A burst length control circuit includes a burst length input circuit that outputs a mode register burst length signal and a burst length on-the-fly signal, a burst length generator circuit that outputs a burst length signal, and a burst length adjuster that delays the burst length signal by a write latency time to produce a write burst length control signal. A selection circuit selects any one of the burst length signal and the write burst length control signal according to a write read command signal and an on-the-fly signal received from the burst length input circuit, and outputs a burst length control signal. A burst stop counter counts the burst length control signal according to an internal write command signal and an internal read command signal, and outputs a burst stop signal corresponding to a selected burst length.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a burst length control circuit and a semiconductor device including the same, and more particularly, to a technology capable of controlling a burst length in a low power semiconductor memory device.
Semiconductor memory devices have been developed with increased degrees of integration and operating speeds. To increase operating speeds, synchronous memory devices capable of operating in synchronization with an external clock have been disclosed.
First developed were single data rate (SDR) synchronous memory devices in which one bit of data is inputted or outputted through one data pin during one cycle of an external clock, in synchronization with a rising edge of the external clock.
However, SDR synchronous memory devices had insufficient speed for a system configured to perform high speed operations. Accordingly, double data rate (DDR) synchronous memory devices configured to transfer two bits of data during one cycle of a clock have been introduced.
In the DDR synchronous memory devices, a first bit and a second bit of data are consecutively inputted or outputted through each data input/output (I/O) pin, the first and second bits in synchronization with a rising edge and a falling edge of a supplied external clock, respectively. Therefore, since a bandwidth at least two times greater than the conventional SDR synchronous memory device may be realized without increasing a frequency of the external clock, a high speed operation may be correspondingly achieved.
DDR synchronous memory devices use a multi-bit prefetch scheme in which multiple bits are internally processed at a time. The multi-bit prefetch scheme refers to a scheme in which data sequentially inputted are arranged in parallel in synchronization with a data strobe signal and then the parallelized multi-bit data are simultaneously stored in a memory cell array by a write command which is inputted in synchronization with an external clock signal.
DDR synchronous memory devices may include a plus mode capable of supporting two concurrent operations in different bank groups. If a DDR synchronous memory device enters the plus mode, when considering DDR3, write/read operations may be initiated that use two clock cycles during the plus mode, in contrast to four clock cycles used by analogous operations during a normal (non-plus) mode.
The plus mode may be used in an on-the-fly mode. An on-the-fly mode is a mode for determining whether to use a first burst length (e.g., BL4) or a second burst length (e.g., BL8) according to a bit in an address of a write or read command.
As prescribed in the JEDEC DDR3 standard, in order to utilize all cells in memory banks in a first burst length BL4 or an on-the-fly mode operation, banks are generally divided into two bank groups, e.g., first and second bank groups, and an operation for selecting whether to write data in the first or the second bank group is performed.
When a memory device is operating in a normal on-the-fly mode, an operation using four clock cycles is performed, and an address change is performed during four clock cycles. When operating in a plus on-the-fly mode, because an operation in a single clock cycle is required, an address toggle associated with the on-the-fly operation may be performed.
A conventional product under Low Power DDR3 (LPDDR3) may adopt a burst length chop scheme in which a burst length BL×2 mode is modified to have the timing of a burst length BL×1 mode by a burst stop termination (BST) command.
However, in the burst stop termination (BST) scheme, a received command signal may be counted, which may be inconvenient. For example, in order to realize a burst length BL16 in a burst length BL32 mode, a burst stop termination command may be counted.
Further, in the related art, if a burst stop termination signal is received by a write control unit and a read control unit, the magnitude of a burst length is changed according to strobe signals of the write control unit and the read control unit. As a result, an auto-precharge mode is disabled when using the conventional burst stop termination (BST) scheme.


Improvements to a Shiftless, Continuously-Aligning Transmission (SCAT) to provide the turbine member of a torque converter with variable torque-increasing gearing and give it additional work advantage over a work load and eliminate a vast amount of slippage in the converter, the improvements embodying reactive planetary gears mechanically engaging the turbine to a sun gear of a planetary gear set; mobile ring gears controlled by a drive shell extending rearward and engaged to a mechanical ring gear modulator which controls the direction and speed of the planetary ring gears to vary the output torque being delivered by the converter; a two-section input turbine shaft; a clutch mechanism to engage the two turbine shaft sections; a clutchless, continuously engaged overdrive planetary unit; hydraulic controls; and electrical braking controls.

1. Field of the Invention
Since the introduction of the wheel and axle and the principle of the lever and fulcrum, engineers, designers, experimenters, inventors and others have tried to discover the secret of varying the output torque of an engine without changing gears and still be able to maintain an enmeshed gear train in the process.
The current invention covers improvements to a shiftless, continuously-variable transmission and is generally directed to power transmissions for automotive vehicles and also for heavy-duty equipment and off-highway vehicles which make use of torque converters, and more particularly, to those vehicles that shy away from automatic transmissions because of slippage in the torque converters.
This invention provides torque-increasing gearing that supplies a great work advantage for the turbine member of the torque converter, over and above that of the conventional converters, in its ability to develop high starting torque when needed and deliver it at variable output rates, which permits the turbine to operate at a much closer RPM to that of the impeller practically all the time to reduce slippage and help provide engine retardation in a drifting mode. The present transmission requires no sensors, modulators or governors to determine a shift in ratio, because it does not shift gears. It has no clutches except for engaging and disengaging the prime mover from the transmission gearing.
An overdrive planetary unit is included at the final drive and it is engaged at all times because the high torque ability of the turbine and gear train can provide sufficient torque in overdrive range to handle the work load, even at low speed and with excessive loading.
2. History of the Prior Art
There has been a lot of striving to create a truly variable ratio transmission that is efficient and possesses a broad ratio band and one that can stand up to high torque engines; but the only ones I have encountered are the CVT type with belts and variable pulleys and the hydrostatic type and both of these devices have great limitations. Some of the latest produced vehicles have a manual shift transmission endeavoring to get a better gas mileage efficiency. Some of the latest transmission designs to reach the market include computer technology to smooth out the shifts from one range to another; and some even account for wear of the clutch plates. I have found no record of patented transmissions using a fully enmeshed gear train that automatically varies the ratio by controlling the speed of the planetary ring gears to the optimum speed. Most are controlled by servo brake bands or clutches and operate like speed reducers and do not vary the output torque.


Valve (10) for the discharge of fluids which are under pressure, especially liquids, pastes, creams or gels or the like, with a discharge tube which can be moved in a valve body out of a closed position against the action of a resilient member, especially a helical compression spring, to which tube a pot-like closing member (12), working together with a ring seal made of rubber or the like and closely surrounding the discharge tube (11), is allocated. The discharge tube (11) has, on its opposite end from the discharge aperture (13), a surrounding ring projection (14) with axial indentations (15) which can be snapped into a corresponding ring undercut (16) of the pot-like closing member (12).

The invention relates to a valve for the discharge of fluids which are under pressure, especially liquids, pastes, creams or gels or the like.
A valve of this type is described in AT 388 715 B. The valve in question is one which is widely used commercially. A valve of this type is to be described in greater detail with reference to FIG. 5. This valve, which is provided with the reference number 30, has a valve body 33 which can be fastened fluid-tight to the edge 31 of a lid aperture formed in a container lid 32, a discharge tube 35 which can be moved axially in the valve body out of a closed position corresponding to FIG. 5 against the action of a resilient member, namely here a helical compression spring 34, and a ring seal 36 made of rubber or similar resilient sealing material and arranged between the edge 31 of the lid aperture and the valve body 33, closely surrounding the discharge tube 35. A closing member 38, acting together with the ring seal 36, is allocated to a fluid entry point formed on the end of the discharge tube 35 inside the valve body. This closing member 38 is a pot-like member, effective inside the valve body 33 and with a ring flange 39 with a ring projection 40 turned towards the ring seal 36. Into this pot-like closing member 38 extends the inner section, or the section located in the valve body 33, of the discharge tube 35. The fixing of the discharge tube 35 inside the pot-like closing member 38 is done as a press fit, i.e. friction-tight. If the discharge tube 35 is pressed into the inside of the container, i.e. into the lid aperture, a corresponding pulling of the pot-like closing member 38 occurs against the action of the helical compression spring 34. Thus the ring projection 40 of the pot-like closing member 38 is raised from the ring seal 36, which results in the formation of a fluid connection between the fluid entry point 37 of the discharge tube 35 and the inside of the valve body 33. The inside of the valve body 33 has a fluid connection with the inside of the container via a fluid channel 41 opening into the inside of the container, a flexible tube 42, preferably extending as far as the base of the container, not shown in greater detail, being attached to the fluid channel 41.
A surrounding fluid seal 43 is allocated to the outer edge of the lid 32, which seal, in its mounted state, is squeezed between the edge of the lid and the edge of the container aperture. The state of this seal before being mounted is shown in FIG. 5 on the left-hand side, and on the right hand side after being mounted.
As can also be recognised from FIG. 5, the inside of the valve body, or in FIG. 5 the lower peripheral edge of the discharge tube 35, is formed by four claws 44, evenly distributed over the perimeter and placed inside a ring-shaped base groove of the pot-like closing member 38, as a press fit as already mentioned above. The free spaces between the claws 44 mentioned define the fluid entry point 37 of the discharge tube 35 inside the valve body. The strength of the claws 44 for fixing the discharge tube 35 inside the pot-like closing member 38 is sufficient for the axial discharge of the discharge tube 35. However if an opening of the discharge tube 35 through sideways tilting of the same is considered, with the known construction there would be the danger of the discharge tube breaking in the area of the claws 44 or in the area of the connection of same to the discharge tube. The same can of course happen if, in the construction according to FIG. 5, the discharge tube 35 is tilted by mistake.
Proceeding from known prior art, the purpose underlying the present invention is to make available a discharge valve which is characterised by a connection between discharge tube and pot-like closing element which is simpler to manufacture and assemble and with which, moreover, the discharge valve is particularly resistant to tilting.

Valve for the discharge of fluids which are under pressure


A collision warning system and method for a motor vehicle. A measuring device in the vehicle is provided for measuring the distance dx to a second vehicle traveling ahead, the distance signal being delivered to an evaluation device in the first vehicle. The evaluation device continuously calculates a deceleration asubject vehicle demand, which is applied by the vehicle after expiration of a driver reaction time Treaction in order that a remaining distance dxremaining to the second vehicle traveling ahead can be maintained. If asubject vehicle demand exceeds an instantaneous deceleration that can be achieved by an adaptive cruise control (“ACC”) system, a system limit warning is transmitted, prompting the vehicle driver to brake with additional appropriate force. If asubject vehicle demand exceeds an assumed vehicle deceleration that can be generated by braking on the part of the driver, a collision warning signal is transmitted independently of the ACC system.

The present invention is directed generally to a collision warning system and method for a motor vehicle.
Modern road vehicles, particularly commercial vehicles, are increasingly being equipped with cruise control systems which enable a vehicle so equipped to achieve and maintain a constant cruising speed, which can be preset by the driver. The preset speed is maintained even when the vehicle is ascending or descending an incline. For this purpose, such cruise control systems are capable of opening or closing the vehicle throttle, as appropriate, or of actuating the vehicle retarder.
Adaptive cruise control ("ACC") or distance control systems can also measure the distance between a vehicle so equipped and vehicles traveling ahead, and maintain that distance constant. For this purpose, a distance measuring sensor is employed which can be designed as a RADAR or LASER sensor, for example.
When the distance to the vehicle traveling ahead has decreased to a preset index distance, as recognized by the distance sensor, the ACC system readjusts the vehicle distance to the index value by throttling back or by additional actuation of the vehicle service brakes. For trucks, this predetermined distance is typically 50 meters. The vehicle speed may then be lower than the set cruising speed. If the vehicle traveling ahead accelerates beyond the index distance, the set cruising speed is restored. For safety and comfort reasons, the service brake is typically actuated by the ACC system only up to a vehicle deceleration of approximately 2.5 m/s2, which is well below the maximum deceleration of 6 to 8 m/s2.
A critical condition for an ACC system exists when the vehicle traveling ahead brakes suddenly and heavily, or when a vehicle from a neighboring lane moves in front of the vehicle using the ACC system closer than a safe distance. A known method of preventing accidents in such situations is to generate a suitable warning ("system limit warning") to the driver. Thus, if the braking function of the ACC system is not sufficient, the driver can assist by additional braking in order to maintain a safe distance to the vehicle traveling ahead.
Regardless of whether an ACC system is being used, however, the driver can also be warned if the danger of a rear-end collision is recognized ("collision warning").
U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,547 describes a vehicle anti-collision system that generates an audible warning for the driver when a time-to-collision ("TTC") with an object (such as a second vehicle) ahead of the subject vehicle is shorter than a predetermined warning time. In this case, the hydraulic braking system of the subject vehicle is automatically actuated. The distance to the object ahead is determined with a LASER ranging instrument. Automatic braking takes place only if any brake pressure already being applied in the subject vehicle by the driver is smaller than a fixed threshold. That is, automatic braking takes place only when the driver is not braking with enough force.
According to the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,547, the TTC can be calculated according to the following formula:
  TTC  =      Distance          Δ                                      v
where:                Δv represents the difference between the speeds of the subject vehicle and the object (second vehicle).
A warning is transmitted as soon as the TTC becomes shorter than a threshold value.
The system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,547 has the disadvantage, however, that the practical calculation yields a very long TTC, especially at short distances and at a relative speed close to zero. As a result, the situation in these cases is evaluated as non-hazardous by the ACC system, since the TTC is still above the threshold value, even though a hazardous situation actually exists because of the short distance. In addition, the calculation according to the foregoing formula must also be regarded as impractical in highly dynamic driving situations, in which the distance and relative speeds of the vehicles are constantly undergoing rapid changes.
European Patent 0827860 B1 describes a method for adaptive cruise control of a vehicle, as well as a device for implementing the method, wherein a warning is transmitted to the driver if the distance between the subject vehicle and a vehicle traveling ahead becomes shorter than an index value. This index value depends on the driving speed of the subject vehicle, on the weather conditions and on the driving style of the driver. By means of the warning signal, the driver is prompted to brake the subject vehicle manually in addition to the braking applied by the ACC system. The driving response of the driver and driving style are determined from the driver's acceleration and braking actions up to that time.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,604,042 describes a vehicle braking control system in which automatic braking can be initiated when the subject vehicle approaches an object (second vehicle) located ahead. The system described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,604,042 additionally recognizes whether the driver intends to overtake the vehicle traveling ahead. In this case, the automatic braking that would be initiated before any braking by the driver is prevented. A target deceleration is calculated for the subject vehicle that would be necessary to avoid a collision with the vehicle traveling ahead. The calculated target deceleration is then compared against a deceleration threshold of the subject vehicle in a comparator stage. Automatic braking of the subject vehicle is then initiated when, among other circumstances, the calculated target deceleration is greater than or equal to a preset threshold value and further conditions are simultaneously satisfied.
The system described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,604,042 does not provide for possible additional braking by the driver and also does not allow for the driver's reaction time. Nor is a necessary remaining distance to the vehicle traveling ahead taken into consideration. Furthermore, no collision warning signal independent of the control action is generated for the driver.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide an improved collision warning system and method for a motor vehicle that avoids the foregoing disadvantages and that are capable of generating a reliable warning signal for the driver if it is anticipated that a remaining distance to a vehicle traveling ahead cannot be maintained at the end of ACC system braking or after braking by the driver.

Collision warning system and method for a motor vehicle


The invention relates to a method by which a structure, e.g. a microstructure, is formed into a surface comprising a nanostructure during the fabrication of the structure. The method of fabrication of the structure is preferably embossing, and the invention thus describes methods by which a nanostructure is protected from being destroyed by the embossing process.

In the fields of micro- and nano-fabrication it is often advantageous to be able to fabricate in both the micro- and the nano-scale. A microstructural element may, for its intended function, benefit from having a nanostructured surface. For example, nanostructures providing an increased effective surface area are useful for increasing the contact area between a liquid and the surface of a solid material and may be used to facilitate capillary flow through a microfluidic system. However, fabrication processes are often optimized for either the nanoscale or the microscale. It will often be required to apply one process for the nanofabrication process and then another for the microfabrication, and such processes are often very difficult to combine.
Embossing is a frequently used technique for producing microstructures or nanostructures. For example, an embossing tool for producing a given microstructure may be milled in a durable metal with milling tools that will be minimum ˜20 μm in width, whereas a given nanostructure that may be desired to embed into the surface of said microstructure may only be achieved through an embossing tooling process involving for instance UV-lithography followed by chemical etching or direct e-beam writing.

Method of producing a structure comprising a nanostructure


The invention relates to a portable electronic device, comprising: a housing comprising at least one hole; and at least two directional microphones mounted in the housing and placed coincidentally for stereo sound pickup, each one of the microphones defining a main sound axis and each one of the two directional microphones defining a direct sound direction and a opposite sound direction which describe opposite directions of the main sound axis, wherein the at least one hole is a common hole shared between the at least two directional microphones such that the main sound axis of the at least two directional microphones are pointing through the common hole in different directions.

The present invention relates to a portable electronic device with microphones for stereo audio recording, in particular to a mobile phone, a Smartphone and a Tablet PC with microphones for stereo audio recording.
XY techniques for stereo audio recording as depicted in FIG. 6 use two coincident microphones 605a, 605b, that means, microphone capsules at the same place, i.e., two microphones 605a, 605b are mounted closely together to prevent almost totally time delay effects. At ideal conditions, this results in pure intensity stereo signals which can be summed to mono without comb-filter effects. This provides an unrestricted mono compatibility.
The XY technique uses two identical directional microphones 605a, 605b, e.g., cardioid or figure eight microphones. In relation to the recording axis 610, they are arranged at equal and opposed offset angles α with regard to their main directions 602a of stereo recording.
Or put differently, in relation to the recording axis 610 of the directional microphone arrangement formed by the pair of coincident directional microphones 605a, 605b, the two coincident microphones 605a, 605b are arranged such that the directional microphones' direct sound directions 602a are offset from the recording axis 610 by equal and opposed offset angles α. The recording axis 610 is also referred to as recording direction 610 of the microphone arrangement, central axis 610 for stereo recording or central direction 610 for stereo recording. Typical offset angles α are between −/+30° and −/+60° apart from the central direction of the stereo recording represented by the recording axis 610. For cardioid microphones, as shown in FIG. 6, the X microphone 605b pointing leftward supplies the left signal directly, and the Y microphone 605a pointing rightward supplies the right signal. The stereophonic properties depend on the directional characteristics of the microphones and the offset angle α. A reduced angle α will provide a minimum or narrow stereo image, whereas a large angle α will provide a wider stereo image. Thus, the angle β as depicted in FIG. 6, with β=2*α, represents a measure of the width of the stereo image, wherein the larger angle β, the larger the perceived width of the stereo image.
FIG. 7 shows the Blumlein stereo arrangement based on figure eight microphones. The L microphone 705b has its main lobe pointing leftward and provides directly the left signal, while the R microphone 705a offers the perfect symmetry and provides the right signal. The two microphones 705a, 705b correspond to the two directional microphones 605a, 605b of FIG. 6, and the direct sound directions 702a of the two directional microphones 705a, 705b correspond to the direct sound directions 602a of the two directional microphones 605a, 605b of FIG. 6.
The Blumlein pair consists of an array of two matched microphones 705a, 705b of bi-directional pickup pattern, positioned β=90° from each other, which corresponds to an offset angle α of 45° for each of the two directional microphones 705a, 705b with regard to the central direction 710 for stereo recording. Ideally, the transducers should occupy the same physical space; as this is impossible the microphone capsules are placed as close to each other as physically possible, generally with one microphone 705a centered directly above the other microphone 705b. The microphone array is oriented so that the line 710 bisecting the angle β between the two microphones 705a, 705b, i.e. the recording axis 710 points towards the sound source to be recorded. The pickup patterns of the microphone pair combined with their positioning, delivers a high degree of stereo separation in the source signal.
There are two typical microphone configurations in current mobile phones. The first one has only one single omnidirectional microphone which is used for communication and mono sound pickup. The other configuration is shown in FIG. 8. The mobile phone has two omnidirectional microphones, a main microphone 813 and an auxiliary microphone 807. The main microphone 813 is arranged on the bottom side 817 of the mobile phone which can be associated together with dock connectors 809 for optional dock accessories and USB port 811. The auxiliary microphone 807 is located at the back side 815 or back cover 819 of the mobile phone together with camera 805, e.g., 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, camera flash 801 and speaker 803. The main microphone 813 is used for the sound pick up, i.e., for communication application as well as simple audio/video recording. The auxiliary microphone 807 is used for noise cancellation and gain control.


In some example embodiments, there may be provided an apparatus. The apparatus may include a chamber including a first cavity and a second cavity, wherein the chamber further includes a first fluid suspended in a second fluid; a first electrode adjacent to the first cavity; a second electrode adjacent to the second cavity; a third electrode configured to provide a common electrode to the first electrode and the second electrode; and at least one coil adjacent to at least one of the first cavity or the second cavity, wherein an inductance value of the coil is varied by at least applying a driving signal between the common electrode and the first electrode and/or the second electrode. Related methods, systems, and articles of manufacture are also disclosed.

A coil (also referred to as an inductor) is an electronic component. This component may be implemented using an electrical conductor wound one or more times to form a shape of a coil, a spiral, or a helix. As such, when an electric current flows through the windings, the coil may have an inductance value. The inductance value for a coil of wire may be approximated by the following equation:
  L  =                    N        2                  μ                                      A        I
where                L is the inductance of the coil in henries (H);        N is the number of turns in the wire coil (for example, a loop of wire has an N equal to 1);        μ=μrμ0 is the permeability of the core material or medium;        μr is the relative permeability of the core material or medium relative to the permeability of a vacuum;        μ0 is the permeability of the vacuum (approximately 4π(10−7) H/m, where m is meter);        A (m2) is the average area of the core; and        l is the average length of the coil wiring in meters.
Some inductors may be tunable, and these tunable inductors can be used for tunable filtering, tunable matching, tunable harmonic suppression, tunable oscillators, and the like. Some surface mount device (SMD) tunable coils rely on a mechanical screw to tune the coil. When this is the case, mechanical tuning is commonly performed only once during the assembly, and once tuned, the mechanical tuning may not be easily changed afterwards.


Disclosed are a flexible liquid crystal display (LCD) device and a method of manufacturing the same. The flexible LCD device comprises a first flexible substrate and a second flexible substrate. A layer is disposed on the first flexible substrate and first pixel control lines are disposed on the second flexible substrate. The LCD device also includes polymer walls disposed between the first flexible substrate and the second flexible substrate that maintain a cell gap between the first flexible substrate and the second flexible substrate. The polymer walls are substantially aligned with the first pixel control lines and light transparent gaps in the layer disposed on the first flexible substrate.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, and more particularly, to a LCD device including a polymer wall for maintaining a cell gap.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Owing to advantages such as good portability and low power consumption by low operating voltage, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device is widely used in various fields of notebook computer, monitor, spacecraft, aircraft, and etc.
The LCD device includes a lower substrate, an upper substrate, and a liquid crystal layer formed between the lower and upper substrates.
Recently, there is an increasing interest in flexible LCD device based on a flexible plastic substrate. The flexible LCD device is a rollable or windable device, which is paperlike, whereby the flexible LCD device enables easy keeping and good portability. Owing to these advantages, the flexible display device has been steadily studied and developed as a next-generation display device.
However, when curving or bending the flexible LCD device, it may have a problem related with non-uniformity in cell gap between the lower and upper substrates. In order to overcome this problem of non-uniformity in cell gap, there has been proposed a method of applying a polymer wall between the lower and upper substrates.
Hereinafter, a related art LCD device including a polymer wall will be described as follows.
FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a related art LCD device. FIG. 1B is a cross sectional view of the related art LCD device.
As shown in FIG. 1A, the related art LCD device includes a lower substrate 10, an upper substrate 20, polymer walls 30, and a liquid crystal 40.
The lower substrate 10 is arranged below the upper substrate 20, and the polymer walls 30 are formed in a matrix configuration between the lower substrate 10 and upper substrate 20. Also, the liquid crystal 40 is provided in a space between each of the polymer walls 30. Thus, even though the related art LCD device is repeatedly curved or bent, a cell gap between the lower substrate 10 and upper substrate 20 is uniformly maintained owing to the polymer walls 30.
The related art LCD device may be manufactured by processes of bonding the lower substrate 10 and upper substrate 20 to each other while providing a mixture of ultraviolet (UV)-curable compound and liquid crystal 40, and forming the polymer wall 30 having a desired shape by irradiating the UV-curable compound with UV light. According to the irradiation of UV light, the UV-curable compound is cured with a phase separation from the liquid crystal 40. Also, the liquid crystal 40 is positioned between each of the polymer walls 30. The polymer wall 30 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 1B.
As shown in FIG. 1B, lines 12 are formed on the lower substrate 10 of the related art LCD device, and a passivation layer 14 is formed on the lines 12. On the upper substrate 20 of the related art LCD device, there are light-shielding layers 22, a color filter layer 24 between each of the light-shielding layers 22, and an overcoat layer 26 on the color filter layer 24. Also, the polymer walls 30 are formed between the lower substrate 10 and upper substrate 20, and the liquid crystal 40 is provided in the space between each of the polymer walls 30.
As described above, the polymer wall 30 is formed by irradiating the UV-curable compound with UV light. Thus, in order to form the polymer wall 30, the lower surface of the lower substrate 10 or the upper surface of the upper substrate 20 has to be irradiated with UV light.
However, the light-shielding layer 22 and color filter layer 24 formed on the upper substrate 20 have a low transmittance of UV light. Thus, if the upper surface of the upper substrate 20 is irradiated with UV light, it is difficult to form the polymer wall 30. Meanwhile, in case of a COT (color filter on TFT) structure in which the color filter is formed on the lower substrate 10, the polymer wall 30 may be formed by irradiating the upper surface of the upper substrate 20 with UV light. In this case, the structure of the LCD device is limited only to the COT structure.
For manufacturing various structures of a LCD device, the polymer wall 30 has to be formed by a UV irradiation onto the lower surface of the lower substrate 10. That is, as shown in the drawings, a mask 50 including a transparent portion 50a and a non-transparent portion 50b is positioned below the lower substrate 10, and then a UV irradiation is performed in such a manner that UV light is emitted from the lower side of the mask 50 to the lower surface of the lower substrate 10. Accordingly, the UV-curable compound is irradiated with UV light penetrating through the transparent portion 50a, thereby forming the polymer wall 30. In this case, the polymer wall 30 is formed in the same pattern as that of the transparent portion 50a of the mask 50.
In this case, the lines 12, such as gate lines or data lines, are formed on the lower substrate 10, and the UV light cannot penetrate through the lines 12. Accordingly, the transmission part 50a of the mask 50 is positioned to correspond with the other regions except the lines 12. As a result, the polymer wall 30 is formed in the other regions except the lines 12, that is, they are formed in a pixel region for displaying an image. Because the polymer wall 30 is formed in the pixel region for displaying an image, light transmittance of the LCD device is lowered, and thus luminance is also deteriorated.

Liquid crystal display device and method of manufacturing the same


An apparatus for reducing brake wear having a brake de-selection function for selectively disabling at least one brake on a vehicle; and a controller. The controller is configured to receive torque information which relates to torque reacted by a brake on the vehicle during a braking event and wheel speed information which relates to a speed of a wheel associated with the brake during the braking event; calculate an energy input into the brake during the braking event, based on the received torque information and the received wheel speed information; determine whether the calculated energy input meets at least one predefined energy input criterion; and activate the brake de-selection function if the calculated energy input meets the at least one predefined energy input criterion.

Brake wear is caused by abrasion due to frictional surfaces (e.g. brake discs) of a brake moving against each other. The rate at which a given brake wears is affected by various factors, including contact wheel speed/force; speed of rotation; temperature of the frictional material; type of the frictional material; number of frictional surfaces comprised in the brake; number of brake applications. Research has shown that, for brakes which use carbon as a frictional material, the main controllable contributor to brake wear is the number of brake applications, and that the intensity of each application is not particularly significant in comparison with the number of applications. Therefore, a large number of low intensity brake applications causes more wear than a smaller number of high intensity brake applications.
A number of systems exist which aim to improve the brake life of aircraft brakes by reducing the number of brake applications. For example, US 2004/0065776 describes an algorithm which shuts down ("de-selects") some of an aircraft's brakes during taxiing of that aircraft. The remaining brakes consequently work harder, but the number of braking applications experienced by each individual brake is reduced compared to using all brakes for each brake application during taxiing. Moreover, the algorithm selects brakes to be applied sequentially, such that a given brake will not be used for two successive applications, to avoid any of the brakes overheating. The algorithm of US 2004/0065776 is only operative to de-select brakes in respect of a given application if the speed of the aircraft is below a certain threshold value and if the pressure of the brake fluid (which correlates with the intensity of the braking being requested) is below a certain threshold value. Therefore if either the speed increases past the threshold, or the braking intensity requested by the pilot is too high, then the brake de-selection function will be disabled.
Regulations require aircraft brakes to be able to handle an aborted takeoff at any moment prior to the plane reaching a decision speed known as V1. Brakes should not exceed a specified temperature, for example to avoid performance degradation in case of performing a rejected takeoff (RTO) at any time before V1, so aircraft manufacturers may specify a brake temperature for each given aircraft type above which an aircraft of that type should not takeoff. To ensure that the brakes are cool enough even after use during taxiing out to the runway, it is recommended that an aircraft is not dispatched if its brakes are above a predefined temperature (e.g. 150-200° C., as measured by a brake temperature sensor), which is significantly lower than the maximum permitted take-off temperature and allows for temperature increase during taxi braking. If the brake temperature exceeds this limit when an aircraft is otherwise ready to be dispatched, the aircraft should spend additional time on the ground waiting for the brakes to cool to below the limit. Since the use of brake wear reducing algorithms which de-select brakes (such as the algorithm of US 2004/0065776) result in the selected brakes working harder during a given application, one or more of the brakes of an aircraft using such an algorithm are likely to be hotter after taxiing to the stand than would be the case if the algorithm had not been used. The use of brake wear reducing algorithms which de-select brakes can therefore lead to increased aircraft turn-around time (TAT) in some cases.
An improved system for reducing brake wear is therefore desired.


Footwear having an upper and a bottom, the bottom having an inwardly curved mid region, a protuberance is formed at the mid region which extends medially from the mid region beyond an imaginary line drawn from the widest part of the toe section of the footwear to the widest section of the heel of the footwear. In its preferred embodiments, the protuberance is convex in top plan view and convex in transverse sections starting from the widest area at the bottom of the protuberance and narrowing towards the top and in top plan view starting from a narrow front end of the protuberance being widest at midlength and then narrowing again at the end of the protuberance. Preferably, the protuberance is a medial extension of the longitudinal medial arch support of the footwear and has its vertical center line slightly rearward of the vertical center line of the longitudinal medial arch support.

Footwear in general has an upper and a bottom, the bottom herein will be referred to as the sole and may be a one piece unitary sole with a tread and a foot support region above the tread or may be made of multiple pieces such as an out sole, a midsole, and a sock liner. In general, these footwear all will have an inwardly curved mid region on the medial side of the footwear. The mid region generally runs from a toe box (which houses the toes and ball of the foot) rearwardly to the forward end of a heel cup. Also, the footwear generally will have a longitudinal medial arch support running between the heel cup and the toe box to support the longitudinal medial arch of the foot of the wearer. Various techniques have been employed to improve the support of the longitudinal medial arch support, the toe box and the heel cup to give the wearer of the footwear more stability and to reduce strain on the various joints and tissues of the foot.


The invention relates to a process for the preparation of alcohols by hydrogenation of aldehydes, in which use mixture comprising at least one aldehyde and at least one accompanying component is brought into contact, in the presence of hydrogen, with a heterogeneous catalyst, giving a product mixture which comprises at least the alcohol corresponding to the hydrogenated aldehyde, and at least one by-product, where the catalyst comprises a support material, and nickel and copper applied thereto. The invention also includes a chromium-free catalyst suitable for hydrogenating aldehyde mixtures with different chain lengths, in particular those which originate from different hydroformylations and can also comprise substances with C═C double bonds.

The elimination of hydrogen (dehydrogenation) from an alcohol gives an aldehyde. Conversely, alcohols can be prepared from aldehydes by hydrogenation (addition of hydrogen). Hydrogenation in general is a reaction carried out very frequently in industrial technology. But also specifically the hydrogenation of aldehydes is practised on an industrial scale, namely in the production of so-called oxo alcohols.
Oxo alcohols are alcohols which are produced in the course of hydroformylation (oxo reaction). During the hydroformylation, an olefin (alkene) is reacted with a synthesis gas (this is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen) to give an aldehyde. Subsequent hydrogenation gives the actual oxo alcohol. Oxo alcohols serve as intermediates for producing surfactants and/or plasticizers for plastic. Worldwide, several million tons of oxo alcohols are produced every year. Since the hydrogenation of the aldehydes obtained by the hydroformylation is a necessary step in the production of oxo alcohols, the present invention deals with a process that is of relevance on an industrial scale.
In industrial practice, oxo aldehydes are generally hydrogenated in the liquid phase on heterogeneous fixed-bed catalysts. On account of the large throughput amounts, the catalyst is attributed the decisive importance for the process since it determines the reaction rate and also the selectivity of the hydrogenation. The selection of a suitable catalyst is not trivial since the aldehydes to be hydrogenated never occur in pure form, but as a mixture of structural isomeric aldehydes which is always accompanied by a large number of troublesome accompanying components which firstly bring about secondary reactions undesired in the hydrogenation and secondly damage the hydrogenation catalyst. Since the composition of the use mixture comprising the aldehydes to be hydrogenated is determined by the upstream hydroformylation, the hydrogenation catalyst has to be precisely adapted to the particular hydroformylation.
For the hydrogenation of oxo aldehydes, catalysts that have proven useful are those which comprise a support material on which copper, chromium and nickel are applied as active components.
A corresponding catalyst is disclosed in DE19842370A1. It comprises copper and nickel, in each case in a concentration range from 0.3 to 15% by weight and chromium in a weight fraction of from 0.05% by weight to 3.5% by weight. The support material used is porous silicon dioxide or aluminium oxide.
EP1219584B1 reveals that such a catalyst also manages with the accompanying component water, which is to be expected in particular during the co-catalysed hydroformylation. Water is critical since it can have a lasting negative influence on the surface structure of the catalyst by, for example, reducing the specific surface area. For this reason, the aldehyde mixtures originating from the cobalt-catalysed hydroformylation are particularly demanding to hydrogenate.
A further development of this Ni/Cu/Cr catalyst consists in adding barium to the support material (EP2180947B1).
WO2009/146988A1 deals with the two-stage hydrogenation of oxo alcohols over two different Ni/Cu/Cr catalysts.
Although the nickel/copper/chromium catalysts have proven useful in the industrially practised hydrogenation of oxo aldehydes, there is still the need for an alternative. The reason for this is the chromium present.
According to Annex XIV of the REACH regulation, chromium-containing substances such as the catalysts described above may only be used in the European Union after authorization by the Commission. The granting of authorization is associated with great complexity and high costs; moreover, granting of authorization cannot be expected a priori. Moreover, the application procedure has to be repeated every five years.
The reason for these strict conditions is the undisputed carcinogenicity of the chromium(IV) compounds present in the catalyst. These are firstly relevant when hydrogenation catalyst has to be disposed of following deactivation and, secondly, when it is newly produced by impregnation with alkali metal chromates or alkali metal dichromates.
For health and cost reasons there is therefore a great need for a chromium-free alternative to the hydrogenation of oxo aldehydes.
Chromium-free hydrogenation catalysts are disclosed in EP1749572A1. The support material used is porous aluminium oxide and the hydrogenation-active components are nickel or cobalt. The examples reveal that a Ni/Al2O3 or a Co/Al2O3 system is suitable for the hydrogenation of oxo aldehydes; the properties and productivity of these systems, however, has not been investigated. The disadvantage of the cobalt catalysts shown in EP1749572A1 consists in the fact that they in any case have to be reduced at relatively high temperatures of 350° C. to 450° C. This usually does not take place in-situ in the reactor since the reactors for the aldehyde hydrogenation are designed only for a temperature of up to about 200° C. Consequently, the cobalt catalysts have to be reduced ex situ and then be incorporated into the hydrogenation reactor under a protective atmosphere. This is very complex. Moreover, cobalt is a comparatively expensive material.
For the nickel catalysts, approx. 200° C. could just suffice for an in situ reaction. However, EP1749572A1 mentions that the Ni/Al2O3 system favours the further reaction and the reaction must therefore be ended very quickly. That is not always easy to accomplish in industrial use. The chromium-free hydrogenation catalysts shown in EP1749572A1 have overall so many disadvantages that they are not real alternatives to the classic Ni/Cu/Cr systems.
DE3737277C2 discloses a chromium-free catalyst for the hydrogenation of aldehydes which is based on copper/zinc oxides. Potassium, nickel and/or cobalt and additionally an alkali metal are present as further hydrogenation-active metals. This system is a so-called uniform-composition catalyst which consists exclusively of the hydrogenation-active materials. Such uniform-composition catalysts are very expensive to produce and are therefore too costly for industrial use. After all of this, it has hitherto not been possible to find a chromium-free catalyst which is suitable for the hydrogenation of hydroformylation mixtures on an industrial scale and which can be produced easily.

Chromium-free hydrogenation of hydroformylation mixtures


A method of determining the attitude of a spinning spacecraft is provided. The method includes stabilizing the spacecraft, initializing the attitude of the spacecraft using star tracker data, and estimating the attitude of the spacecraft.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is generally directed to satellite attitude determination and control systems and methods, and, more particularly, to satellite attitude determination and control systems and methods that are applicable to spinning spacecraft operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Transporting a spacecraft from the ground to a destination orbit is an integral and crucial part of any spacecraft mission. For example, to insert a spacecraft into a geosynchronous orbit, a launch vehicle typically injects the spacecraft into a low-altitude parking orbit. The spacecraft then performs transfer orbit operations to transfer the spacecraft from the parking orbit to a destination orbit. The transfer orbit is usually performed by firing a liquid apogee motor (LAM) with the spacecraft spinning around a LAM axis to stabilize the spacecraft and to even the thermal and power conditions, or by firing a combination of LAM and XIP thrusters. Once the spacecraft has completed its transfer orbit, it then may enter in-orbit testing and on-station operation.
From cradle to grave, the spacecraft may go through the following phases of operations: separation, transfer orbit operation (including coasting, spin speed change, reorientation and LAM burn), deployment (including antennas, reflectors, solar wings, radiators), acquisition (including power acquisition and attitude acquisition), in-orbit test (including antenna mapping), on-station operation (including normal pointing, momentum dumping, station keeping and station change), and a deorbiting operation.
Typically, spacecraft, such as communication satellites, use multiple separate sets of sensors and control algorithms for different phases of spaceflight. For example, different sets of sensors and/or control algorithms may be used for attitude determination and control for bi-propellant spinning transfer orbit operations versus those that are used for on-station operations. The use of different sensors, attitude determination, and attitude control methods for spinning transfer orbits and on-station operations, respectively, increases the spacecraft weight, sensor and processor complexity, as well as the development cost for spacecraft attitude determination and control systems.
Spinning transfer orbit operations for spacecraft typically may be performed by ground-assisted attitude determination using a spinning earth sensor and a spinning sun sensor set. The measured leading edge and trailing edge of the earth detected by the earth sensor and the measured TOA (time of arrival) of the sun detected by the sun sensor collected and relayed periodically to a ground station. Typically, at least one orbit pass is dedicated this data collection. A ground orbital operator may then run a ground attitude determination algorithm using these inputs and ephemeris-computed sun and earth positions to determine the spin axis attitude of the spacecraft. This spin axis attitude (the spin phase being still undetermined) is then uploaded to the spacecraft. Next, on-board software may use this spin axis attitude together with the spin phase measured by the spinning sun sensor to complete the 3-axis attitude determination for subsequent spacecraft reorientation or liquid apogee motor (LAM) burn.
Typical spinning transfer orbit operations impose an attitude constraint for the coasting attitude to ensure that the spinning earth and sun sensors will scan through the earth and the sun. This attitude constraint can adversely reduce the power available from solar arrays, or increase the maneuver angle between the coasting attitude and the LAM burn attitude (e.g., by increasing the reorientation maneuver angle for the LAM burn and thus fuel usage).
On-station spacecraft operations typically use different sensors, such as a staring earth sensor assembly (STESA) and a wide field of view (WFOV) sun sensor assembly (SSA), and/or a star tracker for attitude determination. Thus, the sensors used for transfer orbit operations may lie dormant for the entire time that the spacecraft is on station. The number of sensor types used and the number of sensors used, increase the hardware and development cost, increase weight and launch cost, and complicate the mission operation. In addition, some spacecraft have configurations and equipment that may make it difficult in some situations to provide a clear field of view for some sensors, such as, for example, a WFOV SSA, which spans a diamond of about 120×120 deg.
In addition, a wheel-gyro wobble and nutation controller (WGWANC) is typically used for spinning transfer orbit coasting control. A WGWANC can compensate for wobble, capture nutation, and alter spacecraft dynamics by counter-spin or super-spin. However, a WGWANC is very different from the 3-axis stabilized controller typically used for on-station operation. A WGWANC is also susceptible to interact with the fuel slosh dynamics introduced by spacecraft spinning. Fuel slosh is inherently very difficult to model and adds large uncertainty to the WGWANC stability margin. Thus, multiple control types are typically needed for spinning transfer orbit operations versus on-station operations. The use of multiple control types increases the design/analysis/simulation/software/test and other development costs.
This way of operation requires that the spacecraft be in a momentum-conserved dynamic condition (i.e., spacecraft momentum remains unchanging in the earth centered inertial (ECI) frame) during the data collection for the ground-assisted attitude determination. This prohibits the usage of thruster control in the coasting phase while sensor TOA's are being collected. This essentially prohibits the use of thruster control as a back up for the WGWANC controller (useful for spacecraft with WGWANC stability concern due to the aforementioned uncertain fuel slosh interaction).
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems or disadvantages associated with the prior art.

Star-tracker-based attitude determination for spinning spacecraft


The present invention is a liquid processing method making use of a pipette device which sucks a liquid containing a target high molecular substance from inside of a vessel through a chip detachably set on a sucking port or a discharging port of a liquid sucking/discharging line and transfers this liquid or target high molecular substance to the next target processing position for the purpose to execute such works as quantifying, separating, taking out, pipetting, clarifying, condensing, and diluting a liquid or a target high molecular substance contained in a liquid and also such works as extracting, recovering, and isolating the target high molecular substance by means of sucking and discharging a liquid with a pipette device and controls by a magnetic body over magnetic particles and/or a filter combined according to the necessity, and the chip can isolate the target high molecular substance by having the substance attracted onto magnetic particles or with a filter set on each chip.

In recent years, research activities for DNA or the like are very active in many fields including engineering, medical science, agriculture, physical science, pharmacology, and the purpose includes genome sequencing, clinical diagnosis, improvement of agricultural products, bacteriological inspection of foods, drug preparing systems or the like.
As described above, when various types of immunoassay applicable in a very wide range with high expected possibility in its application or structural analysis of molecular level organisms, microorganisms, or substances such as cells, DNA, RNA, mRNA, plasmid, virus, or bacteria (described simply as a target high molecular substance in the present specification) is performed, it is necessary to carry out with high precision works such as those for quantifying, separating, taking out, pipetting, clarifying, condensing, diluting a sample or a target high molecular substance included in the sample or works for extracting, recovering, or isolating a target high-molecular substance as a preprocessing.
To explain structural analysis of a gene such as DNA diagnosis as an example, at first it is necessary to extract, recover, and isolate a DNA region including a target gene. The technology for extracting, recovering, and isolating genes has already been established as the gene cloning technology or genome sequencing technology, and at present it is believed that, by spending enough time and expenses, any gene can be separated and obtained. For this reason, if a target gene DNA has been extracted, recovered, and separated, any type of gene analysis is possible as a principle by making use of the separated gene DNA.
However, in a case of man, for instance, a particular target gene DNA is one millionth or below of all genome DNA, and for this reason actually a quantity of DNA obtainable for testing is quite small, while a quantity of DNA and RNA not necessary for a particular experiment is quite large, which makes it difficult to execute analysis smoothly.
For the reasons as described above, to execute structural analysis of a gene such as DNA diagnosis, it is important to extract, recover, and isolate a DNA area including a target gene. Description is made hereinafter for a basic method of extracting, recovering, and isolating a DNA.
A DNA exist in a nucleus as a complex with a protein in a cell. In the basic sequence for extracting a DNA, a cell or a cell nucleus is processed with SDS (surfactant dodecil sodium sulfate) to make the DNA soluble, and proteins contained therein are removed with a proteolytic enzyme or phenol.
In other words, when a DNA is separated from the tissue, at first the tissue taken out is put in ice and kept therein for a certain period of time under a low temperature, then this cooled tissue is divided to small pieces each with the weight of around 0.1 g, which are washed with a ice-cooled buffer solution A (0.01M Tris HCl, pH 7.8, 0.1M NaCl, 2 mM MgCl.sub.2). This tissue is put in the above-described buffer solution A having a volume 20 times larger as compared to that of the tissue and is homogenized 5 or 10 times with a Potter type homogenizer. Then the tissue is put in a centrifugal tube together with the buffer solution and is subjected to centrifugation (2,000 rpm, for 5 minutes). The cell nucleus or the cell precipitates, so that the supernatant is aborted. When extracting a DNA from cultured cells, the cells are well suspended in an ice-cooled buffer solution B (0.01M Tris HCl, pH 7.8, 0.1M NaCl, 2 mM EDTA) and is subjected to centrifugation. The precipitated nuclei or cells are again well suspended in the buffer solution B having a volume 100 times larger than that of the specimen.
After the cells or cell nuclei are well suspended until a block of cells disappears, a 10% SDS solution is added by one twentieth thereof to lyse the cells. Then proteinase K (10 mg/ml) is added by one fiftieth thereof to the solution and reacted for 4 hours under a temperature of 50.degree. C. so that the protein is lysed. During this reaction, the solution is sometimes agitated because the viscosity is high. Then phenol extraction is executed 3 times. In this step, the extracting work should be performed carefully so that no physical power is not loaded thereto.
Then the specimen is dialyzed for around 18 hours with a buffer solution C (10 mM Tris HCl, pH 7.8/0.1 mM EDTA) having a volume 100 times larger as compared to that of the specimen, and is kept under a temperature of 4.degree. C.
Through the steps as described above, about 0.2 mg of DNA can be obtained from 0.1 g of tissue. What is described above is a process of extracting DNA from tissue or cells, and in addition there have been known a method in which plasmid DNA is obtained by way of the alkali method (the small quantity adjusting method), a method of recovering DNA by way of the boiling method, and a method of recovering closed-cycle bromide DNA by way of the large quantity adjusting method.
As described above, it is possible to extract, recover, and isolate DNA for structural analysis of a gene in, for instance, DNA diagnosis according to any of the known methods as described above, but a work for isolating DNA from the tissue or cells as described above is, as clearly understood from the sequence for extracting DNA from the tissue or cells as described above, extremely complicated, and a long period of time is required, which is disadvantageous.
In addition, any of various types of method including the centrifuging method, high speed liquid chromatography method, gel electrophoresis method, dispo-column method, dialysis method, glass powder method, magnetic particle cleaning nozzle method has been employed for structural analysis of DNA or the like extracted by the above-described means, and each of the methods has respective advantages and disadvantages, and at present a high precision and stable method for structural analysis has not been developed yet.
Namely, in a case of centrifugation, automation of processes for loading and taking out vessels is very difficult, and also it is very difficult to mechanically separate supernatant from precipitates after centrifugation, and for this reason its applicability for various purpose is disadvantageously poor.
In a case of high speed liquid chromatography, a separation column is basically consumable, injection for a sample to the column or time management for separation can not be mechanized, and also different samples pass through the column, which disadvantageously makes it impossible to completely prevent contamination of the column.
Furthermore, in a case of gel electrophoresis, adjustment of gel can not be mechanized, and this method has generally been used as a basic technique for separation of DNA, but the separated pieces must be taken out manually, which is disadvantageous.
The dispo-column method is one of technic which can be embodied as a kit for separation of a particular DNA piece, but the cost is very expensive, and its applicability is narrow. In addition, controls over pipetting and liquid passing through the column are difficult, and there are many problems in mechanization of this method.
In the dialysis method, a long period of time is required for dialysis, and also it is hard to apply this method when a quantity of sample is small, so that this method has not been used widely.
The glass powder method is an excellent method of extracting DNA making use of silicon dioxide, and the process is simple and convenient, but as the powder is separated with a filter or by way of centrifugation, it is difficult to automate the entire process.
Furthermore in a case of the magnetic particle cleaning nozzle method, the process can be automated by controlling the cylinder and attracting/discharging with magnetic particles, but basically it is impossible to prevent contamination only by cleaning the nozzle.
The present invention was made under the circumstances as described above, and its object is to provide a liquid processing method as well as an apparatus for the same making use of a completely novel pipette device which can automatically and with high precision execute works of quantifying, separating, taking out, pipetting, clarifying, condensing, diluting a liquid or a target high molecular substance contained in a liquid as well as works of extracting, recovering, and isolating the substance by controlling the pipette device's operations for sucking or discharging a liquid and magnetic particles with a magnetic body and/or by a combination of a magnetic body and a filter.

Liquid processing method making use of pipette device and apparatus for same


Method and system for combined coarse scale control and fine scale control of growth density of a carbon nanotube (“CNT”) array on a substrate, using a selected electrical field adjacent to a substrate surface for coarse scale density control (by one or more orders of magnitude) and a selected CNT growth temperature range for fine scale density control (by multiplicative factors of less than an order of magnitude) of CNT growth density. Two spaced apart regions on a substrate may have different CNT growth densities and/or may use different feed gases for CNT growth.

In 1991, S. Iijima (Nature, vol. 354: 56-58) reported growth of multi-wall coaxial nanotubes, containing 2-50 layers with radial separations of about 0.34 nm, using an arc discharge evaporation method similar to that used for Fullerene synthesis. The nanotubes originally observed by Iijima were formed on the negative voltage end of a carbon electrode and were plentiful in some regions and sparse in other regions. Since that time, other workers have developed other discharge means for controlled deposition of graphitic carbon. However, it is not straightforward to control the growth of, or density of, single wall nanotubes ("SWCNTs"), multi-wall nanotubes ("MWCNTs") and/or carbon-based nanofibers ("CNFs").
Recently, interest has grown in use of arrays of carbon nanotubes ("CNTs") as an intermediary for transport of electrical particles (e.g., electrons) and/or transport of thermal energy from one body to another. For example, a CNT array may be used for dissipation of thermal energy or accumulated electrical charge associated with operation of an electronics device or system. However, the device or system connected to the CNT array(s) may require use of different CNT array densities in different regions, because of differing transport requirements. Use of a mask to discriminate between a CNT growth region and a no-growth region has been demonstrated.
However, this approach only produces different regions where CNTs are present (with a substantially constant density) and where CNTs are absent (density substantially 0). Where maximum thermal transport is a focus, the desired CNT density is likely to be as high as possible, and no other limit is of concern. However, where electrical transport is a focus (e.g., between adjacent signal processing components on a semiconductor chip, the desired CNT density may lie in an intermediate range, with both a lower bound and an upper bound.
What is needed is an approach that allows control of CNT growth density on a coarse scale and on a fine scale simultaneously, preferably with two or more substantially different and adjustable scales (coarse and fine) for the CNT density. The CNT density is allowed to vary from one location to another, if desired. Preferably, the approach should allow variation and control, over a factor of about 1-1000, in the coarse scale local CNT density and should allow variation and control over a factor of about 1-10 in the fine scale local CNT density.

The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)


A motor device may include a motor, a plurality of pin terminals protruded from a side face of a motor case on an outer side in a radial plane direction, and a wiring circuit board which is connected with the plurality of the pin terminals. The plurality of the pin terminals includes first pin terminals which are bent at predetermined positions in the radial plane direction toward one side in an axial direction of the motor, and second pin terminals which are bent toward the one side in the axial direction at inner sides in the radial plane direction with respect to the first pin terminals. The wiring circuit board is connected with the first pin terminals and the second pin terminals in a state where a circuit board face is directed in the axial direction.

In the motor device, a plurality of pin terminals are protruded from a side face of a motor and a wiring circuit board is connected to the pin terminals for supplying an electrical power to the motor. In order to obtain this structure, a plurality of pin terminals are conventionally protruded along a straight line perpendicular to an axial direction of the motor and these pin terminals are bent to the axial direction of the motor at the same position (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-229378).
However, when the structure as described in the above-mentioned Patent Reference is utilized, tip end parts of the plurality of the pin terminals are arranged along a straight line and thus connected portions of the pin terminals with the wiring circuit board are arranged along the straight line. Therefore, when an external force is applied to the wiring circuit board, the connected portions of the pin terminals with the wiring circuit board may be easily damaged with stress.


A protruding portion protruding toward the outside a tank is formed on a core plate in a range corresponding to a straight portion of a flat tube inserted and joined to the core plate. Due to this structure, a joining portion of the tube to the core plate is three-dimensionally formed and a joining portion length is extended. Therefore, thermal stress generated in the tube can be diffused from the joining portion of the tube to the core plate.

In a conventional heat exchanger, a core portion is composed by alternately laminating a large number of tubes and corrugated fins on each other. End portions of tubes in the longitudinal direction are inserted and joined to insertion holes formed in a core plate portion attached to a tank. In order to reinforce the core portion, side plates are arranged at both end portions of the core portion in the direction of tube lamination. Concerning this technique, refer to the official gazette of Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3059971 and the official gazette of JP-A-11-142090.
In this connection, in the case where this heat exchanger is applied to a radiator for vehicle use, engine cooling water does not flow in the side plates but flows in the tubes. The side plates are joined to corrugated fins and cooled by a blast of cooling wind. Therefore, a difference in temperature is generated between the tubes and the side plates. Therefore, a difference in thermal expansion is caused between the tubes and the side plates.
Further, in the case where a volume of cooling wind fluctuates in each part of the core portion, differences in temperature are caused among a large number of tubes according to the positions at which the tubes are arranged. Accordingly, differences in thermal expansion are caused among the tubes.
As a portion for absorbing differences in thermal expansion between the tubes and the side plates is provided in the heat exchanger shown in the above Patent Document, the stress generated by the differences in thermal expansion between the tubes and the side plates can be reduced.
However, it is impossible to absorb all the differences in thermal expansion among the tubes. Therefore, stress caused by differences in thermal expansion among the tubes is generated. Accordingly, when it is attempted to reduce the wall thickness of the tubes as compared with the present wall thickness, there is a possibility that the tubes are broken at the join between the tubes and the core plates by the stress generated by the difference in thermal expansion. Accordingly, there is a possibility that the life of the tubes is deteriorated. For the above reasons, it is impossible to further reduce the wall thickness of the tubes.


A respiratory mask assembly for delivering breathable gas to a patient includes a frame having a main body and a side frame member provided on each lateral side of the main body. The main body provides an orifice therethrough for the introduction of breathable gas into a nasal breathing cavity and a collar that substantially surrounds the orifice. At least one of the side frame members includes an integrally formed locking clip receiver assembly. The frame is formed by molding such that mold components of a mold can be withdrawn along a single plane to separate the mold from the collar and the locking clip receiver assembly.

Respiratory mask assemblies used in the treatment of SDB may comprise a nasal mask designed to fit over a patient's nose, or a full face mask designed to fit over the nose and mouth of the patient. Air or other breathable gas is supplied by a blower and passed along a flexible conduit to the mask assembly.
The mask assembly generally comprises a relatively rigid shell, e.g., a frame, which defines a rearwardly opening cavity covering the patient's nose and/or mouth, and a soft portion, e.g., a cushion, which spaces the frame away from the face of the patient for comfortable contact.
The mask assembly is usually held in place using a headgear assembly, the frame and headgear assembly being joined using some form of connector.
One form of known connector is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,374,826 (Gunaratnam et al.). The contents of this patent are hereby incorporated by reference.
Some patients have poor dexterity, and hence find certain arrangements of connectors awkward or difficult to use. For example, some patients may have difficulty in correctly joining the frame and headgear assembly with the connector. As a result, the connector may disengage during use or may become stuck so it becomes difficult for the patient to disconnect the frame from the headgear assembly.
Furthermore, some connectors are positioned on the frame of the mask assembly which makes it difficult for the user to see the connectors, because they are very close to the eyes or out of the range of vision of the patient. Hence, it is important to have a connector which is easy to use and which is easy to correctly assemble even if it is out of the range of vision of the patient.

Headgear connection assembly for a respiratory mask assembly


A surface-mount chip is formed by a silicon substrate having a front surface and a side. The chip includes a metallization intended to be soldered to an external device. The metallization has a first portion covering at least a portion of the front surface of the substrate and a second portion covering at least a portion of the side of the substrate. A porous silicon region is included in the substrate to separating the second portion of the metallization from the rest of the substrate.

In certain applications, there is a need for surface-mount chips where the metallizations intended to be soldered to an external device are continued by lateral portions on the chip sides. When the soldering is performed, part of the soldering material bonds to the lateral portions of the metallizations, which enables to visually inspect the quality of the connections. This need for example exists for sensitive fields such as the automobile field or the medical field.
An example of a method of forming a surface-mount chip comprising a metallization continuing on one side of the chip is described in United States Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0053760 (incorporated by reference). This method however has disadvantages and particularly raises practical implementation issues.


An apparatus (20) for testing the co-efficient of friction of a road surface (78) of a road (79) including an electronic digital device (22) that senses through its sensor (75) the speed of a toothed sprocket wheel (71) and by which through the dropping of a frame (24) by means of a tripping mechanism (80) that trips upon a rotating motor (34) accelerating and by which a predetermined value in device (22) is reached by the speed of a tire flat (61) that strikes road surface (78).

The highway department of the State of California, CalTrans, has used an apparatus of this kind since the 1960's, and this apparatus is an improvement over the CalTrans apparatus. This apparatus is unique in the sense that no other device of this nature is known except the old one of CalTrans and this improvement over it.
The needs the invention addresses and satisfies in this kind of apparatus are increased dependability, accuracy, and ease of operation.


Devices are provided for the controlled exposure of a sensor or sensor component. The device may include a substrate; at least one reservoir provided in the substrate; at least one sensor or sensor component located in the at least one reservoir; at least one reservoir cap closing an opening in the at least one reservoir to isolate the sensor or sensor component from a selected environmental component outside of the at least one reservoir; at least one intermediate barrier layer disposed in the at least one reservoir between the reservoir cap and the sensor or sensor component; and means for disintegrating the reservoir cap to expose the sensor or sensor component to the selected environmental component.

This invention is in the field of miniaturized devices having reservoirs which contain small devices or device components and/or chemicals.
Microarray systems have been developed that analyze numerous compounds, such as for drug activity or hybridization analysis of nucleotide molecule sequences. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,843,767 to Beattie discloses a microfabricated, flowthrough "genosensors" for the discrete detection of binding reactions. The apparatus includes a nanoporous glass wafer having tapered wells in which nucleic acid recognition elements are immobilized. U.S. Pat. No. 6,083,763 to Balch discloses an apparatus for analyzing molecular structures within a sample substance using an array having a plurality of test sites upon which the sample substance is applied. The test sites typically are in microplate arrays, such as microtitre plates. These apparatuses, however, do not provide any means for sealing one or more of the wells or for selectively exposing one or more of the wells, for example, on demand or upon passive exposure to certain conditions.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,797,898 and No. 6,123,861 to Santini, et al. describe microchip devices that release drug molecules from reservoirs having reservoir caps that actively or passively disintegrate. It would be advantageous to adapt these devices for use in sensing applications and for use in initiating or measuring chemical reactions in a micro-scale area or volume at specific points in time.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,252,294 to Kroy discloses micromechanical structures having closed cavities for use in storage and handling of substances, for example, in research and testing of the substances. There is no disclosure, however, of selectively controlling exposure of individual cavities without microvalves, nor is there any disclosure of isolating individual sensing means.
It would be desirable to provide miniaturized devices for use in initiating and controlling chemical reactions, analyses, or measurements in a micro-scale area or volume, at specific points in time. It would also be desirable to provide methods of making and using such miniaturized devices.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Device for the controlled exposure of reservoir-based sensors


A semiconductor device and a fabrication method thereof are provided. The semiconductor device has a probing pad formed on a chip. The probing pad is connected to an output pad and an internal circuit though a fuse. After an electrical testing of the chip by the probing pad, the fuse is cut by a laser beam. Therefore, the probing pad is disconnected from the output pad and the internal circuit. The output pad is connected to an output lead of a package, which is encapsulating the chip. According to the device and the fabrication methods thereof, performance of the device can be enhanced by a low parasitic capacitance and a low parasitic resistance.

Generally, a semiconductor device consists of a semiconductor chip and a package encapsulating the chip. The semiconductor chip comprises a plurality of conductive pads. The pads are generally located at a peripheral area, i.e., close to the edge of the chip. The pads are used for an electrical testing of the chip during its fabrication process. Generally, a plurality of the chips is fabricated simultaneously on a semiconductor wafer. The electrical testing is performed to sort out defective chips among the plurality of the chips.
Meanwhile, the pads are also used for a packaging process. The pads are electrically connected to outputs of the semiconductor device during the packaging process. For example, each of the pads is connected to a corresponding one of output leads of the package through conductive wires.
Generally, each of the pads is used for both the electrical testing and the packaging process. In this case, it is difficult to bond the wires on the pads. This is due to damage on the pad. During the electrical testing, probing tips are physically contacted to the pads. This physical contacting induces the damage on the pads.
A semiconductor wafer, which is useful for a wafer-level burn-in testing, is disclosed in a document, Japanese laid-open patent No. 2000-124279. FIG. 1 is a plan view of the wafer disclosed in the Japanese document.
Referring to FIG. 1, a plurality of semiconductor chips 1 is arranged on a wafer. Scribe lanes 3 intervene between each of the plurality of semiconductor chips 1. A burn-in power line 4 is formed on the scribe lanes 3. The burn-in power line 4 is connected electrically to a probing pad 2. The probing pad 2 is connected electrically to internal circuitry (though not shown) of the chip through a bonding pad 7. A fuse 5 intervenes between the bonding pad 7 and the probing pad 2.
The burn-in testing of the wafer of the Japanese documentation is described hereinafter. The wafer is loaded into an oven having a selected temperature and atmosphere. Next, a burn-in voltage is applied to the burn-in power lines 4. By applying the burn-in voltage, there is electric current flowing into the chips 1. An electrical current, which is excessively large, flows into a defective chip. The excessive current makes the fuse 5 on the defective chip melt, thereby opening the fuse. That is to say, the defective chip is disconnected from the burn-in power line 4. If the defective chip were still connected to the burn-in power line 4 with the excessive current, the operating voltage would be decreased. According to the Japanese documentation, there is no decreasing in the burn-in voltage, because the defective chip is disconnected from the burn-in power line 4. Therefore, the burn-in testing can be performed under a stable condition for the other good chips. After the burn-in testing, the good chips are subject to subsequent manufacturing processes including a packaging process.
According to the Japanese documentation, the fuse of the defective chip is opened, while the fuse of the good chip remained not opened. The inventor of the present invention found that the probing pad, which is connected to the bonding pad in the good chip through the not-opened fuse, induces increased parasitic capacitance and parasitic resistance. The increased parasitic capacitance and parasitic resistance may induce a speed delay in operation, even though the chip is packaged.

Semiconductor device having a fuse connected to a pad and fabrication method thereof


A fixing member used for fixing toner includes a base, an elastic layer provided on an outer circumference of the base, and a release layer provided on an outer circumference of the elastic layer. The elastic layer includes silicone rubber, carbon fibers, saturated hydrocarbon having a liquid form at room temperature, and hole portions.

1. Technical Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to a fixing member, a fixing device, and an image forming apparatus.
2. Related Art
In recent years, electrophotographic image forming apparatuses such as copiers and printers have been directed toward full-color image formation, and the ratio thereof has been gradually increasing. Typically, a color electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit that forms a color image formed of toner images of four colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) on a recording medium, and a fixing device that fixes the formed toner images on the recording medium. The fixing device includes a heater for heating the toner images on the recording medium, a fixing member for fixing the toner images onto the recording medium, and a pressing member forming a fixing nip between the pressing member and the fixing member. The toner images are fixed onto the recording medium by heating and pressing the toner images when the recording medium passes through the fixing nip.
The fixing member having a belt shape or a roller shape is known. The fixing member includes those formed by providing an elastic layer made of a heat-resistant rubber on a base member such as a metal roller or a resin seamless belt, and those formed by further providing a release layer on the elastic layer. Generally, a member formed by integrating the heater inside the roller (heat fixing roller) is used as the fixing member having the roller shape. Further, the fixing member having the belt shape providing the heater inside the belt wound around rollers is also well known.
The fixing member needs to flexibly adhere to the toner images and efficiently conduct heat so that toner images (usually toner images of four colors) of multiple colors constituting full color are evenly heated. Thus, silicone rubber having flexibility and heat resistance is often used for the fixing member. However, silicone rubber has low thermal conductivity and thermal conduction to the toner image may become slower.
When thermal conduction to the toner image is slow, a lot of time is required to heat a surface of the fixing member to a fixing temperature for fixing the toner images. In a case of a high-speed machine, supplying of heat may be too slow. In addition, warm-up speed of the image forming apparatus may become slow. It is important to note that the warm-up speed with respect to temperature increase of the fixing member of the fixing device often limits the rate of warm-up speed of the image forming apparatus, as a whole, when powered on.
As a method to resolve the above-described problems, a technique for shortening the warm-up time of an imaging device is disclosed in JP-2008-191557-A, JP-2008-197585-A and JP-2009-092826-A. In the technique, thermal conductivity of the elastic layer is enhanced by blending carbon fibers in silicone rubber, and thermal capacity of the elastic layer is reduced by providing hole portions in silicone rubber. The above-described technique is effective for thermal diffusion. However, a problem of deformation (compressed permanent deformation) that does not easily recover may occur when the elastic layer having a configuration of silicone rubber including the carbon fibers and the hole portions is subjected to pressure over a long period under a stationary condition. When compressed permanent deformation occurs to the fixing member, the fixing member cannot evenly heat the toner images, and uneven gloss of an image or defective image fixing may occur.
As a method to resolve the above-described problem, a method of blending polyhydric alcohol in silicone rubber to enhance resistance to compressed permanent deformation is disclosed in JP-2011-227512-A and JP-4697493-B. However, compatibility of polyhydric alcohol and silicone rubber is poor. En a case of blending polyhydric alcohol to silicone rubber, viscosity increased and restriction to manufacturing conditions occurred as a result. In addition, the above-described method is insufficient to resolve uneven gloss of an image. When silicone rubber having polyhydric alcohol is left under pressure over a long period, compressed permanent deformation occurs to silicone rubber having polyhydric alcohol and uneven gloss of an image occurs.
JP-2006-154711-A describes a fixing member for toner images having a solid material dispersed in a silicone layer instead of a conventional silicone rubber layer provided with hole portions that is a cause for susceptibility to deformation. JP-2006-154711-A also describes lowering viscosity of a silicone resin by adding an organic solvent and blending the solid material when forming the fixing member for toner images. The solid material described in JP-2006-154711-A reduces the amount of heat release of the fixing member and suppresses power consumption, and has low thermal conductivity and good thermal insulation. A typical example is silicone beads. In addition, JP-2006-15471 I-A describes that the organic solvent preferably has a relatively low boiling point such as C1-C4 alcohol, C3-C12 hydrocarbon, benzene, toluene, xylene, tetrahydrofuran, acetonitrile, dimethylformamide, or dimethylsulfoxide.

Fixing member, fixing device, and image forming apparatus


A carrier is provided including a core and a resin layer located overlying the core, wherein the carrier has a weight average particle diameter (Dw) of from 22 to 50 μm, a ratio (Dw/Dp) of the weight average particle diameter (Dw) to a number average particle diameter (Dp) of from 1 to 1.30, a shape factor SF-1 of from 100 to 120, and a shape factor SF-2 of from 100 to 120, and wherein the carrier comprises core particles satisfying the following relationship 0.52<(d/D)<1.0 in an amount of from 0 to 10,000 ppm by number: wherein D (μm) represents a diameter of a circle having the same area as that of a projected image of a core particle and d (μm) represents a diameter of a circle having the same area as that of a projected image of a maximum hollow present in the core particle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic carrier and a developer using the carrier. In addition, the present invention relates to a developing method, an image forming apparatus, and a process cartridge using the developer.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Developing methods for use in electrophotography are classified into a one-component developing method using a one-component developer consisting essentially of a toner and a two-component developing method using a two-component developer including a toner and a carrier such as a glass bead, a magnetic carrier, and a coated carrier, the surface of which is coated with a resin, etc.
Since the two-component developing method uses a carrier, which typically has a wide surface area so as to triboelectrically charge a toner, the two-component developing method has advantages over the one-component developing method in view of providing stable charging ability and producing high quality images for a long period of time. In addition, the two-component developing method has a high ability to feed a toner to the developing area. Therefore, the two-component developing method is widely used for digital electrophotographic systems in which an electrostatic latent image is formed on a photoreceptor by a laser beam and then made visible.
In order to respond to recent demands for improving resolution, highlight reproducibility and uniformity (granularity) of images, and colorization of images, a minimum unit composing a latent image, i.e., a dot, is modified to be much smaller and denser. There is a need for a developing system which can faithfully develop the latent image (i.e., dots), and various attempts have been made from aspects of improving both image forming process and developer (i.e., a toner and a carrier). From the aspect of image forming process, techniques of narrowing the developing gap, thinning layers of the photoreceptor, and making the diameter of the writing beam smaller are effective, but these techniques still have disadvantages of high cost and poor reliability.
On the other hand, from the aspect of developer, dot reproducibility is largely improved by using a toner having a small particle diameter. However, there is a problem that a developer including a toner having a small particle diameter tends to produce images with low image density and fog in that the background portion of an image is soiled with toner particles. When the toner is a full-color toner, a binder resin having a low softening point is typically used. Such a toner tends to adhere to the carrier, compared to a monochrome toner, and to deteriorate properties of the developer. As a result, toner scattering and fog in the background are easily caused.
Carriers having a small particle diameter have been also proposed.
For example, published unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. (hereinafter referred to as JP-A) 58-144839 discloses a magnetic carrier including a particulate ferrite having a spinel structure, and having an average particle diameter of less than 30 μm. Since this carrier is not covered by a resin and used for low electric field, the developed mass per area is poor and the life is short.
Japanese Patent No. (hereinafter referred to as JP) 3029180 discloses a carrier having a 50% average particle diameter (D50) of from 15 to 45 μm, and including carrier particles having a particle diameter of less than 22 μm in an amount of from 1 to 20%, carrier particles having a particle diameter of less than 16 μm in an amount of not greater than 3%, carrier particles having a particle diameter of not less than 62 μm in an amount of from 2 to 15%, and carrier particles having a particle diameter of not less than 88 μm in an amount of not greater than 2%, and further having a specific surface area.
Such a carrier having a small particle diameter has the following advantages.
(1) The surface area per unit volume is large. Therefore, the carrier is able to satisfactorily give charge to toner particles by friction, and therefore insufficiently-charged toner particles and reversely-charged toner particles are hardly produced. As a result, fog hardly occurs in the background and toner particles hardly scatter and blur, resulting in producing images with good dot reproducibility.
(2) For the above reason, the resultant image has high image density.
(3) Dense magnetic brushes can be formed. Since such a magnetic brush has good fluidity, the resultant image hardly has a brush mark.
On the other hand, spherical carriers, which have stable charging ability and are capable of producing uniform images, have been proposed. For example, JP 3078828 discloses a carrier including core particles which are spheroidized by a plasma treatment. Published Japanese translation of PCT international patent application No. 2005-524249 discloses a method for forming spherical particles from irregular particles by a plasma treatment.
However, as the particle diameter of a carrier decreases, the magnetic binding force thereof drastically decreases at a rate of cube of the particle diameter. As a result, a carrier particle or a cut magnetic brush tends to deposit on a latent image (this phenomenon is hereinafter referred to as "carrier deposition"), and make scratches on a photoreceptor or a fixing roller.

Electrographic carrier, developer, developing method, image forming apparatus, and process cartridge