A vacuum insulation panel, comprising a thermally insulating plate with an planar topside and underside and a narrow side in an enclosure comprising a metal-containing film (foil), with a subatmospheric pressure prevailing in the enclosure and the enclosure surrounding the thermally insulating plate in a vacuum-tight manner. The enclosure has, on the narrow side, a weld seam with a projecting section of the foil. The narrow sides of the plate are beveled and the vacuum insulation panel is in the form of a parallelepiped. The weld seam with the projecting section of foil is arranged in such a manner that it allows the vacuum insulation panels to be assembled without gaps to form an insulating enclosure.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vacuum insulation panel (VIP).
2. The Prior Art
The thermal conductivity of insulating plates can be drastically reduced if there is a vacuum in the system. This is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 5,950,450 or German Patent No. DE 4339435. An inexpensive solution for producing a VIP of this type includes a microporous thermally insulating plate which is welded in a vacuum-tight manner into a composite foil. The composite foil used is either a prefabricated foil pouch, generally a sealed-edge pouch, or two foil blanks which are fed to the process. In both production variants, a central projecting section of foil remains on the VIP after evacuation as a result of the weld seams and/or plate shrinkage. This projecting section of foil causes problems when the VIPs are combined to form insulating enclosures such as transport boxes, since the thermally insulating plates cannot be fitted together without gaps and therefore heat bridges are formed, reducing the otherwise excellent insulating action.
To solve this problem, German Patent No. DE 10058566 to va-Q-tec proposes folding away the projecting section of foil using a folding technique. On a large industrial scale, this represents a complex and therefore expensive solution.
Another possible way of eliminating the disruptive influence of the projecting sections of foil consists in joining together the individual plates via plug-fit connections made from unevacuated insulating materials when an insulating enclosure is assembled. This is proposed in German Patent No. DE 100 58 565 to va-Q-tec.
Furthermore, there is a known cost-intensive process in which a vacuum-insulated plate is inserted into a thermoformed multilayer film and is closed off in a gastight manner with a planar film. As a result, the projecting section of film is always at the outer edge of the panel. Due to the use of the thermoformed films, this process is very cost-intensive and is also very inflexible with regard to the use of different geometries. Since films which contain metal layers (i.e. foils) cannot be thermoformed, thermoformed multilayer films do not include any metal layers.


During fabrication of shielded radio-frequency modules where costly metallic paint is sprayed to form a conductive layer, it is desirable to reduce the amount of paint being utilized, and to reduce the likelihood of accumulation of metal particles along various paths. A closed recirculation system can be provided to yield such desirable features, and can include a reservoir for holding a volume of metallic paint, a spray apparatus for spraying metallic paint received from the reservoir, and a recirculator for recirculating the metallic paint that is not sprayed back to the reservoir. In some embodiments, the spray apparatus can be implemented so as to have reduced dimensions, and include a mechanism for switching between a spray mode and a recirculate mode. Such a spray apparatus can reduce the amount of paint being utilized, and also reduce accumulation of metal particles in the spray apparatus.

Field
The present disclosure generally relates to systems, devices and methods related to paint delivery and recirculation during manufacture of radio-frequency modules.
Description of the Related Art
In some applications involving packaging of radio-frequency (RF) modules, an array of such modules can be fabricated in an array on a panel. An overmold structure can be formed on the panel to encapsulate various components of the modules. A conductive layer such as metallic paint can be formed on a surface of such an overmold structure. Such a conductive layer, in conjunction with RF shielding structures such as shielding wirebonds and a ground plane, can provide effective shielding functionality for the modules.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Systems, devices and methods related to spray-painting fluid path for manufacture of radio-frequency modules


The inventions relates to a lithography system in which an electronic image pattern is delivered to a exposure tool for projecting an image to a target surface, said exposure tool comprising a control unit for controlling exposure projections, said control unit at least partly being included in the projection space of the said exposure tool, and being provided with control data by means of light signals, said light signals being coupled in to said control unit by using a free space optical interconnect comprising modulated light beams that are emitted to a light sensitive part of said control unit, wherein the modulated light beams are coupled in to said light sensitive part using a holed mirror for on axis incidence of said light beams on said light sensitive part, the hole or, alternatively, holes of said mirror being provided for passage of said exposure projections.

The present invention relates to a lithography system for projecting an image pattern onto a target surface such as a wafer, wherein control data are coupled to a control unit for controlling exposure projections by means of light signals, using a free space interconnect. The present invention relates in particular to a system wherein such control unit is included in close proximity to or within the projection space, more in particular to a multi-beam mask-less lithography system. The current invention in principle relates all the same to charged particle and to light projection based lithography systems
Such a system is known, e.g. from the international patent publication WO2004038509 in the name of Applicant, i.e. from the particular embodiment provided by FIG. 14 thereof. The known system comprises a computer system for providing pattern data of an image to be projected by a so called beam column for projecting charged particles, in particular electrons on to a target surface such as a wafer and an inspection tool. The beam column comprises a vacuum chamber in which one or more charged particle sources are accommodated, which emit particles in a manner known per se, using amongst others an electric field for withdrawing particles from said source or sources.
The beam column further comprises charged particle optic means for converging an emitted bundle of charged particles, for splitting up the same into a multiplicity of charged particle beams, further referred to as writing beams, and forming exposure projections. A control unit for controlling the exposure projections is included in the form of charged particle optical means for shaping or directing such writing beams, here showing a blanker optical part or modulator array comprising blanking deflectors, as well as a writing deflector array for deflecting writing beams for the purpose writing of a pattern using writing beams not blanked by said blanking deflectors.
The blanker optic part, known per se, e.g. from international patent publication WO2004107050 in the name of Applicant, deflects, depending on a computer provided signal a writing beam away from a straight trajectory parallel with other writing beams, to such amount of inclination that no part of the writing beam effectively passes the opening provided for each writing beam in a stopping plate, thereby effecting an "off" state of the particular writing beam.
All optic parts in the beam column are shaped with an array of openings, the openings of the separate parts being mutually aligned so as to enable the passage of a writing beam in said column towards said target surface in a controlled manner. The known mask-less multi-beam system is further typically provided with blanking deflectors having both the source and the target surface arranged in a conjugate plane thereof, i.e. it may easily be combined with the subject matter of WO2004/0819010. In this manner the lithography system favorably realizes an optimal brightness of the source on the target surface. Also, in this manner a minimum amount of space is required for the blanker array.
The target surface for a writing beam is held on a stage included in the beam column. The stage, induced by an electronic control unit of the system, moves together with said surface perpendicularly relative to said emitted writing bundles, preferably solely in a direction transverse to a direction in which such writing bundles are finally deflected for writing purposes. Writing of a pattern by the known lithography system is thus effected by the combination of relative movement of the target surface and a timed "on" and "off" switching of a writing beam by said blanker optics upon signaling by said control unit, more in particular by a so-called pattern streamer thereof.
Signaling for on/off switching, i.e. modulating of a writing beam is in the related known system performed by using light optics. The blanker optics thereto comprises light sensitive parts such as photodiodes, for receiving light signals, which are converted into electronic signals, e.g. applying the measures as provided by the international patent publication WO2005010618 in the name of Applicant. The light signals are produced by electronic to light conversion by said control unit for the system, and are transported to the beam column by means of an optical carrier, in casu a bundle of glass fibers that finally projects from "e.g. a transparent part of the vacuum boundary". Light signals are projected to said blanker optics using a lens system, which in the known system is disclosed to be comprised of a converging lens located in between a transmitter part and the light sensitive parts of deflectors included in the blanker optic part. The arrangement of deflector, light sensitive parts and light to electric conversion is produced using both so-called MEMS- and (Bi-) CMOS-technology. So as to prevent the use of mirroring parts, in the related known system the signaling light beams are projected from a far upper side relative to the blanking optic part, so as to achieve an angle of incidence of the pattern information carrying light signals on the light sensitive elements, as small as possible. The publication in which the related embodiment is comprised, teaches however, that other locations of projection may be realized when using mirrors for correcting the larger angles of incidence occurring at most of such alternative locations.
Although general set up of the above described lithography system has proven to be satisfactory, drawbacks are noticed at the oblique illumination system disclosed, in that it suffers from non-optimal transmission of light, at least less than expected and in that it suffers from relatively large aberrations. The present invention therefore seeks to improve the known mask-less multi-beam lithography system in general, however, in particular as to the light optics system (LOS) thereof. The present invention further has for an object to improve the lithography system by either increasing the light transmission efficiency thereof and/or by reducing the chance of aberrations in the light optic part thereof.

Lithography system and projection method


A vehicle taillight indicator which provides an easy way for a driver to check the taillights of his or her vehicle on a regular basis, from within the vehicle, is composed of an elongated V shaped housing with two V shaped end covers with attached mounting brackets and the edge opposite the V angle of each end cover curved to accommodate an elongated rectangular shaped convex reflector which is viewable in the side opposite the V shaped angle of the housing. The taillight indicator is fastened vertically to an object so that its convex reflector is observed in the rear view mirror or side view mirror of a vehicle. Each operating taillight of a vehicle is reflected as a vertical red line in the convex reflector. A vehicle with two operating taillights will reflect two parallel vertical red lines in the convex reflector of the taillight indicator.

This invention relates to automobile safety generally and more particularly to a taillight indicator to observe whether the taillights of a vehicle are working There are many vehicles on the road in which the operators are unaware that at least one taillight has burned out This is a dangerous situation and is the cause of many rear end collisions There is presently no simple device for the operator of a vehicle to regularly check whether the taillights of a vehicle are working

Method of producing a vehicle tailight indicator that includes a polystyrene foam core by sheet metal bending and fastening of the polystyrene foam core


A method is provided for forming a non-volatile memory cell in which the upper surface of the floating gate is polished to reduce surface irregularities, providing for the formation of a gate dielectric having a relatively high breakdown voltage thereon. According to an embodiment, a first gate dielectric is thermally grown upon a semiconductor substrate which later serves as the tunnel dielectric in the ensuing memory cell. A floating gate polysilicon is deposited across the first gate dielectric, followed by ion implantation of dopants and nitrogen therein. The upper surface of the floating gate polysilicon is then polished using, e.g., CMP. A second gate dielectric comprising high quality oxynitride may then be thermally grown across the polished surface of the floating gate polysilicon. Alternately, a ceramic having a relatively high dielectric constant may be formed across the floating gate polysilicon to serve as the second gate dielectric. A control gate polysilicon may be formed across the second gate dielectric. After doping the control gate polysilicon, portions of the layers formed above the substrate may be removed to define sidewall surfaces of a stacked structure. Source and drain regions which are self-aligned to the sidewall surfaces of the stacked structure may then be formed within the substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to integrated circuit fabrication and, more particularly, to forming a non-volatile memory cell having a floating gate upper surface on which a chemical mechanical polish ("CMP") is applied to enhance device performance.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
There are many types of non-volatile memory known as read only memory (ROM) or programmable read only memory (PROM). Non-volatile memory can be formed in either bipolar or MOS technology. There are various types of MOS PROMs, including, e.g., erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), and flash memory EPROM (FLASH EPROM).
Non-volatile MOS PROMs can be fabricated using many well-known technologies such as: (i) floating gate tunnel oxide (FLOTOX), (ii) textured polysilicon, (iii) metal nitride oxide silicon (MNOS), and (iv) EPROM-tunnel oxide (ETOX). Program and erase of the corresponding EPROM cell differs depending upon which technology is used. For example, a floating gate tunnel oxide EPROM transistor is programmed (moving electrons into the floating gate) by biasing the control gate, while erasure (moving electrons out of the floating gate) is achieved by biasing the drain. Programming a textured poly-type EPROM device involves electrons tunneling from a first polysilicon to a second polysilicon, wherein erase involves electrons tunneling from the second polysilicon to a third polysilicon. In MNOS-type devices, the charge is stored in discrete traps in the bulk of the nitride. It is generally recognized that stacked polysilicon conductors are used to perform the program and erase function for each form of EPROM.
FIG. 1 illustrates a FLOTOX EEPROM memory cell according to conventional design. The FLOXTOX cell includes a relatively thin tunnel oxide 12 interposed between a doped polysilicon floating gate 14 and a semiconductor topography 10. Tunnel oxide 12 is typically thermally grown upon topography 10 to a thickness of less than e.g., 100 .ANG.. The FLOXTOX cell further includes an interpoly dielectric 16 arranged upon floating gate 14 and underlying a doped polysilicon control gate 18. Fabrication of the FLOXTOX cell may involve forming these layers upon each other above semiconductor substrate 10 and then etching away portions of the layers not masked by a patterned photoresist layer to form the stacked structure shown in FIG. 1. A heavily concentrated dopant distribution which is self-aligned to the opposed sidewalls of the stacked structure may then be forwarded into substrate 10 to form source and drain regions 20 and 22, respectively. A thermally grown oxide layer 24 may be thermally grown upon the periphery of the stacked structure and upon exposed regions of substrate 10. Due to thermal exposure during this process, the impurities within source and drain regions 20 and 22 undergo lateral migration toward the channel region underneath tunnel oxide 12, resulting in the configuration depicted in FIG. 1.
Control gate 18 can be coupled to a word line, and bit line conductors can be formed within contact windows of a dielectric for making contact to drain region 22 (not shown). Charging of floating gate 14 to program the cell can be achieved by grounding source and drain regions 20 and 22 and applying a relatively high voltage to control gate 18. In the programming state, electrons pass through tunnel oxide 12 to floating gate 14 by a tunneling mechanism known as Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. As more electrons accumulate in floating gate 14, the electric field is reduced such that charge becomes stored in the floating gate. Discharge of floating gate 14 to erase the cell can be achieved by grounding control gate 18, floating gate 14, and source region 20 and applying a relatively high voltage to drain region 22.
Because of the increased desire to build faster operating integrated circuits, it has become necessary to increase capacitive coupling between the floating gate and the control gate of the memory cell while simultaneously inhibiting electrons from escaping from the floating gate to the control gate. The control gate-to-floating gate capacitance is dependent upon the thickness of the interpoly oxide arranged between the two gates and the relative permittivity of the interpoly oxide. Unfortunately, the relative permittivity, or dielectric constant, K, of the interpoly oxide limits the amount of gate-to-substrate capacitance that can be achieved when a transistor is in operation. Permittivity, .epsilon., of a material reflects the ability of the material to be polarized by an electric field. The capacitance between two layers of conductive material separated by a dielectric is directly proportional to the permittivity of the dielectric. The permittivity of a material is typically described as its permittivity normalized to the permittivity of a vacuum, .epsilon..sub.0. Hence, the relative permittivity or dielectric constant of a material is defined as: EQU K=.epsilon./.epsilon..sub.0
Since oxide (i.e., silicon dioxide) has a relatively low K of approximately 3.7 to 3.8, the amount of capacitive coupling between the control gate and the floating gate is somewhat limited.
As mentioned above, the control gate-to-floating gate capacitance is also affected by the thickness of the interpoly oxide. Conventional memory cells typically include a relatively thin interpoly oxide to reduce capacitive coupling between the two gates. Consequently, the voltage (i.e., voltage applied to the control gate) required to initiate electron flow between the drain region and the floating gate is decreased. Unfortunately, the thin interpoly oxide may break down when subjected to an electric field, permitting electrons to pass through the oxide by what is known as the quantum mechanical tunneling effect. In this manner, a tunneling current may undesirably form between the floating gate and the control gate, resulting in data not being properly retained by the memory cell.
Breakdown of the interpoly oxide is particularly a problem if it is thermally grown upon a polysilicon floating gate. Because formation of the floating gate involves deposition of amorphous polysilicon, it is believed that the collimated nature of the floating gate contains an irregular grain structure having various crystal orientations. As a result, surface asperity appears at the interface between the interpoly oxide and the underlying floating gate. It is believed that the irregularity of the polysilicon grain structure prevents strong bonding between silicon atoms of the floating gate and oxygen atoms from the ambient. Since a relatively low temperature of about 800.degree. C. is used to form the interpoly oxide, oxygen atoms cannot easily migrate through localized barriers present in the irregular grain structure to bond with underlying silicon atoms. In other words, there are not enough opportune bond sites proximate the floating gate surface. Using high temperature thermal oxidation is not a viable option because problems, such as impurities moving to undesirable locations (e.g., from the floating gate to the tunnel oxide) may occur via principles of segregation and diffusion. It is postulated that the resulting interpoly oxide is not of high quality. The interface between the interpoly oxide and the floating gate may contain migration pathways through which electrons can pass. Thus, the resulting interpoly oxide formed in the above manner may have an undesirably low breakdown across the interpoly oxide.
It would therefore be desirable to develop a technique for fabricating a memory cell having reduced control gate-to-floating gate capacitance which is substantially resistant to interpoly dielectric breakdown. Fabrication of a relatively thin interpoly oxide between the floating gate and control gate must be avoided. It would be beneficial if the floating gate and interpoly dielectric could be formed such that surface asperity is reduced at the floating gate/interpoly dielectric interface. The resulting memory cell could be transformed quickly into its programming state for immediate data storage. Further, formation of a tunneling current between the floating gate and the control gate of the memory cell would be less likely. Proper data retainage would thus be possible, resulting in a more reliable memory cell.

Memory cell fabrication employing an interpoly gate dielectric arranged upon a polished floating gate


Described herein is technology for managing cloud storage. In particular, systems, devices and methods for managing cloud storage are described. In some embodiments, management of cloud storage may result in the designation of storage allocated to a first storage pool as obsolete, and the reallocation and/or reclamation of such storage to a second storage pool and/or a general cloud storage pool. Management may occur in accordance with one or more policies.

Interest is increasing in the use of cloud computing to address the computing needs of corporations and other entities. Cloud computing may be understood as the use of hardware, infrastructure, storage, services, interfaces, combinations thereof and the like to deliver computing services such as software, infrastructure, and storage to a client over a network such as an enterprise network, a private network, or a public network such as the internet. In a hybrid cloud model, a corporation or other entity ("user") may implement a private (e.g., enterprise) cloud to provide software, storage, etc. to clients, and may utilize a third party cloud such as a public (internet) cloud, a community cloud, another private cloud, or a combination thereof to provide additional computing resources. In such instances, the user may allocate workloads to the third party cloud, e.g., on demand and/or when resources on the user's private cloud become depleted/scarce. The hybrid cloud model can be particularly useful in the case of storage, e.g., where data may be stored in cloud storage provided by one or more cloud storage providers.
Although useful, the hybrid cloud model can be costly and time consuming to manage, particularly in the case of cloud storage. Cloud storage providers often charge a fee per unit of storage that is allocated to a particular user. Cloud storage users may therefore be charged for storage that is not in use, or which is being used to store data or other information that is obsolete or otherwise not of interest. Users may consequently wish to actively manage cloud storage and the data stored therein so as to mitigate cost. Cloud storage providers may also wish to reclaim unused or unnecessary cloud storage from cloud storage users, so that such storage may be reallocated for more efficient use.
Several options exist for managing (e.g., reclaiming and/or reallocating) cloud storage. Although such options are functional, effective use of them may require monitoring and manual management by cloud storage users and/or providers. Indeed to prudently manage cloud storage, it may be necessary for a cloud storage user to know when cloud storage allocated to them will expire, and/or when information contained in such storage is not being used. This can entail cumbersome and logistically difficult manual monitoring, particularly if cloud storage is allocated to a user in association with numerous virtual machines.
Cloud autoscaling is one option for automatically scaling cloud resources to meet user demand. Although useful, cloud autoscaling options generally focus on the scaling of compute resources, not storage resources. For example, a cloud provider may provide one or more virtual machines (VMs) to a user, each of which may include an associated cloud storage allowance. In such instances, cloud autoscaling may automatically delete entire VMs from the resources provided to the user, e.g., as specified by a service level agreement (SLA) between the cloud provider and the user. While the VM's themselves may be deleted. VM images and associated storage may still be allocated to the user and maintained in the cloud. The user may therefore still be charged for the storage associated with the VM, even if it is no longer needed.
While the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.


Network meta-data libraries act as repositories of evolving management information models (MIM) and management information based (MIB) models. Changes to the models may be originated using the libraries or tracked by the libraries. In addition, the libraries may be used to generate and store transformation models used by mediation units to transform changes made to network elements, such as routers, into normalized meta-data that can be understood by an operations support system.

Co-pending patent application Ser. No. 10/923,867, incorporated herein as if set forth in full herein, discusses, among other things, methods and devices for reducing the cost of updating an operations support system (OSS) by using a mediation unit. The mediation units discussed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/923,867, among other things, transform or convert (collectively referred to as "transform") so-called meta-data from one or more network elements (NEs), into one or more forms of normalized, meta-data which can be recognized by one or more OSSs (e.g., Performance OSS, Provisioning OSS, Assurance OSS, Fault OSS, Accounting OSS, Security OSS, etc., to name just a few). One of the advantages provided by the mediation units discussed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/923,867 is that only a single mediation unit is required to transform changes made by any number of NEs into normalized meta-data which may be recognized by an OSS. The use of such a mediation unit greatly reduces the cost of updating an OSS each time there is a change to any number of different NEs.
Because each NE may be made by a different vendor, each NE's meta-data may be based on a different management information model (MIM) or management information based (MIB) model. To carry out transformations, the mediation unit must, therefore, generate, receive or have access to, a number of different models. The mediation unit must have access to transformation models which are used to transform vendor-specific meta-data or related definitions associated with a particular NE and network management system models (synonymously referred herein as normalized models) associated with a particular OSS, such as those OSSs disclosed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/923,798, incorporated herein as if set forth in full herein.
Though it may generate these models itself, it is more desirable to have the mediation unit receive these models from another component (e.g., program, device, etc.).
Another challenge presented by the use of mediation units disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 10/923,798 and 10/923,867 is tracking changes made to models as new versions of these models are implemented. It is also desirable to analyze the differences between one version of a model and a subsequent or preceding version in order to identify similarities, inconsistencies or areas which require fixes to be made by software engineers or the like (collectively referred to herein as "version control").
Besides version control (sometimes referred to as "life cycle management"), it is also desirable to generate new or modified network element models in a cost-effective manner.
It is desirable, therefore, to provide devices and related methods that can carry out version control and be used to develop new network element models in a cost-effective manner.

Network meta-data libraries and related methods


Provided is a semiconductor optical device having a current-confined structure. The device includes a first semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type which is formed on a semiconductor substrate and includes one or more material layers, a second semiconductor layer which is formed on the first semiconductor layer and includes one or more material layers, and a third semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type which is formed on the second semiconductor layer and includes one or more material layers. One or more layers among the first semiconductor layer, the second semiconductor, and the third semiconductor layer have a mesa structure. A lateral portion of at least one of the material layers constituting the first semiconductor layer, the second semiconductor layer, and the third semiconductor layer is recessed, and the recess is partially or wholly filled with an oxide layer, a nitride layer or a combination of them. The semiconductor optical device having the current-confined region is mechanically reliable, highly thermally conductive, and commercially preferable and can be used in a wavelength range for optical communications.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor optical devices, and more particularly, to a semiconductor optical device having a current-confined structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, semiconductor optical devices are applicable in various fields owing to their long lifetime and high optical conversion efficiency. In particular, the semiconductor optical devices have attracted considerable attention as active devices such as light sources, for communications with a wavelength range of 1.2 to 1.7 μm, and detectors. In such a semiconductor optical device, a gain region is formed between semiconductor layers of opposite types, i.e., a p-type semiconductor layer and an n-type semiconductor layer, which are typically grown over InP or GaAs substrates, and a current-confined structure is formed in at least one of the semiconductor layers. Then, electrodes are formed on the upper and lower semiconductor layers so as to operate the optical device. The current-confined structure performs a very important function for the operation of the optical device.
The current-confined structure of the semiconductor optical device can be formed by various conventional methods. For example, a method of laterally oxidizing an Al(Ga)As semiconductor layer using wet oxidization, a method of laterally oxidizing an InAlAs layer or an AlAsSb layer using wet oxidization, a method of forming an undercut current-confined region by etching a semiconductor layer, a method of performing an ion implantation process and an annealing process, and a method of etching an adjacent portion of a tunnel junction and performing a re-growth process have been employed.
However, the foregoing methods of forming a current-confined structure of a semiconductor optical device have the following problems.
Firstly, a semiconductor optical device having a current-confined structure that is formed by laterally oxidizing an AlAs layer using wet oxidization has excellent characteristics. However, in this method, a gain medium grown over a GaAs substrate cannot reliably provide a wavelength range of longer than 1 μm. Therefore, a new method of forming a current-confined structure applicable in a long-wavelength range of approximately 1.55 μm is required.
Secondly, a current-confined structure, obtained by laterally oxidizing an InAlAs layer or an AlAsSb layer using wet oxidization, is commercially adverse because the wet oxidization should be performed at a high temperature of 500° C. for quite a long time and a crystal growth including Sb is required. Thirdly, the method of forming an undercut current-confined region by selectively etching a semiconductor layer makes the semiconductor optical device mechanically unreliable.
Fourthly, when a current-confined structure is formed using an ion implantation process and an annealing process, it is difficult to cure crystalline structures formed in an unwanted region. Finally, the method of etching an adjacent portion of a tunnel junction and performing a re-growth process is very complicated and tends to get good results only from optical devices grown using commercially adverse molecular beam epitaxy.

Semiconductor optical device having current-confined structure

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A method of forming a ceramic having a smooth ceramic surface and an assembly for forming ceramics having a flat and smooth ceramic surface are disclosed. A greenware precursor is disposed between a greenware base and a greenware cover. A frame is disposed between the greenware base and greenware cover for limiting compression of the greenware article to an amount which allows formation of a smooth ceramic surface during densification of the greenware precursor. The greenware base, greenware cover and greenware precursor are densified to cause the greenware precursor to form a ceramic having a smooth ceramic surface.

Ceramics are often used as substrates for electrical circuitry, such as high-density and thin-film electrical circuits. However, printing of circuits on ceramic substrate surfaces which are not sufficiently flat and smooth typically causes formation of gaps in such circuits. Gaps formed during printing of circuits on ceramic substrate surfaces often causes electronic components employing the printed circuits to fail.
Ceramic substrate surfaces formed during densification of greenware precursors generally are not sufficiently flat or smooth to allow printing of electrical circuitry thereon. Camber of ceramic substrate surfaces is removed and sufficient smoothness is achieved, typically, by treating the surface of densified ceramic substrates. Examples of common treatments include grinding, lapping and polishing. Also, ceramic substrates often must be ground on two opposing surfaces in order to form ceramic substrate surfaces which are sufficiently flat.
However, such treatments typically are time-consuming and limit the quality of electrical circuits printed on the treated ceramic surface because defects, such as cracks, pits and voids, form in the ceramic surface. Also, the surface of ceramic substrates can be contaminated with grinding fluids, lapping compounds or polishing compounds. Removal of contaminants from ceramic surfaces generally requires further processing. Often, trace amounts of contaminants can not be removed from the ceramic surfaces, thereby limiting yields of circuits employing such ceramic substrates.
Cracks, pits and voids in ceramic substrate surfaces can cause circuits printed on the surfaces to be defective or to fail during use. Also, resistance values of ceramic surfaces of substrates can be deleteriously affected by the presence of imperfections and contaminants left on ceramic surfaces which have been ground, lapped and polished. Printed electrical circuits which include short-circuits or open circuits caused by imperfections in the ceramic surface of the substrate must be discarded. A significant portion of yield losses of printed electrical circuits is caused by imperfections of ceramic surfaces of substrates on which electrical circuitry is printed.
Thus, a need exists for ceramics having flat and smooth ceramic surfaces which minimize or overcome the above-mentioned problems.

Method for making a smooth-surface ceramic


An electronic advertisement method and system for an Internet browser with a book-like page-based flipping interface. Full pages of electronic advertisements presented on the computer screen are possible without obstructing the viewing and reading of other contents. This benefits both the viewer as well as the advertiser. An advertisement matching/delivery system provides a novel method of inserting advertisements into content as well as a novel method for revenue sharing among the parties involved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for advertising using an Internet browser with a book-like, flipping page-based interface. The present invention takes advantage of the book-like interface to create a better advertisement-viewing/reading experience for the user on the one hand and more effective delivery of advertisements for the advertiser on the other hand. At the same time, a novel advertisement matching and delivery model in connection with this interface becomes possible and suggests new methods for matching up the content providers and advertisers, as well as methods for revenue sharing between the involved parties.
2. Discussion of the Background
Currently, documents available on the Internet are usually represented in the format of "hypertext." Each hypertext "page" can be arbitrarily long, and may or may not fit within one computer monitor screen. Pages of hypertext are linked by "hyperlinks" —on each page of a hypertext, there might be one or more "links" in the form of pictures or words which, when selected and clicked on (with, say, an input device such as a computer mouse) will cause the hypertext document to which the hyperlink is linked to appear on the monitor screen. In other words, the text of the new page replaces the earlier hypertext page. This is the mechanism by which, for example, the two most popular Internet browsers—Microsoft INTERNET EXPLORER® and Netscape COMMUNICATOR®—function.
In order to view a hypertext page that is longer and/or larger than one screen, one or more mechanisms is provided that scroll the page up and down (and/or left and right), or jump to a particular point in the page (through the use of, for example, a computer mouse coupled with scroll bars at the edges of the page displayed on the screen). In some embodiments, hyperlinks at one location in the hypertext page may point to another location of the same page and, when the hyperlink is clicked, the destination section is brought into view.
However, it is well known in human-computer interface research that these hypertext/hyperlink assemblages suffer from a number of problems. Chief among them is the navigation problem—the reader of a hypertext/hyperlink assemblage covering several pages often becomes lost during navigation of the hypertext pages. In other words, he/she often does not know where the displayed section of the hypertext/hyperlink assemblage is located relative to the entire content of the hypertext/hyperlink assemblage, what other content is present in the hypertext/hyperlink assemblage, where the other content is relative to the total content of the hypertext/hyperlink assemblage, and how to change the display from one section of the hypertext/hyperlink assemblage to another section of the assemblage.
Another disadvantage described by Internet surfers (people who read Internet documents) is that it is difficult to return to a particular hypertext page despite the fact that "forward" and "back" buttons are available on the Internet browser (such as Microsoft's INTERNET EXPLORER® or Netscape's COMMUNICATOR®). Since the hypertext pages are linked by a large number of links with no particular sequential or ordered multi-level organization, these two simple commands make transitioning from one page to another difficult when the reader hasn't followed a direct link between those pages. In other words, the "forward" and "back" buttons presume a sequential forward-backward organization in an assemblage that lacks such organization. Thus, the Internet surfers are often lost when trying to read a document with a complex organizational structure using only simple commands to proceed through the document.
On the other hand, sequential organization of information is found in the traditional book—pages are linked sequentially one after another. Though mechanisms for jumping across many pages are available, such as by selecting a page from the side of the book and flipping to the page, the information in the book is still laid out in an orderly, sequential manner. Also, a reader/browser can jump anywhere in the book at any time in any random order while maintaining a good understanding of where he/she is in the book because, in the process of flipping and jumping about, the location information is captured by the thickness of the book on both sides of a selected page, as well as during the flipping process. The flipping of the pages allows one to know the direction of movement through the document as well as how much one has moved through the document. The advantage of knowing where one is at any given time reduces the navigation problems if not eradicates them entirely.
Furthermore, one can also quickly and easily obtain an overview of all the information in the book by flipping through the book. On the other hand, a person is not only bound to become lost when browsing a 1000-page hypertext/hyperlink assemblage. Furthermore, such an individual will have difficulties obtaining an overview of the information content of such an assemblage.
Hence the major defects with hypertext—the navigation problems—are not present in the traditional book. One can browse a book of 1000 pages, and yet one can still comfortably know where one is, what else is in the book, and how to move from one point to another.
As a result, people browsing large amounts of information on the Internet often prefer to print the hypertext pages out on paper and then hold these sheets in their hands and browse through them much like the way they would browse through a book to look for and read information of interest.
The interaction between a reader/browser and printed material in a book is a subtle and complicated activity. To begin with, the material in a book is presented in a sequential order, with a continuity of material from page to page, and there is a hierarchical structure in the material presented (e.g., the material is organized into chapters, sections, subsections, etc.) because ideas in the material are related to each other in some kind of conceptual hierarchy. The human perceptual system inputs this data in a sequential manner, and after a book is read from the beginning to the end in a sequential fashion, the brain then recreates the conceptual hierarchy after viewing the material involved. However, very often one does not read a book (or input the material involved) from the beginning to the end because (a) one wants to have an overview of the material present; (b) one is searching for a particular item of interest; or (c) one is interested in reading only particular portions of the book (in the case of, e.g., reading the manual to understand how to operate something). In these cases, one browses through the subject book to find the material of unique interest.
Two basic things are achieved in the browsing process. First, the browser has a glimpse of what the contents of the book document are. Second, the browser has an idea of approximately where the items of interest are so that the browser can (a) return to look for them later when needed, and (b) understand the relationships between the material currently being viewed and other material (i.e., an understanding of the hierarchical structure involved). When browsing a book document, many finger-operations are required of the browser in order to flip through the pages. This mechanical act of flipping the pages, together with the inherent sequential order imposed by the pages, quickly allows the browser to have an understanding of the nature, location, and organization of the material in a book.
Similarly, the vast amount of information available on the Internet can benefit from the organizational structures normally found in a book, e.g., the sequential, page-by-page organization of information. These organizational structures give rise to two major benefits: 1. navigational problems are greatly reduced—e.g., they allow the browser to know where a particular portion of text is relative to the entire content of a document, what other information. exists in that document, and how to move from one section of information to another in the case of browsing through hypertext pages, and 2. a good overview of the content of a document becomes easily available.
The sequential organization of information is not intended to replace the hyperlink mechanism available in a hypertext document. Instead, it is complementary to it. Other than having the pages linked in a sequential manner and accessible through a thickness display of the "book-like" representation, the hyperlink mechanism is retained and improves the browsing process. The advantage of the hyperlink is that the users can move quickly from one portion of the content to another related portion of the content. However, in the book-like, page-based sequential organization, when a hyperlink is selected and triggered, the process of going to the new portion of the content emulates the physical process. For example, flipping animation showing a number of pages moving across the screen proportional to the amount of information between the location of the hyperlink and the location pointed to by the hyperlink. This will aid users in knowing where the content they are reading and where the content that they will be reading is located within the hypertext/hyperlink assemblage and, combined with the traditional processes of hyperlinking, will aid the process of searching for information.
The hypertext linking mechanism is in some ways an electronic version of the traditional index usually found at the end of a book. When one is interested in a particular keyword or topic of interest, one may flip to the index at the end and, from there, move to another page that contains related keywords or topics. This two-step process—first moving to the index page then to the destination page—is achieved in one step with the hypertext linking mechanism. However, unlike physical paper books, the electronic hypertext linking process does not require physical flipping of pages to move to a new portion of the content. Instead, the electronic "goto" is effortless and instantaneous.
There are further differences between hypertext/hyperlink assemblages and traditional book (or magazine) representations of documents that are related to the placement and type of advertisements therein. In hypertext/hyperlink assemblages, advertisements that appear on the pages are rarely, if ever, sizable relative to the size of the page or the size of the viewable area on the computer screen. Therefore, advertisements most commonly appear as "banners" on the Web pages. However, in traditional paper books or magazines, advertisements often appear as full pages, and often as a succession of full pages. Even though advertisements on the pages of a traditional paper book or magazine still hinder and obstruct the reading and browsing process, especially in the case of full-page advertisements, this is somehow moderated by the book-like representation and tolerated by the users. This is in sharp contrast to advertisements in hypertext: full-page or multiple consecutive full-page advertisements on a hypertext Web page are anathema to many web readers.
The reason that full-page or multiple consecutive full-page advertisements are tolerable to readers of book-like representations is that the flipping page, book-like interface (such as in the cases of the traditional paper book and the interface of a special kind of flipping, book-like Internet browser described in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 09/617,043, filed Jun. 14, 2000, Ser. No. 08/992,793, filed Dec. 18, 1997, as well as a special kind of book-like human-computer interface described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,064,384) creates a 3-dimensional effect. Users feel that they can simply flip these "obstructing" pages away very easily (either using their hands directly on the pages in the case of the paper book or using an input controller such as a mouse in the case of the special Internet browser described in copending patent application Ser. No. 09/617,043, filed Jun. 14, 2000, or using a special flip-browsing controller described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,207. This flip-browsing controller allows the user to achieve a variable flipping speed).
Book-like representations thus provide a new method and system for electronic advertisement. In contrast with this new method and system, traditional advertisements on scrolling or hypertext/hyperlink assemblages are too restrictive from the point of view of the advertiser.
Advertisement is a necessary component of modern commerce. Conflicting issues are involved in advertising and include the facts that 1. the advertiser wants to deliver a message to the consumer, so the attention of the consumer has to be captured, and 2. the advertiser must not present the advertisement in a way or to the extent that it hinders the reading/viewing activity of the consumer or annoys the consumer.
The current advertisement method on the Internet is very restrictive. An advertiser can only display "banner" ads, as explained earlier. This is due to the kind of interface currently available on computers—the Windows interface which derives from the "desktops" metaphor which basically involves a presentation of a series of 2-dimensional "window" interfaces. On this kind of interface, the advertisers either have to contend with a small banner, which does not quite satisfy the need to deliver a message effectively to the consumers, or they have to enlarge the banner which hinders the activities of the consumer and annoys the consumer. Therefore, the parameters of the advertisement are very limited and not necessarily effective.
Another current method of advertisement on the Internet uses a pop-up window whenever the user enters a certain Web page to view data. This type of pop-up window is ineffective for both the consumer and the advertiser. From the point of view of the consumer, pop-up windows are annoying, especially when they are big. From the point of view of the advertiser, pop-up windows are ineffective because the pop-up window, unlike the usual banner advertisements on the Web pages, are not displayed long enough for the consumer to absorb the message. Many consumers simply close the pop-up window or move the desired Web contents into view and relegate the pop-up window to the background. Thus, the pop-up windows are commonly not viewed by the consumer for any period of time.
Moreover, another problem with current browsers and browsing methods relates to their limited ability to identify, contact, and recruit advertisers that will be inserting advertisements into the displayed content.
FIG. 14 is a table that illustrates various participants (along the abscissa) in the process of delivering various forms of content (along the axis) to a consumer, as well as their advertising practices. For example, in traditional books (first column), the book content is created by an author, "published" by a book publisher, and delivery of a "display" of this content (i.e., the book) is performed by a printer who manufacturers the books and a distributor who, in one form or another, brings the printed book to the consumer. In traditional book publishing, the advertisement process is limited to only a few participants and is furthermore unresponsive to changes in the marketing environment. For example, an author can insert advertisements into the content that advertise him/herself (such as the self-aggrandizing statements commonly found in the autobiographies of sports figures) or others (such as a commercial company that has paid the author to "place" a product within a particular manuscript). The book publisher commonly has almost no ability to advertise within the content, but rather chooses to place advertisements before and/or after the content. Furthermore, these advertisements only relate to the publisher and commonly amount to nothing more than a publisher's name on the book jacket or on the title page, and possibly a listing of other books available from the same publisher and/or author found before or after the content. Finally, the entities that deliver the content display to the consumer, namely the printer and book distributor (such as a bookstore), have almost no ability to insert advertisements regarding themselves and/or others into or before/after the content.
A similar situation is found in regard to the participants in the process of delivering newspaper/magazine content to consumers (FIG. 14, second column), except for the fact that magazine/newspaper publishers actively advertise for others both within and before/after the content. Once again, the entities that deliver the content display have almost no ability to insert advertisements.
In regard to the delivery of television/movies content to consumers (FIG. 14, third column), the entities that deliver the display have developed methods of inserting advertisements before the content. For example, movie theaters commonly insert advertisements for themselves and for local businesses prior to the showing of a film. Furthermore, the manufacturers of the display also insert advertisements prior to the start of a film. An example is the advertisements for "DOLBY SURROUND SOUND" commonly shown prior to commencement of the film. In these cases, the entities that deliver the content to the consumer have developed a limited ability to advertise before the delivery of the content.
Advertisement in Internet data transmission has not yet been developed even to the extent known in the delivery of movie/television content displays. As shown in the fourth column of FIG. 14, there are several entities that participate in delivery of the content to the consumer. A separate web host can-maintain and/or update a memory containing the content under the direction of a web publisher. An Internet service provider can transmit the content data from the web host memory to a consumer's site. A browser producer can provide a browser that will decode and generate instructions for displaying the content data at the consumer's site. Finally, a monitor or other output device can display the content under the instructions of the browser.
The insertion of advertisements by each of these entities that deliver Internet content to the consumer is haphazard at best. For example, the web host is entirely unknown to an individual who is accessing content stored on the web host's computers. Internet service providers such as NETZERO place a banner advertisement across the top of the display screen. Thus, this banner is neither inserted into the actual content nor targeted to the content being, accessed, and furthermore retains the aforementioned problems of banner advertisements. Monitor manufacturers only include a corporate logo located outside the content display area, and generate no direct advertising revenue thereby.
Advertisements recruited, selected, and displayed by a browser producer are likewise primitive. Both NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR and MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER have limited advertisements to a title of the browser program and one or more corporate trademarks displayed at various locations on the browser window. This prohibits the browser producers from advertising for others than themselves, from inserting the advertisements within the displayed content, and from receiving revenue for the advertisement of various products made by others.
Therefore, the inventor has identified a need for a novel system and method for electronic advertisement that can be integrated into an Internet browser. Moreover, the inventor has identified an Internet browser with a book-like interface such as that described in copending patent application Ser. No. 09/617,043, filed Jun. 14, 2000 or a special kind of book-like human-computer interface described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,064,384 that takes full advantage of the interface for the most effective delivery of advertisements to the users. The inventor has furthermore recognized that advertisements inserted by the browser can lead to different revenue sharing models.

Method and system for advertisement using internet browser with book-like interface


A latch circuit is provided between a column switch connected to the input/output sides for selecting data lines and a tristate buffer connected to the write side of a memory array, or between the column switch and a sense amplifier connected to the readout side of the memory array. The latch circuit has a capacity corresponding to a plurality of data contents in the tristate buffer or the sense amplifier. While data set in a portion of the latch circuit is being output, the next data can be set in another portion of the latch circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a memory system which can have a large area and enables high-speed read/write operations to be performed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a thin-film transistor memory which can be formed on an insulative substrate such as a glass substrate has been developed. Examples of such a thin-film transistor memory are shown in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 07/427,041, 07/427,252 and 07/467,736 filed by the same applicant as the present application. This type of memory can be used as an electrically programmable non-volatile memory. Compared to a conventional MNOS (metal-nitride-oxide semiconductor) type memory or a floating-gate type EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory), the manufacture of the thin-film transistor memory is easier and the area of this memory can be increased.
However, the thin-film transistor memory has such a problem that the access speed of this memory is lower than that of a widely used DRAM, etc.

Memory device comprising thin film memory transistors


The present invention relates to a wireless communication locating method, the method uses a first wireless receiver, a second wireless receiver and a third wireless receiver (i.e., a first rescuer, a second and a third rescuer) to receive mayday and RSSI signals outputted by a person to be rescued, therefore the position of the person to be rescued can be precisely located after a backend signal-processing platform processes and calculates the mayday and RSSI signals. Through the method, each of rescuers are able to output a prompting signal to the person to be rescued by way of frequency synchronization, so as to give the person to be rescued hopes and a message that rescuers are coming. The method also includes the advantages of high damage resistance ability, high expansibility and can be easily operated, such that the purpose of immediate rescue can be achieved by using the method.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a locating method, and more particularly, to a wireless communication locating method integrating with a variety of wireless communication technologies and a backend signal-processing platform.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the change of times, the application of the locating technology is gradually changed from military to nongovernment, and that makes revolutionary changes and many conveniences to people's lives.
For instant, divers can get a recommendatory route through navigators when they are driving cars. Besides, the famously latest smart phone can also provide a navigating and a locating service to drives for avoiding the drivers from losing their way. Moreover, users can find their smart phones through the locating service when their smart phones are got lost.
Inheriting to above descriptions, conventional locating technologies can be generally divided into Global Navigation Satellite System, GNSS, GPS of America, GLONASS of Russia, and cell site locating system. GNSS is a locating system for precisely locating any objects on the earth by using the satellites distributed into space. In spite of including high locating accuracy, the substantial constructing cost of GNSS locating system results from its highly technical operation.
Cell site locating system uses a RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) signal received by a signal-receiving terminal to determine the distance between the signal-receiving terminal and the mobile phone, so as to execute an intercross calculation after referring to the position database of the cell sites, and then to locate the position of mobile phone owner.
However, the cell tower locating system can merely execute location works in the signal-covering range of the cell sites; for this reason, it is able to know that the locating accuracy of the cell site locating system would easily be influenced by the factors of weather, topography and environment.
Accordingly, in view of the conventional locating technologies still having shortcomings and drawbacks, the inventor of the present application has made great efforts to make inventive research thereon and eventually provided a wireless communication locating method.

NATIONAL CHUNG SHAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


In a nonvolatile memory device, wherein, for example, data “1” is electrically charged, while data “0” is not electrically charged, and memory cells susceptible to charge loss are included, when data in the array 10 is count value of “1”>count value of “0”, write data is converted to thereby make “1” to “0” and “0” to “1”, leading to number of “1”<number of “0”, so that a statistical reliability of the data in the array 10 is improved. The data, which is converted and written, is converted in its polarity prior to the conversion when it is read.

The present invention relates to a nonvolatile memory, for example, a semiconductor nonvolatile memory device such as a flash EEPROM.
A floating gate of the flash EEPROM has to be electrically insulated from a silicon substrate and a control gate. On the other hand, it is necessary for electric charge to travel through a tunnel oxide film below the floating gate at the time of writing/erasure. Because the tunnel oxide film is required to satisfy the conflicting functions, there arises the problem of a limited rewriting frequency because the data rewriting deteriorates the tunnel oxide film, which results in a deteriorated data retention characteristic and the like. Therefore, different efforts have been dedicated to the improvement of the data retention characteristic.
However, in recent years, the tunnel oxide film has been thinner because an operation at a lower voltage is requested. Further, a volume of storage charge determining the data has been decreasing because the semiconductor elements are being scaled down. The thinner tunnel oxide film and the data retention characteristic contradict each other. A suitable technology designed to improve the data retention characteristic is being searched.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A handle for a utility knife includes a housing made up of two or more portions. In one embodiment, a manually operable member for use in releasing the blade is retained to at least one portion of the housing and does not become separated from the housing when the housing is in an open state. In another embodiment, a catch for engaging the blade extends from a support member that is slidably movable within the housing. In another embodiment, the housing is formed of metal and a nose portion is formed of a metal that is more wear resistant than the rest of the housing, in order to improve the durability of the nose portion. In another embodiment, a bail screw is captured on a first housing portion and threadedly engageable with a second housing portion for (i) releasably securing the first and second housing portions in a fully closed state and, in turn, releasably securing a blade within the blade opening, and (ii) manually positioning at least one of the first and second housing portions in at least one intermediate state between the fully closed state and a fully opened state to, in turn, permit the blade to be manually moved through the blade opening.

Utility knives generally include a handle and at least one replaceable blade. Because such blades are known to become worn or damaged, utility knife handles generally include provisions to allow a blade to be removed from the handle, so that the blade may be reversed in the handle (in order to provide a new cutting edge for the knife) and/or replaced by another blade.
In the case of many utility knives, the removal of a worn or damaged blade requires that the handle first be opened to gain access to the internal cavity inside the handle. However, because it is sometimes inconvenient to open the handle, some utility knives provide mechanisms that allow a blade to be removed without any need for first opening the handle. Such mechanisms often make use of a releasable catch that engages the replaceable blade within the handle along with a manually operable mechanism for causing the releasable catch to disengage from the blade. Most of these mechanisms allow a worn or damaged blade to be removed through a blade opening at the front end of the handle.
Notwithstanding the availability of such mechanisms, there are still occasions in which a handle must be opened, for example, in order to retrieve a spare blade that may be stored inside the handle or to perform repair or maintenance inside the handle. Unfortunately, upon opening the handle, many of the above mentioned mechanism can fall out and become separated from the handle, thereby rendering the mechanism unusable.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a utility knife handle in which the mechanism for removing the blade is retained to the handle so that the mechanism does not become separated from the handle if opened.
Additional types of releasable catches are also desired.
As with blades, handles can also become worn or damaged due to demanding operating conditions, such as for example in the course of regular use in cutting asphalt roof tiles. Consequently, utility knife handles are sometimes formed of metal (e.g., steel) to provide durability. However, even knives with steel handles continue to become worn and/or damaged frequently, on account of such operating conditions.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a utility knife handle having improved durability.


An apparatus, system, method, and article for protecting nonvolatile memory from viruses are described. The apparatus may include a nonvolatile memory comprising one or more protected storage areas. The nonvolatile memory may be arranged to transform buffered information to be programmed in the protected areas and to program transformed information in the protected storage areas. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Nonvolatile memory, such as flash memory, is capable of retaining digital information until the memory is erased. Due to its high reliability, density, and speed, as well as its low cost and power consumption, flash memory is well-positioned to meet the increasing performance requirements of the wireless device industry.
Security for nonvolatile memory is an important consideration as wireless devices such as mobile telephones and handheld computers adopt color screens, cameras, Web browsing, video, and music capabilities as standard features. In particular, it is important to provide security measures for protecting nonvolatile memory from infection by computer viruses to prevent corruption and/or loss of data files and operational code. Therefore, there is a need for systems and techniques to provide improved virus protection for nonvolatile memory.

Method and apparatus to protect nonvolatile memory from viruses


Described herein is a mechanism for improving the accuracy of a language model interpreting short input utterances. A language model operates in a stateless manner, only ascertaining the intents and/or entities associated with a presented input utterance. To increase the accuracy, two language understanding models are trained. One is trained using only input utterances. The second is trained using input utterance-prior dialog context pairs. The prior dialog context is previous intents and/or entities already determined from the utterances in prior turns of the dialog. When input is received, the language understanding model decides whether the input comprises only an utterance or an utterance and prior dialog context. The appropriate trained machine learning model is selected and the intents and/or entities associated with the input determined by the selected machine learning model.

Dialog systems that communicate with users using natural language phrasing utilize language understanding models to discern the intent of a user so that a proper response can be given, or proper actions can be taken. Often times, the user will provide short utterances to the dialog system, which are passed along to the language understanding model for interpretation. Short utterances are often highly ambiguous and the discovery of the intent of an utterance is difficult.
It is within this context that the present embodiments arise.

Using dialog context to improve language understanding


Sliding resistance at a time when a locking member is moved between a locking position and an unlocking position with respect to a reel can be lessened, and it is possible to avoid bringing about trouble with a drive device or the like. In a recording tape cartridge 10, in which a reel 20, which has a hub 22 on which a recording tape T is wound, is singly and rotatably accommodated within a case 12, a locking member 70 is configured to be able to rotate within a plane orthogonal to a rotation axis direction of the reel 20 around a position which is different from a rotational center of the reel 20. The locking member 70 is set at a locking position, at which the locking member 70 is interposed on an extended line of the hub 22 in the rotation axis direction and impedes movement of the reel 20 in the rotation axis direction, and an unlocking position, at which the locking member 70 is withdrawn from the extended line of the hub 22 in the rotation axis direction and permits movement of the reel 20 in the rotation axis direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording tape cartridge which accommodates, within a case, a single reel on which is wound a recording tape, such as a magnetic tape or the like, which is used as a recording/playback medium mainly of computers or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have conventionally been known recording tape cartridges in which a recording tape, such as a magnetic tape or the like which is used as a data recording/playback medium (for data backup) of computers or the like, is wound on a reel, and the reel is singly and rotatably accommodated within a case which is made of a synthetic resin. Such a recording tape cartridge is generally structured such that at the time when the recording tape cartridge is not in use (is not loaded in a drive device) the reel is mechanically braked in the rotating direction, and, in the rotation axis direction, is merely urged by an urging means such as a compression coil spring or the like.
However, here, if an impact is applied to the recording tape cartridge due to the recording tape cartridge being handled by a user or being dropped or the like when the recording tape cartridge is not in use, due to this impact, the reel easily moves in the rotation axis direction, and, depending on the case, there is the problem that the rotating direction braking of the reel is cancelled and wrinkles or the like are formed in the recording tape. Therefore, in recent years, recording tape cartridges have been proposed which are structured such that, when not in use, the reel is restricted so as to not move in the rotation axis direction, and, when in use, this restriction is released simply, such as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2005-276416 for example.
The above-described recording tape cartridge is structured such that, when the recording tape cartridge is not in use, locking members enter-in between an upper flange of the reel and a ceiling plate of the case, and the reel is thereby restricted so as to not move in the rotation axis direction. Namely, the leeway for the reel to move in the rotation axis direction is eliminated by the locking members. When the recording tape cartridge is being used, a releasing operation, in which a braking member which restricts the reel so as to not move in the rotating direction is raised-up by a releasing member of the drive device, is utilized such that a taper portion formed at the locking members is pushed, and the locking members are thereby slid in a radial direction of the reel and withdrawn (the restriction of the locking members is released).
In order to ensure space for movement of the locking members in the radial direction of the reel due to the braking member moving in the rotation axis direction of the reel, the angle of the taper portion formed at the locking member is made to be 45°. However, if the taper portion of the locking members is 45°, the component of force of the force applied in the rotation axis direction of the reel works greatly, and therefore, rubbing arises between the locking members and the inner surface of the ceiling plate of the case, and there is the problem that the powder-like substance generated at the time of this rubbing increases the sliding resistance (the dynamic friction coefficient) of the locking members with respect to the inner surface of the ceiling plate of the case. When the sliding resistance (the dynamic friction coefficient) of the locking members with respect to the inner surface of the ceiling plate of the case increases, a very large moving force (lock releasing force) in the rotation axis direction of the reel is needed at the braking member. Therefore, overload is applied to the driving source which lowers the recording tape cartridge relative to a reference plane of the drive device, and trouble or the like is brought about at the drive device.


A system and method of forestry management using frequency identification tags. In one aspect, the present invention involves a forestry management process that comprises inserting at least one tag that has a frequency capable of being read by a scanner into a tree, then scanning the tag. The frequency of the inserted tag(s) will have a frequency that is identifiable over other frequencies. Information is associated with the tag before after or during the insertion. After insertion, a subsequent scan is performed on the tag and some or all of the associated information is obtained. The information obtained is then used in one or more aspects of forestry management.

Properly identifying trees is a critical part of forestry management. Aspects of proper identification begin with the need to harvest certain trees over others, but also extend into the proper markings of ownership and as well as border delineation.
When managing the harvest of a forest, it is often important to keep track of trees in a group and even on an individual basis. Current methods for marking trees employ external identifiers, such as metal labels, plastic ribbons, flags or paint. All of these methods rely on direct line of sight with the identifier, and all may be damaged or removed by the elements, animals, counterfeiters, vandals or thieves. When it is considered that proper management of a copse or of individual tree spans years or decades, the inadequacies of current identifiers becomes even more apparent.
Visual markings also increase the likelihood of user error. For example, a tree marked five years ago might be misinterpreted by new personal surveying the tree. The visual markers rely on the knowledge and/or memory of the person observing the mark
For these reasons, proper management and protection of trees has been limited by the use of inadequate identifiers. Further, although trees also make a tempting border marker, the ability to properly mark a border is also limited by the failures of using external border markers discussed above.
What is needed is an identifier that is resistant to wear, does not rely on line of sight, is difficult to tamper with or counterfeit, and is user friendly.

System and method of forestry management using radio frequency identification tags


A liquid crystal lens element having a lens function capable of stably correcting spherical aberration containing a power component corresponding to focus change of incident light according to the magnitude of applied voltage.

As examples of an optical recording medium (hereinafter referred to as "optical disk") having an information recording layer formed on a surface of light-incident side, and a transparent resin covering the information recording layer, e.g. CDs and DVDs are widely used. Further, in an optical head device for writing and/or reading an information to/from DVDs, one employing a laser diode of 660 nm wavelength band as a light source and an objective lens having a NA (numerical aperture) of from 0.6 to 0.65, are known.
Heretofore, a commonly used DVD (hereinafter referred to as "single layer optical disk"), has a single information recording layer and a cover layer of 0.6 mm thick. However, in recent years, in order to increase information amount in each optical disk, a read-only type or a readable-writable type optical disk having two information recording layers (hereinafter referred to as "double layer optical disk") has been developed.
Thus in a case of writing and/or reading to/from a double layer optical disk by using an optical head device having an objective lens optimally designed to have zero aberration for a single layer optical disk, when a cover thickness is different, a spherical aberration is generated according to the difference of the cover thickness and convergence of incident light to an information recording layer is deteriorated. In particular, in a case of double-layer optical disk of writing type, deterioration of convergence corresponds to decrease of converging power density, which causes a writing error, such being a problem.
To cope with this problem, in recent years, in order to improve recording density of an optical disk, an optical disk having a cover thickness of 0.1 mm (hereinafter it is also referred to as "high density optical disk") is also proposed. Further, an optical head device for writing an information to such an optical disk, employs a laser diode emitting laser light of 405 nm wavelength band and an objective lens having a NA of 0.85. However, also in this case, with respect to a double layer optical disk of recording type, a spherical aberration generated corresponding to the difference of the cover thickness, causes a writing error, such being a problem.
As means for correcting a spherical aberration caused by the difference of the cover thickness of e.g. the above-mentioned double layer optical disk, a method of employing movable lens group or a liquid crystal lens, has been known.
(I) For example, in order to carry out correction of spherical aberration by using a movable lens group, an optical head device 100 shown in FIG. 8 for writing and/or reading an optical disk D, has been proposed (for example, JP-A-2003-115127).
The optical head device 100 comprises a light source 110, an optical system 120 of various types, a photo-acceptance element 130, a control circuit 140 and a modulation/demodulation circuit 150, and further, a first and a second movable lens groups 160 and 170. Further, the first movable lens group 160 includes a concave lens 161, a convex lens 162 and an actuator 163, which exhibits a focal-length variable lens function that a power of the movable lens group 160 is continuously changeable from positive (convex lens) to negative (concave lens) by moving the convex lens 162 fixed to the actuator 163 in an optical axis direction. By disposing the movable lens group 160 in an optical path to an optical disk D, it becomes possible to correct a spherical aberration containing a power component and to adjust a focal point of incident light to an information recording layer (not illustrated) of the optical disk D having a different cover thickness.
However, in the case of employing the movable lens group 160, there has been a problem that the size of the optical head device 100 becomes larger since the pair of lenses 161 and 162 and the actuator 163 are required, and the mechanical design for the movement becomes complicated.
(II) Further, in order to correct a spherical aberration caused by the difference of cover thickness of an optical disk, an optical head device employing a is liquid crystal lens 200 as shown in FIG. 9, has been proposed (for example, JP-A-5-205282).
The liquid crystal lens 200 has a construction that it comprises a substrate 230 having a flat surface on which a transparent electrode 210 and an alignment film 220 are formed, a substrate 260 having a curved surface symmetric about an axis and having a surface shape S(r) represented by the following formula being a sum of powers of a radius r, on which a transparent electrode 240 and an alignment film 250 are formed, and a nematic liquid crystal 270 sandwiched by the substrates 230 and 260.
In the liquid crystal lens 200, when a voltage is applied between the transparent electrodes 210 and 240, alignment of molecules of the liquid crystal 270 changes and the refractive index of the liquid crystal 270 changes. As a result, a wavefront of transmission light changes in accordance with refractive index difference between the substrate 260 and the liquid crystal 270.
Here, the refractive index of the substrate 260 equals to the refractive index of the liquid crystal 270 when no voltage is applied. Accordingly, when no voltage is applied, transmission wavefront is not changed from that of incident light. On the other hand, when a voltage is applied between the transparent electrodes 210 and 240, a refractive index difference Δn is generated between the substrate 260 and the liquid crystal 270, and phase difference of transmission light corresponding to Δn·S(r) is generated (refer to Formula (1) for S(r)). Accordingly, it is possible to correct an aberration by fabricating the surface shape S(r) of the substrate 260 so as to correct a spherical aberration caused by the difference of cover thickness of an optical disk D, and by adjusting the refractive index difference Δn according to applied voltage.S(r)=α1r2+α2r4+α3r6+ . . .   (1)
wherein r2=x2+y2
However, in the case of liquid crystal lens described in FIG. 9, since the refractive index change of the liquid crystal 270 in response to applied voltage is at most about 0.3, it is necessary to increase the concave-convex height of S(r) to generate a large phase difference distribution Δn·S(r) corresponding to a power component for changing the position of a focal point of incident light. As a result, the layer of liquid crystal 270 becomes thicker, which causes problems that driving voltage increases and response becomes slower.
To cope with this problem, in order to reduce thickness of liquid crystal layer, it is effective to correct only spherical aberration requiring minimum amount of aberration correction, except for power component. However, when the substrate 260 is fabricated to have a surface shape S(r) so as to correct only spherical aberration, if the optical axis of an objective lens for converging incident light on an information recording layer of an optical disk, and the optical axis of the liquid crystal lens are not aligned to each other, a coma aberration is generated which causes a problem that convergence to the information recording layer is deteriorated and writing or reading is prevented.
(III) By the way, in order to develop a substantial lens function capable of changing also a power component corresponding to change of the position of focal point of incident light without increasing the thickness of liquid crystal layer, a liquid crystal diffraction lens 300 shown in FIG. 10 is also proposed (for example, JP-A-9-189892).
In the liquid crystal diffraction lens 300, a transparent electrode 320 is formed on one side of a substrate 310 on which a predetermined saw-tooth-shaped relief is formed, and the transparent electrode 320 and an opposing electrode 330 sandwich a liquid crystal layer 340. When a voltage is applied between the electrodes 320 and 330, substantial refractive index of the liquid crystal layer 340 for extraordinarily polarized light changes from an extraordinary refractive index ne to an ordinary refractive index no. Here, "substantial refractive index" means an average refractive index in the thickness direction of the liquid crystal layer.
Provided that the refractive index of the substrate 310 having the saw-tooth-shaped relief structure is designated as nF, and the wavelength of incident light is designated as λ, by forming the saw-tooth-shaped relief grooves so as to have a depth d satisfying an equation d=λ/(ne−nF), maximum diffracting efficiency is obtained at the wavelength λ when no voltage is applied, and thus, a diffraction lens is formed. Further, even if the wavelength λ of incident light is changed, application voltage can be adjusted so as to produce the maximum diffraction at the wavelength λ.
In the liquid crystal diffraction lens 300 having such a construction, since it is only necessary to fill the grooves of the saw-tooth-shaped relief with the liquid crystal layer 340, 4the liquid crystal layer 340 can be thinner than the liquid crystal 270 shown in FIG. 9 which is a type of liquid crystal to be used for the above-mentioned liquid crystal lens 200 to correct spherical aberration containing a power component.
However, in the liquid crystal diffraction lens 300, since the transparent electrode 320 is formed on the saw-tooth-shaped relief surface, it is necessary to satisfy a relation no<nF<ne to obtain power components of both positive and negative. In this case, since no≠nF, a fixed phase difference represented by a formula φ=d×(nF−no)λ is generated for ordinarily polarized light, which has been a problem in a case of applying the liquid crystal lens to an optical head device employing a polarization optical system.
(IV) In order to obtain power components of both positive and negative for ordinarily polarized light without changing transmission wavefront, a liquid crystal diffraction lens element 400 as shown in FIG. 11 is considered. In the liquid crystal diffraction lens element 400, a liquid crystal layer 414 filling a cell constituted by a pair of transparent substrates 411 and 412 and a seal 413, is driven by transparent electrodes 415 and 416 formed on the transparent substrates 411 and 412. On a surface of the transparent electrode 415, a Fresnel lens surface 417 being a saw-tooth shaped relief surface is formed. In the liquid crystal diffraction lens element 400, since nF=no, transmission wavefront does not change for ordinarily polarized light. Further, since distribution of substantial refractive index is formed in the liquid crystal layer 414 according to specific dielectric constant of a material constituting the Fresnel lens surface 417, it is possible to generate power components of both positive and negative according to the magnitude of applied voltage.
However, when a voltage producing 0-th order light having no power change, is applied, since the Fresnel lens surface 417 is disposed between the liquid crystal layer 414 and the transparent electrode 415, a voltage applied to the liquid crystal layer 414 is distributed according to the shape of the Fresnel lens surface 417, and a phase difference is generated. As a result, a problem that diffraction efficiency of 0-th order light decreases, is generated.

Liquid crystal lens element and optical head device

Abstract: The liquid crystal lens element comprises a pair of transparent substrates 11 and 12, one (12) of the transparent electrodes is provided with a transparent electrode 15 and a Fresnel lens surface 17, and the other one (11) of the pair of transparent electrodes is provided with a phase correction surface 18 and a transparent electrode 16. Thus, by disposing a Fresnel lens surface 17 and a liquid crystal layer 13 between a pair of transparent electrodes 15 and 16, it becomes possible to change substantial refractive index distribution of the liquid crystal layer 13 according to the magnitude of applied voltage, and to add a positive or negative power to a wavefront transmitted through the liquid crystal layer 13, the Fresnel lens surface 17 and the phase correction surface 18.