An armature-mounting arrangement for a hinged-armature relay includes a yoke (3), an armature (1) positioned at an end portion of the yoke, and an armature holding spring (2) which has at least one switching contact thereon and which is mechanically coupled to the armature. The armature holding spring is formed as one piece with a return spring (5) for the armature and also with spring hooks (4). Each of the spring hooks has a first portion (4a) lying substantially flat on an outer side of the armature and a second portion (4b) extending from the first portion about the armature and lying almost flat against an outer surface of the yoke. This armature-mounting arrangement is a particularly uncomplicated and cost effective structure and its operation is also not particularly sensitive to fabrication tolerances of the armature and the yoke.

This invention concerns an armature-mounting arrangement for a hinged-armature relay of a type comprising a yoke, an armature positioned at an end-portion of the yoke, an armature-holding spring which has at least one switching contact thereon and which is mechanically coupled to the armature.
Such an armature-mounting arrangement is disclosed in German Patent DE 43 20 831 (C1). In this relay, special mounting bearings are provided between the armature and yoke, with at least one of the armature and the yoke having inclined support surfaces. A moving of the armature is thereby converted into a rotational movement, with the middle point of the switching contact being at a center of rotation, so that switching contacts which lie opposite one another are not displaced relative to one another. In this manner, a contact displacement which would cause an increased contact burning, which in turn would greatly reduce the life of the relay, is avoided.
A disadvantage of this well-functioning armature mounting arrangement is that a stamping out, or punching out, of parts for such an armature-mounting arrangement is relatively cost intensive, particularly because large fabrication tolerances are not permissible for the armature and the yoke.
This is true as well for relays in which armatures are mounted in recesses of yokes.
Cost factors for manufacturing punched or stamped armature-mounting parts, while maintaining narrow fabrication tolerances, can, for mass-produced products such as hinged armature relays, have considerable importance.
Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide an armature-mounting arrangement for a hinged-armature relay which is particularly uncomplicated and cost effective to fabricate and which is not sensitive relative to fabrication tolerances of the yoke and armature.

Armature-mounting arrangement for a hinged-armature relay


Power gain and quiescent current of a radio frequency (RF) transistor is controlled by a current draw-away circuit that diverts (xe2x80x9cdraws awayxe2x80x9d) a portion of the reference current from a reference transistor residing in an RF transistor bias circuit. When in the xe2x80x9coffxe2x80x9d state, the current draw-away circuit is not conductive. When in the xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d state, a transistor residing in the current draw-away circuit is conducting and draws a draw-away current, IDRAW, through a resistor. The magnitude of IDRAW is determined by the resistor. Other embodiments include a variable resistance that varies IDRAW, a variable current source (or variable voltage source) that varies IDRAW by adjusting the current (or voltage) applied to the control input of the transistor residing in the current draw-away circuit, and two or more current draw-away circuits individually controlled such that one or any combination of the current draw-away circuits varies IDRAW.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is generally related to amplifiers. More particularly, it is related to controlling bias current of an amplifier.
2. Related Art
With the increasing power efficiency demands from users of mobile communication devices, such as cell phones and the like, mobile communication device manufactures are continually searching for ways to improve power consumption efficiency within the mobile communication device, thereby increasing the useful operating period that a mobile communication device gets from a single charge of the power supply. During a normal voice conversation by a person using the mobile communication device, the transmitting function consumes a very large amount of available power. Therefore, transmitter energy conservation is important. One illustrative example of energy conservation in a transmitter is to configure the transmitter to transmit at a lower power level when the mobile communication device is near a base station. The transmitter is then configured to transmit at a higher power level when the mobile communication device is further away from the base station. This may be accomplished by controlling the radio frequency (RF) drive to the amplifier(s), adjusting the reference voltage and/or current applied to the amplifier bias circuit, or both. Other mobile communication devices may select the most efficient transmission frequencies under actual operating conditions. Other energy conservation techniques have focused on improving energy efficiency of the individual electrical components within the mobile communication device, such as using a high efficiency antenna system.
Conventional amplifiers employing transistors, such as bipolar transistors, heterojunction bipolar transistors or the like, draw a substantially constant collector current (IRF) through a radio frequency (RF) transistor when in operation because the reference current (IREF) and the collector voltage Vcc applied to the RF transistor are substantially constant during brief periods of operating time. However, because Vcc is typically supplied by a power supply having a limited power capacity, Vcc decreases as the power supply is discharged during device use. Ability to adjust the current IRF drawn by a reference transistor is desirable so that the quiescent current of the RF transistor (IRFO) can be varied depending upon the input applied to the amplifier. Conventional methods of adjusting IRF have employed additional circuitry and/or logic to adjust IREF (or VREF). This additional circuitry and/or logic is complex, expensive and utilizes the limited power supply. Thus, the additional circuitry and/or logic that regulates IREF (and/or VREF) increases the rate of power discharge and shortens the available useful operating life of the mobile communication device for a single power supply cycle. Furthermore, the additional circuitry is often provided on separate circuit boards or control dies, thereby requiring additional space within the device. In a mobile communication device, overall size is important as smaller devices are more desirable in the marketplace. Thus, a need exists in the industry to provide a smaller, inexpensive way of controlling the output of a power amplifier without the use of expensive additional components or sacrifices in power efficiency caused by additional control circuitry and/or logic.
Power to an amplifier may be controlled by adjusting the reference current (or reference voltage) applied to the bias circuit, that in turn sets the input terminal voltage on the input of an amplifier transistor. In a hand-held communications device, such as a cell phone or the like, the amplifier transistor is often referred to as the radio frequency (RF) transistor. Typically, power is provided by a power supply, such as, but not limited to, a battery, fuel cell and/or solar panel.
Briefly described, a current draw-away circuit employs a transistor to change the current applied to the reference transistor, that in turn sets the voltage applied to the current sinking terminal (collector) of the amplifier transistor, by diverting a portion of the reference current (or reference voltage) from the current sinking terminal of the reference transistor. Hence, the current draw-away circuit xe2x80x9cdraws awayxe2x80x9d a portion of the current sinking terminal current. Since the reference current is not directly adjusted, the need for additional complex, expensive and power consuming control circuitry is eliminated.
The current draw-away circuit is coupled to the current sinking terminal of the amplifier transistor. When in the xe2x80x9coff xe2x80x9d state, a transistor residing in the current draw-away circuit is not conductive. When in the xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d state, the transistor residing in the current draw-away circuit is conductive and draws a draw-away current, IDRAW. The magnitude of IDRAW is determined by specifying a resistor coupled to the transistor residing in the current draw-away circuit.
In another embodiment, a device having a variable resistance is employed such that the magnitude of IDRAW can be varied in accordance with variations in resistance. In another embodiment, the magnitude of IDRAW is varied by adjusting the current applied to a control input of the transistor residing in the current draw-away circuit. The variable current is provided by a variable current source. In yet another embodiment, the magnitude of IDRAW is varied by adjusting the voltage applied to control input of the transistor residing in the current draw-away circuit. The variable voltage is provided by a variable voltage source. Another embodiment employs two or more current draw-away circuits. The draw-away circuits may be individually controlled such that one current draw-away circuit is conducting, or any number and/or any combination of current draw-away circuits are conducting.
Another embodiment employs a second transistor residing in the current draw-away circuit. When the second transistor is in the xe2x80x9coff xe2x80x9d state, the first transistor residing in the current draw-away circuit is conductive and draws a draw-away current, IDRAW When the second transistor is in the xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d state, the first transistor residing in the current draw-away circuit is not conductive.
Other systems, methods, features and advantages of the invention will be or will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the accompanying claims.

Digitally controlled bias circuit for amplifiers


A cutting device for reducing waste material comprises at least two groups of knives mounted on a shaft, next to one another, installed rotatably in front of an anvil. The groups of knives, each operating in a restricted zone of the width of supply each comprises several splitting knives to split the waste material mainly according to the sense of supply of the waste material. Each comprises at least one chopping knife intended to cut the waste material mainly across the sense of supply of the waste material to be cut. The chopping knives of the groups of knives situated next to one another are mounted on the shaft, shifted with respect to one another, so that each of them affects the waste material at a different time and place. A calibrating sieve filters the free discharge of the shreds and contributes to a supplementary (secondary and tertiary) cutting.

This invention relates to a cutting device for reducing waste material, comprising at least two groups of knives mounted on a shaft, next to one another, installed rotatably in front of an anvil, the said groups of knives comprising each several splitting knives, intended to split the waste material mainly according to the sense of supply and comprising at least one chopping knife, intended to cut the waste material mainly across the sense of supply of the waste material to be cut.
The invention relates, for instance, to a cutting device to uniformly reduce waste material, more particularly a cutting device for shredding all sorts of organic material (garden waste, loppings, branches, leaves, agricultural crops, foliage, . . . ).
The invention more particularly relates to a cutting device, in which a number of groups of knives, composed of fixed splitting knives and chopping knives, are mounted on a shaft next to one another and are rotating in a housing where they cut the waste material by interacting with an anvil and a calibrating sieve.
The organic waste material, more particularly wood, (this being the hardest form of green waste material), is composed of fibres running lengthwise within their structure. If it is required to cut across a bundle of fibres, more particularly a branch, all the fibres should be cut across, an operation which requires quite some energy, and the thicker the wood, the more fibres have to be cut across.
Now, various systems are known, hitting across the loppings by means of a chopping knife or a drawknife on a counterknife, in order to shred the waste material.
A first known system is the disc chipper, where a number of knives are mounted in the plane of the large disc against which the wood is pushed and chopped off between the knives and a counterknife.
A second known system is the shave chipper, in which a number of knives are mounted lengthwise along the wall of a drum. The wood is pushed against the wall of the drum, causing the wood to be chopped crosswise between the knives and a counterknife.
Irrespective of their construction, both systems have a number of serious drawbacks:                both systems require rather much energy;        ligneous material is transformed into compressed shreds, difficult to compost;        green material or material rich in leaves is hardly or not at all reduced;        the cutting parts are sensitive to wear;
Another, very frequently found system is chopping wood in the sense of the fibre by means of flails or hammers. This is a system in which the rotor is composed of a number of discs on which, or between which, loose cutting elements have been suspended. These freely suspended flails or hammers will smash the green waste material to pieces.
Similar systems likewise require a lot of power, because they crush the material mainly by the striking power of the cutting elements. Additionally, these systems produce shreds of a very irregular shape and size as garden waste may pass between the striking hammers, because they are not mounted against one another.
Also in EP 0 785 026 a cutting device is described for reducing waste material. More particularly, this is a cutting device comprising an anvil and groups of knives mounted on a shaft having fixed knives. Within a group of knives, the extremities of the knives have been installed in a manner shifted with respect to one another, so that the projections of the cutting faces on the anvil overlap each other or run into one another.
Although it is possible to shred the waste material over the total width of supply by means of such a device, and the position of the knives allows for a better cutting efficiency, the cutting device described in EP 0 785 026 it is not always able to cut the waste material in an optimal manner (especially in case of a tough and fibrous green waste material).
WO-01/64018 is essentially based on EP 0 785 026 and tries to find a solution to the above-mentioned drawback by adding cross knives to the cutting device described in EP 0 785 026. However, each cross knife is chopping over the entire width of supply all in one go, because of which this construction brings along a few serious drawbacks:                a higher power consumption, because the material supplied to each cross knife causes the rotor to slow down at the same moment;        a higher and pulsating noise level;        a higher sensitivity to damage (in case a strange object is introduced) because there is less chance to avoid the cross knife which has the same width as the machine;        heavy vibrations on the wood (kick-back effect);        the material (for instance, branches) is pulled in aggressively, causing danger to the operators.
An additional drawback of the system mentioned above, but also of the disc and shave shredder, is that the size of the shreds is mainly determined by the cutting frequency of the cross knife and the rate and speed of supply. As these two factors are determined by the construction of the machine, it is difficult to determine an invariable size of chips or shreds at changing material to be shredded (different kinds of green waste material). At the same time, the wood is projected into the discharge channel as soon as it is chopped off, so that it leaves the shredding system immediately and no additional shredding will occur in the shredding chamber.
The purpose of this invention is to propose a cutting device not showing the drawbacks mentioned above, which will shred any material uniformly and finely at the lowest possible energy consumption.

Cutting device for reducing waste material


A liquid crystal display device having an improved viewing angle that prevents degradation of image quality. The device includes a timing control unit arranged to receive image data and a control signal from a graphic processing unit through an interface unit, a gate driver integrated circuit receiving a control signal from the timing control unit, a gate on/off power signal from a DC/DC converter, the gate driver integrated circuit supplies a gate pad unit of a liquid crystal display panel with a scan signal, a halftone gray driving mode converting unit implementing halftone gray by receiving the image data and the control signal from the timing control unit, and a data driver integrated circuit supplying a data pad unit of the liquid crystal display panel with image data by receiving new image data from the halftone gray driving mode converting unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device having an improved viewing angle, and more particularly, to a liquid crystal display device and a driving method thereof to prevent the degradation of image quality that may be generated from applying halftone gray.
2. Background of the Related Art
Generally, a liquid crystal display device is employed for displaying an image by supplying matrix-like arranged liquid crystal cells with data signals according to image information to adjust a light transmission of liquid crystal cells.
A liquid crystal display device consists of a liquid crystal display panel on which a plurality of liquid crystal cells forming a pixel unit are arranged in an active matrix form and a driver integrated circuit (IC) for driving the liquid crystal cells.
The liquid crystal display panel consists of a color filter substrate, a thin film transistor array substrate opposite the color filter substrate, and a liquid crystal layer inserted between the color filter and thin film transistor array substrates.
Common and pixel electrodes are formed on the two inner sides of the color filter and thin film transistor array substrates, respectively, to apply an electric field to the liquid crystal display panel. Each of the pixel electrodes is formed on the thin film transistor array substrate to match the corresponding liquid crystal cell, while the common electrode is formed in one body on an entire surface of the inner side of the color filter substrate. Hence, a light transmission of each of the liquid crystal cells can be individually adjusted by controlling a voltage applied to the corresponding pixel electrode while a voltage is applied to the common electrode.
A plurality of data lines are also formed on the thin film transistor array substrate of the liquid crystal display panel to transfer data signals supplied from a data driver integrated circuit to the liquid crystal cells. A plurality of gate lines that cross the data lines transfer scan signals supplied from a gate driver integrated circuit to the liquid crystal cells. And, the liquid crystal cells are defined by crossings between the data and gate lines.
The gate driver integrated circuit sequentially supplies a plurality of the gate lines with the scan signals, respectively to select each line of the matrix-like arranged liquid crystal cells sequentially. And, the liquid crystal cells of the selected line are provided with the data signal from the data driver integrated circuit.
Thus, in order to control the voltage applied to the pixel electrode by each liquid crystal cell, a thin film transistor is formed as a switching device in each of the liquid crystal cells, and a conductive channel is generated between source/drain electrodes of the thin film transistor in each of the liquid crystal cells when the scan signal is applied to a gate electrode of the corresponding thin film transistor through the corresponding gate line. In this case, the data signal applied to the source electrode of the thin film transistor through the data line, via the drain electrode of the thin film transistor, to be applied to the corresponding pixel electrode, whereby the light transmission of the corresponding liquid crystal cell is controlled.
The above-explained liquid crystal display device is explained by referring to the attached drawings as follows.
FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic layout of a liquid crystal display panel prepared by bonding a thin film transistor array and a color filter substrate to each other.
In FIG. 1, a liquid crystal display panel 10 includes an image display unit 13 on which a plurality of liquid crystal cells are arranged like a matrix form, a gate pad unit 14 to which gate lines of the image display unit 13 are connected, and a data pad unit 15 connected to data lines thereof. The gate and data pad units 14 and 15 are formed on a peripheral area of a thin film transistor array substrate 11 which is not overlapped with a color filter substrate 12. The gate pad unit 14 supplies the gate lines of the image display unit 13 with scan signals supplied from a gate driver integrated circuit, and the data pad unit 15 supplies the data lines of the image display unit 13 with image information supplied from a data driver integrated circuit.
Although not shown in the drawing specifically, on the thin film transistor array substrate 11 of the image display unit 13, the data lines to which the image information is applied and the gate lines to which the scan signals are applied are arranged to cross each other.
Moreover, on the thin film transistor array substrate 11 of the image display unit 13, pixel electrodes are connected to the corresponding thin film transistors to drive the liquid crystal cells, and a passivation layer is on an entire surface to protect the electrodes and thin film transistors.
Color filters, on the color filter substrate 12 of the image display unit 13, are coated and separated by a black matrix into cell units and a common transparent electrode as a counter electrode against the pixel electrodes on the thin film transistor array substrate 11.
The above-constructed thin film transistor array and color filter substrates 11 and 12 are separated by a spacer to provide a cell gap. The cell gap is filled with liquid crystals.
Then, the thin film transistor array and color filter substrates 11 and 12 are bonded to each other by a sealing unit 16 formed on a periphery of the image display unit 13.
However, the above-explained liquid crystal display device has a small viewing angle and a brightness relatively poorer than that of other display devices. Hence, many efforts have been made to improve the viewing angle and light transmission in LCD field.

Liquid crystal display device and driving method thereof


A combination type cooker may include a top plate with a surface, a case that is configured to define a space shielded by the top plate, a gas burner that is provided inside the case, and in which a heat plate is heated by combustion of a fuel gas, an induction burner that is provided inside the case, and that is configured to heat a cooking container by induction, and a barrier that is provided between the gas burner and the induction burner, and that is configured to partition an inside of the case into a first space where the gas burner housed, and a second space where the induction burner is housed.

Generally, a cooker is an apparatus which is used to heat and/or cook food using gas or electric power.
In an induction heating cooker is an apparatus, a high-frequency current flows through a working coil or a heating coil, and generates a strong line of magnetic force, an eddy current flows when the line of magnetic force passes through a cooking container, and the container itself is heated.
As a current is applied to the heating coil, a cooking container formed of a magnetic material generates heat by induction heating, and the cooking container itself is heated by the generated heat.


A method, apparatus and computer program product for managing content sessions within a network is presented. The systems disclosed herein are able to detect a requirement to modify bandwidth usage within the network either proactively or reactively. In response, example embodiments apply an adaptive bit rate adjustment technique to the content sessions to adjust a data rate associated with each content session according to the requirement to modify bandwidth usage within the network. Example embodiments also then apply a quality of service adjustment technique to the content sessions to adjust a bandwidth allocation assigned between a client and server based upon the adaptive bandwidth adjustment technique. Application of the adaptive bit rate and quality of service adjustment techniques may be policy based. Example embodiments also may monitor a plurality of servers supporting content sessions, detect a failure at a first server and move content sessions to a second server.

Internet Protocol (IP)-based video delivery is becoming increasingly popular. A client may request IP-based video from a streaming server. The client is the viewing device used by a customer of a service provider to watch video over the IP network and may be a television, computer, mobile device, or other device suitable for watching IP-based video. The client may be connected to the streaming server via the service provider through, for example, a cable modem at a customer's home network.
Typically, there are two conventional systems for delivering IP-based video: "over the top" delivery systems and quality of service (QoS)-based delivery systems. In an "over the top" delivery system, content is provided by a content delivery network (CDN) as IP-based video and transmitted from the CDN over a managed network provided by a network provider. Video delivery in an "over the top" delivery system is best effort; in other words, there is no quality of service guarantee for the video. In QoS-based delivery systems, however, a network provider provides content from its managed network with certain guarantees (e.g., dedicated bandwidth).
In typical "over the top" delivery systems, a client requests video from a streaming server or array of streaming servers in a content delivery network (CDN). The CDN stores video files for the video content. The video may be a video file or it may be a video stream (e.g., broadcast television). In operation, a client requests the video data which is transmitted by the streaming server to the client. The client decodes the video and displays it to the viewer.
However, at times when network bandwidth available for video delivery decreases, possibly due to network congestion, the video delivered to the client may get delayed or lost. This can lead to macro blocking, lost video frames, dropped audio, misaligned audio and video, unintentional pauses, and possibly other undesirable effects on the viewing experience.

Methods, apparatus and computer readable medium for managed adaptive bit rate for bandwidth reclamation


For each acquired current image, the displacement of said current image is determined relative to the acquired preceding image in the image acquisition plane, a displaced preceding filtered image is elaborated by spatially displacing the preceding filtered image, taking said displacement into account, and the current filtered image is elaborated by the weighted average between the acquired current image and the displaced preceding filtered image, so as to improve the quality of the images visualized.

The invention concerns the fluoroscopy and, in particular, the treatment of a sequence of fluoroscopic images of a body, particularly of a human body.
The invention further applies, in particular, to cardiac fluoroscopy.
By comparison with radiography in acquisition mode, where the X-ray doses are greater, in order to obtain better quality registered images for diagnostic purposes, fluoroscopy is carried out with weaker X-ray doses and is, in particular, used in the surgical field, for example, to position coronary endoprostheses ("stent" in English) by means of catheters.
In fluoroscopy the movement of the objects of interest, like, for example, coronary endoprostheses, as well as, notably, in cardiac fluoroscopy, the background movement, associated linked, for example, with the patient's respiration, as well as with the movements of the table on which the patient is placed, produce disturbances in the images, to which is added noise, particularly of electrical origin. That noise is all the more disturbing, the longer the fluoroscopic examination lasts, typically about 45 minutes, in order to position an intravascular prosthesis correctly, and produces, consequently, a visual inconvenience for the physician.
In the presence of immobile images, the noise could easily be eliminated by simple temporal filtering. However, in fluoroscopy mobile images are present, which are translated, if a filtering of images (for example, a filtering by temporal means) is simply carried out, by a blurred movement or else a loss of contrast of the mobile objects (depending on the size of the objects). In other words, there is then no difference between the arrival and departure of an object of interest and a noise peak.
At present, the standard algorithms of image processing in fluoroscopy resort to a criterion of distinction between a variation due to noise and a variation due to movement. The filtering treatment is then stopped or diminished in the presence of a movement. However, the cessation of filtering produces a recurrence of the noise, which is translated on the images by noise trails behind the mobile objects.


An optical device, includes a light-transmitting substrate having an input aperture and first and second major surfaces parallel to each other and edges, one partially reflecting surface located in the substrate which is non-parallel to the major surfaces of the substrate and an external optical arrangement having an output aperture optically attached to the input aperture of the substrate with the part of the substrate located next to the substrate input aperture, being substantially transparent.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to substrate-guided optical devices, and particularly to devices which include a plurality of reflecting surfaces carried by a common light-transmissive substrate, also referred to as a light-guide element.
The invention can be implemented to advantage in a large number of imaging applications, such as head-mounted and head-up displays, cellular phones, compact displays, 3-D displays, compact beam expanders, as well as non-imaging applications like flat-panel indicators, compact illuminators and scanners.
2. Description of Related Art
One of the important applications for compact optical elements is in head-mounted displays where an optical module serves both as an imaging lens and a combiner, in which a two-dimensional display is imaged to infinity and reflected into the eye of an observer. The display can be obtained directly from either a spatial light modulator (SLM) such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light emitting diode (OLED) array, or a scanning source and similar devices, or indirectly, by means of a relay lens or an optical fiber bundle. The display comprises an array of elements (pixels) imaged to infinity by a collimating lens and transmitted into the eye of the viewer by means of a reflecting, or partially reflecting surface acting as a combiner for non-see-through and see-through applications, respectively. Typically, a conventional, free-space optical module is used for these purposes. As the desired field-of-view (FOV) of the system increases, however, such a conventional optical module becomes larger, heavier and bulkier, and therefore, even for a moderate performance device, is impractical. This is a major drawback for all kinds of displays, but especially in head-mounted applications, where the system must, of necessity, be as light and as compact as possible.
The strive for compactness has led to several different complex optical solutions, all of which, on the one hand, are still not sufficiently compact for most practical applications, and, on the other hand, suffer major drawbacks in terms of manufacturability. Furthermore, the eye-motion-box (EMB) of the optical viewing angles resulting from these designs is usually very small, typically less than 8 mm. Hence, the performance of the optical system is very sensitive, even to small movements of the optical system relative to the eye of the viewer, and does not allow sufficient pupil motion for convenient reading of text from such displays.
For a more detailed background of the present invention, the teachings included in the publications WO 01/95027, WO 03/081320, WO 2005/024969, WO 2006/013565, WO 2006/085309, WO 2006/085310, WO 2007/054928 and PCT/IL2007/000172 in the name of Applicant, are herein incorporated by references.

Optical device having a light transmitting substrate with external light coupling means


A multi-hierarchy interconnect system for a cache system having a tag memory and a data memory includes an address interconnect scheduling device and a data interconnect scheduling device. The address interconnect scheduling device performs a tag bank arbitration to schedule address requests to a plurality of tag banks of the tag memory. The data interconnect scheduling device performs a data bank arbitration to schedule data requests to a plurality of data banks of the data memory. Besides, a multi-hierarchy interconnect method for a cache system having a tag memory and a data memory includes: performing a tag bank arbitration to schedule address requests to a plurality of tag banks of the tag memory, and performing a data bank arbitration to schedule data requests to a plurality of data banks of the data memory.

The disclosed embodiments of the present invention relate to accessing buffered data (e.g., cached data), and more particularly, to a multi-hierarchy interconnect system and method for a cache system having a tag memory and a data memory.
In today's systems, the time it takes to bring data (e.g., instructions) into a processor is very long when compared to the time to process the data. Therefore, a bottleneck forms at the input to the processor. The cache memory helps by decreasing the time it takes to move data to and from the processor. A read request may be served by the cache memory. When the cache memory contains the data requested by the read request, the transaction is said to be a cache hit. When the cache memory does not contain the information requested by the read request, the transaction is said to be a cache miss. Besides, a write request may also be served by the cache memory.
Recently, a multi-core or multi-processor design has become a common practice in the modern computing applications. Concerning the cache memory shared by multiple agents, it is required to serve read requests and write requests issued from these agents. Thus, there is a need for an interconnect fabric between the agents and shared cache memory to properly schedule the read requests and the write requests.

Multi-hierarchy interconnect system and method for cache system


The present disclosure discloses an edge-based three-dimensional tracking and registration method and apparatus for augmented reality, and a storage medium. The method includes: obtaining an initial pose of a three-dimensional object in an image; extracting edgelet features of a contour of the three-dimensional object based on the initial pose; dividing the edgelet features into groups, and performing searching on the image to find a matching point corresponding to respective edgelet feature in each group; and calculating a pose of the three-dimensional object based on matching points found in the groups.

A registration and tracking algorithm for three-dimensional objects is an important algorithm for augmented reality (AR) products. To track a three-dimensional object in reality, an initial relative pose of the three-dimensional object relative to an image capture device such as a mobile phone and a camera may be determined first. The process of obtaining the initial relative pose is called registration.
In related technologies, the registration method is usually divided into two steps. The first step is to search for a target object in the full image by template matching and to obtain an approximate pose. The second step is to perform pose calibration based on the result of the first step to obtain a precise pose. In general, the second step is implemented through the following two methods. The first method is to calculate the precise pose based on edge matching, and the second method is to calculate the precise pose based on deep learning.
Currently, there are problems as follows. With respect to the above-mentioned first method, although it is fast, it is not robust in some complex environments (such as a messy background, an occlusion, etc.). Since the edgelet features found are seldom correctly matched, matching points are easy to lose efficacy. The second method is robust, but the calculation of the precise pose is slow.

Edge-based three-dimensional tracking and registration method and apparatus for augmented reality, and storage medium

BEIJING BAIDU NETCOM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A fiber velvet comprising nano-size fibers or nanofibrils attached to micro-size fibers is disclosed. Methods of manufacturing the velvet as well as various uses of the velvet are also described. For example, the fiber velvet can be used as a thermal interface or as an adhesive material. The nanofibrils may be attached to a flat base or membrane, or may be attached to the tip portions of the micro-size or larger diameter fibers. Various attributes of the micro-size fibers and of the nano-size fibers, for example, geometry (e.g. size, length, packing density) material type (e.g. carbon, metal, polymer, or ceramic) and properties (e.g. conductivity, modulus, surface energy, dielectric constant, surface roughness) can be selected depending on the desired attributes of the fiber velvet. The nanofibrils have a diameter of less than about 1 micron, and may advantageously be formed from single walled and/or multi-walled carbon nanotubes.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to adhesive materials such as tapes that provide a dry and reusable medium for adhering two surfaces together.
2. Description of Related Art
Much of thermal management involves the transfer of heat from one element to another. While individual elements might have very high conductance, the heat transfer rate between contact surfaces of the two elements can limit overall performance of the thermal control system. Similarly, the strength of an adhesive bond formed between the two elements is often dependent on the contacting surfaces. The heat transfer rate and adhesive strength between the two elements can improve by maximizing the contact region between the two elements.
Existing methods of bonding include brazing, soldering, gluing, bolting, taping, sewing, zippering, and use of Velcro® fasteners. Desirable properties include high strength of attachment, easy removability, reliability, and reusability. Other considerations include chemical compatibility, outgassing, and mass. Brazing and gluing with adhesive is strong, but not reusable nor easily removable. Bolts can be heavy and require special fixturing for attaching. Tape is not very strong, tends to leave a residue, and loses its sticking ability with use. It does not work well in wet environments.
A different form of adhesive is found in a foot of a Tokay gecko. The foot includes a structure which allows the gecko to run over glass ceilings or climb wet glass walls. The toes of the Tokay gecko have pads consisting of thousands of 5 um-diameter keratinous fibers (called setae). The ends of the setae split into hundreds of 100-nm diameter fibrils. Each nanofibril terminates in an ellipsoidal structure called a "spatula." Each spatula has a diameter ranging from 200–500 nm. The adhesive force of a single seta against Si was measured to be 200 μN (20 mg). It has been hypothesized that van der Waal forces are responsible for the gecko's amazing ability to climb up smooth vertical surfaces. If utilized to full capacity, the 100 mm2 area of a gecko's foot, consisting of 500,000 such setae, should then be able to produce 100 N (10 kg) of adhesive force. The corresponding effective adhesive strength is 106 MPa (15,000 psi). This adhesive strength is well suited for many applications. The micron-size setae serve as a compliant support which conforms to the surface to allow the nanometer-sized tips (themselves compliant on a small scale) to make intimate contact with the surface.
A manufactured adhesive that could provide the adhesion properties of the gecko foot is desirable. Such an adhesive would be compliant and could stick by intermolecular (van der Waals) forces resulting from its intimate contact with the surface. Such an adhesive would provide broad utility as an adhesive or attachment mechanism. The adhesive could be strong, dry, removable, reusable, and lightweight, combining many of the most desirable properties of the gecko foot. Such an adhesive may also have enhanced thermal and/or electrical conductance, providing an effective thermal/electrical interface with a built-in attach mechanism that is strong, removable, and reusable.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A system and method for an electronic communications dialog between a plurality of users using digital images via a web portal. The user selects a template for entering a plurality of words and associated images that constitute an initial electronic message. The user then enters a plurality of words into the template corresponding to the initial electronic message. A plurality of images are selected having a direct correspondence with the plurality of words entered into the template. Each image is inserted into the template in a sequence corresponding to the initial electronic message. When the initial template is complete, the initial electronic message containing the sequenced images is sent to at least one other user via the web portal. A visual dictionary can be created for each user using a facility which takes images from any electronic source and allows users to apply naming tags to store the images for subsequent retrieval. A visual library can be created for each user to save completed and partially completed templates that can be retrieved for further editing or use.

The ability for individuals and groups to communicate and carry on a conversation has been dramatically transformed by personal computing/memory devices, easy to use software, and the Internet. For example, consumer communications have evolved over the past twenty years from almost solely using land-based home phone lines for verbal communications and discussions to mobile phone devices which enable both verbal communications and the use of written words as messages in the form of text messages or electronic mail. In this interconnected Internet world, verbal communication is taking a back seat to software that manipulates words enabling text and email messaging. In this new abbreviated-text, quick-phrase Internet world, meaning can be lost, or the electronic message can be easily misinterpreted.
Since the evolution of written communications, natural language words have dominated communication and dialogue, while descriptive pictures have been used to provide ad hoc insertions to words and stories. Even in the current electronic digital age of the Internet, natural language words dominate dialogue, as witnessed by the almost universal use of email and the more recent explosion of text messaging on computers and cell phones.
The continued investment in (1) advanced computer processor and memory technology with the vast manipulation capabilities they provide, and (2) the electronic communication networks that carry the message from one computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), cell phone, or other electronic device to another computer, PDA, cell phone, or other electronic device is the modern day equivalent to investment in the word printing press. More and more efficient natural language word communication is happening at electron speed to instantly connect one user to another user almost anywhere in the world. Yet, the understandable meaning being conveyed may be confused, as words do not always carry enough information for full meaning. For example, when a user texts "Bring home an apple for me," it is not all that clear what type of apple that the user wants: red/green, small/large, juicy/dry, sweet/sour, etc, so the apple that the user gets may not be the one that the user wanted.

Electronic communications dialog using sequenced digital images stored in an image dictionary


Systems and methods are directed to configuring a portable electronic device such that a user of the portable electronic device is required to use two hands to operate the portable electronic device. In some configurations, the portable electronic device determines whether the portable electronic device is moving at a rate of speed that is greater than a predetermined threshold before requiring the user to use two hands. Alternatively, or in addition, a function, feature, and/or application of the portable electronic device may be inhibited such that two hands are required. Once the portable electronic device determines that the user is using two hands, an operation, feature, function, and/or application may then be enabled although still be inhibited.

It is well known that motor vehicle operators, who send text messages while driving, are more likely to have accidents. According to a recent article entitled "1 in 4 surf Web while behind wheel" (hereinafter "the Article"), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that texting while driving creates a crash risk that is twenty-three times greater than not doing so. (Copeland, Larry. "1 in 4 surf Web while behind wheel." USA Today. 12 Nov. 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013", the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference, in its entirety, for all that it teaches and for all purposes). Moreover, according to the Article, the rise in ownership of smartphones means there are more opportunities than ever for a driver to be distracted. For example, according to one survey, nearly one out of four drivers is going online while driving. Although texting and accessing the Internet while driving is clearly an unsafe practice, and illegal in several jurisdictions, many people continue to do so.
There are any number of ways to disable and/or alter a device's operability automatically if the device is within a moving vehicle. For example, the texting function may be disabled automatically if GPS or cell tower triangulation indicate that the device is moving at a fast rate. As another example, the operability of the device as a whole may be modified such that the device is rendered inoperable if the device is moving at a fast rate. However, disabling texting and/or Internet access for all occupants of a moving vehicle, and not just for the driver, is a poor solution.

Methods and systems to ensure that the user of a touch or keypad operated device within a moving vehicle must use two hands for device operation


A configuration emulation circuit generates configuration signals to emulate a Programmable Logic Device (PLD) in a configuration timing relationship and a configuration protocol relationship between a programming circuit and the PLD. The circuit includes a first circuit to emulate the PLD in the configuration timing relationship. The circuit also includes a second circuit to emulate the PLD in the configuration protocol relationship. The second circuit is coupled to receive a configuration mode signal and is responsive to the configuration mode signal.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of circuit design. In particular, the invention relates to a circuit and method for maintaining the configuration process in a mask programmed integrated circuit implementation of a circuit design for a programmable logic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs) allow circuit designers to program the PLDs to perform the function of a particular circuit design. Examples of programmable logic devices are Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and Erasable Programmable Logic Devices (EPLDs).
Random Access Memory (RAM) based PLDs use a configuration process to allow a programming circuit to program the PLD to perform the function of a particular circuit design. Non-RAM based PLDs use a similar configuration process. The configuration process uses serial and/or parallel communications between a programming circuit and the PLD. Thus, a configuration timing relationship and a configuration protocol relationship exist between the PLD and the programming circuit. This configuration timing relationship is the time from when power is applied to the PLD to immediately before the PLD is ready to function as the particular circuit design. The configuration protocol relationship is the signalling convention used between the programming circuit and the PLD during the configuration of the PLD.
In an XC4000.TM. FPGA PLD from Xilinx, Inc., of San Jose, Calif., the configuration mechanism begins after the power supply has reached a certain level (e.g., 3.5 volts). The power reaching a specified level then triggers a specific set of phases. The 1994 Xilinx Data Book, page 2-25 through page 2-31, describes the configuration process for the XC4000 FPGA product family.
In some cases, where the economies of scale warrant, a designer will want to target a circuit design for a different implementation technology. That is, a designer will want to convert a circuit design in a technology (e.g., mask programmed integrated circuit technology) other than in a programmable logic device. A Mask Programmed Integrated Circuit (MPIC) version reduces the silicon area needed to implement the circuit design and is therefore less expensive. This conversion process may be to a simple mask programmed version of the PLD, or a totally different representation; but the user logic functionality is maintained. One example of such a process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,550,839 which issued Aug. 27, 1996, entitled, "Mask-Programmed Integrated Circuits Having Timing and Logic Compatibility to User-Configured Logic Arrays."
A MPIC of a PLD does not have a configuration timing relationship nor a configuration protocol relationship because the MPIC is already configured and therefore already programmed. In contrast, the PLD must complete the entire configuration process prior to the commencement of the functional operation of the particular circuit design.
Therefore, one of the problems encountered by designers who convert their circuit designs to another technology is that the configuration timing relationship is not the same for the target technology. A second problem is that the configuration protocol relationship is not maintained. While these two problems may not affect the PLD's circuit design implementation logic functionality, they do affect the integration of the MPIC into the system. If the configuration timing relationship is not maintained, system problems may result that must be solved prior to the introduction of the mask programmed version into the final system. Further, if the configuration protocol relationship is not maintained, the entire system may not become operational. For example, the designer may have to alter the programming circuit or the software that executes in the system. A designer may not want to modify any other part of the system to migrate to a new target technology because this adds additional costs to the design process. The modification of the system may also add to the time it takes to release the system to the market using the target technology. The modification introduces the possibility of design mistakes into the system.
One partial solution to the configuration timing relationship problem is to include a power-on reset circuit in the target technology integrated circuit, thereby ensuring that the integrated circuit will be held in a reset state for a period of time until after the applied power becomes stable. This mechanism is referred to as "Power-On-Reset" (POR). However, the POR circuit does not completely solve the problem because the system using the target technology will still have to fully support the remainder of the configuration timing and configuration protocol relationships. If the system was not originally designed to, or is not capable of, supporting POR then the system will have to be redesigned for the target technology.
Xilinx, Inc. produces the XC4300 HardWire.TM. integrated circuit which supports an alternative configuration mechanism referenced as "Instant-On." This mechanism is documented in the Xilinx HardWire Data Book, page 2-23 through 2-25, 1994. However, the instant-on feature largely ignores the issues of the configuration protocol relationships.
Therefore, what is needed is a better solution to both the configuration timing relationship problem and the configuration protocol relationship problem. The solution should reduce, or even remove, the need to redesign the rest of the system.

Configuration emulation of a programmable logic device


The present invention relates to a hand-held instrument for reflection measuring on printed sheets and test charts, which includes a housing with a base plate, a measuring head, a display field, a plurality of operating keys, and a measuring and evaluating electronic unit. According to the invention, a parallel guide plate is provided on a mounting side of the measuring head, at a bottom longitudinal edge of the housing, the guide plate in the area of the measuring head is provided with a view recess for a measuring hole thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hand-held instrument for reflection measuring on printed sheets and test charts.
2. Description of Prior Art
Hand-held instruments of the afore-described type are known, for example, from German Patent 43 05 968. Measuring of the optical density and of the colorimetrical characteristic values on printing control strips and test charts is accomplished by a movement manually performed by the instrument on the measuring surface, thereby scanning a major number of measuring fields. Moreover, the hand-held instrument is able to perform measurements within the image, with the instrument being positioned on the selected points with repetitive accuracy.
Reflection measurements on printed sheets and test charts are performed for determining the optical density and the characteristic values derived therefrom, such as dot gain and print contrasts. Moreover, colorimetrical measurements are performed by tristimulus instruments and spectral photometers for determining the CIE-values on test charts and printed products of the most various types. Some of the spectral photometers are suitable to measure both the characteristic values of the optical density and the colorimetrical characteristic values in combination.
In density measurements on prints, printing control strips are printed at the edge of the sheet, with the printing control strips including series-arranged control fields for the colors involved in multi-color prints. The preferred standard process colors for the four-color print are cyan, magenta, yellow and black. In the majority of cases, the control fields are of a width of only 5 to 6 mm so that a printing control strip extending across the entire printing width, with an average sheet format, can consist of more than 200 control fields.
Test charts used for full-format testing and for optimizing the printing quality of the printing machines contain an even larger number of control fields. A completely new type of test charts has been developed for the color calibration of digital proof instruments, the control fields of which, mostly, are colorimetrically measured. In order to achieve the color calibration computed by special software programs, substantially for the entire visible color space, test charts have been developed for the so-called color management that contain between 200 and 2000 measuring fields. The conventional test chart of the international ANSI IT 8.7/3-1993 standard contains, for example, 928 measuring fields.
Conventionally, printing control strips and test charts are evaluated by hand-held instruments suitable to successively measure respectively one control field at a time. Instruments of that type are inexpensive but too slow for a fast and comfortable evaluation of a large number of control fields. This disadvantage could not be overcome either by a design in which the measuring head is moved by motor power (see European Patent 0 171 360) according to which the instrument must still be moved from one field to the next one and a circular aperture designed as a detector is required to be precisely positioned within the measuring field before releasing the power-driven motion of the measuring head, with the latter being moved from an opening within the instrument, stopping briefly over the measuring field and then returning to its initial position.
An essential improvement has been achieved with a hand-held instrument in which the power-driven measuring head is moved along a line across a plurality of control fields, at the same time measuring the individual fields (see German Patent 37 23 701). In this way, between twelve and twenty-four fields can be scanned in one run.
An evaluation of complete printing control strips across the entire length thereof in one run at the present time can be performed only by large scan-densitometers which are true measuring machines that, technically, are highly sophisticated and correspondingly expensive.
Even higher technical efforts are involved with plotters moving the measuring head in the XY-direction thereby enabling the automatic evaluation of entire test charts. However, plotters of this type involve the unique advantage that they also enable measurements within the printed picture to be performed because the measuring head can be focused on any desired points within the picture with a high repetitive accuracy, while a hand-held instrument permits retrieval of predetermined points of measurement in the picture to a limited extent only.

Hand-held instrument for reflection measuring on printed sheets and test charts


An X-ray sensor signal processing circuit and method used in an industrial X-ray CT apparatus for processing an output signal of a semiconductor X-ray sensor which detects a pulsed X-ray emitted from an accelerator and passed through an object to be inspected. The circuit includes a first resistor having one terminal connected to the X-ray sensor and an other terminal connected to ground, a first capacitor having one end terminal connected to a connection point of the X-ray sensor and the first resistor, an operational amplifier having an inverting input connected to an other terminal of the first capacitor, and an integrator having a second resistor and a second capacitor each connected to the operational amplifier in parallel. The circuit is configured so that at least bias conditions of the X-ray sensor and the first capacitor are returned to a steady state after irradiation of the pulsed X-ray.

The present invention relates to an X-ray sensor signal processor for processing output signals of X-ray sensors for non-destructive inspection, and an X-ray computed tomography system (hereinafter referred to as "X-ray CT system") using the X-ray sensor signal processor. Particularly, it relates to an X-ray sensor signal processor in which a dark current generated in each of X-ray sensors can be removed and a value proportional to the average number of photons in X-rays can be obtained even in the case where a small number of incident photons are given, and an X-ray CT (computed tomography) system using the X-ray sensor signal processor.
Industrial X-ray CT systems using X-ray pulses with high energy (of 1 MeV or higher) have been developed in recent years for the purpose of non-destructively inspecting internal defects, or the like, of metallic parts or devices. Greater progress in research and development has been made for the purpose of inspecting a larger object with high resolution.
An X-ray CT system has been described in H. Miyai, et al. "A High Energy X-Ray Computed Tomography Using Silicon Semiconductor Detectors", 1996 Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, Vol. 2, pp. 816-820, Nov. 2-9, 1996, Anaheim, Calif., USA (1997) (hereinafter referred to as "first background art"). A signal processor for processing output signals of X-ray sensors shown in the first background art will be described below with reference to FIG. 9.
In the signal processor 1 shown in FIG. 9, semiconductor sensors (X-ray sensors) 21 to 2n are connected to first-stage circuits 90 to 9n respectively. Because a semiconductor sensor for an X-ray computed tomography is shaped like a strip of paper with a large size (for example, 3×40×0.4 mm) to detect a high-energy X-ray pulse efficiently, there is a possibility that a dark current with a high level of the order of tens of nA may be inevitably generated in the semiconductor sensor. In the first-stage circuit 90, a capacitor 114 is provided to AC-couple the semiconductor sensor 21 so that a voltage amplifier does not amplify a DC voltage caused by the dark current. When X-rays become incident onto the semiconductor sensor 21, an electric current flows through a capacitor 114 because electric charges are generated in the inside of the sensor. A voltage change generated on this occasion is amplified by two stages of voltage amplifiers 92 and 92′, held by a sample/hold amplifier 94 and supplied to a posterior device. As shown, the first stage amplifier 92 is coupled to the capacitor 114 by a resistor 91 and has a resistor 93 connected between the output of the amplifier 92 and a (−) input thereof. The output of amplifier 92 is coupled to the second stage amplifier 92′ by a resistor 91′ and has a resistor 93′ connected between the output and a (−) input thereof.
FIG. 10A shows an output of the semiconductor sensor 21 in the first background art, and FIG. 10B shows an output of the sample/hold amplifier 94 in the first background art. An X-ray pulse is output with a pulse width Tw. Hence, when there is no object or when an object penetrated by the X-ray pulse is thin, the output of the X-ray sensor is provided as a rectangular-wave output 101 (solid line) proportional to the dose of the X-ray pulse as shown in FIG. 10A. Hence, the output of the sample/hold amplifier 94 is obtained as an output 103 proportional to the average number of photons per unit time except the first rising portion as shown in FIG. 10B.
On the contrary, when an X-ray pulses pass through a thick object, the number of incident photons is reduced by at least four digits compared with the case where no object is set, because the X-ray pulses are attenuated before the X-ray pulses become incident on the semiconductor sensor 21. The output 102 in FIG. 10A shows an example of the output of the semiconductor sensor 21 in the case where the object is so thick that a small number of incident photons are given. As shown in FIG. 10A, the output of the semiconductor sensor 21 is not kept constant but it has a waveform the output height of which is heightened only when photons are incident on the semiconductor sensor 21. In this case, the output of the sample-and-hold amplifier 94 is not kept constant, either, as represented by the output 104 in FIG. 10B. That is, the value held by the sample/hold amplifier 94 does not always express a voltage proportional to the average number of photons per unit time. As described above, the first background art has a problem that a voltage proportional to the average number of photons per unit time is not obtained when a small number of incident photons are given.
A technique for obtaining a voltage proportional to the average number of photons even in the case where a small number of incident photons are given has been described in JP-A-58-15847 (hereinafter referred to as "second background art"). In the second background art, there has been described a medical X-ray tomography system in which a voltage proportional to the average number of photons is obtained by a root mean square of fluctuation components obtained as a result of removal of a DC component from an output signal of an X-ray sensor by a capacitor. This technique is called "root mean square voltage technique" or "Campbell's technique".
Assume now the case where the second background art is applied to the first background art. Generally, the pulse width of an X-ray pulse used in the industrial X-ray CT system which is a subject of the first background art is set to be small (about 5 μs) compared with the medical X-ray tomography system which is a subject of the second background art. The pulse with such a small pulse width, however, cannot be removed by a capacitor. Hence, fluctuation components cannot be taken out exclusively by a capacitor even in the case where the second background art is applied to the industrial X-ray CT system which is a subject of the first background art. Because a voltage proportional to the average number of photons cannot be obtained accurately by the root mean square voltage technique if fluctuation components cannot be taken out exclusively, a voltage proportional to the average number of photons cannot be obtained accurately even in the case where the second background art is applied to the first background art as described above.

X-ray sensor signal processor and X-ray computed tomography system using the same


A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor device, comprising a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cells connected to a first bit line and a second bit line, respectively, a page buffer group, and bit line selection circuits including a plurality of selection circuit blocks to connect the first bit lines or the second bit lines to the page buffer group, wherein each of the selection circuit blocks includes a first contact region and a second contact region to which the first and second bit lines coupled, and same bit lines of the first and second bit lines are coupled to contact regions adjacent to one another of the first and second contact regions included in bit line selection circuits adjacent to one another of the bit line selection circuits.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a semiconductor device having a high-voltage transistor.
A semiconductor device may include a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cells configured to store data and a plurality of peripheral circuits configured to program or erase data into or from the memory cells or read out data stored in the memory cells.
The peripheral circuits may include a plurality of page buffers coupled to the memory cell array through bit lines. The page buffers may provide a program permission voltage or a program prohibition voltage through the bit lines in a program operation and receive states of cells through the bit lines in a read operation.
Meanwhile, interference may occur between adjacent bit lines as a degree of integration of a semiconductor device increases. Thus, in order to prevent the interference, the bit lines are classified into even-numbered bit lines and odd-numbered bit lines. The even-numbered bit lines may be called even bit lines, and the odd-numbered bit lines may be called odd bit lines. Since each of the page buffers is coupled to a bit line pair including an even bit line and an odd bit line, each of the page buffers may include a bit line selection circuit configured to select the even bit line or and the odd bit line of the bit line pair.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional semiconductor device. Referring to FIG. 1, an isolation region IS is formed to define active regions AT in a semiconductor substrate 10 and filled with an insulating material 14. Gate lines of transistors TR are formed on the active region AT in the semiconductor substrate 10, and junction regions 12 are formed in the semiconductor substrate 10 adjacent to both ends of each of the gate lines. Thus, the transistors TR including the gate lines and the junction regions 12 are formed. After that, an interlayer insulating layer 17 is formed to cover a resultant structure including the transistors TR, and contact plugs CP are formed on the junction regions 12 to penetrate the interlayer insulating layer 17. Each of bit lines BLo and BLe is formed over the interlayer insulating layer 17 to be coupled to each of the contact plugs CP.
When high-voltage transistors are formed in a selection circuit region and different voltages are applied to junction regions 12 formed in different active regions AT, depletion may occur in a region between the junction regions 12 in the different active regions AT. To prevent the occurrence of the depletion, an ion implantation process may be performed onto a portion of the semiconductor substrate 10 disposed under the isolation region IS, thereby forming a field stop ion implantation region FS. The field stop ion implantation region FS may be formed by implanting impurities having a different type from that of the junction region 12 formed in the active region AT. Accordingly, if a distance between the field stop ion implantation region FS and the junction region 12 is excessively reduced, a breakdown (BD) voltage may be lowered. To prevent this phenomenon from occurring, a minimum distance between the field stop ion implantation region FS and the junction region 12 should be secured. As a result, an area occupied by a semiconductor device may increase depending on a width W of the field stop ion implantation region FS and the minimum distance between the field stop ion implantation region FS and the junction region 12.

Semiconductor device having high-voltage transistor


The disclosed method for fabricating low cost laryngeal mask devices includes providing a mold, the mold including interior walls that define a hollow interior volume. The interior volume includes a first portion and a second portion. A liquid plastic material is introduced into the mold, and then the mold is moved so as to coat the mold's interior walls. The liquid plastic material and then allowed to cure. The cured plastic material is then removed from the mold and the cured plastic material includes a generally elliptically shaped plate and a cuff. The cuff is formed from plastic material that coated the portion of the interior walls that defined the first portion. The plate defines a laryngeal side, a pharyngeal side, and a central aperture. An interior perimeter of the cuff is attached to the laryngeal side of the plate proximal to a perimeter of the central aperture. An outer perimeter of the cuff is attached to the laryngeal side of the plate proximal to an outer perimeter of the plate.

The present invention relates to a laryngeal mask airway device. More specifically, the present invention relates to reduced cost laryngeal masks, improved geometric configurations for laryngeal masks, and to methods of inexpensively fabricating such masks.
The laryngeal mask airway device (LMA) is a well known device that is useful for establishing airways in unconscious patients. LMAs have been in use for about twelve years and offer an alternative to the older, even better known, endotracheal tube. For at least seventy years, endotracheal tubes comprising a long slender tube with an inflatable balloon disposed at the tube's distal end have been used for establishing airways in unconscious patients. In operation, the endotracheal tube's distal end is inserted through the mouth of the patient, past the patient's laryngeal inlet (or glottic opening), and into the patient's trachea. Once so positioned, the balloon is inflated so as to form a seal with the interior lining of the trachea. After this seal is established, positive pressure may be applied to the tube's proximal end to ventilate the patient's lungs. Also, the seal between the balloon and the inner lining of the trachea protects the lungs from aspiration (e.g., the seal prevents material regurgitated from the stomach from being aspirated into the patient's lungs).
Although they have been enormously successful, endotracheal tubes suffer from several major disadvantages. The principal disadvantage of the endotracheal tube relates to the difficulty of properly inserting the tube. Inserting an endotracheal tube into a patient is a procedure that requires a high degree of skill. Also, even for skilled practitioners, insertion of an endotracheal tube is sometimes difficult or not possible. In many instances, the difficulty of inserting endotracheal tubes has tragically led to the death of a patient because it was not possible to establish an airway in the patient with sufficient rapidity.
In addition to this principal disadvantage, there are also other disadvantages associated with endotracheal tubes. For example, intubation with an endotracheal tube often causes patients to suffer from severe "sore throats". The "sore throat" is principally caused by friction between the tube and the notch between the patient's arytenoid cartilages. Another disadvantage is that patients can not cough effectively while intubated with an endotracheal tube. Yet another problem with endotracheal tubes relates to the manner in which they are inserted. Inserting an endotracheal tube normally requires manipulations of the patient's head and neck and further requires the patient's jaw to be forcibly opened widely. These necessary manipulations make it difficult, or undesirable, to insert an endotracheal tube into a patient who may be suffering from a neck injury. Still another disadvantage is that endotracheal tubes provide an airway that is relatively small or narrow. The size of the airway must be relatively narrow because the distal end of the tube must be sufficiently small to fit into the trachea.
In contrast to the endotracheal tube, it is relatively easy to insert an LMA into a patient and thereby establish an airway. Also, the LMA is a "forgiving" device in that even if it is inserted improperly, it still tends to establish an airway. Accordingly, the LMA is often thought of as a "life saving" device. Also, the LMA may be inserted with only relatively minor manipulations of the patient's head, neck, and jaw. Further, the LMA provides for ventilation of the patient's lungs without requiring contact with the sensitive inner lining of the trachea and the size of the airway established with an LMA is typically significantly larger than the size of the airway established with an endotracheal tube. Also, the LMA does not interfere with coughing to the same extent as endotracheal tubes. Largely due to these advantages, the LMA has enjoyed increasing popularity over the last twelve years.
FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a prior art LMA 100 and FIG. 2 illustrates an LMA 100 that has been inserted into a patient. LMAs such as LMA 100 are described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,509,514. LMA 100 includes a flexible cylindrical tube 110 and a mask portion 130. Tube 110 extends from a proximal end 112 to a distal end 114 and mask portion 130 is coupled to the tube's distal end 114. Mask portion 130 includes a proximal end 132 and a generally elliptical inflatable cuff 134. Mask portion 130 also defines a central passageway extending from proximal end 132 to an open end 136 of cuff 134. The distal end 114 of tube 110 is telescopically fit into the proximal end 132 of mask portion 130, and LMA 100 provides a continuous, sealed, airway extending from proximal end 112 of tube 110 to the open end 136 of cuff 134. LMA 100 also includes an inflation tube 138 for selectively inflating or deflating cuff 134.
In operation, the cuff 134 is deflated, and then the mask portion is inserted through the patient's mouth into the patient's pharynx. The mask portion is preferably positioned so that a distal end 140 of cuff 134 rests against the patient's normally closed esophagus and so that the open end 136 of the cuff 134 is aligned with the entryway of the patient's trachea (i.e., the patient's glottic opening). After the mask portion is so positioned, the cuff is inflated thereby forming a seal around the patient's glottic opening and this establishes a sealed airway extending from the proximal end 112 of the tube 110 to the patient's trachea.
For convenience of exposition, the term "fully inserted configuration" shall be used herein to refer to an LMA that has been inserted into a patient and has the following characteristics: (1) the mask portion is disposed around the patient's glottic opening; (2) the cuff is inflated forming a seal around the patient's glottic opening; and (3) the airway tube extends from a proximal end located outside the patient's mouth to a distal end that is coupled to the mask portion, the tube extending through the patient's mouth and the patient's natural upper airway so that the LMA provides a sealed airway extending from the tube's proximal end to the patient's lungs. FIG. 2 shows an LMA in the fully inserted configuration.
When LMA 100 is in the fully inserted configuration, LMA 100 advantageously does not contact the interior lining of the trachea. Rather, the seal is established by contact between the tissues surrounding the patient's laryngeal inlet and the inflatable cuff 134. Unlike the delicate interior lining of the trachea, the tissues at the laryngeal inlet are accustomed to contact with foreign matter. For example, during the act of swallowing food, the food is normally squeezed against these tissues on its way to the esophagus. These tissues are accordingly less sensitive and less susceptible to being damaged by contact with the inflatable cuff.
FIG. 3 shows a sectional side view of the mask portion 230 of another prior art LMA. The illustrated mask portion 230, which is described more fully in U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,879, includes an inflatable cuff 234 and a backplate 250. Backplate 250 defines a proximal end 232 for receiving, or coupling to, a cylindrical airway tube (not shown). Mask portion 230 defines a sealed passageway, or airway, that extends from proximal end 232 through to the open end 236 of cuff 234. This mask portion 230 also includes an inflatable back cushion that, when inflated, expands to the contour illustrated by phantom outline 252. As shown in FIG. 3, the cross sections of prior art cuffs are generally circular. The thickness T1 of the material used to form the cuff (i.e., the thickness of the cuff wall) is normally about 0.7–0.8 millimeters.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,697 describes an example of another type of prior art LMA that is commonly known as an "intubating LMA". The intubating LMA is useful for facilitating insertion of an endotracheal tube. After an intubating LMA has been located in the fully inserted configuration, the LMA can act as a guide for a subsequently inserted endotracheal tube. Use of the LMA in this fashion facilitates what is commonly known as "blind insertion" of the endotracheal tube. Only minor movements of the patient's head, neck, and jaw are required to insert the intubating LMA, and once the intubating LMA has been located in the fully inserted configuration, the endotracheal tube may be inserted with virtually no additional movements of the patient. This stands in contrast to the relatively large motions of the patient's head, neck, and jaw that would be required if the endotracheal tube were inserted without the assistance of the intubating LMA.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,271 describes an example of yet another type of prior art LMA. In addition to providing an airway tube for ventilating a patient's lungs, this LMA also provides a second tube, a drainage tube, used for draining or removing regurgitated material. The distal end of the drainage tube is disposed proximal to the normally closed entrance to the patient's esophagus. In addition to providing drainage, the drainage tube may also be used to guide insertion of a gastric tube.
In general, prior art LMAs have been manufactured by molding elastomeric materials such as silicone to desired shapes. One advantage of these materials is that they are durable enough to permit the LMAs to be sterilized in an autoclave and reused. For example, LMAs sold by LMA International SA of Henley, England are guaranteed to survive forty sterilizations, and in practice these devices may generally be sterilized (and reused) more than forty times before becoming too worn for reuse. However, one disadvantage of these materials is that they are relatively expensive. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to develop a reduced cost LMA.
Several attempts have been made in the prior art to provide reduced cost LMAs. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,452 discloses an LMA in which the mask portion is formed by adhering a foam material to both sides of a backplate. The foam forms an inflatable cuff that is attached to both sides of the plate. U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,897 discloses another LMA in which the mask portion is formed by attaching cuff members to the top and bottom of a backplate. The cuff members may be formed from flexible, resilient plastics material, such as PVC. One disadvantage of the LMAs disclosed in the '897 and '452 patents is that the assembly of the disclosed mask portions necessarily involves two steps: a first step of fabricating the backplate and then a second step of adhering the cuff to the top and bottom of the plate. It would therefore be advantageous to develop a process for simultaneously forming all parts of the mask portion of an LMA.
In addition to cost, another disadvantage of prior art LMAs relates to the quality of the seal established between the patient and the LMA. The LMA shown in FIG. 1 generally maintains a seal up to about twenty cm H2O. That is, when the LMA is in the fully inserted configuration, the seal between the LMA and the patient will be maintained as long as the pressure applied to the proximal end of the airway tube is less than approximately twenty cm H2O. However, if greater pressures are applied to the proximal end of the airway tube, the seal tends to be lost thereby causing loss of some fraction of the delivered gas volume, so that positive pressure ventilation may be less effective. This stands in contrast to the endotracheal tube, which can normally maintain a seal up to fifty cm H2O. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide an LMA that provides improved seals.
Still another disadvantage of prior art LMAs relates to the profile, or geometric configuration, of the deflated LMA. When the cuff of an LMA is deflated, the LMA would ideally, automatically, assume a shape that was optimized for facilitating insertion. However, prior art LMAs do not tend to automatically form such shapes when the cuff is deflated. Accordingly, several "forming tools" have been provided for affecting the shape of the deflated LMA. U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,293 discloses one such forming tool. However, it would be advantageous to provide an LMA that automatically assumed a profile that facilitated insertion when the cuff was deflated.
Yet another disadvantage of prior art LMAs relates to the manner in which they are inserted into a patient. Anesthesiologists or other practitioners insert many types of prior art LMAs by pushing one of their fingers against the proximal end of the cuff. Unfortunately, this procedure requires the practitioner to insert their finger into the patient's mouth and guide the LMA past the patient's throat. Since many practitioners prefer to avoid inserting their fingers into patient's mouths, several insertion tools have been developed for facilitating insertion of various LMAs. However, it would be advantageous to provide an LMA that could be inserted without an insertion tool and without requiring insertion of a finger into the patient's mouth.


An exhaust system in an engine includes an exhaust passage including an outlet, in fluidic communication with at least one combustion chamber in the engine, and integrated into a cylinder head in the engine and a flow rotation element including at least one vane, the flow rotation element positioned in the outlet of the exhaust passage swirling exhaust airflow exiting the exhaust passage.

Exhaust systems receive exhaust gas generated as a product of combustion carried out in cylinders in internal combustion engines. The exhaust systems may include exhaust manifolds which receive exhaust gas from individual cylinders in the engine and merge the exhaust gas flow into a single exhaust passage. The intake manifold may be positioned external to a cylinder head in the engine or integrated into the cylinder head. Due to packaging constraints the exhaust manifolds as well as other exhaust conduits in the exhaust system may include a number of bends, curves, etc., which may increase back pressure and generate noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) in the exhaust system.
U.S. 2009/0007552 discloses an exhaust manifold including tubes enclosed by a housing defining an interior section of the exhaust manifold. The inventors have recognized several drawbacks with the exhaust manifold disclosed in U.S. 2009/0007552. For instance, the exhaust manifold disclosed in U.S. 2009/0007552 is bulky, which increases the profile of the exhaust system. Moreover, the exhaust manifold disclosed in U.S. 2009/0007552 also generates a large amount of NVH which may only be partially attenuated by the interaction between the tubes and the interior region. As a result, customer dissatisfaction is increased. Further, it will be appreciated that other exhaust manifold designs may involve tradeoffs between compactness, noise attenuation, and back pressure generation.
The inventors herein have recognized the above issues and developed an exhaust system in an engine. The exhaust system includes an exhaust passage including an outlet, in fluidic communication with at least one combustion chamber in the engine, and integrated into a cylinder head in the engine and a flow rotation element including at least one vane, the flow rotation element positioned in the outlet of the exhaust passage swirling exhaust airflow exiting the exhaust passage.
The flow rotation element decreases flow separation and turbulence in the exhaust gas flow through the exhaust manifold, thereby reducing impingement and noise generated in the exhaust manifold. As a result, NVH within the exhaust system is decreased and customer satisfaction is increased. Moreover, positioning the flow rotation elements in the exhaust passages in the cylinder head may simplify manufacturing, thereby decreasing production costs.
The above advantages and other advantages, and features of the present description will be readily apparent from the following Detailed Description when taken alone or in connection with the accompanying drawings.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure. Additionally, the above issues have been recognized by the inventors herein, and are not admitted to be known.

Exhaust system having a flow rotation element and method for operation of an exhaust system


Rubber shock absorber systems for use between the frame and equalizer bar of a construction vehicle usually fail to withstand high temperature environments. A metallic spring assembly is provided which is capable of high flexibility and durability. The spring assembly includes a first arcuate spring member and a second arcuate spring member adjacent to and inverted from the first spring member. First and second arcuate plate members are positioned against the first and second spring members respectively, and have a larger bend radius so that a clearance is created therebetween. A bolt with a plate nut threaded thereon is provided to connect the spring assembly and to provide a preload. During compressive loading, opposing end portions of the first and second spring portions are deformed to provide an energy absorbing system. The flexibility and durability of the spring assembly is controlled by the bend radius, thickness, and length of the plate members.

Most present construction vehicles have a rubber shock absorber system between the equalizer bar and the frame for stabilization of the rear axle portion of the vehicle. In some operational conditions, such as a steel mill environment, the vehicle must operate near fire thereby destroying the rubber material in the shock absorber system. In order to eliminate the destruction of the rubber material, a material having a resistance to high temperatures must be used. A shock absorber system utilizing such materials must also have the flexibility to achieve the desired stabilization results necessary for a construction vehicle.
An example of a spring assembly used on the rear axle of a carriage is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 168,430 issued to Chauncey Thomas on Oct. 5, 1875. This design relates to a combination of transverse and longitudinal springs applied to a hanger and rear axle of a carriage body to ease motion to the carriage body and relieve the main springs of strain in various directions. The design, however, deals mainly with the relative positioning of the springs in achieving these aspects. Unfortunately, the spring design does not describe how to control the available flexibility and, in fact, is a secondary spring for increasing the life of the main springs.
The present invention is directed to overcoming the problems as set forth above.


A vehicle-mounted image processing device 1000 acquires an image around a host vehicle 10, senses a feature amount of a target object present on a road surface from the image, and relative position coordinates with respect to the host vehicle 10, acquires information of a three-dimensional object around the host vehicle 10 and relative position coordinates of the three-dimensional object, distinguishes whether the feature amount is a feature amount of a feature on the road surface or a feature amount of a feature on the three-dimensional object by using a positional relationship between the feature amount and the three-dimensional object, and recognizes the target object by using a feature on the road surface. As a result, a vehicle-mounted image processing device, which is capable of avoiding misrecognition of a part of a three-dimensional object as a target object when sensing the target object present on a road surface such as a parking bay by using a camera image, is provided.

PTL 1 discloses a parking bay sensing device including: imaging means that captures an image of an area behind a vehicle; edge extraction means that extracts edges from the captured image; image conversion means that converts the image with the edges extracted therefrom into an overhead image; area division means that divides the converted overhead image into left and right areas; straight line sensing means that senses straight lines in each area by Hough transform from the divided left and right areas; first determination means that determines whether or not the sensed straight line is an end of a line having a width; and second determination means that creates a combination of two straight lines for each of the left and right areas from a plurality of the straight lines determined to be an end of a line having a width, and determines whether or not the combination corresponds to both ends of a line having a width, for the purpose of accurately sensing straight lines to be candidates of both left and right ends of a line of a parking bay, preventing erroneous sensing of an unrelated straight line as both ends of the line of the parking bay, and accurately sensing the parking bay.

Vehicle-mounted image target objection recognition device


A method and apparatus for enabling a network to determine the call volume rate versus the call blocking rate on a predefined time interval basis over multiple predefined time intervals are disclosed. For example, if call blocking rates do not show a progressive trend of decline as call volume rates decline over multiple predefined time intervals, an alarm can be generated and corrective actions to flush out congested signaling message queues can be initiated to return the network to normal operating conditions.

Service disruptions in a packet network, e.g., a VoIP network can occur as a result of mass calling events that produce overloads and subsequent queuing congestion of signaling messages that result in call blocking due to call set up signaling message processing delays. If the call volumes quickly subside then the network typically recovers and will soon begin processing calls at a normal rate. However, if the call volumes decline and return to normal but the corresponding call blocking rate continues to increase or even remain flat, then the network is suffering a congestion problem that requires corrective actions to be taken to flush out the congested signaling message queues before calls can be handled normally after the call volume rate returns to normal.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for automating the detection and clearance of congestion in a packet network, e.g., a VoIP network.

Method and apparatus for automating the detection and clearance of congestion in a communication network


A household appliance, in particular a cooking hob device, includes at least one thermochromic and/or thermoluminescent element that contains at least one vanadium-containing material. The material containing vanadium can be a semiconductor in at least one temperature range, e.g. a doped semiconductor in the temperature range, and may include vanadium dioxide.

A household appliance apparatus having a cooking region, which features a thermochromic element, which indicates that a surface is hot during an operating process, is known from the publication DE 38 73 590 T2.
A cooktop with thermochromic elements, which are in each instance disposed adjacent to a cooking zone when the cooktop is viewed from above, is known from the publication DE 101 22 210 A1.


A crimping structure includes a crimping terminal that has a base plate and a crimping blade part on the base plate, a coated electric wire that has a conductor which is electrically connected to the crimping blade part by crimping the coated electric wire to the crimping blade, and is bend to be formed into a mountain-like shape whose top part is a connecting part where the conductor and the crimping blade part are connected, and an insulative resin part that covers a part of the coated electric wire from the top part to hem parts at two sides of the mountain-like shape and the crimping blade part.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a crimping structure.
2. Background Art
A waterproof crimping structure is known to conductively connect electric wires of a wire harness (for example, refer to a JP-UM-A-4-74869).
As shown in FIG. 11, the waterproof crimping structure, includes a crimping terminal 505 which has a crimping slot 503 to which an electric wire 501 is electrically connected by being press-fitted so that the coating is broken and the conductor is crimped, a connector body 509 which holds the crimping terminal 505 by accommodating the crimping terminal 505 with a terminal holder 507, and a cover body 511 which is installed to the connector body 509 so that the crimping terminal 505 is covered.
The fringe part of the connector body 509 is formed with a filler base part 515 into which waterproof filler 513 is filled to surround the crimping terminal 505 and the terminal holder 507. A waterproof projecting frame 517, whose upper part and side parts are closed and whose lower part is opened, is protruded from the bottom of the cover body 511. The top surface of the fringe part of the connector body 509 is formed to be lower than a crimping point 519 of the crimping terminal 505. The waterproof projecting frame 517 enters the waterproof filler 513, which is filled in the filler base part 515, when the cover body 511 is installed, and submerges by making the electric wire 501 to be bent into a U shape (strain reliefs 521 are formed).
Further, a crimping joint terminal sealing structure is proposed (for example, refer to a JP-A-2001-143776) for which a crimping joint terminal is sealed inside an insulative molding body together with coated electric wires which are crimped to crimping terminal parts so that while a waterproofing function and an insulating function are implemented, resistance against a pulling load of the coated electric wires (strain relief) is improved.
However, for the traditional waterproof crimping connector shown in FIG. 11, an operation of closing the connector body 509 and the cover body 511 for the purpose of crimping and a troublesome operation of making the electric wire 501 to be bent into a U shape at both sides of the crimping point 519 by making the waterproofing projecting frame 517 enter the filler base part 515 where the waterproof filler 513 is filled for the purpose of strain relief are necessary, and the manufacturing cost increases.
For the crimping joint terminal sealing structure for which the crimping terminal parts are sealed by the insulative molding body, in order to form the strain relief, it is necessary to integrate with the insulative molding body while the coated electric wire is bent downward, and is bent into a crank shape, the metal die is complicated, and the manufacturing cost increases.
The present invention is made in view of the above situations, and the object of the present invention is to provide a cheap crimping structure so that strain relief can be formed with a simple structure.