A method for preventing a diffused reflection from being generated in patterning a via hole for the metal interconnection is disclosed. The disclosed method includes: forming an insulation layer on a semiconductor substrate, wherein elements for operating a semiconductor device are formed on the semiconductor substrate; forming first photoresist patterns on the insulation layer; etching the insulation layer in order to form a first via hole using the first photoresist patterns and then forming a resulting structure; coating a first anti-reflecting coating layer on the resulting structure with a low viscosity; coating a second anti-reflecting coating layer on the resulting structure with a low viscosity; forming second photoresist patterns on the second anti-reflecting coating layer; and forming a second via hole using the second photoresist patterns.

A method for forming a metal wire interconnection in a semiconductor device is disclosed, and more particularly, a method for preventing a diffused reflection from being generated in patterning a via hole for the metal interconnection is disclosed.
Generally, the xe2x80x9cDamascenexe2x80x9d process is to form a semiconductor wire by using the etch-back process or the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process in a semiconductor fabricating method. In the Damascene process, an insulation layer is etched in the form of a wire by the photolithography process and then a recess is formed with a predetermined depth. The recess is filled with a conducting layer, such as a tungsten layer, and the undesired conducting layer is etched back by using the etch-back process or the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process.
This technique has been used for forming bit lines and word lines in a DRAM devices. In the case where the Damascene process is used for the bit lines in DRAM devices, the recesses are formed in an insulation layer along the metal wires of the bit lines and contact holes for connecting the metal wires to a semiconductor substrate are also formed by the photolithography process. Subsequently, the recesses and the contact holes are filled with metal materials and the undesired metal materials on the insulation layer are removed.
In the case where the bit lines are formed by the Damascene process, the interconnection between the bit line and an active region of the semiconductor substrate is simultaneously formed with the metal wire and then topology caused by other adjacent layers may be improved with facility of the following processing steps.
On the other hand, in the semiconductor fabricating method, the metal layers are formed in a dual structure or in a multi-structure and typically, the metal layers are made of aluminum. Accordingly, the aluminum layer has a high reflexibility which causes the reflected light for patterning the aluminum layer to make the notching or thinning thereof. With the increase of the integration in semiconductor devices, this problem more appears because of the narrow width of the metal layer.
FIGS. 1A to 1D are cross-sectional views illustrating a method for forming a via first which is widely used in a conventional Damascene process. Referring to FIG. 1A, a first SiN layer 12, as an etching stopper, is formed on a semiconductor substrate 11 on which predetermined processes have been carried out. A first SiO2 layer 13 is formed on the first SiN layer 12, a second SiN layer 14, as an etching stop layer, is formed on the SiO2 layer 13 in a contact level of the topology, and then a second SiO2 layer 15 is formed on the second SiN layer 14. Photoresist patterns 16 are formed on the second SiO2 layer 15 using a photoresist layer.
Referring to FIG. 1B, the second SiO2 layer 15, the second SiN layer 14 and the first SiO2 layer 13 are selectively etched using the photoresist patterns 16 as an etching mask layer, thereby forming a via hole 17.
Referring to FIG. 1C, an organic anti-reflecting coating layer (ARC) 18 is formed on the resulting structure in order to prevent the pattern profile from being deteriorate by a diffused reflection in the via hole 17. The ARC layer 18 is also deposited on the bottom of the via hole 17 and has a viscosity such that a layer of approximately 900 xc3x85 will be deposited at a spin rate of 3000 rpm with a resulting thickness of approximately 1000 xc3x85 to 1400 xc3x85. In the case where the size of the via hole 17 is not sufficient for a deposition process, the via hole 17 is not completely filled with the ARC layer 18. Typically, the ARC layer 18 is deposited in a track, which is one of steppers, using a spinner. Subsequently, a photoresist layer is formed on the ARC layer 18 and patterned so as to form photoresist patterns 19 exposing a portion of the ARC layer 18 around the via hole 17.
Referring to FIG. 1D, the exposed ARC layer 18 and the second SiO2 layer 15 are etched using the photoresist patterns 19 as an etching mask, thereby forming a final step-type via hole 20. In the etching process, the ARC layer 18 may prevent the loss of the via hole 17 as well as the diffused reflection. A conducting layer (not shown) is deposited on the resulting structure including the via hole 20 and patterned by the etch-back process or the chemical mechanical polishing process so that the conducting layer, such as a metal wire, a word line or a bit line, remains only within the via hole 20.
As stated above, the Damascene process forms the conducting layer after forming the via hole in the insulation layer. Therefore, the metal interconnection and the via hole for electrically connecting one metal layer to the other metal layer are simultaneously formed. However, in the case where the high-viscosity ARC layer is used in a small-sized vial hole based on the development of the exposure techniques and in a miniaturized chip, it is impossible to obtain a sufficient step-coverage of the ARC layer for preventing the diffused reflection within the via hole.
A method for forming metal wires of semiconductor devices using a dual Damascene process to obtain a sufficient filling of an organic anti-reflecting coating layer (ARC) is disclosed.
A method for forming highly integrated circuits by preventing a diffused reflection generated over an under layer of a photoresist layer is also disclosed.
A method for forming a metal wire using a Damascene process is disclosed which comprises forming an insulation layer on a semiconductor substrate, wherein elements for operating a semiconductor device are formed on the semiconductor substrate; forming first photoresist patterns on the insulation layer; etching the insulation layer in order to form a first via hole using the first photoresist patterns and then forming a resulting structure; coating a first anti-reflecting coating layer on the resulting structure with a low viscosity; coating a second anti-reflecting coating layer on the resulting structure with a low viscosity; forming second photoresist patterns on the second anti-reflecting coating layer; and forming a second via hole using the second photoresist patterns.

Method for forming metal wire interconnection in semiconductor devices using dual damascene process

Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd.


A ceramic block filter (114,118) employs a novel tuning process which avoids the necessity of etching or abrading plating on the top surface of the block. Initially, the blocks (210) are prepared from a batch of ceramic material such that their height is intentionally longer than desired, so that the filter center frequency is slightly lower than desired. Next, an artwork mask (310) designed in accordance with pre-selected frequency related characteristics and desired performance specifications is used for applying an electrically conductive material (240) to the top surface of the block (210). Then, the center frequency and resonator length of the block (210) are measured and a new resonator length is calculated using the measured values. The bottom surface of the block (210) is next lapped to the new resonator length. Then, electrically conductive material is applied to the lapped bottom surface of the block (210).

The present invention relates generally to radio-frequency (RF) signal filters, and, more particularly, to multi-resonator ceramic filters and mask tuning and adjusting the resonators thereof.
Conventional multi-resonator ceramic filters typically include a plurality of resonators such as foreshortened short-circuited quarter wavelength coaxial or helical transmission lines. The resonators are arranged in a conductive enclosure and may be coupled one to another by apertures in their common walls. Each resonator is commonly tuned to the desired response characteristics in one of two ways.
One way of tuning such resonators is by employing a tuning screw which inserts into a hole extending through the middles of the resonator (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,728,731). Unfortunately, the tuning screw is bulky, it requires mechanical locking elements which may offset the desired coupling between resonators, and, due to the adjustability of the screw before it is locked, it renders these filters susceptible to becoming detuned.
Another way of tuning each resonator is by plating one surface of the ceramic filter at each resonator with conductive plating material (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,431,977 and 4,742,562). Typically, the surface is plated between the hole in the middle of the resonator and a side wall coupled to the conductive enclosures. This plating is then abraded away for each resonator in the filter until the desired response characteristics are obtained. This approach is undesirable in that it is extremely labor intensive and therefor costly. Plating at each resonator must be repeatedly abraded followed by testing for the desired response characteristics. If too much plating is removed, the filter must be replated, backtuned, or discarded.
For these reasons, there is a need for an improved ceramic filter tuning technique which overcomes the foregoing deficiencies.

Multi-resonator ceramic filter and method for tuning and adjusting the resonators thereof


A system for guiding a capsule medical device comprising a magnet from a state in which surface tension of a liquid surface acts on the capsule medical device, the system having: a magnetic guidance device that generates: a reciprocally rotating magnetic field to the magnet at a predetermined frequency around a horizontal axis parallel to the liquid surface; and a guidance magnetic field to the magnet; and a control device that controls the magnetic guidance device to: in a first step, generate the reciprocally rotating magnetic field to the magnet to rotate the capsule medical device to eliminate the effect of the surface tension on the capsule medical device, and in a second step after the first step, generate the guidance magnetic field to the magnet in a direction away from the liquid surface to move the capsule medical device away from the liquid surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for guiding capsule medical device for magnetically guiding a capsule medical device introduced into an organ of a subject such as a patient.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, the capsule medical device provided with an imaging function and a radio communication function in a capsule casing, which can be introduced into the organ of the subject such as the patient, has appeared. The capsule medical device is introduced into the organ of the subject by oral intake or the like, and thereafter moves in the digestive tract by a peristaltic action or the like. Such a capsule medical device in the subject sequentially images images in the organ of the subject (hereinafter, also referred to as in-vivo images) in a time period from introduction into the organ of the subject to discharge out of the same, and sequentially transmits by radio the obtained in-vivo images to a receiving device outside of the subject.
The in-vivo image imaged by such a capsule medical device is captured in an image display device through the receiving device. The image display device displays the captured in body images on a display by still image display or moving image display. A user such as a doctor or a nurse observes the in-vivo image of the subject displayed on the image display device, and examines inside of the organ of the subject through an observation of such an in-vivo image.
Recently, on the other hand, the system for guiding capsule medical device for magnetically guiding (hereinafter, referred to as magnetic guidance) the capsule medical device in the subject is suggested. (refer to the Japanese Patent Applications Laid-Open Nos. 2006-263167 and 2007-330811, for example). In general, in the system for guiding capsule medical device, the capsule medical device is further provided with a permanent magnet in the capsule casing, and the image display device displays the in-vivo images sequentially imaged by the capsule medical device in the subject in real time. The system for guiding capsule medical device applies a magnetic field to the capsule medical device in such a subject, and magnetically guides the capsule medical device in the subject to a desired location by magnetic force of the applied magnetic field. The user uses an operating unit of the system for guiding capsule medical device to operate the magnetic guidance of such a capsule medical device while referring to the in-vivo image displayed on the image display device.

System for guiding capsule medical device


A method and system and the use of a 3-D positioning system for monitoring a landfill and landfill material added thereto and undergoing compaction and measures in real time the relative density of the compressed landfill material. The method and system calculates thickness, volume, density during the landfill operation to ensure that the landfill is comprised of compacted layers of substantially optimized density.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a method and system and the use of a 3-D positioning system, such as but not limited to GPS, Glonass, Galileo, Robotic transit or other means, for monitoring a landfill and landfill material added thereto and undergoing compaction and, in particular, to such a method and system to measure in real time the relative density of the compressed landfill material. Even more particularly, the present invention is directed to a method and system for developing a landfill of substantially optimized density for calculating real density on a periodic basis.
2. Background Art
In a landfill operation, trash and like material is typically spread over a work site in an uncompacted state and then repeatedly traversed by a compaction machine until the material is compressed to a desired degree. Typically, this involves the packing and orientation of solid articles into a more dense and effective arrangement for reducing air voids and like discontinuities. Compaction of material is important in that it provides increased shear strength and density to enable further use of the material in construction operations. In a landfill, maximizing the return on investment is achieved by getting the most material possible into a fixed amount of space.
In packing of most earth material, such as sand or clay, it is possible to model the materials and the compaction process to calculate an equation for achieving the desired density. The equation calculates "y" number of times it is necessary to pack "x" thickness of material. However, this model is only good as long as the material being compacted is uniform in properties, such as shear strength, size distribution of particles, moisture, temperature, composition and other variables and it is placed at a constant thickness accurately. The model is, also, based upon machinery that compacts at constant rates. Yet, two different pieces of compacting machinery, for instance, may possibly have different characteristics, such as whether or not they both vibrate, whether or not the both weigh the same, have the same wheel shape and arrangement, etc. and thus differing compaction efficiencies for differing materials. Clearly, a model for optimum compaction based upon a system using screened sand of uniform moisture and temperature, placed at a uniform thickness on one given day by one machine would be less likely to result in errors in density than a model of material from an unknown source, of unknown strength, unknown moisture, with machines from two different manufacturers on the same site, etc.
In a landfill, or any air space permitted site, the optimum use of the site to place the maximum material into that site is of great economic importance. The designed structure of the landfill requires containing materials to intersect contained materials. Errors in the placement of contained materials may result in less material being placed within the landfill than it is designed for or may result in containment structures that are not of minimum design thickness, slope and grade. Containment and placement of contained materials are normally penecontemporaneous. Currently, the interface zone must be measured frequently to assure that the operators of the contained material moving machinery are indeed placing the material within the permit area.
Compacting operations are largely monitored and controlled intuitively by the machinery operators and supervisors, or by estimating the average characteristics of the material being deposited in the landfill and, then, creating a model that tells the operator to compact the material in the landfill based upon that model. Such an approach may tell the operator to "roll" a "layer" a number of times "n" based upon the model. That is, the compactor may be directed to pass over (i.e., "compact") a worksite surface contour more than one time, as needed, to further compact (i.e., "density") the layer of material just added. As such, efforts to electronically provide the operator with detailed information regarding the progress in the compaction effort have been made.
In landfills, a common method used to determine compaction is to survey the surface and set stakes. As compacting machines roll the surface, they re-survey the stakes to determine when the practical point of refusal (the point at which diminishing movement causes one to decide that it is no longer cost effective to attempt to drive the surface down more.) has been reached. This method does not yield real time information over the working surface but instead provides a snapshot of progress.
In one known approach, a plurality of target stakes and an electronic unit for transmitting/receiving electronic signals are positioned about a worksite. Using a surveying-like apparatus, the electronic unit is vertically positioned on a tripod and signals are transmitted to and reflected back from the target stakes. The combination of distance and direction measurements is sufficient to determine the location and elevation of the target points, which data can be electronically stored and/or plotted on a map, converted into X-Y-Z coordinates, and used to generate a contour map. Because landfill unloading trucks and a compactor machine must constantly traverse the worksite, the operator must constantly position/reposition the stakes. This is very labor intensive and may generate an inaccurate cross-section. Critically, this cross-section derived contour map may give an indication of volume, but not the density of the landfill layer.
See also the methods and apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,494 to Henderson and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,735,352 and 5,801,967 to Henderson et al.
Illustrative of other efforts are the systems and methods disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,471,391 to Gudat et al. and 6,460,006 to Corcoran. According to these references, a global positioning system (GPS) generates, in real time, a contour map of the worksite as well as information relating to the compactor machine. However, these systems do not provide details of density obtained from successive passes of the compactor over the landfill material. They also end up having an operator roll portions of the fill that have already reached the practical point of refusal.
While the recent efforts have advanced the hit or miss approach of the earlier approaches, a simple yet effective method and system for estimating the density of the compacted landfill materials, using conventional apparatus would be desirable.

Monitoring compression of successive layers of landfill material and measurement of layer density


A system is described that performs frame erasure concealment to generate frames of an output speech signal corresponding to a series of erased frames of encoded bit-stream in a manner that conceals the quality-degrading effects of such erased frames. In one embodiment, responsive to the detection of a first erased frame in the series, a number of steps are performed. These steps include deriving long-term and short synthesis filters based on previously-generated portions of the output speech signal, calculating a ringing signal segment based on the long-term and short-term synthesis filters, and generating a frame of the output speech signal corresponding to the first erased frame by overlap adding the ringing signal segment to an extrapolated waveform. Deriving the long-term filter includes estimating a pitch period based on a previously-generated portion of the output speech signal by finding a lag that minimizes a sum of magnitude difference function.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital communication systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to the enhancement of speech quality when portions of a bit stream representing a speech signal are lost within the context of a digital communications system.
2. Background Art
In speech coding (sometimes called "voice compression"), a coder encodes an input speech or audio signal into a digital bit stream for transmission. A decoder decodes the bit stream into an output speech signal. The combination of the coder and the decoder is called a codec. The transmitted bit stream is usually partitioned into segments called frames, and in packet transmission networks, each transmitted packet may contain one or more frames of a compressed bit stream. In wireless or packet networks, sometimes the transmitted frames or packets are erased or lost. This condition is called frame erasure in wireless networks and packet loss in packet networks. When this condition occurs, to avoid substantial degradation in output speech quality, the decoder needs to perform frame erasure concealment (FEC) or packet loss concealment (PLC) to try to conceal the quality-degrading effects of the lost frames. Because the terms FEC and PLC generally refer to the same kind of technique, they can be used interchangeably. Thus, for the sake of convenience, the term "frame erasure concealment", or FEC, is used herein to refer to both.
One of the earliest FEC techniques is waveform substitution based on pattern matching, as proposed by Goodman, et al. in "Waveform Substitution Techniques for Recovering Missing Speech Segments in Packet Voice Communications", IEEE Transaction on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, December 1986, pp. 1440-1448. This scheme was applied to a Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) speech codec that performs sample-by-sample instantaneous quantization of a speech waveform directly. This FEC scheme uses a piece of decoded speech waveform that immediately precedes the lost frame as a template, and then slides this template back in time to find a suitable piece of decoded speech waveform that maximizes some sort of waveform similarity measure (or minimizes a waveform difference measure).
Goodman's FEC scheme then uses the section of waveform immediately following a best-matching waveform segment as the substitute waveform for the lost frame. To eliminate discontinuities at frame boundaries, the scheme also uses a raised cosine window to perform an overlap-add operation between the correctly decoded waveform and the substitute waveform. This overlap-add technique increases the coding delay. The delay occurs because at the end of each frame, there are many speech samples that need to be overlap-added, and thus final values cannot be determined until the next frame of speech is decoded.
Based on the work of Goodman as described above, David Kapilow developed a more sophisticated version of an FEC scheme for the G.711 PCM codec. This FEC scheme is described in Appendix I of the ITU-T Recommendation G.711.
The FEC scheme of Goodman and the FEC scheme of Kapilow are both limited to PCM codecs that use instantaneous quantization. Such PCM codecs are block-independent; that is, there is no inter-frame or inter-block codec memory, so the decoding operation for one block of speech samples does not depend on the decoded speech signal or speech parameters in any other block.
All PCM codecs are block-independent codecs, but a block-independent codec does not have to be a PCM codec. For example, a codec may have a frame size of 20 milliseconds (ms), and within this 20 ms frame there may be some codec memory that makes the decoding of certain speech samples in the frame dependent on decoded speech samples or speech parameters from other parts of the frame. However, as long as the decoding operation of each 20 ms frame does not depend on decoded speech samples or speech parameters from any other frame, then the codec is still block-independent.
One advantage of a block-independent codec is that there is no error propagation from frame to frame. After a frame erasure, the decoding operation of the very next good frame of transmitted speech data is completely unaffected by the erasure of the immediately preceding frame. In other words, the first good frame after a frame erasure can be immediately decoded into a good frame of output speech samples.
For speech coding, the most popular type of speech codec is based on predictive coding. Perhaps the first publicized FEC scheme for a predictive codec is a "bad frame masking" scheme in the original TIA IS-54 VSELP standard for North American digital cellular radio (rescinded in September 1996). One of the first FEC schemes for a predictive codec that performs waveform extrapolation in the excitation domain is the FEC system developed by Chen for the ITU-T Recommendation G.728 Low-Delay Code Excited Linear Predictor (CELP) codec, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,298 issued to Chen, entitled "Excitation Signal Synthesis During Frame Erasure or Packet Loss." After the publication of these early FEC schemes for predictive codecs, many, many other FEC schemes have been proposed for predictive codecs, some of which are quite sophisticated.
Despite the fact that most of the speech codecs standardized in the last 20 years are predictive codecs, there are still some applications, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), where the G.711 (8-bit logarithmic PCM) codec, or even the 16-bit linear PCM codec, is still used in order to ensure very high signal fidelity. In such applications, none of the advanced FEC schemes developed for predictive codecs can be used, and typically G.711 Appendix I (Kapilow's FEC scheme) is used instead. However, G.711 Appendix I has the following drawbacks: (1) it requires an additional delay of 3.75 ms due to the overlap-add, (2) it has a fairly large state memory requirement due to the use of a long history buffer with a length of three and a half times the maximum pitch period, and (3) its performance is not as good as it can be.
Commonly-owned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/234,291 to Chen, entitled "Packet Loss Concealment For Block-Independent Speech Codecs," filed on Sep. 26, 2005, describes an FEC scheme that avoids the three drawbacks of G.711 Appendix I mentioned above. However, for certain applications of FEC, such as Bluetooth™ headset applications, the emphasis is on extremely low complexity due to the low cost and low power dissipation requirements. Although the FEC scheme described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/234,291 does not introduce additional delay, has lower state memory requirement than G.711 Appendix I, and produces better speech quality than G.711 Appendix I, its computational complexity and required code size may still exceed the limit for some extremely low complexity applications.
What is needed, therefore, is an FEC technique that maintains the benefits of the FEC scheme described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/234,291 and yet has much lower computational complexity and code size. This means that (1) the number of processor cycles required to implement this FEC technique should be substantially lower both in the worst-case scenario and in the average sense, (2) the algorithm steps and program control should be substantially simpler, (3) no additional delay can be introduced, (4) the state memory requirements should be substantially lower than G.711 Appendix I, and (5) the output speech quality should be substantially better than G.711 Appendix I for the intended low-complexity application.

Low-complexity frame erasure concealment


A process for producing two interleaved patterns on a substrate uses photolithography and etching to produce, on the substrate, a first pattern of first material protruding regions separated by recessed regions. A non-conformal deposition of a second material on the first pattern forms cavities in the recessed regions of the first pattern. These cavities are opened and filled with a third material. The second material is then removed, and the remaining third material forms a second pattern of third material protruding regions, wherein the second pattern is interleaved with the first pattern.

Manufacturers in the semiconductor-technology field are continually looking to produce electronic devices that are increasingly smaller and increasingly quicker, having electronic-element densities that are as high as possible.
A well-known technique for producing patterns on a semiconductor substrate consists in using a photolithographic technique. In this technique a pattern, such as an array of parallel lines, is produced on the substrate by depositing a film of material on the substrate, creating via photolithography a resist mask comprising openings corresponding to a pattern complementary to the pattern to be produced, then etching the material through the mask and removing the resist.
An optional subsequent step of transfer into the substrate consists in etching the substrate using the pattern produced as a hard mask.
However, this optical photolithography method is limited by the wavelength of the light source used to expose the resist. Currently lines having a width of 45 nm or less cannot be produced using optical lithography.
Thus another technique has been proposed called SIT (sidewall image transfer) by those skilled in the art. Production of interleaved patterns according to this technique is described in FIGS. 1a to 1f. In a first step illustrated in FIG. 1a, lines are produced in a material A using photolithography and etching. Then, in a second step, illustrated in FIG. 1b, a spacer is formed in a material B around each line of the material A. Next, in a third step illustrated in FIG. 1c, the material A is removed by selective etching, there remaining then only the spacers made of material B. In a fourth step illustrated in FIG. 1d, another photolithography step is carried out with a resist mask so as to remove, in a subsequent step illustrated in FIG. 1e, the ends of the spacers made of material B, and thus obtain, at the end of a final step of removing the resist, illustrated in FIG. 1f, a succession of lines made of material B separated by a gap twice as small as the lines, initially obtained by photolithography, made of material A.
However, this method requires two photolithography steps.

Process for producing two interleaved patterns on a substrate


The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for manufacturing an interlocking pipe obtained by easily and precisely shaping a pipe with a circular cross section or with the edges of the cross section nearly forming a circle in a non-loose manner, so as to provide excellent machining performance when the interlocking pipe is cut off and provide excellent operation efficiency for the apparatus itself. A metal band plate is helically wound onto a core member with a circular cross section or with the edges of the cross section nearly forming a circle. Clamping device is freely assembled at a front end of the code member in a detachable and switchable manner, and synchronously rotate in accordance with instructions from a main computing-controlling member, so as to prevent the metal band plate from being loosened, thereby to manufacture the interlocking pipe efficiently.

In the past, an exhaust pipe for a vehicle, such as a flexible pipe as shown in FIG. 8, is well known. That is, the flexible pipe 1 is a component capable of preventing the vibration from an engine side from being transferred to a downstream member. An interlocking-type flexible pipe 2 (hereinafter referred to as "interlocking pipe") for connecting an upstream member and the downstream member is arranged in the middle. Bellow 3 and an outer plate 4 are arranged outside the interlocking pipe. An end 3a of the bellow 3 and an end 4b of the outer plate 4 are provided with a protection element 5 bent in such a manner as to coincide with two ends of the interlocking pipe 2.
However, for the interlocking pipe 2 of the flexible pipe 1, as shown by the arrow in FIG. 8, a tabular metal band plate 2a is shaped into a curved metal band plate 2b (see FIG. 9) with an S-shaped cross section and wound helically so that bending portions at both sides thereof are engaged with each other. As a result, it is able to form the flexible interlocking pipe which can be stretched in both axial and radial directions.
Moreover, when shaping the interlocking pipe, the elongate tabular metal band plate 2a with a certain width is extracted from a decoiler 6 as shown in FIG. 9. The band plate 2a is coated with lubricating oil by an oil-applying device 7 while entering a multistage roll-forming device 8, and passes through a space between an upper roller 8a and a lower roller 8b, so as to form tabular metal band plate 2a into the curved metal band plate 2b with an S-shaped cross section (as shown by an extended line in FIG. 8). This curved metal band plate 2b is fed into a winding device 9 and helically wound in a way that the sides thereof are engaged with each other. Finally, it is cut into a predetermined length by a plasma cutting device (not shown).
In addition, the interlocking pipe 2 has a cross section with a circular shape or a polygonal shape. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses that, for an interlocking pipe with a circular cross section, although with excellent impermeability, it is rotatable and thus easy to loosen, i.e., it has defects of being loosened and easy to be detached; while for an interlocking pipe with a polygonal cross section, although with poor impermeability, it is able to accurately set the rigidity of the interlocking pipe and the detachability of a guiding portion connected thereto due to the vibration. The polygonal end enables the hose to rotate without loosening while maintaining its predetermined shape and winding state (see paragraphs [0002]-[0005] of the Patent Literature).
That is, for the interlocking pipe with a polygonal cross section, although a core member with a polygonal cross section is used during winding, it can be hung over a polygonal end of the core member. Patent Literature 2 (see FIG. 2) and Patent Literature 4 (see FIG. 12) show such an interlocking pipe with a polygonal cross section.
On the other hand, for the interlocking pipe with a circular cross section, although a core member with a circular cross section is used during winding, it cannot be hung over due to its circular shape, and springback will occur during the winding, the pipe cannot be wound while maintaining its predetermined shape. In addition, rotation and loose may occur due to the springback of the thrust.
In order to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks, Patent Literature 4 discloses in FIG. 1 that, after the interlocking pipe is wound into a diameter less than that of the final shape, a rewinding force, or a force in a direction opposite to a rotation direction, is applied to the interlocking pipe. The force in a direction opposite to the rotation direction may be applied by a roller or an elastic member.

Method and apparatus for manufacturing interlocking pipe


The present invention has its object to provide an efficient, general use shaping technique for forming high strength sheet metal into a three-dimensionally complicated shape. Further, the present invention provides a working apparatus for shaping sheet metal comprising a die (also called a “punch”) which has a shape suitable for a shape of shaped sheet metal, a plurality of rolls which grip sheet metal (H) with the die to shape the sheet metal, roll movement mechanisms which makes the rolls independently move in a horizontal direction and make them independently ascend or descend in a vertical direction, and a roll angle setting mechanism which can change an angle by which the rolls are pressed against the die.

In recent years, for example, in the fields of auto parts, building material parts, furniture parts, etc., high strength sheet metal has been used for realizing lighter weight while securing rigidity. Such sheet metal has been shaped in the past by, for example, press forming or roll forming, but the drop in formability accompanying the increase in strength of the sheet metal is making it difficult to form such sheet metal into complicated shapes.
For example, when using press forming, a flange part of the shaped sheet metal upon which a tensile force acts sometimes becomes cracked at that flange part, or the flange part of the sheet metal upon which a compressive force acts sometimes becomes wrinkled at that flange part.
Further, when using roll forming, it is possible to form a sheet metal to a single simple cross-sectional shape in the longitudinal direction, but forming sheet metal into a complicated shape where the cross-section changes in the longitudinal direction is difficult.
On the other hand, it has been proposed to combine press forming and roll forming so as to shape sheet metal. For example, in PLT 1, there is provided a press apparatus for forming splines or other gearwheel shapes at the outer circumferential surface by roll forming which has a die at the outer circumferential surface of which the sheet metal to be worked is loaded, a die ring arranged concentrically with the die, and a plurality of forming rolls which are arranged radially at the inner circumference of the die ring and which rotate while being gripped between the sheet metal and the inner circumferential surface of the die ring. Further, the die ring is made to move relative to the die and the plurality of forming rolls are made to rotate so as to shape the sheet metal.
PLT 2 discloses a roll forming method in a roll forming apparatus which forms a long object like a frame part into a curved shape, wherein the forming rolls are made to move on a translation cam matching the shape of the long object and wherein the forming rolls are made to ascend or descend so as to follow the shape of the translation cam and thereby work the object into a shape curved in the longitudinal direction.
PLT 3 discloses a roll forming method which joins together perpendicularly intersecting sheet metal (seaming) during which folding back the sheet metal at the seam part (hemming) and forming the seam part at that time by placing a forming roll having a right angled cross-section against the right angle seam part of the sheet metal and rotating it while pressing.

Working apparatus and working method of sheet metal

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation


An electroluminescent device comprises a light-emitting layer containing a host and a light-emitting material wherein the light-emitting material comprises a boron complex containing boron complexed by two ring nitrogens of a deprotonated bis(aromatic)amine or bis(aromatic)methene ligand wherein the boron complex contains a tertiary amine substituent group. The invention provides a material for a light-emitting layer of an EL device that exhibits improved luminance efficiency.

While organic electroluminescent (EL) devices have been known for over two decades, their performance limitations have represented a barrier to many desirable applications. In simplest form, an organic EL device is comprised of an anode for hole injection, a cathode for electron injection, and an organic medium sandwiched between these electrodes to support charge recombination that yields emission of light. These devices are also commonly referred to as organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. Representative of earlier organic EL devices are Gurnee et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,172,862, issued Mar. 9, 1965; Gurnee U.S. Pat. No. 3,173,050, issued Mar. 9, 1965; Dresner, "Double Injection Electroluminescence in Anthracene", RCA Review, 30, 322-334, (1969); and Dresner U.S. Pat. No. 3,710,167, issued Jan. 9, 1973. The organic layers in these devices, usually composed of a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, were very thick (much greater than 1 μm). Consequently, operating voltages were very high, often greater than 100V.
More recent organic EL devices include an organic EL element consisting of extremely thin layers (e.g., less than 1.0 μm) between the anode and the cathode. Herein, the term "organic EL element" encompasses the layers between the anode and cathode. Reducing the thickness lowered the resistance of the organic layer and has enabled devices that operate at much lower voltage. In a basic two-layer EL device structure, described first in U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,429, one organic layer of the EL element adjacent to the anode is specifically chosen to transport holes, and therefore, it is referred to as the hole-transporting layer, and the other organic layer is specifically chosen to transport electrons, and is referred to as the electron-transporting layer. Recombination of the injected holes and electrons within the organic EL element results in efficient electroluminescence.
There have also been proposed three-layer organic EL devices that contain an organic light-emitting layer (LEL) between the hole-transporting layer and electron-transporting layer, such as that disclosed by Tang et al (J. Applied Physics, 65, Pages 3610-3616, (1989)). The light-emitting layer commonly consists of a host material doped with a guest material, also known as a dopant. Still further, there has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,292 a four-layer EL element comprising a hole-injecting layer (HIL), a hole-transporting layer (HTL), a light-emitting layer (LEL) and an electron transport/injection layer (ETL). These structures have resulted in improved device efficiency.
Since these early inventions, further improvements in device materials have resulted in improved performance in attributes such as color, stability, luminance efficiency and manufacturability, e.g., as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,061,569, 5,409,783, 5,554,450, 5,593,788, 5,683,823, 5,908,581, 5,928,802, 6,020,078, and 6,208,077, amongst others.
Notwithstanding these developments, there are continuing needs for organic EL device components, such as light-emitting materials, sometimes referred to as dopants, that will provide high luminance efficiencies combined with high color purity and long lifetimes. In particular, there is a need to be able to adjust the emission wavelength of the light-emitting material for various applications. For example, in addition to the need for blue, green, and red light-emitting materials there is a need for blue-green, yellow and orange light-emitting materials in order to formulate white-light emitting electroluminescent devices. For example, a device can emit white light by emitting a combination of colors, such as blue-green light and red light or a combination of blue light and orange light.
White EL devices can be used with color filters in full-color display devices. They can also be used with color filters in other multicolor or functional-color display devices. White EL devices for use in such display devices are easy to manufacture, and they produce reliable white light in each pixel of the displays. Although the OLEDs are referred to as white and can appear white or off-white, for this application, the CIE coordinates of the light emitted by the OLED are less important than the requirement that the spectral components passed by each of the color filters be present with sufficient intensity in that light. The devices must also have good stability in long-term operation. That is, as the devices are operated for extended periods of time, the luminance of the devices should decrease as little as possible.
Boron complexes have found only limited application as dopants in electroluminescent devices. In one example, a useful class of dopants is derived from the 5,6,5-tricyclic pyrromethene-BF2 complexes and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,823; JP 09289081A, and JP 11097180A. These materials are characterized by typically narrow emission spectra, which may result in attractively high color purity. However, the green emitting unsubstituted or alkyl substituted pyrromethene-BF2 complexes exhibit relatively low quantum efficiencies of electroluminescence. In order to achieve highly efficient OLEDs, one needs to use phenyl rings as substituents thereby extending the conjugated π-system. As a result, the emission wavelength typically becomes red-shifted yielding a reddish amber color, which is the shortest wavelength light that can be emitted by pyrromethene-BF2 complexes with good efficiency. Luminance efficient green or blue-green OLEDs do not appear to be conveniently obtained with pyrromethene BF2 complexes used as dopants.
JP 2001294851A, US 20030198829A1 and US 20030201415A1 describe electroluminescent (EL) devices containing a boron dopant compound containing a bis(azinyl)methene boron complex. Such compounds, however, could stand some improvement in their quantum efficiency of emission.
Various substituents have been used on light-emitting materials in an attempt to improve their performance. For example, U. 20020168544A1, WO 2003010127A1, JP 2003272866, JP 2003238516A, and JP 2003081924A, describe red dopants with various substituents including dialkyl- and diarylamino substituents.
It remains a problem to be solved to provide a material for a light-emitting layer of an EL device that exhibits improved luminance efficiency.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Organic element for electroluminescent devices


Pneumoperitoneum needles for providing and/or insufflating a corporal and/or abdominal cavity are provided. The pneumoperitoneum needle can include a housing, an elongate tubular body extending from a distal surface of the housing, and an elongate hollow tubular rod slidably received within the tubular body. The tubular body preferably includes a passage formed therethrough for connection to a gas administration system. The tubular rod preferably includes a blunt distal end defining an opening, and a proximal end portion defining an opening formed therethrough.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to needles and, more particularly, to pneumoperitoneum needles for introducing gaseous fluids into a peritoneal cavity for inflating the peritoneal cavity prior to laparoscopic surgery.
2. Background of Related Art
Laparoscopic and endoscopic surgery has been widely accepted as the preferred surgical procedure for treatment of a variety of disorders that were formally treated with conventional surgical techniques.
In laparoscopic procedures, surgery is performed in the interior of the abdomen (e.g., the peritoneal cavity) through a small incision extending through the peritoneal cavity wall; in endoscopic procedures, surgery is performed in any hollow viscus of the body through narrow endoscopic tubes inserted through small entrance wounds in the skin.
In conjunction with laparoscopic surgery, pneumoperitoneum gases are generally introduced into the peritoneal cavity to expand the peritoneal cavity and raise the peritoneal cavity wall away from the vital organs therein. Thereafter, a trocar (e.g., a sharp pointed instrument) is inserted into a cannula assembly and used to puncture the inner lining of the peritoneal cavity. The trocar is then withdrawn and a laparoscopic surgical instrument is inserted through the cannula assembly to perform the desired surgery.
A conventional system used for introducing the pneumoperitoneum gases into the peritoneal cavity includes a pneumoperitoneum needle connected to a gas source via a flexible conduit. The pneumoperitoneum needle typically employed is a Veress-type needle which includes an elongated hollow outer sheath with a sharpened distal end for penetrating the inner lining of the peritoneal cavity. A spring-loaded blunt stylet is axially movable within the sheath and is distally biased so that the blunt end of the stylet retracts as the needle penetrates the inner lining and then advances to extend beyond the sharp end of the needle once the needle penetrates the inner lining of the peritoneal cavity. The pneumoperitoneum gas administering system also typically includes at least one volume flow regulator to control the rate of gas flow through the needle. Examples of such systems used for introducing pneumoperitoneum gases are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,808,168 and 5,104,381, the entire contents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Typically, a surgeon observes the gas source to determine when the pneumoperitoneum needle has passed through the abdominal wall, into the peritoneal cavity, and the flow of gas commences.
In view of the foregoing, a continuing need exists for improved pneumoperitoneum needles for introducing gaseous fluids into a peritoneal cavity for inflating the peritoneal cavity prior to laparoscopic surgery. In particular, an indication of gas flow and/or passage into the peritoneal cavity is desired.


A brake dust particle filter for a disc brake assembly with brake disc and brake caliper has a ring segment-shaped housing accommodating the brake disc in the interior. The housing has first and second axially spaced apart housing sidewalls and a housing peripheral wall extending radially outwardly in circumferential direction and arranged between the first and second housing sidewalls. A first housing part includes the first and/or second housing sidewall such that the first and/or second housing sidewall is positionable axially displaced to the brake disc. A second housing part includes at least the housing peripheral wall. First and second housing parts are connected by a pivot mechanism having a pivot axis extending parallel to an axis of rotation of the brake disc. Due to the pivot mechanism, the housing peripheral wall is pivotable relative to the first housing part while the first and/or second housing sidewall remains stationary.

The invention concerns a brake dust filter for a disc brake assembly with a brake disc and a brake caliper. The brake dust particle filter is configured for catching particles that are produced when braking. The invention concerns moreover a disc brake assembly with such a brake dust particle filter.
It is known to catch and dispose of particles that are produced by brake abrasion by means of a brake dust particle filter. Such particles are produced by friction between brake pad and brake disc of a disc brake. Such a brake dust particle filter has become known, for example, from DE 10 2012 016 835 A1. This brake dust particle filter however requires an integration in a brake caliper housing and is suitable therefore only to a limited extent as a retrofitting solution. There it is provided to hold a shaped filter element in a receiving space that is embodied by the brake caliper housing wherein the shaped filter element engages about the brake disc in a U-shape.

Brake dust particle filter and disc brake assembly comprising a brake dust particle filter


An integrated chip package structure and method of manufacturing the same is by adhering dies on a silicon substrate and forming a thin-film circuit layer on top of the dies and the silicon substrate. Wherein the thin-film circuit layer has an external circuitry, which is electrically connected to the metal pads of the dies, that extends to a region outside the active surface of the dies for fanning out the metal pads of the dies. Furthermore, a plurality of active devices and an internal circuitry is located on the active surface of the dies. Signal for the active devices are transmitted through the internal circuitry to the external circuitry and from the external circuitry through the internal circuitry back to other active devices. Moreover, the chip package structure allows multiple dies with different functions, to be packaged into an integrated package and electrically connecting the dies by the external circuitry.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated chip package structure and method of manufacture the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to an integrated chip package structure and method of manufacture the same using silicon substrate.
2. Description of Related Art
In the recent years, the development of advanced technology is on the cutting edge. As a result, high-technology electronics manufacturing industries launch more feature-packed and humanized electronic products. These new products that hit the showroom are lighter, thinner, and smaller in design. In the manufacturing of these electronic products, the key device has to be the integrated circuit (IC) chip inside any electronic product.
The operability, performance, and life of an IC chip are greatly affected by its circuit design, wafer manufacturing, and chip packaging. For this present invention, the focus will be on chip packaging technique. Since the features and speed of IC chips are increasing rapidly, the need for increasing the conductivity of the circuitry is necessary so that the signal delay and attenuation of the dies to the external circuitry are reduced. A chip package that allows good thermal dissipation and protection of the IC chips with a small overall dimension of the package is also necessary for higher performance chips. These are the goals to be achieved in chip packaging.
There are a vast variety of existing chip package techniques such as ball grid array (BGA), wire bonding, flip chip, etc. for mounting a die on a substrate via the bonding points on both the die and the substrate. The inner traces helps to fan out the bonding points on the bottom of the substrate. The solder balls are separately planted on the bonding points for acting as an interface for the die to electrically connect to the external circuitry. Similarly, pin grid array (PGA) is very much like BGA, which replaces the balls with pins on the substrate and PGA also acts an interface for the die to electrically connect to the external circuitry.
Both BGA and PGA packages require wiring or flip chip for mounting the die on the substrate. The inner traces in the substrate fan out the bonding points on the substrate and electrical connection to the external circuitry is carried out by the solder balls or pins on the bonding points. As a result, this method fails to reduce the distance of the signal transmission path but in fact increase the signal path distance. This will increase signal delay and attenuation and decrease the performance of the chip.
Wafer level chip scale package (WLCSP) has an advantage of being able to print the redistribution circuit directly on the die by using the peripheral area of the die as the bonding points. It is achieved by redistributing an area array on the surface of the die, which can fully utilize the entire area of the die. The bonding points are located on the redistribution circuit by forming flip chip bumps so the bottom side of the die connects directly to the printed circuit board (PCB) with micro-spaced bonding points.
Although WLCSP can greatly reduce the signal path distance, it is still very difficult to accommodate all the bonding points on the die surface as the integration of die and internal devices gets higher. The pin count on the die increases as integration gets higher so the redistribution of pins in an area array is difficult to achieve. Even if the redistribution of pins is successful, the distance between pins will be too small to meet the pitch of a printed circuit board (PCB).
Therefore the present invention provides an integrated chip package structure and method of manufacturing the same that uses the original bonding points of the die and connect them to an external circuitry of a thin-film circuit layer to achieve redistribution. The spacing between the redistributed bonding points matches the pitch of a PCB.
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention presents a chip package structure and method of manufacturing the same by adhering the backside of a die to a silicon substrate, wherein the active surface of the die has a plurality of metal pads. A thin-film circuit layer is formed on top of the die and the silicon substrate, where the thin-film circuit layer has an external circuitry that is electrically connected to the metal pads of the die. The external circuitry extends to a region that is outside the active area of the dies and has a plurality of bonding pads located on the surface layer of the thin-film layer circuit. The active surface of the die has an internal circuitry and a plurality of active devices, where signals can be transmitted from one active device to the external circuitry via the internal circuitry, then from the external circuitry back to another active device via the internal circuitry. Furthermore, the silicon substrate has at least one inwardly protruded area so the backside of the die can be adhered inside the inwardly protruded area and exposing the active surface of the die. Wherein the silicon substrate is composed of a silicon layer and a heat insulating material formed overlapping and the inwardly protruded areas are formed by overlapping the silicon substrate with openings on the heat conducting layer. Futhermore, the present chip package structure allows multiple dies with same or different functions to be packaged into one integrated chip package and permits electrically connection between the dies by the external circuitry.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

Integrated chip package structure using silicon substrate and method of manufacturing the same


An electronic device includes a component, a resin film formed to the component, and a plurality of carbon nanotubes whose end portions pass through the resin film and are in contact with the component, wherein a first portion of each of the carbon nanotubes is covered with the resin film, the first portion has a first length which is greater than a thickness of the resin film, and an intermediate portion of each of the carbon nanotubes other than the first portion is uncovered with and exposed from the resin.

In a server and a personal computer, a heat spreader is attached to an electronic component such as a central processing unit (CPU) to dissipate heat generated in the electronic component to the outside.
When the thermal resistance between the heat spreader and the electronic component is high, heat in the electronic component cannot be transferred to the heat spreader quickly. For this reason, a heat dissipating sheet with excellent thermal conductivity is interposed between the electronic component and the heat spreader in some cases.
There are various types of heat dissipating sheets. An indium sheet is an example of the heat dissipating sheets. However, since the expensive indium is employed in the indium sheet, the cost of the heat dissipating sheets cannot be lowered. Moreover, indium has a thermal conductivity of 80 W/m·K, with which it is difficult to efficiently dissipate heat from an electronic component.
A thermal conductive polymer can be used as the heat dissipating sheet, but the thermal conductivity of a thermally conductive polymer is not sufficiently high.
To deal with these problems, a heat dissipating sheet using carbon nanotubes is under consideration as an alternative of the indium sheet and the thermally conductive polymer.
Carbon nanotubes have a thermal conductivity of about 1,500 W/m·K to 3,000 W/m·K, which is much higher than that of indium (50 W/m·K). Thus, carbon nanotubes are attractive for use in the heat dissipating sheet.
Although there are various proposed techniques for application of carbon nanotubes to a heat dissipating sheet, each of them have room for improvement.
For example, it is proposed to disperse carbon nanotubes into a resin to form the heat dissipating sheet. In this method, since the carbon nanotubes are oriented in various directions, it is difficult to transfer heat along the carbon nanotubes from the upper surface to the lower surface of the sheet.
Alternatively, it is also proposed to grow carbon nanotubes along the normal direction of the substrate, and then completely fill the spaces between the carbon nanotubes with resin. Since all the carbon nanotubes are oriented in substantially the same direction in this method, it is supposedly easy to transfer heat from the upper surface to the lower surface of the sheet along the carbon nanotubes.
In this method, however, resin is interposed between end portions of the carbon nanotubes and the electronic component, which increases the thermal resistance between the electronic component and the carbon nanotubes.
Note that techniques related to the present application are disclosed in the following literature:
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2005-150362;
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2006-147801;
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2006-303240;
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2010-118609;
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2010-267706;
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2012-199335;
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2010-199367;
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2013-115094; and
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2014-60252.

Electronic device and heat dissipating sheet


An adjustable bed skirt for use between a mattress and a box spring that is comprised of a top strip portion having a vertically extended, downwardly draped side skirt portion connected to the top strip portion outer perimeter edges. Alternatively, the adjustable bed skirt can be attached to an existing bed skirt. The top strip portion is formed by one or more strips, therefore creating a bed skirt simple to install, adjust, and remove. The top strip portion has a left strip, right strip and a foot strip. An outer edge extends along an outside of the left strip, right strip and foot strip and an inner edge extends along an inside of the left strip, right strip and foot strip. The width of the top strip portion and a height of the side skirt portion is adjustable when the elastic portions are expanded or retracted.

Dust ruffles or bed skirts are pieces of cloth used to prevent dust from collecting under a bed. Installing traditional bed skirts typically requires two persons because removal of the mattress is often far too heavy for a single person to remove alone. The difficulties of installing a bed skirt are often multiplied because traditional bed skirts are not formed to fit to the box spring but are oversized creating an additional need to lift the heavy mattress and re-fit. The traditional bed skirt is difficult to use and decreases the likelihood of wanting to clean, change or even use a bed skirt.


An image processing apparatus includes an image forming unit configured to form an image on a sheet, a heating device including a belt that contacts the sheet and a plurality of heating elements for heating the belt, a pressure roller configured to press the sheet against the belt, a voltage detection circuit configured to measure a voltage applied to the heating elements, and a controller configured to determine whether at least one of the heating elements is abnormal according to a voltage drop value that is based on voltages measured by the voltage detection unit before and after the plurality of heating elements is energized.

Conventionally, an image forming apparatus has been used to form an image on a sheet. The image forming apparatus includes a fixing device that fixes toner to a sheet by heating. The fixing device typically includes a heating element and a temperature sensor. The image forming apparatus can detect an abnormality in the heating element based on the temperature of the heating element measured by the temperature sensor. However, when there are a plurality of heating elements, a plurality of temperature sensors are correspondingly required to measure temperatures of the different heating elements, and thus the image forming apparatus configuration becomes more complicated.

Image processing apparatus and image processing method


A motor vehicle door lock system with a vehicle lock, which can be locked and unlocked by a motor, includes a lock element which can be moved between a locked position and an unlocked position, and a central interlock drive with a slow-running drive element with which the lock element can be moved, with control electronics with a passive entry function, a speed unlocking element and a remote control module for the operator. The motor vehicle door lock system includes a clutch which engages only with a minimum rpm, which ensures that the lock element can be easily moved by hand with the central interlock drive stationary. The speed unlocking element is assigned to the central interlock drive on this side of the clutch and can be immediately actuated by the central interlock drive upon starting. The speed unlocking element immediately moves the lock element or an element of the lock mechanism downstream of it, the central interlock drive follows up, with the clutch engaged, more slowly into the unlocked position or via the unlocked position in to the next rest position when actuated out of the locked position into the unlocked position.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a motor vehicle door lock system with a motor vehicle lock which can be locked and unlocked by a motor and which can be opened mechanically or by a motor, and with control electronics.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional electromechanical motor vehicle door lock systems with radio remote control, but without the passive entry function, are known. In these classical vehicle door lock systems the operator presses a button on the remote control module. This activates the control electronics which passes through its reaction phase immediately. Based on the distance of the operator when the button of the remote control module is pressed, the operator reaches the outside door handle on the motor vehicle door with such a long time delay that the reaction phase of the control electronics has long been completed and the motor vehicle lock has been unlocked. By pulling on the outside door handle, the operator opens the motor vehicle door, the motor vehicle lock either opening mechanically, therefore the detent pawl being lifted by the motion of the outside door handle, or opening electromechanically or pneumatically, the outside door handle delivering a control signal to the opening drive to raise the detent pawl.
One such conventional electromechanical motor vehicle door lock system is known for example from U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,296. The lock element is driven by an electric motorized central interlock drive with an electric drive motor and a worm gear pair. The worm wheel of the worm gear pair is the drive element of the central interlock drive and it runs comparatively slowly. The shifting of the lock element from the locked position into the unlocked position by means of the central interlock drive requires at least 50 ms, usually longer.
Control electronics with a so-called passive entry function, also called an xe2x80x9celectronic keyxe2x80x9d, differs from the above explained classical motor vehicle door lock system in that on the remote control module no manipulation is necessary, therefore a button need not be pressed to unlock the motor vehicle lock when approaching the motor vehicle. Rather, this takes place all by itself simply when the operator approaches the motor vehicle.
A motor vehicle door lock system with a passive entry function requires for the control electronics a certain reaction phase which is ordinarily composed of a starting interval to activate the system as the remote control module approaches, an authorization check interval to check the operator for his authorization using the coding of the signals exchanged between the remote control module and the control electronics, and finally the actual action interval in which the action takes place, especially the unlocking of the motor vehicle lock is carried out. (A corresponding reaction phase is also needed when locking the motor vehicle door lock system, but this is less critical because it is essentially unnoticed by the operator.)
A length of the reaction phase of roughly 150 milliseconds compared to conventional motor vehicle door lock systems is perceived as long if the starting interval is begun only when the outside door handle is activated. Pulling the outside door handle or the like can take place in a passive entry function under certain circumstances when the reaction phase of the control electronics has not yet been completed. The operator is annoyed that he must then pull the door handle a second time and this is interpreted as a xe2x80x9cmalfunctionxe2x80x9d.
Since the resulting total time of the reaction phase cannot be shortened as much as desired, attempts have already been made to conceal the delay time as is described in the published German reference DE-A-195 21 024. In this motor vehicle door lock system the starting interval and the authorization check interval of the control electronics are shifted into the phase which precedes the actual operation phase which is noticeable to the operator. Then, simply the remaining time which corresponds to the reaction time of mechanical, conventional motor vehicle door lock systems is noticeable to the operator.
A different approach is to have the starting interval of the control electronics initiated not only when the outside door handle is activated, but to use the approach of the hand of the operator to the outside door handle to initiate the starting interval. For this purpose, a proximity sensor on the outside door handle is described in German published references DE-A-197 52 974 and DE-A-196 17 038, by which the proximity of the hand of the operator is acquired roughly 100 to 150 ml before the hand touches of the outside door handle. Initiation of the starting interval of the control electronics, therefore the xe2x80x9cwakeningxe2x80x9d of the control electronics, therefore takes place so far in advance of the actual pulling of the outside door handle that the starting interval and generally also the authorization check interval have already been completed when the outside door handle is in fact moved by the hand of the operator.
The use of proximity sensors in motor vehicle door lock systems of the type under consideration entails various difficulties. On the one hand, the proximity sensors have a comparatively high rest current, on the other hand it is difficult to set a stable, definite response threshold. External influences such as rain, snow, dirt and dust greatly change the measured values in capacitive proximity sensors. Finally, in proximity sensors the problem of the stray electromagnetic radiation emitted by them cannot be ignored. Therefore, in spite of the aforementioned difficulties, motor vehicle door lock systems with the passive entry function in which only actuation of the outside door handle by the hand of the operator initiates the starting interval of the control electronics also have major advantages.
As can be taken from the aforementioned, in motor vehicle door lock systems with a passive entry function in all the aforementioned versions there is the problem that the reaction of the control electronics is preferably to be shortened as much as possible, in any case with respect to perception by the operator.
For themselves, it is known in motor vehicle door lock systems that the central interlock drive can be connected via a centrifugal clutch to the drive element for the lock element as described in published European reference EP 0 064 942 B1. This makes it possible to move the lock element by hand without major resistance if the central interlock drive is stationary. This is one alternative to the initially addressed construction of a conventional electromechanical motor vehicle door lock system in which this shifting by hand is implemented without major resistance by a corresponding configuration of the lock element. In any case, the construction there does not act in each position of the central interlock drive, therefore especially not when the central interlock drive remains stopped in an unintended position. Here the use of a centrifugal clutch has clear advantages.
In the motor vehicle door lock systems with a centrifugal clutch, on the central interlock drive the problem of reaction time then arises even if there is no passive entry function. The central interlock drive must first reach the necessary rpm before the centrifugal clutch engages and closes the energy transmission train to the lock mechanism.
The teaching of the invention is to improve a motor vehicle door lock system of the type under consideration, especially one with a passive entry function with respect to the reaction of the control electronics with consideration of the fact that the central interlock drive is equipped with a clutch which engages only with the beginning of minimum rpm, especially in the form of a centrifugal clutch.
The aforementioned object is achieved by a motor vehicle door lock system. On the central interlock drive of each motor vehicle lock a clutch, which engages only with the beginning of minimum rpm, especially in the form of a centrifugal clutch, is assigned to the motor vehicle door lock system. Then, additional speed unlocking is implemented in a manner which is tailored to the particulars of the centrifugal clutch. This is based on the finding that speed unlocking is achieved when the centrifugal clutch is essentially bypassed for the unlocking process. In principle, all the advantages of the use of a centrifugal clutch are achieved, nevertheless the disadvantage of the use of one such clutch is eliminated such that it needs a certain time until the central interlock drive, especially after the end of the authorization check interval in a passive entry function, starts and reaches the minimum rpm and only then is able to move the lock element via the centrifugal clutch.
Immediately after starting the central interlock drive in the passive entry function, therefore immediately after completion of the authorization check interval and in the first part of the action interval, the lock element is moved into the unlocked position. The corresponding applies of course to an element which is downstream of the lock element in the lock mechanism in the energy transmission chain. What is important is that by means of the speed unlocking element the unlocked position of the motor vehicle lock can be reached within a few milliseconds, especially roughly 10 ms. The effort necessary for this purpose is minimal, only a simple bypass construction for the clutch is necessary. The advantages of using a clutch, especially in the form of a centrifugal clutch, are preserved. Its disadvantages, specifically the delay of the response of the central interlock drive are however elegantly eliminated
It is important that the central interlock drive itself is made classically with a slow running drive element and also the time delay for the response which is caused by the centrifugal clutch continues to be present. The central interlock drive is followed-up with an inevitable time delay and after a slightly longer time interval is then in its readiness position for the next function.
The teaching of the invention can be used especially valuably when as already explained above for the prior art, the starting interval is initiated by the hand of the operator in fact actuating, especially touching the outside door handle. In this form, which can dispense with a proximity sensor, for a long time the length of the reaction phase was a special problem because the time advance, which is an advantage in proximity sensors, is absent. But also in a motor vehicle door lock system equipped with a proximity sensor does the teaching of the invention, of course, yield a time advantage.
The teaching of the invention can be integrated especially feasibly also in the already existing classical electromechanical motor vehicle door lock systems without major additional cost so that in existing constructions the passive entry function can be used without disadvantages in the ease of actuation.
The teaching of this invention can be used especially when the motor vehicle door lock is made as an electric lock which is actuated by sensors in the lock mechanism. In one such technology the chains of dynamic effect from the outside door handle, the inside door handle, and optionally from the lock cylinder into the lock mechanism are used only for actuation of the corresponding switches or to influence the corresponding sensors. Based on the existence of mechanical chains of dynamic effect however, if necessary the lock mechanism can be used for purposes of actuating the detent pawl, etc. This concept is the subject matter of co-pending, commonly owned, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/550,597 which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
Finally, the teaching of this invention can also be used in a motor vehicle door lock system without a passive entry function, for example, in especially comfortable motor vehicle door lock systems in conjunction with the actuation of the outside door handle.
These and other advantages and features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention when view in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Motor-vehicle door locking system with quick unlocking


A light-emitting device having a first electrode, a second electrode, and an emissive layer (EML) in electrical contact with the first electrode and the second electrode. A charge transport layer (CTL) is positioned between the EML and the second electrode, with the second electrode being an ultrathin transparent metal layer of less than five nanometers, and including an auxiliary electrode metal grid formed by wet etching. The ultrathin transparent metal layer is positioned between the CTL and the auxiliary electrode metal grid, and the ultrathin metal layer is preferably a metal with an etchant selectivity such that it is unaffected by the wet etching of the auxiliary electrode.

A common QLED device comprises, as a minimum, an electroluminescent quantum dot layer (e.g., an emissive layer (EML)) situated in between an anode and a cathode. Generally, there exists also an electron transport layer (ETL) between the cathode and the quantum dot layer, and a hole transport layer (HTL) between the quantum dot layer and the anode. The device may further comprise an electron injection layer (EIL) between the cathode and ETL, and a hole injection layer (HIL) between the HTL and anode.
A QLED device is said to be bottom emitting (BE) if the light is emitted through a substrate (e.g., a thin film transistor (TFT) substrate) on which the layers described above are formed. A QLED device is said to be top emitting (TE) if the light is emitted away from the substrate. A TE device may be considered a preferable structure compared to a BE structure which requires light to pass through the TFT substrate which may lead to a significant reduction in brightness. A QLED device may have the anode in contact with the substrate, and such a device is said to have a conventional or non-inverted structure. A QLED device may have the cathode in contact with the substrate, and such a device is said to have an inverted structure.
The current state of the art top emitting QLED (or Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED)) device employs a semi-transparent thin metal layer such as a silver (Ag)/magnesium (Mg) alloy, typically having a thickness of around fifteen nanometers (nm). This type of electrode presents a trade-off in properties between optical transparency and electrical conductivity. The metal layer cannot be much thinner than fifteen nanometers before the conductivity drops too low. The metal layer cannot be much thicker than fifteen nanometers before the transparency is too low.
For example, semi-transparent Ag/Mg alloy electrodes typically have a transparency of approximately 50-60%, and a sheet resistance of 20 Ωsq−1. This sheet resistance provides sufficient conductivity to transport current across a display of up to around six inches (for example, a mobile phone, or similarly sized display). For larger displays, however, the voltage drop in such electrodes is too large, leading to unacceptable luminance variation across a larger display.
Quantum dots naturally have a narrower spectral emission profile than emissive layers OLEDs. Thus, the presence of a cavity, while beneficial for OLEDs, results in a significant color shift at wide viewing angles with QLEDs which is undesirable for such displays. Electrodes with lower reflectivity than the thin metal layer, for example, formed from transparent conducting oxides, can eliminate the optical cavity effects and enable high efficiency QLEDs with low color shift when viewed off angle.
In order to realize a transparent conductive electrode (ICE) QLED electrode that can be used for larger display sizes, an auxiliary wire grid can be used as a supplemental electrode to transport current to each of the sub-pixels in a display. The TCE can then spread that current evenly across each sub-pixel. In one related art apparatus, the TCE is a transparent nanoparticle layer such as an indium tin oxide nanoparticle (ITO NP) layer. ITO NPs may have transparencies of greater than 95%, which is very good for removing cavity effects and for high efficiency. Also, ITO NPs have a relatively high conductivity, enabling good spread of current across the sub-pixels. Since the auxiliary wire grid electrode exists only on the banks, the auxiliary wire grid electrode can be relatively thick.
While a transparent nanoparticle layer (such as an ITO NP layer) combined with an auxiliary wire grid electrode provides improved transparency and conductivity compared to the aforementioned fifteen nanometer Ag/Mg layer, such a nanoparticle layer may not be conductive enough to effectively spread current across an entire sub-pixel. Also, nanoparticle layers, which may be effective in terms of conductivity and transparency, often lack a suitable energy level alignment, resulting in poor efficiency devices.

Ultrathin metal electrode with auxiliary electrode for light-emitting device


The invention provides a wire-bonding apparatus for forming electrical connections between a semiconductor chip and a leadframe, comprising a plurality of bond-heads associated with a plurality of work holders on said wire bonding apparatus for holding a plurality of leadframes, wherein each bond-head of the apparatus is capable of independent bonding operation simultaneously with the other bond-heads, without synchronization of movement with the other bond-heads.

The invention relates to a wire-bonding system for bonding the contacts of semiconductor chips to leadframes, and in particular, to wire-bonding systems with multiple bond heads.
In the process of forming a semiconductor integrated circuit package, wire-bonders are commonly used to bond wires, for example, copper or gold wires on electrical contacts on semiconductor chips and corresponding leadframe leads in order to electrically connect the contacts on semiconductor chips to the leads on leadframes. Thereafter, the semiconductor chip is encapsulated with epoxy resin to form semiconductor packages and then each package is singulated. The wire-bonders include bond-heads comprising ultrasonic transducers, that use high-frequency vibrations to affix the wires to the contacts and leadframes.
Traditionally, wire-bonders have used single bond-heads due to the simplicity of implementation. Single bond heads avoid the problem of interference caused by multiple bond-heads, which would lead to inaccurate bonding if vibrations caused by one bond-head working on one work holder reverberates to an adjacent bond-head and work holder. Further, a single bond-head leads to a less complicated design in terms of machinery and work-flow.
Nevertheless, the use of single bond-heads have certain shortcomings. One disadvantage is that single-head wire-bonders lead to greater footprints if several wire-bonder machines are to be implemented. Thus, if multiple wire-bonders are implemented in an in-line system, valuable floor-space is wasted as a result of the larger foot-print. Further, having single bond-heads slows down the wire-bonding process if, for instance, different bonding processes like alternate patterns or different wire sizes are to be performed on the same leadframe. If the wire-bonder has multiple bond-heads on the same system that are substantially adjacent to each other, the different bonding processes can be carried out consecutively with less transportation time required to transfer the leadframe from one bond-head to another.
Thus, the invention seeks to provide an improved wire-bonding system comprising multiple bond-heads to avoid some of the disadvantages of the prior art consisting of single bond-head systems.
Accordingly, the invention provides a wire-bonding apparatus for forming electrical connections between a semiconductor chip and a leadframe, comprising a plurality of bond-heads associated with a plurality of work holders on said wire bonding apparatus for holding a plurality of leadframes, wherein each bond-head of the apparatus is capable of independent bonding operation simultaneously with the other bond-heads, without synchronization of movement with the other bond-heads.
It will be convenient to hereinafter describe the invention in greater detail by reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate one embodiment of the invention. The particularity of the drawings and the related description is not to be understood as superseding the generality of the broad identification of the invention as defined by the claims.


A system and method for managing voice mail messages associated with a mobile device. The method can include receiving, by a processor of the mobile device, at least one identifier associated with a sending device that initially stored, external to the mobile device, a visual voice mail message associated with the mobile device. The processor can compare the at least one identifier with one or more lists of predetermined identifiers stored on the mobile device. The one or more lists include at least one of a list of approved predetermined identifiers and a list of disapproved predetermined identifiers. Based on the comparison, appropriated actions can occur based on rules stored on the mobile device.

There are times when a user of a mobile device can receive voice mail messages from unwanted sources. For example, telemarketers, recruiters or headhunters, a random caller who has a wrong number, or someone that keeps calling the user of the mobile device. As a result of these calls, the caller may leave messages which can consume a user's allocated space on a server, such as a visual voice mail server or any other server for storing such messages. Typically, a user's allocated space on the server is limited and such messages may eventually block new messages from being stored in the allocated space or can lead to additional costs to the user. For example, some systems or service plans may charge a user to download messages or if the user exceeds a threshold. As a result, there is a need to reduce or restrict costs associated with undesirable messages consuming a user's allocated space for messages. Thus there is a need to reduce the number of messages stored in the allocated space. One means to reduce the number of messages is to automatically delete messages from users who are considered undesirable depositors.

System and method to manage visual voice mail messages


The present invention discloses an LCD panel assembly, an LCD device and a method for fixing the LCD panel. The LCD panel assembly comprises an LCD panel and a middle frame around the glass, wherein, an LCD module comprises a positioning element comprising a first positioning part and a second positioning part; the first positioning part contacts with an LCD panel and the second positioning part is fixed and connected to one end of the first positioning part. The present invention can omit a front frame of the LCD module, reduce the cost of the LCD module, and simplify the process of installing the fixed structure. Besides, the positioning element not only can match the middle frame to form the LCD module, but also can match the complete front frame to form the LCD device. Thus, the designing and manufacturing cost is to be further reduced with nice commonality and convenient assembling.

As shown in FIG. 1, in the framework of an existing LCD module, a glass 200 is usually positioned on an LCD panel by a front frame 100, and the LCD module is matched with a complete front frame 500. Because the complete front frame 500 can position the glass 200 as well, and in fact, the glass 200 is required to be positioned during the transportation and the test, so the repositioning increases the designing cost of the LCD device.

LCD panel assembly, LCD device and method for fixing LCD panel

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.


A method for drilling a borehole penetrating an earth formation includes: drilling a first section of the borehole; notching a wall of the borehole in one or more selected locations with a selected type of notch using a notcher for defined local weakening of the formation; performing a local induced break-out test and/or local fracturing operation on an annulus section of the first section of the borehole between the drill string and a wall of the borehole using a test tool comprising a packer to provide formation stress-state data. The one or more locations is based on the formation stress-state data. The method further includes deriving stress-state of the formation and a fracturing parameter of the formation using the formation stress-state data and drilling a second section of the borehole using the derived stress-state and the fracturing parameter.

Boreholes are drilled into earth formations for various purposes such as hydrocarbon production, geothermal production, and carbon dioxide sequestration. For efficient use of drilling resources, it is desired that the boreholes be drilled in a way that would minimize the possibility of their collapse or damage. In addition, it is desired to complete a wellbore by hydraulic fracturing in a way that production is maximum or improved. Determining an adequate borehole trajectory generally requires knowledge of the various stresses acting on the earth formations. Typically, a bottom hole assembly is removed from a borehole in order to conduct tests that would provide the magnitudes of the various stresses. Unfortunately, removal of the bottom hole assembly from the borehole adds considerable time necessary to drill the borehole. Consequently, it would be well received in the drilling industry if methods and systems were developed to more efficiently determine formation stresses for wellbore stability and production maximization or improvement.

One run reservoir evaluation and stimulation while drilling


An amplifier circuit includes a differential amplifier circuit configured to amplify a voltage between a signal input to a first input terminal and a signal input to a second input terminal, a plurality of output circuits each configured to output a signal corresponding to a signal output from the differential amplifier circuit, and a control circuit configured to set a selected one of the plurality of output circuits in an operating state to drive an output terminal of the selected output circuit, and set a remaining output circuit in a non-operating state and set an output terminal of the remaining output circuit in a high impedance state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an amplifier circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-226948 discloses a multiple output amplifier including a constant current source, an amplifier input stage, a level shift stage, and a plurality of output circuits. In this multiple output amplifier, the plurality of output circuits share the constant current source, amplifier input stage, and level shift stage, thereby suppressing an increase in chip area.
The multiple output amplifier disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-226948 does not stop the operation of an output circuit not in use. When a load is connected to the output circuit not in use, the output circuit not in use may adversely affect an output circuit in use in a way such as a crosstalk. In addition, power is consumed by a bias current for operating the output circuit not in use.


A coupling system that can be placed into the existing drain and over the existing drain pipe to effect a repair without removal of an existing tub, shower or similar receptacle. The drain coupling system is self-sealing and can be locked into place from above. After ensuring that the proper seal is obtained between the invention and the drain pipe, the body of the invention is pushed downward until the upper collar lip engages the floor surrounding the drain opening. The system is then secured in position from above by the plurality of hex head set screws provided. The hex head set screws extend downward from the upper most surface of the invention. The coupling system is supplied with locking tabs. When the present invention is in the proper position within the drain opening, the rotation of the screws forces the wings of the locking tabs to rotate in a lateral fashion. The rotation of the locking tab continues until the wings contact the walls of the drain opening. The contact between the locking tabs and the drain walls serves to securely hold the invention in the proper orientation within the drain hole.

The present invention relates to an improvement in the method employed to repair leaking shower and bathtub drains common in households today. More specifically, to a method of repairing such drains that does not require that the shower stall or bathtub be removed to allow for the removal and repair of a leaking drain.
In the past, the replacement of worn out and leaking shower and bathtub drains has posed significant problems for home and property owners. This problem primarily resulted from the design of these components, as they were typically made of a threaded tube with a flange at its upper most end. During the original installation process, this tube is passed down and through the drain opening of the shower or bathtub until the flange contacts the upper surface of the shower floor, prior to the installation of the shower or tub. The assembly is then held in place by threading a large nut onto the threaded pipe from the bottom side until it contacts the bottom surface of the shower or bathtub. Until recently, these components were also made entirely of common metals such as iron and steel that are prone to problems resulting from corrosion.
The problem with this design is a direct result of the constant presence of water on these components. This water exposure substantially increases the probability that they will eventually fail, causing the system to leak water into the structure of which they are a part. In the past, the only way to cure this common problem was to remove the entire shower stall or bathtub and replace the drain with similar components. Then place the shower or tub in its original position. Due to the complexities, specific tooling needed, and skill involved in replacing traditional drains, most home and property owners were forced to hire a contractor to handle the often expensive job.
The sole benefit of the old metallic drain components was that upon corroding to the point of leaking water, the components have rusted to the extent that they can easily be broken out of the drain hole without having to remove the complete shower stall or bathtub. Thus, if a device could allow for the replacement of the drain without the removal of the stall or bathtub to replace the retaining nut holding the drain assembly to the stall, it would be a much simpler and economical drain replacement process.
From this it can be seen that it would be desirable to provide a method of replacing corroded and leaking shower and bathtub drains that would not require the shower stall or tub to be removed. Such a device would allow a person of average mechanical abilities to quickly and inexpensively replace a leaking shower or bathtub drain without the expense and trouble of hiring a contractor. Additionally, it will also allow contractors to replace drains quickly, reducing the cost for individuals who need to hire a contractor to fix the drain problem.

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