Described are methods for preparing copper(I) 5-nitrotetrazolate, which include reacting copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate, sodium nitrite, 5-aminotetrazole, and at least one of nitric acid and urea in water.

The design of new, environmentally friendly, primary explosives to replace lead azide has been a major topic in the research of energetic materials for many years. The unacceptable toxicity of lead azide and its detonation products mandates replacement for both ecological and personal health reasons.
However, finding a suitable replacement for lead azide is complicated by the fact that very few materials have properties which make them useful as primary explosives: the combination of a material that will undergo a deflagration to detonation transition upon ignition, while still being relatively safe to handle is quite rare in chemistry, with relatively few initiatory primary explosives known.
Recently, only one compound has been shown to be a "drop in" replacement for lead azide; requiring no redesign of initiatory devices (detonators or blasting caps) with simple replacement of lead azide by the new material. This new material was created by Pacific Scientific Energetic Materials Company ("PSEMC") and is copper(I) nitrotetrazolate or "DBX-1". DBX-1 is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,833,330 ("the '330 patent"); U.S. Pat. No. 8,071,784 ("the '784 patent"); and U.S. Pat. No. 8,163,786 ("the '786 patent") and U.S. Publication Nos. 2012-0024178 ("the '178 publication") and 2012-0077983 ("the '983 publication"), all of which are currently assigned to PSEMC. The '330, '784, and '786 patents and the '178 and '983 publications are hereby incorporated in their entireties herein by this reference. All the explosive requirements of DBX-1 are comparable to that of RD1333 grade lead azide in that it is of comparable sensitivity and as such, safety, and also of comparable initiating performance allowing for a material that possesses all the characteristics of lead azide without the associated toxicity.
The current synthesis of DBX-1 involves preparation and isolation of sodium 5-nitrotetrazolate, which is not commercially available, from 5-aminotetrazole followed by a second reaction step which reacts sodium 5-nitrotetrazolate directly with Cu(I) (U.S. Pat. No. 8,071,784) or with Cu(II) and an in-situ reductant (U.S. Pat. No. 8,163,786) to produce copper(I) 5-nitrotetrazolate.
There is a need to improve the efficiency of the chemical process by providing a method for preparation of DBX-1 directly from 5-aminotetrazole via a single reactor process which may eliminate the step of isolating the sodium 5-nitrotetrazolate intermediate, a potentially explosive intermediate step. The process delineated in this invention provides a method for converting commercially available 5-aminotetrazole directly to DBX-1 via a single reactor process.
A further advantage of this method is the efficiency in terms of copper. A reaction, commonly known in the industry as the Sandmeyer reaction and used to produce a 5-nitrotetrazolate, utilizes copper(II) to enhance substitution of the reactive diazonium intermediate. This copper is removed and discarded as copper oxide during isolation of the sodium 5-nitrotetrazolate. Additional copper(II) is then used to convert the sodium 5-nitrotetrazolate to DBX-1. The process employed in this invention utilizes the copper(II) associated with the Sandmeyer reaction as a reactant for the formation of DBX-1.

Method for preparation of a lead-free primary explosive


A diode includes: a p-type semiconductor substrate; an n-type semiconductor layer; a p-type isolation region formed to surround a predetermined region of the n-type semiconductor layer on the p-type semiconductor substrate; an n-type buried layer formed across the p-type semiconductor layer and the n-type semiconductor layer within the predetermined region; an n-type collector wall formed in the n-type semiconductor layer; a p-type anode region and a plurality of n-type cathode regions formed in a diode formation region; and a p-type guard ring formed to surround the diode formation region in a region between the diode formation region of the surface layer of the n-type semiconductor layer and the p-type isolation region. A transistor for reducing a leakage current is formed by the p-type anode region, the p-type guard ring, and an n-type semiconductor between the p-type anode region and the p-type guard ring.

A conventional diode used in a signal output device of a vehicle-mounted network has been known. Such a diode includes a p-type semiconductor substrate, an n-type semiconductor layer formed on the p-type semiconductor substrate, p-type isolation regions formed to surround a certain region of the n-type semiconductor layer on the p-type semiconductor substrate, an n-type buried layer formed across the p-type semiconductor substrate and the n-type semiconductor layer within the certain region, an n-type collector wall formed on the-type semiconductor layer and standing on a peripheral edge of an upper surface of the n-type buried layer toward a surface of the n-type semiconductor layer, and a p-type anode region and an n-type cathode region formed in a diode formation region within a region surrounded by the n-type collector wall of a surface layer of the n-type semiconductor layer.
In the foregoing conventional diode, a longitudinal PNP parasitic transistor is formed by an n-type semiconductor including the p-type anode region to which an anode is connected, the p-type semiconductor substrate, and the n-type buried layer between the p-type anode region and the p-type semiconductor substrate. In addition, a transverse PNP parasitic transistor is formed by an n-type semiconductor including the p-type anode region to which the anode is connected, the p-type isolation region, and the collector wall between the p-type anode region and the p-type isolation region. Since a current path is formed by such parasitic transistors, a leakage current flows in the p-type semiconductor substrate.

Diode and signal output circuit including the same


A process flow for fabricating a self-aligned stacked gate EPROM cell that uses a CVD tantalum oxide film to replace ONO as a control gate dielectric. Tungsten replaces polysilicon as the control gate. Both the dielectric deposition and cell definition steps of the process flow are performed in a back-end module to improve dielectric integrity in the memory cells by minimizing high temperature exposure of the tantalum oxide film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM) cell structures and, in particular, to a high density EPROM cell that substitutes tantalum oxide for conventional oxide-nitride-oxide ONO) composite as the control gate dielectric.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Traditionally, advances in the reduction of EPROM memory size have concentrated on pushing the limits of optical lithography and plasma etching in implementing the industry standard T-cell EPROM structures. These approaches, however, require the use of complicated technologies such as trench isolation schemes and local interconnects.
Self-aligned submicron cell structures have been recently introduced for multi-megabit high-density EPROMs. Examples of such cells are disclosed in the following publications: (1) A. T. Mitchell et al., "A New Self-Aligned Planar Array Cell for Ultra High Density EPROMs", IEDM Tech. Digest, pp. 548-551, 1987; (2) O. Belleza et al., "A New Self-Aligned Field Oxide for Multimegabit EPROMs", IEDM Tech. Digest, pp. 579-582, 1989; and (3) A. Bergemont et al., "A High Performance CMOS Process for Submicron 16 Meg EPROM", IEDM Tech. Digest, pp. 591-594, 1989.
Although these structures have proven the feasibility of 16 Meg EPROM cells in small geometries, the planarization of bit lines in the Mitchell et al. array and the reduction of bird's beak isolation in both the Belleza et al. and Bergemont et al. arrays still remain as major problems in further scaledown.
To address these problems, Bergemont has proposed a self-aligned, stack-etched cross-point EPROM cell for integration in a 16 Meg EPROM virtual ground array; A. Bergemont, "Process Flow Using Stacked Gate Process for Cross Point EPROM Cell with Internal Access Transistor", U.S. patent app. Ser. No. 687,176, filed Apr. 18, 1991 and commonly-assigned herewith.
However, beyond 16 Megabit densities, current oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO) control gate dielectric layers cannot be scaled down properly due to the low coupling ratio and high critical field introduced across the ONO. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a process flow for high density memories at the 64 Meg density level, and beyond, that uses a high dielectric material to replace the conventional ONO layers.
Recently, tantalum oxide has been extensively studied as a promising dielectric film for high-density DRAM applications because of its high dielectric constant (four or five times higher than that of silicon dioxide) and its dielectric strength. See, for example, S. Zaima et al., "Preparation and Properties of Ta.sub.2 O.sub.5 Films by LPCVD for ULSI Application", J. Electrochemical Soc., Vol. 137, No. 4, pp. 1297-1300, April 1990 and H. Shinriki et al., "UV-03 and Dry O.sub.2 : Two-Step Annealed Chemical Vapor-Deposited Ta.sub.2 O.sub.5 Films for Storage Dielectrics of 64 Mb DRAM's", IEEE Trans. on Electron Devices, Vol. 38, No. 8, pp. 455-462, March 1991.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show the layout and the equivalent circuit schematic, respectively, of a known cross-point EPROM cell structure.
An improved process flow for the cell structure shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is the subject of the above-mentioned Bergemont U.S. pat. application Ser. No. 687,176. The Bergemont process integrates high density EPROMs without using aggressive technologies. In the basic Bergemont process flow, a stacked etch is used so that floating gate edges are self-aligned to the word lines. This eliminates any possible parasitic poly2 transistors and removes all of the process steps previously required to cope with problems inherent in the approach utilized in the FIG. 1/2 array, such as the requirements for a special boron array field implant and for isolation oxide.
However, because the Bergemont process uses ONO control gate dielectric layers, it cannot be easily integrated at 64 Meg density levels and beyond. As stated above, this is due to the fact that the conventional ONO layer does not provide enough dielectric strength with an adequate coupling ratio required for programming and reading high-density EPROM cells. Also, in the Bergemont process, the ONO dielectric layers are exposed to n+ bit line implantation, which may result in degradation of dielectric integrity.
The FIG. 1/2 process, which protects the ONO during n+ bit line implantation by using a polysilicon, and nitride cap, is too complicated and requires two definitions of poly1. Furthermore, the high resistance of the polysilicide word line results in low-speed operation.

Self-aligned stacked gate EPROM cell using tantalum oxide control gate dielectric


A method and apparatus to reduce the system load of motion estimation for DSP discloses circular buffers, a plurality of absolute difference calculation circuits, a multiple input adder, a full adder, a plurality of accumulators, and a control circuit. The first four bytes from the reference block buffer and the first four bytes from the search window buffer are sent to the four absolute difference calculation circuits. The control circuit determines which of the accumulators requires incrementing the value already in that accumulator by the current output of the multiple input adder. A new set of bytes from the search window buffer is then sent to the absolute difference calculation circuits, a new sum is calculated, and a second accumulator is incremented by the new sum. When all accumulators have been updated, new reference block data used. Each byte of data is loaded from memory only once.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to power consumption during digital image processing in video compression. More specifically, a device and method that reduce power consumption by reducing the number of memory accesses when calculating absolute difference values for image correlation is disclosed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Video compression standards have long been available to lower the required bandwidth and alternatively to increase the amount of video data that can be stored in any given sized storage media. In line with these goals, motion estimation is widely used for video compression standards such as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 among others.
The conventional methods for motion estimation are well known to those skilled in the art. In general, each frame goes through a process where a current video frame is read into memory. A small reference block is located within a larger search window of the current frame and a motion vector is generated estimating the direction of motion of the reference block within the search window. This motion vector is used in conjunction with information from the previous frame to generate an estimated image frame in respect to the current frame. The estimated image frame is then subtracted from the current frame, which effectively removes duplicated imagery and results in much less data necessary to be saved in the output file.
Because the estimated image frame is subtracted from the current frame and only the difference is saved, it is obvious that the more accurate the estimation is, the smaller the output file is. The accuracy of the estimated image frame to a large degree depends on the accuracy of the motion vector. The accuracy of the motion vector in turn depends on the accuracy of locating the reference block within the search window.
It is generally accepted that the reference block can be located within the search window most accurately using a full search. A full search consists of comparing the reference block sequentially with every possible location within the search window. For each location, the comparison is done by adding the absolute values of the difference between the brightness of each pixel in the reference block and the brightness of the corresponding pixel in the current search location. The location with the lowest total of absolute values is considered the best match and is selected to be used to calculate the motion vector.
Obviously, methods other than a full search that compare the reference block with a more limited number of search locations are frequently employed with satisfying results. However, nearly every method used today selects the best match based on the absolute differences in brightness between the pixels in the reference block and the pixels in the search locations. Therefore, the calculation and summing of the needed absolute differences is the common core of video image correlation.
Please refer to FIG. 1 that is an absolute difference accumulator circuit (ADAC) according to a prior art. The ADAC comprises a plurality of absolute difference calculation circuits, a multiple input adder, a full adder, and an accumulator. A full description of this particular ADAC can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,610,850 incorporated herein by reference. Basically, pixel values from the reference block are inputted to the X1-Xn inputs and pixel values from the current search location are inputted into the Y1-Yn inputs of the absolute difference calculation circuits. The results of the absolute difference calculation circuits are added by the multiple input adder and output to the full adder. The full adder sums the output from the multiple input adder and the current value in the accumulator and places the sum back into the accumulator. When all of the pixel values for one search location have been processed, the value in the accumulator represents the match value for that particular search location. This match value is then stored elsewhere in memory, the value in the accumulator is reset to zero, and the process repeats for each search location.
Nearly all image correlation methods used today select search locations that at least in part overlap one another. Because the match value for each search location is independently calculated, the pixel values in the overlapping portions of the search locations need to be loaded into memory multiple times. Each memory access uses power. Often motion estimation is used in devices, such as a PDA or cellular phone, which obtain power from a limited power source such as a battery. Power consumed by unneeded memory accesses prevents that same limited power from being used for other purposes and generates unnecessary heat within the device.

Method and apparatus to reduce the system load of motion estimation for DSP


A method of forming a component includes defining a component volume discretized by a target mesh formed by a plurality of volume elements, each volume element defined, at least in part, by a shape function. The method further includes defining a parting surface within a representative volume element and discretizing the parting surface using a surface mesh that includes a plurality of surface elements and a plurality of surface nodes. The method further includes mapping the surface mesh into each volume element of the target mesh according to the quartic, or higher order, shape functions of the target mesh and forming a component based on the component surface structure produced by the mapped surface mesh.

This disclosure relates generally to partitioned component volumes, and more particularly to forming a partitioned heat exchanger core via transformation of representative volume elements (RVEs) from a RVE domain into a component volume domain.
Heat exchanger design often seeks to maximize the transmission of heat flux from one fluid to another or among multiple fluids within the heat exchanger core. To this end, many heat exchanger designs increase the surface area in contact between fluids within the heat exchanger core. Heat exchanger core designs having a relatively high surface area to volume ratio, or heat exchanger density, are referred to as compact heat exchangers. While large surface areas in compact heat exchangers increase heat transfer efficiency, the resulting relatively small fluid passage size is more susceptible to fouling and high pressure losses, which can be undesirable in some applications.
Recent attempts to address these disadvantages include forming heat exchanger cores by replicating representative volume elements (RVE), also known as representative elementary volumes (REV), within the core volume of heat exchangers. A Representative Volume Element (RVE) or Representative Elementary Volume (REV) is the smallest unit volume representation of a more complicated geometry. For periodic structures and materials, the RVE is the smallest unit volume that can be replicated in at least one direction of three-dimensional space to produce the overall structure. RVEs that can be replicated in three orthogonal directions are termed triply periodic structures. Some of these triply periodic RVE structures produce dissimilar boundary faces and require a particular orientation, or crystalline structure, with respect to the adjacent RVEs to form a unitary structure. Other RVEs have identical boundary faces, permitting the RVE to be rotated with respect to the adjacent RVEs while maintaining a unitary structure otherwise known as orientation independent structures.
While RVEs have improved fouling performance and reduced pressure loses in compact heat exchangers, the boundary geometries of some heat exchanger core volumes are not readily discretized by the RVE. Typically, when RVEs are replicated in three dimensions to fill a core of the heat exchanger, boundaries of the heat exchanger core volume intersect some of the RVEs, producing partial RVEs at the heat exchanger core boundaries. Depending on the degree the heat exchanger core volume geometry deviates from the RVE geometry, partial RVEs can result in large unused regions of the heat exchanger core since each partial RVE does not completely partition the unit volume and, hence, does not completely separate fluid volumes of the heat exchanger. Moreover, attempts to body-fit the RVE structure to the target volume distorts the RVE structure and produces curvature discontinuities at the boundaries of each RVE element. These discontinuities are detrimental to fluid flow within the heat exchanger by increasing pressure loss and, in some cases, locally directing fluid in disadvantageous directions and creating regions of high thermal stress.

Method of creating a component via transformation of representative volume elements


A splice device for electromagnetically sealing a junction or bond between a plurality of cables is provided. A first and second cable each has a conductive core wire, an inner insulation, a braided sleeve, and an insulating cover. The junction or bond fixes and electrically connects the core wire of the second cable to the core wire of the first cable. A plurality of ferrules overlays the braided sleeve and the insulating cover of the first cable and the braided sleeve and the insulating cover of the second cable. A plurality of ring collars overlays the plurality of ferrules and is fixed to the plurality of ferrules. A splice cover or shield overlays the first cable, second cable, plurality of ferrules, and plurality of ring collars and electromagnetically seals the junction/bond between the core wires of the first cable and the second cable.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure and is not necessarily prior art.
Splitter assemblies or splice devices in wire harnesses are generally used to split a single electrical conduit or wire into multiple electrical wires or combine multiple electrical wires into a single electrical wire. Often, these splitter assemblies come in the form of junction blocks that are capable of splitting two wires into four or more wires. Junction blocks contain a large number of parts and thus can require complicated assembly processes and can be very expensive. Further, junction boxes are relatively bulky and occupy significant space, presenting design challenges and packaging issues.
Additionally, electrical wire connections are often located in the vehicle's chassis and are therefore exposed to external influences such as weather, wind, moisture, and contaminants from the surrounding environment. The effect on wire connection points is that over time they can become corroded; generate increased resistance, and potentially undesired contact between the wires.

Electromagnetic interference splice shield


An apparatus including a piezoelectric convertor layer; at least one piezoresistive layer on the piezoelectric convertor layer; and electrical conductor outputs. The at least one piezoresistive layer includes a plurality of spaced apart piezoresistive electrodes. The apparatus is configured such that when the piezoelectric convertor layer is deformed to generate a charge, at least one of the piezoresistive electrodes is stressed, where the at least one piezoresistive layer is configured to control flow of charge from the piezoelectric convertor layer. The electrical conductor outputs are electrically connected to the piezoresistive electrodes. The outputs are configured to allow the charge from the piezoelectric convertor layer to flow out of the piezoresistive electrodes. The electrical conductor outputs are configured relative to the piezoresistive electrodes to allow identification of the at least one piezoresistive electrode which has been stressed based upon the charge on at least one of the electrical conductor outputs.

1. Technical Field
The exemplary and non-limiting embodiments relate generally to piezoelectric charge generation.
2. Brief Description of Prior Developments
Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials (notably crystals, and certain ceramics) in response to applied mechanical stress. The piezoelectric effect may provide internal generation of electrical charge resulting from an applied mechanical force. Devices comprising a piezoelectric member are known. The piezoresistive effect describes change in electrical resistivity of a member when mechanical stress is applied. In contrast to the piezoelectric effect, the piezoresistive effect only causes a change in electrical resistance; not in electric potential.

Piezoelectric generating with location signaling


A camara control device continues a pre-winding or a first frame setting when a pre-winding or a first frame setting is stopped in the middle because a battery of the camera is taken out or because of exhaustion of the battery and after that another battery is loaded. The camera control device writes a pre-wind signal to an electrically rewritable non-volatile memory E.sup.2 PROM when a pre-winding is started and erases the pre-wind signal in the E.sup.2 PROM when the pre-winding is finished, and writes a first frame set signal to the E.sup.2 PROM when a first frame setting is started and erases the first frame set signal in the E.sup.2 PROM when the first frame setting is finished. If the pre-winding or the first frame setting is stopped in the middle, the pre-wind signal or the first frame set signal in the E.sup.2 PROM is not erased. The camera control device, responsive to loading of the battery to the camera, continues the pre-winding or the first frame setting when the pre-wind signal or the first frame set signal is left in the E.sup.2 PROM.

The present invention relates to a camera control device having an electrically rewritable non-volatile memory E.sup.2 PROM (Electronic Erasable and Programmable ROM).
In case of a camera of a film pre-wind type, a film of a patrone is pre-wound to a spool when the patrone is loaded in the camera. After the film is wound to the spool completely, a first frame setting for rewinding the film to the patrone by a prescribed length is performed to set a first frame. In ordinary camera of the pre-wind type, if another battery is loaded after a battery is taken out during a pre-winding or a first frame setting, or after a pre-winding or a first frame setting being stopped in the middle due to exhaustion of the battery, a film which is in the middle of a pre-winding or a first frame setting without continuing the pre-winding or the first frame setting is rewound. Because of this, in the case of the ordinary camera of the pre-wind type, a loaded film cannot be used continuously and a new film must be loaded if a situation as mentioned above has occurred, and as a result, not only the film is wasted but operation an for loading another film is also required.
Also, for such a camera, if a battery is taken out or an operating power is stopped due to exhaustion of the battery during an exposure, power for operating a shutter is not supplied and the shutter is left opened. In ordinary camera, when another battery is loaded under such a situation, only the shutter is closed or the shutter is closed and a film is rewound to a patrone. Because of this, in the case of the ordinary camera and if a situation as mentioned above has occurred, double exposure is caused by taking a picture after loading another battery, or the film is rewound to the patrone and remaining picturable frames of the film are thereby made unusable. As means for improving this, a single frame winding of the film at time of loading another battery can be considered. However, by this, a single frame winding of the film is always conducted by loading a battery regardless of whether the battery is taken out or not, and it may cause loss of picturable frames of the film.
Also, for such a camera, if a battery is taken out or operating power is stopped due to exhaustion of the battery during a single frame winding of a film, driving power is not supplied to a film feed motor and the single frame winding is stopped in the middle. An ordinary camera, when another battery is loaded under such a situation, goes to a standby status for allowing pictures to be taken under a status of a single frame winding stopped in the middle, or rewinds the film to the patrone, without continuing the single frame winding. Because of this, in the case of the ordinary camera and if a situation as mentioned above has occurred, double exposure is caused by taking pictures after loading another battery, or the film is rewound to the patrone and remaining picturable frames of the film are made unusable. As means for improving this, a single frame winding of the film at the time of loading another battery can be considered. However, by this, a single frame winding of the film is always conducted by loading of a battery regardless of whether the battery is taken out or not, and it may cause loss of picturable frames of the film.


The present disclosure relates to an overload warning means for excavators, preferably hydraulic excavators or material handling devices, with three or more contact points, the contact forces being determined at the contact points such that they are brought into an order descending by the amount thereof, so that F1>F2>F3 > . . . >Fn, and that the static stability is determined according to the following formula:

Overload warning means should provide the operator with the necessary information as regards a possible overload of the device. In the case of hydraulic excavators, which can be used both in civil engineering and as a material handling device in the industry, the overload monitoring means primarily serve as safety instruments, in order to prevent the device from tilting or tipping over.
Overload warning means are already known in various configurations. The following two variants are used:
In a first variant, the hydraulic pressure in the lift cylinder is measured. During operation of the excavator, the hydraulic pressure in the lift cylinder is always monitored. By means of a payload calculation performed in advance via the configuration of the device, the lowest hydraulic cylinder pressure, at which the device still is safely standing in any case, has been determined as a reference value. This calculated pressure is adjusted at the factory by means of a pressure switch. When the pressure in the lift cylinder now exceeds the adjusted value during the load lifting operations, the operator will be warned by a corresponding alarm signal.
In a second variant, the hydraulic pressure in the lift cylinder and at the same time the boom position is measured. As already described above, the hydraulic pressure in the lift cylinder hence is monitored during operation. In addition, the boom position is, however, considered either via the angle or via the cylinder position. For the boom kinematics of the existing configuration, a payload calculation is performed in advance, in which the lowest lift cylinder pressure is calculated for each boom position. By means of these data and the characteristics of the pressure switch, a cam disk is constructed, which rotates in synchronism with the boom and adjusts the correct pressure at the pressure switch for each boom position. When the lift cylinder pressure exceeds the adjusted value during the load lifting operations, the operator will be warned by an alarm signal.
There are also used combinations of the two measuring methods. For example, in the non-supported condition of an excavator, i.e. when operating on the tires, the first variant is used, whereas for the supported condition the second variant is used (or vice versa).
In the above-described overload warning means used so far, a few problems arise, however, in practice.
For the case that the equipment position is not considered, the difference between the calculated tilting load and the actual load-carrying capacity will be up to 40%. If the boom angle now is included in the consideration, and for the remaining equipment parts the most unfavorable condition is each considered, the difference between the calculated tilting load and the actual load-carrying capacity will still be up to 20%.
If it is now desired to accurately determine the equipment position, the position must be determined for each equipment part, for instance by means of an angle detector. This in turn is time-consuming and expensive.
When the configuration of the device now is unknown or has been changed, the overload warning means no longer operates correctly, as due to the calculation from the measured data with the wrong configuration a wrong conclusion is drawn as regards the static stability.
The calculation of the loading condition only can be performed exactly for the case that the device is standing on flat ground. In the case of an inclination in longitudinal and/or transverse direction, the static moment of the machine will be reduced. In this case, the overload warning means will emit the warning signal too late.

Abstract: S  =                              ∑                      i            =            3                    n                                  F          i                                      ∑                      i            =            1                    n                                  F          i                      ≥                  S        min            .


Disclosed herein is a soil inflow prevention apparatus in which an angular-rotation opening/closing plate is adapted to be inclined within a predetermined angle by virtue of opening stoppers to prevent a rear portion of the opening/closing plate from being excessively lowered in the beginning that an inflow amount of sewage increases due to rainfall, thereby preventing soil from entering an intercepting sewer in the beginning of an inflow of sewage.

A general drainage ditch refers to a passage for collecting and draining large volumes of sewage. Here, sewage refers to rainwater containing sewage. A discharge side of the drainage ditch is usually connected to a river.
As conventionally known in the art, such a drainage ditch is provided, at the discharge side thereof, with an intercepting sewer, which guides sewage, introduced from the drainage ditch, into a sewage treatment plant for the purification of sewage. The drainage ditch is also provided, in the rear of the intercepting sewer, with a barrier wall structure having a predetermined height. The barrier wall structure serves to prevent soil contained in sewage from entering the intercepting sewer and to filter other wastes.
The intercepting sewer is transversely arranged underneath a longitudinal drainage ditch, and has an upper opening that is formed at the bottom of the drainage ditch to extend throughout the width of the drainage ditch. The upper opening is sectionalized by use of a plurality of longitudinal bars, and a plurality of intercepting plates is arranged by a predetermined distance. Thereby, a plurality of sewage inflow holes, each being defined at opposite sides thereof by the longitudinal bars, is formed between the intercepting plates.
The barrier wall structure includes a plurality of walls to prevent an inflow of soil, and screens interposed between the walls to allow other wastes contained in sewage, except for soil, to be introduced into the intercepting sewer.
The conventional drainage ditch having the above configuration, however, has a problem in that, when an inflow amount of sewage excessively increases due to rainfall, soil flows over the barrier wall structure, and enters the intercepting sewer. As a result, the soil is accumulated in the intercepting sewer, resulting in a reduction in an available drainage cross section of the intercepting sewer. Also, soil, introduced into a sewage treatment plant, degrades purification efficiency of the sewage treatment plant.
To solve the above problems, there are known various conventional soil inflow prevention apparatuses for preventing soil from entering an intercepting sewer when it rains. Hereinafter, several examples of the conventional soil inflow prevention apparatuses will be explained.
Firstly, there is known a soil inflow prevention apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as "a conventional first soil inflow prevention apparatus) as disclosed in Registered Korean Utility Model Application No. 1999-18530.
The conventional first soil inflow prevention apparatus comprises: a frame plate rotatably coupled to one of sewage inflow holes, which are defined at the top of an intercepting sewer, by use of a rear fixing shaft, to open and close the sewage inflow hole; a sewage inlet perforated at the frame plate; a support arranged in the intercepting sewer beneath the sewage inlet; a spring device interposed between a front portion of the frame plate and the support; and a sewage inflow prevention plate mounted beneath the frame plate and adapted to close the sewage inlet when the frame plate closes the sewage inflow hole.
Under normal conditions, the front portion of the frame plate is inclined upward by use of elastic repulsive force of the spring device, so that sewage passes through the sewage inlet, located at the downwardly inclined rear portion of the frame plate, by a constant flow rate, so as to be guided into a sewage treatment plant by way of the intercepting sewer. However, if an inflow amount of sewage excessively increases due to rainfall, the frame plate is lowered to keep a horizontal state and the sewage inlet is closed by the horizontal frame plate. Thereby, the conventional first soil inflow prevention apparatus having the above configuration allows soil, contained in rainwater, to be directly discharged to a river, without entering the intercepting sewer.
In the case of the conventional first soil inflow prevention apparatus, the frame plate is designed to be opened and closed by use of elastic repulsive force of the spring device. However, this configuration has a problem in that the soil inflow prevention apparatus malfunctions when the spring device losses a restoration force after extended use.
Also, since the spring device is arranged in the intercepting sewer and inevitably always comes into contact with sewage, there is a problem in that the spring device is easily rusted within a short time.
As a solution of the above problems, there is also known a soil inflow prevention apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as a conventional second soil inflow prevention apparatus) as disclosed in Registered Korean Utility Model Application No. 2001-1706.
The conventional second soil inflow prevention apparatus comprises: a support formed at the periphery of a sewage inflow hole of an intercepting sewer; and a frame plate located at a front location of the support to be inclined about a pivoting shaft.
In the conventional second soil inflow prevention apparatus having the above configuration, under normal conditions, the frame plate is inclined so that a rear portion thereof is lowered. Thereby, sewage can be introduced into the intercepting sewer by a constant flow rate, and can be guided into a sewage treatment plant. However, if an inflow amount of sewage excessively increases due to rainfall, a front portion of the frame plate is downwardly pushed until the frame plate is kept in a horizontal state. As a result, soil, contained in rainwater, is directly discharged to a river, without entering the intercepting sewer.
As clearly shown in FIG. 12, where a flow rate of sewage is constant, the frame plate 30 of the conventional second soil inflow prevention apparatus is inclined about the pivoting shaft 20 to open a rear region of the sewage inflow hole, as indicated by a solid line.
However, if an inflow amount of sewage increases due to rainfall, an excess of sewage collides with a lowered portion of the frame plate 20 and is rapidly introduced into the intercepting sewer 10. Thus, the frame plate 30 is rapidly rotated to keep a substantially vertical state, as indicated by a dash dot dotted line.
After the intercepting sewer is completely filled with the sewage, an excess of sewage acts to push a raised portion of the frame plate 30 as it flows over the sewage inflow hole. As a result, the frame plate 30 is kept in a horizontal state after the lapse of a certain time from a time point when the amount of sewage increases, thereby serving to close the sewage inflow hole.
A problem of this configuration is that soil enters the intercepting sewer 10 along with sewage in the beginning of an inflow of sewage.

Apparatus for preventing soil inflow in intercepting sewer


Provided are a resource allocation method for a sidelink and a terminal, which relates to the technical field of communications. The resource allocation method for a sidelink applied to the terminal includes: obtaining a mapping relationship between a specific target of the sidelink and a logical channel priority (LCP) restriction parameter of the sidelink; and performing resource allocation of the sidelink according to the mapping relationship; where the specific target comprises: a Quality of Service (QoS) parameter or a logical channel.

Logical channel prioritization (LCP) of a Uu interface in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system is performed on the basis of a priority parameter (priority) corresponding to a single radio bearer (RB) configured by network settings.
Direct communications are allowed between devices close to each other. For ease of description, a link of the direct communication between terminals is referred to as a Sidelink (referred to as direct communication link or bypass), and a corresponding air interface is also referred to as a direct communication interface, which is illustrated in FIG. 1.
Devices in direct communications may be all on a network or off a network; or part of the devices are on a network and other part of the devices are off a network. For a terminal on a network, the sidelink supports two resource allocation modes:
resource allocation mode based on network scheduling: that is, a network directly allocates a specific time/frequency domain resource used by sidelink transmission for a transmitting terminal in direct communications; and
resource allocation mode based on terminal self-selecting: that is, a resource pool is pre-configured, or configured by a network for sidelink transmission, a terminal selects a resource for sidelink transmission from the transmission resource pool.
It is defined in the related art how to perform a logical channel priority (LCP) of a Uu interface and a sidelink in an LTE system. However, there is no scheme to execute the LCP of the sidelink for resource allocation in a New Radio (NR) system.

Resource allocation method for sidelink and terminal

DATANG MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT CO., LTD.


A lithographic apparatus includes an instrument for determining the radiation intensity distribution at a pupil plane of the projection system while a patterning device is imparting the projection beam with a pattern, a calculation apparatus for calculating the effect on the imaging by the projection system of heating resulting from the projection beam in the projection system having the determined intensity distribution and a controller for adjusting the lithographic apparatus to compensate for the calculated effect of heating.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lithographic apparatus and a device manufacturing method.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A lithographic apparatus is a machine that applies a desired pattern onto a target portion of a substrate. Lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In that circumstance, a patterning device, such as a mask, may be used to generate a circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the IC, and this pattern can be imaged onto a target portion (e.g., comprising part of, one or several dies) on a substrate (e.g., a silicon wafer) that has a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). In general, a single substrate will contain a network of adjacent target portions that are successively exposed. Known lithographic apparatus include so-called steppers, in which each target portion is irradiated by exposing an entire pattern onto the target portion at once, and so-called scanners, in which each target portion is irradiated by scanning the pattern through the projection beam in a given direction (the "scanning"-direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate parallel or anti-parallel to this direction.
In a lithographic apparatus there is inevitably some absorption of the radiation as it passes through the projection system, such as a projection lens, which images the patterned radiation onto the substrate. This causes heating of the projection lens which results in lens aberration and so is detrimental to the imaging performance. Some attempts have been made to alleviate this, for example, by using feed-forward models which endeavour to predict the heating effect and resultant aberration such that compensation can be applied to correct for the predicted aberration. However, current models are only approximate and coarse, for example only using the average reticle transmission, illumination mode and numerical aperture as parameters. This excludes diffraction effects of the reticle and may also not be a valid model for more sophisticated reticles such as ones with differential attenuation and phase-shift masks. This leads to large residual errors after the feed-forward model is applied. Consequently, feed-back measurements of the actual aberration are periodically necessary in order to correct for the residual errors in the predicted lens aberration, such that the performance of the projection lens can be maintained within the required specification. However, these feed-back measurements result in a significant throughput penalty.
In order to predict more accurately the effect of lens heating, caused by the passage of radiation, on the aberration of the projection lens, one needs information on the spatial distribution of radiation within the projection lens. Radiation enters the projection lens at a variety of angles and this determines the spatial distribution of radiation at a pupil plane within the projection lens. The two dimensional intensity distribution at the pupil plane is known as the pupil filling.
Another problem is that some chips can be very complex, for example with a DRAM part and a logic part. The corresponding reticle will have different transmission and different features for the different parts, which leads to different pupil filling along the slit used in a scanner apparatus. Similarly, if only a small chip is being imaged, only a portion of the field will be bright and the rest will be dark. There is a problem regarding how to include these effects in the feed-forward model; if they are not included, this can cause errors in the calculated aberration.
A further factor is that measurement of the pupil filling of the projection lens has previously required extra items to be inserted into the machine and/or extensive measurement analysis. This can mean that the measurement is slow or indirect. Measurement of the scanning pupil in a scanner has also been difficult.

Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method


An assembly for collapsing a self-expanding prosthetic heart valve includes a compression member, a support member, a constricting member, and a spacer which may be used for smaller sized heart valves. The compression member has a tapered wall between its first open end and its second open end, the tapered wall defining an open space adapted to receive the heart valve. The support member has a base and a recess adapted to receive an end of the heart valve. The support member and the compression member are movable toward one another to compress the heart valve and push it through a relatively small aperture in the second open end of the compression member. The second end of the constricting member is sized to receive the compressed heart valve from the second open end of the compression member for loading into a delivery device.

The present disclosure relates to prosthetic heart valve implantation and, more particularly, to assemblies and methods for loading a self-expanding collapsible heart valve into a delivery device.
Prosthetic heart valves may be formed from biological materials such as harvested bovine valves or pericardial tissue. Such valves are typically fitted within a stent, which may be inserted into the heart at the annulus of the compromised native valve to replace the native valve. To perform such insertion procedure using a minimally invasive technique, it is typically necessary to compress the stent to a reduced diameter for loading into the delivery device.
In the case of valves formed from biological materials, the stented valve is preferably preserved in the open condition for storage as compression of the valve material for extended periods compromises the integrity of the biological valve. It is therefore necessary to crimp the valve, or reduce its diameter for loading in the delivery device, in the operating arena.
Present crimping devices and methods for collapsing a stented valve, including direct radial assemblies, have proven to be unsatisfactory as they include bulky assemblies, are difficult to master, are time consuming, impart undue stress on the stented valve, or exhibit other undesirable qualities. Moreover, it is sometimes difficult to securely engage the stent to the retaining element of a delivery device. It would therefore be beneficial to provide a device and method for collapsing a stented bioprosthetic heart valve using apparatus and techniques that overcome the deficiencies of conventional devices. In addition, such devices and methods could be useful in the loading of the collapsed stented valve into a minimally invasive delivery device.

System for loading a collapsible heart valve

St. Jude Medical, Cardiology Division, Inc.


Systems and methods for classifying data are disclosed. For example, a system may include at least one memory storing instructions and at least one processor configured to execute the instructions to perform operations. The operations may include receiving training data comprising a class. The operations may include training a data classification model using the training data to generate a trained data classification model. The operations may include receiving additional data comprising labeled samples of an additional class not contained in the training data. The operations may include creating a synthetic data generator. The operations may include training the synthetic data generator to generate synthetic data corresponding to the additional class. The operations may include generating a synthetic classified dataset comprising the additional class. The operations may include retraining the trained data classification model using the synthetic classified dataset.

The need for efficient and effective systems to classify sensitive data arises in many fields, including finance, health care, government, and many other areas of human activity. Many of these fields involve collecting and analyzing large scale, complex sensitive datasets at high velocity (i.e., "big data."). Big data may involve sensitive datasets of such vast scale that classifying new data requires advanced application of analytic data science or knowledge processing (e.g., machine learning). Classification needs arise for all types of sensitive data including text data, numeric data, image data, video data, and the like.
Training machine learning models may require substantial amounts of training data. Furthermore, when used with data dissimilar from the training data, machine learning models may perform poorly. These characteristics may create problems for developers of machine learning applications designed to operate on sensitive data, such as, for example, customer financial records or patient healthcare data. Regulations governing the storage, transmission, and distribution of such data may inhibit application development, by forcing the development environment to comply with these burdensome regulations.
Furthermore, synthetic data may be generally useful for testing applications and systems. However, existing methods of creating synthetic data may be extremely slow and error-prone. For example, attempts to automatically desensitize data using regular expressions or similar methods requires substantial expertise and may fail when sensitive data is present in unanticipated formats or locations. Manual attempts to desensitize data may fall victim to human error. Neither approach will create synthetic data having statistical characteristics similar to those of the original data, limiting the utility of such data for training and testing purposes.
In addition, artificial intelligence systems designed to operate on sensitive data may not adapt quickly to new classes of data. Some conventional approaches may include retraining existing machine learning models with production data (e.g., data used in a production environment as opposed to synthetic data which may be used in a development environment). However, training data models with production data may expose sensitive data unnecessarily to people working in a development environment. In addition, regulatory constraints and/or privacy policies may limit use of sensitive data making training impossible with production data. Furthermore, retraining data models with production data each time a new class of data is added may expose sensitive data multiple times during training. Other conventional approaches may include adding new data models for the new classes of data. However, adding new data models may require considerable time to completely train new data models that are separate from previously trained data models.
Accordingly, given the shortcomings of conventional approaches, a need exists for systems and methods for expanding data classification in machine learning models.

Systems and methods for expanding data classification using synthetic data generation in machine learning models


The present invention relates to p53 binding regions on a CD95 receptor DNA and to the application of the p53 binding regions to influence apoptosis and/or identify suitable substances therefor.

The present invention relates to p53 binding areas (regions) on a CD95 receptor DNA and to the use of the p53 binding regions for influencing apoptosis and/or for identifying substances suitable for this purpose.
p53 is a tumor suppressor which is induced in the case of DNA damage. It then activates target genes so as to achieve growth stand-still in the cells having DNA damage followed by the repair of the DNA damage or death of the cells. The latter is due to apoptosis.
A chemotherapy is to cause DNA damage in tumor cells. This damage shall then lead to the induction of p53 and ultimately to the death of the tumor cells. However, it shows frequently that certain tumor cells are resistant to chemotherapeutic agents or become resistant thereto after a short treatment duration. The reason why this is the case is not really known thus far.
Therefore, it is the object of the present invention to provide a product by which the resistance to chemotherapeutic agents can be investigated and optionally influenced.
According to the invention this is achieved by the subject matters defined in the claims.
The present invention is based on applicant""s insights that the induction of p53 by chemotherapeutic agents directly activates apoptosis. In particular, applicant found that p53 activates CD95-mediated apoptosis in that p53 induces both the expression of the CD95 ligand and that of the CD95 receptor. Applicant also found that p53 binds to CD95 receptor DNA via p53 binding regions. He also identified such bindings regions in intron 1 and/or the promoter of the CD95 receptor DNA. Moreover, applicant recognized that resistance to chemotherapeutic agents may be due to the fact that p53 can no longer bind to the above p53 binding regions (cf. Table 1 and FIGS. 1-6).
According to the invention applicant""s insight are used to provide a p53 binding region of a CD95 receptor DNA.
The term xe2x80x9cp53 binding regionxe2x80x9d comprises any region of a CD95 receptor DNA to which a p53 may bind and activate the CD95 receptor DNA, i.e. may induce it to transcribe. The term xe2x80x9cp53xe2x80x9d comprises p53 in wild-type form as well as p53 in modified form which still has the above function. A p53 binding region according to the invention may be identified and provided by common methods. It is favorable to cleave a CD95 receptor DNA (cf. Behrmann, I. et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 24 (1994), 3057-3962) by Sau 3A1 and insert the fragments in the BamHI site of pBlueScript II KS+. The cloned CD95 receptor DNA fragments are inserted in DNA binding experiments which use cell extracts from the tumor cells, e.g. H1299, Hep3B, HepG2 or Huh7, which had been transfected beforehand with a p53-coding expression vector, e.g. pCMVp53wt. Bound DNA fragments are fused with a reporter DNA, e.g. luciferase DNA. This may be made e.g. in the expression vectors pGL3-Basic (Promega company) or pTATA-LUC (Wirth, T., Wurzburg, Germany). Resulting expression plasmids are tested in luciferase activity tests for their capacity of being activable.
In a preferred embodiment, a p53 binding region comprises the sequence of FIG. 4, (p53 Be sequence)(SEQ ID NO. 24) and/or FIG. 5 (SEQ ID NOs. 12, 14 and 16)(one or more of the p53 Be sequences) or a sequence differing therefrom by one or more base pairs. The expression xe2x80x9ca sequence differing by one or more base pairsxe2x80x9d comprises a sequence of a CD95 receptor DNA which hybridizes with the DNA of FIG. 4 (SEQ ID NOs. 24 and 32 ) and/or FIG. 5 (SEQ ID NO. 12, 14 and 16 ) and to which a p53 may bind and which may activate the CD95 receptor DNA. The sequence may differ from the DNA of FIG. 4 and/or FIG. 5 by additions, deletions, substitutions and/or inversions of one or more base pairs. The expression xe2x80x9chybridizationxe2x80x9d refers to hybridization under common conditions, in particular at 20xc2x0 C. below the melting point of the sequence.
In a particularly preferred embodiment a p53 binding region comprises the sequence of FIGS. 7, (SEQ ID NO. 2), 8 (SEQ ID NO. 3), 9 (SEQ ID NO. 4), 10 (SEQ ID NO. 1), 11 (SEQ ID NOs. 6, 7, 8, and 9), 12 (SEQ ID NOs. 11, 13, 15, 17 and 19) or 13 (SEQ ID NOs. 25, 27, 29 and 31), the sequences of FIGS. 11, 12 and 13 being variations of the sequences of FIGS. 8, 9, and 10, respectively. Furthermore, the sequences of FIGS. 7, 8, 9 and 10 are explained in FIG. 14.
A p53 binding region according to the invention may be present as such or in combination with any other DNA. For example, a p53 binding region according to the invention may be present in a vector, optionally in combination with a reporter DNA, e.g. luciferase DNA. Preferred combinations are the DNA constructs CD95 (Ps)-LUC, CD95 (P)-LUC, CD95 (I+SV)-LUC, CD95 (Ps+I)-LUC, p1139, p1140, p1141, p1142, p1140 IMI, p1140 IMII, p1140 IMIII, p1140 IMIV, p1141 IMIJI, p1141 1p53 , p1141 2p53 , p1141 3p53 , p1141 xcex94BgI, p1141 xcex94Spe, p1141 xcex94Mph, p1142 TAG, p1142 IMIII, p1142 xcex94Bg1, p1142 xcex94Spe and p1142 xcex94Mph, in which a p53 binding region according to the invention is present in the expression vectors pGL3-Basic and/or pTATA-LUC. As to the DNA constructs CD95 (Ps)-LUC, CD95 (P)-LUC, CD95 (I+SV)-LUC, CD95 (Ps+1)-LUC, reference is made to Example 3 and FIG. 6. The DNA constructs p1139, p1140, p1141, p1142, p1140 IMI, p1140 IMII, p1140 IMIII, p1140 IMIV, p1141 IMIIJ, p1141 1p53 , p1141 2p53 , p1141 3p53, p1141 xcex94Bgl, p1141 xcex94Spe, p1141 xcex94Mph, p1142 TAG, p1142 IMJI, p1142 xcex94Bgl, p1142 xcex94Spe, and p1142 xcex94Mph, in which a p53 region according to the invention is present in the expression vectors pGL-3Basic and/or pTATA-LUC. As to the DNA constructs CD95(Ps)-LUC, CD95(P)-LUC, CD95(I+SV)-LUC, CD95(Ps+1)-LUC, reference is made to Example 3 and FIG. 6. The DNA constructs p1139, p1140, p1141, p1142, p1140 IMI, p1140 IMII, p1140 IMIII, p1140 IMIV, p1141 IMIIJ, p1141 1p53, p1141 2p53, p1141 3p53, p1141 xcex94Bgl, p1141 xcex94Spe, p1141 xcex94Mph, p1142 TAG, p1142 IMJI, p1142 xcex94Bgl, p1142 xcex94Spe, and p1142 xcex94Mph contain the sequences indicated in FIGS. 7 (SEQ ID NO. 2), 8 (SEQ ID NO. 3), 9 (SEQ ID NO. 4), or 10 (SEQ ID NO. 1), i.e. p53 binding regions or variations thereof (cf. FIG. 11 (SEQ ID NOs. 6, 7, 8 and 9), 12 (SEQ ID NOs. 11, 23, 25 17 and 19) and 13 (SEQ ID NOs. 25, 27, 29, and 31)). The DNA constructs p1139, p1140, p1141 and p1142 are preferred and were deposited with DSMZ (Deutsche Sammiung fur Mikroarganismen und Zellen [German-type collection of microorganisms and cells]) on Sep. 24, 1999, i.e. p1139 under DSM 3075, p1140 under DSM 13062, p1141 under DSN 13063 and p1142 under DSM 13064.
A further subject matter of the present invention is a kit comprising a p53 binding region according to the invention (a) and common auxiliary ingredients (b), such as buffers, solvents, carriers, controls, etc. One or more representatives of the p53 binding region may be present. The above explanations also apply correspondingly.
The present invention enables mechanisms resulting when DNA is damaged to be investigated on a molecular level. Such mechanisms comprise the response of the cells to eliminate the DNA damage or to kill themselves. The latter is an apoptotic process. The present invention enables mechanisms resulting in a chemotherapy to be investigated. In particular, it is possible to investigate the cause of resistances to chemotherapeutic agents. For example, it can be determined by means of a p53 binding region according to the invention whether tumor cell-derived p53 is still capable of inducing apoptosis.
The present invention is also suitable to identify and provide substances capable of influencing apoptosis. This influence may be an induction or an inhibition. For this purpose, it is favorable to introduce into cells a p53 binding region according to the invention in combination with a reporter DNA, add thereto the substances to be identified and select them for the transcription-activating or transcription-inhibiting effect of the substances. p53 binding regions may be activated or inhibited in a CD95 receptor DNA by means of these substances and therefore induce or inhibit apoptosis.
Thus, the present invention provides products or means serving for influencing apoptotic processes. This is of great significance, since apoptotic processes are modified in many diseases. For example, the apoptosis rate of viral, liver and neurodegenerative diseases is increased whereas it is lowered in autoimmune and tumoral diseases. Thus, the present invention is the possibility of therapeutically influencing these diseases. An application in a diagnostic respect is also useful, in particular if a p53 gene therapy is carried out in connection with the above-mentioned diseases and the vectors used for this purpose are tested for effectiveness, availability, etc., by means of the vectors according to the invention.


A method of forming a contact in a flash memory device utilizes a local interconnect process technique. The local interconnect process technique allows the contact to butt against or overlap a stacked gate associated with the memory cell. The contact can include tungsten. The stacked gate is covered by a barrier layer which also covers the insulative spacers.

The present invention relates generally to the fabrication of integrated circuits. More particularly, the present invention relates to a process for fabricating contacts for integrated circuit devices.
Contacts are required in an integrated circuit device to provide electrical connections between layers or levels of the integrated circuit device. Semiconductor devices typically include a multitude of transistors which are coupled together in particular configurations through the use of contacts.
In a conventional flash memory cell, a memory cell includes a stacked gate, a drain, and a source. A drain contact electrically connects the drain of the memory cell to a conductive layer (a bit line) above the stacked gate. The conductive layer can be a polysilicon layer, first metal layer, or other layer utilized to connect a bit line to a storage node (drain) of the memory cell.
Additionally, the source of the memory cell is often coupled to a source line with a VSS implant (e.g., a VSS connector or a self-aligned source (SAS) module). Sources of neighboring transistors are coupled together at the substrate level (in the active region). The SAS module is typically fabricated according to the following steps: a SAS mask and etch of LOCOS oxide, a VSS connection mask and implant. Module fabrication requires two critical masking steps, one during the SAS mask and etch and another during the VSS connection mask and implant.
The fabrication steps related to the SAS module can be somewhat disadvantageous. Etching steps can cause charge damage in the active region. Also, the SAS module can be disadvantageous due to its sheet resistance and size.
Contacts associated with the flash memory cell must be spaced from the polysilicon associated with the stacked gate. As feature sizes are reduced according to integrated circuit processes, smaller dimensions are required to achieve higher packing densities. Generally, contacts must be spaced apart from the stacked gate so alignment errors do not result in a shorting of the stacked gate with the source contact or the drain contact. The spacing between the contact and gate contributes to the overall size of the flash memory cell.
Thus, there is a need to eliminate the need for a SAS module. Further, there is a need to relax contact to gate spacing requirements. Further still, there is a need for a flash memory with a smaller cell size. Further still, there is a need to reduce VSS source line resistance.

Process for fabricating an integrated circuit with a self-aligned contact


A fluid turbine, such as a wind or hydro turbine, for generating electrical power, the turbine having a rotor assembly comprising a hub, a rim and a plurality of tensioned cable members joining them together, the cable members being grouped into sets to define a plurality of supports for individual skin members to create a plurality of lightweight blade members.

The invention relates generally to the field of fluid driven turbines, such as wind turbines or water turbines, wherein electrical power is generated from airflow or water flow across rotor blades. More particularly, the invention relates to such turbines wherein the blades extend from a central rotating hub or shaft member to an annular rotating ring or rim member.
Wind turbines, also known as windmills, wind generators, wind machines or the like, are well known devices for producing energy, typically electrical energy, by harnessing the power of wind. Wind turbines used to generate large amounts of energy are very large structures, standing hundreds of feet tall and having rotor blades extending hundreds of feet, the rotor blades being mounted to a central hub or shaft. Large elongated blades are required since the area of blade sweep is proportional to the power that can be produced by a given wind turbine. This size creates a problem, in that each blade must act as a cantilever that can support the elongated blade and the blades must be increasingly massive toward the central hub in order to preclude the blade from breaking during use. Even with the use of high tech composites, carbon fibers and the like, a practical limit has been reached. For example, most large wind turbines have three blades, as this has been found to be the most efficient design. The desire to increase blade length in order to capture more wind is offset by the accompanying reduction in shaft revolutions per minute (rpm). Reduced rpm's require larger reduction gearboxes, which is undesirable. Decreasing blade pitch in order to increase the rpm's reduces torque, which is undesirable. Thus, known wind turbine designs always have to make sacrifices in order to balance these competing factors.
An alternative type of wind turbine incorporates an outer, annular ring or rim that is joined to the blades, such that the blade tips are no longer self-supporting and thereby allowing the blades to be longer. The blades extend from the central rotating hub or shaft to the annular rim and are therefore supported at both ends. In this embodiment, it is also known to utilize the rotational energy from the rotating annular rim rather than the central hub, since the annular rim travels at much faster speed. Rollers, wheels, gears, magnets or the like are used to transfer the rotational energy from the rim to one or more generator mechanisms or the like. Examples of such turbines are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,319,865 to Richard, U.S. Pat. No. 4,330,714 to Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 4,350,895 to Cook, U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,729 to Storm, U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,716 to Schmidt, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,664,655 to Vann. Such wind turbines are often of smaller size and utilize sails rather than blades in order to increase the number of wind catching elements, since the weight of the annular rim adds structural problems to the design.
It is an object of this invention to provide a highly efficient wind turbine, or water turbine, that allows desirable structural characteristics to be maximized, such as increased blade length, increased blade number, reduced blade weight, lowered cost of materials, increased rpm, increased torque, reduced noise and variable control of blade pitch, among others. It is a further object to provide such a turbine wherein the weight of the blades are reduced by structuring each blade as a relatively lightweight skin or sheet material disposed upon a plurality of cable members extending from a central rotating hub or shaft to an outer annular rim, wherein the cable members do the work of supporting the blades' skin and the outer annular rim. It is a further to provide such a turbine wherein, optionally, the pitch of the blades can be adjusted according to wind flow conditions.


A method for mathematically identifying at least one diesel fuel suitable for combustion in an automotive diesel engine with significantly reduced emissions and producible from known petroleum blendstocks using known refining processes, including the use of cetane additives (ignition improvers) and oxygenated compounds.

This invention relates to diesel fuels and more particularly to reformulated diesel fuels for automotive diesel engines meeting the requirements of ASTM 975-02 Standard Specification for Diesel Fuel Oils and providing significantly reduced emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) and to a method for identifying such fuels.
The potential for reformulating diesel fuel to reduce emissions is of considerable current interest. In 1993, the State of California established a reformulation program with emissions performance standards for diesel fuel in an effort to reduce emissions of NOx, PM and air toxics. More recently, the State of Texas proposed a similar diesel fuel program, and other states have considered such programs.
The attractiveness of diesel fuel reformulation to state authorities stems from the potential for achieving emissions reductions from the in-use vehicle fleet, predominantly heavy-duty diesel (HDD) engines. Other parties, including engine and vehicle manufacturers, may have interest in diesel fuel reformulation (beyond sulfur reductions) to enable new emission control technologies or to improve vehicle operating characteristics.
In response to the interest in diesel fuel reformulation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiated a research effort to relate diesel fuel characteristics to HDD emissions. Relying on the compilation of emissions test data already published in the technical literature, the agency developed statistical models for exhaust emissions as functions of fuel properties such as aromatics content, specific gravity, and cetane number. The EPA work is summarized in two publications hereby incorporated in their entirety by reference: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2001. Strategies and Issues in Correlating Diesel Fuel Properties with Emissions: Staff Discussion Document. EPA420-P-01-001 (hereinafter "U.S. EPA 2001") and Southwest Research Institute. July 2001. Diesel Fuel Impact Model Data Analysis Plan Review. SwRI 08.04075 (hereinafter "SwRI 2001"). This EPA work was presented at a public workshop in August 2001. Although recognized for contributions to the understanding of these issues, the results of the EPA effort evoked considerable discussion and some controversy in terms of statistical methodology, selection of variables, and model predictions. EPA subsequently concluded the work without adopting an approved statistical model of emissions for regulatory use.
Accordingly, a need in the art exists for reformulated diesel fuels for automotive diesel engines which meet the requirements of ASTM 975-02 and provide significantly reduced emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) relative to commercially available diesel fuels.
Furthermore, a need in the art exists for a method for mathematically identifying at least one diesel fuel suitable for combustion in an automotive diesel engine and producible from known petroleum blendstocks using known refining processes, including the use of cetane additives (ignition improvers) and oxygenated compounds.

The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy


A grate cover in combination with a swimming sump being installed in a recess in the top of the sump. The grate cover having a multiple of interstices or openings there through. The size of the interstices being held to a minimum so that fingers of a human cannot be sucked into the openings. The top surface of the grate cover has a curvature thereon while the bottom surface is flat. This way, the forceful suction within the sump cannot obtain enough force to suction the skin of a human against the grate cover to cause any injuries.

The above mentioned sump is of a pot-like configuration and has a grating installed over the opening to prevent any of larger debris from entering into the sump and to prevent any contact of the human limbs with the considerable suction force in the bottom of the sump to avoid any injury. Most of the sump covers known in the art have a flat surface and the covers have many interstices therein to catch anything on the flat surface thereon while the water is suctioned into the sump. It has been found, that in many instances, the force of the suction is of such intensity that a human body can be trapped on top of the cover and the body of the person cannot be removed unless emergency procedures are undertaken.


The present invention provides a method for preparing hierarchical zeolite and hierarchical zeolite prepared thereby. The method includes the steps of: carrying out a reaction of a mixture containing water, a silica precursor, an alumina precursor, a pH adjustment material, at least one structure-inducing material, and at least one surfactant; and carrying out drying and heat treatment. The structure-inducing material and the surfactant have different carbon atoms while the surfactant has more carbon atoms than the structure-inducing material.

EU-2 zeolites are applied to industrially important hydrodewaxing processes. Conventionally known EU-2 zeolites, however, only have micropores having a diameter less than 2 nm and thus are disadvantageous in reactions with oils having a high boiling point, such as lube base oil, diesel oil, and the like, when the oils diffuse thereinto.
To resolve such disadvantage, there have been attempts to introduce mesopores as sufficiently big as 2 nm to 50 nm in size so that the oils can smoothly diffuse. In particular, zeolites having a hierarchical porous structure in which micropores and mesopores are hierarchically connected to each other facilitate diffusion of a material, thereby providing advantageous activity particularly in hydroisomerization.
According to conventional technology for the manufacture of such hierarchical zeolites, a method of melting zeolites having micropores in a basic solution to add mesopores thereto has mainly been used; however, such method not only makes it difficult to obtain a sample with high reproducibility and requires additional processes flux properties but also reduce an amount of zeolites, thereby reducing overall yield as well as economic feasibility.

Hierarchical EU-2 type zeolite having both micropores and mesopores, and preparation method therefor


A camera module according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure includes a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) mounted with an image sensor, a base arranged at an upper surface of the PCB, a lens holder arranged at an upper surface of the base to support plural sheets of lenses, a shield can configured to protect the lens holder by being coupled to the upper surface of the base to expose a lateral surface of the base, and a conductive layer formed at the exposed lateral surface of the base.

1. Field
The teachings in accordance with the exemplary embodiments of this present disclosure generally relate to a camera module.
2. Background
Recently, demand on small-sized camera modules is high as image input devices for various multimedia fields such as tablet computers, camera phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), smart phones, toys, monitoring cameras and video tape recorders. Particularly, the smart phones require small-sized camera modules in response to increased demand by consumers preferring miniaturized designs.
The camera module is generally manufactured using an image sensor chip or a photoelectric conversion device of a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) type or a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) type to converge light from an object to a photosensitive element through a lens and to form an image of the object on a display medium such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) display device.
EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference) is disturbance that affects an electrical circuit due to either electromagnetic induction or electromagnetic radiation emitted from an external source in a colorless and odorless state like air. The disturbance may interrupt, obstruct, or otherwise degrade or limit the effective performances of various machines and circuits, cause industrial disasters, and directly or indirectly affect human bodies.
Particularly, a camera module is mounted on mobile terminals and notebooks that generate a large amount of electromagnetic wave which in turn causes an erroneous operation of the mobile terminals and notebooks, such that multi-angled researches and technical development are being waged to reduce the EMI.
Generally, a camera module is provided with a metal-materialed shield can to emit the electromagnetic wave generated from an image sensor to outside for protection of the camera module and shield from the electromagnetic wave, or to prevent the image sensor from being erroneously operated by the electromagnetic wave generated from outside.


A device for facilitating grabbing of a hook from a mooring, for example to facilitate both hooking and unhooking of the hook from the mooring. The device includes a pair of clamps for grabbing the hook and a lever for actuating operation of the clamps. The device further includes an elongate shaft for supporting both the lever and the hooks.

There are a variety of known devices which assist a user with either hooking a conventional hook to a boat mooring or some other device or object as well as facilitating unhooking of the hook from a desired object. However, all the known prior art devices suffer from a number of associated drawbacks. In particular, the devices do not allow the conventional hook to be readily grasped by the device while, at the same time, facilitating movement of the latch member for both hooking and unhooking the conventional hook from a desired object.

Device for grabbing a hook supported by an object


A covering device for rollers of roller skates includes a cover element for positioning underneath rollers of a roller skate. A fastening element is connected to the cover element for fastening the cover element to the roller skate. The cover element includes a ground contact surface extending, when the covering device is attached to the roller skate, in a direction of travel of the rollers of the roller skates. It has an arc shape in the direction of travel to allow an ergonomic foot movement of the user of the roller skate.

The present invention relates to a covering device for the rollers of roller skates, especially inline skates comprised of at least one covering element with at least one fastening element to be positioned underneath the rollers.
Different types of roller skates are known for sporting and hobby activities, for example, so-called roller skates, inline skates etc., which differ with respect to their design and arrangement of the rollers. In the context of the present invention the term roller skates is meant to include all types of skates provided with rollers. When putting such roller skates on, they allow driving on suitable surfaces. When encountering unsuitable surfaces, for example, gravel, sand, or cobblestone, driving is no longer possible or possible only with difficulty. Furthermore, such surfaces can result in damage to the roller skates. Furthermore, the use of such roller skates is prohibited in many areas, for example, in parks, malls, and within buildings such as supermarkets, businesses etc. especially because of liability reasons. The user of such roller skates is thus limited with respect to the locations where such roller skates can be used and is thus forced to take along a pair of regular shoes.
In order to make possible the use of roller skates also on unsuitable surfaces and in areas where the use of roller skates is prohibited, German Patent Application 30 16 602 suggests a cover for locking the rollers of roller skate which in the mounted state prevent rotation of the rollers. This cover is substantially plate-shaped and is detachably connectable by clamping to the running surface of the roller skates. The cover forms between the rollers a substantially planar and rigid support surface. A safe and unimpeded walking movement is thus impossible with such a cover, especially since a rolling movement of the foot from heel to toe as performed when walking is prevented.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a covering device for the rollers of roller skates, with which the limitations with regard to freedom of movement and moveability are reduced and with which the usefulness of such roller skates is broadened whereby at the same time an unimpeded and joint-protecting walking movement with the roller skates is possible.


A keyboard for typewriters, word processors, computers, and the like, has a housing and a plurality of manually actuated keys secured to the housing including keys for each letter of the alphabet and a plurality of character keys. The keys are arranged in rows including a central home row, an upper row, and a lower row. The central home row has a first group of keys including the letters "E" and "A" arranged from left to right, the lower row has a second group of keys including the letters "I", "O" and "U" arranged from left to right, and the upper row has a third group of keys including the letters "S", "T" and "R" arranged from left to right. The central home row further has a fourth group of keys including two subsets, a first subset of keys including the letters "M" and "N" arranged from left to right and a second subset of keys including the letters "H" and "G" arranged from left to right. Similarly, the upper row has a fifth group of keys including two subsets, a first subset of keys including the letters "C" and "D" arranged from left to right and the second subset of keys including the letters "P" and "L" arranged from left to right.

1. Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates generally to keyboards used for typewriters, computers and word processors, and more particularly to a novel keyboard arrangement.
2. Description of Prior Art
Over the years, there have been many efforts to improve keyboards used for typewriters, computers and word Processors. In this regard, reference can be made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,669 to Romberg as representative prior art in this area.
Generally, Romberg discloses a key arrangement that is directed to improve the standard "QWERTY" key arrangement found on the majority of keyboards. It is known that the "QWERTY" key arrangement, while effective for its intended purpose, is inefficient for enabling a person typing on a "QWERTY" keyboard to achieve relatively high typing speeds. The limitations of the "QWERTY" keyboard are described in detail in the Romberg patent.
Specifically, Romberg discloses a key arrangement having a central home row, an upper row and a lower row. The central home row includes the letters "A", "S", "E", "R", "D", "H", "N", "T", "I" and "O" arranged from left to right. The upper row includes the letters "Q", "W", "K", "F", "G", "Y", "U", "L", and "P" arranged from left to right. Finally, the lower row includes the letters "Z", "X", "C", "V", "B", "J", and "M" arranged from left to right. Romberg's main objective is to improve the efficiency of the keyboard without relocating too many of the keys as they are found on the standard "QWERTY" key arrangement. For example, in the lower row of Romberg's key arrangement, the key having the letter "J" is the only key that differs from the "QWERTY" key arrangement.
One significant disadvantage with Romberg's key arrangement is that the most used keys are inefficiently placed in that several of the most used keys, such as the keys having letters "T", "O", "A" and "S", are manipulated by fingers other than the index and middle fingers. Romberg assumes that by limiting the relocation of the letters on the keys, a user will be able to learn and perform his method with greater ease. However, any departure from the standard "QWERTY" key arrangement is difficult to learn and use by individuals familiar with this well known system. Thus, in order to maximize efficiency, it is desirable to locate the letters on the keys in places so that the most dexterous fingers, i.e., the index and middle fingers, perform the majority of the key striking.


A composite circuit protection device includes a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) component, a voltage-dependent resistor (VDR), and first and second conductive leads respectively bonded to the PTC component and the VDR. The PTC component includes a PTC layer having two opposite PTC surfaces, and first and second electrode layers each having an electrode surface which connects to and has an area smaller than that of a respective one of the PTC surfaces. The VDR includes a VDR layer having two opposite resistor surfaces, and third and fourth electrode layers each having an electrode surface which connects to and has an area smaller than that of a respective one of the resistor surfaces.

Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional composite circuit protection device includes a positive temperature coefficient (FTC) component 12, a voltage-dependent resistor (VDR) 13, a first conductive lead 14, and a second conductive lead 15. The PTC component 12 includes a PTC layer 121, and first and second electrode layers 122, 123 having electrode surfaces that are respectively connected to two opposite surfaces of the PTC polymeric layer 121 and that have an area equal to an area of the two opposite surfaces of the PIC layer 121. The VDR 13 includes a voltage-dependent resistor layer 131, and third and fourth electrode layers 132, 133 having electrode surfaces that are respectively connected to two opposite surfaces of the voltage-dependent resistor layer 131 and that have an area equal to an area of the two opposite surfaces of the voltage-dependent resistor layer 131. The first and second conductive leads 14, 15 are respectively bonded to the first electrode layer 122 and the third electrode layers 132.
Electrical properties (e.g., operating current and high-voltage surge endurability) are important factors which affect the occurrence of power surge in the PTC component 12. When the operating current is increased by increasing the thickness or area size of the PTC component 12, the composite circuit protection device might become more vulnerable to power surge. On the other hand, when the high-voltage endurability of the PTC component 12 is increased by decreasing the thickness or the area size thereof, the composite circuit protection device is not necessarily less vulnerable to power surge.
Although a combination of the PTC component 12 and the VDR 13 could impart over-current and over-voltage protection to the composite circuit protection device, the VDR 13 might only withstand power surge for short time period (such as 0.001 seconds). That is, if a time period of the power surge exceeds a cut-off time period, the VDR 13 might be burned out or damaged due to over-current and over-voltage, causing permanent loss of function of the composite circuit protection device.


Methods and apparatus for wireless communications systems provide adaptive modulation feedback to enhance wireless communications for wireless stations that use forward error correcting (FEC) by basing the adaptive modulation feedback on FEC statistics.

Wireless telecommunication systems are well known in the art. In order to provide global connectivity for wireless systems, standards have been developed and are being implemented. One current standard in widespread use is known as Global System for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM). This is considered as a so-called Second Generation mobile radio system standard (2G) and was followed by its revision (2.5G). GPRS and EDGE are examples of 2.5G technologies that offer relatively high speed data service on top of (2G) GSM networks. Each one of these standards sought to improve upon the prior standard with additional features and enhancements. In January 1998, the European Telecommunications Standard Institute—Special Mobile Group (ETSI SMG) agreed on a radio access scheme for Third Generation Radio Systems called Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS). To further implement the UMTS standard, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) was formed in December 1998. 3GPP continues to work on a common third generational mobile radio standard.
A typical UMTS system architecture in accordance with current 3GPP specifications is depicted in FIG. 1. The UMTS network architecture includes a Core Network (CN) interconnected with a UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) via an interface known as Iu which is defined in detail in the current publicly available 3GPP specification documents. The UTRAN is configured to provide wireless telecommunication services to users through wireless transmit receive units (WTRUs), known as User Equipments (UEs) in 3GPP, via a radio interface known as Uu. The UTRAN has one or more Radio Network Controllers (RNCs) and base stations, known as Node Bs in 3GPP, which collectively provide for the geographic coverage for wireless communications with UEs. One or more Node Bs is connected to each RNC via an interface known as Iub in 3GPP. The UTRAN may have several groups of Node Bs connected to different RNCs; two are shown in the example depicted in FIG. 1. Where more than one RNC is provided in a UTRAN, inter-RNC communication is performed via an Iur interface.
Communications external to the network components are performed by the Node Bs on a user level via the Uu interface and the CN on a network level via various CN connections to external systems.
In general, the primary function of base stations, such as Node Bs, is to provide a radio connection between the base stations' network and the WTRUs. Typically a base station emits common channel signals allowing non-connected WTRUs to become synchronized with the base station's timing. In 3GPP, a Node B performs the physical radio connection with the UEs. The Node B receives signals over the Iub interface from the RNC that control the radio signals transmitted by the Node B over the Uu interface.
A CN is responsible for routing information to its correct destination. For example, the CN may route voice traffic from a UE that is received by the UMTS via one of the Node Bs to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) or packet data destined for the Internet. In 3GPP, the CN has six major components: 1) a serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) support node; 2) a gateway GPRS support node; 3) a border gateway; 4) a visitor location register; 5) a mobile services switching center; and 6) a gateway mobile services switching center. The serving GPRS support node provides access to packet switched domains, such as the Internet. The gateway GPRS support node is a gateway node for connections to other networks. All data traffic going to other operator's networks or the internet goes through the gateway GPRS support node. The border gateway acts as a firewall to prevent attacks by intruders outside the network on subscribers within the network realm. The visitor location register is a current serving networks 'copy' of subscriber data needed to provide services. This information initially comes from a database which administers mobile subscribers. The mobile services switching center is in charge of 'circuit switched' connections from UMTS terminals to the network. The gateway mobile services switching center implements routing functions required based on current location of subscribers. The gateway mobile services also receives and administers connection requests from subscribers from external networks.
The RNCs generally control internal functions of the UTRAN. The RNCs also provides intermediary services for communications having a local component via a Uu interface connection with a Node B and an external service component via a connection between the CN and an external system, for example overseas calls made from a cell phone in a domestic UMTS.
Typically a RNC oversees multiple base stations, manages radio resources within the geographic area of wireless radio service coverage serviced by the Node Bs and controls the physical radio resources for the Uu interface. In 3GPP, the Iu interface of an RNC provides two connections to the CN: one to a packet switched domain and the other to a circuit switched domain. Other important functions of the RNCs include confidentiality and integrity protection.
In code division multiple access (CDMA) communication systems, multiple communications are sent in a shared spectrum. These communications are distinguished by their channelization codes. To more efficiently use the shared spectrum, hybrid time division multiple access (TDMA)/CDMA communication systems time divide the shared bandwidth into repeating frames having a specified number of timeslots. A communication is sent in such a system using one or multiple timeslots and one or multiple codes. For example, a UMTS time division duplex (TDD) communication system using CDMA uses fifteen (15) timeslots. In TDD, a particular cell's timeslot is used only for either uplink or downlink communications. Such conventional communications systems can be configured to utilize Forward Error Correction (FEC) in connection with wireless communications.
Adaptive modulation and coding (AM&C) are used to deal with the variety of bandwidths required for various communications. In AM&C, the modulation and coding scheme for transmitting data is varied to more efficiently use radio resources. To illustrate, the modulation used for data may be varied, such as using binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), or M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation. Furthermore, the data may be assigned a single code in a timeslot, multiple codes in a timeslot, a single code in multiple timeslots or multiple codes in multiple timeslots.
Adaptive modulation enables a communication system to exploit the allocated channel bandwidth. Proper use of adaptive modulation requires some information on the state of the channel. Based on the health of the channel, a system can increase or decrease the modulation order to adapt the data rate to the usable part of the channel. Usually, an estimate of the received signal-to-interference/noise-ratio, received-signal-strength or even noise level of the signal that all could be an indicative of the bit-error-rate, are used as an indication of the health of the channel.
A conventional receiver configuration is illustrated in FIG. 2. A Front-end Receiver receives the modulated signals and strips a received signal's carrier frequency to provide a modulated communication signal for receiver processing. The modulated signal is processed by a demodulator of the receiver which typically includes a receive processor configured to output a demodulated version of the signal and a signal quality estimator configured to measure and collect information about the signal and output quality estimates such as a signal to noise ratio (SNR), signal to Interference Ratio (SNIR) or other metrics that are generated over selected time periods. Conventionally, such metrics which are generated over time in conjunction with demodulation are used to determine a signal quality indicator. The signal quality indicator can be generated by a transmit processor for inclusion in a signal as adaptive modulation feedback which is then modulated and sent back to the wireless station that had originally transmitted the received modulated signal. The station originating the modulated transmission can then use the adaptive modulation feedback to adjust the modulation of the signals it is transmitting by, inter alia, deciding how the order of modulation and/or the data-rate is to be adapted.
The inventors' have recognized that using an estimate of the signal-to-noise ratio or similar quality measures will not necessarily produce quality indicators in a manner to most effectively apply an adaptive feedback scheme. The conventional signal quality metrics produced in connection with demodulation may not be accurate and may not be easily mapped to a certain bit-error-rate or a quality-of-service requirement. This is especially more pronounced when a powerful channel-coding scheme is used. Also, since those types of measurements require accumulation of several demodulated symbols, the estimation becomes available with some delay. In some cases, the delay is not acceptable since the error-rate had already been significantly peaked and the performance of the link been deteriorated. Accordingly, the inventors' have recognize a need for an alternative scheme for providing adaptive modulation feedback.

Communication apparatus and method using forward error correcting statistics for adaptive modulation feedback