A processing method, user equipment, and a network-side device are provided. The method includes: when there is no explicitly configured beam failure detection reference signal or radio link monitoring reference signal, and there is a first reference signal on a first bandwidth part, determining a determination criterion for beam failure detection actions or radio link monitoring actions of UE; and determining a beam failure detection action or a radio link monitoring action of the UE based on the determination criterion; where, the first reference signal is a reference signal whose QCL type is a specified type in a reference signal set, the reference signal set is indicated by a transmission configuration indication state of a physical downlink control channel on a control resource set on a second bandwidth part, and the second bandwidth part is in an active state.

With the development of mobile communication technologies, more and more technologies to improve communication efficiency are introduced. For example:
1. Beam Failure Recovery (Beam Failure Recovery, BFR) Mechanism
In high-frequency band communication systems, because the wavelength of a wireless signal is relatively short, it is more likely, for example, that signal propagation is blocked, resulting in interruption of the signal propagation. In the case that the radio link reconstruction in the related art is adopted, it takes a long time, so a beam failure recovery mechanism is introduced. The mechanism includes the following four parts:    (1) Beam failure detection (Beam Failure Detection, BFD). User equipment (User Equipment, UE) measures a BFD reference signal (Reference Signal, RS) at the physical layer, and determines whether a beam failure event has occurred based on the measurement result. The BFD RS may be a periodical channel state information-reference signal (Channel State Information-RS, CSI-RS) or a synchronization signal block (Synchronization Signal Block, SSB). The determination criterion is: if it is detected that metrics (metric) of all serving beams (serving beam) meet a preset condition (exceeding a preset threshold), a beam failure instance (beam failure instance) is determined; and the UE physical layer reports an indication to a UE higher layer (media access control (Media Access Control, MAC) layer), where the reporting process is periodic. On the contrary, if the UE physical layer determines that no beam failure instance has occurred, it sends no indication to the higher layer. The UE higher layer uses a counter (counter) to count the indications reported by the physical layer, and the UE declares occurrence of a beam failure event when the network-configured maximum number is reached.    (2) New candidate beam identification (New candidate beam identification). The UE physical layer measures candidate beam RSs (candidate beam RS) to find a new candidate beam (candidate beam). This step is not enforced to be performed after a beam failure event occurs, but it may be performed before a beam failure event. When the UE physical layer receives a request or an indication or a notification from the UE higher layer (MAC layer), the UE physical layer reports to the UE higher layer the measurement results that meet a preset condition (the quality measured on a candidate beam RS exceeds a preset threshold of L1—Reference signal received power (Reference Signal Received Power, RSRP)). The reported content is {beam RS index, L1—RSRP}. The UE higher layer selects a candidate beam based on the report of the physical layer.    (3) Beam failure recovery request transmission (Beam failure recovery request transmission). The UE higher layer determines a physical random access channel (Physical Random Access Channel, PRACH) resource (resource) or sequence (sequence) based on the selected candidate beam. If the UE determines that a trigger condition of a beam failure recovery request is met, the UE sends the above request to a base station on a non-contention based PRACH. The UE is required to send the request according to a network-configured number of request sending times and/or timer (timer). Here the non-contention PRACH resource and other PRACH resources (such as a PRACH resource for initial access) may be frequency division multiplexing (Frequency Division Multiplexing, FDM) or code division multiplexing (Code Division Multiplexing, CDM) resources, where CDM-based PRACH preambles (preambles) are required to have a same sequence design.    (4) The UE monitors base station response for the beam failure recovery request (UE monitors gNB response for beam failure recovery request). The base station sends a response in a dedicated (dedicated) physical downlink control channel (Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH) on a control resource set (Control-Resource SET, CORESET)-BFR after receiving the request. The response carries a cell radio network temporary identifier (Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier, C-RNTI), and also possibly includes an instruction to switch to a new candidate beam or restart beam search or other instructions. If the beam failure recovery is unsuccessful, the UE physical layer sends an indication to the UE higher layer for the higher layer to determine a subsequent radio link failure process.
In the course of beam failure detection, the network configures periodic CSI-RS resources or SSB resources as BFD RSs. These BFD RSs are in quasi-co-location (Quasi-Co-Location, QCL) with the CORESET of an active bandwidth part (active BWP). When no BFD RS is configured by the network, an RS whose QCL type is type D (type D) (for indicating a spatial receiving parameter) in an RS set (set) indicated by a transmission configuration indication (Transmission Configuration Indication, TCI) state of the PDCCH configured and indicated on the active BWP is used as a BFD RS.
2. Radio Link Monitoring (Radio Link Monitoring, RLM) Mechanism
Due to the factors such as interference and fading, links between the network side and the UE may stop working for a long time, and at this time a radio link failure process is initiated.
The network side configures the UE with N radio link monitoring reference signals (Radio link monitoring reference signal, RLM-RS) for radio link monitoring and evaluating the radio link quality. The radio link quality is determined by assumed PDCCH block error rates (Block Error Rate, BLER).
Among the assumed PDCCH-BLERs calculated based on the N RLM-RSs, if the assumed PDCCH-BLER corresponding to at least one RLM-RS is above a threshold value Q_in, an in-sync (In-sync, IS) is reported.
Among the assumed PDCCH-BLERs calculated based on the N RLM-RSs, if the assumed PDCCH-BLERs corresponding to all RLM-RSs are lower than a threshold value Q_out, then an out-of-sync (Out-of-sync, OOS) is reported.
The UE reports the IS or OOS to the higher layer. If a given number of OOSs is reported consecutively, a radio link failure is considered to have occurred. The higher layer needs to start a T310 counter, and considers that the radio link is able to work properly and stops the T310 counter if the number of ISs consecutively reported exceeds a threshold while the T310 counter is running; otherwise, the higher layer declares a radio link failure.
The UE obtains an estimation of the assumed PDCCH-BLER based on a signal to interference plus noise ratio (Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio, SINR) metric.
In new radio (New Radio, NR) Release 15 (Release 15), for 0-3 GHz scenarios, the maximum value of N is 2; for 3-6 GHz scenarios, the maximum value of N is 4; for scenarios above 6 GHz, the maximum value of N is 8.
During the process of radio link monitoring, the network configures the periodic CSI-RS resources or SSB resources as RLM RSs. When no RLM RS is configured by the network, an RS whose quasi-co-location (Quasi-Co-Location, QCL) type is type D (type D) in an RS set indicated by a transmission configuration indication (Transmission Configuration Indication, TCI) state of the physical downlink control channel (Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH) configured and indicated on the active bandwidth part (active BWP) is used as an RLM RS.
In the related technologies, in the case there is no BFD RS or RLM RS explicitly configured on the active BWP, when the RS whose QCL type is type D is on another BWP, that QCL type indicated by the TCI state of the PDCCH on the control resource set (Control-Resource SET, CORESET) on the active BWP, the UE may be unable to determine the beam failure detection or radio link monitoring action, resulting in ineffectiveness of communication.

Beam failure recovery or a radio link monitoring processing method, user equipment, and network-side device


The present invention provides a dental polishing article having excellent polishability, which can polish dental composite resin, porcelain, dental restorative and prosthetic materials and teeth at a low cost, conveniently in a short time. More specifically, the present invention provides a dental polishing article which comprises a polishing portion formed by compounding polishing grains in an elastomer binder, and the polishing portion further comprising spherical resin particles.

In dental treatment, when diseases such as caries exist in teeth, they are eliminated and a variety of materials such as metals, dental composite resin, porcelain and the like are used to restore the eliminated parts. Particularly, dental composite resin and porcelain are greatly demanded because they are excellent in esthetic due to exhibition of a dental crown color.
However, these dental restorative and prosthetic materials having high esthetic are hard to be polished. Particularly, dental composite resin is composed of glass filler having high hardness and resin having low hardness. It is very difficult to varnish materials composed of a plurality of materials having different hardness each other at a final polishing stage.
In addition, it is also difficult to varnish by polishing porcelain and teeth due to high hardness.
JP 11-277453A discloses a dental polishing article composed of a buffing material in which cerium grains are fixed to its polishing portion. This means is excellent in fitness, elasticity and flexibility of the polishing portion. However, its application is limited to dental porcelain and it cannot be use for materials to be polished.
In many of current polishing method, polishing is carried out with an elastomer polishing article after adjusting shapes and occlusion with a grinding instrument such as vitrified bonds or electroplated diamond tools.
Since these methods cannot achieve sufficient gloss, varnishing is carried out by using a cup-shape rotary instrument made of rubber and the like or a brush made of nylon with supplying special polishing paste. However, this method of varnishing takes very long time and is ineffective for treatment. A chair time for patients tends to expand.
In addition, by using diamond grains, it is relatively easy to varnish these hard materials to be polished, and diamond-containing elastomer polishing articles are commercially available.
For example, JP 6-22983A discloses a technique to improve polishability by kneading coated diamond grains with elastomer and by molding.
JP 2005-22033A discloses a technique to improve polishability by forming hollows or holes in a polishing portion in order to suppress friction when polishing. However, components used in the polishing portion is usual and when materials having high hardness is polished, it is required to use diamond as grains.
JP 2001-9736A discloses a porous polishing article having moderate flexibility and a hardwearing property in which bubbles are formed in the polishing portion.
However, since these polishing articles contain a lot of diamond, they are very expensive. Thus, polishing articles using reduced amount of diamond have been demanded.
JP 2002-86361A discloses polishing articles made by compounding inorganic fibers in elastomer. Compounding of inorganic fibers improves polishability and reduces the amount of grains to be used. However, when they are used in dental composite resin, it is not so useful because they scratch the resin surface.
[Patent Document 1] JP 11-277453A
[Patent Document 2] JP 6-22983A
[Patent Document 3] JP 2005-22033A
[Patent Document 4] JP 2001-9736A
[Patent Document 5] JP 2002-86361A

Dental polishing article which contains spherical resin particles


A magnet-type generator 1 has a stator 20 having a stator core 21 and a coil 60, and fixed on an engine cover. The stator core has an annular base portion 26 and salient pole portions 27 extended in a radial direction from the annular base portion. The coil is wound around winding frame portions formed on the salient pole portions. Lead wires 64A, 64B, 64C are inserted into through holes 35A, 35B, 35C passing through the stator core and connected with outgoing wires of the coil at one side of the stator core. The stator core has an extension portion 33, which is partly enlarged outwards in a radial direction from an outer periphery of the annular base portion and fills a part of a gap 32 between neighboring salient pole portions. The through holes are provided on an area including the extension portion of the stator core.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnet-type generator mounted on an engine of a two-wheel vehicle (motorcycle), a buggy, a jet ski bike, or the like in order to charge a battery or for other purposes.
2. Description of Related Art
In the conventional magnet-type generator, as shown in FIG. 15, the following structure is adopted to connect outgoing wires of a coil with lead wires for outputting power to outside the generator. A through-hole 102 is formed on an annular base portion 101 located at a center of a stator 100, a tubular insulator 105 formed together with a bobbin 104 is inserted into the through-hole 102 to cover an inner surface of the through-hole 102, lead wires 107A, 107B, 107C are inserted into the through-hole 102 covered with the tubular insulator 105 from the side of a mounting surface 100a of the stator 100 (mounting surface side on an engine cover, a side shown in FIG. 15A), and the lead wires 107A, 107B, 107C are connected with outgoing wires 108A, 108B, 108C of a coil 108 at the side of a clamping surface 100b of the stator 100 (opposite surface of the mounting surface side, a side shown in FIG. 15B). Note that the above explained conventional structure is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-273482.
In the above explained structure of connecting wires, the through-hole 102 is formed on the annular base portion 101 located at a center of the stator 100 and therefore an escapement structure such as a notch should be prepared on the engine cover to avoid the lead wires 107A, 107B, 107C inserted into the through-hole 102 from being crushed between the stator 100 and the inner surface of the engine cover when the stator 100 is mounted on the inner surface of the engine cover. Consequently, manufacturing cost of the engine cover is increased.
For example, as shown in FIG. 16, when the stator 100 is mounted on an engine cover 110 by fitting an inner periphery portion 101a of the annular base portion 101 into an annular fitting portion 111 which is projected from the engine cover 110 toward the stator 100, a notch 112 should be prepared on a part of the annular fitting portion 111 to avoid the lead wires 107A, 107B, 107C from being crushed.
In addition, a surface of the annular fitting portion 111 of the stator 100 has a function to radiate heat of the coil 108 produced when generating electricity. However, if the through-hole 102 is prepared on the annular base portion 101 of the stator 100, a surface area of the annular base portion 101, which is effective for radiating heat, is reduced in an amount of the through-hole 102. Therefore, the temperature of the coil may not be properly suppressed.
The present invention has an aim to provide a magnet-type generator capable of reducing the manufacturing cost of the engine cover and efficiently preventing the coil from increasing the temperature.


An electric vehicle routing system comprising a route determination module configured to receive, via a graphical user interface (GUI) module, user input data defining, for a desired journey of a vehicle in which the vehicle routing system is installed, a start location in a road network, a destination location in the road network, and at least one waypoint in the road network. On the basis of the received user input data, data received from a vehicle battery status monitoring module, data retrieved from a road network storage database and data retrieved from a charging network storage database, the route determination module determines at least one route in the road network from the start location to the destination location via the at least one waypoint and transmits data associated with the at least one determined route to the GUI module.

There has been a broad move globally towards reducing the emissions of vehicles, which has been spurred by the need to create healthier cities and to tackle the environmental impact of travel. There have been a number of technologies developed to reduce emissions, such as hybrid drivetrains, all-electric vehicles and hydrogen cells. The following countries have already legislated against all internal combustion engine sales (including internal combustion hybrid drivetrains):
Norway in 7 years
Netherland, Germany and India in 12 years
Scotland in 14 years
England, Wales and France in 22 years
Currently, more than 99% of zero emission vehicles sold globally are all-electric vehicles with less than half a percent being hydrogen cell based.
It is likely that over the next 5 to 20 years the adoption of electric vehicles will surge to become the dominant choice. Currently, the infrastructure to support recharging of electric vehicles is sparse and fragmented. There are few 'fast' chargers, and those are still far from fast compared to conventional refueling and tend to be tied to certain car marques. Despite the continued roll out of new charging infrastructure it is likely that the difficulty in navigating the charging network will remain a barrier to the widespread adoption and use of electric vehicles for some time to come.
As the charging network becomes more prevalent and electric vehicle ranges increase, being able to effortlessly and reliably plan trips through the charging network will remain critically important for the adoption of cheaper, lower range vehicles.
Even once charging infrastructure is as fast and as prevalent as current petrol stations, effective route finding will still play a role in improving the energy efficiency of the entire vehicle fleet.
Effective and accurate charge based routing is important for human drivers, and even more so for autonomous driving.


Aspects of the present disclosure relate to compositions having rice bran extract, method of making rice bran extract and method of using same.

Before reaching a consumer, all-natural meat and seafood products are either stored or processed in some way. Water and proteins constitute a large portion of meat and seafood. Storing, processing or cooking results in loss of water, weight loss and loss of structural integrity. There is a need for a natural material that can be used with a meat product to restore its properties.


An equipped balancing jacket includes a back and a first stage reducer connected to the compressed air bottle/bottles. From the first stage reducer project high pressure and low pressure hoses. The high pressure hose is directly connected to a computer and/or a manometer, while the low pressure hose is connected to a dispenser from which project the hoses for different functions. Alternatively, the low pressure hoses is connected to the dispenser through the intermediary of an intermediate dispenser, from which projects also the hose for the connection to the control device.

In U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,053 filed on Feb. 23, 1999 and issued on Sep. 11, 2001 to the same Assignee, an equipped balancing jacket is described including a back with a first stage reducer, a high and low pressure dispenser and hose connections from which project hoses for different functions. The jacket includes exhaust valves with pneumatic or mechanical control, a manual emergency control and a mouth inflation device.
The present invention has as object some improvements to the device forming the object of the above mentioned patent, and in particular it relates to a new simplified circuit for the feeding of air at low and high pressure.
According to the present invention, two embodiments are provided, one involving the use of an intermediate low pressure dispenser, while in the other the intermediate dispenser is eliminated. In both embodiments, the high pressure air does not pass through the intermediate dispenser as in the above mentioned patent, but instead is connected directly to a computer and/or a manometer. Because of these features the advantage is obtained of an assembly which is less expensive, not as heavy and better contained within the jacket.


A training device can easily be affixed or mounted to the hitting face of a golf club. The training device may provide auditory, tactile, and directional feedback for the user during practice so that he/she may learn how to strike the ball consistently on the sweet spot. A training device may include several raised surfaces of varying shapes rising from the base surrounding an aperture centered over the sweet spot of the golf club and larger than the surface area contacted by the ball. Use of the training device may reduce the user's variance from the “sweet spot” due to a strike not only along the longitudinal axis but also along the vertical axis. The user avoids impingement with the raised surfaces of the training device by striking the ball within a pre-set tolerance as well as within the boundaries of the aperture.

Generally speaking, the game of golf places a priority on accuracy, precision, and consistency. As players progress from beginners to advanced amateurs and possibly into the competitive world of professional golf, very little separates really competent players from each other. The uppermost echelons of competitive golf consist of an entire field of players who could, on any given day, produce a low score and emerge victorious. Golf, however, is not a lottery, and perhaps no other sport attracts all manner of devices/tools to help train participants of all levels. Central to this training or practice is ball striking consistency. Recent statistics show that the average golfer uses the putter more than 40% of the time over the course of a round of golf. Therefore, there is no practice more valuable to quantifiable better game of golf that improving one's putting consistency, and therefore, success.
In putting, even if the surface of the green to be traversed after hitting the ball is dead flat, the golfer optimally maximizes the chances of the ball going in the hole when it is traveling at the correct velocity and in the correct direction. A ball hit off-center will be subject to the twisting of the club and will impart not only unwanted sidespin on the golf ball but may also be directed at an angle from the intended path. A ball struck off-center will also result in a less-than-optimal energy to the ball resulting in the ball going a shorter distance than was intended. There are many factors that the golfer must take into account, including the type, texture, and grain of the grass on the green, the speed of the green, the slope of the green, and the wind. A putt of any distance on a green not perfectly flat will need to have both correct distance and direction which results from a combination of correct direction given the force applied to the ball which can vary given the force applied. This is best achieved with a point of contact as close as possible to the "sweet spot," with the clubface traveling perfectly parallel to the plane of the intended target line and with the striking face making contact perfectly perpendicular to this plane of the intended target line. This serves to reduce unwanted twisting of the club, to minimize unwanted spin, and to minimize the loss of optimal forward momentum.
All putter heads have a center point referred to as the sweet spot. The "sweet spot" is the precise point on the striking surface with the ball where maximum energy transfer occurs with the least amount of twisting of the implement, or as the point closest to the intended strike location. It is usually demarcated by the intersection of alignment lines on the top of the putter or on the center of the face, or by a demarcation on the face by the manufacturer. It is common for golfers to have an accumulation of strikes that resemble an oval pattern of varying sizes surrounding the sweet spot. Generally speaking, the variance of this collection of strikes is a direct determinant of the skill of the putter in repeating the stroke as optimally intended. The accumulation of strikes generally will show more variation in misses on the heel and toe (the axis parallel to the ground) than in misses high or low (the axis perpendicular to the ground) due to the hand position being away from the body during the stroke. Current solutions on the market suffer many drawbacks that hinder the ability of the golfer to benefit from training with competitive products. Therefore, a need exists for a device capable of multidimensional feedback so that all major variables affecting the success of the putting stroke are contained within a single, economical, easy to install, and possibly biodegradable device.

Golf clubhead apparatus for swing training and methods for device alignment to improve ball striking consistency


The present invention discloses a structure of supporting an image bearing member in which the tip portions of support pins inwardly projecting from side plates of a housing, come in contact with the bottoms of support-pin introducing holes in the image bearing member, so that tension applied to a grid electrode disposed opposite to the image bearing member is received by rigidity obtained by the image bearing member and the support pins. Predetermined gaps are formed between the side plates and the flange portions of the image bearing member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure of supporting an image bearing member, and more particularly to a structure of supporting the image bearing member of an image bearing unit in an image forming apparatus, in which the image bearing member is supported, at opposite sides thereof, by a pair of side plates formed at the housing of the image bearing unit, and in which a grid electrode for a corona discharger is installed between the side plates.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a laser beam printer or the like, there has been proposed one having an image bearing unit in which an image bearing member such as a photoreceptor drum or the like is rotatably held in the housing of the image bearing unit. In such an image forming apparatus having the image bearing unit above-mentioned, upon completion of a predetermined amount of image forming operation, the image bearing unit can be removed from the main body of the image forming apparatus and replaced with a new image bearing unit. This advantageously facilitates the mounting of a new image bearing unit.
As the image bearing unit of the type above-mentioned, the following arrangement has been proposed. That is, an image bearing member is interposed between a pair of side plates formed at the housing of the image bearing unit with predetermined gaps formed between the image bearing member and the side plates, and shafts inwardly projecting from the side plates are inserted in and passed through flange portions of the image bearing member at opposite sides thereof so that the image bearing member is rotatably supported. Further, a grid electrode of the scorotron type for a corona discharger is installed between the pair of side plates with a predetermined tension applied to the grid electrode.
In the image bearing unit having the arrangement above-mentioned, a structure of supporting the image bearing member is arranged such that the shafts inwardly projecting from the side plates are inserted in and passed through the flange portions of the image bearing member. Accordingly, the tension applied to the grid electrode may cause the side plates to be inwardly deformed and come in slide contact with opposite sides of the image bearing member. This disadvantageously increases the driving torque of the image bearing member and generates noise.
In view of the problems above-mentioned, the present invention is proposed with the object of providing a structure of supporting an image bearing member which prevents a pair of side plates holding the image bearing member from being inwardly deformed, thus preventing an increase in the driving torque of the image bearing member, as well as generation of noise.

Structure of supporting an image bearing member


A polar column solar collector for use in association with a building, the system having a concave mirror located on the exterior of the building and defining a focal point and a central axis, a mounting column secured to the mirror coaxial therewith, a polar axis column, a hinge swingably connecting the mounting column to the polar axis column for moving the concave mirror to aim it directly at the sun at least over a predetermined period of the daylight hours, a secondary reflector located at the focal point of the concave mirror to receive the sun's rays reflected from the concave mirror, an opening in the concave mirror to receive a concentrated beam of the sun's rays reflected from the secondary reflector and to direct the beam along the mounting column, a third reflector movably located at the junction of the mounting column and the polar axis column to receive the concentrated beam of the sun's rays from the secondary reflector reflected through the opening, and to redirect it along the polar axis column, and a polar column rotator for rotating at least a portion of the polar column to track the movement of the sun.

Solar energy appears to be the single most attractive source of energy. Solar systems are not liable to wind damage, as is the case with wind energy systems except in extreme weather conditions, which are exceptional, and would damage even conventional energy transmission systems. Solar collector can be installed almost anywhere, unlike tidal energy systems which must be located in coastal areas. Solar energy systems consume no fuel and the energy is, therefore, "free", in a sense. It causes no emissions to pollute the environment. It does not appear to require complex transmission and delivery systems such as electrical power lines, gas or oil pipe lines, or other delivery systems, provided it can be collected "on site", i.e., where it is to be used.
Solar energy has however one major disadvantage, namely, that it is available only intermittently, in the hours of daylight. Accordingly, it is obvious that sufficient solar energy must be collected during the hours of daylight, that a sufficient quantity of energy can be stored, for reuse during the hours of darkness when solar energy is not available. Clearly, systems could be engineered to carry out these functions on a very large scale. However, that would then require the collection and storage of large quantities of solar energy which would then have to be transmitted from place to place, for example, to a large number of homes, connected to a central solar collector. This would result in excessive capital costs, and would likely result in relatively high energy transmission losses. Clearly, such centralized systems would fail to take advantage of the principal significant fact concerning solar energy, namely, in that it is substantially universally available over a large portion of the face of the earth, and thus does not require special transmission systems, to transmit the energy from one place to another. The theoretically ideal solar energy system would be self-contained, so that individual systems could be provided for individual buildings or homes, so that each building or home could be essentially energy self-sufficient. In this way, complex transmission or storage systems would not be required.
It is however apparent that in the design of any solar energy collector system it will be necessary to collect solar energy falling on a relatively substantial surface area, to provide sufficient energy even for a single home or building. In order to achieve this, numerous proposals have been made for providing solar collectors based on some form of concave curved mirror usually of parabolic shape having a relatively large surface area. The mirror catches the sun's rays falling on all points of the mirror, and concentrates them into a single point, resulting in a high energy concentration of light at that point. Usually, at the focal point of the mirror, a secondary reflector is provided for reflecting the concentrated point of light, and redirecting it, so as to convert the energy of the concentrated light beam into some other form of energy. Typical proposals of this general type are shown in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,286,581, 4,295,462, 4,340,031, and 4,696,285. It is, of course, implicit in any of these solar collector devices that the actual mirror itself must be located in the open air. In all of these proposals, the mirror concentrates the solar energy falling on the mirror at the focal point of the mirror. The concentrated light is re-directed into a portion of the collector where the energy of the light beam is then converted into heat. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,581, the solar energy is utilized to heat a tubular chamber, or cavity, and a fluid medium is passed through the chamber or cavity, and absorbs the heat from the concentrated light rays. The energy in the fluid is then transported to some other location for use. In these proposals the mirror was usually mounted on some form of a suitable equatorial tracking mount, so that the mirror could always be pointed directly at the sun. Accordingly, in the proposals of the type described above, it was usually necessary for the entire apparatus consisting of the mirror, the secondary reflector, and also the heat conversion chamber, all to be mounted together and moved simultaneously to track the path of the sun. Such systems therefore require highly complex suspension and tracking mechanisms, to provide the facility for accurate tracking of the sun, by all of the components simultaneously and also require heat transmission systems for transmitting the heat from the outside to the inside of a building.
Other proposals for collecting solar energy have been made of a more simplistic nature, for example as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,226. In this type of proposal, large chambers are filled with any suitable heat storage medium. In this case, the medium is simply rock or stone. The chambers are fixed in position, and have glass panels through which the sun's rays may pass and heat up the stones. In the particular example, of this patent, insulating panels are adapted to be swung down over the glass panels, when the heat generated by the sun's rays falls below a certain preset minimum temperature.
Systems of this kind are relatively massive installations, and are suitable in only relatively limited "sun belt" portions of the globe, and must obviously be located for optimum operation in a fixed location, i.e., facing south in the northern hemisphere.
Another proposal is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,988,166. In this patent, a concave mirror is provided, mounted on a suitable tracking mount, and having a secondary light concentration mirror at the focal point. The light falling from the main mirror on the secondary mirror is concentrated into a light beam. A central opening in the main mirror allows this concentrated light beam to pass through the main mirror. An energy collection chamber is provided immediately behind the main mirror, for receiving energy from the concentrated light beam. The converted energy is then transmitted from this chamber, to a location where it may be of use. While this system is somewhat simpler to construct, it still has the disadvantage that the energy conversion takes place out of doors, and requires the transmission of an energy conversion medium, typically, for example, a fluid medium, from the solar collector itself into the building or facility where the energy is required, typically to heat the building or to provide hot water for a domestic hot water system. Thus thick insulation must be provided to limit heat losses in transmission.
In a further proposal, in U.S. Pat. 4,373,514 granted on Feb. 15, 1983 to Lois, there is shown a form of solar collector system in which the collimate beam is routed through a conduit, around various angles. This system uses at least three separate mirrors, to bring the light beam along the angled conduit, to a point where it could be converted. However Lois does not disclose an equatorial mount for tracking the sun's path each day, and each day of the year, and consequently would have very little if any efficiency. In addition, the use of three separate mirrors within the conduits produces further heat transmission losses, which accumulate from mirror to mirror. Consequently, the system would be impractical for the purposes of for example domestic heating or heating of individual buildings, and would be extremely expensive.


A method, system, and computer program product for automated testing of Internet of Things devices are provided. The method generates a device table for a set of devices. The device table includes a set of inputs and a set of controllable outputs for each device. A set of input signals are detected for a device for a subset of inputs associated with the device. The set of input signals are detected from one or more controllable outputs of a subset of devices. The device table is modified based on the set of input signals and the one or more controllable outputs to generate an association table representing a relation of the subset of inputs with the one or more controllable outputs. The method detects a fault in one or more device of the set of devices based on a test input signal and the association table.

Devices within home and office settings are increasingly equipped with input components, output components, and sensors. These devices can include communications technology enabling their operation as Internet of Things (IoT) devices. IoT devices may communicate some data between devices or systems via communications infrastructure and protocols. Some devices include functionality to monitor their own inputs and outputs to internally determine when a sensor, input, or output of a device has failed.

Automated internet of things device testing including modifying a device table to generate an association table

International Business Machines Corporation


A current measuring transducer for measuring the current flowing through an electrical cable, with a ring probe, a sensor and an evaluation device for recording the current value obtained by the ring probe and the sensor, wherein the ring probe has an annular core, wherein the ring probe is divided into a basic ring section and at least one movable ring section, wherein the movable ring section defines an open and a closed state, wherein in the open state, a radial cable insert opening is opened, and wherein a circularly closed arrangement is created in the closed state of the movable ring section in which the annular core surrounds the cable, wherein the radial insertion of a cable extending axially relative to the current measuring transducer into the inside area of the ring probe transfers the ring section from one to the other state, and measurement of the current in the cable inserted into the inside area is made possible in the closed state.

The amount of current flowing through an electrical cable is an important value to know for the use of a cable and for the operation of devices connected to it. On one hand, from the measured value the power transmitted through the cable can be closed, and on the other hand, such a measurement fulfills a safety aspect. Thus, power limits, the surpassing of which could, for example, overload the cable or the device connected to the cable, can be monitored by means of the current measuring transducer. The cable cross-sectional area and assembly determine the acceptable power capacity of the cable.
Current measurements as such are known for a cable through which an electrical current flows. For an example of such, patent document DE 689 09 847 T2 gives an electrical measuring transducer with a coil that is arranged around the electrical conductor wherein the conductor is guided centrally through the coil.
Mainly, current measuring methods for an electrical cable can be distinguished into those measuring methods that require an electrical measuring element in the electrical conductor and those methods that infer the electrical current flowing through the electrical cable from an electrical or magnetic field surrounding an electrical conductor. Such an element that, for example, is inserted into the electrical conductor is a shunt resistor.
Measuring methods that manage without such an inserted element, on the other hand, measure inductively.
Current measuring transducers, as are known in prior art, are typically pushed onto the electrical cable. In this way, an inductive element encloses the electrical cable and enables a measurement by means of the current measuring transducer. The precise placement of a prior art current measuring transducer on the desired location proves to be difficult. A subsequent placement on an existing, already laid cable, or the simple exchange of a current measuring transducer, moreover, is typically not possible.
Existing solutions in order to enable a subsequent placement of a current measuring transducer on an electrical cable do not have a circularly closed ring that is arranged around the electrical cable in a ring-shaped manner. Also, the introduction of the electrical cable into the device becomes difficult.


A method for forming a document set is described. The document set is formed from rectangular sheets of the same size and includes an envelope sheet and at least one insert sheet. The method includes the steps of printing the envelope sheet with envelope information, this envelope information including a unique code identifier, printing each of the insert sheets with insert information, this insert information including a unique code identifier, and further more collating the envelope sheet and the insert sheets to form the document set.

For organisations having a large number of customers to whom accounts or marketing material are mailed, it is clearly impractical to generate this mail manually. Accordingly, the process of printing material pertaining to an individual customer such as billing information and then inserting this printed material into an appropriately addressed envelope has been automated for some time.
Commonly, the insert material will be printed on standard cut sheet such as A4 using high speed industrial digital printers. The insert material is then folded and inserted into standard closed faced envelopes using highly specialised handling equipment. In some instances the envelopes may already be pre-printed with fixed information such as a company logo or a reply paid address. After insertion, the envelope is then printed with the corresponding address related to the personalised information contained in the envelope. These processes are capable of producing between 30 to 100 bulk mail out items per minute.
Clearly at such high processing speeds it is important to be able to have a system for online monitoring. Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a typical bulk mail item processing and integrity checking system in detail. Print file 10 containing names, addresses and any other personal information relevant to the mail out is formed from information contained in database 1. This file also contains instructions for generating a unique machine readable code such as a barcode for each sheet of material to be printed. This information is provided 11 to the printer 20 which prints standard cut sheet to form personalised documents 30 that includes a number of insert sheets which are then inserted into envelopes which are fed into the inserter 40 from a separate envelope supply 50.
To provide for online integrity checking of the system a process data file 120 is generated from print file 10. The process data file 120 contains a unique check reference for each printed sheet in addition to the corresponding addressing information. Before insertion into the envelopes the personalised documents 30 are scanned 90 and the machine readable code information is compared with the process data file 120 to verify that the correct documents have been printed. Confirmation of the printing step results in the corresponding address being provided to the envelope printer 60 for printing of the envelope resulting in a completed mail out item 70. This process necessarily assumes that the personalised documents 30 have been inserted 40 correctly into the envelopes. Whilst the envelopes 50 may have fixed information such as logos and reply paid addresses printed on them prior to address printing 60, there is no individual machine readable code which can be used for envelope tracking before the step of address printing 60.
As standard laser printers are often unsuitable for printing multiple layer items such as envelopes, the envelope printer 60 is typically an inkjet printer. Inkjet printers have a number of associated cost and quality issues when compared to laser printers. The mail out item 70 is then provided to the mail system 80. Optionally, an address reader 75 will read the address printed on the envelope so that a record of completed mail out items which are ready to be mailed can be maintained.
There are a number of serious disadvantages with this process. After insertion 40 of the personalised documents 30 into envelopes 50 there is no means to check that this step has been performed correctly before printing 60 of the envelope. If scanning 90 of the code and checking 91 with the process data file 120 has highlighted a problem before insertion then these documents may be out sorted 100 as shown in FIG. 1. However, once the envelope has been printed 60, the only way the process can be audited is by manually sampling 71 the mail out item 70 and scanning the code on the personalised documents 90 and comparing 110 this with the address on the envelope as set out in the process data file 120. If an error is found then the process must be stopped and a number of envelopes and contents must be manually removed to determine the extent of the error and then the process restarted.
Those mail out items which are incorrect must be reprinted and inserted at a later time. As small batches of reruns are inefficient, often a rerun is delayed until a significant number of mail out items require reprocessing. This causes logistical problems as composite lists of errors must be maintained. In addition, if pre-printed envelopes are required for the re-run then these must be re-sourced either from a warehouse store or supplier.
Another disadvantage of this process is that the process data file 120 is generated second hand from the original database 1 via the print file 10. This increases the likelihood of the process data file 120 becoming mismatched to the database 1. In some instances, bulk mail out items may be produced according to the print file 10 but due to a mismatch between this and the process data file 120 there will appear to be errors. Clearly, a process which only requires one master file sourced from a reference database is preferable.
One attempt to address these issues is to use envelopes which contain a transparent window. In this process, the address information is printed onto the inserted material which is folded and oriented to display the address through the window. This negates the requirement to print the address information on the envelope. However, these window envelopes also have a number of disadvantages including increased cost over standard envelopes and a lack of security due to the contents of the envelope being viewable on the occasion where information has been incorrectly inserted into the envelope.
Another significant drawback of window faced envelopes is that consumers associate this type of envelope with bills and therefore these envelopes are not favoured for the delivery of marketing material. In addition, use of window envelopes does not address another serious disadvantage of all of the bulk mailing processes outlined herein which is the expense of procuring and maintaining separate equipment for handling the envelopes and inserted material and also the associated expense with warehousing and auditing of these envelopes.
Accordingly it is an object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus which efficiently reduces the scope for mismatching of envelopes and related contents in bulk mail out processes
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus which reduces the complexity and variety of types of handling apparatus required in bulk mailing processes.

Method and apparatus for forming a document set


A method is disclosed for preventing circuit failures due to gate oxide leakage, and is used to efficiently check many nets of a circuit on a chip or within a macro to find logical fails due to gate oxide leakage using DC calculations, wherein the gate leakage is treated as a noise source for a static noise analysis of the circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method for preventing circuit failures due to gate oxide leakage, and more particularly pertains to a methodology for efficiently checking many nets of a circuit on a chip or within a macro to find logical fails due to gate oxide leakage using DC calculations, wherein the gate leakage is treated as a noise source in a static noise analysis of the circuit.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
As gate oxides on field effect transistors (FETs) have scaled to thinner dimensions, the occurrence of gate tunneling current due to gate oxide leakage has become more prevalent. Circuits with a large fanout (feeding and serving as an input to many downstream circuits) or with a large series resistance may not be able to provide a sufficiently large gate current at each receiving circuit and can cause an increase in crossover current and possibly a fail.

Method for preventing circuit failures due to gate oxide leakage


An accurate high current mirror circuit produces a mirrored current that matches an input current to produce an accuracy at the output of a subsequent stage of amplification of greater than 0.01%. A plurality of transistor devices are arranged in a symmetrical configuration and divided into two groups. The transistors in each of the two groups are connected in parallel to produce a high mirror current from a high input current. A distribution of a source voltage produces the same source voltage at each of the plurality of transistors. An input current metallization and a mirror current metallization are formed within the symmetrical configuration to have a same value of impedance. A plurality of P-channel transistors within the current mirror circuit control a voltage of a point on the input metallization to be the same as a reference voltage, thus causing the mirror current to be referenced around the reference voltage.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a current mirror circuit and more particularly a low noise and high accuracy current mirror circuit for audio applications.
2. Description of Related Art
In audio applications such as can be found in mobile phones producing an analog signal from a digital signal that can then be heard by the human ear requires a wide conversion range, i.e. twenty-four bits. This is often done with a current steering circuit where a sigma-delta DAC (digital to analog converter) with a low resolution DAC and a modulator drives a current mirror circuit. The current mirror circuit works in conjunction with the DAC to translate a digital code into a current centered around zero by taking the output from the current mirror circuit, whose input was driven by one output from the DAC and subtract it from the second output current from the DAC. When the output from the current mirror circuit does not perfectly match the input current to the current mirror circuit from the DAC, a residual error current results. The output current from the current mirror and DAC circuit is converted to a voltage that is passed to a substantial gain in subsequent circuitry in the audio signal path. This becomes a problem when there is no digital input signal and the error current is converted to a voltage, which is applied to the sound-producing device and places an added stress on the coils of the earphone or other sound producing devices driven by the subsequent audio circuitry. It is critical that the current steering design have an accuracy, which produces a current when converted to a voltage that is interpreted by the subsequent elements of the audio path as being zero for the digital input code which represents zero. Since the current steering design is a differential output, where the output of the current mirror circuit is subtracted from an output of the DAC, it is critical that the current mirror circuit produce an accurate copy of the input current to the current mirror circuit to minimize or eliminate the error current when there is no digital input to the DAC. Since the current mirror circuit is operating with a high current relative to the desired input referred error current, i.e. in the range of a milliampere for the DC current within the current mirror when there is no digital input signal, there is not only a need for good matching of transistor devices but also a matching of the impedance of metallization carrying the high current and a matching of the values of voltage distributed to the transistor devices. Common elements in the circuitry can be handled by the design, and non-common elements require critical matching so as to produce a proper result in the down stream signal, i.e. zero volts when the digital signal is the code which represents zero.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,472,858 B1 (Tanase) is directed to low voltage fast settling precision current mirrors and methods using a first and a second current mirror circuit where the output of the two current mirrors are coupled such that the output receives a part of the mirrored current from each current mirror. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,458 (Fitzpatrick et al.) a current mirror design is directed to a compensation circuit, which automatically adjusts the operating conditions of the current mirror. U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,639 is directed to a high accuracy current mirror circuit comprising low beta transistors and operating on a low supply voltage.

Method for implementation of a low noise, high accuracy current mirror for audio applications


A Raman amplifier having a microstructured fiber and at least one pump laser, optically connected to one end of the microstructured fiber. The pump laser is adapted for emitting a pump radiation at a wavelength λp, and the microstructured fiber has a silica-based core surrounded by a plurality of capillary voids extending in the axial direction of the fiber. The core of microstructured fiber has at least one dopant added to silica, the dopant being suitable for enhancing Raman effect.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fiber Raman amplifier using a microstructured fiber and to a microstructured fiber suitable for Raman amplification. In particular, the present invention relates to a lumped fiber Raman amplifier and to a microstructured fiber suitable for a lumped fiber Raman amplifier.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fiber Raman amplifiers have been attracting a great attention, because of their capability to increase the transmission capacity. Raman amplifiers offer several advantages, such as a low noise, a greater flexibility in choosing the signal wavelength and a flat and broad gain bandwidth. The greater flexibility in choosing the signal wavelength mainly depends on the fact that the Raman peak of a material, exploited for the amplification of the signal, is dependent practically only on the pump wavelength, differently from what happens for example in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers, in which the choice of the signal wavelength is restricted by the stimulated emission cross-section of erbium. The broad gain bandwidth of Raman amplifiers can be much enlarged, for example by using multiple pump sources. Such a broad gain bandwidth may represent a way to extend the usable optical bandwidth outside the conventional C-band and the extended L-band of the erbium-doped fiber amplifiers. Lumped Raman amplifiers may also play an important role to compensate for not only the fiber attenuation but also losses of other optical components, such as connectors, switches, splitters and so on.
Up to now, dispersion compensating fibers (DCF) or, more generally, fibers having a high non-linearity have been proposed for realizing fiber Raman amplifiers. For example, T. Tsuzaki et al., in "Broadband Discrete Fiber Raman Amplifier with High Differential Gain Operating Over 1.65 μm-band", OFC2001 MA3-1, describe a high differential-gain (0.08 dB/mW), low-noise (<5.0 dB), broadband (30 nm) and flat-gain (<±1 dB) fiber Raman amplifier operating over the 1.65 μm-band which employs a low-lossy highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) and a broadened pump light source. The fiber has a transmission loss of 0.49 dB/km at 1.55 μm and of 0.47 dB/km at 1.65 μm, an effective area Aeff of 10.10 μm2 at 1.55 μm, a dispersion of 1.79 ps/nm/km at 1.55 μm, a Δn of 3.10% and a ratio gR/Aeff of 6.50·103 1/Wm. FIG. 1 of the article shows an attenuation at a wavelength of 1450 nm of about 0.7 dB/km.
In order to evaluate the Raman amplification characteristics free from the influence of the fiber length, the authors of the article use the following figure of merit:FOM=(gR/Aeff)/αp  [1]where (gR/Aeff) and αp are the Raman gain coefficient and the fiber attenuation at the pump wavelength. With 1450 nm pumping, the FOM is estimated to be 9.3 1/W/dB. If the pumping wavelength is set to 1550 nm, the FOM becomes as high as 13.2 1/W/dB.
Recently there has been a great interest in fiber structures that incorporate numerous air holes surrounding a solid silica core. These air-silica microstructured fibers, similar to earlier single-material optical fibers, guide light within the core as a result of the index difference between the silica core and the air-silica cladding. Microstructured fibers are also known in the art as "photonic crystal fibers" or as "holey fibers".
For example, J. A. West et al., "Photonic Crystal Fibers", ECOC 2001, Th A 2.2, review various types of air-silica microstructure fibers, such as effective-index photonic crystal fibers (EI-PCF), air-clad core fibers and photonic band-gap fibers (PBGF). EI-PCFs are typically made from a hexagonal lattice of circular air columns in which the periodicity is relatively uniform. Losses as low as 2.6 dB/km are reported for this kind of fiber by the authors. Air-clad core fibers contains only a single ring of holes. The justification for removing the outer layers of holes is that in the limit in which the wavelength is large compared to the distance among the holes Λ, the fiber behaves very much like an equivalent step-index fiber. When the air holes are very large this fiber becomes essentially a silica rod in air and thin silica struts, whose purpose is simply to support the core, can replace the periodic lattice of air holes. Typical losses of 5–10 dB/km are reported for this kind of fibers by the authors. PBGF relies completely on the physics of photonic band-gaps for waveguiding and allows true guidance in low index cores.
Microstructured fibers can differ significantly from conventional optical fibers, allowing for properties that cannot be realized in standard fibers.
For examples J. K. Ranka et al., in "Visible continuum generation in air-silica microstructure optical fibers with anomalous dispersion at 800 nm", Optics Letters, Vol. 25 No. 1, pag. 25–27 (2000) disclose that air-silica microstructure optical fibers can exhibit anomalous dispersion at visible wavelengths. They exploit this feature to generate an optical continuum 550 THz in width, extending from the violet to the infrared, by propagating pulses of 100-fs duration and kilowatt peak powers through a microstructure fiber near the zero-dispersion wavelength.
Microstructured fibers with doped cores have been proposed. For example, patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,802,236 to Lucent Technologies Inc. discloses a fiber having a solid silica core region that is surrounded by an inner cladding region and an outer cladding region. The cladding regions have capillary voids extending in the axial fiber direction, with the voids in the inner cladding region having a larger diameter than those in the outer cladding region. Applications disclosed in '236 patent of the microstructured fiber comprise all-optical non-linear Kerr switching in a fiber having a photosensitive core, using a Bragg or long period grating. Such fiber exemplarily has a Ge, B, or Sn-doped core.
In another example, C. E. Kerbage et al., in "Experimental and scalar beam propagation analysis of an air-silica microstructure fiber", Optics Express, Vol. 7 No. 3, pag. 113–121 (2000) study the higher order guided modes in an air-silica microstructure fiber comprising a ring of six large air-holes surrounding a Germanium doped core. They characterize the modes experimentally using an intra-core Bragg grating.
Microstructured fibers can reach high optical nonlinearity. The large refractive index contrast between silica and air means that it is possible to confine light to transverse modes with a dimension of the order of the wavelength of light, meaning that such fibers have an effective nonlinearity per unit length 10–100 times higher than that of conventional silica fiber. This characteristic can be advantageously exploited in order to reduce the length/power levels required for devices based on non-linear effects.
Raman amplification in a microstructured fiber has been proposed by J. H. Lee et al., in "A holey fiber Raman amplifier and all-optical modulator", ECOC 2001, Th A 4.1, who demonstrate the use of a short length of highly nonlinear holey fiber to obtain strong L-band Raman amplification. Using a 75 m long holey fiber with an effective area of 2.85 μm2 they obtain internal gains of over 42 dB and a noise figure of about 6 dB at 1640 nm. The loss of the fiber is 40 dB/km. The obtained gain efficiency is 6 dB/W. Further, the authors estimate the Raman gain coefficient gR to have a value of 7.6·10−14 m/W.
The Applicant observes that a gain efficiency of 6 dB/W means that in order to realize an amplifier having an internal gain of 20–25 dB, a pump power of more than 3–4 W should be used. This makes the fiber described in the Lee et al.'s article quite unpractical for a real installation in a telecommunications system.
The Applicant has faced the problem of realizing a Raman amplifier using a microstructured fiber, capable of reaching high gain with low pump power requirements. The amplifier should preferably have a low noise figure. The Applicant has perceived that, in order to have high Raman gain efficiency, that is high gain with low pump power, the microstructured fiber should have a high figure of merit for Raman amplification, according to formula [1].
The Applicant has observed that by using the formula [1] given above for calculating the FOM for Raman amplification of the fiber described by Lee et al. in their article cited above, a value of 0.67 1/W/dB would be obtained, that is a very low value. According to the Applicant this is mainly due to the high attenuation (40 dB) of the microstructured fiber. The Applicant has however recognized that even if the attenuation of a microstructured air-silica fiber were lower, the figure of merit for Raman amplification of an air-silica fiber would be at most comparable with the figure of merit for Raman amplification of a conventional dispersion compensating fiber or of a conventional highly nonlinear fiber. By applying the formula [1] given above, a "best" value of about 10 1/W/dB would be obtained by considering a gR of 7.6·10−14 m/W, a very low attenuation of the microstructured fiber at the pump wavelength of 2.6 dB/km and an effective area of 2.85 μm2. That is, even by considering a very low attenuation of the air-silica microstructured fiber, such fiber would have a figure of merit for Raman amplification at most equal to the figure of merit obtainable with conventional dispersion compensating or highly nonlinear fibers. According to the Applicant, this is due to the higher attenuation of the microstructured fibers, that in the best cases up to now can reach values of about 2.6 dB/km with respect to values lower than 0.5 dB/km for the conventional fibers. The "best" result of the figure of merit of an air-silica microstructured fiber given above cannot be considered much satisfactory, as the manufacturing of an air-silica fiber having a very low attenuation is rather complicated with respect to the manufacturing of a conventional fiber. Further, such result would be obtained by using microstructured fibers having very low effective areas (for example 2.85 μm2 in the example reported in Lee et al. article), giving rise to problems in the coupling of the pump radiation and of the optical signal in the microstructured fiber for amplification.

Raman amplification using a microstructured fiber


In a motor driving apparatus, an incline of boundary lines of magnetic poles with respect to a rotating shaft of a rotor and an incline in a movable direction of a magnetic detection unit with respect to the rotating shaft of the rotor are different.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor driving apparatus which includes a position detection unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
A common control for a stepping motor is an "open-loop control" which does not have a feedback loop and is operated in synchronization with a command pulse. Such a control allows a digital positioning operation to be performed easily. Due to such characteristics, the open-loop control is widely used in home information appliances, such as cameras and optical disk devices, and office equipment, such as printers and projectors.
However, there is a problem that during high-speed rotation or when a load on the motor is large, a step-out phenomenon occurs in which the motor can no longer rotate following the command pulse.
To resolve this problem, a brushless DC motor in which a magnetic sensor is mounted on a stepping motor to switch energization according to the position of the rotor is known as a technique to prevent the step-out.
However, to efficiently drive the brushless DC motor, the magnetic sensor has to be mounted with precision. The reason for this is as follows.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between torque generated when a constant current flows through a coil and a rotor rotation angle.
When the coils of a motor are configured of two (A phase and B phase) coils, the current can flow in the two coils in the positive direction and the reverse direction, respectively. The torque, when positive energization is carried out in the A phase and in the B phase, is expressed as A+B+, and the torque, when reverse energization is carried out in the A phase and in the B phase, is expressed as A−B−.
Under such a condition, torque waveforms like that illustrated in FIG. 9 can be produced. FIG. 9 illustrates the relationship between the rotor angle and the torque generated in the motor based on the four energization patterns of A−B−, A+B−, A+B+, and A−B+.
All of these patterns are waveforms that have the same and a roughly sinusoidal shape, and have a 90° phase difference in terms of their electrical angle.
Here, the term "electrical angle" expresses one cycle of this sine wave as 360°. If a number of poles of the rotor is n, 1° of electrical angle corresponds to (2×actual angle/n).
To rotate the motor, the energization to the coil is successively switched to produce a torque waveform as illustrated by T1 of FIG. 9, whereby a high torque can be constantly obtained.
Timing for switching the energization to the coil is determined by a signal obtained from the magnetic sensor. Therefore, by mounting the magnetic sensor at an optimum position, the energization can be switched at the timing having the best efficiency.
However, if there is an error in the mounting position of the magnetic sensor, a torque waveform as illustrated by T2 of FIG. 9 is produced, whereby problems arise such as a decrease in motor efficiency and occurrence of noise.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-176486 discusses a configuration which provides a rotor with a main magnetic field region capable of reducing cogging torque and a sensor magnetic field region which facilitates positioning of a magnetic sensor at a predetermined position. This configuration enables assembly of the apparatus with less mounting error in the magnetic sensor position while reducing the cogging torque.
Here, a case where a mounting error of the magnetic sensor is allowed to be at the electrical angle of ±Δθ° will now be considered. FIGS. 8A and 8B are diagrams illustrating the mounting error of the magnetic sensor. When a distance from a rotating shaft to the magnetic sensor is denoted by R (mm), and the number of poles of the magnet is denoted by n, as illustrated in FIGS. 8A and 8B, a mounting error Δx of ±R sin(Δθ×2/n) (mm) can be permitted in a case of a ±Δθ° angle error. Therefore, the smaller the diameter of the motor becomes, or the higher the number of poles is, the greater the precision that is required for mounting the magnetic sensor.
Recently, various devices which are mounted with a motor have been getting smaller and made with higher precision. Thus, a demand for the motor having a smaller diameter and a larger number of poles is increasing. As a result, higher precision is also required in the mounting of the magnetic sensor.
However, for the configuration discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-176486, since the mounting precision of the magnetic sensor is the same as conventional sensors, there is a problem that when the magnetic sensor position is adjusted with high precision, assembly costs of the motor are increased.


A semiconductor device has a stabilizing member that encloses an upper portion of a storage electrode to improve structural stability. A dielectric layer and a plate electrode are successively formed on the storage electrode including a stabilizing member. Since the stabilizing member includes a protruding portion to support the storage electrode and an adjacent storage electrode, all of the storage electrodes in a unit cell of a semiconductor device are structured to prevent a collapse. Also, the semdevice can have a very high height without collapse when the capacitors have extremely high aspect ratios. Therefore, the capacitors may have greatly enhanced capacitance in comparison with a conventional capacitor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a capacitor having an improved structural stability and a method of manufacturing the capacitor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, semiconductor memory devices such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices or static random access memory (SRAM) devices can store data or information therein. The data or information is stored in the semiconductor memory devices, and also the data or information is read from the semiconductor memory devices. A typical single unit memory cell of the semiconductor memory device includes one capacitor and one transistor. The capacitor of the semiconductor memory device generally has a storage electrode, a dielectric layer, and a plate electrode. To improve the storage capacity of the semiconductor memory device, the capacitor needs a large capacitance.
As the degree of integration of the semiconductor memory device has increased, the unit memory cell of the semiconductor memory device has continuously decreased in area. To ensure a sufficient storage capacitance of the semiconductor memory device, the capacitor may have various shapes, such as a box, a fin, a crown, a cylinder, etc. However, due to design constraints of the semiconductor memory device that include size decreases, the capacitor should have an increasingly large aspect ratio, defined as the ratio of the height to the width of the capacitor. Thus the capacitor may have sufficient capacitance when formed in a limited unit area of the semiconductor memory device. As a result, however, the capacitors having a high aspect ratio may mechanically collapse so that a so-called two-bit failure may occur between adjacent capacitors.
FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view illustrating conventional cylindrical capacitors.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional capacitor includes a cylindrical storage electrode 13 connected to a contact pad 4 formed on a semiconductor substrate 1. The cylindrical storage electrode 13 is electrically connected to the contact pad 4 by a contact plug 10 formed in an insulation layer 7 that covers the semiconductor substrate 1. To increase the storage capacitance of the semiconductor memory device, the cylindrical storage electrode 13 of the capacitor has a greatly increased height. When the cylindrical storage electrode 13 has this greatly increased height, the cylindrical storage electrode 13 may collapse toward an adjacent cylindrical electrode so that adjacent capacitors may be inadvertently connected to each other. This is shown in FIG. 1 by dashed cylindrical storage electrode 13. The collapse of the cylindrical storage electrode 13 is referred to as a two-bit failure. When the two-bit failure occurs in the semiconductor memory device, the semiconductor memory device may not properly operate.
Accordingly, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/85420 discloses a semiconductor device including a beam-shaped insulating member between capacitors of the semiconductor device to improve the mechanical strength of the capacitor.
FIG. 2A is a cross-sectional view illustrating the semiconductor device including the beam-shaped insulating member, and FIG. 2B is a plan view illustrating the semiconductor device in FIG. 2A.
Referring to FIGS. 2A and 2B, after a semiconductor substrate 15 is divided into an active region and a field region by forming an isolation layer 18 on the semiconductor substrate 15, gate structures 27 are formed in the active region of the semiconductor substrate 15. Each of the gate structures 27 includes a gate oxide layer pattern, a gate electrode and a mask pattern.
Impurities are implanted into portions of the semiconductor substrate 15 by an ion implantation process using the gate structures 27 as masks, forming source/drain regions 21 and 24 at the portions of the substrate 15 between the gate structures 27. Thus, metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors are formed on the semiconductor substrate 15.
After a first insulating interlayer 42 is formed on the substrate 15 to cover the MOS transistors, capacitor plugs 30 and a bit line plug 33 are formed through the first insulating interlayer 42. The capacitor plugs 30 and the bit line plug 33 are connected to the source/drain regions 21 and 24, respectively.
After a second insulating interlayer 45 is formed on the first insulating interlayer 42, the second insulating interlayer 45 is partially etched to form a bit line contact plug 36 making contact with the bit line plug 33.
A third insulating interlayer 48 is formed on the second insulating interlayer 45. The third and second insulating interlayers 48 and 45 are successively etched to form capacitor contact plugs 39 making contact with the capacitor plugs 30, respectively.
After an etch stop layer 51 is formed on the third insulating interlayer 48 and the capacitor contact plugs 39, holes 54 exposing the capacitor contact plugs 39 are formed through the etch stop layer 51. Cylindrical bottom electrodes 57 making contact with the capacitor contact plugs 39 are formed in the holes 54, respectively. Here, the cylindrical bottom electrodes 57 are electrically connected to the source/drain regions 21 and 24 by the capacitor contact plugs 39 and the capacitor plugs 30.
After beam-shaped insulating members 72 are formed between sidewalls of adjacent bottom electrodes 57, dielectric layers 60 and top electrodes 63 are successively formed on the bottom electrodes 57 to thereby form capacitors 66 on the semiconductor substrate 15.
An additional insulation layer 69 is formed over the substrate 15 to cover the capacitors 66. Since the beam-shaped insulating members 72 are formed between the sidewalls of the adjacent bottom electrodes 57, the mechanical strength of the capacitor 66 may be improved.
However, in the above-described semiconductor device, processes for manufacturing the semiconductor device are complicated because at least four beam-shaped insulating members 72 should be formed between the adjacent bottom electrodes 57 to improve the mechanical strength of the capacitor 66. Thus, manufacturing cost and manufacturing time for the semiconductor device is increased. Additionally, the manufacturing processes are more complicated because the capacitor 66 has a complex structure including the bottom electrode 57, the beam-shaped insulating members 72, the dielectric layer 60 and the top electrode 63 as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B. Further, the additional insulation layer 69 may not be precisely formed between the capacitors 66 having the complex structure so that the capacitors 66 may be inadvertently electrically connected to an upper wiring formed on the capacitors 66. As a result, the processes for manufacturing the semiconductor device including the capacitor 66 having the complex structure may have poor throughput.

Method of manufacturing trench capacitor utilizing stabilizing member to support adjacent storage electrodes


A drive control for controlling a gear system which is connected to a motor. The drive control comprises one or several sensors for detecting operationally specific parameters of the gear system, and a decentralized sensor evaluation unit. The sensor or each sensor is connected to the decentralized sensor evaluation unit for separate evaluation of information provided by the sensor or sensors.

The present invention relates to drive regulation for open-loop and/or closed-loop control of a transmission which is connected to a motor or engine.
In the prior art, transmissions are generally controlled by means of a higher-level controller or control system, which acts on power and control electronics and controls the motor or engine by influencing the power supply. The motor or engine in turn generally acts on a machine via a transmission.
EP 1 055 547 A1 describes an apparatus for electronic control of rail vehicle drive components with a control device for electronic control of the drive components. In this case, the individual components of the control device are arranged decentralized with respect to one another and are coupled to one another via a communication network.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,328 discloses a drive with a connected transmission, in which the pressure which is produced in a linear drive or transmission can be determined and established via a sensor element.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,866,622 describes a drive system for a motorcycle, having an electrical drive whose braking process can be influenced electronically by means of an electronic controller or control system.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to improve the open-loop and closed-loop control of drives, of motors or engines, and/or of transmissions.


A measuring system for structure-born noise measurement of machine elements in machine housings. The measuring system is fixed to the machine housing via a lubrication hold opening. A mounting pin with a continuous bore hole. A housing receives a printed circuit board provided with electronic components for signal evaluation. A vibration snesor and vibration sensor housing rotationally mounted in relation to the mounting pin when the mounting pin is screwed into the lubrication hold opening. The vibration sensor housing is rotationally fixed to the machine housing in a non-positive fit via a metal bushing when the mounting pin is screwed in an end position. The vibration sensor is located adjacent to the metal bushing whereby structure-born noise is directly transferred from the machine housing to the vibration sensor via the metal bushing.

In order to constantly monitor the condition of the machine, in particular the condition of the antifriction bearings in machines, measuring systems (vibration monitors) are arranged in a stationary manner on machines. For this purpose, these vibration monitors are screwed into the lubrication hole of antifriction bearing housings in order to register the machine vibrations in the immediate vicinity of the antifriction bearing. In order to permit relubrication of the antifriction bearings without dismantling the vibration monitor, the vibration monitor has a hollow mounting pin.
Such a measuring system is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,328 B1. The problem with the vibration monitor shown there is that the printed circuit boards are connected directly to the mounting pin, and the vibration sensor is arranged on one of the printed circuit boards. As a result of the direct arrangement of the printed circuit boards on the mounting pin, all the vibrations of the machine system are transmitted to the bearing pin and therefore to the printed circuit boards. As a result of the direct fixing of the printed circuit boards to the mounting pin, the electronic components are highly loaded by the continuous vibrations (possible early failure of the components). The direct fixing of the printed circuit boards to the mounting pin firstly dampens the machine vibrations and, secondly, the printed circuit boards have an inherent vibration behavior, so that the vibration sensor on the printed circuit boards is able to pick up only damped or distorted vibrations. As a result of this damped or distorted sensing of the vibrations, the interpretation of the measured signal is extremely difficult and changes in the vibratory behavior of the machine can be registered only coarsely.
There is, therefore, the object of proposing a measuring system in which the vibration sensor can pick up the machine vibrations in undamped form and the printed circuit boards having the electronic components are largely protected with respect to the machine vibrations.


A method for communication includes communicating between one or more first base stations (28A) and first wireless communication terminals (32A) using a first alternating pattern (56) of downlink time intervals and uplink time intervals. A time offset is selected between the first alternating pattern and a second alternating pattern (60), which is used by one or more second base stations (28B) for communicating with second wireless communication terminals (32B), so as to minimize impact of interference between the first and second wireless communication terminals. The first base stations are synchronized relative to the second base stations according to the selected time offset.

Some wireless communication protocols define alternating patterns of uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) time intervals for communication between base stations and wireless communication terminals. UL/DL patterns for Time-Division Long-Term Evolution (TD-LTE) systems are defined, for example, by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in of 3GPP Technical Specification 36.211, entitled "Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (EUTRA); Physical Channels and Modulation (Release 8)," (3GPP TS 36.211), version 8.6.0, March 2009, which is incorporated herein by reference. Section 4.2 of this specification refers to UL/DL patterns for TD-LTE (referred to as "Frame structure type 2").

Mitigation of interference between communication terminals in TD-LTE


A compact current limiting circuit breaker is equipped with a current limiting shunt for effective over-current circuit interruption. The circuit breaker trip unit responds to long time, short time and instantaneous over-current conditions by opening a set of contacts to isolate the protected circuit. Upon contact separation an arc is drawn, with the endpoints of the arc being initially rooted on the pair of open contacts. Further opening of the contacts commutates the arc into the current limiting shunt to redirect the current away from the trip unit and suppress the arcing current until the circuit breaker contacts are sufficiently open to isolate the protected circuit.

Compact electric circuit breakers utilizing movable contact arms operated by an operating mechanism in an insulated housing are employed in a variety of residential, commercial and industrial applications. The over-current sensing trip units for such devices comprise thermal-magnetic trip units typically employed in the high volume, low cost markets. Heating of the thermal element in the thermal-magnetic trip system varies inversely with the square of the current, which results in the use of directly heated bimetals for low ampere rated devices, and indirectly heated bimetals for higher ampere rated circuit breakers. In an indirectly heated bimetal, the current passes through an adjacent heater element which "indirectly" heats the bimetal strip by thermal conduction, convection and radiation. In a directly heated bimetal, I.sup.2 R heating occurs by current passage through the bimetal strip. In both trip units, the heat causes the bimetal strip to deflect and operate a trip latch which works in cooperation with the operating mechanism. Under short circuit conditions, abnormally high currents that pass through the directly heated bimetal could possible damage the bimetal.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,046,371 entitled "Circuit Breaker" teaches, inter alia, the use of a bimetal shunt that incorporates shunting contacts that are closed upon actuation of the magnet armature. Closing of the shunt contacts produces an alternate current path that is parallel to and bypasses the bimetal, thereby protecting the bimetal from short circuit currents.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,548,358 entitled "Electric Circuit Breaker with Bimetallic Strip Protective Means" provides additional means to break contact welds that occur under intense short circuit conditions and is effective in protecting the bimetal under short circuit conditions. However, in extremely high short circuit conditions, the parallel path configuration of the shunt system still permits excessively high currents to flow through the bimetal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,829 entitled "Circuit Breaker" teaches the use of an in-line current limiting resistor to reduce the level of let-through current experienced by the thermally sensitive trip unit under short circuit conditions. An ohmic resistor is connected in series between the line strap and trip unit, and thermally coupled to the circuit breaker housing. Under short circuit conditions, the additional in-line resistance limits the maximum current that is permitted to pass through the circuit breaker, effectively protecting the bimetal from damage. During quiescent operating conditions, I.sup.2 R heat generated by the ohmic resistor is dissipated by thermal conduction through the circuit breaker housing. The current limiting characteristics of the circuit breaker are enhanced as the resistance value of the resistor increases. However, the amount of resistance that can be incorporated within an ohmic resistor is limited by the overall thermal considerations of the circuit breaker.
U.S. Patent Docket No. 41PR-7406 filed on Feb. 10, 1997 entitled "Circuit Breaker Current Limiting Arc Runner" teaches the use of a current limiting arc runner that does not conduct circuit current under quiescent operating conditions, but does conduct arcing current under overcurrent conditions by commutating the arc to an arc rail whereby additional I.sup.2 R thermal heating is eliminated. Since the current limiting arc runner is electrically connected in series with the trip unit during short circuit arcing conditions, the bimetal could be subjected to high levels of instantaneous peak currents.
One purpose of the invention is to provide an efficient bimetal shunting system that completely switches the current to an alternate path upon the occurrence of arcing to bypass the thermally sensitive bimetal during a short circuit overcurrent condition. Another purpose of the invention is to incorporate a current limiting element which does not generate additional I.sup.2 R heating during quiescent operating conditions. Yet another purpose of the invention is to incorporate a current limiting element which has superior current suppressing characteristics for effective current limitation during extremely high short circuit over-current conditions.

Current limiting shunt for current limiting circuit breakers


A process for producing activated carbon from agricultural residues by heating the residues to a temperature in the range of about 250.degree. C. to about 550.degree. C. to volatilize organic compounds in the residues and to carbonize the residues and further heating to activate the carbonized residues. Activated carbon produced from agricultural residues.

This invention relates to a process for making activated carbon from agricultural residues including seed hulls such as rice hulls, fescue hulls, wheat hulls, oat hulls and the like.
Disposal of agricultural residues has become costly as available landfill space is exhausted. In certain areas, such as California, for example, environmental laws may prohibit such disposal. It has therefore become increasingly important to develop alternatives to disposal in landfills, such as transformation into useful industrial products.
Certain agricultural residues have been processed into activated carbon. Activated carbon is widely used in both gas phase and liquid phase applications such as purification and separation of gases, recovery of solvents, purification of water, removal of color from water, industrial and municipal waste water treatment, and the like. Activated carbon is also used as a catalyst or a carrier for catalysts in chemical synthesis processes. Among the various materials which have been used for the manufacture of activated carbon are lignite, coal, bones, wood, peat, lignin, coconut shells, and petroleum residues.
Otowa, U.S. Pat. No. 5,064,805, disclosed a method of producing activated carbon by mixing coconut shell char with melted potassium hydroxide hydrate. The mixture was heated to a temperature of 500.degree. C. in the presence of nitrogen gas until the evolution of water vapor subsided, then to 800.degree. C. where activation was carried out for 100 minutes.
Sato, U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,001, disclosed a method of making activated carbon by first coking shells of macadamia nuts at 400.degree.-900.degree. C. and subsequently activating the resulting carbonized materials with steam at a temperature of 900.degree. C.
Gambel, U.S. Pat. No. 1,543,763, disclosed a method of producing decolorizing carbon by charring rice hulls without sufficient air contact to prevent burning up a material proportion of the carbon present, boiling in a caustic soda solution to remove silica, and then washing with carbonic acid.
Fujimori, U.S. Pat. No. 4,552,863, disclosed a process for producing granular activated carbon using wood as a carbon source. The wood is first pulverized and then pelletized. The resulting pellets are carbonized by heating to a temperature of 500.degree. to 600.degree. C. in an oxygen-free furnace. The carbonized pellets are then activated at a temperature in the range of 850.degree. to 900.degree. C. with steam.
Farris et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,164,355, disclosed a method of making an oxygen-selective carbon molecular sieve from granular coconut shell char for air separation. The shells were crushed and sized to provide shell granules, which were then heated in a flowing stream of inert gas at an average temperature rate increase of about 2.degree. to 12.degree. C. per minute to reach a peak temperature of 775.degree. to 900.degree. C. The granules were held at the peak temperature for a period of time so that the heating and holding steps totaled up to about 8 hours to produce the granular char, which is then cooled in an inert gas atmosphere.

The Curators of the University of Missouri


Disclosed is a raw material for cosmetic preparations having excellent gloss imparting properties and oxidation stability. Also disclosed is a cosmetic preparation having excellent gloss and feeling of use. The raw material for cosmetic preparations contains an ester compound of (A) benzoic acid, (B) an alcohol selected from the group consisting of neopentyl glycol, dineopentyl glycol, trineopentyl glycol, trimethylolpropane, ditrimethylolpropane, tritrimethylolpropane, dipentaerythritol and tripentaerythritol, and (C) a fatty acid having 3-28 carbon atoms and/or a hydroxycarboxylic acid having 3-28 carbon atoms. The cosmetic preparation contains this raw material for cosmetic preparations.

Lanolin is known as a gloss-imparting raw material for cosmetic preparations which is originated from a natural material. However, it is unsatisfactory in view of the stability of qualities and odors because it is derived from an animal material.
Also, as synthetic ester oil agents to be used as gloss-imparting raw materials for cosmetic preparations, various synthetic ester oil agents are widely used. For example, esters of dimer diols and aromatic polycarboxylic acids and hydroxylated fatty acid esters are known as the synthetic ester oil agents (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) Nos. 2002-275024 and 2001-172119).

Raw material for cosmetic preparation containing benzoate and cosmetic preparation containing such raw material


A central controller of a communication system network may more efficiently expand an audience of a communication in the following manner. When a communication unit of a first communication group within a first communication system transmits a request for service, the central controller determines whether the audience of that predetermined communication is to be expanded. When the audience of the predetermined communication is to be expanded, the central controller combines at least part of at least one other communication group with the first communication group based upon a predetermined grouping arrangement. Having combined the groups, the central controller processes the predetermined communication among the communication units in the first communication group and the communication units in the at least part of the least one other communication group.

Communication system networks are known to comprise a plurality of communication systems and a central controller. Each of the communication systems comprises a plurality of communication units, a limited number of communication resources that are transceived via a limited number of repeaters, and a communication resource allocator that allocates the communication resources among the plurality of communication units. The communication units, which may be mobile radios, portable radios, and/or portable radio/telephones, are typically arranged in to communication groups and are generally located throughout the communication system network. Of the communication resources, which may be TDM slot locations, frequency carriers, pair of frequency carriers, or any other RF transmission means, one is selected to function as a control channel. The control channel transceives operational information between the communication units and the central controller via the communication resource allocators.
As is known, a communication unit may establish a communication with other communication units within the communication system network by transmitting an inbound signalling word (ISW) to the central controller via the communication resource allocator of the communication system that the communication unit is located in. Upon receiving the request, the central controller processes it and, if the request is valid, the central controller allocates a communication resource in each of the communication systems that have a communication unit of the targeted talk group in it. The communication systems, which may also be communication sites, are coupled to and controlled by the central controller. If a communication system, or site, loses contact with the central controller, the communication system, or site, operates as an independent communication system but only for communication units that are located within its coverage area.
As is also known, under certain circumstances, a communication group that does not normally communicate with another communication group may be combined such that the separate communication groups act as one. For example, in an emergency condition, the police communication group and the fire communication group may be combined into one to respond to a particular emergency. To process this, the central controller, when the emergency condition is initiated by a communication unit in either the police or the fire department communication group, allocates a communication resource in each of the communication systems, or sites, for the combined group. This type of broad regrouping may be inefficient when the particular emergency is occurring in a very localized area. For example, members of the fire department and police department may be located anywhere within the communication system network and be several tens of miles away from the area where the emergency is occurring. Thus, notifying these members of the combined communication group is unnecessary because these members are physically unable to respond to the emergency condition. Therefore, a need exists for a method that will allow the central controller to expand the audience, or regroup communication groups, to respond to predetermined communications but only in selected communication systems.

Method to expand an audience in a communication system network