A surgical device adapted for use with an image guided surgical system to facilitate monitoring inter-dependently mobile bone elements. A rigidly connected multiple-point anchor assembly is releasably engageable to at least two inter-dependently mobile bone elements and immobilizes the bone elements such that no relative movement therebetween is possible, and a complex rigid body comprising the immobilized bone elements and the multiple-point anchor assembly is formed. A trackable member is fastened to the multiple-point anchor assembly and comprises a detectable element adapted to be located and tracked in three dimensional space by the image guided surgical system, thereby defining position and movement of the complex rigid body.

Increasingly common spinal surgical procedures, such as those performed to treat deforming spinal conditions for example, often require immobilizing or fusing vertebrae together by installing surgical implants to the affected bone structures. The implantation of pedicle screw fixation systems to correct and stabilize congenital and acquired deformities, trauma and degenerative diseases of the spine is well known. Such implants often include, for example, various screws or hooks fixed to vertebrae and linked by rods, plates or wires. Many different vertebra mounted spinal implants are known, however most share a common requirement for fixation of an element to a vertebral body: screw insertion. The use of screws, installed into the pedicle region of each vertebra requiring immobilization, remains a critical mainstay of spinal corrective surgery, but one fraught with a potential for error that, even given today's surgical devices and procedures, remains significant.
Traditional spinal surgical operations are highly invasive, often requiring large incisions which, while necessary to achieve sufficient spinal exposure, result in significant patient trauma and post operative pain. Computer assisted image guided surgical instrument navigation and percutaneous implant fixation are increasingly being used wherever possible in an effort to reduce the invasiveness of spinal surgery.
It is well known to use vertebral clamps having opposing jaws with teeth thereon for driving together and penetrating tissue and bone such that the clamp can be fixedly fastened to a spinous process of a vertebral body. Such clamps are typically quite long, about 20 cm in length, although smaller clamps intended to significantly limit the invasiveness of spine surgery, have more recently also emerged. The use of these clamps with an image guided surgery system, wherein the clamp comprises a trackable element thereon which can identify the position and orientation of the clamp, and therefore also that of the bone element to which it is fixed, is also well known.
Computer Assisted Surgery (CAS) systems have considerably enabled much more precise and accurately repeatable pedicle screw insertion during spinal surgical operations. However, surgical navigation in the spine, where multiple vertebral bodies can move relative to each other, as a result of patient breathing or other body movement for example, creates navigation difficulties unique to spinal surgery in general, and to pedicle screw placement and insertion in particular. It has been recently taught, for example by Bucholz et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,875, to modify and reposition the pre-operatively acquired anatomical image data set to match the actual position of the anatomical elements during the surgery. A single tracked clamp is fixed to a first vertebra into which a pedicle screw is to be placed, for example. Once the vertebra is registered with the computer model of itself, the trackable clamp fastened thereto permits tracking this registered vertebra only using the CAS system. Once work on the registered vertebra is completed, the entire clamp assembly is removed, and reinstalled on a second vertebra, which once registered, can then be tracked by the system. Therefore, in order to insert pedicle screws into a plurality of vertebrae, these steps must be repeated for each vertebra sequentially, and therefore only one vertebra is ever accurately tracked and therefore precisely located in space by the CAS system, at any one time. While only limited displacement between vertebrae naturally occurs, even the slightest movement of the patient during surgery, for example movement resulting from breathing, can cause enough relative displacement of the other vertebrae with respect to the one being tracked to cause their inaccurate depiction. Therefore the precise position and movement of the entire section of interest of the spine cannot be accurately located with only a single vertebra being tracked. Using individual tracking elements for each rigid body in spine surgery, while permitting intra-operative detection of each anatomical element, is impractical as having detectable members fixed to each vertebra takes up considerable space within the surgical field, limiting the workspace available to the surgeon, and often additionally resulting in a higher level of invasiveness. This is, however, what has been done to date.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,226,548 Foley et al. disclose a CAS navigated apparatus which provides the ability to track a surgical instrument and implants such that percutaneous surgical operation can be performed on anatomical elements, such as vertebrae, which can intra-operatively move relative to each other. Foley et al. use a percutaneous bone clamp, which is fastened to a spinous process of a vertebra, and onto which is removably engaged a superstructure having a reference member including emitters for providing a positive indication of movement of the structure, and hence the vertebra to which it is fastened, to the surgical navigation system. The system can thereby positively indicate to the surgeon a change in position of the vertebrae from that identified in the pre-stored image scan, and provides a method to realign those body parts to correspond with a previously stored image or the image to correspond with the actual current position of the body parts.
However, if each rigid body is not individually detectable, any movement of the anatomical structures relative to one another during surgery can cause the pre-operatively scanned images to misrepresent the intra-operative anatomy, a possibility that could eventuate in very grave consequences. When a single vertebra is being tracked, only the spatial position and orientation of the lone tracked vertebral body can be accurately determined.
Additionally, when the spinal column in particular is the multiple-bone anatomical structure of interest, there exists difficulty in tracking all of its constituents. While spinal column bone clamps adapted to be fastened onto vertebra are known, whether tracked or not, it generally remains difficult to track the sacrum with these standard vertebral clamps currently in use. As the sacrum generally has very little process portion which protrudes, the sacrum provides no convenient clamping point permitting simple engagement of a tracked bone reference clamp. Without using a bone reference which requires fastening to the sacrum body using bone screws for example, it is currently difficult to use standard vertebrae reference clamps in order to identify and track the sacrum with an image guided surgery system.
Therefore, there nevertheless remains a need to provide a simple method of tracking a multi-bone moveable structure, such as the spinal column, and registering it with an anatomical image or model, such that the location of the multiple-bone moveable structure can be accurately determined intra-operatively by an image guided surgical system, without requiring displacement of the bone reference apparatus from one bone to another. There also remains a need to provide a vertebral clamp capable of conveniently engaging the sacrum, in order to permit tracking of the sacrum.


An energy meter capable of converting from one mode of operation to another mode of operation is described. In the one embodiment, the present apparatus measures energy consumption, and converts operation from a first mode to a second mode.

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to energy meters, and more specifically, relates to energy meters having the flexibility to perform various types of metering functions.
B. Related Art
In the art of energy metering, those skilled in the art typically view a meter as being composed of two (2) basic components--a metering component and a register component. The metering component is coupled to a power distribution network and generates signals indicative of power consumption. These signals are passed to the register component which performs such functions as storing the signals in a time-of-use format or a demand-type format.
Once a month or so, a meter reader is dispatched to "read" the meter. In some cases, reading a meter may simply involve downloading the register component memory into a portable electronic memory storage device carried by the meter reader.
Recently, meter manufacturers have begun manufacturing the metering component and register component in fully solid state form. This transition is due, at least in part, to the desire of power utility companies to have energy meters with the flexibility to perform a wide array of functions. Such flexibility can only be provided using solid state technology.
One significant and potential cost-saving feature made possible with the transition to solid state technology is to provide "convertible" meters. This means that the register component can be converted from performing, for example, demand-only functions to demand and time-of-use functions. The register component, therefore, is convertible from one function to other functions.
Until now, however, such convertibility was only provided by removing the register component and substituting another register component capable of performing the desired function. For example, a demand-only register component would be removed from the meter and replaced with a demand and time-of-use register component. Rather than being "convertible", these register components actually are "replaceable" modules. An example of a modular register component is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,213.
It is desirable, therefore, to provide a truly convertible register which does not require removing and replacing one register component for another in order to change register function.

Electrical energy meter with programmable register component


A hollow package manufacturing method includes the adhesive spreading step, the adhesive applying step, and the cap adhering step. In the adhesive spreading step, an adhesive is spread on a circular table to a uniform thickness. In the adhesive applying step, an open end face of a cylindrical cap having a bottom is urged against the circular table to apply the adhesive to the cap. In the cap adhering step, the cap applied with the adhesive is adhered to a case. A hollow package manufacturing apparatus is also disclosed.

The present invention relates to a hollow package manufacturing method and apparatus for applying to a hollow package cap an adhesive used for adhering the hollow package cap to a case.
Ultra-high-frequency devices include transistors, ICs, optical elements, surface acoustic wave elements, resonators, and the like. Conventionally, since these devices are used in commercial communication apparatuses and satellites, they must have a high reliability and a long service life even though they may become somewhat expensive. Recently, many ultra-high-frequency devices are also used in home-use apparatuses such as receivers for broadcast satellite communication, portable telephones, and the like. Although devices used for home-use apparatuses do not need such a high reliability and a long service life as those of the commercial communication apparatuses, they must be manufactured at a low cost as much as possible. Among attempts for manufacturing lower-cost devices, an ultra-high-frequency chip conventionally sealed in a ceramic package is incorporated in a hollow package made of a synthetic resins thereby reducing the cost.
A resin-molded package of this type is formed by adhering a cap to a case mounting a semiconductor chip and the like therein. As an adhesive used for adhering the cap to the case, a sheet-like adhesive or a liquid adhesive is used. A conventional method of forming a hollow package by using a liquid adhesive will be described with reference to FIGS. 10A to 10E.
Referring to FIGS. 10A and 10B, reference numeral 1 denotes an adhesive coating unit. The adhesive coating unit 1 spreads a liquid adhesive 2 having a viscosity over the upper surface of a mask 3 with a squeegee 4. A plurality of mask openings 3a having the same shape as that of adhesion surfaces are formed in the mask 3 and are positioned above hollow package caps 5 (to be described later).
The hollow package caps 5 are made of a synthetic resin into cylinders respectively having bottoms and recessed portions 5a, and are held by a tray 6 such that their end faces 5b where the recessed portions 5a are open face upward. The tray 6 holds the caps 5 to face upward at positions corresponding to the mask openings 3a of the mask 3. Each mask opening 3a is formed to have a hole diameter substantially equal to the outer diameter of the cap 5.
Referring to FIG. 10C, reference numeral 7 denotes a heating furnace. Referring to FIG. 10D, reference numeral 8 denotes a vacuum suction nozzle for conveying the cap 5 coated with the adhesive 2 downward. Hollow package cases 9 are formed by molding the synthetic resin on a lead frame 9a. A wire-bonded ultra-high-frequency semiconductor chip 9b is mounted in the hollow package case 9. Referring to FIGS. 10D and 10E, reference numeral 10 denotes a heater plate for heating the placed hollow package case 9. As the synthetic resin that forms the caps 5 and the cases 9, an epoxy resin is employed. As the adhesive 2, one containing an epoxy resin as the major component is used.
In the conventional arrangement described above, to adhere the caps 5 to the hollow package cases 9, first, the adhesive 2 is applied to the end faces 5b of the caps 5 by using the adhesive coating unit 1, as shown in FIGS. 10A to 10C. More specifically, the caps 5 are held by the tray 6 and their open end faces 5b are positioned below the mask openings 3a of the mask 3, and the adhesive 2 is spread over the mask 3 with the squeegee 4. Therefore, the adhesive 2 fills the mask openings 3a of the mask 3 to coat the end faces 5b of the caps 5.
Thereafter, the tray 6 is separated downward from the adhesive coating unit 1. The adhesive 2 coating the end faces 5b of the caps 5 is separated from the adhesive 2 on the surface of the mask 3 to remain in the caps 5. The thickness of the adhesive 2 applied to the open end faces 5b corresponds to the thickness of the mask 3. Accordingly, when the thickness of the mask 3 is changed, the adhesive 2 can be easily applied to a desired thickness
As shown in FIG. 10C, the caps 5 are supplied together with the tray 6 into the heating furnace 7 and are heated in order to semi-harden the adhesive 2. This aims at preventing the caps 5 from adhering to each other or from adhering to a transfer vessel (not shown) when the caps 5 are transferred to a following step.
After the caps 5 are extracted from the heating furnace 7, they are loaded in the transfer vessel (not shown) and are transferred to the cap adhering unit shown in FIG. 10D. Subsequently, the caps 5 are extracted from the transfer vessel with a handling unit (not shown) and are aligned to discriminate their vertical and horizontal directions. The bottom surface (a surface opposite to the open end face 5b applied with the adhesive 2) of each cap 5 is drawn with the vacuum suction nozzle 8.
Thereafter, the cap 5 facing downward is conveyed above the case 9 with the vacuum suction nozzle 8, as shown in FIG. 10D, and is urged against the upper surface of the case 9 which has been placed on the heater plate 10 and heated. The adhesive 2 is heated and melted by the heat of the case 9, and is hardened, so that the cap 5 is adhered to the case 9 through the adhesive 2.
When a sheet-like adhesive is used as the adhesive 2, it is cut into the same shape (annular shape) as that of the open end face 5b of the cap 5, and the cut adhesive sheet is adhered to the open end face 5b. Thereafter, the cap 5 is adhered to the case 9 through the adhesive sheet.
The most significant element in the adhesive coating step is how to apply the adhesive in a desired thickness accurately. For example, if the amount of adhesive 2 applied to the cap 5 is smaller than the defined amount, the cap 5 cannot be firmly adhered to the case 9, and moreover the airtightness at the adhesion portion is decreased. Inversely, if the amount of applied adhesive 2 is larger than the defined amount, an excessive adhesive 2 flows into and out of the package to degrade the outer appearance, or attaches to the chip and wires to degrade the electrical characteristics. From these reasons, conventionally, the thickness of the adhesive 2 is strictly managed to fall within a range of 20 .mu.m to 50 .mu.m by controlling the thickness of the mask or the thickness of the sheet-like adhesive film.
When, however, the method shown in FIGS. 10A to 10E is employed, the mask opening 3a and the open end face 5b of the cap 5 must be aligned at high precision. The conventional cap 5 has a comparatively large size and thus can be aligned easily. In contrast to this, since the package for an ultra-high-frequency device has a small diameter of 2 mm and its recessed portion-side end face 5b has a small width of 0.25 mm, alignment must be performed with an error of 0.02 mm or less. If misalignment occurs, the liquid adhesive 2 may leak to the outer circumferential portion of the cap 5 through a gap formed by misalignment, or some region of the open end face 5b may be left uncoated with the adhesive 2, leading to a poor outer appearance and a decrease in reliability. From these reasons, a long period of time is required for alignment, and a high-precision, expensive alignment unit is indispensable, increasing the manufacturing cost of the device accordingly.
In this manner, since the adhesive coating unit 1 using the mask 3 has a complicated arrangement, it must be inevitably separated from the cap adhering unit. Therefore, when transferring the caps 5 from the adhesive coating unit 1 to the cap adhering unit, a countermeasure must be taken so that the caps 5 will not adhere to each other or adhere to the transfer vessel. Conventionally, the adhesive 2 coated by the adhesive coating unit 1 is placed in the heating furnace once and is semi-hardened so that its adhesion properties are decreased, and thereafter the caps 5 are transferred.
For this purpose, a heating unit for semi-hardening the adhesive 2, the transfer vessel used for transfer between the steps, the handling unit for transferring the caps 5 to the cap adhering unit, and the like are required. Also, during handling, the caps 5 must be aligned again and their vertical direction and referential direction must be discriminated. Furthermore, when adhering the caps 5, the adhesive 2 must be preheated to restore it from the semi-hardened state to the molten state. In this manner, with the method using the mask 3, although the thickness of the adhesive 2 can be uniformed comparatively easily, expensive units and a large number of steps are required for alignment and handling.
When the sheet-like adhesive is used, although a heating furnace for semi-hardening the adhesive becomes unnecessary, high precision is required in alignment, in the same manner as for alignment of the mask 3. Since the sheet-like adhesive need be attached with parting paper or the like to facilitate its handling, the sheet-like adhesive itself becomes expensive. In the package for the ultra-high-frequency device, since the sheet has a small diameter of 2 mm and a small width of 0.25 mm, even if the sheet is cut circular with a die, when adhering the sheet to the cap 5, the sheet may be deformed to cause misalignment in the adhesion position. As a result, the adhesion strength is decreased, or the airtightness may be decreased.


A checking mechanism for complete full-chip ESD protection circuit design and layout verification at layout level identifies all of both intentional and parasitic ESD devices contained in the design layout file and compiles a netlist. The checking mechanism then determines the critical operating parameters of the identified ESD devices and determines if the parasitic devices will negatively effect ESD protection performance. The checking mechanism then determines if the intentional devices meet design specifications; eliminates parasitic devices which will not negatively effect ESD protection from the netlist, and retains those parasitic devices which may lead to ESD protection malfunction. Design layout verification and faults are then reported.

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) induced damage is a devastating problem to integrated circuit (IC) parts. In order to protect IC parts against ESD failures, on-chip ESD protection circuits (hereinafter "ESD devices" for brevity) are required for virtually all practical IC products. On-chip ESD protection circuit design emerges as a major design challenge as IC technologies migrate into the very-deep-sub-micron (VDSM) regime, particularly for mixed-signal and RF ICs.
ESD events, which are inevitable in IC manufacturing, assembly, and application, generate huge over-current and over-voltage transients that can fatally damage electronic components. ESD failure becomes a major IC reliability problem to the semiconductor industry, and accounts for 30–50% of total field failures. Therefore, on-chip ESD devices are required for all IC chips. In principle, an ESD protection device, which remains in the off state in normal operation, is triggered by an ESD pulse to form a low-impedance discharging path to shunt the current transient safely and to clamp the pad voltage to a sufficiently low level, therefore protecting an IC chip from being ESD-damaged.
While many different kinds of general purpose IC physical design verification methods, such as design rule checking (DRC) and layout versus schematic (LVS) exist, few physical design verification methods and computer-aided-design (CAD) software tools are available for on-chip ESD protection circuit design. Particularly, no physical design verification method and CAD tool are currently available that can perform comprehensive ESD-function-based physical design verification at the design layout level without resorting to device-model-based schematic/simulation level checking.
In on-chip ESD protection circuit design, after layout and before IC fabrication, comprehensive physical layout design verification should be performed to thoroughly verify the layout design. Physical layout design verification helps to avoid fatal layout errors and reduce design time and efforts. Unfortunately, the currently dominating trial-and-error ESD protection approaches do not facilitate any practical ESD device design verification methods and software.
Aside from the challenges associated with the design of circuits for on-chip ESD devices, comprehensive ESD device design verification at the whole chip level becomes critical to the success of complex IC chip design. An automatic ESD device extractor at the layout level can play an important role in IC protection. ESD device extraction should be the first step in any design verification to enable further layout-schematic checking and ESD circuit simulation at the whole chip level.
Compared with the research efforts made in ESD device design, very limited work has been done in realizing ESD device extraction. The current challenges in developing ESD device extraction tools are as follow. First, extraction of ESD device is different from that of extracting normal IC devices in that ESD devices are often unconventional devices in nature. Conventional IC devices, such as MOSFET, can be extracted using basic Boolean operation of layout features as set forth in U. Lauther, "An O(N log N) Algorithm For Boolean Mask Operations", Proc. 18th DAC, pp 555–562, 1981. However, ESD devices have very complicated structures and irregular layout patterns which cannot be extracted using existing conventional device extractors.
Second, ESD transient current often causes the turn-on of parasitic ESD-like devices (also referred to herein as "ESD devices" for simplicity) such as may exist inside the protected core IC circuit or in the ESD protection network, before the intentional ESD devices can be triggered to perform ESD protection. The chip level. Therefore, there is a need for reliable parasitic ESD device extraction, and analysis according to the ESD stressing conditions.
In T. Li, C. Tsai, E. Rosenbaum and S. M. Kang, "Modeling, Extraction and Simulation of CMOS I/O Circuits under ESD Stress", Proc. IEEE ISCAS, Vol.6, pp 389–392, 1998., an ESD CAD tool is presented for detecting parasitic BJT (bipolar junction transistors) type ESD devices in MOSFET ESD protection structures under ESD stresses. In Q. Li and S. M. Kang "Technology Independent Arbitrary Device Extractor", Proc. 10th Great Lakes Symp. VLSI, pp 143–146, 2000., a technique to extract irregular ESD devices is presented. This technique, however, adopts a time-consuming top-down recognition approach, uses a redundancy-prone individual model graph recognition method, and mainly focuses on intentional ESD devices.
T. Li, Y. Hun and S. Kang, "Automated Extraction of Parasitic BJT's for CMOS I/O Circuits under ESD Stress", IRW Final Report, pp 103–109, 1997., presents an ESD-stress-dependent stress annotation technique to extract parasitic BJT devices. This technique does not have the desired capacity to extract any parasitic ESD devices independent of ESD stressing conditions, which is critical to verify ESD protection design at the full chip level.
An alternative device extraction technique is the procedural decision tree (D-tree) method reported in NCA/DVS Training Guide, NCA Corporation, California, USA. A D-tree is a structured set of sequential decisions used to refine an initial hypothesis formed when a characteristic layout feature to a specific device is found. In device recognition, the program detects a characteristic layout feature and goes through user-defined procedural D-tree routines to recognize a device. While simple to implement, the D-tree approach requires procedural details describing a device to be detected, thus increasing the amount of details that must be reprogrammed for each different IC technology. It also has the disadvantage of requiring a huge amount of intermediate mask/shape data. Hence, D-tree based extraction tools require complex device description, extensive computing time, and a large intermediate database.
Some reported device extractors such as in the aforementioned Li and Kang article, or in A. Brown and P. Thomas, "Goal-Oriented Subgraph Isomorphism Technique For IC Device Recognition" Comms., Speech & Vision, IEE Proc. I, V135 N6, pp 141–150, 1988., use a top-down approach in which a characteristic feature of a device is specified as the root for the device model graph, and the recognition of the device is triggered by the discovery of its root. This approach can be an efficient solution when a limited number of device types are considered. However, its efficiency decreases significantly as the number of model graphs is increased, as in the case of ESD protection circuit design.
However, an ESD device extractor should desirably deal with many device types including the classic ESD device types, e.g., ggNMOS (grounded-gate NMOSFET), gcNMOS (gate-coupled NMOSFET), BJT, diode and SCR, as well as any new ESD devices, e.g., a dual-direction SCR ESD device as presented in A. Wang and C. Tsay, "On a Dual-Polarity On-Chip Electrostatic Discharge Device", IEEE Tran. Electron Devices, Vol. 48, No. 5, pp 978–984, May 2001.
Aside from the challenges associated with on-chip ESD device extraction, i.e., identification, an automatic ESD device layout extractor would desirably enable further layout-schematic checking and ESD circuit simulation at the whole chip level.
Q. Li, Y. Hun, J. Chen, P. Bendix and S. Kang, "ESD Design Rule Checker", Proc. IEEE ISCAS, pp 499–502, 2001., discusses an ESD design rule checking program, based upon the ESD device extraction tool proposed in the aforementioned Li and Kang article, that checks intentional ESD devices against given ESD design rules. This application may be limited by the features of the extraction tool of the aforementioned Li and Kang article.
S. Sinha, H. Swaminathan, G. Kadamati and C. Duvvury, "An Automatic Tool for Detecting ESD Design Errors", Proc. EOS/ESD Symp., pp 208–217, 1998., reported an ESD design error-checking tool that performs simple and traditional metal bus resistance and diffusion spacing checks only.
M. Baird and R. Ida, "VerifyESD: A Tool for Efficient Circuit Level ESD Simulation of Mixed-Signal ICs", Proc. EOS/ESD, pp 465–469, 2000., presented an ESD device verification tool that is simply a SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) pre/post processor capable of analyzing a given circuit netlist. This tool does not address complex ESD device extraction problems.
Further, while there have been proposed device extraction techniques for the identification of some ESD device structures, no tool or system known to the inventors has yet put forth a means for calculating the critical operating parameters of those ESD devices identified and using the critical operating parameters in order that a thorough, automatic, layout level design verification may take place for the whole IC chip to ensure that the IC is adequately protected from ESD events.
Therefore, what is needed in the art for proper IC design verification is reliable, complete, automatic, ESD device extraction and inspection method at the design layout level to ensure full ESD protection of ICs. It is also desirable that such a method should be CAD-based and that it should enable further layout-schematic checking and ESD circuit simulation at the whole chip level. It is also very desirable that the final output of the netlist of such a method should contain all ESD-type devices capable of being turned on under an ESD pulse, whether the devices are intentional ESD devices or parasitic (unintentional) ESD-like devices.

Parameter checking method for on-chip ESD protection circuit physical design layout verification


A printer has a head where outlets are arranged in a width direction perpendicular to a predetermined scan direction, and a printing paper moves under the head in the scan direction. In a basic dither matrix which is an array where element values are arranged in a column direction corresponding to the scan direction and a row direction corresponding to the width direction and positions in the row direction are associated with the outlets in the head, respectively, the element values are modified on the basis of variation in print densities with respect to the width direction caused by ejection from the outlets. In the printer, printing is performed with the modified dither matrix, it is therefore possible to print an image at high speed and easily, where unevenness caused by variation in ejection amounts of droplets from the outlets or the like is suppressed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet printer, a dither matrix generation method for generating a dither matrix which is used in generating a halftone image from a grayscale original image, and a recording medium in which data of the dither matrix is recorded.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally used has been an inkjet printer provided with a head having a plurality of outlets, where the head moves relatively to a printing paper and printing is performed by controlling ON/OFF of ejection of fine droplet of ink from each outlet. As such a printer, known has been an apparatus where a head, in which a plurality of outlets are arranged in a direction perpendicular to a scan direction in a whole range corresponding to a width of printing paper, is provided and printing is performed at high speed with one scan (one pass) of the head relative to the printing paper.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-106248 (Document 1) discloses a technique for surely preventing occurrence of unevenness (mura) in a printed image caused by variation in ejection amounts of droplets from a plurality of outlets in an inkjet printer for printing with one pass, where a density measurement part measuring a density of each position in a width direction on a printing paper is provided and an ejection amount of droplet is corrected (i.e., the so-called shading compensation is performed) on the basis of a measured value of density in a region corresponding to each outlet in a pattern with a uniform density level (as a setting) which is printed by the head (hereinafter, the measured value is referred to as "a print density in outlet"). Document 1 further discloses a method for preventing occurrence of the above unevenness in a printed image by modifying each pixel value in a grayscale image to be written (hereinafter, referred to as "original image") on the basis of a print density in outlet corresponding to the pixel value.
Meanwhile, in an inkjet printer, a grayscale original image has to be binarized and in the case where the dither technique is used for binarization of the original image, each pixel value in the original image and the corresponding element value in a dither matrix are compared in an electric circuit or a software integrated circuit (halftoning circuit) to perform halftoning of the original image. In such a printer, as disclosed in Document 1, when each pixel value in the original image is modified on the basis of the print density in outlet corresponding to the pixel value, a calculation operation has to be performed for multiplying each pixel value in the original image by a correction coefficient derived from the print density in outlet before halftoning of the original image and it is difficult to print an image at high speed. It is thought that the above calculation operation is performed in an electric circuit, but a special circuit (shading compensation circuit) is needed and this increases the manufacturing cost for the printer.

Printer, dither matrix generation method, and recording medium


A disk storage device includes a head part which writes data into a storage disk loaded into the disk storage device and reads data from the storage disk, a linear actuator moving the head part in radial directions of the storage disk, an eject member which is operated when the storage disk is ejected, and a movement mechanism which moves the storage disk to an eject portion in response to an operation of the eject member and which moves the storage disk to a read/write position. A lock part, which has a lock member cooperating with the movement mechanism, keeps, in response to the operation of the eject member, the head part stationary at the eject position by the lock member which engages with one of the head part and the linear actuator.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to disk storage devices, such as magnetic disk drives or magneto-optic disk devices. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with a disk storage device having a mechanism for keeping a head part stationary in an eject mode.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
An magneto-optic storage device is known as a read/write storage device. In a read/write mode of the magneto-optic disk device, an optical head is moved in the radial directions of a storage disk by means of a linear actuator after the storage disk is loaded into the magneto-optic disk device. This linear actuator is composed of a pair of rod cores which run in the radial directions of the disk, a pair of coils wound around the pair of road cores, and a supporting base which is provided between the pair of coils and which supports the optical head. The optical head accommodates precision parts, such as a group of lenses of an optical system. In the read/write mode, a coil of the linear actuator is supplied with electricity. The optical head is moved along the rod cores due to a electromagnetic force derived from the coil. In this manner, a tracking operation is carried out.
The supporting base supporting the optical head is guided by guide shafts and moved along the rod cores by the linear actuator. After the storage disk is ejected from the disk storage device, the optical head is moved to an initializing position corresponding to an innermost track on the storage disk, and then supply of electricity to the coil is stopped. In this state, the optical head is free to move along the rod cores between the innermost and outermost tracks. In this state, if a vibration is applied to the disk storage device or the disk storage device is tilt, a large magnitude of force could be exerted on the optical head, and hence the optical head might forcibly fit against stoppers located at the innermost and outermost tracks. Hence, the precision parts of the optical system forming the optical head may be damaged.

Disk storage device having a carriage locking mechanism


A battery charger is provided with a battery charger unit which connects to, and charges a battery Solar cells are used as the source of power for charging the battery, and connecting parts electrically connect the solar cells and the battery charger unit. The battery charger unit is provided with a solar cell compartment for stowing the solar cells batteries when not in use charging a battery.

This invention relates to a battery charger which charges a battery using solar cells, and to the solar cells used for battery charging.
In recent years all types of electrical equipment have been miniaturized and made lightweight, and many portable electronic products have become available. Since commercial alternating current cannot be used with portable electrical equipment, batteries are used. Single use batteries such as dry-cell batteries and rechargeable batteries such as nickel-cadmium batteries are well known battery power sources. However, since rechargeable batteries can be repeatedly re-used simply by charging and have large capacity allowing high current discharge, they are extremely convenient to use.
It is known that rechargeable batteries can be charged using commercial alternating current or using solar cells. Commercial alternating current has the drawback that it is typically used only indoors and cannot be used outdoors to immediately recharge electrical equipment with low batteries. For this reason, it is necessary to carry a spare battery. A further drawback of charging with commercial alternating current is that rectifying circuitry is required to convert the alternating current to direct current. This makes the charging circuitry more complicated.
On the other hand, rechargeable batteries can be charged by solar cells indoors or outdoors as long as the solar cells produce electricity. Therefore, batteries can be recharged even when they run-down while portable equipment is being carried about. Since solar cells do not use commercial alternating current, they are economical. Further, since solar cell output is direct current, no alternating current conversion circuitry is required.
However, since 100% of the light energy cannot be converted to electrical energy, sufficient output cannot easily be obtained. For this reason, the light receiving area of solar cells must be made large in order to obtain enough output to charge batteries. Since making the solar cell light receiving area large means making the solar cells themselves large, this has the drawback that the larger the solar cells are made, the less portable they become.
Advances in rechargeable battery technology has resulted in commercial products such as high capacity nickel-hydrogen batteries and lithium ion batteries with higher voltage per cell than nickel-cadmium batteries. Consequently, charging current and voltage must be increased for charging these various types of batteries and the light receiving area of the solar cells must be further increased. For this reason, solar cells must be made larger and larger resulting in the drawback that it is difficult to make a battery charger powered by solar cells which is portable.
It is the first object of this invention to present a battery charger with solar cells which is easily portable, which can be quickly set to recharge run-down batteries in portable electrical equipment used outdoors, and has solar cells which have sufficient output for charging batteries.
Often in the case of portable electrical equipment with rechargeable batteries, the equipment is put in a carrying case or bag for transport. Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 61-129436 issued Aug. 13, 1986, discloses a bag which carries rechargeable batteries and which can charge those rechargeable batteries with solar cells. This bag is shown in FIG. 2. The bag of FIG. 2 is a mountain climbing type backpack with solar cells 210 provided on the upper flap portion of the bag. The rechargeable batteries 213 are retained within the bag and the solar cells 210 are connected to the rechargeable batteries 213 through lead wires 26 and the battery charger 214. As a result, the rechargeable batteries 213 are charged by the solar cells 210.
It is generally known that battery temperature rises when rechargeable batteries are charged. It is also known that leaving rechargeable batteries in a high temperature environment for long periods invites battery degradation. However, heat is enclosed within the bag described by the above mentioned application when the upper flap is closed and, furthermore, the batteries generate heat when they are charging.
It is the second object of this invention to provide a bag which can carry portable electrical equipment housing rechargeable batteries without degrading those rechargeable batteries and, further, can charge those rechargeable batteries while the electrical equipment is within the bag.
Incidentally, the footprint of large solar cells can be made smaller when not in use if the solar cells are designed to be folded up. Japanese Non-examined Utility Model Publication No. SHO61 123550, issued 1986, discloses a solar cell apparatus comprising a plurality of solar cell devices connected by leads which can bend. This configuration of solar cell apparatus has the characteristic that it can be folded up and made compact when not in use. Further, solar cells can be mounted on folding parts of electrical equipment such as portable telephones which have a case structure allowing parts to bend and fold up. Apparatus with solar cells mounted on folding parts of the case have solar cells on more than one surface of the case and have the characteristic that solar cell area and hence power output can be made larger.
The solar cell apparatus disclosure mentioned above has the structure shown in FIG. 1. The folding solar cell apparatus has flexible leads connecting solar cell devices. The flexible leads are reinforced by a protective cover that coats both sides of the leads making them difficult to damage. The surfaces of the solar cell devices are also coated with a protective cover.
The solar cell apparatus shown in FIG. 1 has the characteristic that since the leads 2 are flexible and can be used as hinges, the apparatus can be conveniently used in various applications. However, connection of the leads 2 is extremely labor intensive, and this structure has the drawback that efficient lead connection for inexpensive mass production is difficult. This is because both sides of the leads 2 are coated with a protective cover 4 after connection to solar cell device 1 terminals; then the surfaces of the solar cell devices are coated with a protective cover 5. Manufacturability is even worse if already complete solar cell devices 1 coated with a protective cover 5 are used and the devices are connected with leads 2. This is because the protective cover 5 on the solar cell devices 1 must be removed over the terminals, leads 2 must be connected to the terminals, and a protective cover 4 must be applied over both sides of the leads 2 and over the surface of the terminals. Processing difficulty is reflected in the manufacturing cost of the solar cell apparatus and limits its application.
The solar cell apparatus shown in FIG. 1 has the further drawback that the leads 2 are easily broken at their interface with each solar cell device 1. When adjacent solar cell devices 1 are folded up, the leads 2 bend with a small radius of curvature at their interface with each solar cell device 1. The leads 2 are coated with a flexible protective cover 4, but the solar cell devices 1 are coated with a stiff protective cover 5. At an interface with a solar cell device 1, the leads 2 have a discontinuous section which transitions from a deformable region to a non-deformable region and bending in this region easily damages the leads 2. The fact that the leads 2 are easily broken not only limits their application but also makes malfunctions due to open circuited leads common. Applications are limited because the apparatus cannot be used where the leads are repeatedly bent and flexed.
A further drawback of this apparatus is the difficulty in determining open circuits in the leads 2. This is because even though a lead 2 may be open circuited, the protective cover 4 on both sides of the lead 2 may not be broken. External visual inspection of a broken lead 2 may therefore show it to be connected. Further, since the leads 2 are flexible and free to deform elastically, a broken section of lead 2 as well as an unbroken section of lead 2 are both free to deform. For this reason it may be difficult to determine a lead 2 open circuit at the degree to which the lead 2 can deform. This a further cause of difficulty in determining open circuits in the leads 2.
It is the third object of this invention to present a flexible solar cell apparatus that can be manufactured efficiently and inexpensively in quantity. It is a further primary object of this invention to present a flexible solar cell apparatus in which open circuited leads are not only prevented but also are easy to determine in the unlikely event that they occur.
In a folding solar cell apparatus with flexible leads, lead bending is limited to a minimum radius of curvature. This is because lead bending with an extremely small radius of curvature results in failure to restore the original lead shape. In a folding solar cell apparatus with a plurality of solar cell devices connected with the ability to bend at their boundaries, it is desirable to allow folding with as small as possible a radius of curvature at the boundaries. This is because bending with a large radius of curvature does not allow the apparatus to fold into a thin shape. In particular, a solar cell apparatus with many interconnected solar cell devices which cannot be folded with a small radius of curvature at the leads has the drawback that it will be quite thick when folded.
It is thus another further object of this invention to present a solar cell apparatus in which the leads can bend with a small radius of curvature resulting in a thin folded shape, and while the leads are frequently bent, lead damage and poor connection can be markedly reduced.
The above and further objects and features of the invention will more fully be apparent from the following detailed description with accompanying drawings.

Battery charger and solar cells for battery charging


An unlocking method for a portable electronic device, and a portable electronic device and a touch-sensitive device employing the unlocking method are provided. The portable electronic device has a touch-sensitive display, and a user interface is displayed on the touch-sensitive display. The unlocking method includes respectively displaying at least one unlocking image on at least one unfixed point of the touch-sensitive display when the user interface is in a user interface locking state and sensing a touch signal of the touch-sensitive display. The unlocking method further includes switching the user interface to a user interface unlocking state when at least one click corresponding to the at least one unfixed point is detected on the touch-sensitive display.

1. Technique Field
The disclosure generally relates to a user interface of a touch-sensitive display, and more particularly, to a portable electronic device, an unlocking method of a user interface thereof, and a touch-sensitive device.
2. Description of Related Art
Along with the fast advancement and broad application of the information technology, wireless communication, and information appliances, touch-sensitive displays have replaced the conventional keyboards and mouses as the input devices of many information products. A touch-sensitive display can be used as both the input interface and the output interface of a product. A user can not only view operation images through a touch-sensitive display but also input texts or commands through the touch-sensitive display to operate an information product.
In order to prevent an electronic device from mistakenly receiving any unexpected operation instruction (for example, the user accidentally touches a key and accordingly triggers a misoperation), the operation interface of the electronic device is usually locked when the user does not continue to operate the electronic device. When the electronic device receives an unlocking instruction, the functionality of the operation interface is re-activated and the user is allowed to issue operation instructions through the operation interface displayed on the touch-sensitive display. Conventionally, when the operation interface is locked, the user needs to press down a physical key combination or input a password to unlock the operation interface. However, in most cases, pressing multiple physical keys to unlock an operation interface is not very convenient. Besides, the disposition of physical keys on a touch-sensitive electronic device does not meet the design concept of touch-sensitive information products. On the other hand, it is time-consuming to unlock an operation interface by inputting a password. Thereby, an unlocking mechanism needs to be developed for touch-sensitive electronic devices.

Unlocking method, portable electronic device and touch-sensitive device


Animal retention apparatus, and method and applications thereof, having multiple support guides and a frame member with multiple passageways, the support guides being adapted for being inserted into the passageways and removably held at desired locations in the frame member, horizontally or at various angles to enhance retention of the animal, so that support guide would come in adjacent contact with an animal's anatomy to hold the animal in a desired position as the animal is positioned alongside the frame member. A method of working on an animal involves obtaining an embodiment of the animal retention apparatus and positioning the animal alongside a side of the frame member, placing support guides at height and width locations in the apparatus frame member that will hold the animal in a desired position, and working on sides of the animal that face away from the side of the frame member.

There are many situations in which an animal must be held relatively still in a desired position, such as during veterinary procedures and grooming sessions. In the past, there have been two methods of retaining an animal in a desired position. One method has been to restrain the animal by applying physical force or using mechanical restraints, such as with a leash. Another method has been to administer a tranquilizing or calming substance to the animal before beginning work.
Restraining an animal with physical force or restraints causes stress for the animal. Often, an animal that is held by either physical force or mechanical restraints will struggle in an effort to be free. In the process, an animal could attain a possible neck or groin injuries. Further, the person holding down an animal may also sustain injuries from an aggressive animal, such as bites and scratches.
And while it has become a common practice to administer tranquilizing or calming substances to animals before working on them, these substances also may have negative side effects. Concerned animal owners may prefer not to use such substances, even naturally occurring ones.
Another problem has been that often more than one person has been needed to retain an animal in a desired position. For example, a veterinary assistant may have been necessary to hold down a struggling angry cat while a veterinarian has examined and administered a vaccination shot. Therefore, a less stressful way of retaining an animal has been needed and desirable.


A dispenser for even or patterned distribution of fibrous or other additive into a base material, such as concrete. The dispenser includes a rotating hopper that contains the fiber, such that the fiber rotates with the hopper along a vertical line of axis. The dispenser further includes a rake along the base of the hopper, where the rake captures the fiber from the bottom of the hopper and filters or directs the fiber into an exit chute for the delivery system. The rake includes an array of flat and curved flanges that facilitate guidance of the fiber to the exit chute. The hopper can be positioned on one or more load cells that monitor the amount of fiber being dispensed by weight, in order to increase or decrease rotation of the hopper and rake, thus controlling amount of fiber distributed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to the manufacturing and application of fiber-reinforced concrete, and asphalt. More particularly, it relates to an apparatus for and method of metering and dispensing bulk fibers or other additives into a base material, such as concrete, asphalt, and plastics.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Metering and dispensing bulk fibers is a difficult process. One conventional manner of dispending fiber into concrete is simply by hand. However, fiber is typically very lightweight and tends to bind, bridge, cling, and "ball-up" during the dispensing operation.
Certain mechanistic fiber dispensers do exist in the prior art. Examples include U.S. Pat. No. 7,736,569 to Baur et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,645 to Ives et al.; U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2004/025542 to Clausen; U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,610 to Ives et al.; PCT Pub. No. WO2009014952 to Ramnarine; U.S. Pat. No. 6,550,362 to Galinat et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,774 to Clipston et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,706 to Dearlove et al. However, each of the foregoing references are very complex and have many moving parts, thus overcomplicating the manufacture, use and maintenance of the apparatus. Additionally, the foregoing references can be inaccurate and importantly fail to provide an even distribution of fiber in the concrete.
Accordingly, what is needed is a simplified bulk fiber dispenser for metering and dispensing bulk fibers accurately, efficiently, and evenly. However, in view of the art considered as a whole at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill how the art could be advanced.
All referenced publications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Furthermore, where a definition or use of a term in a reference, which is incorporated by reference herein, is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
While certain aspects of conventional technologies have been discussed to facilitate disclosure of the invention, Applicants in no way disclaim these technical aspects, and it is contemplated that the claimed invention may encompass one or more of the conventional technical aspects discussed herein.
The present invention may address one or more of the problems and deficiencies of the prior art discussed above. However, it is contemplated that the invention may prove useful in addressing other problems and deficiencies in a number of technical areas. Therefore, the claimed invention should not necessarily be construed as limited to addressing any of the particular problems or deficiencies discussed herein.
In this specification, where a document, act or item of knowledge is referred to or discussed, this reference or discussion is not an admission that the document, act or item of knowledge or any combination thereof was at the priority date, publicly available, known to the public, part of common general knowledge, or otherwise constitutes prior art under the applicable statutory provisions; or is known to be relevant to an attempt to solve any problem with which this specification is concerned.


A protection circuit apparatus comprises a retriggerable fuse having an awakened state and a sleep state. The retriggerable fuse has an input and an output and is arranged, when in the awakened state, to selectively prevent a load current from flowing from the input to the output in response to the load current exceeding a first current threshold. An activation circuit is also provided and is arranged to sense the load current being drawn. The activation circuit causes the retriggerable fuse to enter the awakened state from the sleep state when the sensed load current exceeds a second current threshold.

In the field of circuit protection, particularly in the automotive industry, it has traditionally been the case that an electronic circuit constituting a load, for example an audio entertainment system, coupled to a power supply system of an automobile has been protected by metallic fuses employing so-called "fuse wire" or metal that bridges a pair of contacts and melts when a current flowing through the wire exceeds a maximum current rating associated with the metal. Such fuses are provided in disposable packages that can be plugged and unplugged into a fuse board within a vehicle, for example so-called "blade" fuses. In this respect, such disposable fuses, in addition to being environmentally unfriendly, require the express provision of the fuse board within the vehicle that has to be easily accessible in order to replace one or more fuses; this has a limiting effect upon automotive design. Furthermore, the need to replace fuses is inconvenient and can result in engineering time to replace the fuses, resulting in higher maintenance costs for the vehicle as well as an increased cost in terms of consumables to an owner of the vehicle.
A resettable or retriggerable "fuse" has therefore been proposed as an alternative to traditional disposable metallic fuses. In essence, the retriggerable "fuse" is, in fact, a circuit providing current shut-off functionality in over-current situations. Such retriggerable "fuse" circuits, known as protected relay circuits, typically employ an n-channel FET as a way of protecting a load against short-circuits. However, mechanical implementations that use mechanical alternatives to the n-channel FET exist as well.
One particularly important requirement of protected relay circuits is that they must be able to provide protection to a load in a number of scenarios. For example, in addition to when the engine of the vehicle is running, the protected relay circuit needs to be in an active state and able to provide protection when the engine of the vehicle is not running, i.e. when the battery is not being recharged and power is not being provided by an alternator of the vehicle. Of course, vehicle manufacturers naturally place constraints upon power consumption by electronic devices in the vehicle when the engine is not running as the charge of the battery must not be unnecessarily drained. A number of loads in the vehicle need to draw small amounts of current, in the order of a few tens of micro-Amps, whilst the engine is not running, for example: an electronic clock and a central locking, alarm and engine immobiliser system, to name but a few.
In relation to certain electronic equipment in the vehicle, the operative state of the equipment can change, for example through user interaction, resulting in the circuits of the equipment drawing greater amounts of current (for example, up to a few Amps) without warning. The central locking, alarm and engine immobiliser system and audio (and possibly audiovisual) entertainment equipment in the vehicle are examples of such equipment.
However, since flow of a load current drawn by the equipment to be protected is relatively high, the protected relay circuit used has to have a relatively low "on" resistance, for example a low Drain-Source "on" resistance (RDSon) for FET implementations, in order to reduce power dissipating by the protected relay circuits. Additionally, such protected relay circuits require a constant bias current, which is unacceptably high, in order to switch the protected relay circuit to an "on" state and provide the necessary protection against over-current events.
Further, in order to achieve the low RDSon mentioned above, n-channel FET-based protected relay circuits require a charge pump, or periodic gate refresh circuitry. However, the provision of the charge pump or periodic gate refresh circuitry requires the protected relay circuit to draw an unacceptably high level of current in the order of at least 100 μA. As will be appreciated, repeated instances of the n-channel FET protected relay circuit to replace all or almost all fuses in the vehicle that protect the various loads contained in the vehicle with known high-side FET protected relay circuits will result in an unacceptably high current drain on the battery of the vehicle.
In contrast, p-channel FET implementations of the protected relay circuit can have reduced current requirements to drive a gate of the FET, but have higher financial costs associated with their use (due to increased die area requirements over n-channel implementations) and also require an unacceptably high bias current to provide the necessary protection required. Consequently, p-channel FET implementations are not widely employed. Also, most integrated circuit technologies and techniques are optimised for circuits employing power n-channel FETs. Additionally, p-channel FET implementations are difficult to design to achieve levels of protection comparable to those of n-channel FETs in terms of accuracy of threshold implementation for short-circuit protection.
As can be seen from the above-described known technologies, in some circumstances protected relay circuits consume unacceptably large amounts of current to provide accurate over-current protection and so are sub-optimal implementations from the point of view of vehicle manufacturers.


Conductive contacts and methods for fabricating conductive contacts for electrochemical mechanical planarization are provided. A conductive contact in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention includes, but is not limited to, a first conductive surface formed of a flexible material, a conductive element that is disposed remote from the first conductive surface and that is configured for electrical coupling to an external circuit, and an intermediate portion that electrically couples the first conductive surface and the conductive element.

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is a technique that has been conventionally used for planarization of metal layers of semiconductor wafers, such as during damascene processing. It is often used in the formation of microelectronic devices to provide a substantially smooth, planar surface suitable for subsequent fabrication processes such as photoresist coating and pattern definition. A typical CMP apparatus 10 suitable for planarizing a semiconductor surface is illustrated in FIG. 1 and includes a wafer carrier 12 configured to support, guide, and apply pressure to a wafer 14 during the polishing process. The carrier 12 may be raised and lowered to load a wafer, and may be rotated about a first axis 16. The carrier may comprise a pressure control system 24 that applies a substantially constant pressure distributed across the back of the wafer 14. The pressure control system may take any suitable form, such as, for example, that of an inflated bladder formed from an elastomeric material. A retaining ring 18 may be provided to prevent the wafer 14 from being dragged out from between the carrier 12 and a polishing pad 20 by polishing forces. The polishing pad 20 is supported by a rigid platen 22 that may rotate about a second axis 26 or, alternatively, may move in an orbital, linear or other motion. The polishing pad typically comprises a polymeric material with a predetermined elastic modulus and surface structure that simultaneously provide effective polishing of the wafer and compliance with the wafer over lateral features that may differ in height on the order of several centimeters. Motion is imparted to the wafer carrier 12 and to the polishing pad 20 so that the wafer is rubbed against the pad. A liquid slurry 28 may be injected onto the pad via a nozzle 30 or may be distributed to the polishing pad surface through the polishing pad to chemically weaken the molecular bonds at the wafer surface so that the mechanical action of the polishing pad and slurry can remove the undesired material from the wafer surface.
However, the CMP process tends to leave stresses in the worked wafer leading to subsequent cracking and shorting between metal layers of the wafer. Furthermore, the CMP process may result in sheering or crushing of fragile dielectric layers. This process also has a tendency to cause dishing in the center of wide metal features, such as trenches and vias, dielectric erosion between metal features, and dielectric loss. Electrochemical mechanical planarization (ECMP) is an attractive alternative to removal of metal by CMP because it imparts reduced mechanical stresses to the wafer, and consequently is less likely to reduce the integrity of the devices. In addition, because the removal rate of the metal may be completely controlled by a current flowing through the metal, ECMP is less likely to cause dishing, oxide erosion, and oxide loss of the dielectric layer.
In ECMP, metal removal is accomplished by electrolysis rather than by the corrosive action of a slurry. A conventional ECMP system, illustrated in FIG. 2, is similar to a CMP system in that it comprises a wafer carrier 12 that carries a wafer 14 and comprises a polishing pad 20 that is supported by a rigid platen 22. Electric contacts 42 are disposed within the platen 22 and extend through the polishing pad 20 to make contact with the surface of the wafer 14. To complete the ECMP system 40, the wafer is exposed to an electric field in the presence of an electrolyte 48. In this regard, counter electrodes 44 are provided. Varying voltages may be imposed between the wafer and the counter electrodes by a power supply 46. The counter electrodes 44 allow for a degree of "tuning" of the uniformity of removal of the metal by passing varying current through the individual electrodes. The pad typically comprises holes to allow ion transport from the wafer 14 to the counter electrodes 44 or, alternatively, the pad is sufficiently porous that this ion transfer may occur. The electrolyte 48 may be dispensed onto the polishing pad or may be distributed through the polishing pad to the wafer surface.
A primary objective of ECMP technology is to reduce damage to delicate structures on the wafer by reducing the forces that are applied to the wafer. However, electrical contact schemes of the prior art typically negate this objective. Small electrical contacts may exert forces on the wafer that may be much greater than those produced even in high downforce CMP. Such contacts can only be made to the part of the wafer that does not contain delicate devices, that is, practically, to the wafer edge. However, wafer edge contacts create "terminal effects" that limit the amount of metal than can be removed from the wafer. In addition, stiff contacts that are driven on and off the wafer surface during processing may result in wear to the contacts and damage to the wafer. Electric contacts formed of flexible materials with sufficiently low resistivities typically are not sufficiently inert under the anodic condition of the wafer and therefore suffer from corrosion.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a flexible, conductive contact for an ECMP system that has low resistivity and is thermodynamically inert under ECMP conditions. In addition, it is desirable to provide an ECMP polishing apparatus that provides controlled planarization of the wafer surface. It also is desirable to provide a method for forming a contact for use in an ECMP system. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.

Conductive contacts and methods for fabricating conductive contacts for elctrochemical planarization of a work piece


The embodiments herein provide a HHO generating system and method for generating hydrogen, oxygen and methane. The system adopts electrolysis process to generate a HHO gas from a water-electrolyte solution. The system comprises a reaction tank filled with the water-electrolyte solution, a plurality of disks stacked one above another, a plurality of frames connecting to the disks and an external power supply. The disks comprise a plurality of negatively charged cathode disks and a plurality of positively charged anode disks. The plurality of frames comprises a plurality of conductive frames and a plurality of support frames configured to hold the disks. An electric current is supplied to the conducting frames so as to electrically charge the disks that react with the water-electrolyte solution to produce the HHO gas. The disks are copper-nickel alloy disks in a ratio of 70:30.

1. Technical Field
The embodiments herein generally relate to a method and system for generating gaseous reactants. The embodiments herein particularly relates to a method and system for producing hydrogen and oxygen. The embodiments herein more particularly relates to a method and system for producing hydrogen and oxygen using electricity.
2. Description of the Related Art
The most common power source for non-air breathing engines or motors such as those in unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs), satellites, lunar bases, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are conventional batteries. However, conventional batteries have a low energy density and, thus, lack sufficient energy capacity for many desirable applications. The few types that may provide sufficient energy capacity, such as lithium thionyl chloride, are cost prohibitive.
"Brown's Gas" is oxyhydrogen with a 2:1 molar ratio of H2 and O2 gases, the same proportion as in water. The Brown's Gas is also called as "HHO gas". It has been discovered that the HHO gas can be used as a fuel for the internal combustion engine. The HHO produced from a HHO hydrogen generator is injected into a combustion engine to dramatically improve the performance of the combustion engine and result in the engine running cleaner. Electrolysis of water is commonly performed to produce the HHO gas. The electrolysis process involves applying an electrical current to distilled water, thereby splitting H2O combination of the water into H2 and O. Since the chemical bonds between the hydrogen atoms and oxygen atoms in the water are so strong, some forms of catalyst are added to the water so as to loosen the bonds. The catalyst is mainly used in the electrolysis process so that less electricity is needed in the process to generate the HHO gas.
In the view of foregoing, there is a need to provide a system and method which makes efficient use of electricity to electrolyze water into HHO, a mixture of pure hydrogen and oxygen. The generated mix is used as fuel that is much more powerful than gasoline. Further there is a need for using suitable materials in manufacturing the HHO generation system so as to increase a productivity of HHO gas. Furthermore there is a need for placing the electrodes (cathode and anode) in an improved sequential manner in the HHO generation system so as to produce greater amount of HHO gas.
The above mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed herein and which will be understood by reading and studying the following specification.

System and method for generating hydrogen and oxygen gases


Disclosed herein are methods and systems for sensing and controlling the temperature of a resistive element configured for use in a read/write head of a magnetic data storage device. In one embodiment, a method includes detecting a voltage across the resistive element, where the voltage varies as a function of a temperature of the resistive element. The method also includes comparing the voltage to a predetermined value to determine a variation of the voltage from the predetermined value, and then altering a power applied to the resistive element based on the variation. In this exemplary embodiment, the temperature of the resistive element is then controlled as a function of the altered applied power.

With mass data storage currently falling into the terabyte range, mass data storage devices have become increasingly employed in computers and large data storage systems. Also due to the increasing amount of data to be stored, data read and write speeds have necessarily had to be improved. Such mass data storage devices include tape drives, as well as hard disk drives that have one or more spinning magnetic disks onto which data is recorded for storage and subsequent retrieval. Hard disk drives may be used in many applications, including personal computers, servers, databases, television set-top boxes, and other audio, video, or television applications.
Looking more particularly at hard disk drive systems, the disk drives included therein typically include rotating magnetic disks on which information is magnetically recorded. A head having transducers therein is movably supported adjacent the magnetic disk for reading and writing the information to and from the disks. The head typically flies above the surface of the disk so that it does not touch the surface of the disk during normal operation. Recently, magneto-resistive (MR) transducers have gained wide popularity for use on such read/write heads. The term "magneto-resistance" refers to the change in resistivity of the materials of the transducer in the presence of a magnetic field induced in the transducer by the magnetic domains recorded on the disk. The introduction of MR heads (or other appropriate materials) into disk drives has significantly increased the overall density of hard disk drive systems.
During both the read and write processes, the temperature of the read/write heads typically changes. As their temperature increases, the materials comprising the read/write transducers tend to expand, causing the head to extend towards the disk media, so-called pole-tip-protrusion (PTP). As the distance between the head and the disk media (i.e., the fly height) changes, so too does the bite-error rate (BER) of the data writing or reading operation. Typically, as the heads are positioned closer to the disk media, the BER improves. However, since PTP occurs during operation, the heads cannot be placed at the least distance from the disk media, lest they collide with the disk media as they heat-up during use. As a result, fly height control (FHC) has been developed to dynamically alter the fly height of the heads during operation, in response to detected changes in temperature, by altering the power supplied to various temperature-sensitive components in the head. Unfortunately, conventional techniques employed to detect the temperature on which the FHC is based do not typically give an actual and accurate reading at the most important point in the FHC process, the head-disk interface (HDI).

Temperature compensation systems and methods for use with read/write heads in magnetic storage devices


A wrist mechanism mounted on an arm of a robot has a wrist flange to which a spray gun is mounted. Coaxially with the arm are provided concentric and relatively rotatable cylinders. From the outermost cylinder extends forward a housing in which gears and shafts are enclosed and operate as follows. Rotations of second and third inner cylinders are transmitted via spur gear trains to respective power transmission shafts extending in parallel to the axis of the cylinders. Bevel gears fixed to respective far ends of the transmission shafts mesh with other bevel gears which have a second axis transverse to the axis of the cylinders. A cylindrical member fixed to one of the other bevel gears is therefore swingable about the second axis. Rotation of the other bevel gear is transmitted to a further gear to rotate the spray gun. A cover besides the housing has an opening through which a flexible paint-supply hose is led into the mechanism to be connected to the spray gun. This serves to reduce the length of the hose from a paint color changeover valve and hence shorten the rinsing time of the hose. The second axis enables the spray gun to swing therearound, thereby eliminating a dead space to which the spray gun cannot have access.

This invention relates to a wrist mechanism of an industrial robot, and more particularly to a wrist mechanism for holding a paint spray gun or a work tool thereon, an elongated member such as a hose or a bundle of wires being passed through the mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,580 to Akeel discloses a wrist mechanism of a robot having three independent rotational axes with two points of mutual intersection which are offset from each other. The mechanism has first and second housings, the first housing being adapted to be mounted to the arm of a robot to rotate independently. The second housing supports a tool support member and is capable of independent rotation relative to the first housing via gear trains. These two housings define therein a continuous unobstructed passage through which a flexible paint supply hose or a bundle of power supply wires is passed.
As will be described in more detail hereinafter with reference to the drawing, this prior art construction has a structure which makes it difficult to provide a relatively large opening through the housings for passing therein a flexible hose or a bundle of wires from the outside. In the case of spray painting, such opening is useful for reducing the distance between a spray gun and a color changeover valve. If the flexible paint hose can be led through such opening into the wrist mechanism housing to be coupled to the spray gun mounted on the distal end of the wrist mechanism, it will be possible to mount the color changeover valve in the neighborhood of the wrist mechanism so that the distance from the color changeover valve to the spray gun may be reduced. On the other hand, if a relatively large opening cannot be provided in the housing, it will not be possible to lead the hose into the wrist mechanism so that the hose will have to be passed through a relatively long robot arm and then into and through the wrist mechanism. This means that the color changeover valve will have to be mounted at a proximal end of the robot arm so that there will be a considerable increase of the distance between the color changeover valve and the spray gun. This increase in the distance is not desirable because the length of the hose extending from the color changeover valve increases so that whenever the paint color is changed the increased length of the hose will have to be rinsed or cleaned of the paint with resultant increased length of time required for cleaning.
Furthermore, as will be described later, the axes of rotation of the robot arm and the spray gun are offset due to the structure of the wrist mechanism, a cylindrical dead space is formed in which the spray coating cannot be performed reliably, as will be described in detail hereinafter. Moreover, in the state wherein the axes of the robot arm and the spray gun are maintained parallel with each other, it is not possible to displace the spray gun toward the axis of the robot arm while maintaining the attitude of the spray gun, as will be described in detail hereinafter.


An optogenetic system and method for preventing or halting seizures. The system and method use a sensor for monitoring the activity of a neural network containing a group of target neurons, and generating an input signal indicative of said activity, the target neurons being excitatory neurons. Excitatory stimulation is delivered in the form of an optical signal by an optical stimulator to the target neurons, the optical signal being determined based on the input signal, to reduce the overall activity of the target neurons.

The brain is made up of around 100 billion neurons, which are responsible for transmitting signals throughout the body, in the form of propagating electrical pulses. These pulses propagate in the form of an action potential. Action potentials arise when a threshold potential difference is applied across the neuron membrane (also referred to as a membrane potential), and are seen as a spike in the potential difference across the membrane, i.e. a rapid depolarization. Prolonged stimuli, rather than affecting the amplitude or duration of an action potential, instead result in a series of identical action potentials, the frequency of which depends on the intensity of the stimulus. When an action potential is generated in a neuron, this may be referred to as "firing".
Fundamental to the transmission of signals from one part of the body to another is the ability of signals to pass from one neuron to another. The region where two different neurons meet is known as the synapse, and the neurons either side of the synapse may be referred to as pre-synaptic neurons and post-synaptic neurons. A given post-synaptic neuron may be contacted by several pre-synaptic neurons. Rather than propagating in the form of electrical pulses, signals are chemically transmitted across a synapse, by neurotransmitters. More specifically, when an action potential arrives at the synapse, a neurotransmitter is released, which travels across the synapse to the post-synaptic neuron. Broadly speaking, there are two types of neurotransmitter, which are referred to herein as excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters:                Excitatory neurotransmitters induce a change in the post-synaptic neuron which causes the potential difference across the membrane to approach the threshold level. The most common excitatory neurotransmitter is glutamate. Neurons which release excitatory neurotransmitters are known as excitatory neurons or excitatory cells.        Inhibitory neurotransmitters induce a change in the post-synaptic neuron which causes the potential difference across the membrane to move away from the threshold level. The most common inhibitory neurotransmitter is GABA. Neurons which release inhibitory neurotransmitters are known as inhibitory neurons or inhibitory cells.
A single action potential is usually insufficient to trigger an action potential in the post-synaptic neuron. However, multiple action potentials (either from the same pre-synaptic neuron or several different pre-synaptic neurons) can sum to cause an action potential to be triggered in the post-synaptic neuron. As mentioned above, several (occasionally up to 10,000) pre-synaptic neurons may be connected to a given post-synaptic neuron, and these may be made up of a combination of excitatory and inhibitory neurons. The effect of the excitatory and inhibitory neurons is summed over time, with the action potential only being triggered in the post-synaptic neuron when the temporal sum of the effects of the inhibitory and excitatory neurons reaches the threshold value. In this way, inhibitory neurons regulate the ability of an excitatory neuron to stimulate a response in a post-synaptic neuron.
The susceptibility of an action potential to be triggered in a given post-synaptic neuron is referred to as the excitability. Seizures can result from hyperexcitability, which can result from, amongst other things, increased excitatory synaptic neurotransmission or decreased inhibitory neurotransmission.
Epilepsy is a chronic disorder of the brain, characterized by a heightened susceptibility to seizures, which affects an estimated 65 million people worldwide, and may be characterized by excessive firing of neurons in the brain. About 30% of cases of epilepsy are refractory to anti-epileptic medications. These patients with so-called "refractory epilepsy" can potentially be treated surgically, either by surgical resection or (electric or magnetic) brain stimulation. However, the likelihood of success resulting from these treatments is relatively small and up to 30% of treated subjects continue to suffer from seizures. Recently, the development of optogenetic technology has enabled an alternative strategy for treating epilepsy. Unlike resective surgery, optogenetic therapies are adaptable and reversible, and offer more finesse than electric brain stimulation.
Specifically, optogenetic treatments use light to control cells in living tissues which have been genetically modified to respond to light incident upon them. Optogenetics usually involves the use of gene therapy to promote the expression of genes which encode for the production of optogenetic actuators, such as opsins. In the treatment of neurological conditions such as epilepsy, neurons are modified to create receptors or ion channels which are light-sensitive. Ion channels can be expressed on inhibitory neurons, which cause e.g. increased GABA activity upon activation, thus increasing the inhibitory behaviour of these cells, and suppressing action potentials on post-synaptic neurons. This technique is demonstrated for temporal lobe epilepsy in mice in Krook-Magnuson et al. (Krook-Magnuson, E., Armstrong, C., Oijala, M. & Soltesz, I. On-demand optogenetic control of spontaneous seizures in temporal lobe epilepsy. Nature communications 4:1376 (2013)) where, upon detection of a seizure, optogenetic stimulation is used either to inhibit the action of principal (i.e. excitatory) cells, or to activate a population of GABAergic (i.e. inhibitory) cells, in order to halt a seizure in a few seconds.
The approach proposed in the Krook-Magnuson paper is not without its problems. For example, when exciting the inhibitory cells, the opsins must be selectively expressed only in the inhibitory cells. In humans, this can only be achieved by promoter-driven expression. This generally leads to low expression levels, and accordingly and thus potentially an inefficient control of the network.
Inhibitory opsins tend to be expressed in the forms of ion pumps, rather than ion channels, which are less efficient, and leads to problems when taking the approach of inhibiting the excitatory cells.


A glass panel includes a first surface, and a second surface and wherein the first and second surfaces are spaced apart by thickness of the glass panel. A first image is printed on the first surface of the glass panel and a second image is printed on same first surface of the glass panel and at least partially overlapping the first image. The second image printed on the first surface and at least partially overlapping the first image forms at least partially opaque imbedded into the glass panel image that when covered by a fluid becomes transparent to reveal the first image printed on the second surface of the glass panel.

Flooring tiles are commonly made of ceramic, clay, or stone. These tiles often have a special surface treatment that increases the friction coefficient and prevents slippage making movement on the tile safe. The tiles are also processed to sustain prolonged periods of wear.
Recently, glass panels (tiles) have become popular for different decorative applications including large colored panels, colored glass walls, doors, and floor tiles. It is known to place different images on one or both sides of a glass panel either to limit visual access through the glass sheets or implement a desired decorative pattern. However, glass has a low coefficient of friction, particularly when it is wet.
There are two competing requirements presented when glass panels (tiles) are used as a flooring material, namely aesthetic appearance versus safety of the glass floor. Generally, the glass surfaces could have different finishes and images printed on them that would be visually attractive. These surfaces, whilst aesthetically very pleasing to the eye of a viewer, could be slippery especially when they become cleaned or contaminated with fluids. In particular ceramic coatings, often required over plastic coatings on account of their better wear characteristics, can be as slippery as bare glass.
Cleaning of both ceramic and glass tiles covered floors require application of a cleaning fluid, which in most of the cases is water with a detergent. Application of the cleaning fluid to a tile or panel temporarily reduces the friction coefficient and in order to avoid damages to human beings, warning signs are usually temporary placed on segments of the floor being cleaned. When the cleaning fluid evaporates, the friction coefficient restores it original value and the signs are removed.


A method of treatment of a scar comprising applying a topical silicone gel to the scar, and wiping off the excess to leave a thin layer of the gel on the scar. Applications of the topical silicone gel can be alternated with applications of silicone gel sheeting to the scar. The method may further include treating the scar with laser therapy.

Hypertrophic scars and keloids affect an estimated 10% of the population. While a variety of therapeutic modalities have been attempted, the majority of medical and surgical specialties treating these problems agree that these are notoriously difficult to treat. Currently over 50% of our population is aged forty-five years or older. With more minimally invasive procedures becoming available, more patients seek elective aesthetic surgical procedures. With cutaneous laser exfoliation procedures on the rise, there has also been an increased incidence of facial hypertrophic scars. While more deeply pigmented skin is susceptible, any person may develop a persistent hypertrophic scar or keloid following a traumatic injury or surgical intervention. These types of scars are more common in areas which demonstrate slow wound healing response, such as the anterior chest, and in movement-dependent areas, such as the scapula, elbow, and knee. A hypertrophic scar is usually raised and erythematous, but remains within the confines of the original traumatic wound. In contrast, a keloid is a more nodular lesion which extends beyond the margins of the initial wound.
For centuries physicians have studied the processes of wound healing. Wound healing is complicated, but generally can be divided into three overlapping phases. There is an inflammation phase, a granulation tissue formation phase, and a matrix formation or remodeling phase. Studies have revealed that these phases overlap. Considerable study has gone into the modification of these phases, with the hope of gaining some control over the overall wound healing mechanism. For decades, scars were an accepted phenomenon. Patients were told that there was little that could be done, and had to come to accept the appearance of their scars. Many patients have stimulated the interest of researchers to attempt to modify the healing process, since many patients do not readily accept that nothing can be done to improve the appearance of what they may perceive as somewhat disfiguring scars.
A general understanding of the phases of healing is important to an understanding of scar modification parameters. The first phase of wound healing is the inflammatory phase. During this stage, there is a release of mediators which sets the stage for the formation of granulation tissue. This inflammatory phase can be divided into an early and a late period. The early period starts immediately with the wounding of the skin. The initial trauma causes bleeding into the wound space. Subsequent to normal hematosis, the exposure of blood to fibrillar collagen and tissue factor starts the intrinsic and extrinsic clotting cascades. The aggravation of platelets also triggers the coagulation cascade and contributes to hemostasis. The habradic kinen is released through activated factor 12. This stimulates the classic compliment cascade to begin. This subsequently causes the release of anaphylatoxins and subsequent vascular permeability-ability with chemotaxis of white blood cells.
During the early portion of the inflammatory phase neutrophils and monocytes appear in the wound space. First, neutrophils appear approximately six hours after the insult. Monocytes arrive somewhat later. The main function of the neutrophils in early wound healing is to debride the wound of particulate and bacterial contamination. The disappearance of neutrophils from the wound space signals the end of the early inflammatory phase of wound healing. This is usually seen within one to two days.
In contrast to the neutrophil, monocytes persist in the wound space and play a more significant role. The persistence of macrophages marks the late segment of the inflammatory phase. Macrophages continue with the debridement of the wound by phagocytizing bacteria and debris.
The second phase of wound healing, known as the granulation phase, is characterized by granulation tissue formation. Within the granulation phase of wound healing, the processes of angiogenesis, re-epithelialization and collagen synthesis occur. The main cells involved in this phase include macrophages, the fibroblasts, epithelial cells and endothelial cells. These cells work together under the direction of growth factors and other mediators. Extracellular matrix is also formed during this phase. This matrix which is comprised of fibronectin and collagen is a critical component to the wound healing. Extracellular matrix is composed primarily of proteoglycans, fibronectin, and collagen. The aforementioned cells act in unison to facilitate the processes of re-epithelialization and neovascularization.
Remodeling is the third and final phase of wound healing. It is during this phase that the extracellular matrix is reorganized and collagen converted from type 3 collagen to type 1 collagen. It is during this phase that wound contraction also occurs. Wound contraction involves a complex interaction between fibroblasts, fibronectin, and collagen. Several models of remodeling suggest that fibroblasts are recruited into the wound via the chemotactic properties of various growth factors. Once a critical mass of fibroblasts exists within the wound, fibronectin and type 1 collagen are then produced. Fibroblasts align themselves within the fibronectin-collagen extracellular lattice. Wound contraction can then occur through this tightly arranged network of fibroblast, fibronectin, and collagen.
As the remodeling phase continues, fibronectin disappears from the wound and is replaced by collagen. Collagen continues to occupy more of the wound space and the wound breaking strength begins to increase. As type 1 collagen surpasses type 3 collagen, the breaking strength once again shows an increase. Typically a final scar ultimately obtains a breaking strength 70% that of uninjured skin.
A variety of treatments for hypertrophic scars and keloids have been advocated in the past. These include intralesional steroids, cryosurgery, radiotherapy, pressure therapy, silicone gel sheeting, laser therapy, and excisional surgery. Recurrences remain common, and patient satisfaction is variable. Many patients are also dissatisfied with the increased erythema in the wound.


A method for controlling a digital device, and which includes receiving content; displaying the received content on a display screen of the digital device; calculating, via a controller of the digital device, an average luminance value respective to an entire display screen where the received content is displayed; generating, via the controller, a histogram respective to a partial area of the entire display screen; analyzing, via the controller, the histogram respective to the partial area and verifying whether or not a pixel distribution ratio of pixels having a minimum gray level, among pixels being located in the partial area of the display screen, is equal to or greater than a reference ratio; and if the pixel distribution ratio of pixels having the minimum gray level is equal to or greater than the reference ratio, processing a luminance of the partial area of the display screen to be black.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital device and, more particularly, to a digital device and a method for controlling the same that can equally control a luminance of a device.
Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, a display device includes a flat screen. However, with the recent development of a flexible panel, display devices being equipped with a curved screen are being researched and developed. For example, the display device may correspond to a mobile phone, a smart phone, a computer, a tablet personal computer (tablet PC), a notebook (or laptop) computer, a netbook, a Television (TV), other broadcast receiving device, and so on.
More specifically, for example, a display device that can realize both a flat mode and a curved mode enables a user to select a wanted (or desired) display mode in accordance with contents being displayed on the display device.

Digital device and method for controlling the same