Circulatory assistance is provided in a non-invasive procedure safely and effectively using a microprocessor of an external counter pulsation device programmed to control the actuation of any or all of a plurality of valves, each of which is mounted on and in fluid communication with one of a plurality of individual inflatable bladders disposed in pockets within cuffs encasing the calves, thighs, buttocks, abdomen and/or chest of a person and an optional valve in fluid communication with the person's airway, in any desired sequence or order, toward the heart or toward the feet, either during diastole or systole, at desired inception times during the cardiac cycle, for selected durations and at chosen pressures, for treating a variety of cardiac, non-cardiac and circulatory conditions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices and methods for non-invasively enabling blood circulation to be improved in a more effective manner than existing non-invasive circulatory assistance devices and those which require surgical intervention.
2. Description of Related Art
Current circulatory assistance procedures consist of surgically creating an opening in an artery feeding an organ or a portion of the body and a vein exiting the organ or portion of the body, inserting cannulas, catheters or large needles into the artery and vein, pumping blood at an accelerated rate from the artery through the organ or body portion and returning it to the vein. The blood may be oxygenated or otherwise treated while being circulated extra-corporeally. Such procedures require strict sterility and anti-coagulants, cause damage (hemolysis) to red cells and other blood components and entail the cost and risk of adverse events of surgery.
Some years ago, external counter pulsation or ECP devices were introduced which non-invasively provide circulatory assistance by moving blood from the extremities (legs and buttocks) up to the heart to treat angina pectoris, acute myocardial infarctions (heart attacks) and cardiogenic shock. Early ECP devices employed a liquid, typically water, to compress the extremities. Later ECP devices employed air to compress the extremities, which avoided the need to heat the water to body temperature and the risk of an electrical shock if a balloon or bladder containing the water were to leak or burst. Such early ECP devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,288,132; 3,303,841; 3,403,673; 3,734,087 and 3,835,845; as well as co-owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,654,919; 3,866,604 and 4,388,919, which, as stated above, are incorporated herein by reference.
Current ECP devices typically include bladders disposed in pockets within each of two pairs of cuffs, which are fastened about the calves and thighs of a person, and two bladders contained in a single cuff which is fastened about his or her buttocks. The bladders are sequentially inflated with air. First, the bladders in the cuffs about the calves are inflated. About 30 to 50 milliseconds later, the bladders in the cuffs about the thighs are inflated, followed, after about 30 to 50 milliseconds, by inflation of the bladders in the cuff about the buttocks inflation and deflation of the bladders is initiated and terminated, respectively, during diastole, after the heart has finished its compression cycle (systole) and is temporarily at rest between compressions (heartbeats). Inflation to a desired pressure is begun after a selected time delay period from the "r" wave of the person's electrocardiogram (ECG), forcing blood up the arteries (and veins) to the heart, counter to the usual direction of arterial blood flow. Compression of the cuffs continues for a selected time period, with simultaneous deflation of all of the bladders occurring during diastole, before the onset of systole, so as not to create resistance to the pumping of blood out of the left ventricle of the heart. When the bladders deflate, the air is released into the atmosphere. Alternatively, the air may be withdrawn by the application of a vacuum to the bladders.
Inflation of the bladders tightens the cuffs and forces blood from the legs and buttocks up the veins into the right heart chambers (auricle and ventricle). This reduces the work-effort of the heart, since a major portion of the heart's work is devoted to returning blood to the heart from the extremities. Inflation of the bladders also forces blood from the legs and buttocks up the arteries into the aorta. Since the aortic valve, if competent, is closed during diastole, the blood cannot enter the left heart chambers and flows from the aorta into the coronary, carotid and other arteries. An increase in intra-coronary artery pressure of up to 40% was measured during ECP, using tiny pressure transducers positioned in the coronary arteries of humans. Such transducers are manufactured, for instance, by Millar Instruments, Inc. of Houston, Tex.
A number of papers have been published on clinical studies in which ECP devices, made by the owner of the present disclosure, have been shown to be safe and effective in the treatment of Stable (chronic) Angina, Acute Myocardial Infarctions (heart attacks) and Cardiogenic Shock (the most serious complication of a heart attack), and such ECP devices have been cleared for sale by the FDA for the treatment of these conditions, as well as Congestive Heart Failure.
In the treatment of heart attacks, ECP was administered for four hours to force blood around the blockage in one or more of the coronary arteries, relieving the ischemia (oxygen deprivation) caused by the absence of blood flow and reducing the damage to the area of the heart supplied by the blocked artery or arteries. An estimated one million heart attacks occur each year in the United States with a mortality of about 50%.
The repetitive application of ECP, which has been shown to significantly increase intracoronary artery pressure, is thought to cause the release of endogenous (naturally occurring) angiogenic growth factors, resulting in the creation of capillaries and arterioles (angiogenesis) and to restore the elasticity and vitality of the endothelial lining of the arteries of the heart, which usually decline with age. To treat a chronic condition, such as stable angina pectoris (Angina) or Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), ECP is typically administered for a period of one hour, five days a week for seven weeks. It is thought that most or all of the angiogeriic agents stored in the arteries is released within one hour by ECP, and delaying the treatment for a period of time gives the body time to manufacture and restock the depots in the arteries with such growth factors. An estimated 6 million people in the United States suffer from Stable (chronic) Angina, and approximately 2.5 million suffer from CHF.
One present type of ECP device, manufactured by the owner of this application, Cardiomedics, Inc. of Irvine, Calif., consists of a control console, containing a microprocessor, associated electronics and a touch-screen display, a power supply, one or more air compressors, an air reservoir and electrically actuated solenoid valves ("Solenoid Valves"), as known in the art, which are in fluid communication with and, when actuated, release air from the reservoir. Hoses attached to and in fluid communication with the outlets of the Solenoid Valves extend about four to six feet from the Solenoid Valves to bladders disposed in pockets within cuffs, which are fastened about the patient's calves, thighs and buttocks. Such ECP devices weigh about 400 pounds, are portable and can be moved from bed to bed to treat patients, without having to move the patients from their beds.
Other present ECP devices utilize sets of cuffs and bladders about the calves, thighs and buttocks, as described above, but the air reservoir and attached Solenoid Valves are mounted beneath a bed dedicated to the treatment of patients brought to the ECP device. Such other ECP devices are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,753,226; 5,554,103 and 5,997,540. The air compressor and Solenoid Valves associated with such ECP devices may likewise be mounted beneath the bed, or may be housed in a separate enclosure. Locating the air reservoir and attached Solenoid Valves beneath the bed shortens the length of the air hoses to the bladders disposed within the cuffs to about 2 to 3 feet, slightly reducing the inflation time of the bladders and the amount of air lost from the hoses when the cuffs are deflated. However, the weight of such ECP devices is 700 to 1100 pounds, and the lack of portability generally limits their use to ambulatory patients or requires a critically ill patient to be moved on a gurney to the ECP device, moved onto the bed of the ECP device for the ECP treatment, and finally, moved back into his/her bed.
It would be desirable to further reduce the loss of air from the hoses when the bladders are deflated, as well as to not require that patients, particularly critically ill patients, be brought to the ECP device.
In our co-pending application Ser. No. 10/263,954, an advanced ECP device is described, in which lightweight, air pressure actuated valves ("APA Valves") are attached directly to the individual inlets of bladders disposed within pockets in the cuffs, which are fastened about the calves, thighs and buttocks of the patient. An operating air pressure is maintained in a pneumatic trunk line that extends from a low pressure air reservoir (maintained at up to 10 psi, preferably about 6 psi) and branches into smaller branch pneumatic lines connected to the APA Valves attached to the individual inlets of each of the bladders within the cuffs. The APA Valves, when actuated, admit air into the bladders or allow air to escape through an exhaust port. The APA valves may be spool valves or any other type of valve known in the art.
Air pilot lines are attached to, in fluid communication with, and extend from each of the Solenoid Valves, which are in fluid communication with a high pressure air reservoir (pressurized from about 12 to 30 psi, preferably about 15 to 26 psi). The air pilot lines extend to the APA Valves attached to the inlets of the bladders disposed in the cuffs. By positioning the APA Valves at the inlets of each bladder, pressure is maintained at all times in the trunk and branch pneumatic supply lines. This minimizes the time of inflation of the bladders and significantly reduces the amount of air lost during the exhaust cycle when the bladders are deflated, reducing the size and weight of the compressor(s), reservoir, and power supply of the ECP device. Actuating the APA Valves attached directly to the bladders of the cuffs with air pressure through the air pilot lines, instead of electrically, eliminates the risk of an electrical shock to the patient.
The presence of buttock cuffs in the current ECP devices described above, however, makes it difficult or impossible to insert a catheter into the femoral artery in the patient's groin area, which is required in persons undergoing an angiogram, coronary balloon angioplasty, insertion of an intra-aortic balloon or other cardiac catheterization procedure which may be required in the treatment of the patient. Furthermore, the current ECP devices described above inflate their three sets of cuffs in a fixed sequence, first the calves, then the thighs and finally the buttocks, limiting their use to treating conditions in which such three cuff sequence is desirable. Also, both of the above described ECP devices are programmed to permit compression of the cuffs only during diastole, and the current ECP devices compress the cuffs about both legs of a patient and do not provide for individual cuff inflation, which would be beneficial in the treatment, for example, of an amputee or a person with a broken leg.
As a result, it would be desirable to have an ECP device not subject to the above limitations.
In the treatment of Angina, heart attacks or cardiogenic shock, the patient may suffer from premature ventricular contractions or "PVC's", which can produce a wide "qrs" interval in the ECG pattern (the time from the end of the "q" wave to the start of the "s" wave), which the microprocessor recognizes and ceases actuation of the Solenoid Valves. Persons with a very low heart rate or an HIS bundle branch block, which is typically treated by implanting a cardiac pacemaker, often produce wide "qrs" intervals in the patient's ECG patterns that are recognized as PVC's by the microprocessor, which causes immediate cessation of actuation of the inflation valves.
It would be desirable to be able to overcome these limitations and provide for a means to enable the operator to over-ride the customary computer program of present ECP devices o treat such patients.
In the treatment of cardiac arrest outside a hospital, cardiopulmonary resuscitation or "CPR" is often applied. The chest is manually compressed by a bystander, who periodically pinches the patient's nose to close the nasal air passages and breathes into the patient's mouth to fill the lungs with air. However, survival from cardiac arrest outside a hospital is very low. This is because manual CPR does not effectively return the blood, which is forced out of the heart by compressing the chest, back to the heart. Also, air breathed into the patient's mouth contains significantly less oxygen and more carbon dioxide than ambient air. Mechanical chest compression devices suffer from the same lack of return of blood to the heart.
When paramedics arrive, a mechanical ventilator, such as the Ambu® MediBag® manufactured by Ambu, Inc. of Linthicum, Md., may be used. The bag is manually squeezed to force ambient, air into the lungs. The paramedics may also apply an electrical shock to the chest to defibrillate and restore the heart to a normal rhythm. However, the weakened heart must continue to work hard to pump blood to the feet and back, and a subsequent cardiac arrest may occur, which may prove fatal.
It would be desirable to have a non-invasive, circulatory assist device that could improve circulation and assist the heart of a person in cardiac arrest, and which could also be used for hours after the patient is resuscitated to reduce the heart's work effort and, perhaps, prevent a subsequent cardiac arrest. The present invention teaches certain benefits in construction and use, which give rise to the objectives described above.
In the treatment of CHF, the patient frequently has a left ventricle ejection fraction less than 40% (55% is normal), due to the inability of the heart to efficiently pump and eject the blood from the main pumping ventricle of the heart. Since ECP increases the flow of blood into the ventricles, excessive pre-loading of the heart can occur in these patients, which could worsen their condition or be fatal. It would be desirable to have an ECP device and a method of use that would prevent this event from occurring.
The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages as described in the following summary.

Devices and methods for non-invasively improving blood circulation


A series-to-parallel converter (26) converts an input code sequence to first to N-th code sequences with input clocks frequency divided by N into circuit clocks, based on which a frame pulse is generated. Among concurrency detectors (41) which are supplied with the frame pulse in common and with detection signals produced when first to N-th synchronization patterns are detected in the respective code sequences and are for producing nonconcurrent results when the detection signals are nonconcurrent with the frame pulse, a particular detector produces an earliest concurrent result to disable other detectors when the frame pulse is concurrent with one of the detection signals that is supplied thereto. These other detectors are enabled when the particular detector produces a nonconcurrent result due to collapse of frame synchronism. Through an AND gate (43), the nonconcurrent results inhibit the circuit clocks.

This invention relates to a frame synchronization circuit for use in a receiver of a digital communication system, which is typically a PCM communication system.
In a transmitter of a digital communication system, digital information signals are multiplexed into a multiplexed signal either on a word basis or on a frame basis. Usually, a frame synchronization pattern is inserted in the multiplexed signal at a frame period to have a predetermined pattern which does not appear in other parts of the multiplexed signal. In a receiver of the digital communication system, the frame synchronization pattern is detected in order to get a correct understanding of a sequential order in which the digital information signals are multiplexed. A frame synchronization circuit is for putting operation of a timing pulse generator in correct synchronism with the frame synchronization pattern.
A conventional frame synchronization circuit comprises a pattern detecting section for detecting a frame synchronization pattern in an input code sequence supplied to the pattern detecting section. Only when the frame synchronization pattern is detected, the pattern detecting section produces a pattern detection signal or pulse. Supplied with circuit input clock pulses as gate input clock pulses, a gating section allows passage of the gate input clock pulses so as to produce gate output clock pulses and inhibits passage of the gate input clock pulses so as not to produce the gate output clock pulses when controlled by first and second control signals, respectively. In compliance with the gate output clock pulses, a frame pulse generating section generates a frame pulse in each frame period. Supplied with the pattern detection signal and the frame pulse, a concurrency detecting section detects concurrency of the frame pulse with the pattern detection signal and produces the first and the second control signals when the frame pulse is and is not concurrent with the pattern detection signal, respectively.
A little more in general, the frame pulse generating section comprises a timing pulse generator and a frame pulse generator. Each gate output clock pulse is used in stepping the timing pulse generator one step. Stepped in this manner, the timing pulse generator generates various timing pulses. Based on the timing pulses, the frame pulse generator generates the frame pulse. Primarily, the timing pulses are for use in other parts of the receiver.
The frame pulse is generated at a time instant which depends on initial conditions of the timing pulse generator and the frame pulse generator. As a result, generation of the frame pulse is not necessarily concurrent with production of the pattern detection signal. The concurrency detecting section and the gating section are therefore used in adjusting the time instant of generation of the frame pulse by using the frame synchronization pattern so that the receiver may be operable in correct synchronism with the frame synchronization pattern.
It should be noted in connection with the conventional frame synchronization circuit that the pattern detection signal is used in generating the frame pulse through a loop comprising the concurrency detecting section, the gating section, the timing pulse generator, and the frame pulse generator. The loop has a loop delay, which must be shorter than one clock period of the circuit input clock pulses in order that the frame synchronization circuit is correctly operable and that the receiver is consequently correctly operable. When the circuit input clock pulses have a high clock frequency, it becomes impossible to keep the loop delay shorter than one clock period. The conventional frame synchronization circuit has therefore been inoperable depending on the circumstances.
An improved frame synchronization circuit is invented by A. Tomozawa and disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 12,856 of 1975 (Syowa 50). In the manner which will later be described, the improved frame synchronization circuit is operable with no theoretical restriction on the loop delay. It should, however, be noted as regards the improved frame synchronization circuit that it becomes difficult to manufacture the pattern detecting section. This is because the pattern detecting section must be operable at a high clock frequency and becomes bulky when the frame synchronization pattern is long, namely, has a long pattern length.

Frame synchronization circuit comprising a series-to-parallel converter


A desulfurization composition contains from about 3% to about 20% particulate metallic aluminum, about 5% to about 30% particulate alumina, about 0.5% to about 12% particulate hydrocarbon material or other gas generating composition and the balance lime plus impurities. Preferably aluminum dross is the source of aluminum and alumina. The desulfurization composition is injected into molten iron from a blast furnace preferably in an amount of 4 to 20 pounds desulfurizer per ton of hot metal. The desulfurizing composition can be injected as a blend or co-injected into the hot metal through a lance using a carrier gas or dumped into the hot metal as it is being poured into the ladle. At least for torpedo ladles, the desulfurization composition can be placed in the ladle before the hot metal is poured into it.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a desulfurizing composition and method for desulfurizing molten pig iron, cast iron and malleable iron.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Steelmakers generally desire to have a minimum amount of sulfur in the steel they produce, as well as in the molten iron from which the steel is made. Presently, molten iron from the blast furnace is desulfurized by the injection of a suitable reagent with a carrier gas, usually nitrogen. One widely used desulfurizing reagent is a mixture of particulate lime and particulate magnesium. Although this reagent performs well as a desulfurizer, steelmakers have been seeking alternative reagents. This search has been prompted by the facts that magnesium lime reagents are flammable and that metallic magnesium, which may be 90% of this mix, is quite costly.
Several people have proposed to substitute metallic aluminum or metallic aluminum and alumina for the magnesium. Mitsuo et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,374,664 assigned to Nippon Steel disclose a process for desulfurizing molten pig iron in which powdered aluminum and lime or powdered aluminum, alumina and lime are injected into molten pig iron. Although this composition provides adequate desulfurization, metallic aluminum is also quite costly.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,086 there is disclosed an iron desulfurization additive containing a granular mixture of metallic magnesium, calcium oxide and a small amount of hydrocarbon containing material which provide a volatile gas producing component to the mixture. The patent teaches that the hydrocarbon constituent improves the desulfurization of the magnesium-lime mixture by increasing the surface area of the magnesium-lime agglomerations. At high operating temperatures found in molten iron, the hydrocarbon constituent forms a gas which breaks down the magnesium-lime agglomerations. This desulfurizer is relatively expensive.
In the summer of 1995 Reactive Metals & Alloys Corporation, one of the assignees of the present application, tested a reagent at an integrated steel plant in the United States which contained 65% lime, 27% aluminum, 6% fluorspar and 2% hydrocarbons. This reagent was injected at the rate of from 1.5 to 6 pounds reagent per ton of molten metal and resulted in removal of from about 0.003% to about 0.02% sulfur. Those observing the trial were disappointed because the low sulfur removal and the cost of pure aluminum resulted in an unacceptable cost per point of sulfur removed. Fluorspar could have contributed to the low sulfur removal.
Consequently, there is a need for a low cost desulfurization composition that can be used in molten iron from a blast furnace which will remove at least 40% and preferably near 100% of the sulfur present in the molten iron.
The following reaction: EQU CaO+S.revreaction.CaS+O
is generally recognized as underlying all the lime-based desulfurizing processes. Provided an excellent "home" is continuously provided in situ for the liberated oxygen atom, the reaction can be completed towards residual sulfurs in molten metals below 1 ppm S if required.
There are many elements which will react with the free oxygen if those elements are present in the hot metal. At typical 2400.degree. F. temperatures of hot metal to be desulfurized, free energies of formation of the oxide compounds show the following preference for the effectiveness of such elements for the liberated oxygen atom expressed as .DELTA.G.degree.f in BTU's per pound-mole of O.sub.2 gas.
440 Scandium, Sc metal PA0 410-420 Heavy Lanthanides Yttrium: Y, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Lu PA0 405 Calcium, Ca metal alloys and compounds PA0 390 Strontium, Sr metal PA0 380-395 Light Lanthanides: La, Ce, Nd, Pr . . . Gd PA0 375 Beryllium, Be metal PA0 355 Barium, Ba metal PA0 350 Magnesium, Mg metal and alloys PA0 340 Zirconium, Zr metal and alloys PA0 335 Aluminum, Al metal and alloys PA0 280-325 Titanium, Ti metal and alloys PA0 255 Silicon, Si metal and alloys
Almost all of these elements have been rejected as the deoxidizing additive for hot metal desulfurization because of their cost. Scandium for example costs about $10,000.00 per pound. Beryllium and barium are toxic as well as expensive. Only calcium and magnesium have been used extensively. Calcium metal and calcium silicon are too expensive. Calcium carbide, CaC.sub.2, is extensively used worldwide for molten pig iron desulfurization. However, because of its price and lack of complete molecular splitting at 2400.degree. F., calcium carbide will lose its competitiveness with our composition. There are also safety concerns about using calcium carbide. Pure magnesium and magnesium alloys have been used because they are less expensive than the alternatives, but they are still costly. Silicon metal and alloys are economical, but tend to form SiO.sub.2 which forms solid envelopes of dicalcium silicate, 2 CaO-SiO.sub.2, blocking the process.
From a strictly thermodynamic equilibrium consideration viewpoint, the above list indicates that aluminum which is close enough to magnesium in free energy of formation should perform almost as well as magnesium. Indeed, literature going back several decades, for and U.S. Pat. No. 4,374,664 to Nippon Steel clearly confirm that aluminum and aluminum alloys have been given extensive and serious experimentation as critical additive to lime for hot metal desulfurization and have performed to some extent.
If an aluminum containing agent is used, it is of paramount importance that the highest possible concentration of aluminum be present at the same location as where solid lime encounters sulfur atoms dissolved in the molten metal being treated. Thus, pretreatments by aluminum have to be inferior, kinetically and economically because aluminum tends to be strongly depleted locally, stopping the reaction. Also, this indicates that it is redundant and uneconomical to provide excess aluminum content in the hot metal before, during or even after lime injection. That observation is contrary to the teaching of U.S. Pat. No. 4,374,664 which seeks to have aluminum present.
In practice, this implies that the blend quality should ascertain an intimate closeness of the lime particles with the aluminum metal bearing particles so as to guarantee this same location requirement. However, prior to this invention, these lime-aluminum blends, even with all the other additives considered so far such as alumina, have not to our knowledge, been able to compete effectively with lime-magnesium blends or with calcium carbide and/or calcium carbide/magnesium combinations with or without lime.


A device for processing an intermediate analogue signal received from a previous system with a baseband processor. The processor includes an ordinary feedback loop for adjusting the strength of the intermediate analogue signal received from the previous system. The processor further includes a first DC offset reduction loop and a second DC offset reduction loop. A programmable filter bank and the corresponding control elements are provided so that the second DC offset reduction loop can reduce the DC offset in a flexible way. In the present invention, the DC offset can be reduced effectively and the gain training period relating to the previous system and the baseband processor can be shortened.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for baseband processing, and more particularly, to a device for WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) baseband processing with DC (Direct Current) offset reduction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the wireless communication field, a zero-IF receiver (zero intermediate frequency receiver, or zero-IF RF, so-called direct-down conversion radio frequency receiver) is one of the practical choices for implementing a communication system. While receiving an antenna signal, which is a baseband signal representing transmitted data arithmetically multiplied by a carrier of a predetermined frequency, a zero-IF receiver derives the baseband signal from one multiplication of the received signal and the carrier rather than a plurality of multiplications of the received signal and carriers of intermediate frequencies, so that a cost-effective design of lower number of external parts can be achieved. Hence, the zero-IF receivers became popular. Of concern, the zero-IF receiver usually generates unwanted DC (Direct Current) offsets when the gain of an amplifier of a previous system for preprocessing in the zero-IF receiver is changed. Furthermore, during a direct-down conversion process (the baseband signal deriving process of the zero-IF receiver), some quasi-DC offsets (noises of low frequencies, whose spectrum locates near that of the DC offsets) are generated. Most of the zero-IF receivers have a built-in DC reduction function. However, it takes long time to reduce significant amounts of DC offset.
This DC offset reduction duration impacts the receiver performance in some wireless applications, for example, IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN. Because of its packet transmission architecture, WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) receivers have limited time to perform the AGC (Auto-Gain Control, that is, gain control training, or gain training), which adjusts the strength of an intermediate analogue signal generated by the previous system to achieve better dynamic range of the intermediate analogue signal for further baseband processing by a baseband processor. The lower the DC offset during the gain training period, the more accurate the gain setting by the baseband processor.
FIG. 1 is a diagram of related signals, waveforms, and time sequences while the zero-IF receiver and the baseband processor are operating. In FIG. 1, from top to bottom, the waveforms drawn with solid-lines represent the DC offset, the baseband signal, the quasi-DC-offset, and the composite signal (the intermediate analogue signal) where the baseband signal, the quasi-DC-offset, and the composite signal are shown with envelopes of the signal sweeps. The pattern inside the envelopes represents the components of each signal parabolically. The horizontal axis denotes the time, and the vertical axis denotes the signal amplitude. A signal packet shown in FIG. 1 starts at t0 and ends at t2 along the time axis. A significant DC offset arises at the beginning of the signal packet (that is, at t0). The interval between t0 and t1 represents the gain training period.
Please refer to FIG. 2 showing a block diagram of a combination of a zero-IF receiver 100 and a baseband processor 200 according to the prior art. The signal connection between the zero-IF receiver 100 and the baseband processor 200 can be either differential or a single-ended connection. For simplicity of comparison between the present invention and the prior art and focusing on the novelty of the present invention, only single-ended connection will be illustrated in the following. The related previous system 102 of the baseband processor 200 is shown in the zero-IF receiver 100. The previous system 102 is coupled to an antenna 104 for preprocessing an antenna signal detected by the antenna 104. The previous system 102 comprises an LNA 106 (Low Noise Amplifier) coupled to the antenna 104 for amplifying the signal detected by the antenna 104 and generating at an output an amplified signal, a mixer 108 coupled to the output of the LNA 106 for mixing the amplified signal with an oscillator signal of a predetermined frequency received from an Osc 110 (Oscillator) and generating at an output a mixed signal, a GA 112 (Gain Amplifier) coupled to the output of the mixer 108 for adjusting the strength of the mixed signal according to a gain control signal received from a gain controller 204 of the baseband processor 200 and generating at an output an adjusted signal, and an LPF 114 (Low Pass Filter) coupled to the output of the GA 112 for filtering the adjusted signal and generating the intermediate analogue signal as the output of the previous system 102 and as the output of the zero-IF receiver 100. The baseband processor 200 comprises an ADC 202 (Analogue-to-Digital Converter) coupled to the output of the previous system 102 for converting the intermediate analogue signal received from the previous system 102 into a digital signal and generating at an output the digital signal, the gain controller 204 coupled to the output of the ADC 202 for estimating a DC (Direct Current) offset of the digital signal and generating at an output the gain control signal, and a demodulator 206 coupled to the output of the ADC 202 for demodulating the digital signal.
As mentioned, the unwanted DC offset introduced into the baseband processor from the previous system 102 will make the ADC 202 saturated. Most baseband processors have a built-in RF gain controller such as the gain controller 204 of FIG. 2 to reduce the gain of an amplifier such as the GA 112 of FIG. 2 when an ADC such as the ADC 202 is saturated, but this does not reduce the DC offset and indeed decreases the dynamic range of the intermediate analogue signal. Most of the zero-IF receivers have a built-in DC reduction function but it takes a long time to reduce significant amounts of DC offset and does not match the requirement of a system having limited process time to perform AGC mentioned above.

Device for WLAN baseband processing with DC offset reduction


In order to detect the angular position of a permanent magnet rotor (13) of a brushless motor, measuring means are connected to the windings of the stator in such a way as to form an oscillatory circuit and the variations in the frequency of resonance as a function of the position of rotor are measured. In order to augment these variations, the rotor has a non-magnetic structure (26) around the magnet (14) with zones of different thicknesses or of different permeabilities. This structure can be formed by a metal sleeve, of brass for example, having openings or recesses (44) which can be filled with a dielectric material.

The present invention relates to a brushless electric machine comprising a stator with polyphase windings, a rotor having at least one permanent magnet magnetised radially relative to the axis of the rotor and a non-magnetic structure at least partially surrounding the magnet, and means for detecting the angular position of the rotor.
The invention is especially applicable to detection of the angular position of the rotor for automatic control of the variable frequency and amplitude polyphase supply of synchronous, permanent magnet electric motors which are provided with structural parts indicating the position of the rotor, where this supply can be sinusoidal or by way of pulses of continuous current. Motors of this kind are preferred in certain fields of application, such as medical or dental instruments because, in view of the reduced dimensions of the instruments, it is necessary to reduce as much as possible the size of the motor and the number of connections between the motor and its control device.
The object of the automatic control is in particular to obtain maximum torque and to avoid the synchronous motor pulling out of sync. Especially at low speeds it should allow good control over the torque and the speed and allow execution of special cycles of work, operating over a small number of revolutions or over fractions of a revolution of the rotor.
The conventional automatic control devices which use magnetic Hall sensors or an angular encoder for example to indicate the position of the rotor suffer from the problems of some bulk in the motor as well as supplementary electric connections between the motor and its control device. Other known devices uses voltage transformers to detect variations in the impedance of the stator windings, but these heavy and bulky components are also a problem.
It is known to use high frequency voltages applied to the stator windings to detect variations in the impedance of these windings as a function of the position of the magnetic field of the rotor. For example the document JP 9-163788 A provides an estimate of the position of the rotor when stopped on the basis of three high frequency voltages measured on the three phases of the stator, in order to be able to control starting of the motor with maximum torque and efficiency.
However, the inventor has found that, when a stator winding is connected in series in an oscillatory circuit and the frequency of resonance of the this circuit is observed, the frequency varies because of variations in the impedance of the circuit, which are related in particular to variations in the magnetic flux of the rotor in the stator windings. The angular position of the rotor can be calculated on the basis of the variations in this frequency. In French patent application No. 98 09153, published after the date of the present application, the use of two oscillatory circuits having different frequencies is described, to calculate the angular position of the moving rotor and in consequence to control the supply pulses of the motor.
The inventor has found that a rotor fitted with a sintered permanent magnet by itself causes a variation of frequency of the order of 10% as a function of its angular position relative to the stator windings passing this frequency. This variation is attributed to the preferentially aligned molecular structure, i.e. the anisotropy, resulting from the manufacture of the magnet. Unfortunately the variation in frequency thus obtained is relatively weak and partially random. Although it can be used, this variation does not allow of great precision.
One object of the present invention is to improve an electric machine of the kind specified above, in such as way as to amplify the variation in the frequency of resonance of the oscillatory circuit and thus to allow easier and more precise detection of the angular position of the rotor, whether it is moving or stationary.
To this end the electric machine according to the invention is characterized in that the said non-magnetic structure has zones of different thicknesses or of different permeabilities around the circumference of the magnet.
In other words, the radial gap between the peripheral surface of the rotor magnet and the internal surface of the stator pole pieces, which comprises the air-gap and the said non-magnetic structure, provides conditions for the passage of the magnetic flux which are variable around the circumference of the rotor. These conditions depend on both the nature and the thickness of the layers present in this gap, including the air-gap.
The result is that the high frequency magnetic flux produced through the rotor by the stator windings by virtue of the oscillatory circuit varies with the angular position of the rotor, not only because of the nature of the magnet, but in addition because of the form of the non-magnetic structure surrounding it. Appropriate choice of the geometry of this structure relative to the poles of the magnet makes it possible to augment the desired effect. The said zones of different thicknesses or permeabilities are preferably disposed symmetrically relative to a plane perpendicular to the direction of magnetisation of the magnet and passing through the axis of the rotor.
In small motors of this kind it is well known to fit the rotor magnet within a sleeve of non-magnetic material, the purpose of which is above all to prevent the magnet blowing apart under the influence of centrifugal force. In medical applications, which in particular require sterilisation procedures, the metal which is used is generally brass, because of its ease in machining and its good resistance to corrosion. In one advantageous embodiment of the invention, the non-magnetic structure of the rotor comprises such a sleeve, having recesses which form openings or thinned parts of the sleeve. These recesses can advantageously be filled with a dielectric material, an epoxy resin for example.
It should be noted that an electric machine according to the invention may be either a motor, or a generator, or a machine able to operate in both modes.
In one advantageous embodiment the means for detecting the angular position of the rotor comprise measuring means arranged to be connected selectively to windings of the stator in such a manner as to form an oscillatory circuit and to detect variations in the frequency of resonance of the said oscillatory circuit. However, it is important to note that the principles of the present invention can also be used with other types of detecting means. In this respect the eddy currents induced in the metal sleeve of the rotor play a major role in the methods of detection to be employed.

Brushless electric machine with means for detecting the angular position of the rotor


The present disclosure refers to a method for operating a user terminal (7) of an agricultural machine, comprising providing a user terminal (7) in a control system (3) of an agricultural machine, the user terminal (7) connected to a power supply and configured to transmit, through a control bus (6), control signals to functional elements (10a; 10b) of the agricultural machine; enabling operation of the user terminal (7), after a period of time the user terminal was turned-off before, comprising enabling a user control mode of operation of the user terminal (7); running software applications in the user terminal (7); enabling a display device of the user terminal (7); and enabling the control bus (6), thereby, operating the control bus (6) in a bus control mode allowing for transmission of the control signals through the control bus (6); controlling operation of one of the functional elements (10a; 10b) of the agricultural machine in the user control mode of operation; in response to a user input, generating present control signals; transmitting the present control signals to the control unit assigned to the one of the functional elements (10a; 10b) through the control bus (6); and operating the functional elements (10a; 10b) according to the present control signals; disabling the user control mode of operation and enabling a standby mode of operation for the user terminal (7), comprising continuing with running one or all of the software applications in the user terminal (7); disabling the display device of the user terminal (7); and disabling the control bus (6); and re-enabling the control mode of operation for the user terminal (7). Further, an agricultural machine is provided.

User terminals are provided as a user interface for receiving user input for controlling operation of functional elements of an agricultural machine. For example, in an agricultural machine comprising a tractor and an implement trailed by or carried on the tractor the user terminal may be located in the tractor. The user terminal is provided with hardware and software components including, for example, a touch-sensitive display, and additional input devices such as a rotatable control knob or a joystick. The user terminal is connected to a control system of the agricultural machine. In response to receiving user input through the user terminal, control signals are generated for controlling operation of functional elements of the tractor and/or the implement, the functional elements being connected to a control bus used for transmitting the control signals to the functional components. A local control unit may be assigned to one or more of the functional elements, the local control unit being connected to the data bus for control signals transmission.
After ignition of the engine of the agricultural machine, there is a booting process for starting the user terminal and enabling a mode of operation for the user terminal which allows for receiving user input.
Document US 2015/0366124 A1 discloses an arrangement for the control of a device interface of an agricultural work vehicle includes a control unit of the work vehicle, which is connected, in a controlling manner, with an external power actuator for the adjustment of the position of the device interface, and a portable computer with input and a processor which has a wireless communication connection with the control unit and on which software was downloaded, which makes possible control of the actuator by the input, via the processor and the control unit.

Method for operating a user terminal of an agricultural machine and agricultural machine


A method of manufacturing an image display apparatus, which has a first substrate on which an electron emission element is arranged, a second substrate on which a phosphor that forms an image upon irradiation of an electron emitted by the electron emission element is arranged, and an enclosure which is bonded to the first and second substrates to hold a gap between the first and second substrates, has the steps of applying a bonding agent to bonding portions between the first and second substrates, and the enclosure, heating to a temperature equal to or more than the softening temperature of the bonding agent, detecting the solidification state of the bonding agent, performing position alignment between the first and second substrates during the interval after the bonding agent softens until the bonding agent solidifies, bonding the first and second substrates via the enclosure by compressing the first substrate and/or the second substrate, and releasing the compression force to the first substrate and/or the second substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the processes of assembling a flat-panel type image display apparatus and, more particularly, to a manufacturing method and apparatus for an image display apparatus in which upper and lower glass plates are seal-bonded using low-melting point glass.
2. Related Background Art
As an image display apparatus using an electron beam, for example, a flat-panel type image display apparatus has been developed. This image display apparatus comprises an electron-emitting device for generating an electron beam in a vacuum chamber sandwiched between a glass-face plate (substrate) and a glass-rear plate (substrate), and displays an image in such a manner that an electron beam emitted by the electron-emitting device is accelerated and irradiated onto a phosphor to emit light. Such electron-emitting device will be described below.
Conventionally, two types of electron-emitting devices, i.e., thermionic cathode devices and cold cathode devices, are known. The cold cathode devices include, for example, surface conduction type emitting devices, field emission type (to be referred to as "FE" type hereinafter), devices, metal/insulating layer/metal type (to be referred to as "MIM" type hereinafter) devices, and the like.
The surface conduction type electron-emitting device includes, for example, an element described in M.I. Elinson, Radio Eng. Electron Phys., 10, 1290, (1965), and another device to be described below.
The surface conduction type electron-emitting device utilizes a phenomenon in which electron emission occurs when a current flows in a direction parallel to the film surface of a small-area thin film formed on a substrate. As the surface conduction type electron-emitting device, in addition to an element using an SnO.sub.2 thin film by Elinson et al. described above, an element using an Au thin film G. Dittmer, "Thin Solid Films", 9, 317 (1972)!, an element using an In.sub.2 O.sub.3 /SnO.sub.2 thin film M. Hartwell and C. G. Fonstad, "IEEE Trans. ED Conf.", 519 (1975), an element using a carbon thin film Hisashi Araki et al., "Vacuum", Vol. 26, No. 1, 22 (1983)!, and the like have been reported.
FIG. 46 is a plan view of the element by M. Hartwell et al., as an example of the typical element arrangement of such surface conduction type emission elements. Referring to FIG. 46, a conductive thin film 3004 consisting of a metal oxide is formed on a substrate 3001 by sputtering. The conductive thin film 3004 is formed into an H-shaped flat pattern. An electron emission portion 3005 is formed by performing an energization process called energization forming (to be described later) on the electro conductive thin film 3004. The interval L in FIG. 46 is set to fall within the range from 0.5 to 1 mm!, and the width W is set to be 0.1 mm!. Note that FIG. 46 illustrates the electron emission portion 3005 as a rectangular portion formed at the center of the conductive thin film 3004 for the sake of illustrative convenience, but it does not necessarily faithfully express the position or shape of the actual electron emission portion.
In the above-mentioned surface conduction type emission elements such as the element by M. Hartwell et al., it is a common practice to form the electron emission portion 3005 by performing an energization process called energization forming on the conductive thin film 3004 before electron emission. More specifically, in the energization forming, the electron emission portion 3005 is formed in an electrically high-resistance state in such a manner that the conductive thin film 3004 is locally destroyed, deformed, or denatured by applying a constant DC voltage or a DC voltage that increases at a very slow rate (e.g., about 1 V/min) across the two ends of the conductive thin film 3004. Note that a fissure is formed on a portion of the locally destroyed, deformed, or denatured conductive thin film. When an appropriate voltage is applied to the conductive thin film after the energization forming, electron emission occurs in the neighborhood of the fissure.
On the other hand, as the FE type elements, for example, an element by W. P. Dyke & W. W. Dolan, "Field emission", Advance in Electron Physics, 8, 89 (1956), an element by C. A. Spindt, "Physical properties of thin-film field emission cathodes with molybdenum cones", J. Appl. Phys., 47, 5248 (1976), and the like are known.
FIG. 47 is a sectional view of the above-mentioned element by C. A. Spindt et al., as an example of the typical element arrangement of the FE type element. Referring to FIG. 47, an emitter wiring layer or interconnect 3011 consisting of a conductive material, an emitter cone 3012, an insulating layer 3013, and a gate electrode 3014 are formed on a substrate 3010. This element causes electron emission from the distal end portion of the emitter cone 3012 by applying an appropriate voltage across the emitter cone 3012 and the gate electrode 3014.
In another element arrangement of the FE type element, the emitter and the gate electrode are juxtaposed on the substrate to be substantially parallel to the substrate surface in place of the stacked structure shown in FIG. 47.
As an example of the MIM type element, an element by C. A. Mead, "Operation of Tunnel-emission Devices", J. Appl. Phys., 32, 646 (1961), or the like is known. FIG. 48 shows an example of the typical element arrangement of the MIM type element. FIG. 48 is a sectional view. Referring to FIG. 48, a metal lower electrode 3021, a thin insulating layer 3022 having a thickness of about 100 .ANG., and a metal upper electrode 3023 having a thickness of 80 to 300 .ANG. are formed on a substrate 3020. The MIM type element causes electron emission from the surface of the upper electrode 3023 upon application of an appropriate voltage across the upper and lower electrodes 3023 and 3021.
The above-mentioned cold cathode devices do not require any heaters since they can obtain electron emission at relatively low temperatures as compared to the thermionic cathode devices. Therefore, the cold cathode device has a simpler structure than the thermionic cathode device, and a very small element can be formed. Even when a large number of elements are arranged on a substrate at a high density, the problem of, e.g., heat melting of the substrate hardly occurs. The thermionic cathode device has a low response speed since it operates upon heating of a heater, while the cold cathode device has a high response speed.
For these reasons, extensive studies have been made to explore effective applications of the cold cathode device.
For example, since the surface conduction type electron-emitting device has the simplest structure and allows the easiest manufacture among the cold cathodes, a large number of elements can be formed over a large area. Hence, the method of driving an array of a large number of elements has been studied, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 64-31332 by the present applicant.
As for applications of the surface conduction type electron emitting device, for example, image forming apparatuses such as an image display apparatus, an image recording apparatus, and the like, a charged beam source, and the like have been studied.
In particular, as an application to the image display apparatus, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,883 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2-257551 and No. 4-28137 by the present applicant, an image display apparatus which uses a combination of the surface conduction type electron-emitting device and a phosphor that emits light upon irradiation of an electron beam has been studied. The image display apparatus which uses a combination of the surface conduction type emission element and the phosphor is expected to have higher characteristics than conventional image display apparatuses. For example, the image display apparatus of this type is superior to liquid crystal display apparatuses that have become popular in recent years, since it is of emissive type and requires no backlight, and has a wide field angle.
The method of driving an array of a large number of FE type elements is disclosed in, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. No. 4,904,895 by the present applicant. As an example of an application of the FE type element to an image display apparatus, a flat-panel type display apparatus reported by R. Meyer et at. is known R. Meyer, "Recent Development on Microtips Display at LETI", Tech. Digest of 4th Int. Vacuum Microelectronics Conf., Nagahama, pp. 6-9 (1991)!.
Also, an example of application of an array of a large number of MIM type elements to an image display apparatus is disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 3-55738 by the present applicant.
Of the above-mentioned image display apparatuses using the electron-emitting devices, the flat-panel type display apparatus has been receiving a lot of attention as an alternative to a CRT type display apparatus since it can attain a small-space, lightweight structure.
An image display apparatus with the above-mentioned electron-emitting device will be described below. FIG. 49 is an exploded view showing the arrangement of an image display apparatus. FIGS. 50A and 50B are respectively a perspective view and a side view showing the assembled state of the image display apparatus shown in FIG. 49.
Referring to FIG. 49, the image display apparatus is constituted by a glass-face plate 271 having red, blue, and green light-emitting members 271c for displaying an image, which are formed on a surface opposing an electron-emitting device 273c, a glass-rear plate 273 formed with the electron-emitting device 273c, and an outer frame 272 which is manufactured by, e.g., boring glass to constitute a vacuum chamber to be sandwiched between the glass-face plate 271 and the glass-rear plate 273. In order to prevent the vacuum chamber from being destroyed by atmospheric pressure acting on the vacuum chamber, a spacer 74 shown in FIG. 50B is arranged, as needed.
Alignment marks 271a and 271b used for adjusting the positional relationship between the light-emitting members 271c and the electron-emitting device 273c are formed on the glass-face plate 271, and alignment marks 273a and 273b are similarly formed on the glass-rear plate 273. Note that these alignment marks are formed at positions where they do not interfere with the light-emitting members 271c and the electron-emitting device 273c.
Fusion-bonding surfaces 272a and 272b of the outer frame 272, which respectively contact the glass-face plate 271 and the glass-rear plate 272, are coated with low-melting point glass in advance, and are pre-baked. The glass-face plate 271, the outer frame 272, and the glass-rear plate 273 are manufactured using soda-lime glass consisting of the same material having the same coeffcient of thermal expansion.
In this arrangement, as shown in FIGS. 50A and 50B, the glass-face plate 271 and the glass-rear plate 273 are respectively fusion-bonded to the outer frame 272 by the low-melting point glass applied to the two surfaces of the outer frame 272, thus forming a closed chamber. At this time, the plates 271 and 273 are arranged, so that the alignment mark 271a of the glass-face plate 271 and the alignment mark 273a of the glass-rear plate 273, and the alignment mark 271b of the glass-face plate 271 and the alignment mark 273b of the glass-rear plate 273 respectively have predetermined positional relationships therebetween, thereby accurately determining the positional relationship between the light-emitting members 271c and the electron-emitting device 273c. Such alignment process can prevent color misregistration and luminance variations of characters, images, and the like. Note that the low-melting point glass is in the solid state at normal temperature (room temperature), and is in the molten state at a temperature of 400.degree. C. or higher. Therefore, in order to fusion-bond the glass plates using the low-melting point glass, the temperature cycle including the heating and cooling processes is required.
As a conventional manufacturing method of an image display apparatus assembled by aligning the positions of a plurality of plates, a method proposed by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 59-94343, a method proposed by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 58-214245, or the like is known. These references disclose, e.g., a method of aligning the positions of a plurality of plates that constitute a flat-panel type image display apparatus using holes and alignment pins formed on the plates. However, in the method of performing position alignment using the alignment pins, the alignment accuracy may deteriorate depending on the accuracy of the holes and alignment pins formed on the plates.
On the other hand, a method of aligning the positions of a rear plate formed with an electron-emitting device and a face plate serving as a display surface by matching alignment marks formed outside the image display effective area while observing these marks using, e.g., a microscope is known. However, in the method of performing position alignment using alignment marks, when the positions of the plates are aligned to each other using, e.g., a microscope at room temperature, and thereafter, the plates are heated up to 400.degree. to 450.degree. C. to seal-bond (adhere) these plates using low-melting point frit glass, the plates may be displaced from each other due to their thermal expansion.
On the other hand, since the support points for the plates of upper and lower heating plates for heating the face plate and the rear plate do not always match each other, a shearing force acts among the face plate, outer frame, and rear plate due to shrinkage of the upper and lower heating plates in the cooling process after the rear plate is fixed to the face plate, resulting in peeling at the bonded portion. Similarly, in the process of fixing a spacer to the face plate or rear plate as well, a shearing force acts between the plate and spacer during cooling, and peeling at the bonded portion or destruction of the spacer due to low mechanical strength of the spacer may occur.

Method of manufacturing image display apparatus using bonding agents


A method of designing or evaluating the design of a bake oven for curing paint on an article to achieve the cure criteria for predetermined areas of the article, including creating a three-dimensional model of the article and the bake oven, dividing the three-dimensional model into discreet elements, using a computer to set each discreet element to initial conditions and at an initial time, repeating this step to achieve substantial convergence, comparing the cure criteria with the calculated temperature as a function of time and finally modifying the computational model of the bake oven to achieve the cure criteria based upon a computer simulation.

As will be understood by those skilled in the art of painting vehicle bodies, for example, it is critical to properly cure the paint following application. The paint on large articles, such as vehicle bodies, is cured in a paint oven which typically includes several zones or stages, including multiple preheat zones, hold or bake zones and multiple cooler zones. Each of the zones typically includes upper and lower air nozzles which blow heated or cooling air on the painted bodies. The vehicle body is conveyed through the oven on a central conveyor. If the paint is not fully cured, this may compromise the paint quality, cause the paint to fall off the article and result in color issues. If the paint is over cured, the paint may become brittle or discolored. In a typical automotive application, the paint supplier provides a "cure window," which includes time and temperature. For example, an e-coat cure window may be fifteen minutes at 330° F. or higher with a maximum of 400° F. A typical paint oven may have a length of 200 to 1,000 feet and include two or more preheat zones, three or more hold zones and three or more cooling zones. As used herein, the term "paint" includes any coating, adhesive, glue or sealant which requires curing by heating. When curing paint on large objects, such as vehicle bodies, it is important to take into account the thickness of the substrate. As understood by those skilled in this art, relatively thin metal panels, such as the vehicle roof, side panels and fenders heat quickly, whereas heavier areas, such as the pillars and portions of the undercarriage heat far more slowly. Further, each vehicle body design will have different areas of concern or interest and thus it would be desirable to design a bake oven tailored to the design of the vehicle body or other article for curing paint on the article to achieve the desired cure criteria for predetermined areas of the article. The method of designing a bake oven of this invention achieves this object.
At present, a vehicle paint bake oven is designed primarily by trial and error. That is, a vehicle body is conveyed through a mock up of a paint oven and temperature sensors or probes measure the temperature of several areas of the vehicle body. Simulations of vehicle bodies and paint ovens have also been tried without success. The method of this invention simplifies the simulation and achieves the desired paint cure.

Method of designing or evaluating a bake oven


A paper feeder is removably attachable to an image forming apparatus and has a display unit. The number of copies displayed on the display unit is incremented when copy paper reaches a specified position in the path of transport. The paper feeder includes a paper feed for transporting the copy paper to the apparatus, a reference distance memory for storing therein a reference distance from a predetermined feed position of the paper feed to the specified position in the apparatus, a device for measuring the length of the copy paper transported from the predetermined feed position, a counter for checking whether the length measured by the measuring device has reached the reference distance and for incrementing the number of paper sheets fed to the apparatus upon the length of transported paper reaching the reference distance, and a display for indicating the number of paper sheets counted by the counter.

The present invention relates to a paper feeder for feeding copy paper to an image forming apparatus wherein the number of copies on display is incremented upon the transport of a sheet of copy paper to a specified position in a path of transport, the paper feeder being adapted to count the sheets with a counter and display the resulting count at the same time as the sheet of copy paper reaches the specified position.
Paper feeders are already known for feeding copy paper to copying machines, printers or like image forming apparatus as an option for use with the apparatus.
Some such paper feeders are not provided with an interface in view of their universal use and are therefore controlled independently of the image forming apparatus for setting or displaying the number of copies.
However, when the paper feeder and the image forming apparatus are individually set to the number of copies to be made for a continual copying operation, the feeder and the apparatus are adapted to increment the number of copies or sheets of copy paper on display, not at the same time, but at different times, so that there is a period during which the feeder and the apparatus display a different number of copies or sheets. It is therefore difficult for the operator to accurately recognize the number of copies produced currently.

Paper feeder driveable independently of an image forming apparatus


A method and non-transitory computer readable medium for provisioning services for machine to machine communication devices in a communications network. For example, the method receives a request from a third party service provider to provision a service to a user of the third party service provider, determines whether a communication network service provider of the communications network and the third party service provider have a pre-existing agreement to provision the service, and provisions the service of the third party service provider to the user via the communications network in accordance with the pre-existing agreement, wherein the user is a subscriber of the communication network service provider.

Machine to machine (M2M) communication provides huge growth opportunities for communication network service providers, e.g., both cellular network operators and mobile service providers. At the same time, it also presents some challenges to the mobile network. Most of the M2M devices are low powered, low bandwidth devices which are grouped under one subscription. Group subscription management manually via the communication network provider is often the default option.
Managing these devices automatically and individually would be desirable if not required in many cases. However, with the increasing number of M2M services this can cause a burdensome amount of processing requirements on the communication network provider. For example, every M2M communication between an end user and a third party service provider must be managed by the communication network provider. This processing can be overwhelming for the communication network and the communication network service provider.

Method and apparatus for dynamic service provisioning for machine to machine (M2M) devices in a communications network


A piston is slidably arranged in an ink chamber designed to communicate with a recording head through an ink passage. The pressure inside the ink chamber is kept to a predetermined negative pressure at all times by taking advantage of the tare of the piston. As a result of this construction, leakage of the ink from a recording head can be prevented independently of the ink tank mounting position or temperature fluctuations.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an ink tank to be used for printers of the type that makes a recording using liquid ink such as ink-jet printers.
2. Related Art
In an ink tank of a type that is mounted on a carriage so as to communicate with a recording head, various measures have been given to check leakage of ink brought about by ink tank mounting position and the expansion of gases in the ink.
An ink tank proposed by the present applicant in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho. 56-67269 is given such a measure. A negative pressure produced within the tank is balanced with the surface tension of the ink at the tip of a nozzle at all times by deforming the ink tank so as to expand from within by a spring arranged inside the ink tank. Since the ink tank of this type requires that the tank itself be deformed to expand, not only there is a restriction on how the ink tank is mounted on the carriage, but also there is room for improvement with respect to the problem that the ink might leak from the nozzle due to contact with other objects at any moment.


Unwanted electromagnetic waves are eliminated in a frequency output circuit comprising an open-collector output terminal whereby radio noise can be reduced. A frequency output circuit 10 comprises an open-collector transistor Q4 with an open-collector output terminal connected to a pull-up resistor Rf connected to an external power supply Vex. A current limiting circuit 16 limits a current through the output terminal such that a high potential and a low potential of the output waveform of a frequency signal outputted by an output circuit 12 are smoothly switched. The current limiting circuit 16 is formed by a differential pair circuit of transistors Q1 and Q2 each with a resistor provided in the emitter thereof, and a current mirror circuit comprising an open-collector transistor, for example.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a frequency output circuit for outputting a frequency signal, and, in particular, to a frequency output circuit comprising an open-collector output terminal.
2. Background Art
In order to reduce the emission of unwanted electromagnetic radiation from a frequency output circuit, the circuit should ideally output a sine wave. JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-211047 A discloses that, in the case of a rectangular wave oscillator that is not of the open-collector output configuration, a rectangular wave is shaped to be closer to a sine wave using an inductor and a capacitor such that the unwanted electromagnetic radiation can be eliminated.
In frequency output circuits with an open-collector output terminal, the transistor on the output end is turned on or off and the signal voltage is received from an external power supply, such that the waveform that is outputted is basically a rectangular wave. When the output voltage occurs in the form of a rectangular wave, the current also flows through a rectangular wave. As a result, a high-frequency electromagnetic wave is emitted, which can have an influence on radios in terms of noise.
Therefore, in some known examples of the frequency output circuit with an open-collector output terminal, a current mirror circuit is provided whereby the current that flows through the open collector is limited.
Patent Document 1: JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-211047 A


A generic device controller unit system (10) includes a generic “true real time” peripheral device controller and a data and protocol communications interface that uses a common set of instructions from a meta-message set. The system (10) is generic, in that the system (10) is capable of connecting a processor (40) to any number of various peripheral devices (50), instead of being designed to interconnect a processor (40) only to a specific peripheral device (50). The system (10) interfaces between a standard non-true real time operating system and peripheral devices (50) in such a manner as to employ true real time peripheral device control using the meta-message set. The device controller of the system (10) allows a standard non-true real time operating system to send instructions from the meta-message set to implement true real time control of peripheral devices (50). The system (10) interfaces between a processor (40) and peripheral devices (50) such that the data and protocol communications interface of the system (10) allows the processor (40) to utilize a single protocol, associated data and set of instructions in order to communicate with peripheral devices (50) which are utilizing different protocols and associated data.

For some time now, there has been a growing need to be able to inexpensively and easily connect a number of arbitrary devices to a computer running a standard operating system such as Microsoft Windows. However, connecting devices to a computer running such a complicated operating system presents at least two vexing problems to the system designer.
The first problem involves the matter of physical interconnection, that is, some type of custom device is to be plugged into the computer. General-purpose "IBM-compatible" computers have become more and more powerful and less and less expensive with every passing month, but that market is driven by a handful of more or less universal needs, such as a printer, a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, a modem, and a hard disk. The modem hardware platform is optimized for accommodating these elements.
Meanwhile, the addition of custom equipment generally has meant either building an expansion board designed to specifically interface to that equipment, or buying a general-purpose board that could be adapted to that purpose. The least expensive of these options is to add an expansion board by building or buying an industry-standard architecture (ISA) board. However, as time goes on, modem central processing unit (CPU) boards are being built with fewer and fewer ISA slots. Many central processing unit boards these days have only one ISA slot. This forces designers to have to develop much more complicated and expensive Peripheral Component Interface (PCI) boards. A PCI bus provides a high-bandwidth data channel between system board components, such as the CPU, and devices, such as hard disks and video adapters. Another problem experienced today is that most central processing unit boards have a limited number of corn ports. This creates a limitation in the number of devices that can be utilized.
The second problem facing the system designer that wants to incorporate custom hardware into a Windows environment is the issue of software development. Operating systems, by definition, are in charge of resource management. To that end, operating systems regard any and all hardware attached to the system as belonging to the operating system. As a result, user access to that hardware is supposed to be mediated by the operating system.
Windows NT, for example, being a secure operating system environment, rigorously enforces that rule. Accordingly, the result of user access to hardware being mediated by the NT operating system is that any effort by an application to access hardware directly is intercepted and disabled by the operating system. Hence, access to hardware can only be achieved through device drivers, which are assumed to be trustworthy because they are loaded into the operating system at boot time.
Moreover, device driver programming is one of the most difficult software development paradigms in existence. Programming mistakes tend to make the computer crash, often without any indication of what went wrong. Debugging tools are primitive and difficult to use, and are limited in the information they convey. Each compile load-test cycle requires that the target machine be shut down and rebooted, which can take several minutes. Thus, the debugging process is often slow and discouraging work. In addition, many designers avoid performing Windows driver development. As a result, it is desirable to remove the need for developers to have to perform such work.
Another major problem experienced when connecting a number of arbitrary devices to a computer running a standard operating system, again, such as Microsoft Windows, is the issue of real time device control. Essentially, true real time depends upon the application. A standard Windows environment, such as Windows 98 or Windows 2000, does not actually have true real time device control requirements for resource management by the operating system. The operating system simply performs the ordered functions as soon as it is able, which is usually in a sub-200 millisecond time frame. This time frame is small enough that most people equate this response time to be "real time," but in actuality it is not "true real time."
However, many peripheral devices actually have true real time device control requirements that are more precise than the above-stated time interval. For example, loaves of bread may be traveling down a conveyer belt at a given number of miles per hour. These loaves of bread have to be sprayed by a butter sprayer at precise time intervals as the loaves of bread pass the sprayer. If these true real time device control requirements are not maintained, the butter sprayer will miss the loaves of bread as they pass by the sprayer. Unfortunately, previous attempts to make the standard Windows operating systems function with true real time device control (such as with layered real time systems or real time kernels), have proved to be undesirably expensive, complicated, and inflexible, requiring more corn ports to be added. Further, these ports are slow (typically 9600 baud) and do not address the need to mix high-speed data (video) and low speed data (mouse clicks) communications.
Accordingly, those skilled in the art have recognized the need for a device controller that has overcome the previous difficulties associated with physical interconnections between hardware, software, and operating systems; software development issues; and true real time device control. The system and method of the present invention is designed to eliminate the problems of hardware interconnection, software interfacing, and true real time device control. The present invention clearly fulfills these and other needs.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Meta-message set with real-time and database aspects


The present invention provides lentiviral vectors that are useful in human gene therapy for inherited or acquired proliferative ocular disease. It furnishes methods to exploit the ability of lentiviral vectors to transduce both mitotically active and inactive cells so that eye diseases may be treated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the fields of gene delivery vectors and gene therapy. More specifically, the present invention relates to lentiviral vectors useful in human gene therapy for inherited and proliferative ocular disease.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the most common causes of human blindness is abnormal, intraocular cellular proliferation that often results in a loss of clarity of the visual axis or in a separation of the retina from the retinal pigment epithelium due to tractional forces applied directly to the retinal surface. Proliferative retinal detachment, whether it is related to proliferative diabetic disease, retinopathy of prematurity, proliferative vitreoretinopathy, or neovascular age-related muscular degeneration, ultimately will result in permanent loss of vision if left untreated.
The abnormal proliferation of new blood vessels within the eye, ocular neovascularization, is the most common cause of permanent blindness in developed countries. Three diseases are associated with the vast majority of all cases of intraocular neovascularization, namely diabetes, retinopathy of prematurity and age-related muscular degeneration. While these three clinical entities are distinct and affect different groups of patients, they share a final common pathway that involves uncontrolled division of endothelial cells leading to formation of new blood vessels that ultimately compromise retinal function. Ocular proliferative diseases affect 7% of the U.S. population and leads to annually 25,000 new cases of blindness in the United States. For people over 65 years old in the United States, 30% are affected by the diseases.
Proliferation of vascular endothelial cells within the retina initiates the process of proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). If untreated, these endothelial cells continue to divide and eventually form fibrovascular membranes that extend along the inner surface of the retina or into the vitreous cavity. Contraction of the posterior vitreous surface results in traction at the sites of vitreo-fibrovascular adhesions and ultimately detaches the retina. Approximately 50% of Type 1 diabetics will develop PDR within 20 years of the diagnosis of diabetes, whereas 10% of patients with Type 2 disease will evidence PDR within a similar timeframe.
Blood vessels usually develop by one of two processes: vasculogenesis or angiogenesis. During vasculogenesis, a primitive network of capillaries is established during embryogenesis by the maturation of multipotential mesenchymal progenitors. In contrast, angiogenesis refers to a remodeling process involving pre-existing vessels. In angiogenesis new vascular buds emanate from older, established vessels and invade the surrounding tissue. In the retina, once the normal vascular network is established, the remodeling of this network is largely under the influence of tissue oxygen concentration. Hypoxia (oxygen paucity) stimulates angiogenesis. It is this process which results in blindness in millions of diabetics, premature infants or the aged in our society.
Current treatments for intraocular neovascular diseases are invasive and destructive. The treatments frequently require intraocular surgery that is associated with the death of some tissues. Thus there is a need for new approaches to treat these diseases, and it is of interest to determine whether genes that modulate angiogenesis can be introduced into the eye to control the proliferative diseases. Currently it is difficult to perform gene transduction in mammalian cells with great degree of effectiveness. Results seen with traditional vectors such as adenoviral vectors, liposomes and dendrimer-based reagents are quite transient. It is also problematic to introduce these vectors into the eye without induction of a strong inflammatory response.
In order to mediate gene transfer to cells and tissues of the eye, the ideal gene delivery vector should have broad tropism and be able to transduce quiescent cells. The vector also needs to maintain sustained and robust transgene expression for the treatment of chronic diseases. Presently, there is a lack of means of transducing terminally differentiated or proliferating human cells within or derived from the eye. The present invention fulfills this long-standing need and desire in the art.

Lentiviral vector-mediated gene transfer and uses thereof


Compounds which are active against viruses have the following Formulas:

Viruses are the etiologic cause of many life-threatening human diseases. Of special importance are herpes viruses such as herpes simplex 1 (HSV-1), herpes simplex 2 (HSV-2), cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), varicella zoster virus (VZV) and human herpes viruses 6, 7 and 8 (HHV-6, -7 and -8) which are associated with many common viral illnesses. The HSV-1 and HSV-2 infections are characterized by cold sores of skin, mouth or genital region. After primary infection, the virus is harbored in neural cells and can reappear later in the life of a patient. Human CMV (HCMV) infection is a life-long affliction which can result in morbidity and mortality. These pathologies include microcephaly, hepatosplenomegaly, jaundice, encephalitis, infections of the newborn infants or fetuses in utero, and infections of immuno-compromised hosts. HCMV infection is responsible for retinitis, gastritis and pneumonitis in AIDS patients and HCMV-induced pneumonias or hepatitis are frequent and serious complications of organ or bone marrow transplants. EBV causes infectious mononucleosis and it is considered as the etiologic agent of nasopharyngeal cancer, immunoblastic lymphoma, Burkitt's lymphoma and hairy leukoplakia. VZV causes chicken pox and shingles. Although in children the chicken pox is usually a non-fatal disease, the recurrent form of this infection, shingles, may in advanced stage lead to paralysis, convulsions and ultimately death. Again, in immunocompromised patients the infection with VZV is a serious complication. Human herpes virus 6 (HHV-6) which is commonly associated with children's rash was also identified in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients and it may be a cofactor in the pathogenesis of AIDS in hosts infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Levine, A. J. Viruses, Ch. 4, W. H. Freeman & Co., New York, pp. 67-85 (1992); Human Herpesvirus Infections, Raven Press, New York (1986); Schirmer, E. C., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88:5922-5926 (1992). Human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8) was identified in patients with Kaposi sarcoma, a fatal affliction accompanying AIDS. Chang, Y., et al., Science 266:1865-1869 (1994).
HIV is the underlying cause of AIDS, a world-wide epidemic with fatal consequences. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, 40 million people are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2001. During that same year, AIDS caused the deaths of an estimated 3 million people.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a virus that causes chronic disease responsible for serious liver damage, including cirrhosis of the liver, cancer, organ failure and ultimately, death. It is estimated that approximately 300 million people worldwide are infected with HBV. According to the CDC, there are approximately 1.25 million Americans chronically infected with HBV. Although use of a prophylactic vaccine has reduced the incidence of new HBV infections, there continues to be a need for an effective therapeutic drug.
Various derivatives of nucleoside analogues have been found to exhibit antiviral activity. Notably, acyclovir (Zovirax) and its prodrug valacyclovir (Valtrex) are approved drugs for infections caused by HSV-1 and HSV-2. Acyclovir Therapy for Herpesvirus Infections (Baker, Ed.), M. Dekker, New York (1990); Against HCMV, four drugs are currently available: Ganciclovir (Cytovene), cidofovir (Vistide), antisense oligonucleotide fomivirsen (Vitravene) and foscarnet (Foscavir). However, only ganciclovir is effective orally but it requires large doses and produces potentially serious adverse effects such as bone marrow suppression. Ganciclovir Therapy for Cytomegalovirus Infection (Spector, S. S., Ed.), M. Dekker, New York (1991). A considerable effort went into design, synthesis and biological investigation of analogues of these drugs as well as in development of new antiviral agents. Larsson, A., et al., Antimicrob. Agents & Chemother. 30:598-605 (1986); Ashton, W. T., et al., J. Med. Chem. 31:2304-2315 (1988). Cidofovir and fomivirsen are approved only for topical application against retinitis in AIDS patients and foscarnet is used only by intravenous route and it leads to characteristic toxicity.
Current drugs for AIDS include AZT (zidovudine, Retrovir), ddI (didanosine, Videx), ddC (zalcitabine, Hivid) and d4T (stavudine, Zerit). De Clercq, E., J. Med. Chem. 38:2491-2517 (1995). Allenic nucleoside analogues such as adenallene and cytallene are examples of anti-HIV agents containing an unsaturated alkyl group. U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,427; Zemlicka, J., Allenols Derived from Nucleic Acid Bases—a New Class of Anti-HIV Agents: Chemistry and Biological Activity in Nucleosides and Nucleotides as Antitumor and Antiviral Agents (Chu, C. K.; Baker, D. C., Eds.), Plenum Press, New York, pp. 73-100 (1993). For HBV, alpha interferon and 3TC (lamivudine; Epivir) are two drugs licensed for the treatment of persons with chronic HBV infection. Unfortunately, only about 40% of patients respond to these drugs and resistance is a growing problem.
Particular 2-hydroxymethylcyclopropylidenemethylpurines and their utility against certain viruses have been described elsewhere (see, for example, co-owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,991; Qiu, Y. L., et al., J. Med. Chem. 41:10-23 (1998); Antiviral Chem. Chemother. 9:341-352 (1998)). However, there continues to be a need for novel compounds which are active against pathogenic viruses, including HCMV, HSV-1, HSV-2, HHV-6, HIV, and hepatitis B virus (HBV).

2-amino-9-[(2-hydroxymethyl) cyclopropylidenemethyl] purines as antiviral agents

Abstract: wherein B is 2-aminopurine-9-yl, which may be unsubstituted or substituted in the 6 position with NHR1, OR2, or SR3;    R1 is selected from the group consisting of alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, and C4-18 cycloalkyl, any of which may be optionally substituted with one or more members of the group consisting of hydroxy, halo, amino, acyl, cycloalkyl, heterocyclyl and aryl;    R2 is selected from the group consisting of C2-18 alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, and cycloalkyl, any of which may be branched or unbranched and optionally substituted with one or more members of the group consisting of hydroxy, halo, amino, acyl, cycloalkyl, heterocyclyl, and aryl; and    R3 is selected from the group consisting of alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, and cycloalkyl, any of which may be branched or unbranched and optionally substituted with one or more members of the group consisting of hydroxy, halo, amino, acyl, cycloalkyl, heterocyclyl and aryl.

THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN


Protected and unprotected di- or oligopeptides are synthesized by reacting an N-terminally protected .alpha.-amino acid alkyl ester or peptide alkyl ester of the formula X--E--R.sup.1 with an amino acid or a di- or oligopeptide or a derivative thereof of the formula H.sub.2 N--Q--R.sup.2 in aqueous solution in the presence of a hydrolase, and, removing protective groups from the reaction product separated from the reaction mixture, where E is the residue of an .alpha.-amino acid or of a di- or oligopeptide, R.sup.1 is lower alkyl and X is a group which carries a charge or is polar at the pH values used for the reaction and which increases the solubility by a factor >5 compared with compounds wherein X=H, Q is the residue of an amino acid or of a di- or oligopeptide, and R.sup.2 is an optionally esterified or amidated acid group. In a preferred embodiment, the peptide or (.alpha.-)amino acid ester concentration is greater than 50 mM, wherein in a particularly preferred embodiment, the concentration ranges from 100 to 1000 mM with approximately comparable nucleophile and electrophile concentrations. The preferred substrate/enzyme ratios are >10.sup.5 M/M or >10.sup.3 M/M when papain is employed. Phthalyl, maleyl or citraconyl radicals and their derivatives or N-betainyl compounds are envisaged for use radicals (X) in the electrophilic component.

The present invention relates to a process for the enzymatic preparation of protected di- or oligopeptides in highly concentrated, aqueous solutions.
Synthetic short-chain peptides are increasingly being used in pharmacology and parenteral nutrition. Exemplary of such pharmacologically active dipeptides is kyotorphin (L-Tyr-L-Arg) which promotes the release of enkephalins. Enkephalins are endogenous substances which exhibit an analgesic and sedative effect in the brain (Hughes, 1975).
The chemical and optical purity of peptides intended for such a use are very critical. Accordingly, it is increasingly common to employ regio- and stereospecific enzymatic peptide syntheses to produce such peptides. Such syntheses usually entail reacting, under kinetic control, N-protected amino acid alkyl esters in the presence of a hydrolase with an amino acid derivative or a di- or oligopeptide derivative with a free amino group. When such reactions are carried out in the presence of water, the alkyl esters will also undergo hydrolysis as this reaction is thermodynamically favored.
A disadvantage associated with this process is that the enzymes employed in these syntheses are only active and stable in the presence of water, while the substrates are generally only slightly soluble in water. Adding organic solvents in order to increase the solubility of the substrates usually at least partially inactivates an enzyme and causes a decrease in its stability. As a result, prior to the instant invention, the maximum substrate concentration employed has usually been only 100 mM. In addition, prior to the instant invention, nucleophilic components have been employed in large excesses (2 to 20-fold) in order to increase the selectivity of the reaction and thereby improve the yield. In chemical syntheses of short-chain peptides in liquid phase, the substrate and nucleophile are normally employed in high and in virtually stoichiometric concentrations. Employing the substrate and nucleophile in such concentrations has not hitherto been possible for the regio- and stereospecific enzymatic peptide syntheses of the present invention.

Process for the enzymatic preparation of protected and unprotected di- and oligopeptides in aqueous solutions


A display device includes a cover plate, a display screen and a photoreceptor, the cover plate is disposed on the display screen, and the cover plate is provided with a light shielding layer. The light shielding layer is provided with a light transmitting area, and the photoreceptor is disposed corresponding to the light transmitting area. The display device of the present application can improve the photographic properties and the accuracy of the photoreceptor, and make it easier to assemble, and reduce assembly steps.

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and Organic Light-Emitting Display (OLED) have been widely used in a desktop computer, a notebook computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile phone, a television and other fields because of their characteristics such as low radioactivity, light volume, low weight, low power consumption and the like.
As for the liquid crystal display, the liquid crystal display mainly includes a liquid crystal display panel and a backlight module. The backlight module provides a backlight for the liquid crystal display panel, and a light emitted by the backlight is uniformly emitted into the liquid crystal display panel by the backlight module through an optical film in order to make the liquid crystal display panel display an image. In order to save electric energy, it is necessary to dispose a photoreceptor in the liquid crystal display to sense the external environment light, which can achieve to adjust the display brightness of the liquid crystal display panel according to the intensity of the external environment light.
The prior photoreceptor is disposed on a back of the liquid crystal display panel. That is, an opening is disposed in a foam layer on the back of the liquid crystal display panel, a flexible circuit board is bent to the opening, the flexible circuit board is fixed on the foam layer by utilizing a double-sided tape, and the photoreceptor is located in the opening. Therefore, the external environment light can be sensed by the photoreceptor after passing through a cover plate, OCA, POL, and the liquid crystal display panel, and thereby the display brightness of the liquid crystal display panel is adjusted. However, due to the limitations of various components, parts, middle frames, mainboards and the like on the back of the liquid crystal display panel, an arrangement space of the photoreceptor is insufficient, thus a bonding area of the flexible circuit board is small, and the flexible circuit board is easily detached, which causes the reliability of the photoreceptor to be reduced. Furthermore, the external environment light needs to pass through multi-layer parts to be sensed by the photoreceptor, which affects the photosensitive effect of the photoreceptor. In addition, there are many parts and many assembly processes of the prior liquid crystal display, which increases the assembly difficulty.
As for the organic light-emitting display, the organic light-emitting display mainly includes an array substrate, and an anode, a hole injection layer, a hole transport layer, an organic light-emitting layer, an electron transport layer, an electron injection layer and a cathode, which are disposed on the array substrate. When electrons and holes recombine at the organic light-emitting layer, the organic light-emitting display performs image display. In order to save electric energy, it is necessary to dispose a photoreceptor in the organic light-emitting display to sense the external environment light, which can achieve to adjust the display brightness of the organic light-emitting display according to the intensity of the external environment light.
The prior photoreceptor is disposed on a back of the organic light-emitting display, and the external environment light can be sensed by the photoreceptor after passing through a cover plate, the anode, the hole injection layer, the hole transport layer, the organic light-emitting layer, the electron transport layer, the electron injection layer, the cathode and the array substrate, and thereby the display brightness of the organic light-emitting display is adjusted.
However, due to the limitations by various components, parts, middle frames, mainboards and the like on the back of the organic light-emitting display, an arrangement space of the photoreceptor is insufficient, thus a bonding area of a flexible circuit board connected to the photoreceptor is small, and the flexible circuit board is easily detached, which causes the reliability of the photoreceptor to be reduced. Furthermore, the external environment light needs to pass through multi-layer parts to be sensed by the photoreceptor, which affects the photosensitive effect of the photoreceptor. In addition, there are many parts and many assembly processes of the prior organic light-emitting display, which increases the assembly difficulty.

KunShan Go-Visionox Opto-Electronics Co., Ltd.