the water-receiving chamber. A lower retaining means, capable of passing water while retaining a filter medium, is positioned within the canister at its lower end. A silver-impregnated activated carbon filter medium, capable of removing chlorine and absorbable organic chemicals from potable water, positioned on the upper surface of the lower retaining element. An upper retaining element capable of passing water and excluding particulate matter, and capable of retaining the filter medium, is positioned on the upper surface of the filter medium. The distance between the upper perforated panel and the flange, and the inner diameter of the canister, are selected to provide for a flow rate of at least 0.03 oz/sec through the filter device when the filter device is inserted into a water cooler and the neck of a water-containing water bottle placed inverted in the top end of the device.

Modern water supplies are subject to contamination from various agents, both environmental and industrial in origin. Although public water supplies are regulated by various governmental agencies, and are ostensibly examined for compliance with standards of purity, such standards are not always met. Occasionally, water supplies are contaminated by illegal dumping of hazardous wastes, which may escape detection if such occurrence falls between inspections. The result, particularly in regions proximal to manufacturing enterprises or waste disposal sites, is that drinking water is subject to contamination from hazardous chemicals leached from the soil or deposited from smoke or vapor. The presence of organic chemicals and minerals often causes, in addition to disagreeable tastes, actual health hazards. As a result, the bottled water industry has experienced nearly explosive growth over the last several years.
As an alternative to foul-tasting, possibly harmful tap water, many consumers have turned to services which provide bottled water in filtered form, often sold as "natural spring water" or the like. The service typically provides a free-standing water cooler, and delivers water in 5 or 3 gallon bottles periodically. The cooler, a device but little changed over the last several decades, receives the bottle and chills and/or heats a quantity of water, maintaining it at a suitable temperature for dispensing. The cooler typically comprises a tall free-standing case containing refrigeration means. The top surface generally has a circular aperture surrounded by a cushioned ring for receiving and supporting the water bottle. In use, a filled bottle is uncapped and inverted into the cooler, so that the bottle comes to rest with the open mouth within the cooler. A quantity of water pours from the bottle, filling a water-receiving chamber immediately under the cooler's upper surface up to a level which touches the neck of the bottle and halts the flow of water out of the inverted bottle. The water may be cooled in this chamber, and held until dispensed by activating the outlet.
The drawback to such a service, however, is expense. Bottled water must be transported and delivered, whether by the consumer or by the service. "Spring water" and the like is frequently transported considerable distances. Also, reliance upon a service to deliver water leaves the consumer at the mercy of the service's delivery schedule. Thus, a need exists for a device to provide filtered, drinkable water while avoiding the need to transport heavy bottles.
Frahm, U.S. Pat. No. 4,181,243 disclosed a device for filtering water which comprises a receptacle having a spigot, wherein the spigot is provided with a filter device having activated charcoal sandwiched between two layers of filter paper held in a cylinder attached to the spigot inside the receptacle. Although this device is capable of use with standard water bottles, it is not easily adaptable to use with a conventional water cooler.
Console et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,145,291 disclosed a silver-impregnated ceramic device for sterilizing, but not purifying, water stored in a tank or dispenser for drinking.
Senyal, U.S. Pat. No. 2,335,458 disclosed a water filtration device for use with bottled water comprising a long cylinder filled with activated carbon, a filter, and a stopper and tube fitted within the bottleneck. In operation, purifying and flocculating chemicals are added to the bottle and the bottle inverted over the filter. After standing, a valve is opened, and the water allowed to pass to the bottom of the cylinder through a tube, after which it percolates upward through the activated carbon, and is released into a receptacle for dispensing.
Hagg, U.S. Pat. No. 967,905 disclosed a water purifying device having a cone-shaped baffle to prevent sediment from clogging the filtering medium.
Dick, U.S. Pat. No. 2,389,185 disclosed a filter device adapted for attachment to the neck of a canteen or other water bottle, in combination with a sterilizing agent (e.g., chlorine), and preferably a sedimenting agent such as diatomaceous earth. The filter device allows troops to use surface water, "no matter what its condition."
Jaye, U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,520 disclosed a water jug having an integral filter cartridge. Water poured into the top of the container passes through a disk containing activated charcoal sandwiched between sheets of filter paper, and into a small reservoir adjacent to the spigot.
Paddock, U.S. Pat. No. 444,013 disclosed a water pitcher with an internal filter for ice water. The filter comprised a cylinder having a filter medium at the bottom, and supported on the pitcher base.
Miller, U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,274 disclosed a water filter for use with a pitcher or water bottle, comprising a layer of activated carbon sandwiched between two filter pads, and encased in a frustro-conical housing.
Gelman et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,438 disclosed a water filter unit for attachment to a water faucet, comprising an activated carbon layer supported on a micron filter, and covered with a filter having a pore size larger than the supporting filter but smaller than the carbon particle size.
Tyson et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,024,991 disclosed a device adapted for positioning within a bottle neck to impart silver ions to water, thereby preventing bacterial contamination of the water.
White, U.S. Pat. No. 2,502,298 disclosed a device for filtering water from one bottle into another bottle, comprising a stand, a funnel, where the stand and funnel are dimensioned to seal together and prevent the funnel from overflowing during the filtering operation.
Behrman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,779 disclosed a device for filtering water from one bottle into another bottle, comprising a stand, a funnel containing a filter medium (e.g., activated carbon) sandwiched between two layers of filter paper, and valves for regulating the water flow rate out of the upper bottle, and from the funnel into the receiving bottle.
Van Eweyk, U.S. Pat. No. 2,167,225 disclosed a device for filtering water from one bottle into another bottle, comprising a cylinder capable of supporting a full bottle, filled with a filter medium (e g., silver-impregnated partially exhausted zeolite). The cylinder is screwed onto the empty receiving bottle, and the filled supply bottle is inverted into the open mouth of the filter cylinder.
Hankammer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,457 disclosed another water pitcher having a filter medium encased in the lid portion of the pitcher. Water is added to the pitcher through the lid, where it is filtered and passed to the main body of the pitcher until it is dispensed.


Providing continuous data protection includes maintaining a database having substantially all data modifications made to a primary volume over a recovery interval. The database is maintained in conjunction with a copying operation where the data of the primary volume are mirrored to a remote volume to permit recovery of mirrored data in the event of loss of primary volume data. The contents of the remote volume generally lag behind the contents of the primary volume by substantially the recovery interval. Providing continuous data protection also includes providing data roll-back to a precise point in time within the recovery interval by applying, to the contents of the remote volume, all data modifications in the database that occurred between the latest data modification to the remote volume and the precise point in time within the recovery interval. A time stamp mechanism of sufficient precision and granularity may be used.

Host processor systems may store and retrieve data using a storage system containing a plurality of host interface units (I/O modules), disk drives, and disk interface units (disk adapters). The host systems access the storage systems through a plurality of channels provided therewith. Host systems provide data and access control information through the channels to the storage system and the storage system provides data to the host systems also through the channels. The host systems do not address the disk drives of the storage system directly, but rather, access what appears to the host systems as a plurality of logical disk units. The logical disk units may or may not correspond to any one of the actual disk drives. Allowing multiple host systems to access the single storage system allows the host systems to share data stored therein.
In the operation of data processing systems, it is sometimes useful to restore data that has been lost or damaged, and thus it is a common feature of data storage systems to provide services and resources for backing up and restoring data. In a conventional backup technique, storage devices such as disk drives that are used in the execution of application programs are periodically backed up to backup devices, such as other disk drives or magnetic tape. Production devices or volumes are referred to herein as primary devices/volumes, and backup devices/volumes as secondary (remote) devices or volumes. One common backup approach is to perform a full backup of an entire primary volume at some relatively long interval (such as one week or one month) and an incremental backup at shorter intervals (such as daily), where the incremental backup only contains the data that has changed since the last full backup. Then, in the event of data loss, the data from the secondary (remote) device can be copied back to either the original or a replacement primary device, starting with the full backup copy and finishing with the incremental backup copy from the desired point in time to which the primary device is to be restored. Conventional backup techniques such as these may be effective in a disaster recovery scenario, in which it is desired to restore production volumes to their state at the time of occurrence of the disaster, as well as in the case of hardware or software malfunctions that cause data corruption, in which it may be desired to restore production volumes to some earlier time before the malfunction occurred and then re-start system operation.
One drawback of the conventional backup technique is the relative coarseness of the backup interval. The primary device can only be restored to points in time spaced apart by the incremental backup interval. When this interval is one day, for example, it is possible to lose an entire day's worth of data that was created after the most recent incremental backup. Such exposure to data loss is unacceptable in many data processing applications, such as on-line transaction processing for example.
In more sophisticated modern storage systems, mirroring is used in which data from a primary device is transferred to a remote device in a more continuous manner. Remote copying is a technique where, as data modifications (writes) are made to a primary volume, the modifications are transferred to a remote storage system where they are also made to a corresponding remote volume. In the event of data loss at the primary system, data can be copied from the remote volume to the original or a replacement primary volume in a recovery operation. Such mirroring techniques are generally for protection against disaster scenarios, in which the up-to-date remote volume can be used to restore the primary volume to its most recent state.
One well-known implementation of remote copying is called Extended Remote Copy or XRC, available from IBM Corporation. In XRC, as a host application issues a write I/O request to a primary XRC volume, the XRC function captures information such as the write address and data that are required by a system data mover (SDM) to create the write I/O operation on a remote volume in a separate remote storage system. Asynchronous to the application I/O request, the SDM communicates with the primary storage system and collects information for recent writes (also referred to as "updates"), then journalizes the updates into consistency groups that are written to the remote volume. A consistency group contains records that have an order of update preserved across multiple logical control units within a storage system, and across multiple storage systems participating in the same XRC session. Consistency groups enable writes to the remote storage system to be done in the proper order, maintaining I/O consistency to a specific point in time.
While mirroring techniques can provide for full recovery in a disaster situation, they do not provide protection against data corruption such as can be caused by hardware or software malfunctions. As the remote volume is updated along with the primary volume, previous states of both the primary and remote volumes are lost, and thus it is not possible to restore the primary volume to any earlier point in time, such as to a time prior to a data-corrupting malfunction. Although conventional backups can be utilized for such restoration to earlier points in time, effectiveness is limited due to the relatively coarse granularity.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a mechanism that allows for recovering past versions of data at a precise point in time.


In an LDPC-code decoder, bit-processing units are provided, respectively, for the 1st to Mth rows of the parity-check matrix that is formed of (r×s) permuted matrices having respective arrays of (m×m). Each of bit-processing units sequentially updates bit information corresponding to column positions included in the respective rows of the parity-check matrix, a bit at each of the column positions being set to “1”.Parity-processing units update parity information corresponding to row positions in columns of each column block of the parity-check matrix, whenever the bit-processing units have finished bit update computation for m column positions in each column block, a bit at each row position being set to “1”.The bit-processing units starts next bit update computation after the parity-processing units finish parity update computation for m columns of the first column block of the parity-check matrix.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a decoder and decoding method for decoding low-density parity-check codes with parity check matrices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Attention has recently been paid to low-density parity-check codes (LDPC codes) used as error detection and correction codes. Message-passing algorithms are known as a technique for decoding LDPC codes from, for example, Andrew J. Blanksby and Chris J. Howland, "A 690-mW 1-Gb/s 1024-b, Rate-½ Low-Density Parity-Check Code Decoder", IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 37, No. 3, pp. 404-412, March 2002. In the message-passing algorithms, to decode LDPC codes, bit update computation, which is performed for each row of a check matrix (parity-check matrix), and parity update computation, which is performed for each column of the matrix, are iteratedly executed.
When decoding LDPC codes using the message-passing algorithms, bit update computation and parity update computation depend upon each other. Therefore, in the prior art, parity update computation of one loop cannot be started unless bit update computation of one loop is finished, and bit update computation of the next loop cannot be started unless parity update computation of the one loop is finished.

Decoder and decoding method for decoding low-density parity-check codes with parity check matrix


Methods are provided for treating high solids concentrated milk products to delay gelation of the concentrated milk products by minimizing the rate at which the viscosity of the concentrates increases during cold storage. By another approach, the methods described herein are effective to substantially reduce the viscosity of the concentrated milk products. The methods described herein advantageously increase the length of time the high solids milk concentrates remain fluid and pumpable during refrigerated shelf-life. The high solids concentrated milk products treated with the methods provided herein include about 33 to about 43 percent total solids. By one approach, the high solids concentrated milk products have a pH of about 4.6 to about 6.7, and include salt at about 0.25 to about 6 percent by weight of the concentrate.

Concentrated milk products are often desired because they allow for smaller quantities of milk to be stored and transported, thereby resulting in decreased storage and shipping costs. Concentrated milk products are generally prepared from whole milk, partly skimmed milk, skim milk, and combinations thereof.
Membrane filtration technology (e.g., microfiltration, ultrafiltration, and the like) is employed in the dairy industry to provide selective separation, concentration, and purification of protein components from a liquid dairy product such as raw milk. Membrane filtration technology involves separating the liquid dairy product into a first liquid component (i.e., permeate or ultrafiltrate) and a second liquid component (i.e., concentrate or retentate) by placing the dairy product in contact with a semi-permeable membrane. The liquid dairy product is usually contacted with the semi-permeable membrane under pressure and is typically subjected to turbulent flow so as to agitate the liquid adjacent the membrane and thereby allowing water and small molecular weight solutes (e.g., lactose) to pass through the membrane in order to obtain higher solids in the retained liquid concentrate. The concentrate, which does not flow through the semi-permeable membrane, has a higher protein concentration than the permeate. In conventional ultrafiltration processes, the permeate is collected and typically disposed of on the farm, used as livestock feed, disposed to the city wastewater, or converted to other forms. The retentate is typically treated until a milk concentrate with the desired enriched concentration factor and/or solids content is obtained.
On-farm ultrafiltration generally allows reduced volumes for the resulting concentrated milk products, thereby lowering shipping, storage, and refrigeration costs. Thus, milk intended for shipment is often concentrated by a factor of about 3 times (based on total solids) to obtain these benefits. Modern membrane filtration technology, however, allows efficient production of more than about 5 times (based on concentration of total solids) milk concentrates, which would, of course, allow for additional cost savings since less water would be shipped. However, 3.5 times and higher concentrates (especially 5 times and higher) are likely to gel during transportation or storage. Such age gelation characteristics generally limit the use of such higher concentrated products unless special and costly handling systems are available. For example, the concentrates can be heated at low temperatures prior to pumping but at the risk of increasing the microbial content of the concentrate so these products are typically used in cheese-making processes right after pumping.
Therefore, currently available concentrated milk products that are transported over long distances are generally limited to those having a total solids content below about 30 percent and a shelf life of about 5 days.

Methods for reducing viscosity and delaying onset of cold gelation of high solids concentrated milk products


In a “via first/trench last” approach for forming metal lines and vias in a metallization system of a semiconductor device, a combination of two hard masks may be used, wherein the desired lateral size of the via openings may be defined on the basis of spacer elements, thereby resulting in significantly less demanding lithography conditions compared to conventional approaches.

1. Field of the Invention
Generally, the present disclosure relates to microstructures, such as advanced integrated circuits, and, more particularly, to conductive structures, such as copper-based metallization layers, comprising wide metal lines connected to closely spaced narrow metal lines.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the fabrication of modern microstructures, such as integrated circuits, there is a continuous drive to steadily reduce the feature sizes of microstructure elements, thereby enhancing the functionality of these structures. For instance, in modern integrated circuits, minimum feature sizes, such as the channel length of field effect transistors, have reached the deep sub-micron range, thereby increasing performance of these circuits in terms of speed and/or power consumption and/or diversity of functions. As the size of individual circuit elements is reduced with every new circuit generation, thereby improving, for example, the switching speed of the transistor elements, the available floor space for interconnect lines electrically connecting the individual circuit elements is also decreased. Consequently, the dimensions of these interconnect lines are also reduced to compensate for a reduced amount of available floor space and for an increased number of circuit elements provided per unit die area as typically the number of interconnections required increases more rapidly than the number of circuit elements. Thus, a plurality of stacked "wiring" layers, also referred to as metallization layers, is usually provided, wherein individual metal lines of one metallization layer are connected to individual metal lines of an overlying or underlying metallization layer by so-called vias. Despite the provision of a plurality of metallization layers, reduced dimensions of the interconnect lines are necessary to comply with the enormous complexity of, for instance, modern CPUs, memory chips, ASICs (application specific ICs) and the like.
Advanced integrated circuits, including transistor elements having a critical dimension of 0.05 μm and even less, may, therefore, typically be operated at significantly increased current densities of up to several kA per cm2 in the individual interconnect structures despite the provision of a relatively large number of metallization layers owing to the significant number of circuit elements per unit area. Consequently, well-established materials, such as aluminum, are being replaced by copper and copper alloys, a material with significantly lower electrical resistivity and improved resistance to electromigration even at considerably higher current densities compared to aluminum. The introduction of copper into the fabrication of microstructures and integrated circuits comes along with a plurality of severe problems residing in copper's characteristic to readily diffuse in silicon dioxide and a plurality of low-k dielectric materials, which are typically used in combination with copper in order to reduce the parasitic capacitance within complex metallization layers. In order to provide the necessary adhesion and to avoid the undesired diffusion of copper atoms into sensitive device regions, it is, therefore, usually necessary to provide a barrier layer between the copper and the dielectric material in which the copper-based interconnect structures are embedded. Although silicon nitride is a dielectric material that effectively prevents the diffusion of copper atoms, selecting silicon nitride as an interlayer dielectric material is less than desirable, since silicon nitride exhibits a moderately high permittivity, thereby increasing the parasitic capacitance of neighboring copper lines, which may result in non-tolerable signal propagation delays. Hence, a thin conductive barrier layer that also imparts the required mechanical stability to the copper is usually formed so as to separate the bulk copper from the surrounding dielectric material, thereby reducing copper diffusion into the dielectric materials and also reducing the diffusion of unwanted species, such as oxygen, fluorine and the like, into the copper. Furthermore, the conductive barrier layers may also provide highly stable interfaces with the copper, thereby reducing the probability for significant material transport at the interface, which is typically a critical region in view of increased diffusion paths that may facilitate current induced material diffusion. Currently, tantalum, titanium, tungsten and their compounds with nitrogen and silicon and the like are preferred candidates for a conductive barrier layer, wherein the barrier layer may comprise two or more sub-layers of different composition so as to meet the requirements in terms of diffusion suppressing and adhesion properties.
Another characteristic of copper significantly distinguishing it from aluminum is the fact that copper may not be readily deposited in larger amounts by chemical and physical vapor deposition techniques, thereby requiring a process strategy that is commonly referred to as the damascene or inlaid technique. In the damascene process, first a dielectric layer is formed which is then patterned to include trenches and/or vias which are subsequently filled with copper, wherein, as previously noted, prior to filling in the copper, a conductive barrier layer is formed on sidewalls of the trenches and vias. The deposition of the bulk copper material into the trenches and vias is usually accomplished by wet chemical deposition processes, such as electroplating and electroless plating, thereby requiring the reliable filling of vias with an aspect ratio of 5 and more with a diameter of 0.3 μm or even less in combination with trenches having a width ranging from 0.1 μm to several μm. Electrochemical deposition processes for copper are well established in the field of electronic circuit board fabrication. However, for the dimensions of the metal regions in semiconductor devices, the void free filling of high aspect ratio vias is an extremely complex and challenging task, wherein the characteristics of the finally obtained copper-based interconnect structure significantly depend on process parameters, materials and geometry of the structure of interest. Since the basic geometry of interconnect structures is substantially determined by the design requirements and may, therefore, not be significantly altered for a given microstructure, it is of great importance to estimate and control the impact of materials, such as conductive and non-conductive barrier layers, of the copper microstructure and their mutual interaction on the characteristics of the interconnect structure so as to insure both high yield and the required product reliability.
In addition to achieving high production yield and superior reliability of the metallization system, it is also important to achieve a high level in production yield and reliability on the basis of a high overall throughput of the manufacturing process under consideration. For instance, the so-called dual damascene process is frequently used in which a via opening and a corresponding trench are filled in a common deposition sequence, thereby providing superior process efficiency.
In the damascene technique or inlaid technique, typically the patterning of the via opening and the trenches may require sophisticated lithography techniques since the shrinkage of critical dimensions in the device layer, i.e., for transistors and other semiconductor circuit elements, may also require a corresponding adaptation of the critical dimensions of the vias and metal lines to be formed in the metallization system. In some well-established process techniques, a patterning regime may be used, which may commonly be referred to as "via first/trench last" approach in which at least a portion of a via opening may be formed first on the basis of a specific etch mask and thereafter a corresponding trench mask may be provided in order to form a corresponding trench in the upper portion of the dielectric material, wherein, depending on the overall process strategy, during the trench etch process, the remaining portion of the via opening may also be completed, while, in other cases, the via opening may be provided such that it extends down to a bottom etch stop layer, which may then be opened after completing the trench etch process. Consequently, a complex patterning regime including at least two lithography steps may have to be used in which at least the lithography process for defining the lateral size of the via openings represents a highly critical process step, since the via openings may typically have critical dimensions in both lateral directions, requiring extremely sophisticated lithography tools and related process techniques. With shrinking critical dimensions, however, a precise definition of the lateral size of the via opening may become increasingly difficult, since, for instance, the thickness of sophisticated resist materials may have to be adapted to the reduced wavelength of sophisticated lithography tools, which may on the other hand restrict the etch resistivity of the resist mask. Furthermore, additional process steps may be required for planarizing the overall surface topography for forming the trench mask after etching at least a portion of the via opening into the dielectric material of the metallization layer under consideration. Consequently, many advantages in view of process efficiency of a dual damascene technique may be offset or even over-compensated for by the requirement for the very complex patterning regime, wherein, in particular, the precise definition of a required reduced target size of the via openings may necessitate extremely difficult and thus failure-prone lithography steps.
The present disclosure is directed to various methods that may avoid, or at least reduce, the effects of one or more of the problems identified above.

Method of forming a metallization system of a semiconductor device by using a hard mask for defining the via size


A silicon carbide semiconductor substrate includes a first main surface and a second main surface opposite to the first main surface. The first main surface has a maximum diameter of more than 100 mm, and the silicon carbide semiconductor substrate has a thickness of not more than 700 μm. A dislocation density is not more than 500/mm2 at an arbitrary region having an area of 1 mm2 in a region within 5 mm from an outer circumferential end portion of the first main surface toward a center of the first main surface. Accordingly, there is provided a silicon carbide semiconductor substrate allowing for suppression of generation of cracks.

In recent years, in order to attain high breakdown voltage, low loss, use under high temperature environment, and the like in a semiconductor device such as a MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor), silicon carbide has begun to be employed as a material of a semiconductor device. Silicon carbide is a wide band gap semiconductor having a band gap larger than that of silicon, which has been conventionally widely used as a material for semiconductor devices. Hence, by adopting silicon carbide as a material for a semiconductor device, the semiconductor device can have a high breakdown voltage, reduced on resistance, and the like. Further, the semiconductor device thus adopting silicon carbide as its material has characteristics less deteriorated even under a high temperature environment than those of a semiconductor device adopting silicon as its material, advantageously.
For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2012-214376 (Patent Document 1) describes a method for manufacturing a silicon carbide wafer having a distortion of less than 5 μm, a warpage of less than 5 μm, an entire thickness fluctuation of less than 2.0 μm, and a diameter of 75 mm. According to the method for manufacturing the silicon carbide wafer, a silicon carbide boule is sliced into the form of a wafer, and then the silicon carbide wafer is lapped while restricting lapping downward force to be less than downward force bending the wafer.

Silicon carbide semiconductor substrate and method for manufacturing same