A CMP pad conditioning unit having a new and improved drive transmission for transmitting rotation from a drive motor to a conditioning disk on the pad conditioning unit. The drive transmission includes a rotatable transmission shaft that is drivingly engaged by the drive motor and drivingly engages the conditioning disk. In operation, rotation is transmitted from the drive motor to the conditioning disk through the transmission shaft. The drive transmission is characterized by reliability, longevity and enhanced efficiency in the conditioning of substrate polishing pads.

The present invention relates to disks used in the conditioning of polishing pads on CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) apparatus for semiconductor wafers. More particularly, the present invention relates to a CMP pad conditioning unit having a gear-actuated drive transmission for transmitting rotation from a drive motor to a pad conditioning disk in the pad conditioning unit.
Apparatus for polishing thin, flat semiconductor wafers are well-known in the art. Such apparatus normally includes a polishing head which carries a membrane for engaging and forcing a semiconductor wafer against a wetted polishing surface, such as a polishing pad. Either the pad or the polishing head is rotated and oscillates the wafer over the polishing surface. The polishing head is forced downwardly onto the polishing surface by a pressurized air system or similar arrangement. The downward force pressing the polishing head against the polishing surface can be adjusted as desired. The polishing head is typically mounted on an elongated pivoting carrier arm, which can move the pressure head between several operative positions. In one operative position, the carrier arm positions a wafer mounted on the pressure head in contact with the polishing pad. In order to remove the wafer from contact with the polishing surface, the carrier arm is first pivoted upwardly to lift the pressure head and wafer from the polishing surface. The carrier arm is then pivoted laterally to move the pressure head and wafer carried by the pressure head to an auxiliary wafer processing station. The auxiliary processing station may include, for example, a station for cleaning the wafer and/or polishing head, a wafer unload station, or a wafer load station.
More recently, chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) apparatus has been employed in combination with a pneumatically actuated polishing head. CMP apparatus is used primarily for polishing the front face or device side of a semiconductor wafer during the fabrication of semiconductor devices on the wafer. A wafer is xe2x80x9cplanarizedxe2x80x9d or smoothed one or more times during a fabrication process in order for the top surface of the wafer to be as flat as possible. A wafer is polished by being placed on a carrier and pressed face down onto a polishing pad covered with a slurry of colloidal silica or alumina in deionized water.
A schematic of a typical CMP apparatus is shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. The apparatus 20 for chemical mechanical polishing consists of a rotating wafer holder 14 that holds the wafer 10, the appropriate slurry 24, and a polishing pad 12 which is normally mounted to a rotating table 26 by adhesive means. The polishing pad 12 is applied to the wafer surface 22 at a specific pressure. The chemical mechanical polishing method can be used to provide a planar surface on dielectric layers, on deep and shallow trenches that are filled with polysilicon or oxide, and on various metal films.
CMP polishing results from a combination of chemical and mechanical effects. A possible mechanism for the CMP process involves the formation of a chemically altered layer at the surface of the material being polished. The layer is mechanically removed from the underlying bulk material. An altered layer is then regrown on the surface while the process is repeated again. For instance, in metal polishing, a metal oxide may be formed and removed separately.
A polishing pad is typically constructed in two layers overlying a platen with the resilient layer as the outer layer of the pad. The layers are typically made of polyurethane and may include a filler for controlling the dimensional stability of the layers. The polishing pad is usually several times the diameter of a wafer and the wafer is kept off-center on the pad to prevent polishing a non-planar surface onto the wafer. The wafer is also rotated to prevent polishing a taper into the wafer. Although the axis of rotation of the wafer and the axis of rotation of the pad are not collinear, the axes must be parallel.
In a CMP head, large variations in the removal rate, or polishing rate, across the whole wafer area are frequently observed. A thickness variation across the wafer is therefore produced as a major cause for wafer non-uniformity. In the improved CMP head design, even though a pneumatic system for forcing the wafer surface onto a polishing pad is used, the system cannot selectively apply different pressures at different locations on the surface of the wafer. This effect is shown in FIG. 1C, i.e. in a profilometer trace obtained on an 8-inch wafer. The thickness difference between the highest point and the lowest point on the wafer is almost 2,000 angstroms, resulting in a standard deviation of 472 angstroms, or 6.26%. The curve shown in FIG. 1C is plotted with the removal rates in the vertical axis and the distance from the center of the wafer in the horizontal axis. It is seen that the removal rates obtained at the edge portions of the wafer are substantially higher than the removal rates at or near the center of the wafer. The thickness uniformity on the resulting wafer after the CMP process is poor.
The polishing pad 12 is a consumable item used in a semiconductor wafer fabrication process. Under normal wafer fabrication conditions, the polishing pad is replaced after about 12 hours of usage. Polishing pads may be hard, incompressible pads or soft pads. For oxide polishing, hard and stiffer pads are generally used to achieve planarity. Softer pads are generally used in other polishing processes to achieve improved uniformity and smooth surfaces. The hard pads and the soft pads may also be combined in an arrangement of stacked pads for customized applications.
A problem frequently encountered in the use of polishing pads in oxide planarization is the rapid deterioration in oxide polishing rates with successive wafers. The cause for the deterioration is known as xe2x80x9cpad glazingxe2x80x9d, wherein the surface of a polishing pad becomes smooth such that slurry is no longer held in between the fibers of the pad. This physical phenomenon on the pad surface is not caused by any chemical reations between the pad and the slurry.
To remedy the pad glazing effect, numerous techniques of pad conditioning or scrubbing have been proposed to regenerate and restore the pad surface and thereby restore the polishing rates of the pad. The pad conditioning techniques include the use of silicon carbide particles, diamond emery paper, blade or knife for scraping or scoring the polishing pad surface. The goal of the conditioning process is to remove polishing debris from the pad surface and re-open pores in the pad by forming micro-scratches in the surface of the pad for improved pad lifetime. The pad conditioning process can be carried out either during a polishing process, i.e. known as concurrent conditioning, or after a polishing process.
Referring next to FIG. 2A, a conventional CMP apparatus 50 includes a pad conditioning unit 52 having a rotating conditioning disk 66, as well as a polishing pad 56 and a slurry delivery arm 54 positioned over the polishing pad 56. The conditioning head 52 is mounted on a conditioning arm 58 which is extended over the top of the polishing pad 56 for making a sweeping motion across the entire surface of the polishing pad 56 as the conditioning disk 68 is rotated against the polishing pad 56. The slurry delivery arm 54 is equipped with slurry dispensing nozzles 62 which are used for dispensing a slurry solution on the top surface 60 of the polishing pad 56. Surface grooves 64 are further provided in the top surface 60 to facilitate even distribution of the slurry solution and to help entrapping undesirable particles that are generated by coagulated slurry solution or any other foreign particles which have fallen on top of the polishing pad 56 during a polishing process. The surface grooves 64, while serving an important function of distributing the slurry, also presents a processing problem when the pad surface 60 gradually wears out after prolonged use.
Referring next to FIG. 3A, one type of CMP apparatus which is currently in widespread usage is the MIRRA (TM) CMP apparatus, available from Applied Materials, Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif. The pad conditioning unit 68 of the MIRRA (TM) CMP apparatus includes a motor housing 69 which houses a motor 70. A drive pulley 72 is mounted on a drive shaft 71 which is engaged by the motor 70. The motor housing 69 is mounted on one end of an elongated conditioning arm 73. A conditioning head 76 is provided on the opposite end of the conditioning arm 73. An idle pulley 78 engages a conditioning disk 77 that is rotatably mounted on the bottom surface of the conditioning head 76. A continuous drive belt 74 engages the drive pulley 72 and the idle pulley 78. Accordingly, rotation of the drive pulley 72 is transmitted to the idle pulley 78 via the drive belt 74, thereby rotating the conditioning disk 77 against a polishing pad 80 as the conditioning disk 77 is used to condition the polishing pad 80.
The conventional pad conditioning unit 68 of the MIRRA (TM) CMP apparatus is associated with at least two drawbacks. First, during the CMP operation, the counterbalance of the down force applied by the conditioning disk 77 against the polishing pad 80 causes the conditioning arm 73 to bend upwardly between the motor housing 69 and the conditioning head 76. Consequently, the idle pulley 78 is disposed at a higher level than the drive pulley 72, and this distorts the drive belt 74. Second, because the tension of the drive belt 74 on the pulleys 72, 78 is not adjustable, the drive belt 74 has a tendency to wobble during operation. Both of these factors tend to cause premature wearing and breakage of the drive belt 74, as well as non-uniformity in the magnitude of pressure applied to the polishing pad 80 among all regions of the conditioning disk 77. Accordingly, a new and improved conditioning disk drive transmission is needed which is particularly adapted for the pad conditioning unit of a Mirra CMP apparatus.
An object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved conditioning disk drive transmission for a pad conditioning unit on a CMP apparatus.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved conditioning disk drive transmission which enhances operational reliability of a pad conditioning unit on a CMP apparatus.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved conditioning disk drive transmission which is particularly well-suited to a pad conditioning unit on a MIRRA (TM) CMP apparatus.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved conditioning disk drive transmission which includes a gear system for transmitting rotation from a drive motor to a conditioning disk on a pad conditioning unit in a CMP apparatus.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a CMP apparatus pad conditioning unit which includes a new and improved conditioning disk drive transmission.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved CMP pad conditioning unit having a conditioning arm, a transmission shaft rotatably carried by the conditioning arm, a drive motor drivingly engaging the transmission shaft for rotating the transmission shaft and a conditioning disk drivingly engaged by the transmission shaft for rotation by the transmission shaft.
In accordance with these and other objects and advantages, the present invention is generally directed to a CMP pad conditioning unit having a new and improved drive transmission for transmitting rotation from a drive motor to a conditioning disk on the pad conditioning unit. The drive transmission includes a rotatable transmission shaft that is drivingly engaged by the drive motor and drivingly engages the conditioning disk. In operation, rotation is transmitted from the drive motor to the conditioning disk through the transmission shaft. The drive transmission is characterized by reliability, longevity and enhanced efficiency in the conditioning of substrate polishing pads.
In a preferred embodiment, meshing drive gears are engaged by the drive motor and the transmission shaft, respectively, for transmitting rotation from the drive motor to the transmission shaft. Meshing idle gears are engaged by the transmission shaft and the conditioning disk, respectively, for transmitting rotation from the transmission shaft to the conditioning disk.
In a most preferred embodiment, a drive pinion gear is drivingly engaged by the drive motor and meshes with a drive worm gear provided on the transmission shaft to transmit rotation from the drive motor to the transmission shaft. An idle pinion gear drivingly engages the conditioning disk and meshes with an idle worm gear provided on the transmission shaft to transmit rotation from the transmission shaft to the conditioning disk.

CMP polishing unit with gear-driven conditioning disk drive transmission

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


According to one aspect, embodiments herein provide a non-imaging optical system including a focusing optical element positioned within an input optical path to receive electromagnetic radiation, a micro-mirror array including a plurality of micro-mirror pixels positioned within the input optical path, individual micro-mirror pixels of the plurality of micro-mirror pixels being positioned to receive electromagnetic radiation from the focusing optical element and redirect electromagnetic radiation along a redirected optical path, a relay optical element positioned within the redirected optical path to receive and focus electromagnetic radiation from the micro-mirror array, and a single-pixel non-imaging detector positioned to receive electromagnetic radiation from the relay optical element.

Non-imaging optics have a wide variety of applications throughout scientific, industrial, and military fields. In contrast to traditional imaging optics, non-imaging optics do not form an image of a source of electromagnetic radiation. Instead, non-imaging optics optimize the transfer of luminous power. For instance, non-imaging optics are often used in solar energy conversion systems.
In many optical systems it is desirable to have a wide field of view. For example, many telescopes have a large entrance aperture to permit imaging of a distant scene. This requires a large imaging detector or a short focal length such that light from the extremes of the field of view is focused on the detector. Use of a large detector increases the size, weight, power, and cost of the system. Use of a shorter focal length limits the optical system aperture diameter which limits the operating range of the system.
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a known wide field of view non-imaging optical system. Electromagnetic radiation 100 propagating along an input optical path 102 is received at a focusing lens 104, and focused on a detector 106. FIG. 1B demonstrates a front view of the detector 106 shown in FIG. 1A. The radiation received along the input optical path 102 is focused at the center of the detector 106 to form an image 108. In contrast, radiation that is received at an off-set angle θ from the optical path 102 (radiation shown as line 110) is displaced from the center of the detector 106 and not viewable when the angle θ exceeds the acceptance angle of the focusing lens 104 and detector 106.
Conventionally, collecting more off-axis light is addressed by increasing the size of the detector until all (or most) of the incident electromagnetic radiation is viewable by the detector. However, such conventional approaches increase the weight and operational costs of the optical system, and are impractical in many applications. Other attempts to address this issue have suggested shortening the focal length of the optical system. However, such a solution would impact the characteristics of the optical elements and limit the operating range of the system. For instance, a known system having a 0.2 mm diameter detector may not image incident light if the incident light is as little as one degree off-axis of the optical axis. Further attempts have suggested decreasing the diameter of the aperture. However, such a solution would impact the ability to operate at long ranges. The same trades are performed for imaging and non-imaging optical systems alike.

Passive micromirror device for non-imaging wide field of view


The determination of a plurality of sequences of words from a speech signal with a decreasing probability of correspondence utilizes the best word sequence as a basis and as further word sequences there are determined only those which enclose a part of the best word sequence, that is to say the remainder of these word sequences. To this end, the recognition involves first the formation of a word graph and the best word sequence is separately stored as a tree which initially has one branch only. The word boundaries of this word sequence form nodes in this tree. Because only nodes of this tree have to be taken into account for the next-best word sequences, the calculation is substantially simpler than if the complete word graph were first completely expanded in the form of a tree and completely searched again for each new word sequence.

The invention relates to a method of deriving at least one sequence of words from a speech signal which represents an expression spoken in natural speech, the individual words of the expression not necessarily being spoken with speech intervals inserted therebetween. Merely a vocabulary is given, so that only words of this vocabulary can be derived. The derived sequence of words should correspond exactly to the spoken sequence of words. Therefore, such methods are also called speech recognition methods. The invention also relates to an arrangement for deriving at least one sequence of words.
In a method of this kind which is known from published European patent application EP 614 172 A2, to which U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,083 corresponds, individual words are derived by comparison with reference signals where each reference signal corresponds to a spoken word in the vocabulary, the derived words being combined so as to form a word graph. Because complete correspondence to the reference signals hardly ever occurs in practice, a plurality of similarly sounding words is derived, simultaneously or with a time overlap, each of said words being assigned a respective score in conformity with the degree of correspondence to the respective reference signals. The sequence of consecutive words for which the smallest sum of scores occurs is output as the most probably spoken word sequence.
However, it often occurs that, because of a non-optimum pronunciation, the sequence having the smallest sum of scores is not exactly the actually spoken word sequence, since the word graph of the latter has a higher sum of scores. In order to enable such an actually spoken word sequence to be output nevertheless, it is known in principle to derive a plurality of word sequences from a speech signal for which the probability of correspondence with the speech signal is step-wise lower for successive sequences. For example, an operator can then select the actually spoken word sequence from this plurality of word sequences. A further application for the output of different word sequences with a decreasing probability of correspondence to the speech signals concerns dialogue systems in which the word sequence output is used for an automatic database enquiry. Therein, the word sequences recognized as being most probable could lead to meaningless or non-interpretable database enquiries whereas a word sequence of lower probability leads to a useful database enquiry; therefore, it may be assumed that such a word sequence best corresponds to the actually spoken sentence.
The generation of a plurality of word sequences of different probability of correspondence to the speech signal, however, is generally very complex from a calculation point of view. The Proceedings ICASSP-91, pp. 701 to 704, Toronto 1991, describe a method for finding multiple sentence hypotheses in which the steps enabling backtracking of the various sentence hypotheses are complex.

Method of and apparatus for deriving a plurality of sequences of words from a speech signal


Disclosed are compositions comprising at least one iodocarbon compound and preferably at least one stabilization agent. These compositions are generally useful as refrigerants for heating and cooling, as blowing agents, as aerosol propellants, as solvent composition, and as fire extinguishing and suppressing agents.

Halogenated hydrocarbons have found widespread use in a variety of industrial applications, including as refrigerants, aerosol propellants, blowing agents, heat transfer media and gas dielectrics. Many of these applications have heretofore utilized compositions comprising major amounts of chlorofluorocarbons ("CFCs") and hydrochlorofluorocarbons ("HCFCs"). However, suspected environmental problems have become associated with the use of some of these halogenated hydrocarbons. For example, both CFCs and HCFCs tend to exhibit relatively high global warming potentials. Accordingly, it has become desirable in many applications to use compositions which are otherwise acceptable for the intended use but which at the same time have lower global warming potentials than CFCs and other disfavored halogenated compounds.
Applicants have recognized that certain compositions comprising iodinated compounds, and in particular, compositions comprising trifluoroiodomethane, may be used advantageously to replace various chlorinated compounds, many of which have high global warming potentials, in refrigeration (and other) applications to reduce potential environmental damage caused thereby. Applicants have further recognized, however, that iodinated compounds, such as trifluoroiodomethane, tend to be relatively unstable, and often significantly less stable than CFCs, HCFCs and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), especially under certain conventional refrigeration conditions.
To be useful as refrigerants and replacements for other CFC, HCFC and HFC fluids, suitable compositions comprising iodinated compounds must be stabilized. Applicants have recognized one possible way to produce suitable stable iodo-compositions is to use stabilizing compounds therein.
A variety of stabilizers for use with HCFC and CFC compositions are known. HFCs, due to their exceptional stability, may or may not use stabilizers incorporated in their compositions as known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,380,449 discloses compositions comprising dichlorotrifluoroethane and stabilizing amounts of at least one phenol and at least one aromatic or fluorinated alkyl epoxide. However, because iodo-compounds tend to be significantly less stable that CFCs and HCFCs, it cannot be predicted from teachings of stabilizers for CFCs and HCFCs (e.g. the '449 disclosure) whether the same or similar compounds are capable of stabilizing iodo-compounds to a sufficient degree for use as CFC/HCFC replacements. That is, as will be recognized by those of skill in the art, C—Cl and C—F bonds tend to be at least about 1.5-2 times stronger than C—I bonds. Accordingly, it is neither inherent nor necessarily reasonable to expect that a compound that stabilizes an HCFC or CFC will be suitable for an iodo-compound which requires about twice the amount of added stability to be useful in refrigerant applications.
Applicants have thus recognized the need to produce compositions comprising iodo-compounds, such as trifluoroiodomethane, that are sufficiently stable for a variety of uses including as replacements for CFC, HCFC and HFC refrigerants.
It has been proposed to utilize certain iodocarbon compounds in refrigeration applications as replacements for certain of the CFCs and HCFCs that have heretofore been used. For example, Japanese Kokai 09-059612 (Application No. 07-220964) discloses refrigerant compositions comprising trifluoroiodomethane and one or more phenolic compounds. This patent document indicates that the phenolic compositions act to stabilize the trifluoroiodomethane against degradation.
While the compositions containing phenolic compounds as stabilizers for trifluoroiodomethane may enjoy a certain degree of success, in certain applications it may be desirable to not use phenolic compounds or to use such compounds in a lower concentration. For example, phenols are generally acidic due to the dissociability of the hydroxyl group and are relatively reactive. These characteristics may be undesirable in certain applications and/or in certain situations.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A technique for tracking a state of one or more input/output (I/O) channels associated with an application, by the application itself, comprises the steps of: (i) storing, by an operating system kernel, one or more selected elements of the state of at least a portion of the one or more I/O channels associated with the application in a memory which is shared by the application and the operating system kernel, when the one or more elements are available to the operating system kernel; (ii) acquiring, by the application, at least a portion of the stored elements through one or more memory read operations of the shared memory; and (iii) assessing, by the application, one or more of the acquired elements to determine the state of the one or more I/O channels corresponding thereto. In this manner, a need for context switching to track the state of the one or more I/O channels is thereby eliminated.

Communication-intensive applications, such as, for example, applications running on Web servers and/or Web proxies, are typically required to handle a relatively large number of concurrent I/O channels. The number of I/O channels concurrently handled by a given application may range from a few hundred to tens of thousands. In the case of a Web proxy application, for example, I/O channels may include network connections to client nodes used for receiving requests, network connections to origin Web servers or other Web proxies used for retrieving content not available in its local storage, pipes to local helper applications used for performing auxiliary functions, connections to disk devices used for retrieving/storing content, etc.
Network connections represent a significant portion of the I/O channels managed by a particular network application. In a conventional network application, network connections, as well as other types of I/O channels, are often represented to the application as file descriptors. In a typical Unix kernel, the file descriptors representing network connections are generally associated with a socket data structure, while those representing other types of I/O channels, such as, for example, files or block I/O devices, are associated with file system-specific or device driver-specific data structures.
Conventional implementations of such communication-intensive applications may employ a large number of control threads. Since each control thread may require several tens of kilobytes (kB) of memory for storing its state, and switching control from one thread to another may require a large processor overhead, applications often attempt to limit the number of control threads used. However, when running with a small number of control threads, the application risks having these threads blocked waiting to perform a read or write operation when such operation cannot be satisfied. This type of blocking may results in an undesirable increase in response times. When all threads are blocked waiting to read or write content on some connections, other connections may be ready for read or write but cannot be handled immediately because no thread is available to handle the operation. In order to overcome this, an application may support nonblocking I/O (NBIO) operations. One known way to implement NBIO is to mark the file descriptors associated with network connections as nonblocking. This approach, however, is undesirable in that failed read or write operations (e.g., reads returning zero bytes, or writes sending no data) typically incur large overheads.
A primary component for implementations supporting efficient NBIO is a mechanism through which an application can learn about the state of its connections. For instance, I/O state elements of interest to the application may include the availability of data for reading and the availability of buffers for writing. Such mechanisms known by those skilled in the art are the select( ) and poll( ) system calls. These mechanisms are often referred to as I/O state tracking mechanisms. An I/O state tracking mechanism generally permits an application to first, declare an interest in one or more connections and corresponding set of I/O states, and second, receive notifications when a connection it has declared an interest in enters one of the states of interest.
Conventional I/O state tracking mechanisms generally have a large overhead associated therewith, primarily due to context switches used in their execution. Context switching, which essentially involves switching control from one protection domain (e.g., process, kernel, etc.) to another, incurs a relatively large overhead, at least in part because it requires saving and restoring a substantial amount of central processing unit (CPU) state to and from main memory (e.g., context switching between multiple protection domains in the CPU, each domain being defined by values stored in a set of privileged CPU registers). Moreover, triggering the exception handler that enacts the context switch requires a non-negligible overhead. In a communication-intensive application, the relatively high cost of conventional I/O state tracking undesirably impacts several aspects of the application's performance. Additionally, the overhead of the I/O state tracking mechanism can contribute to the total system CPU utilization. The larger the overhead, the lower the request rate that a Web proxy or origin Web server is able to service with reasonably low response times.
Conventional I/O state tracking mechanisms have explored various methodologies to reduce their processor overheads. Known operating system (OS) mechanisms for performing I/O state tracking, such as select( ) and poll( ) system calls, typically employ an application program interface (API) that combines declaration and notification, and allows an application to query about the state of virtually all of its active connections in a single system call.
To learn about the current states of its I/O connections, an application typically compiles a list of corresponding file descriptors and states of interest in a data structure and invokes a system call. In the kernel, for each of the sockets identified in the call parameters, a specialized socket handler is generally invoked to determine the current state of the connection. The result is registered in the data structure that will be returned to the application. These mechanisms retrieve the state of an application's sockets from the kernel by performing two or more context switches and two or more data copy operations. In the article G. Banga and J. Mogul, "Scalable Kernel Performance for Internet Servers Under Realistic Loads," In Proc. 1998 USENIX Annual Technical Conf., pp. 1–12, June 1998, techniques are described for improving the scalability of select( )/poll( ) routines with the number of open sockets by lowering the overhead associated with collecting state information at the kernel level.
Event delivery interfaces have been suggested as alternatives to select( )/poll( ) techniques. Events are typically identified with connection state changes. For this type of mechanism, declaration is separated from notification. To use this type of interface, an application generally declares the sockets and state changes of interest through individual system calls. At the kernel level, the system builds a list of events indicating the state changes of interest for the application.
There are several known event delivery mechanisms that have been proposed. For example, the mechanism discussed in G. Banga, J. Mongul and P. Druschel, "A Scalable and Explicit Event Delivery Mechanism for UNIX," In Proc. 1999 USENIX Annual Technical Conf., pages 253–265, June 1999, allow an application to retrieve multiple events concurrently and groups all of the events pending for a socket in a single notification. Similarly, the signal-per-file-descriptor mechanism proposed in A. Chandra and D. Mosberger, "Scalability of Linux Event-Dispatch Mechanisms," In Proc. 2001 USENIX Annual Technical Conf., 2001, returns a single notification for each socket. Alternative event delivery mechanisms are described in N. Provos, C. Lever and S. Tweedie, "Analyzing the Overload Behavior of a Simple Web Server," Technical Report CITI-TR-00-7, University of Michigan, Center for Information Technology, August 2000. In comparison to the traditional select( )/poll( ) techniques, the event delivery mechanisms may reduce the amount of data copy, but are likely to incur a significantly large number of context switches (due to system calls), primarily because of the individual declarations of connections and states of interest.
The /dev/poll interface proposed in N. Provos and C. Lever, "Scalable Network I/O in Linux," Technical Report CITI-TR-00-4, University of Michigan, Center for Information Technology, May 2000, is similar to event delivery mechanisms with respect to the interest declaration, but it resembles the poll( ) system call with respect to the notification interface. This mechanism reduces the amount of data copy by using a shared memory region between application and kernel in which the kernel returns the results.
The above-mentioned interfaces and implementations known by those skilled in the art may achieve some reduction in the amount of context switching and data copying involved in I/O state tracking. However, these conventional mechanisms fail to completely eliminate context switches and/or data copying for each batch of notifications. Both context switching and data copying are operations that have been shown to scale poorly with processor speed (see, e.g., T. E. Anderson, H. M. Levy, B. N. Bershad and E. D. Lazowska, "The Interaction of Architecture and Operating System Design," In Proc. of the Fourth International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems, pages 108–120, April 1991, and J. Ousterhout, "Why Aren't Operating Systems Getting Faster as Fast as Hardware?" In Proc. of USENIX Summer Conference, pages 247–256, June 1990), and are thus undesirable.
There exists a need, therefore, for improved techniques that enable an application to track the state of its corresponding I/O connections, which address the above-mentioned problems exhibited in conventional network communication systems and applications.

Application-level access to kernel input/output state

International Business Machines Corporation


An inlet (37a) of a capillary tube channel that feeds a liquid from a mixing cavity (39) to measurement spots is formed near one (4) of the wall surfaces of the upper and lower surfaces of the mixing cavity (39) situated in a direction of oscillation for mixing. On the other wall surface (3), a level difference (39a) is formed such that an inner gap is larger than an outer gap in the mixing cavity (39), so that a solution is reliably fed from the mixing cavity to the measurement cells.

In the related art, a liquid collected from an organism or the like is analyzed by a known analyzing method using an analytical device having fluid channels formed therein. The analytical device can control a fluid with a rotator. By using a centrifugal force, the analytical device can dilute a sample liquid, measure a solution, separate a solid component, transfer and distribute a separated fluid, and mix the solution and reagents, thereby enabling various biochemical analyses.
Patent literature 1 describes an analytical device for transferring a solution by a centrifugal force. As shown in FIG. 38, a diluent in a diluent measuring chamber 214 and plasma in a separating chamber 215 are transferred to a mixing cavity 218 through siphon passages 216 and 217 by a centrifugal force, and are agitated by adjusting a rotation speed. After that, the diluent and the plasma are transferred to measurement cells 220 through a siphon passage 219.


The invention-provides 2, 3-, 4- or 5-substituted-N1-(arylsulfonyl)indole and (heteroaryl)indole compounds of the general formula (I):

Obesity is a condition characterized in an increase in body fat content resulting in excess body weight above accepted norms. Obesity is the most important nutritional disorder in the western world and represents a major health problem in all industrialized countries. This disorder leads to increased mortality due to increased incidences of diseases such as cardiovascular disease, digestive disease, respiratory disease, cancer and NIDDM (type II diabetes). Searching for compounds, which reduce body weight has been going on for many decades. One line of research has been activation of serotonergic systems, either by direct activation of serotonin receptor subtypes or by inhibiting serotonin reuptake. The exact receptor subtype profile required is however not known.
Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT), a key transmitter of the peripheral and central nervous system, modulate a wide range of physiological and pathological functions, including anxiety, sleep regulation, aggression, feeding and depression. Multiple serotonin receptor subtypes have been identified and cloned. One of these, the 5-HT6 receptor, was cloned by several groups in 1993 (M Ruat, E Traiffort, J-M Arrang, J Tardivel-Lacombe, J Diaz, R Leurs, J-C Shwartz. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 1993, 193 (1) 268-276; M Sebben, H Ansanay, J Bockaert, A Dumuis, NeuroReport 5, 2553-2557 (1994).) This receptor is positively coupled to adenylyl cyclase and displays affinity for antipsychotics such as clozapine. Recently, the effect of 5-HT6 antagonist and 5-HT6 antisense oligonucleotides to reduce food intake in rats has been reported (J C Bentley, C A Mardsen, A J Sleight and K C Fone. Effect of 5-HT6 antagonist Ro 04-6790 on, food consumption in rats trained to a fixed feeding regime. Br J Pharmacol. 1999 Suppl. 126, P66; J C Bentley, A J Sleight, C A Mardsen, K C F Fone. 5-HT6 antisense oligonucleotide ICV affects rat performance in the water maze and feeding. J. Psychopharmacol Suppl A64, 1997, 255).
Compounds with enhanced affinity and selectivity for the 5-HT6 receptor have been identified, e.g. in WO 00/34242 and by M. Isaac, A. Slassi, T. Xin, N. MacLean, J. Wilson, K. McCallum, H. Wang and L. Demchyshyn: 6-Bicyclopiperazinyl-1-arylsulfonylindoles and 6-Bicyclopiperidinyl-1-arylsulfonylindoles derivatives as novel, potent and selective 5-HT6 receptor antagonists; Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2000, 10, 1719-1721.

Abstract: in which Ar, R2, R3, R4 and R5 are as defined in the specification. The compounds bind to the 5-HT6 receptor and are useful for the treatment and prophylaxis of disorders mediated by the 5-HT6 receptor, such as obesity and CNS disorders.


A safety assembly for containers and conduits for combustible fluids comprises a casing that contains an extinguishing substance and is crossed by a thermolabile conduit. The conduit is open to the outside through an outlet hole and is open to the inside of a container or a conduit, through an inlet hole.

The present invention relates to a safety assembly for containers and conduits for combustible fluids.
The present invention relates in particular to a cap, usable for containers of alcohol and other combustible fluids, and adapted to protect the user from back fires.
As is known, pouring or spraying combustible liquid onto an open flame is very dangerous because of the possible back fire, which causes the ignition of the fuel contained in the container or conduit.
A typical case is the dangerous habit of pouring alcohol from the bottle directly onto a barbecue, an operation that has caused many severe accidents.
FR371699 discloses a safety device applicable to a gas tank for preventing the onset of fire or explosions.
FR446907 discloses a stopper for bottles and other vessels and adapted to prevent fire from entering the vessel.

Safety assembly for containers and conduits for combustible fluids


A neural network system includes an eyewear device. The eyewear device has a movement tracker, such as an accelerometer, gyroscope, or an inertial measurement unit for measuring acceleration and rotation. The neural network system tracks, via the movement tracker, movement of the eyewear device from at least one finger contact inputted from a user on an input surface. The neural network system identifies a finger gesture by detecting at least one detected touch event based on variation of the tracked movement of the eyewear device over a time period. The neural network system adjusts the image presented on the image display of the eyewear device based on the identified finger gesture. The neural network system can also detect whether the user is wearing the eyewear device and identify an activity of the user wearing the eyewear device based on the variation of the tracked movement over the time period.

Computing devices, such as wearable devices, including portable eyewear devices (e.g., smartglasses, headwear, and headgear), necklaces, and smartwatches and mobile devices (e.g., tablets, smartphones, and laptops) integrate image displays and cameras. Viewing and interacting with the displayed content on the devices can be difficult due to the small image display area available on the wearable device and mobile device.
For example, size limitations and the form factor of a wearable device, such as the eyewear device, can make a user interface difficult to incorporate into the eyewear device. The available area for placement of various control buttons on an eyewear device, e.g., to operate a camera, and graphical user interface elements on the image display of the eyewear device is limited. Due to the small form factor of the eyewear device, manipulation and interacting with, for example, displayed content on an image display is cumbersome.
Accordingly, a need exists to simply user interactions with wearable devices, including eyewear devices, and mobile devices.

Neural network system for gesture, wear, activity, or carry detection on a wearable or mobile device


In a codebook-based closed loop type MIMO, improvement for complexity in a mobile station apparatus, and reduction of amount of overhead needed for notification from the mobile station apparatus should be provided. A wireless transmission apparatus that includes a plurality of transmission antennas, performs precoding on a data signal for each of a plurality of reception apparatuses and spatially multiplexes and transmits the signal after the precoding. The wireless transmission apparatus performs sharing a codebook describing a plurality of linear filters associated with each other is shared with the each reception apparatus, and precoding on the data signal for each reception apparatus, based on a first linear filter that is extracted from the codebook in each reception apparatus based on the association and that is notified from each reception apparatus.

In Long Term Evolution (LTE) standardized in 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as the 3.9th generation radio transmission scheme, in order for spectrum efficiency to be significantly improved from the 3rd generation radio transmission scheme, a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology in which a plurality of transmission/reception antennas are used to perform radio transmission is specified. With a spatial multiplexing (SM) technology that is one of the MIMO technologies, it is possible to realize the enhancement of a transmission rate without increasing a frequency bandwidth. LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) that is an advanced version of LTE is approved as one of the 4th generation radio transmission schemes by International Telecommunication Union, Radio communication Sector (ITU-R), and its standardization activity is briskly performed. In LTE-A, in order to achieve a peak transmission rate of 1G bps in a downlink (base station apparatus→mobile station apparatus) transmission, a single user MIMO (SU-MIMO) that can spatially multiplex a maximum of 8 streams is examined. SU-MIMO is MIMO transmission between a base station apparatus having a plurality of transmission antennas and a single mobile station apparatus having a plurality of reception antennas.
The MIMO transmission is broadly divided into closed loop type MIMO transmission that requires channel state information (CSI) in a transmission apparatus and open loop type MIMO transmission that does not require the CSI; it is reported that the closed loop type MIMO can achieve more excellent spectrum efficiency than the open loop type MIMO. However, in a radio communication system based on frequency division duplex (FDD) utilizing different carrier wave frequencies in an uplink and a downlink, in order for the base station apparatus to acquire the CSI, it is necessary to feedback the CSI from the mobile station apparatus, there is a problem that overhead is increased significantly.
Hence, in LTE, as disclosed in non-patent document 1, codebook-based closed loop type MIMO transmission is supported that can significantly reduce the amount of overhead needed for notification of the CSI. In the codebook-based closed loop type MIMO, a codebook describing a plurality of linear filters is previously shared between the base station apparatus and the mobile station apparatus, and the mobile station apparatus extracts the desired transmission filter from the codebook and notifies its number (index) to the base station apparatus. The base station apparatus performs, based on the notified linear filter, precoding on transmission data, and thereafter performs MIMO transmission. Since the CSI is notified based on the codebook, as compared with the method in which the mobile station apparatus notifies the CSI itself, it is possible to significantly reduce the amount of overhead. However, in order for the mobile station apparatus to extract the desired transmission filter, it is necessary to calculate the reception quality (such as a reception signal-to-noise power ratio (reception SNR), a reception signal-to-interference plus noise power ratio (reception SINR) or a communication capacity (capacity) etc. for all the linear filters described in the codebook and to compare the results, the burden of the mobile station apparatus is increased.
On the other hand, LTE supports a multiuser MIMO (MU-MIMO) in which a plurality of mobile station apparatuses connected simultaneously are regarded as an imaginary large-scale antenna array, and in which transmission signals from the base station apparatus to the mobile station apparatuses are spatially multiplexed. This is also realized by the codebook-based. As in the SU-MIMO, in the MU-MIMI, the mobile station apparatus notifies the desired linear filter from the codebook to the base station apparatus, and the base station apparatus determines, based on the linear filters notified from a plurality of mobile station apparatuses, whether to perform the MU-MIMO in which data for a plurality of mobile station apparatuses is spatially multiplexed and transmitted.
However, in the codebook-based MU-MIMI in which the mobile station apparatus does not notify the CSI itself, spatial multiplexing opportunity is not significantly enhanced. Hence, non-patent document 2 and the like discuss a technology called Best companion PMI feedback in which the mobile station apparatus notifies the base station apparatus of not only the desired linear filter but also Best companion PMI representing the best compatible linear filter for spatially multiplexing with the desired linear filter. This is a method in which the base station apparatus acquires the desired linear filters notified from a plurality of mobile station apparatuses and the Best companion PMI, and in which the mobile station apparatuses where the desired linear filter in one is the Best companion PMI in another are spatially multiplexed each other; as compared with the pure codebook-based MU-MIMO, it is possible to enhance the spatial multiplexing. However, in order to notify the Best companion PMI, there is a problem that the amount of overhead is increased.
Hence, non-patent document 3 and the like have recently discussed a technology in which a group of linear filters described in the codebook are categorized (grouped or clustered) based on a certain rule to reduce the amount of overhead need for notifying the Best companion PMI. Non-patent document 3 indicates a method in which, a group of linear filters described in the codebook for four transmission antennas adopted in LTE are divided into four clusters to reduce the amount of overhead need for notifying the Best companion PMI. However, non-patent document 3 targets only the codebook for four transmission antennas described in Table 6. 3. 4. 2. 3-2 of non-patent document 4, and does not mention the codebook for 8 transmission antennas that has been determined to be adopted in LTE-A described in non-patent document 5. As compared with the codebook for four transmission antennas, in the codebook for 8 transmission antennas, a significantly large number of linear filters are described, and a large burden is placed on the mobile station apparatus only by extracting the desired linear filter, and thus as compared with the codebook for four transmission antennas, it is important to categorize the codebook.

Wireless transmission apparatus, wireless reception apparatus, wireless communication system and integrated circuit


Disclosed is a novel polypeptide useful as a leader or trailer peptide moiety in recombinant DNA protein production techniques involving fused protein methodology. The polypeptide comprises an amphiphilic helix designed at the DNA level to have hydrophilic charged amino acid residues on one side of the barrel of the helix and nonpolar amino acid residues on the other side of the barrel of the helix. When DNA encoding the helix is attached to a gene encoding a protein of interest, high level expression is achieved and inclusion bodies are spontaneously formed. The inclusion bodies may be collected and purified easily by altering the ionic strength and/or pH of media used to dissolve the inclusion bodies. After purification, the fused protein is cleaved to separate the amphiphilic helix from the product.

This invention relates to the production and purification of polypeptides produced using genetic engineering techniques. More particularly, it relates to genetically engineered fused polypeptides including a novel alpha helical amphiphilic amino acid sequence useful in promoting high expression and in isolating and purifying the fused product.
Advancements in recombinant DNA technology permitting foreign genes to be incorporated into various cells have made possible the expression of products foreign to the cell. The protein of interest will often be degraded by intracellular enzymes, and it may be difficult to separate it from other materials expressed by or comprising the structural materials of the host organism. Protection from intracellular degradation can be achieved by fusing a sequence of amino acids to the target protein to avoid digestion by enzymes within the cell. In addition, the fused protein can be designed to facilitate isolation and purification if the desired protein is fused to a polypeptide having characteristics exploitable in purification.
The fusion product is encoded by DNA comprising the gene coding for the protein of interest linked to a DNA sequence encoding a polypeptide other than the protein of interest. Fusion methodology generally has been discussed at length in the prior art. For example, European Patent Application No. 0047600 is understood to disclose a process for synthesizing bovine growth hormone by producing a fusion protein and purifying the growth hormone from the culture medium of the host organism. Other proteins have been produced through fusion techniques.
Generally, the prior art teaches that genetic material encoding a cleavage site can be incorporated between the DNA encoding the desired protein and the DNA encoding the additional fused material. Expression yields a precursor protein comprising the amino acid sequence of the target polypeptide linked to one or more amino acids defining a selected cleavage site and another amino sequence. See, for example, EPO 0035384, EPO 0161937, and EPO 0163573.
The fusion product can also comprise a moiety designed to facilitate its isolation. For instance, see PCT/84/03103 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,431,739.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method for the production, isolation, and purification of genetically engineered proteins. Another object is to provide a method for obtaining recombinant protein of interest in improved yields. Another object is to provide a method which can be adapted to any polypeptide of interest which can be coded for and expressed by a host organism. Another object is to provide a novel family of leader sequences which induce high levels of expression, which cause the fused polypeptide product it comprises to form insoluble aggregates (inclusion bodies) in the cellular host, and which permit resolubilization and purification of the fused polypeptide. Still another object is to provide such a procedure which is both efficient and inexpensive.
These and other objects of the invention will be apparent from the description, drawing, and claims that follow.

Leader sequences for the production of recombinant proteins


Disclosed are a method and apparatus for etching disk-shaped members, especially a method and apparatus for etching semiconductor wafers. In a method wherein wafers (30) are rotated and etched in an etching chamber (12) which is filled with an etching solution, a non-rotating cell plate (26) is disposed between two rotating wafers (30). In an etching apparatus wherein multiple wafers (30) are supported and rotated by a rod (16), the cell plate (26) is disposed between each two wafers (30). The cell plate (26) has a surface area roughly equivalent to that of the wafer (30).

A typical method for manufacturing mirror-surface wafers employed as raw material wafers for fabricating semiconductor devices will be explained below. First, a single-crystal semiconductor ingot is grown by the Czochralski method (CZ method) or the floating zone melting method (FZ method). Because the grown semiconductor ingot is distorted on the outer periphery thereof, the outer periphery of the semiconductor ingot is subsequently ground in a contour grinding process, e.g. with a cylindrical grinding tool, and the outer peripheral shape of the semiconductor ingot is adjusted. The ingot is then sliced with a wire saw or the like in a slicing process and machined to obtain disk-shaped wafers with a thickness of about 500-1000 μm, and the outer periphery of the wafers is then chamfered in a chamfering process.
Flattening is then conducted by lapping, followed by an etching process, then primary polishing, and secondary polishing. Mirror-surface wafers are then obtained by conducting epitaxial growth process on the wafer surface.
The above-described etching process is carried out for the purpose of removing processing-induced distortion that occurred in the previous processes, minute defects present on the front and rear surfaces of the wafers, and the matter adhered thereto. An etching apparatus is used for etching the front and rear surfaces of the wafers in the etching process. The conventional etching apparatus will be briefly described below with reference to FIG. 12. FIG. 12 is a longitudinal sectional view of the conventional etching apparatus, as viewed from the front surface thereof.
This etching apparatus mainly comprises an etching chamber 12 filled with an etching solution, a plurality of rods 16 for supporting and rotating a multiplicity of wafers 30, and a housing 10 accommodating the tank and the rods. A plurality of annular wafer support grooves 124 are provided equidistantly on the circumferential surface of the rods 16, and the outer peripheral sections of wafers 30 are fitted into the wafer support grooves 124 to hold the wafers 30. On the other hand, the rods 16 rotate about the central axis thereof.
With the etching apparatus of such configuration, if the inside of the etching chamber 12 is filled with an etching solution and the rods 16 are rotated, the wafers that are in contact by the outer periphery thereof with the rods 16 will also rotate. The etching solution located around the wafers 30 is stirred by the rotation of the wafers 30 and the front and rear surfaces of the wafers are etched. After such etching has been carried out for a prescribed time, the wafers 30 are taken out from the etching apparatus, thereby completing the wafer etching process.

Method and apparatus for etching disk-like member


An array stimulator has a plurality of electrodes in an array, the electrodes forming a plurality of electrode pairs, and a signal generator for generating signals to the electrodes so as to generate electrical pulse in a patient to which the stimulator has been applied either transcutaneously or by implantation. Those electrical pulses form a composite pulse in the patient which stimulates the nervous system of the patient. The composite pulse has a duration between 4 μs and 1500 μs and a maximum voltage between 2V and 50V when the stimulator is implanted, and 15V to 500V when applied transcutaneously. The electrical pulses themselves are significantly shorter duration than the composite pulse, so they stimulate the nervous system of the patient much less than the composite pulse or not at all.

Electrical stimulation of nerves has been in use for therapeutic purposes for more than 40 years.
For example Melzack and Wall 1965 described how analgesia could be produced when Aβ nerve fibres are stimulated at 100 Hz, a frequency that none of the other afferent fibres can follow faithfully. Wall 1986 produced these effects by applying the current through needles inserted into the patient's nerves. To avoid possible complications of inserting needles, he soon employed surface electrodes, leading to the term Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS).
A typical TENS machine develops a pulse whose width can be varied from 50-250 μs, employing a current whose amplitude can be increased from 0-50 mA, and whose frequency is in the range of 1 to 250 Hz. The pulse width is sufficiently long in duration to excite Aβ fibres at low voltage causing a painless tingling and stimulation of interneurones releasing GABA. Johnson et al 1991 showed that 'high intensity stimulation', where the amplitude is increased sufficiently to recruit Aδ fibres, invokes release of met-enkephalin in the spinal cord which produces a more prolonged analgesic effect than that provided by the release of GABA produced by the more usual 'low intensity stimulation' of Aβ fibres. Salar et al 1981 observed that opioids were released slowly into the cerebrospinal fluid when TENS is performed at frequencies of 40-60 Hz and at amplitudes of 40-80 mA, signals that readily recruit Aδ fibres and whose firing is associated with sharp pain.
It is generally believed that TENS analgesia is caused mainly by cutaneous afferent fibre activation. However, Radkarishnan et al 2005 demonstrated that by differentially blocking cutaneous and deep tissue primary afferents, activation of large diameter primary afferents from deep somatic tissues, and not cutaneous afferent fibres, are pivotal in causing TENS analgesia.
A potential limitation of the effectiveness of TENS stimulation may therefore be that intensity of stimulation is limited by pain arising from activation of Aδ and C-fibres lying immediately under the electrodes.
As tissue impedance is capacitive, impedance tends to fall as frequency is increased. In order to increase tissue penetration, signals may be provided at a frequency where the intervals between each electric signal are less than the refractory periods of fibres that require stimulation. In order to produce action potentials, such signals are modulated to provide low frequency stimulation either by interference or interruption.
The interference method of applying medium frequency currents is exemplified by Nemec U.S. Pat. No. 2,622,601 "Electrical Nerve Stimulator", Griffith U.S. Pat. No. 3,096,768 "Electrotherapy System" (Firmtron Inc) and many others. Two signal sources are each connected to a pair of electrodes. They can produce an amplitude modulated medium frequency signal in the tissues called interferential current, as follows. The first signal source uses a medium frequency carrier wave (typically 4.0 kHz) while the other operates at a slightly different frequency (typically 4.1 kHz). Their respective pairs of surface electrodes are arranged on the body in a manner that allows the two oscillating currents to intersect in deep tissues where interference is produced at a beat frequency in the low frequency range, typically at 100 Hz. This in turn is said to stimulate deeply placed Aβ fibres to produce analgesia.
However, there has been controversy as to whether or not a beat frequency is required to cause action potentials. Palmer et al 1999 discovered that when there is no interference frequency, i.e. the patient is receiving currents from both signal generators at 4 kHz and this frequency is no longer subjected to amplitude modulation, sensation still occurs. Moreover, the threshold of sensation generated in this way at 4 kHz takes place at lower amplitude than that produced by low frequency signals at less than 100 Hz. Signals administered at a frequency higher than any individual fibre can respond to on a 1:1 basis will produce asynchronous volleys in a nerve trunk as a result of action potentials arising in any axons in the vicinity of the next signal that by coincidence are no longer refractory.
Another method of improving tissue penetration in transcutaneous stimulation devices is described in Carter and Siff U.S. Pat. No. 7,130,696 "Percutaneous electrode array" in which the electrode is constructed from an array of microscopic pins that are intended to penetrate the outer layers of the skin thereby overcoming the electrical impedance of these layers.
Macdonald and Coates U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,170 "Electrotherapeutic apparatus" (1995) explored the effects of applying electric signals whose pulse width is so brief, typically 4 μs, that the voltage gated channels lying in excitable membranes of peripheral fibres that lie in the path of the current do not have time to respond to these signals sufficiently to reach membrane threshold and produce action potentials. This form of electrotherapy produces analgesic and mood altering effects provided that surface electrodes are placed over the spinal cord. Macdonald and Coates 1995 called this method TSE (Transcutaneous Spinal Electroanalgesia).
Littlewood et al GB2414410 "Electrotherapy Apparatus" (Bioinduction Ltd, 2005) discusses the effects of employing short high power electrotherapy waveforms for therapeutic purposes and describes the relationship between pulse width and the generation of action potentials and shows that the current in the tissues may be controlled independently of the level of sensation perceived by the patient.
Although the TENS method is reasonably well accepted by patients, it tends to produce a rather short-lived, localized region of pain relief. This is perhaps because of the aforementioned limitation on stimulation intensity caused by pain at the site of the electrodes and also because each electrode probably stimulates only those Aβ fibres that lie in the immediate vicinity of the electrodes. Accordingly, in patients where there is pain in several areas of the body, there is a need to improve the method, to produce a more long-lasting and generalized form of pain relief.
In 1967 in order to activate more Aβ fibres, electrodes were implanted by Professor Norman Shealy (Shealy et al 1967, 1971) in the spinal canal to stimulate the central nervous system, in particular the dorsal column (tracts through which the Aβ fibres pass up and down the spinal cord). Now termed Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS), a repetitive low frequency pulse is employed typically at a frequency of 100 Hz or less and a pulse width in excess of 50 μs. When SCS is effective, a tingling sensation (paraesthesia) is perceived in the painful region of the body.
Since the invention of SCS by Shealy, many advances have been made in implanted devices for controlling chronic pain by means of electrical stimulation. The application of such devices has also been extended to include implanted deep brain stimulation, for pain relief and also to treat a range of conditions, for example Parkinson's disease.
Whereas transcutaneous stimulators tend to use only a few electrodes, often one or two pairs, implanted stimulators with four, eight or more pairs of electrodes are well known in the art. An early example, Timm and Bradley U.S. Pat. No. 3,646,940 "Implantable Electronic Stimulator Electrode and Method" (1969) described an apparatus for stimulation of muscles which includes a plurality of electrodes wherein a timed sequence of stimulating pulses is applied to the electrodes such that secondary tissue stimulation (that caused by current flowing between nearby electrode pairs) is eliminated.
For convenience, multiple electrode contacts are often combined on a single carrier and these arrays of electrodes are widely used today in spinal cord stimulators. For example, Borkan Savino and Waltz "Multi-electrode catheter assembly for spinal cord stimulation" U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,462 (Neuromed Inc, 1980) describes a linear array of four electrodes spaced in-line along the exterior of a catheter electrode assembly. An advantage of this type of electrode is that it is easy to insert in into the epidural space by means of a needle. These electrodes are referred to today by the term "Percutaneous electrode" because of the introduction method used.
Today percutaneous electrodes with eight contacts are often employed and two may be inserted into the epidural space, connected to a sixteen output stimulator. The surgeon programs different combinations of electrodes via wireless telemetry to stimulate a particular region of tissue in order to produce the desired therapeutic result. An array of electrodes also provides a degree of protection against migration, as it may be possible to reconfigure the electrode combination to compensate for small movements in the implanted array, to continue to stimulate a particular target area of tissue without a surgical procedure.
Another typical lead configuration is described in Hull Cross and Langley "Method of using a spinal cord stimulation lead" U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,719 (Medtronic Inc, 1993). This describes a type of "paddle electrode" so called because of the shape of the end of the lead which contains an array of electrodes located on the lead paddle. Each electrode is independently selectable such that the spinal cord may be stimulated as required.
Recent developments have attempted to increase the ability of the surgeon and/or patient to stimulate a particular area of tissue. Gord "Programmable current output stimulus stage for implantable device" U.S. Pat. No. 6,181,969 (Advanced Bionics Inc, 1999) describes a programmable output current source for use within an implantable stimulator, wherein for example sixteen individual current sources may be employed to control the flow of current in an array of electrodes. Woods et al "Implantable generator having current steering means" U.S. Pat. No. 6,909,917 (Advanced Bionics Inc, 2003) describes a means of determining a desired electrode stimulation pattern by way of a directional programming technique that translates the movement for instance of a joystick into current levels on an array of electrodes. An objective of this technique is to provide fine control over the region of tissue that is stimulated, beyond that provided by the physical locations of the individual electrodes. A disadvantage is the complexity of the stimulator device, having sixteen current controlled outputs, and the relatively poor efficiency at mid range current output which is typical of a linear electronic design, thereby compromising battery life of the implant.
There also exists in the prior art the use of pulse width modulation as a technique which has been applied across many power electronic applications in order to improve efficiency. For example MacDonald "Pulsewidth Electrical Stimulation" U.S. Pat. No. 7,054,686 (Biophan Technologies Inc, 2002) describes an apparatus that employs a series of individual pulses to improve efficiency in (for example) cardiac pacing.


The present disclosure discloses a five-degree-of-freedom hybrid robot with rotational supports. A first and a second fixed shaft seats are rotatably connected to a first and a second rotational support through a hinge, respectively. One end of a first length adjustment device runs through the first rotational support, and the other end is fixedly connected to a moving platform. One end of each of the second and third length adjustment devices runs through the first rotational support and is then connected to the moving platform, respectively. Middle portions of the first, second and third length adjustment devices are each hinged onto the first rotational support. One end of a fourth length adjustment device runs through the second rotational support and is connected to the moving platform. Middle portion of the fourth length adjustment device is hinged onto the second rotational support.

The published patents GB2173472 (which patent family disclosed as EP0200369, U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,718), SE8502327 (which patent family disclosed as U.S. Pat. No. 4,732,525) and EP0674969 (which patent family disclosed as U.S. Pat. No. 6,336,375) have disclosed a hybrid robot, which comprises a three degree-of-freedom parallel mechanism and a two degree-of-freedom wrist connected in series to the parallel mechanism. The parallel mechanism includes three driving length adjustment devices that are stretchable in an axial direction, wherein one end of each of the driving length adjustment devices is connected to a rack through a two-degree-of-freedom hinge, while the other end thereof is connected to a moving platform through a three-degree-of-freedom hinge; a driven length adjustment device is further provided in this structure, with one end being fixedly connected to the moving platform while the other end being connected to the rack through a two-degree-of-freedom hinge. However, in such a robot, as the hinges of the driving length adjustment devices connected to the moving platform are three-degree-of-freedom hinges and each of the driving length adjustment devices is connected to a rack through a two-degree-of-freedom hinge, the structure is complicated in the mechanism.
Patent CN102699899A disclosed an over-constrained hybrid robot, which also comprises a three degree-of-freedom parallel mechanism and a two degree-of-freedom wrist connected in series to the parallel mechanism. The parallel mechanism includes three driving length adjustment devices that are stretchable in an axial direction, and a driven length adjustment device, wherein two of the driving length adjustment devices are connected to a moving platform through single-degree-of-freedom hinges and symmetrically arranged on left and right sides of the driven length adjustment device such that they are placed in the same plane; and, the other one of the driving length adjustment devices is connected to the moving platform through a three-degree-of-freedom hinge and arranged below the driven length adjustment device. This robot reduces number of single-degree-of-freedom hinges, but requires strict manufacture and mounting accuracy due to the over-constrained structure. In addition, each length adjustment device is connected to a rack through a two-degree-of-freedom hinge, respectively, so the structure is complicated and the manufacturing process of the rack is relatively complicated.
Patent CN1212221C disclosed a four-degree-of-freedom hybrid robot, which comprises a parallel mechanism with two degrees of freedom and a two-degree-of-freedom wrist connected in series to the parallel mechanism. However, the parallel mechanism only can realize a planar motion.

Five-degree-of-freedom hybrid robot with rotational supports


A display device comprising: a display region including a first pixel and a second pixel arranged apart from each other, and a third pixel, and a touch sensor includes a first sensor electrode and a second sensor electrode, wherein the touch sensor overlaps the display region, the first sensor electrode has an opening part in a region overlapping the first pixel and the second pixel, and surrounding the first pixel and the second pixel, and the second sensor electrode overlapping the third pixel.

In a display device arranged with a display element such as an organic electroluminescence element, devices equipped with a touch sensor have become widespread. Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. 2014-106974 and Japanese Translation of PCT International Application Publication No. 2016-508648 disclose that a wiring of a touch panel is formed by a sensor electrode formed in a mesh shape using a metal material.


Apparatuses and methods directed to multi-stage permanent magnet and implementations of a permanent magnet on-chip power inductor. Various circuit models, design considerations and simulation results are described. The multi-stage permanent magnet includes layers with uniform or non-uniform magnets used to control the flux distribution. The permanent magnet on-chip power converter for DC-DC switching power converters that may include a top ferrite layer, a spiral winding layer, a permanent magnet layer, a bottom ferrite layer, and a substrate layer. The permanent magnet layer may comprise a multi-stage structure wherein each stage has a decreasing area as compared to an immediate lower stage. A method of manufacturing a Permanent On-Chip Power Inductor (PMOI) is also disclosed.

The performance of power devices such as power inductors and power FETs (Field Effect Transistors) affects the performance of switching power converter applications. The power inductor is one of the largest and most lossy components in a switching power converter, and it is accountable for much of the weight and the size of switching power converters. Several figures of merit are considered for power inductors including the inductance density, the current/power density, the DC resistance, the AC characteristics and the saturation current. In order to obtain higher inductance density, in other words, achieving the required inductance in as small area as possible, technologies like planner inductor, integrated inductors, micro-fabricated inductor and on chip inductor have emerged over the years. Saturation current is related to the core structure as well as the magnetic core material. For a given core structure and design, employing a magnetic material with higher saturation flux density helps to obtain a higher saturation current.
The power inductor, as a form of multiple winding coupled magnetic structures, has been used in many applications, such as is in multi-phase power converters. One of the main advantages of the coupled power inductor used in DC-DC power converters is the ability to obtain smaller equivalent transient inductance (advantageous for lower output voltage dynamic deviation under transients) with a larger equivalent steady-state inductance (advantageous for smaller steady-state output voltage ripple and higher power efficiency).
In a two-phase inductor, the two inductor windings can be directly or inversely coupled. Inversely coupled power inductor was employed in the multi-phase switching power converters to improve both the steady-state and transient performances. Permanent magnet power inductors (PMPI) utilize a permanent magnet (PM) to partially offset the flux in the magnetic core due to the DC component of the winding current, so that a higher saturation current could be obtained by the same core structure power inductor.

Multi-stage permanent magnet structure and integrated power inductors

The Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama


Slitters cut through a first layer of film immediately prior to lamination of the first layer to a second layer of film to form a strip therebetween. The degree of bonding between the first and second layers is adjusted so that the strip can be removed without harming the rest of the film or destroying any barrier properties. The lamination process can utilize extrusion lamination or adhesive lamination to provide a variety of uses: removable coupons, prize disclosures, stickers, and an adhesive re-close strip.

This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/685,186 entitled "Flexible Film Packaging Having Removable Strip" filed on Oct. 14, 2003.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a flexible packaging material that can be used in packaging food products and to a method of making the packaging material. More specifically it relates to forming a removable strip that is cut from one or more layers and can be removed without harming the rest of the packaging material. Even more specifically, the present invention relates to using a removable strip of the packaging material to provide removable promotional material (with or without the promotional material being visible prior to removal of the strip), removable stickers, or an adhesive area for re-closing the package.
2. Description of Related Art
Snack foods and other items are often packaged in bags formed from thin, flexible packaging films. These thin films are formed primarily of plastics, such as polypropylene and polyethylene, but can also contain metalized films, foil, paper, or oriented films. These packaging films can have numerous layers directed to achieving specific needs, but are generally formed at least in part by extrusion of a plastic layer, co-extrusion of multiple layers simultaneously, extrusion coating of another material (such as paper), and the lamination of two layers together via either extrusion lamination or adhesive lamination. In the discussions below, both extrusion lamination and adhesive lamination processes are discussed in more detail, but it is noted that any designated layer that is fed into these two processes can already be a multi-layer film formed by any of the above processes.
An exemplary film 100 for packaging of food products is seen in FIG. 1. The outermost layer 102 is an OPP layer, short for oriented polypropylene, while the innermost layer 106 is a metalized OPP. An oriented polymer material has been specially treated so that the long polymeric molecules tend to align in a given direction, causing the material to preferentially tear in that direction. Sandwiched between the two OPP layers 102, 106 is a layer of polyethylene 104, formed as the two OPP layers are extrusion laminated together. Printing for the package is done on the inside of the outer layer and becomes sandwiched between the middle and outer layers. The innermost, metallic layer 106 can itself be a layered laminate and contains a sealant layer 108 on what will be the inside of the package. This sealant layer is formed of a ter-polymer, composed of ethylene, propylene, and butylenes, and provides a barrier to retain taste and freshness. Other materials used in packaging are polyester, paper, polyolefin extrusions, adhesive laminates, and other such materials, or a layered combination of the above.
FIG. 2 demonstrates schematically the formation of material 100, in which the OPP layers 102, 106 of the packaging material are separately manufactured, then formed into the final material 100 on an extrusion laminator 200. OPP layer 102 is fed from roll 201 while OPP layer 106 is fed from roll 205. At the same time, resin for PE laminate layer 104 is fed into hopper 218 and through extruder 216, where it will be heated to approximately 600° F. and extruded at die 214 as molten polyethylene 104. This molten polyethylene 104 is extruded at a rate that is congruent with the rate at which the OPP materials 102, 106 are fed, becoming sandwiched between these two materials. The layered material 100 then runs between chill drum 210 and nip roller 212, ensuring that it forms an even layer as it is cooled. The pressure between the laminator rollers is generally set in the range of 0.5 to 5 pounds per linear inch across the width of the material. The large chill drum 210 is made of stainless steel and is cooled to about 50-60° F., so that while the material is cooled quickly, no condensation is allowed to form. The smaller nip roller 212 is generally formed of rubber or another resilient material. The nip roller 212 wears out fairly quickly and is regularly replaced, while the chill drum 210 is changed much less frequently. Note that the layered material 100 remains in contact with the chill drum 210 for a period of time after it has passed through the rollers, to allow time for the resin to cool sufficiently. The material can then be wound into rolls (not specifically shown) for transport to the location where it will be used in packaging. Generally, it is economical to form the material as wide sheets that are then slit using thin slitter knives into the desired width as the material is rolled for shipping.
Once the material is formed and cut into desired widths, it can be loaded into a vertical forln, fill, and seal machine to be used in packaging the many products that are packaged using this method. FIG. 3 shows an exemplary vertical form, fill, and seal machine that can be used to package snack foods, such as chips. This drawing is simplified, and does not show the cabinet and support structures that typically surround such a machine, but it demonstrates the working of the machine well. Packaging film 310 is taken from a roll 312 of film and passed through tensioners 314 that keep it taut. The film then passes over a former 316, which directs the film as it forms a vertical tube around a product delivery cylinder 318. This product delivery cylinder 318 normally has either a round or a somewhat oval cross-section. As the tube of packaging material is pulled downward by drive belts 320, the edges of the film are sealed along its length by a vertical sealer 322, forming a back seal 324. The machine then applies a pair of heat-sealing jaws 326 against the tube to form a transverse seal 328. This transverse seal 328 acts as the top seal on the bag 330 below the sealing jaws 326 and the bottom seal on the bag 332 being filled and formed above the jaws 326. After the transverse seal 328 has been formed, a cut is made across the sealed area to separate the finished bag 330 below the seal 328 from the partially completed bag 332 above the seal. The film tube is then pushed downward to draw out another package length. Before the sealing jaws form each transverse seal, the product to be packaged is dropped through the product delivery cylinder 318 and is held within the tube above the transverse seal 328.
The form, fill, and seal machines are quite expensive, in the range of $250,000 each, but pay for themselves easily when compared to the cost of pre-formed bags and the machinery to fill them. However, in order to maximize the productivity of the form, fill, and seal machines, it is common for the product delivery tube 318 and former 316 to be made as a unit that is easily interchangeable, so that different size packages can be made by the same machine. The length of the transverse seal can also be changed, by exchanging the sealing jaws 326, or in some cases, merely by exchanging their facings (the portion of the sealing jaws which actually makes contact with the packaging film). By changing these elements, as well as the width of film roll feeding into the machine and the programming of the machine, one form, fill, and seal machine can handle a number of different products in different size packages, limited primarily by the width of film the machine will handle, the maximum length of bag the machine is designed to handle, and the available for-mer/delivery tube assemblies.
Although there is no one perfect package for all uses, there are a number of desirable features that manufacturers have long desired to include in packages made on a vertical form, fill, and seal machine. One exemplary feature is the ability to re-close a package of a snack food that is only partially eaten, so that the flavor and texture of the product are preserved as long as possible. High quality reclosable seals, also known as zipper seals, have been introduced in recent times, but these add significantly to the cost of making the bag. It would be desirable to have a low-cost alternative.
Similarly, it can be desirable to include promotional material with a bag of snack food, such as prize announcements, coupons, stickers, or informational graphics. Including such information inside the package can be a problem, however, as the ink and solvent levels in fatty food packages are regulated to insure product safety. If promotional material is included inside the package, it must be enclosed in an impermeable film, which adds to the cost. Dropping promotional material into the package also creates problems, as it may interfere with the normal flow of product and can set off foreign object detectors, costing time. The promotional material can alternatively be provided as part of the graphics seen on the outside of the package, but detachment of the material from the package is not possible without destroying the package itself, so the product must be gone before the promotional material can be removed.
In summary, two desirable options for flexible packaging are currently unavailable: a low-cost re-closing mechanism and the ability to provide promotional material that can be removed without destroying the package.

Flexible film packaging having removable strip


In the production method of the invention, a halogen-substituted aromatic compound is reacted with carbon monoxide in the presence of hydrogen fluoride and boron trifluoride into a corresponding halogen-substituted aromatic aldehyde. By the use of hydrogen fluoride and boron trifluoride, the para position to halogen atom is selectively formylated to provide the halogen-substituted aromatic aldehyde in high yields in a short reaction time even at temperatures lower than room temperature.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing a halogen-substituted aromatic aldehyde, particularly p-fluorobenzaldehyde and a halogen-substituted aromatic aldehyde simultaneously having a halogen atom and a hydrocarbon group each being bonded directly to the aromatic ring, which is useful as raw materials for dyes, perfumes, medicines, agricultural chemicals, and additives for resins.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The production method of aromatic aldehydes by the formylation of aromatic hydrocarbons with carbon monoxide in the presence of a catalyst such as hydrogen chloride-aluminum chloride has been well known as Gattermann Koch reaction. This reaction, however, proceeds smoothly only when the aromatic hydrocarbon is substituted by an electron donating group such as alkyl group, but, proceeds slowly when the aromatic hydrocarbon is substituted by an electron attracting group to make the industrial use thereof difficult.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,300,525 B1 discloses that p-fluorobenzaldehyde is produced by the reaction of fluorobenzene with carbon monoxide in the presence of a catalyst system comprising aluminum chloride and a very small amount of hydrogen chloride. However, even after 18 h of the reaction, the yield of p-fluorobenzaldehyde is as extremely low as about 24.1% on the basis of the aluminum chloride catalyst used, and as extremely low as 3.4% on the basis of the starting fluorobenzene (Example 4). The document teaches that the reaction can be promoted by 4-methylanisole. However, even after 89 h of the reaction in the presence of 4-methylanisole, the reported yield is 64.3% on the basis of the molar amount of aluminum chloride after subtracting the molar amount of 4-methylanisole added (probably because 4-methylanisole and aluminum chloride form a 1:1 complex), 29.7% on the basis of the molar amount of aluminum chloride when not subtracting the molar amount of 4-methylanisole, and 9.4% on the basis of the starting fluorobenzene. Since U.S. Pat. No. 6,300,525 B1 is silent as to by-products in the descriptions of examples, the types and the amounts of by-products produced are unknown.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,455,739 B1 discloses that p-fluorobenzaldehyde is produced by the reaction of fluorobenzene with carbon monoxide at 45 to 100° C. in the presence of an aluminum chloride-hydrogen chloride catalyst system. Although the document does not provide the numerical yield of p-fluorobenzaldehyde, it can read from FIG. 5 as about 74% yield on the basis of aluminum chloride, and about 58% conversion, about 91.1% selectivity and about 53% yield on the basis of fluorobenzene in case of an initial load of aluminum chloride and fluorobenzene of 50:50 which is taught to be preferred. U.S. Pat. No. 6,455,739 B1 teaches that o-fluorobenzaldehyde, m-fluorobenzaldehyde, chlorobis(fluorophenyl)methane and oligomers are by-produced and the production ratio of three fluorobenzaldehyde isomers is o-isormer:m-isomer:p-isomer=1.8:0.2:98.3.
Alternatively to Gattermann Koch reaction, U.S. Pat. No. 5,068,450 discloses to produce p-fluorobenzaldehyde by the reaction of fluorobenzene with methyl formate in the presence of a hydrogen fluoride/boron trifluoride catalyst. However, since the by-production of methanol is expected in the proposed method, there is a problem of difficult separation of the by-produced methanol from hydrogen fluoride and boron trifluoride.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,844 discloses that p-fluorobenzaldehyde is produced by the reaction of urotropin with fluorobenzene in the presence of hydrogen fluoride. In the proposed reaction, however, a considerable amount of o-fluorobenzaldehyde is by-produced and the total yield of o- and p-fluorobenzaldehydes is as extremely low as about 30%.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,300,525 B1 mentioned above further discloses that 2-fulorotoluene, 3-fluorotoluene, etc. are converted into corresponding aldehydes by the reaction with carbon monoxide in the presence of a catalyst system comprising aluminum chloride and a very small amount of hydrogen chloride. The document teaches in the working example that 2-fluorotoluene is converted into 4-fluoro-3-methylbenzene by the reaction with carbon monoxide at 60° C. for 20 h in a yield of about 67.4% on the basis of aluminum chloride used. The calculated yield on the basis of the starting 2-fluorobenzene is only about 11%.
Thus, in known methods, the halogen-substituted aromatic aldehydes are produced only in low yields despite a long reaction time, resulting in a low production efficiency and increasing production costs. In the reaction using the hydrogen chloride-aluminum chloride catalyst system, the reaction product mixture is usually treated with water after the formylation to separate the products and the catalyst, this making the regeneration of catalyst extremely difficult. Since a large amount of waste materials is produced by hydrolysis, the disposal thereof is quite costly.

Method for producing halogen-substituted aromatic aldehyde


A copper foil for a printed circuit board has a rust preventing layer formed by a trivalent chromium chemical conversion treatment on a surface of the copper foil that the copper foil is bonded to a base material for the printed circuit board. T copper foil is of copper or copper alloy, and the rust preventing layer contains 0.5 to 2.5 μg/cm2 of chromium converted into metallic chromium.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a copper foil for printed circuit board with taking environmental conservation into consideration, and more particularly to a copper foil for printed circuit board with taking environmental conservation into consideration which does not contain hexavalent chromium, and has good heat resistance, moisture resistance and bondability with respect to a base material.
2. Description of the Related Art
A copper foil or a copper alloy foil (hereinafter, referred to simply as "copper foil") is widely used for the purpose of a conductor (conductive member or conductive strip). Particularly in the field of the flexible printed circuit (FPC), a printed circuit board is manufactured by layering (laminating) a copper foil on a polyimide film or by coating a copper foil with a varnish mainly composed of polyamic acid. Hereinafter, materials such as polyimide film, varnish, or solidified varnish to be used for the printed circuit board are referred as "base material (substrate) for a printed circuit board" or simply as "base material".
A good bonding is required between the copper foil and the base material for a printed circuit board. Therefore, the roughening treatment is frequently conducted for an bonding surface of the copper foil to increase an anchoring effect, thereby improving the bonding with the base material for a printed circuit board.
The copper foil is classified into an electro-deposited copper foil and a rolled copper foil according to the manufacturing method therefor. However, the roughening treatment is conducted in similar manner for these two types of copper foils. For example, as a manner of roughening treatment, a manner of applying (depositing) copper in the form of rice-grains on a surface of the copper foil by burnt plating and a manner of selectively etching grain boundaries by using acid are generally used.
As to the roughening treatment using the burnt plating, the roughening treatment by alloy platings has been developed in addition to the usual copper plating. Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 52-145769 (JP-A-52-145769) discloses copper-nickel alloy plating as a representative example of alloy platings.
In addition, as to a surface treatment after such a roughening treatment, Japanese Patent Publication for Opposition (Kokoku) No. 6-54829 (JP-B-6-54829) proposes to provide a cobalt plating or cobalt-nickel alloy plating, etc.
On one hand, as to a method for improving the bonding with the base material, there is a method for providing an anchoring effect by using the roughening treatment (improvement in physical bondability), as described before. Further, there is also a step for improving a chemical bondability between the copper foil and the base material for a printed circuit board by a surface treatment for providing a metallic layer with a high affinity with the base material on a surface of the copper foil.
Conversion treatment such as so-called chromate treatment or silane-coupling treatment conducted for a surface of the copper foil is an example of the method for providing the metallic layer with the high affinity with the base material on the copper foil surface. The chromate treatment and silane-coupling treatment are methods for the purpose of rust preventing the surface of the copper foil as well as for the purpose of improving the bondability with the base material for a printed circuit board, as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3142259 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 2005-8972 (JP-A-2005-8972). In addition, the rust prevention (corrosion resistance, oxidation resistance) effect is expected (required) also for the surface of the copper foil, which is a surface not to be bonded with the base material (the back side of the bonding surface).
As disclosed in the JP-B-6-54829, Japanese Patent No. 3142259, and JP-A-2005-8972, the chromate treatment has been conducted by immersing the copper foil to be treated in a treatment solution containing hexavalent chromium, or by electrolyzing the copper foil which is provided as an anode or a cathode in the chromate treatment solution. However, considering the recent emphasis on the environmental protection, the conversion treatment free of any hexavalent chromium has been developed.
As one of techniques therefor, a chromate treatment wherein a treating solution containing trivalent chromium is used exhibits the most remarkable actual achievement, and it becomes commercially available as shown in, for example, JP-A-2005-42139.
In reality, however, hexavalent chromium-free plating does not proceed in a manufacturing process of a copper foil, because its rustproof ability is usually inferior to a chromate treatment wherein a treating solution containing hexavalent chromium is used as compared with that of hexavalent chromium-free treating solution, besides there is a burden share for changing facilities.
In addition, there is another reason for preventing progress in a trivalent chromium treatment in that a coating weight of hexavalent chromium per unit area in a copper foil used in a printed circuit board is essentially very small, so that it is difficult to detect as a result of analysis.
According to a chromate treatment wherein a conventional treating solution containing hexavalent chromium is used, however, it cannot be denied that there is a possibility of providing totally a significant load to environment, even if it is a very small amount of coating weight in a present situation where a demand of a copper foil increases from year to year.

Copper foil for printed circuit board with taking environmental conservation into consideration