A liquid crystal composition including 5 to 15% by weight of at least one compound of chemical formula 1, 25 to 40% by weight of at least one compound of chemical formula 2, 10 to 25% by weight of at least one compound of chemical formula 3, 20 to 30% by weight of at least one compound of chemical formula 4, 15 to 25% by weight of at least one compound of chemical formula 5, 0 to 10% by weight of at least one compound of chemical formula 6, 0 to 10% by weight of at least one compound of chemical formula 7, and 0 to 10% by weight of at least one compound of chemical formula 8.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal composition and a liquid crystal display device having the same.
2. Discussion of the Background
Recently, liquid crystal display devices have been employed in large-screen televisions. While the viewing angles, color realization, and brightness of liquid crystal display devices have dramatically improved, the response time is not satisfactory.
A patterned vertically aligned (PVA) mode liquid crystal display, which has a cutting pattern formed in a pixel electrode and a common electrode, has an enhanced viewing angle. The orientation of liquid crystal molecules is adjusted by a fringe field formed by the cutting pattern, thereby improving the viewing angle.
The fringe field becomes weak in a center area of a domain defined by neighboring cutting patterns. The movement of the liquid crystal molecules is delayed in the center area where the fringe field is weak, thereby slowing the response time.
The delayed movement of the liquid crystal molecules restricts the size of the pixel electrode and as such, does not substantially increase the aperture ratio.

Liquid crystal composition and liquid crystal display device having the same


The prevent invention discloses a structure of thermal resistive layer and the method of forming the same. The thermal resistive structures, formed on a plastic substrate, comprises a porous layer, formed on said plastic substrate, including a plurality of oxides of hollow structure, and a buffer layer, formed on said porous layer, wherein said porous layer can protect said plastic substrate from damage caused by the heat generated during manufacturing process. With the structure and method disclosed above, making a thin film transistor and forming electronic devices on the plastic substrate in the technology of Low Temperature PolySilicon, i.e. LTPS, without changing any parameters is easy to carry out.

There are two important aspects while developing the future flat display, one is how to manufacture a flexible, light, and thin display panel, and the other is how to manufacture electronic elements with higher electrons mobility and higher response speed for display panel. But the conventional flat displays are using the glass material as base substrates, which is superior in large area manufacturing and mass production; however, the feature of light, thin and flexible is difficult to be put into practice for glass substrate, therefore, undoubtedly, there is no better way to overcome the drawback above unless find an appropriate material. As to the other aspect, Low Temperature PolySilicon, i.e. LTPS technology, can achieve the objective; therefore, the thin film transistors formed by process of LTPS gradually becomes the main stream to be substituted for the process forming amorphous thin film transistors.
Among the materials nominated for the purpose to make a flexible, light, and thin display, plastic substrate is substantially win the engineers' gaze, nevertheless, the plastic substrate can't withstand the damage caused by heat generated during the manufacturing process in LTPS manufacturing process. This is because, during such process, a laser annealing with processing temperature more than 600-Celsius degree, which is almost higher than the glass transition temperature of plastic substrate, is necessary to be utilized to transform the amorphous silicon into poly-crystalline silicon.
Although plastic substrates are not capable of bearing such high temperature, overall speaking, compared with other materials, the plastic substrates still have many merits that engineers can't give up; therefore, there are still many efforts that scientists and engineers dedicate to overcome such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,550 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,680,485. In the U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,550, it disclosed a method utilizing a low energy laser, which is to form poly-crystalline silicon on a plastic substrate. In such method, at first, a silicon dioxide is formed on a plastic substrate, and then an amorphous layer was deposited on said silicon dioxide layer. Subsequently, a short-pulse XeCl Excimer Laser (308 nm) is used to transform said amorphous silicon layer into poly-crystalline silicon in no more than 100 ns. Another U.S. Pat. No. 6,680,485 discloses a method utilizing a low energy laser to form poly-crystalline silicon on a low-temperature plastic substrate, wherein a specific thickness around 0.1 to 5.0 micrometer of silicon dioxide is formed, and then a specific thickness around 10 to 500 nanometer is formed on said silicon dioxide layer. Subsequently, a short-pulse XeCl Excimer Laser (308 nm) is used to transform said amorphous silicon layer into poly-crystalline silicon with processing temperature no more than 250-Celsius degree.
Summarizing the prior arts described above, a list of drawbacks was concluded as following:                (1) The grain size of poly-crystalline silicon will be affected by lower the energy of laser and shorten the annealing time, and then characteristics of elements formed on plastic substrate will be further influenced.        (2) The prior arts disclose a step to form a silicon dioxide on the plastic substrate; however, forming silicon dioxide is time-consuming so that throughput of mass production will be affected. For example, it will spend 30 minutes to 40 minutes forming 4-micrometer silicon dioxide layer.        (3) Meanwhile, although the better isolation can be achieved by thicker oxidized layer, the brittle characteristic of the thicker oxidized layer can also leads to easy chapping and easy fragile that result in difficulty to control the manufacturing process.Hence, it is necessary to develop a structure of thermal resistive layer for plastic substrate and manufacturing method thereof to overcome the drawbacks of the prior arts.

Structure of thermal resistive layer and the method of forming the same

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A first computer is capable of being used with a second computer. The second computer has a second bus and a second central processing unit that runs a second operating system that provides a user interface. The first computer includes a first bus for connection to the second bus. The first computer also has a first central processing unit configured to run a first operating system that provides a user interface and configured to cooperate sometimes with the second central processing unit such that the first and second computers operate with one of the central processing units as a single computer when the first and second buses are connected.

The invention relates to computer docking.
A docking station may be provided, for example, to receive a portable computer. The docking station may provide additional communication ports, the ability to use a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitor with the portable computer, additional mass storage, and a link to a Local Area Network (LAN) while continuing to make use of the keyboard, microprocessor and other elements of the portable computer.
In a typical LAN or Wide Area Network (WAN), dedicated computers (called servers) furnish network services for other computers (called workstations). A typical server is a file server which furnishes mass storage capabilities for the network. Another typical server is a print server which furnishes printing services for the network. The workstations and servers usually have monitors and keyboards which permit user interaction.

Two computers cooperating via interconnected busses


A clamping system including a fixed end and an adjustable end. Both ends having a support and a lock ring pivotally attached to the support. The lock ring has a bottom, top and two sides which together form a receiving area to receive lumber. The fixed end including a fixed face with a clamping surface extending from the support. The adjustable end has an adjustable face with a clamping surface slidably mounted to the support. The adjustable face being moveable along the support towards the fixed end to allow clamping between the clamping surface of the fixed end and the clamping surface of the adjustable end. The lock ring and support including teeth to engage the lumber.

The present invention generally relates to clamps. More specifically, the present invention relates to clamp systems similar to bar clamps.
Bar clamps include a bar, a fixed end and an adjustable end. The bar is typical a rectangular piece of metal or a round pipe. The fixed end is attached to one end of the bar in a secure manner. The fixed end is usually secured using a fastener such as screw or pin to prevent movement of the fixed end along the bar. The fixed end includes a fixed clamping face. The adjustable end is attached to the bar near the other end of the bar in a secure manner. The adjustable end is usually secured using a fastener such as screw or pin to prevent movement of the adjustable end along the bar. The adjustable end is usually fixed to the bar in an area close to the clamping size of an object to be clamped. The adjustable end includes a main body with an adjustable face which moves along the main body. The adjustable face is movable towards the fixed face to clamp the object in place. The typical method of moving the adjustable face is the used of a threaded rod which moves the adjustable face in relation to the main body. The bar of the bar clamp is larger than the object to be clamped. This allows the object to fit between the fixed end and the adjustable end that are on the bar. Bar clamps are typically used in wood working projects like furniture manufacturing, where large clamps are required. An even larger clamping application is the clamping of walls of a building together. The use of the current type of bar clamp for clamping building walls is not realistic due to the size and weight of the metal bar required.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a clamping system for very large applications with the attributes of a bar clamp.


A method for forming a complete ring network of a plurality of Bluetooth® speakers, the method including populating a configurable speaker register of each of the plurality of Bluetooth® speakers with an address of an upstream Bluetooth® speaker that is in the plurality of Bluetooth® speakers, populating the configurable speaker register of each of the plurality of Bluetooth® speakers with an address of a downstream Bluetooth® speaker that is in the plurality of Bluetooth® speakers, and coupling an audio source to one Bluetooth® speaker of the plurality of Bluetooth® speakers.

Bluetooth® is a wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances. Bluetooth® supports audio through an advanced audio distribution profile (A2DP). Most modern mobile phones and audio devices support A2DP and there is a large marketplace for Bluetooth® speakers that can play audio sourced from Bluetooth® audio devices, such as mobile phones.
Most Bluetooth® speakers are single unit objects that render audio in a single place. They usually have low power requirements and are intended for a single listener in a quiet room. Using traditional Bluetooth® standards, a Bluetooth® speaker system can connect up to 7 devices in a single piconet. Audio may be routed from one A2DP source device to another A2DP sink device in the piconet. Several proprietary solutions allow a second A2DP sink device which provides for a total of two speakers to simultaneously play the same audio. Embodiments of the invention address these and other limitations in the prior art.


A dielectric member comprising a laminated balun and a matching circuit, wherein the matching circuit is integrally mounted within the laminated balun. The matching circuit comprises a patterned conductive film formed on a surface of an existing dielectric substrate in the balun such that the balun is not increased in size.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laminated balun and, more particularly, to a laminated balun including a matching circuit for making an impedance matching between the balun and a circuit or component connected to the balun.
2. Description of the Related Art
A passive component used in a microwave band of several hundreds of MHz to several GHz, such as a filter, is generally configured to treat a signal in an unbalanced mode. On the other hand, an active component such as an amplifier generally operates in a balanced mode. Therefore, in order to connect the passive component and active component to each other, a balance-unbalance transformer (balun) needs to be used to transform an unbalanced signal into a balanced signal or vice versa. As described above, the balun plays an essential role in a communication device. In recent years, with demand for miniaturization, a small-sized laminated balun with less loss is widely used. Similarly, with regard to a filter which plays an essential role in a communication device, a small-sized one with less loss is widely used.
In the case where the passive component operating in an unbalanced mode, such as a filter, is connected to an external circuit such as an amplifier via a balun, a matching circuit is generally interposed between the passive component and external circuit in terms of loss reduction. Conventionally, in the case where a laminated balun is used, a chip-like matching circuit component including an inductor and/or capacitor is prepared as a different component from the balun and is mounted on a substrate together with an external circuit component such as an amplifier IC. However, the configuration as described above increases the area occupied by mounted components, making it difficult to achieve miniaturization of a communication device. Further, the number of components is increased to increase production cost.
In light of the above, as disclosed in, e.g., JP-2004-320561-A (Patent Document 1), there is proposed a structure in which an impedance matching circuit section is incorporated in the laminated balun. Similarly, JP-2004-304615-A (Patent Document 2) proposes a structure in which a matching circuit is incorporated in the laminated balun.
However, in the method disclosed in Patent Document 1, a dielectric layer formed for the purpose of forming a conducting layer constituting the matching circuit is used, so that the number of dielectric layers to be used is increased to increase the thickness of the balun, which is not desirable in terms of miniaturization. Further, in the method disclosed in Patent Document 2, two matching circuits are formed in the same layer so as to make their characteristics identical, so that the circuit configuration is increased in size. Further, a dedicated dielectric layer for forming a conductive layer constituting the matching circuits is additionally provided to increase the thickness of the balun, which is not desirable in terms of miniaturization.

Laminated balun with an integrally mounted matching circuit


Aspects herein describe at least a new method, system, and computer readable storage media for recognizing the content of the audio. A computing device determines whether the content comprises one or more financial products and services offered by a financial institution, correlates the one or more financial products and services with a profile of a person, determines a subset of the one or more financial products and services that are of interest to the person based on the correlation, and transmits data related to the subset to a television for viewing by the person. The subset of the one or more products and services are displayed on a portion of the screen of the television.

While a person watches a television program, one or more products may be of interest to him or her. However, while watching the program, the viewer may want to obtain information related to one or more products and/or services presented in the program. While the viewer may be interested in such products and/or services, it may be difficult or inconvenient to obtain such information while the viewer's attention is focused on the content of the program.

Automatic display of user-specific financial information based on audio content recognition


A method of manufacturing a polyimide thin film is disclosed which comprises supplying vapors of a polyimide starting material comprising a plurality of polyimide forming monomers into a plasma atmosphere, transferring the ionized polyimide starting material, under an electric field, to the surface of a glass or metallic substrate and depositing the material thereon, and heating the same during or after deposition, thereby forming a polyimide thin film as an orientation film on the substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a method for manufacturing a polyimide thin film which can be used as an orientation film for liquid crystals, substrates for forming organic compound crystal thin films, etc., and an apparatus for the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, liquid crystal displays have been increasingly utilized and, since the display is realized by controlling the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules on the surface of a substrate, or orientation film, improvement in the performance of the orientation film for liquid crystals has become important.
Orientation of liquid crystal molecules relative to a substrate can be generally classified into three types: (1) in parallel with, (2) vertical to or (3) slanted to the surface of a substrate, and various kinds of display have been actually attained by the combination of (1), (2) and (3) in a practical point of view. These situations generally depend on a physicochemical effect between the surface of the substrate and liquid crystal molecules, or the direction and magnitude of various elastic forces accompanying the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules on the surface of the substrate, etc. The physicochemical effect is formed due to Van der Waals force between a coating film or surface treated material on the surface of the substrate and liquid crystal molecules, polarization ratio, chemical bonding force, etc. For instance, it has been known that liquid crystal molecules can easily be oriented in a certain direction relative to the surface of the substrate by applying a physical or configurational treatment to the surface of the substrate, which has been utilized generally. This technique is attributable to a low elastic energy caused by the distortion of the liquid crystal molecules when they are oriented in the direction of concavo-convex stripe traces formed on the surface of a substrate. Further, considering the application of liquid crystals to a display device, the elastic property of the liquid crystals per se is an important factor in addition to the factor on the surface of the substrate.
Then, referring to a method of manufacturing an orientation film (substrate) for liquid crystal molecules utilizing such various kinds of forces exerted on each other, a method of orienting liquid crystals by use of a chemically modified surface of an inorganic substrate such as glass thereby providing a physico-chemical force can include (1) a method of obtaining an orientation film by coating a surface-active-agent such as a phospholipid material which is an amphiphatic material (e.g., lecithin) or a silane compound or a synthetic polymeric material such as polyamide, polytetrafluoroethylene, etc., on a substrate for liquid crystals, (2) a method of obtaining an orientation film by depositing an inorganic chemical absorbent of higher heat resistance and relatively great endurance such as a carboxylate-chromium complex on a substrate for liquid crystals, etc. On the other hand, a rubbing method is known which includes rubbing a glass substrate with fresh cloth or jewel abrasive and utilizing the fact that the orientation of liquid crystal molecules is sensitive to the concave-convex surface of the substrate. Another method of mechanically inprinting concavo-convex stripe traces is known using a replica and thereby obtaining an orientation substrate (orientation film). Further, liquid crystal molecules may also be oriented by merely forming a geometrical pattern and, for example, there has been reported a method of forming an orientation film by utilizing a sort of uneven vapor deposition formed by oblique vapor deposition of an inorganic element (Au) or an inorganic compound (SiO.sub.2). In the oblique vapor deposition method, since the mean free path of atoms or molecules in vacuum is generally as long as from several tens of centimeters to several meters, uneven vapor deposition is characteristically formed only in one direction. It has been known from an example of research report that the mean height of these geometrical patterns of less than 100 Angstroms can sufficiently orient the liquid crystals, and the orientation film formed by the oblique vapor deposition method avoids concerns about whether an electroconductor is used or not. There has also been a method of obtaining an orientation film by forming concavoconvex stripe traces by the combination of a physical method subsequent to the chemical processing such as applying oblique etching by ion beams to the surface coated with a surface active agent.
In orientation films for liquid crystals in which various surface active materials are coated on a transparent glass substrate, there have been problems in view of practical use since the materials used so far are poor in durability and, with regard to a glass substrate attached to a transparent electrode or display element, a lot of metals, polymeric compounds, non-metal elements, etc. are laminated on the substrate which worsens the durability and cause unevenness in the adhesion. Further an attempt has been made to determine the technical factors necessary for the production of liquid crystal orientation films prepared by mechanically printing the concavo-convex stripe traces since the manufacture is simple in principle. However, since this is mechanical rubbing, there are several problems such as unevenness upon printing, poor reproducibility, intrusion of impurities, etc. These problems have become more severe as higher quality and reliability have been demanded for the liquid crystal orientation film.
For overcoming the foregoing problems, it has been developed in recent years a method of forming an aromatic polyimide series thin film of excellent heat resistance, chemical stability, dielectric property, etc. on a glass substrate attached to a transparent electrode or on a glass substrate attached to various display elements and, thereafter, applying convavoconvex stripe traces mechanically, thereby forming an orientation film. The method is excellent over other various methods in that substrates made of various materials can be chemically modified uniformly and then subsequent formation of concavo-convex stripe traces can be attained at a relatively good reproducibility, and the durability of the liquid crystal orientation film can progress remarkably by the development of this method. However, the geometrical shape of the liquid crystal orientation film has become complicated more and more along with increase in the integrated circuit density and the performance of devices, and a technique capable of forming a polyimide thin film with no unevenness due to a uniform thickness and with good adhesion irrespective of positions has become an important factor for attaining the demanded performance of liquid crystal display devices. For instance, in a polyimide thin film formed by a coating method, drying and heat curing a polyamic acid solution on a substrate for liquid crystals, the thickness of the film at protruded portions such as electrodes or display devices is reduced, the unevenness in the coating thickness upon forming the liquid crystal orientation film causes unevenness in the formation of concavoconvex stripe traces, separation of the orientation film, etc. which often leads to failed liquid crystal orientation, or electrical leakage to result in fatal troubles, which can not be overlooked.

Method for manufacturing polyimide thin films by plasma polymerization


A grating coupler comprising an optical waveguide and a grating formed on the optical waveguide in which light is propagated for optically coupled light rays inside and outside of the optical waveguide, wherein the coupling coefficient of the grating coupler is gradually changed in the direction of propagation of guided light in the optical waveguide, whereby the intensity distribution of light rays inside or outside of the optical waveguide agrees with the coupling efficiency distribution of the grating coupler, so the coupling efficiency of the grating coupler can be greatly improved.

1. Field of the invention:
The present invention relates to a grating coupler for inputting light into an optical waveguide or emitting light from an optical waveguide in integrated optical elements or other optical elements with the optical waveguide in which light is propagated.
2. Description of the prior art:
Integrated optical pickups, integrated optical scanner elements, integrated optical Doppler speedometers and other integrated optical elements have attained high performance by using an optical waveguide in which light is propagated. In order to input a light into the optical waveguide of the these types of integrated optical elements, the end of said optical waveguide is optically polished and the light is converged by a lens with a large numerical aperture (NA) and input from the optically polished end of the optical waveguide into the inside of the optical waveguide. However, when a light is input into an optical waveguide in this manner, the end of the optical waveguide must be optically polished with high precision and the optical axis of the lens and the optical waveguide must be adjusted precisely.
In contrast to this method, other methods are being widely used whereby light is input into an optical waveguide or emitted from the optical waveguide by means of a grating coupler which is easy to integrate because of its small size and thin structure.
A grating coupler is constituted by positioning a grating on the top of an optical waveguide. The grating has various configurations such as multiple straight lines with the same pitch, multiple curved lines whose pitch gradually changes, and the like.
FIG. 5a is a plan view showing a conventional grating coupler and FIG. 5b is a cross section of the same. The grating coupler is constituted by forming a grating on the top of an optical waveguide 42 that is formed on the top of a crystalline substrate 41 of LiNbO.sub.3 or other material. The optical waveguide 42 is formed in the middle of the substrate from side to side and along its length with a uniform width and thickness. The grating 43 is composed of multiple plate-like transparent elements of equal length and intersecting the optical waveguide 42 perpendicularly to its length. When light is projected on the grating 43, the light enters into the optical waveguide 42 through the grating 43 and is propagated within said optical waveguide 42. The guided light propagated in the optical waveguide 42 is emitted from the grating 43 to the outside of the waveguide 42.
When the guided light 21 propagated in the optical waveguide 42 is emitted from the grating 43 in such a conventional grating coupler, the coupling efficiency is as follows.
The light propagated in the grating coupler gradually attenuates during propagation. Where z represents the coordinate of the direction of propagation in the grating coupler of the guided light 21 in the optical waveguide 42, the intensity of the light emitted from the grating coupler is obtained by the differential equation shown in equation 1. ##EQU1## From equation 1 EQU P.sub.0 .about.exp(-.eta.z) (2)
Accordingly, the intensity distribution of the emitted light is represented by an exponential function as is indicated in FIG. 5b.
In this way, the light propagated in the optical waveguide 42 is emitted from the grating coupler with an exponential intensity distribution. However, since the grating is an optically reciprocal element, if the light entering the grating has this kind of exponential intensity distribution, the intensity of light propagated in the optical waveguide 42 becomes constant, so the coupling efficiency of the grating optical coupler is markedly improved.
In reality, however, it is difficult to give the light entering the grating coupler or propagated in the optical waveguide the exponential intensity distribution explained above, and normally it has a symmetrical intensity distribution like that of a semiconductor laser beam. Therefore, the coupling efficiency of grating couplers is limited to about 80%.


A control system for controlling an internal combustion engine is disclosed. The control system employs closed loop engine speed control and includes a primary and secondary engine speed sensor. An electronic control module detects a failure of the primary or secondary sensor and causes the other sensor to be used as the engine speed feedback signal in the closed loop control.

Electronic control modules are often used to control the output of an internal combustion engine. A typical control scheme used by such a module might involve both closed loop engine speed control and closed loop rack position control within the engine speed control loop. A known electronic control module is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,705, issued to Stevenson et. al. on Jan. 18, 1983.
In a control module such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,705, a throttle position signal, which corresponds to a desired engine speed, is provided as a command input. An engine speed sensor is located on the engine and produces a feedback signal to the control module. An engine speed error signal is calculated as the difference between the actual engine speed feedback signal and the throttle signal. The error signal is input to an engine speed controller which calculates a desired rack position signal and inputs that command to the rack position loop.
Known control modules often place the rack position loop within the engine speed loop. The desired rack position signal produced by the engine speed control loop is an input command to the rack position loop. A position sensor is located on the rack which produces a rack position feedback signal. A rack position error signal is calculated as the difference between the desired rack position command and the actual rack position. The rack position error is an input to the rack controller which in turn develops an actuator signal that is delivered to the rack actuator motor to drive the rack position error signal to zero (i.e., so that the actual rack position equals the desired rack position).
The engine speed feedback signal is critical in closed loop engine speed control systems. If the engine speed sensor fails or the electrical connection between the sensor and the controller is compromised, no engine speed feedback signal will be present at the controller. Then, because there is no actual engine speed signal to subtract from the desired engine speed command, the engine speed error signal will equal the throttle command and it will be impossible for the controller to drive the engine speed error signal to zero. The controller will continue to command increased output from the engine regardless of the engine's actual speed. The engine will eventually exceed its maximum operating speed and break down. In most closed loop engine speed controls, to prevent engine damage, the controller will prevent the engine from operating when the engine speed feedback signal is not present.
However, completely shutting an engine down may be undesirable in some applications. For example, in a marine application, leaving a boat without power prevents it from maneuvering according to surface conditions, weather, etc. The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of these problems.

Redundant speed sensor for engine control


Systems and methods are disclosed herein to provide improved electrostatic protection for electrical circuits. For example, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, an electrostatic protection device includes: a drain region formed in a substrate; a gate separated from the substrate by a gate oxide; and an isolation region formed in the substrate, the isolation region being adapted to isolate the gate oxide from a DC voltage coupled to the drain region.

Electrical circuits are often susceptible to damage by electrostatic discharge (ESD) currents resulting from unintended contacts with sources of excess electric charge. For example, a user charged with static electricity can discharge ESD currents into an unprotected circuit at potentials of kilovolts. Such ESD currents can be particularly harmful to circuits designed for low voltage applications.
Various techniques have been developed to reduce the potential damage caused by ESD currents. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates a cross-sectional view of a known electrostatic protection device design. As set forth in FIG. 1, an NMOS transistor 100 is provided on a p-doped substrate 150 and includes an n-doped drain region 110, an n-doped source region 120, and a conductive gate 130 isolated from substrate 150 by a gate oxide 135.
An input/output (I/O) pad 160 couples to drain region 110. A voltage source 175 coupled to pad 160 models the effect of a user charged with static electricity. The protective effect of NMOS transistor 100 with regard to voltage source 175 depends upon a "snapback" effect. In this effect, the high voltage from voltage source 175 induces an avalanche breakdown on the reverse-biased junction between drain region 110 and substrate 150. As a result, positive charge will accumulate in substrate 150 such that the junction between substrate 150 and source region 120 becomes forward-biased. In this fashion, a parasitic NPN bipolar transistor 180 (formed from drain region 110, substrate 150, and source region 120) conducts current from drain region 110 to source region 120 as a result of static electricity charging pad 160. In turn, because source region 120 and gate 130 are grounded, a channel 140 is induced in substrate 150 between drain region 110 and source region 120. In this fashion, current is rapidly drained from voltage source 175 into ground, thereby protecting the circuitry (not illustrated) that couples to pad 160.
Although NMOS transistor 100 thus functions as an ESD protection device, problems arise should pad 160 be coupled to an external DC voltage source (in contrast to the transient voltage source 175 arising from a static electricity charge). The DC voltage can overwhelm the thin gate oxide 135 found in today's smaller transistors. For example, in a 0.35 micron CMOS process, gate oxide 135 can only support a potential of 3.3 volts between gate 130 and substrate 150. Thus, should a relatively high DC voltage source such as 12 volts be coupled to pad 160, gate oxide 135 will fail.
An ESD protection approach that can withstand such relatively high voltages at pad 160 involves the use of a stacked circuit design in which several (e.g., three) MOS transistors are connected in series to spread the high voltage and associated stress across the several transistors. However, this approach can require increased chip area for implementation, and is complicated by the need for additional transistors.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved approach to ESD protection that permits the handling of relatively-high DC voltages at the protected I/O pad without incurring excessive chip area demands.

Electrostatic protection systems and methods


A battery charger includes an input supply terminal configured to receive a supply signal, a battery terminal configured to be connected to a battery and at least one output terminal, a switch arranged in the electrical path between the battery terminal and at least one output terminal, an element configured to store an information representative of an alarm condition of the battery and to open the switch when the alarm condition occurs, with the supply signal being absent and the battery supplying the at least one output terminal, and to close the switch when the supply signal is received at the input supply terminal.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a battery charger.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Nowadays mobile phones, digital cameras, notebooks, netbooks, tablets etc. have become daily used electronic devices. The power of the batteries of these electronic devices determines a length of time use of the electronic device. Electronic devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, notebooks, netbooks, tablets etc. should be used with corresponding battery chargers. Generally, these battery chargers are unique to the corresponding electronic devices.
Typically, each battery charger is provided with an input terminal, such as a USB terminal, for connection to the power line for charging the battery and simultaneously powering the device connected to the battery, as shown in FIG. 1.
The battery charger 20 in FIG. 1 comprises the USB input terminal IN, a control block 10 configured to control first M1 and second M2 transistors arranged in the path between the input terminal IN and the output terminals SYS and Ld and third M3 and fourth M4 transistors arranged in the path between the input terminal IN and the battery BAT downstream the transistors M1, M2. When a supply voltage is present at the input terminal IN, the control block 10 turns on the transistors M1-M4 to provide power to the loads connected to the terminals SYS and Ld and to charge the battery BAT. When the supply voltage is not present at the input terminal IN, the control block 10 turns on the transistors M3-M4 and turn off M1-M2 so the power deriving from the battery BAT supplies the loads connected to the terminals SYS and Ld and the battery charger itself.
The control block receives an enable signal CEN an a shut-down signal SD and comprises a current modulation block adapted to control the transistor M4. Also the control block 10 is able to send an enable signal EN to a LDO block configured to supply an external load with a constant voltage by means of the output terminal Ld.
Also the battery charger comprises circuits to operate the battery disconnection when an alarm such as battery over discharge current (OCD) or battery over discharge voltage (OVD) happens, especially in the case of cheap batteries without internal protection, or when the battery will not be used for a long time to avoid battery discharge, that is the so called "shipping mode".

Battery charger for providing battery protection from over discharge from voltage or current and shipping mode


A first terminal electrode extends from a second principal surface onto first and second side surfaces and a first end surface such as not to reach a first principal surface. A second terminal electrode extends from the second principal surface onto the first and second side surfaces and a second end surface such as not to reach the first principal surface. A third terminal electrode extends from the second principal surface onto the first and second side surfaces such as not to reach the first principal surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic component and a mounting structure for the electronic component.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic components, such as a multilayer ceramic capacitor, have hitherto been used widely. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-46052 discloses a three-terminal multilayer ceramic capacitor substantially shaped like a rectangular parallelepiped. In the three-terminal multilayer ceramic capacitor, signal terminal electrodes are provided on opposite end portions in the length direction of one principal surface, and a ground terminal electrode is provided in a center portion. For example, this three-terminal multilayer ceramic capacitor is mounted on a mounting substrate for use.
The three-terminal multilayer ceramic capacitor described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-46052 has problems of mountability, for example, the mounting strength is low and it is difficult to increase the mounting positional accuracy.

Electronic component and mounting structure for the electronic component


The invention concerns a film having at least one electrical component and a process for the production of such a film. An adhesive layer comprising a radiation-cross-linkable adhesive is applied to a base film. The adhesive layer is applied to the base film in a form of being structured in pattern form and/or is irradiated in pattern form in such a way that the adhesive layer hardens with structuring in pattern form. A transfer film which comprises a carrier film and an electrical functional layer is applied to the adhesive layer. The carrier film is pulled off the film body comprising the base film, the adhesive layer and the electrical functional layer, wherein in a first region structured in pattern form the electrical functional layer remains on the base film and in a second region structured in pattern form the electrical functional layer remains on the carrier film and is pulled off the base film with the carrier film.

The invention concerns a film having at least one electrical component and a process for the production of such a film.
For the production of electrical components using organic semiconductor technology, for example organic field effect transistors (OFETs) or other electrical components of organic polymers, structuring at least of the conductive electrode layer is required. Structuring of the other layers of such components is not absolutely necessary but can improve the efficiency and capability of such components involving organic semiconductor technology. In order to be able to produce powerful electrical components using organic semiconductor technology it is necessary in that respect for structuring of the layers to be implemented with a high level of resolution and register accuracy.
WO 02/25750 describes the production of electrodes or circuit boards using a lithography process. In that procedure a conductive organic layer comprising doped polyaniline (PANI) or polyethylene dioxthiophene (PEDOT) is applied to a substrate, for example a film, over the surface thereof, by doctor application, spraying, spin coating or screen printing. A thin layer of photoresist is applied thereto and exposed in structured form. Upon development the exposed polyaniline layer is deprotonised by the action of the developer and thus becomes non-conducting. The remaining photoresist is dissolved with a solvent. Prior to or after that step the non-conductive matrix of the organic layer is dissolved out with a non-basic solvent.
WO 02/25750 describes that a chemical compound which has a deprotonising action is applied by printing to a flat functional polymer layer for structuring purposes. The compound is preferably a base. Non-conducting regions are selectively removed by a subsequent rinsing operation.
WO 02/47183 proposes introducing functional polymers into recesses in a shaped layer for structuring layers of an organic field effect transistor. That shaped layer comprises a different organic material with insulating properties, into which a punch is impressed. The functional polymer is then introduced into those recesses by a doctor. Extremely fine structures with lateral dimensions in the range of 2 to 5 μm can be produced with that process. The doctor method is moreover not material-specific, that is to say it is suitable for structuring all layers of an organic field effect transistor. In addition the viscosity range for the doctor procedure is incomparably greater than for the printing operation so that the functional polymers can be substantially left in their consistency. Furthermore relatively thick layers in the range of up to 1 μm can be produced.
DE 100 33 112 describes a process for the production of electrical components using organic semiconductor technology, in which functional polymers are applied to a substrate or a layer which is already present, by means of a tampon printing process.


A bolometric detector including a sensitive part having one or more layers of a sensitive material, the resistivity of which varies with temperature, electrodes isolated from one another, also acting as infrared radiation absorbers, the electrodes being in contact with the sensitive material over at least part of their surface, at least one support region for supporting the sensitive part, acting so as to position the sensitive part, and acting as an electrical conductor, in relation to a read circuit associated with the bolometric detector, and at least one thermal insulation structure electrically and mechanically connecting each support region to the sensitive part. The regions of sensitive material not in contact with the electrodes have at least one corrugation oriented along the direction perpendicular to the plane containing the sensitive part of the bolometric detector.

Known in the field of infrared detectors are devices arranged in array form and capable of operating at room temperature, that is to say devices not requiring cooling, unlike the detection devices called quantum detectors which themselves require operation at very low temperature, typically at liquid nitrogen temperature.
These uncooled detectors conventionally use the change in a physical parameter of a suitable material as a function of temperature in the region of 300 K (540° R). In the case of bolometric detectors, this physical quantity is the electrical resistivity.
Such an uncooled detector generally combines:
means for absorbing the infrared radiation and converting it into heat;
means for thermally insulating the detector in such a way as to allow it to heat up under the action of the infrared radiation;
thermometry means, which in the context of a bolometric detector employ a resistive element; and
means for reading the electrical signals delivered by the thermometry means.
Detectors intended for infrared imaging are produced in the form of an array of elementary detectors, in one or two dimensions, on a substrate, generally made of silicon, which includes means for electrically exciting the said elementary detectors and means for preprocessing the electrical signals generated by these elementary detectors.
These electrical excitation and preprocessing means are formed on the substrate and constitute a read circuit.
Monolithic integration of the detectors into the corresponding read circuit is advantageous from the standpoint of fabrication costs. However, it is also possible to hybridize a detector array on such a read circuit.
A device comprising an array of elementary detectors and an associated read circuit is generally placed in a case and connected, especially electrically, to the external environment by conventional techniques. In such a case, the pressure is reduced so as to limit the thermal losses. This case is furthermore provided with an infrared window transparent to the radiation to be detected.
To observe a scene by means of this detector, the scene is projected through a suitable optic onto the array of elementary detectors and the varying electrical stimuli are applied, via the read circuit (also provided for this purpose), to each of the elementary detectors or to each row of such detectors, so as to obtain an electrical signal constituting the image of the temperature reached by each elementary detector.
This signal undergoes relatively sophisticated processing by the read circuit, and then possibly by an electronic device external to the case, so as to generate a thermal image of the observed scene.
The performance of uncooled bolometric detectors depends essentially on:
controlling the production and integration of the most effective bolometric materials;
controlling the design and construction of the elementary detectors, in the form of microbridges, that is to say lightweight and delicate structures, thermally isolated from the read circuit;
the quality of application of these detectors and of the various correction functions that are used in the read circuit and in other ancillary devices; and
controlling the techniques for packaging them in a low-pressure sealed case.
The present invention is more particularly aimed at controlling the design and construction of the microbridges. The aim of the invention is in fact to allow very effective bolometric detectors to be obtained using techniques that are relatively simple to employ.
The prior art describes a number of different ways of arranging the various constituent elements of the elementary detectors.
A distinction may principally be made between coplanar-electrode detectors and parallel-electrode detectors (i.e. having a "sandwich" structure). Document US-A-5 021 663 describes, for example, a bolometric detector of the type in question.
Although the invention is more readily applicable in coplanar-electrode detectors, in which the electrical current passing through the structure in operation flows in the plane of the elementary detector, it is also applicable in parallel-electrode detectors.
Document FR-A-2 752 299 describes a bolometric detector comprising a read circuit and one or more elementary detectors which themselves have a sensitive part integrating in particular a layer of bolometric material and two conducting electrodes, and at least one support element for this sensitive part, and in which layer the electrodes are interdigitated. FIG. 1 shows schematically a representation of this elementary bolometric detector.
In this detector, the read circuit (1) is covered with a reflective metal layer (2) intended to reflect the infrared radiation not absorbed by the bolometer itself, and placed about 1.5 to 2.5 μm (0.00006 in.–0.00010 in.) above the said reflector (so as to optimize the detection around a wavelength of 10 μm (0.00039 in.), corresponding approximately to the useful detection range of these detectors).
Such positioning is performed by means of essentially vertical structures (3). These structures, which will be called "pillars" in the rest of the description, are themselves electrically conducting and thus make it possible to transfer the excitation potentials to the conducting parts or electrodes (5) of the bolometric detector via elongate plane structures (4), which are also electrically conducting but thermally resistive. These elongate plane structures will be called "arms" in the rest of the description.
The thermal resistance, also called "thermal isolation", is intended to allow the bolometric material to heat up under the effect of the infrared radiation.
The volume between the body of the bolometer and the reflector is devoid of material away from the pillars (3), so as to prevent thermal losses through solid conduction. This volume is usually filled with a low-pressure gas so as to limit convection and conduction by the gas.
In this type of device, the read circuit applies, via the pillars (3) and the arms (4), and via at least two conducting parts or electrodes (5), an electrical current that passes through the structure parallel to the plane of the bolometric detector. This current flows through a bolometric material (6), the resistivity of which varies with temperature. The most widely used materials for this purpose are vanadium oxide and amorphous silicon.
The electrodes (5) are produced as a thin conducting layer, ordinarily made of metal. They also serve to absorb the infrared radiation. In FIG. 1A it may be seen that these electrodes are placed on the upper surface of the bolometric material (6). The internal surface suspended from the bolometer, that is to say away from the pillars (3) and arms (4) in FIG. 1A, almost always takes the form of virtually equipotential surfaces (5) and of resistive surfaces, the extent of which is defined by the spaces between the parts (5). In the rest of the description a distinction is made between the parts (6A) and the parts (6B) of the layer of bolometric material (6), depending on whether the excitation current passes through them (6A) or such a current does not pass through them (6B).
The performance of a bolometric detector is conventionally expressed by the NEdT (Noise Equivalent Differential Temperature).
It may be demonstrated, assuming that the bias level is sufficient for the electrical noise in the detector to be dominated by the low-frequency noise (Nlf), called "1/f noise", which is a characteristic in particular of amorphous materials, that the noise equivalent differential temperature is given by the equation:
      1    NEdT    =                    k                          (                      W            ·            L            ·            E                    )                            1        /        2              ·    TCR    ·          R      th      in which:
k is a proportionality coefficient that is not worth explaining in detail here, which includes the bandwidth of the read circuit, the 1/f low-frequency noise level of the bolometric material (6), the area of the elementary detector and the infrared absorption efficiency of the elementary detector;
W and L are the electrical width and length respectively of the current lines through the bolometric material (6), these being shown in FIGS. 1A and 2A;
E is the thickness of the bolometric material (6) over the area relating to the current lines, the said area being defined by the dimensions W and L;
TCR is the relative resistance variation near the operating temperature (dR/RdT), which is a characteristic of the bolometric material employed, where R is the electrical resistance seen between the two current injection poles (the two pillars (3) and T is the temperature of the microbridge; and
Rth is the thermal resistance between the central "solid" part of the bolometer, which heats up under the effect of the infrared radiation, and the read circuit (1), the temperature of which is constant or very slightly variable.
This assumption is justified by the fact that the noise equivalent differential temperature derives from the calculation of the S/N, where S is the signal delivered by the detector and N is the electrical noise.
The detection signal S, proportional to the electrical current "i" flowing through the bolometer(S=K1·i),must be a maximum, while the low-frequency noise is also proportional to "i"(Nlf=K2·i).
Thus, when the electrical current is increased to improve the signal, a moment arrives when the low-frequency noise (Nlf) dominates over the other sources of noise that are independent of the current value, the "white" (frequency-independent) noise of which is typically generated by the bolometric detector.
The signal-to-noise ratio is optimum when it approaches its limit value K1/K2 for a sufficient value of the excitation current, even for materials that naturally have a low noise at low frequency.
The bolometer is therefore typically dominated by the 1/f noise under the bias conditions that optimize the noise equivalent differential temperature NEdT.
These various quantitative aspects may be found in document FR-A-2 796 148.
It is apparent from this equation that the detection performance of the bolometric detectors is related to the volume of bolometric material through which the lines of excitation current pass, that is to say equal to the product of the area (W·L) of the resistive parts (6A) multiplied by the thickness E of the said bolometric material.
The parts (6B) of the bolometric material, that is to say those through which the excitation current does not pass, do not contribute to the definition of the detection performance of the bolometric detector, as practically no current passes through the said bolometric material in these regions, these being much more electrically resistive than the layers that define the parts (5).
In the case of a detection array, the repeat pitch of the elementary detectors in the two dimensions of the plane is defined by "p".
To achieve optimum detection performance, all that is required, using the above analysis, is to arrange parts (6A) as a polygon of length L and width W, withL·W=p2 in order to optimize the detection performance.
This quantity p2 represents the upper bound of the parameter L·W, since, from the technical standpoint, it is necessary to reserve part of the area p2 for placing the spaces that separate the elementary detectors from one another, and at least the pillars (3), the arms (4) and the regions (6B), the area of which cannot be zero.
These quantities L and W in a typical arrangement have been shown in FIG. 1.
However, it is observed that the infrared radiation absorption rapidly decreases when the area of the electrodes (5) is reduced to the gain of the area of the surfaces (6A).
In practice, the best performance in terms of bolometric resolution is obtained when there is a balance between the area of the electrodes (5) and that of the regions (6A).
This means that about half of the internal area of the bolometer (that of the parts 6B) cannot be used to optimize the current lines, that is to say to maximize the total area L·W of the polygon(s) through which the current lines pass.
The expression for evaluating the bolometric resolution of NEdT also shows that the performance is improved if the thickness E of the layer of bolometric material (6) is increased as well as the dimensions of the quantities W and L.
However, such an increase in thickness correspondingly increases the thermal mass Cth of the bolometer, this thermal mass appearing in the definition of the thermal time constant through the equationτth=Cth·Rth,which also constitutes one of the important parameters from the standpoint of the use of the bolometric detector as it defines the maximum rate at which the detector in question can follow a temperature change at any point in the observed scene.
According to document FR-A-2 752 299, the total thermal mass of the bolometric detector is largely determined by the mass of the bolometric material (6), and any increase in thickness of this layer is accompanied by an almost proportional increase in the overall thermal mass.
Consequently, the gain in thermal resolution NEdT achieved by this greater thickness of bolometric material is compensated for by the increase in the thermal time constant τth. The overall optimization of the bolometer therefore assumes that the thermal time constant, and therefore the thickness of the layer of bolometric material (6), is adjusted to the maximum value compatible with the operating frequency envisaged by the user.
In other words, the thickness of the bolometric material is therefore not a free optimization parameter.
Thus, the bolometric detector according to document FR-A-2 752 299 cannot be improved in terms of noise equivalent differential temperature owing to the need to take into account the thermal time constant in order to allow effective use of such a bolometric detector.
To improve the noise equivalent differential temperature of a bolometric detector, the aforementioned document FR-A-2 796 148 proposes a configuration that relaxes the constraint associated with the quality of radiation absorption and of balancing the areas of the electrodes (5) and of the regions (6A) of the bolometric material.
According to the teachings of that document, the contact parts (6B) between the electrodes (5) and the bolometric material (6) are reduced to small areas of narrow elongate shape. Furthermore, the electrodes (5) are isolated from the bolometric material over essentially their entire surface by the insertion of an insulation layer (7).
This technique makes it possible to use most of the surfaces (6B) to optimize the polygon(s) of area W·L and thus obtain a substantial improvement in performance.
However, this result is obtained, on the one hand, by adding an additional mass, associated with the use of the insulating material (7), and stems, on the other hand, from a not insignificant increase in production complexity. It also has the drawback of resulting in a loss of performance owing to the pinching of the current lines around the ends of the parts (6B) in the case in which the electrodes (5) have an interdigitated configuration, as shown in FIG. 2A.
Now, this type of configuration is practically inevitable when a high-resistivity bolometric material, such as amorphous silicon and related materials, is used to obtain an electrical resistance R ranging from a few 105 ohms to 106 ohms, which is practical from the standpoint of the read circuit.
It should in fact be recalled that one of the difficulties that a person skilled in the art has to encounter when defining the structures of a bolometric detector is how to achieve an electrical resistance R around room temperature that is tailored to the options of the read circuit.
This is because not just any resistance value is necessarily practical to be employed with the type of read circuit that the designer of the system intends to use, and it is in general more practical, in order to optimize the functions of the read circuit, for this resistance R to be determined by constraints specific to this circuit, rather than by constraints generated by the bolometric detector as such. By neglecting the resistances constituted by the pillars (3) and the arms (4), this resistance is defined by the equation:R=ρ·L/(W·E)where ρ is the electrical resistivity of the bolometric material in the vicinity of the opening temperature.
The configuration of the electrodes (5) straight away defines the width W and length L and the interdigitation, as for example shown in FIGS. 1A and 2A, and offers a certain degree of freedom.
However, the possible variations in the interdigitation of the electrodes (5) are not in practice very many with respect to the areas p2 usually employed (less than 50·50 μm2 (0.00197·0.00197 in.2) and with a pitch (width+space) of electrode designs of more than about 8 μm, in order to avoid diffraction phenomena between 8 and 14 μm (0.00031 in. and 0.00055 in.) in wavelength, that is to say within the wavelength range corresponding to infrared imaging.
The configuration of the current lines in the case shown in FIG. 2A can be modelled by, on the one hand, the three rectangular regions bordered by the parts (6B) in their parallel straight portion and, on the other hand, the two regions (8) corresponding to the ends of the parts (6B) internal to the bolometric detector.
In the rectangular regions, the density of the current lines is uniform and local quantities Wr and Lr are immediately defined in which the subscript r refers to the rectangular regions.
These regions define an electrical resistance equal to Rs·L/W, where Rs is the sheet resistance(Rsρ/E)of the bolometric material.In contrast, in the regions (8), the density of the current lines is variable, namely markedly higher in the vicinity of the tips of the regions (6B) than in the interior of the rectangular regions, and markedly lower in the vicinity of the opposite part (6B).
If the two regions (8) are grouped together in the form of a disk of internal radius r1, taking r1 as being the radius of the tips of the two regions (6B), then the external radius of these regions is L+r1. In practice, r1 may be likened to the half-width of the elongate feature of the parts (6B) of FIG. 2A.
It is readily demonstrated that the electrical resistance of this disk is given by the equation:
                    R        s                    2                π              ·    ln                        L        +                  r          1                            r        1              .  The width Wt of the rectangle of length L equivalent to the regions (8), in which the subscript "t" relates to the tip regions, is given by the equation:
                    R        s                  L              W      t        =                                          R            s                                2                        π                          ·        ln                                    L          +                      r            1                                    r          1                                                            i        .        e        .                                                    W          t                      =          2            π                                              L        /        ln                                                L            +                          r              1                                            r            1                          .
According to the example shown in FIG. 2A, for a bolometer with an overall size of 35 μm (0.00138 in.), including the space between adjacent bolometric detectors with L=6.5 μm (0.00026 in.) and r1=0.5 μm (0.00002 in.) for example, this results in an equivalent electrical width Wt=15.5 μm (0.00061 in.) (for both regions (8)), substantially less than the length of the rectangular outline (in dotted lines in FIG. 2A) that would represent the maximum electrical width W that could be used near the regions (8) in order to optimize the produce W·L and therefore the noise equivalent differential temperature or thermal resolution of the bolometer. This length of the rectangular trace would in fact be about 28 μm (0.00110 in.) according to the scale of the realistic example shown in FIG. 2A. The effective total "electrical" widthW=Wt+Wt (a solid line along the central equipotential between the parts (6B)) would be close to 60 μm (0.00236 in.) for a maximum electrical width (shown by the dotted lines) of about 73 μm (0.00287 in.). This difference represents a loss of about 11% in performance compared with an ideal bolometric detector, which would not have localized tip effects.
To summarize, apart from the drawbacks already mentioned, the configuration proposed in that document could be improved as regards thermal resolution of the bolometric detector.
There has also been described, in document US-A-5 367 167, a bolometric detector comprising two coplanar electrodes located on the same face of the layer of bolometric material, and a conducting layer located on the other face of this layer of bolometric material. The function of this conducting layer is to absorb the infrared radiation that it is desired to detect and an electrically insulating layer must separate the conducting layer from the body of the detector. This therefore makes production very complex. Moreover, having to arrange the electrodes further apart restricts the application of this bolometric detector to low-resistivity bolometric materials, such as typically vanadium oxides.

Bolometric detector, infrared detection device employing such a bolometric detector and process for fabricating this detector


Objectives and other optical assemblies include a reflective surface that is truncated at or near a focus based on a curvature of the reflective surface. A specimen is situated at or near the focus of the reflective surface, so that the reflective surface captures and collimates optical radiation emitted from the specimen. The reflective surface can be defined on an optical substrate along with a lens surface, so that an illumination flux is focused on the specimen by the lens surface, and a secondary light flux produced in response to the illumination flux is captured and collimated by the reflective surface.

Advances in microscopy have permitted increasingly sophisticated investigations of biological and other systems. In traditional microscopy, a specimen is illuminated with a broadband ("white") light source, and a magnified image of the specimen is produced. Resolution and image contrast in such systems generally depend on specimen spectral absorbance and microscope objective numerical aperture and aberrations. Microscopy can also be based on radiation produced in a specimen in response to a exposure to a suitable light flux. For example, in fluorescence microscopy, fluorescence produced in a specimen in response to a stimulating light flux is used to form a specimen image. In other examples, a specimen can emit a light flux based on a stimulating light flux via a multiphoton process. In both fluorescence microscopy and multiphoton microscopy the emitted light flux can be used to produce an image directly, or the emitted light flux can be localized by scanning the stimulating light flux across the specimen.
While microscopy-based specimen analysis based on fluorescence or multiphoton processes can provide significant specimen information, such analysis is typically hampered by inefficiencies in the fluorescence collection and multiphoton excitation processes. In some investigations, low efficiencies can be compensated for by increasing the time during which the specimen is exposed to the stimulating light flux, resulting in longer measurement times. In other examples, the stimulating light flux produces specimen changes so that increased exposures cannot be used. Therefore, improved microscopy methods and apparatus are needed.


An object of the present invention is to provide a technique by which, when producing a resin molded article using an insert member having low pressure resistance, molding can be easily performed, and deformation of the insert member can be suppressed. A method for producing a resin molded article of the present invention, the method includes the steps of disposing an insert member in a cavity of a mold; performing injection of molten resin into the cavity; terminating the injection on and after the molten resin reaches an overflow portion in the cavity and before the molten resin fills the overflow portion; and separating resin in the overflow portion.

Catheters are conventionally used to give medicines, nutrition, etc. to patients and perform various treatments on patients. Some catheters have a plurality of tubes of which the branched parts are sealed with resin such as an adhesive.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique by which, when producing a balloon catheter, an inner tube and an outer tube into which core bars are inserted are disposed in a mold, and molten resin is injected to form a branched part of a line.
A molding method in which an insert member is thus disposed in a mold, and the mold is filled with resin, thereby integrating the insert member and the filled resin is called insert molding. Such insert molding is also performed in the field of electronic components.
For example, Patent Document 2 discloses a technique by which a circuit board on which electronic components are mounted is set in a mold, and an outer case is formed by molding.

Resin molded article and method for producing resin molded article


An RF switch circuit includes a waveguide transmission line having an input port, an output port, a first wall having a first cavity disposed therein and a second wall having a second cavity disposed therein with the first and second cavities being aligned along a centerline of the waveguide transmission line and means for providing a substantially short circuit impedance characteristic between the first cavity and the waveguide transmission line to RF signals propagating along the waveguide transmission line. The circuit further includes an electrically conductive member disposed in a first region of the second cavity, a diode having a first electrode disposed on a first surface of the electrically conductive member and an electrically conductive post having a first end disposed in the first cavity and having a second end disposed in the second cavity with the second end of the post electrically contacting a second electrode of the diode.

This invention relates generally to radio frequency circuits and more particularly to radio frequency switch circuits.
As is known in the art, a radio frequency (RF) switch circuit (hereinafter switch or switch circuit) is a device used to connect and disconnect RF signal paths in an electrical circuit. When connecting RF signal paths, a switch generally provides a bi-directional RF signal path. Thus, signals fed to an input port of the switch appear at an output port of the switch and vice-versa.
When the switch provides a signal path having a relatively low insertion loss characteristic between the input and the output port, the switch is generally referred to as being in the "on" position. When the switch provides a signal path having a relatively high insertion loss characteristic between the input port and the output port the switch is generally referred to as being in the "off" position.
The electrical characteristics of an RF switch include isolation, insertion loss, switching speed and RF power handling capability. Depending upon the particular application it is often necessary to optimize one of these electrical characteristics by trading off the performance of the other electrical characteristics of the switch.
For example, in a pulse radar systems which uses a common antenna to both transmit and receive signals, a component such as a duplexer, a circulator or the like provides isolated signal paths which couple a transmitter and a receiver to the common antenna. Components such as duplexers, circulators or the like, however, have a finite isolation characteristic. During transmit, portions of the transmit signal may leak back to the receiver due to the relatively poor isolation characteristics of the components which provide the receive path and transmit path to the common antenna. Moreover impedance mismatches between the antenna input port and the transmitter may cause high power RF signals from the transmitter to be reflected to the RF receiver. Thus, to protect the receiver from such undesired signals which are provided during the transmit mode, an RF switch circuit capable of withstanding high power RF signal levels may be disposed between the RF receiver and the duplexer for example.
Furthermore, in the pulse radar system the RF switch circuit must be able to switch between its "on" and "off" states at a rate greater than the pulse repetition frequency of the transmitter. When the transmitter provides a signal pulse, the switch is in its "off" or protection state and thus the switch protects the components of the receiver from high power RF signals by disconnecting the RF signal path to the RF receiver. When the transmitter is not providing a signal pulse the switch is in its "on" or "non-protection" state and thus the switch couples RF signals from the duplexer to the receiver.
One type of switch circuit which protects receivers from high power RF signals includes a plurality of PIN diodes connected in shunt across a transmission line at points on the transmission line separated from one another by one quarter wavelength at a particular frequency of operation. Since the diode connected closest to the input port of the switch has the highest power level incident thereon, this diode should have a higher breakdown voltage characteristic than the diode connected closest to the output port of the switch. Thus, the breakdown voltage of each PIN diode should correspondingly decrease from the input port to the output port of the switch.
The increase in breakdown voltage is typically achieved by increasing the thickness of the intrinsic region of the PIN diode. As is known, as the intrinsic region thickness increases the shunt resistance of the diode increases. However, as is also known, as the intrinsic region thickness is increased the capacitance of the diode decreases. This results in a concomitant decrease in the switching speed of the diode (i.e. its takes longer to switch the diode between its conducting and nonconducting states). Thus a trade off is made between the power handling capability and switching speed of the switch.
When the switch is in the non-protection mode the diodes are reversed bias and provide high shunt resistance so that substantially all of the RF signal power fed to the input port of the switch propagates along the RF transmission line relatively unattenuated to the output port of the switch.
However when the switch is in its protection mode the diodes are placed in their forward conducting state and provide a low impedance path between the RF transmission line and ground. RF signals fed to the input port of the switch are shunted to ground through the forward biased diodes. A portion of the RF power dissipates in the diodes due to the resistance of the diodes and thus the diodes are heated.
If the diodes are unable to dissipate the heat which is generated the diodes are damaged. Thus it is desirable to channel the heat away from the PIN diodes via a heat sink.
Conventional waveguide switch circuits include a plurality of diodes disposed in a transverse plane of the waveguide transmission line. By disposing the diodes in the transverse plane of the waveguide transmission line a problem is that the diodes are not provided with a heat sink. Thus, such a waveguide switch circuit is not able to handle high power RF signals.
Alternatively, in another approach a diode may be disposed in a bottom wall of a waveguide transmission line having a rectangular cross-section and partially protruding into the waveguide transmission line with an electrically conductive post disposed between the diode and a top wall of the waveguide transmission line. By disposing the diode partially in the waveguide wall and partially in the waveguide transmission line a heat sink is provided to the diode. However, one problem with this technique is that such circuits are relatively difficult to tune. Nevertheless, this technique is used in waveguide switch circuits because of the low insertion loss characteristic the switch provides in its "on state. Thus, when the diode is forward biased placing the switch in its "on" state the structure is highly resonant and therefore provides the switch having a relatively low insertion loss characteristic.
Other microwave circuits also use resonant structures disposed along the waveguide transmission line. For example, as is known in the art, a negative resistance device, such as an IMPATT diode for example, is often used as an oscillator or an amplifier to convert DC power to RF power. IMPATT diode oscillator circuits generally include a waveguide transmission line having a rectangular cross-section and having an electrically conductive member transversely disposed across one end of the waveguide to provide a short circuit impedance characteristic across the end of the waveguide transmission line. Thus the waveguide transmission line having a short circuit at one end provides a resonant waveguide cavity.
A plurality of IMPATT diodes which feed RF signals into the cavity may be disposed in the side walls of the waveguide cavity and spaced along the sidewalls of the cavity at half wavelength intervals. Each of the IMPATT diodes are provided having matching circuits to match the impedance of the IMPATT diodes to the impedance of the waveguide cavity over a pre-determined range of frequencies.
In one embodiment of an IMPATT diode oscillator circuit described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,058 and assigned to the assignee of the present invention each one of the diode oscillators includes a center conductor having a first end connected to a first end of an IMPATT diode. A second end of the IMPATT diode is connected to a heat sink. A ring shaped member is disposed about the center conductor and spaces the IMPATT diode from the resonant waveguide cavity. A second end of the center conductor has a tapered sleeve section to provide a stabilizing load used to terminate the diode oscillator in a characteristic impedance. Several of such IMPATT diode oscillator circuits may be disposed around a power combiner circuit which combines the power of such IMPATT diode oscillator circuits to provide high power RF signals over a relatively broad range of operating frequencies.

Waveguide switch circuit with improved switching and tuning capability


A stereotypical sentence is synthesized into a voice of an arbitrary speech style. A third party is able to prepare prosody data and a user of a terminal device having a voice synthesizing part can acquire the prosody data. The voice synthesizing method determines a voice-contents identifier to point to a type of voice contents of a stereotypical sentence, prepares a speech style dictionary including speech style and prosody data which correspond to the voice-contents identifier, selects prosody data of the synthesized voice to be generated from the speech style dictionary, and adds the selected prosody data to a voice synthesizer 13 as voice-synthesizer driving data to thereby perform voice synthesis with a specific speech style. Thus, a voice of a stereotypical sentence can be synthesized with an arbitrary speech style.

The present invention relates to a voice synthesizing method and a voice synthesizer and system which perform the method. More particularly, the invention relates to a voice synthesizing method which converts stereotypical sentences having nearly fixed contents to voice-synthesized sentences synthesized by a voice, a voice synthesizer which executes the method and a method of producing data necessary to achieve the method and voice synthesizer. Particularly, the invention is used in a communication network that comprises portable terminal devices each having a voice synthesizer and data communication means which is connectable to the portable terminal devices.
In general, voice synthesis is a scheme of generating a voice wave from phonetic symbols (voice element symbols) indicating the contents to be voiced, a time serial pattern of pitches (fundamental frequency pattern) which are physical measures of the intonation of voices, and the duration and power (voice element intensity) of each voice element. Hereinafter the three parameters, the fundamental-frequency pattern, the duration of a voice element and the voice element intensity, are generically called "prosodic parameters" and the combination of a voice element symbol and the prosodic parameters is generically called "prosody data".
Typical methods of generating voice waves are a parameter synthesizing method that drives a parameter which imitates the characteristics of a vocal tract of a voice element using a filter, and a wave concatenation method that generates waves by extracting pieces indicative of the characteristics of individual voice elements from a generated human voice wave and connecting them. Producing "prosody data" is important in voice synthesis. The voice synthesizing methods can be generally used for most languages including Japanese.
Voice synthesis needs to somehow acquire the prosodic parameters corresponding to the contents of a sentence to be voice-synthesized. In a case where the voice synthesizing technology is adapted to the readout or the like of electronic-mail and electronic newspaper, for example, an arbitrary sentence should be subjected to language analysis to identify the boundary between words or phrases and the accent type of a phrase should be determined after which prosodic parameters should be acquired from accent information, syllable information or the like. Those basic methods relating to automatic conversion have already been established and can be achieved by a method disclosed in "A Morphological Analyzer For A Japanese Text To Speech System Based On The Strength Of Connection Between Words" (in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of Japan, Vol. 51, No. 1, 1995, pp. 3–13).
Of the prosodic parameters, the duration of a syllable (voice element) varies due to various factors including a context where the syllable (voice element) is located. The factors that influence the duration include the restrictions on articulation, such as the type of the syllable, timing, the importance of a word, indication of the boundary of a phrase, the tempo in a phrase, the overall tempo, and the linguistic restriction, such as the meaning of a syntax. A typical way to control the duration of a voice element is to statistically analyze the degrees of influence of the factors on duration data that is actually observed, and use a rule acquired by the analysis. For example, "Phoneme Duration Control for Speech Synthesis by Rule" (The Transaction of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, 1984/7, Vol. J67-A, No. 7) describes a method of computing the prosodic parameters. Of course, computation of the prosodic parameters is not limited to this method.
While the above-described voice synthesizing method relates to a method of converting an arbitrary sentence to prosodic parameters or a text voice synthesizing method, there is another method of computing prosodic parameters in a case of synthesizing a voice corresponding to a stereotypical sentence having predetermined contents to be synthesized. Voice synthesis of a stereotypical sentence, such as a sentence used in voice-based information notification or a voice announcement service using a telephone is not as complex as voice synthesis of any given sentence. It is therefore possible to store prosody data corresponding to the structures or patterns of sentences in a database and search the stored patterns and use prosodic parameters of a pattern similar to a pattern in question at the time of computing the prosodic parameters. This method can significantly improve the naturalness of a synthesized voice as compared with a synthesized voice which is acquired by the text voice synthesizing method. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 249677/1999 discloses the prosodic-parameter computing method which uses that method.
The intonation of a synthesized voice depends on the quality of prosodic parameters. The speech style of a synthesized voice, such as an emotional expression or a dialect, can be controlled by adequately controlling the intonation of a synthesized voice.
The conventional voice synthesizing schemes involving stereotypical sentences are mainly used in voice-based information notification or a voice announcement service using a telephone. In the actual usage of those schemes, however, synthesized voices are fixed to one speech style and multifarious voices, such as dialects and voices in foreign languages, cannot be freely synthesized as desired. There are demands for installing dialects or the like into devices which require some amusement, such as cellular phones and toys, and the scheme of providing voices in foreign languages are essential in the internationalization of the devices.
However, the conventional technology is not developed in consideration of arbitrary conversion of voice contents to each dialect or expression at the time of voice synthesis. Further, the conventional technology makes it hard for a third party other than a system user and operator to freely prepare the prosody data. Furthermore, a device which suffers considerably limited resources for computation, such as a cellular phone, cannot synthesize voices with various speech styles.

Voice synthesizing method and voice synthesizer performing the same


A method for managing data communication between a communication device (102) and another device (112) in a communication network, comprises providing (500) data for transmission by the communication device (102), and controlling by at least one secure management element (300, 304) operating in a secure environment (218) in the communication device the transmission of the provided data by the communication device so as to manage data transmitted by the communication device. The step of controlling may include at least one of controlling an amount of data transmitted, controlling a time of transmission of data and controlling a periodicity of transmission of data. A communication device and a method of managing data received by a communication device are also described.

Machine to Machine (M2M) systems typically use unmanned devices to establish communication and exchange information with a central network so that the central network can receive data from or transmit data to each unmanned device for processing. M2M devices may include unmanned wireless devices or wireline devices which are used in applications such as metering, parcel tracking, telematics, embedded modems for CCTV cameras and consumer electronic devices such as camcorders, cameras, and cable modems, and similar applications. Since the M2M devices may be embedded in other devices, M2M devices are typically required to be small, and low cost devices. In addition, although M2M devices may be deployed in large volumes, each M2M device may communicate small amounts of data which, for example, in wireless systems, results in low revenue for the operator. More information on M2M systems can be found in the 3GPP standard specification TR 22.868 entitled 'Study on Facilitating Machine to Machine Communication in 3GPP Systems', the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Thus, it is desirable to reduce the cost of M2M devices.

Method for managing data communication between a communication device and another device and communication device


A programmable integrated circuit device includes a plurality of clusters of programmable logic resources. Programmable device interconnect resources allow user-defined interconnection between the clusters of programmable logic resources. A plurality of specialized processing blocks have dedicated arithmetic operators and programmable internal interconnect resources, and having inputs and outputs programmably connectable to the programmable device interconnect resources. A plurality of dedicated memory modules have inputs and outputs programmably connectable to the programmable device interconnect resources. Programmably connectable direct interconnect between at least one respective individual one of the specialized processing blocks and at least one respective individual one of the dedicated memory modules allow the formation of a processor element from a specialized processing block and a memory module. The specialized processing block may be designed with a datapath and operators arranged to support the configuring of a processor element.

Considering a programmable logic device (PLD) as one example of a programmable integrated circuit device, as applications for which PLDs are used increase in complexity, it has become more common to design PLDs to include specialized processing blocks in addition to blocks of generic programmable logic resources. Such specialized processing blocks may include a concentration of circuitry on a PLD that has been partly or fully hardwired to perform one or more specific tasks, such as a logical or a mathematical operation. A specialized processing block may also contain one or more specialized structures, such as an array of configurable memory elements. Examples of structures that are commonly implemented in such specialized processing blocks include: multipliers, arithmetic logic units (ALUs), barrel-shifters, various memory elements (such as FIFO/LIFO/SIPO/RAM/ROM/CAM blocks and register files), AND/NAND/OR/NOR arrays, etc., or combinations thereof.
One particularly useful type of specialized processing block that has been provided on PLDs is a digital signal processing (DSP) block, which may be used to process, e.g., audio signals (such as by Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filtering). Such blocks are also frequently referred to as multiply-accumulate ("MAC") blocks, because they include structures to perform multiplication operations, and sums and/or accumulations of multiplication results.
For example, PLDs sold by Altera Corporation, of San Jose, Calif., as part of the STRATIX®, ARRIA®, CYCLONE® and HARDCOPY® families include DSP blocks, each of which includes one or more multipliers. Each of those DSP blocks also includes one or more adders and registers, as well as programmable connectors (e.g., multiplexers) that allow the various components of the block to be configured in different ways. In addition, those DSP blocks can be configured for operation at different precisions.
Another type of specialized function that could be performed on a programmable integrated circuit device is that of a processor (e.g., a microprocessor).
One known possibility is to configure a processor from general-purpose programmable logic of a programmable integrated circuit device. The configuration of general-purpose programmable logic into a processor may be aided by the availability, from the programmable integrated circuit device manufacturer, or from others, of a "soft processor"—i.e., prerecorded configuration instructions for an efficient configuration of a processor on the programmable integrated circuit device. For example, the aforementioned Altera Corporation provides its customers with a soft processor "core" under the trademark NIOS® II.
Another known possibility is to provide dedicated processor circuitry on a portion of a programmable integrated circuit device. For example, the aforementioned Altera Corporation provides devices that may include dedicated ARM® processors from ARM Ltd., of Cambridge, England.
Both of these approaches may have drawbacks. For example, the soft processor approach consumes a substantial amount of the general-purpose logic resources of a device to instantiate the processor, leaving fewer resources for other user functions without moving to a larger device. On the other hand, while the dedicated processor approach consumes less device area than the soft processor approach, thereby leaving more general-purpose logic resources available on a device of a given size, the dedicated processor still consumes device area that a user, who does not need a processor, might prefer to see used for general-purpose logic resources.

Configuring programmable integrated circuit device resources as processing elements


Systems and methods are disclosed for maintaining a low internal temperature in items held in an open container system. Example embodiments generate a stationary, insulating layer of cold air that covers the exposed surface and slows the transfer of heat from the environment. One example embodiment includes a storage container employing a free convection cooling mechanism adjacent to an exposed surface of a perishable. The free convection cooling mechanism acts to chill the air immediately above the exposed surface, thereby creating an insulating layer of cold air. By raising or lowering the temperature of this layer, the example embodiment may further be able to raise or lower the internal temperature of the perishable.

During preparation, perishable items are often held for extended periods of time in open, easy-to-access containers. For example, many kitchens keep condiments and other frequently used foods in trays that are left open to the warm kitchen environment. As a perishable sits in ambient air, however, it absorbs heat through the surface exposed to the environment by the uncovered top of the tray. This heat absorption causes the perishable's internal temperature to rise, eventually warming the perishable to the temperature of the ambient air. In an attempt to counteract this warming process, trays holding perishables are often placed into "condiment rails" or other similar container systems that are designed to remove the heat added by the environment.
A refrigerated condiment rail is a bin that holds a number of individual, perishable-holding trays cooled using a cooling mechanism. This mechanism, which can range from a simple ice bath to a complex arrangement of refrigeration units, such as a "Bloomington Rail", conductively chills the bottom and side surfaces of the trays. The difference in temperatures creates a temperature gradient between the warmer exposed, perishable surface and the colder tray surfaces. The temperature gradient causes the perishable body to pass the absorbed heat from the exposed perishable surface to the surfaces of the tray (down the temperature gradient). The speed of this transfer is a function of the characteristics of the perishable and the size of the temperature difference. The colder the system is able to make the tray surface, the more quickly the heat can be passed down the gradient. Many perishables become damaged if they are frozen, however, so systems typically keep tray surfaces above −32° F. in order to avoid damaging portions of the perishable near the bottom and sides of the tray.
Systems such as Bloomington Rails typically use conduction to chill the surfaces of the tray, but other methods for chilling the tray surfaces are also used. For example, some systems incorporate forced convection mechanisms that cool the surfaces of a tray by blowing chilled air across them. While forced convection is often less efficient than conduction for the transfer of heat, it is still easily capable of lowering the tray surfaces to the freezing point. In addition, some forced convection systems reduce the temperature of the perishable directly by venting chilled air across the exposed surfaces. This rapidly moving cold air will cool the exposed surface of the perishable further removing the heat added by the environment.
Other systems directly chill the perishable by immersing it in a chilled environment. Chest freezers, for example, hold perishables in an open-topped chamber and continually fill the chamber with cold air. The heavier, colder air amasses in the bottom of the chamber slowly building toward the top. Eventually, all the warmer air is forced out of the chamber completely.