An image pickup device includes a light-receiving device unit, a processing portion, a first connection body, and a second connection body. The first connection body electrically connects a first electrode of the light-receiving device unit to a corresponding second electrode of the processing portion. The first connection body includes an indium-containing solder portion disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode, and a barrier layer for suppressing alloying of the solder portion with the first electrode and the second electrode. The second connection body includes an alloy portion formed by alloying with a solder containing a material having a melting point equal to or higher than a melting point of the first connection body and a hardness higher than that of the first connection body.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-278884 (PTL 1) discloses a method for mounting a semiconductor chip on a circuit board. Specifically, PTL 1 discloses a structure in which a frame-shaped spacer is disposed between a semiconductor chip and a circuit board. A plurality of bump electrodes are provided on a surface of the semiconductor chip so as to surround the center of the surface. The spacer is disposed below the hump electrodes. A plurality of connection electrodes that are connected to the bump electrodes are formed on an upper end surface of the spacer. A plurality of bump electrodes are formed on a lower end surface of the spacer, and these bump electrodes on the lower end surface of the spacer are joined to land electrodes formed on the circuit board.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-232203 (PTL 2) discloses a mounting structure of a flip-chip large-scale integration (LSI), the mounting structure including an electronic circuit board and an LSI mounted on the electronic circuit board in a face-down manner. In PTL 2, a net-like spacer that is composed of an insulating material and that separates solder bumps adjacent to each other is disposed between the LSI and the electronic circuit board.

Image pickup device and method for producing the same


A card connector comprises an insulating housing defining a card receiving space for accommodating two kinds of different cards in size; a plurality of contacts retained in the housing, and comprising a plurality of different contacting portions for electrically connecting with the different cards respectively; and at least a anti-misinsertion appliance disposed in the housing, and comprising a shutter member and an actuator member for controlling the shutter member to open and close so that the different cards are led into the correct contacting areas.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card connector, especially to a card connector which has anti-misinserting appliances. This application relates to two contemporaneously filed applications each having the same applicants, the same title and the same assignee with the instant application.
2. Description of Related Art
With development of electrical appliances such as portable telephones, digital cameras, PDA (personal digital assistance), portable audio and the like, a lot of different kinds of cards such as a SD (super density, secure digital) card, a CF (compact flash) card, a MMC (multimedia card), a MS (memory stick) card, a MS Duo (memory stick duo) card and an XD (xd-picture) card are widely used in the field of the electronics. Because different cards have different external dimensions, thus different card connectors are needed loading corresponding different cards. However, if one card connector can only load one card, more cards are needed more card connectors to load, thus occupying a lot of areas of the electrical appliances and interfering with downsizing of the electrical appliances. Thus a card connector which can load some different cards simultaneously is accomplished.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,386,920 discloses a card connector which can load some different cards. The connector defines a card receiving space which is divided into some different card cavities for receiving an SM card, a MMC, an SD card and a MS card. That is to say, though the SM card, the MMC, the SD card and the MS card have their own card cavity, these card cavities are in a card receiving space. Especially, the MMC and the SD card have same length and width and height of the SD card is higher than that of the MMC, thus the MMC is easily inserted into the inserting cavity of the SD card because of misinsertion, then damaging the card connector.
Hence, an improved card connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.


A method for estimating the error statistic for retrieved temperature and emissivity of a surface material includes determining the second order analytical error propagation from a measured radiance that differs from the true radiance by additive gaussian noise, which is independent in each band. The radiance error is translated into a diagonal covariance matrix and an analytical estimate results in a determination of the standard deviation and bias of surface temperature. Further, the method for estimating the error statistic utilizes Monte Carlo simulation from a sufficiently large ensemble of radiance spectra for the retrieved surface temperature and emissivity. Temperature and emissivity of the surface material were retrieved using ISSTES algorithm.

The Iterative Spectrally Smooth Temperature-Emissivity Separation algorithm (ISSTES) is an inversion method for retrieving surface temperature and emissivity from remotely sensed hyperspectral thermal infrared radiance. It is important to quantify the error sensitivity for ISSTES—this is needed by system designers in determining system parameters required for a given retrieval error, and is also needed by consumers of the temperature/emissivity products as an indicator of product quality.

Sensitivity of iterative spectrally smooth temperature/emissivity separation to instrument noise


A device may insert a set of tones into a transmitter signal at a set of frequency offsets from a set of transmitter channels associated with a set of transmitter channel wavelengths. The set of transmitter channels may include a first channel being associated with a first quantity of bandwidth and a second channel associated with a second quantity of bandwidth. The first quantity of bandwidth may be different from the second quantity of bandwidth. The device may repeatedly adjust the transmitter signal to align the set of transmitter channel wavelengths based on a set of observed responses to the set of tones, generated based on the transmitter signal passing through an optical filter, failing to match a set of expected responses.

Wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical communication systems (referred to as "WDM systems") are systems in which multiple optical signals, each having a different wavelength, are combined onto a single optical fiber using an optical multiplexer circuit (referred to as a "multiplexer"). Such systems may include a transmitter circuit, such as a transmitter (Tx) photonic integrated circuit (PIC) having a transmitter component to provide a laser associated with each wavelength, a modulator configured to modulate the output of the laser, and a multiplexer to combine each of the modulated outputs (e.g., to form a combined output or WDM signal). The transmitter component may be configured to utilize a target wavelength for a particular transmission channel, but may actually transmit at a different wavelength. Dual-polarization (DP) (also known as polarization multiplex (PM)) is sometimes used in coherent optical modems. An optical transmitter may be associated with a polarization beam combiner (PBC) that combines two optical signals into a composite DP signal.
A WDM system may also include a receiver circuit having a receiver (Rx) PIC and an optical demultiplexer circuit (referred to as a "demultiplexer") configured to receive the combined output and demultiplex the combined output into individual optical signals. Additionally, the receiver circuit may include receiver components to convert the optical signals into electrical signals, and output the data carried by those electrical signals.
The optical transmitter (Tx) and the optical receiver (Rx), in an optical communication system, may support communications over a number of wavelength channels. For example, a pair of optical transmitter/receiver may support ten channels, each spaced by, for example, 200 GHz. The set of channels supported by the optical transmitter and the optical receiver can be referred to as a channel grid. Channel grids for the optical transmitter and the optical receiver may be aligned to standardized frequencies, such as those published by the Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T). The set of channels supported by the optical transmitter and the optical receiver may be referred to as an ITU frequency grid. The set of channels may be aligned to non-standardized frequencies, such as an arbitrary grid that is determined based on network traffic that is to be transmitted and does not correspond to the ITU frequency grid, or the like.

Arbitrary grid wavelocking using digitally generated out-of-band tones


A spark plug is composed of a main metal fitting having a cylindrical structure, an insulator disposed inside the cylindrical main metal fitting, a center electrode fitted in the insulator in a manner that a front end portion of the center electrode projects outward over one end of the insulator, and a grounding electrode mounted to the main metal fitting and having one end portion opposing to the front end portion of the center electrode through a discharge gap therebetween. The front end portion of the center electrode includes a conical portion having a tapered surface having a taper angle of less than 80°, and a columnar portion formed to a top end portion of the conical portion so as to have a diameter in a range of 0.4 mm to 0.8 mm.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spark plug, for, for example, of an internal combustion engine, especially having an improved structure of a front (tip) end portion of a center electrode thereof.
2. Relevant Art
A spark plug generally comprises a main metal fitting having a cylindrical or tubular shape, an insulator or insulating member accommodated and held in the main metal fitting, a central electrode disposed and held in the insulator in a manner that the front (tip) end portion of the center electrode is exposed outside the insulator, and a grounding electrode (earth electrode) mounted to the main metal fitting so as to oppose to the tip end portion of the center electrode with a discharge gap therebetween.
In the spark plug having such structure, a spark is generated in the discharge gap by applying a voltage. At this spark generation, when a high discharge voltage is applied, the electrode will be consumed earlier, and in order to suppress such earlier consumption of the electrode, it is effective to lower the discharge voltage.
Moreover, in order to effectively utilize a limited combustion space of an engine, recently, it has been required to make compact the spark plug and an ignition coil for applying a voltage to the spark plug. However, in order to make compact the structure of the spark plug, it is generally required to make thin the thickness of the insulator surrounding the center electrode, which will result in that it is difficult for the insulator to withstand against the high discharge voltage in its shape. In this meaning, it becomes necessary to suppress or lower the discharge voltage at the time of ignition.
In conventional art, there has been known a method, as a method of lowering the discharge voltage, in which a columnar tip constituting the tip end portion of the center electrode is formed so as to have a small diameter to thereby concentrate electric field on this fine tip end portion.
It is, however, difficult to obtain an effective lowering of the discharge voltage by considerably making thin the tip end portion of the center electrode, and for example, in a case of the tip end portion having diameter of less than 0.4 mm, no advantageous effect could not be achieved. Accordingly, in the conventional structure, there exists a critical limit to make fine the diameter of the tip end portion.
Furthermore, in the conventional art, there has been further provided a method of reducing the discharge voltage, such as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open (KOKAI) Publication No. HEI 1-109675, in which the tip end portion of the center electrode is formed so as to have a fine diameter and a tapered surface is formed between this fine diameter portion and the center electrode body portion. However, this tapered surface provides a recessed shape towards an axis of the center electrode and not linear shape.
However, in the structure of the tip end portion of the center electrode having the tapered surface as mentioned above, it is difficult to form or work the recessed portion with uniform dimension, thus being also disadvantageous.
In addition, there is further proposed a structure of the tip end portion of the center electrode having such tapered recessed portion in which a length between the small diameter portion of the tip end portion and the connection portion of the tapered surface is made larger. According to this structure, the discharge voltage may be further lowered.
In such structure, however, in a case where this length is made too long of, for example, more than 1.3 mm, a temperature of the tip end portion becomes considerably high and the electrode is hence consumed earlier, thus being also inconvenient.

Spark plug having center electrode with columnar portion and conical portion


Multilevel metallization layouts for an integrated circuit chip including transistors having first, second and third elements to which metallization layouts connect. The layouts minimize current limiting mechanism including electromigration by positioning the connection for the second contact vertically from the chip, overlapping the planes and fingers of the metallization layouts to the first and second elements and forming a pyramid or staircase of multilevel metallization layers to smooth diagonal current flow.

The fabrication of integrated circuits devices is well known. They are manufactured by fabricating a plurality of active devices, such as field effect transistors (FET) with sources, drains and gates, and passive devices on and in a semiconductor wafer substrate, such as silicon. The transistors, which also can be bipolar with emitters, collectors and bases, and the passive devices are connected by a conductive material, such as metal in the form of conductive patterns. Metal, such as aluminum or copper, is used for the first and higher conductive layers or what is called BEOL (Back End of the Line). Doped polysilicon is normally used at the gate of the FET.
When electrical current flows through the metal conductive patterns or interconnections, electromigration or current limiting mechanisms due to heat may occur. These mechanisms grow increasingly severe as the cross-section of the conductive pattern is decreased along with an increase in the current. The result can be failure of one or more integrated circuits. Electromigration is due to metal atoms being pushed by the electron flow comprising the current, in proportion to the current density, and may cause a disconnection of the interconnection or an "open". For a given current being carried by an interconnection, current density becomes larger, and thus electromigration more severe, as the cross-section of the interconnect becomes smaller with technology scaling. Electromigration is becoming an increasing problem in the BEOL of largely scaled integrated circuit chips with transistors such as FETs, such as CMOS devices, and bipolars devices. In multi-finger applications in which the layout of the devices is such that the metalization is in parallel stripes or fingers, these fingers carry significant current densities and current limiting mechanisms including electromigration are a major concern. Such devices include: power amplifiers, RF switches, I/O drivers, small analog devices operating near peak ft, devices with moderate current densities but operating at high ambient temperature (above 80° C.) or chips that develop a large amount of heat during operation, and any device with long fingers or conductive stripes corresponding to the width of, for example, a channel in a FET.
FIG. 1 shows a graph plotting exponentially the reduction of the wire cross-section with each improved technology generation in which minimum feature size is decreased. The lower plot is for (M1) (first level metal) and the higher plot is for (M2) (second level metal). As shown by the graph, the reduction of the cross-section of the wire is substantial from technology 5 to technology 10. In turn, the current capability of the wire is substantially lowered with the scaling in technology. However, current does not scale in step with the scaling in technology in the above list of applications. For example, a wireless power amplifier (PA) requiring 100 mW of output power for a particular application will be required to achieve this power regardless of the technology. When a constant power is required, the required current actually increases with downward device scaling and improvements in technology because the supply voltage (V supply) is scaled down. FIG. 2 shows this trend of DC power being routed though a minimum width wire with downward device scaling and improvement in technology. (At Technology 7 and beyond, the effect of switching the interconnect metal from aluminum to the more electromigration-resistant metal copper is shown in both FIGS. 1 and 2.) Accordingly, device scaling and technology improvements are amplifying the problem of current limiting mechanisms including electromigration for multi-finger application that carry significant current densities. This device scaling causes an increase in length of the parallel metallization stripes or fingers and a corresponding increase in current density at the end of the fingers.
Table I below is a comparison of different prior art layouts using a common technology, herein Technology 9, and without changing the gate pitch. The (M2), (M3) and (M4) in Table I are identifying the levels of metal from the wafer. The second level metal is (M2) whereas (M3) is the third level metal, and (M4) is the fourth level metal.
TABLE IMAX UNITMETALFINGERIMPROVEMENTLAYOUTLEVELSWIDTH (μm)OVER PCELLRF PCell*20.761.00RF PCell, Wide Metals21.331.75Strap** M2 with M331.401.84Strap M2 with M3,32.523.32wide metalsStrap M2 with M3 and41.682.21M4Strap M2 with M3 and43.364.42M4, wide metalsHalf-Plane*** PCell20.881.16Half-Plane PCell,21.932.54wide metals*PCell is a reference layout for a high-frequency CMOS FET.**Strapping is wiring the same current path using two or more consecutive levels of metal tied together by vias in order to increase the total cross section and carry more current.***Half-Plane is a layout where both the source and drain are each wired to a separate plane of M2 that spans the device over half the M1 finger width.
The above Table I illustrates that, by strapping (M2) with (M3) and (M4), 3.36 um is the widest metal dimension achievable. Compared to the standard RF PCell at 0.76 um metal width and the improvement base of 1.00, this strapped prior art approach has an improvement of a factor of 4.42 over the standard PCell and was the best of all of the prior art approaches.
To operate safely with minimal current limiting mechanisms such as electromigration, a dimension limit is put on the conductive stripe or finger width, which is the wire used to connect the drain and source of a FET or to connect to the collector and emitter of a bipolar transistor. By using a larger gate pitch and wider metal lines, current densities are reduced. However, the disadvantage of this approach is that the metal width that is required can be very significant. For example, a gate finger width of 10 μm would require a (M2) (the second level of metal) width of about 5.8 μm, which requires an intolerable gate pitch to accommodate. Another approach is to strap higher levels of metal over the (M2) finger or stripe. However, the problem with this approach is that parasitic capacitance between adjacent fingers will be increased while the current capability only can be increased slightly. Also, using more metal levels may not be available or feasible in the layout. Another approach is a half-plane, which has no electromigration problems on (M2), but does on the half of the M1 that is not covered by (M2) and therefore still suffers a limit on the maximum width of (M1). Thus, the electromigration safety of the half-plane layout is limited.
Therefore, the layout approach needed in solving current limiting mechanisms including electromigration must 1) permit very long device fingers, 2) be electromigration safe for any number of levels of metals and for all available types of metals, and 3) must not increase gate pitch.

Multi-level interconnections for an integrated circuit chip

International Business Machines Corporation


A sintering process is described using a glass-ceramic slurry containing an alloy powder or flakes selected from a group of alloys consisting of:. ______________________________________ Fe--Cr Cu--Ti Fe--Cr--Ni Ag--Ti Cr--Al Nb--Al Ni--Cr Cu--Al Ni--Al Cu--Al--Cr Fe--Al ______________________________________. The slurry is molded and later is sintered in a steam atmosphere at a temperature of about 1000.degree. C. to yield a glass-ceramic substrate toughened against crack propagation and useful in the packaging of semi-conductor device chips.

The invention generally relates to the fabrication of glass ceramic substrates for the packaging of semiconductor device chips and, more particularly, to the toughening of the brittle glass-ceramic substrates in a manner compatible with existing substrate processing cycles including high temperature sintering in the presence of oxygenating ambients.
As is well understood, the toughness of a ceramic is a material property which is a measure of the resistance against crack propagation when the ceramic is stressed. Glass ceramics, particularly based on cordierite, are not as tough as other structural ceramics such as alumina, silicon nitride, silicon carbide, zirconia, etc. It is desirable to enhance glass-ceramic toughness for certain applications and techniques have been proposed to achieve that end. It is known, for example, that fibers of metallic glass ribbon reinforcement of glass ceramic matrix provide improvement in the fracture toughness of the glass-ceramic matrices formed by heat treatment of the composites. This is described in papers by R. U. Vaidya and K. N. Subramanian, "Reinforced Glass-Ceramic Matrix Composites", Journal of Materials Science, 25 (1990), pp. 3291-3296 and "Elevated Temperature Mechanical Properties of Continuous Metallic Glass Ribbon-Reinforced Glass-Ceramic Matrix Composites", Journal of Materials Science, 26 (1991) pp. 1391-1394. The described toughening techniques reportedly include laying out the metallic glass ribbons within glass powders in a steel die, pressing the composite specimens at 3000 p.s.i., heating to 200.degree. C. to drive out organic binder and then sintering and devitrifying at 400.degree. C. and 450.degree. C., respectively. The problem of the toughening of glass ceramic substrates subjected to more rigorous high temperature (up to 1000.degree. C.) sintering in steam was not addressed.
Brownlow, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,731, discloses the steam sintering of ceramic materials containing conductive pathways suitable for the packaging of semiconductor device chips. This patent teaches a steam sintering cycle for glass-ceramic in which nickel or palladium is added to the glass-ceramic green sheets as catalysts for carbon removal by oxidation. NiO and Pd (NO.sub.3).sub.2 were used as the catalytic agents. Material properties of the sintered ceramic, such as toughness and strength are not discussed.

Toughened glass ceramic substrates for semiconductor devices subjected to oxidizing atmospheres during sintering

International Business Machines Corporation


Embodiments of mechanisms of forming a semiconductor device structure are provided. The semiconductor device structure includes a substrate and a gate stack structure formed on the substrate. The semiconductor device structure also includes gate spacers formed on sidewalls of the gate stacks. The semiconductor device structure includes doped regions formed in the substrate. The semiconductor device structure also includes a strained source and drain (SSD) structure adjacent to the gate spacers, and the doped regions are adjacent to the SSD structure. The semiconductor device structure includes SSD structure has a tip which is closest to the doped region, and the tip is substantially aligned with an inner side of gate spacers.

Semiconductor devices are used in a variety of electronic applications, such as personal computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and other electronic equipment. Semiconductor devices are typically fabricated by sequentially depositing insulating or dielectric layers, conductive layers, and semiconductor layers of materials over a semiconductor substrate, and patterning the various material layers using lithography to form circuit components and elements thereon.
The semiconductor industry continues to improve the integration density of various electronic components (e.g., transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors, etc.) by continual reductions in minimum feature size, which allow more components to be integrated into a given area. These smaller electronic components also require smaller packages that utilize less area than packages of the past, in some applications.
A MOSFET with stressor regions is often formed by using epitaxially grown semiconductor materials to form source and drain features. Various techniques directed at the shapes, configurations, and materials of the source and drain features have been implemented to further improve transistor device performance. Although existing approaches have been generally adequate for their intended purposes, they have not been entirely satisfactory in all respects.

Strained source and drain (SSD) structure and method for forming the same

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD


The method is for entering data into a computer device. A wearable device (10) is attaching to a hand (212). The device (10) has a lower unit (14) placed in a palm (106) of the hand and an upper unit (16) placed behind knuckles (17) of the hand and connected to the lower unit (14). A sensor (202) has transducers (260, 262, 264, 266, 268) in operative engagement with fingers (250, 252, 254, 256, 258). The sensor (202) has a position sensor (210) associated with an electronic cursor or sign (211) displayed on a screen (213). The fingers and/or hand are moved to switch the sensor (202) from a keyboard mode to a mouse mode. The hand (212) is shifted in a first direction to move the cursor (211) in the first direction on the screen (213).

Conventional data input interfaces with computers most often requires keyboards. It is sometimes cumbersome to use keyboards especially if the computer or communication device is very small so that each letter or command button is also very small. For example, it is very inconvenient to enter text messages into a mobile phone or PDA because the devices are so small. In other situations, it is simply inconvenient to use a conventional keyboard because there is not sufficient room for the user to use the relatively large keyboards. This is particularly true when the user needs to enter data in a keyboard mode and to manipulate command by using mouse commands. There is a need for a convenient and reliable way of entering and manipulating data in a computer device. The method of the present invention provides a solution to the above-outlined problems. More particularly, the method of the present invention is a method for entering data into a computer device. A wearable device is attaching to a hand. The device has a lower unit placed in a palm of the hand and an upper unit placed behind knuckles of the hand and connected to the lower unit. A sensor has transducers in operative engagement with fingers. The sensor has a position sensor associated with an electronic cursor displayed on a screen. The fingers are moved to switch the sensor from a keyboard mode to a mouse mode. The hand is turned in a first direction to move the cursor in the first direction on the screen.


A memory control circuit unit including a plurality of data randomizer circuits and a data selection circuit is provided. When a first data stream is received from a host system, the first data stream is input into the data randomizer circuits to respectively output a plurality of second data streams. The data selection circuit selects one of the second data streams as a third data stream according to contents of the second data streams, and the third data stream is programmed into a rewritable non-volatile memory module. Accordingly, data written into the rewritable non-volatile memory module can be effectively disarranged.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to a memory control circuit unit for controlling a rewritable non-volatile memory module, a memory storage apparatus using the memory control circuit unit, and a data accessing method thereof.
Description of Related Art
The growth of digital cameras, mobile phones, and MP3 players has been expanded rapidly in recent years. Consequently, the consumers' demand for storage media has increased tremendously. A rewritable non-volatile memory is one of the most adaptable memories for portable electronic products such as notebook computers due to its data non-volatility, low power consumption, small volume, non-mechanical structure and high read/write speed. A solid state drive is a storage apparatus which utilizes a flash memory as its storage medium. For these reasons, the flash memory has become an import part of the electronic industries.
With advancements in the semiconductor fabrication, a flash memory module having a memory cell capable of storing a plurality data bits has been developed in the current technology. Specifically, a data writing (or known as programming) of the flash memory module changes on-state of a channel of the memory cell in order to present different storage states by applying a voltage to a specific terminal of a flash memory device (e.g., amount of electrons in an charge-trapping layer of a gate may be changed by controlling a gate voltage). Take a Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND type flash memory for example, when a lower page data is 1 and an upper page data is 1, a control circuit may control a word line control circuit not to change the gate voltage in the memory cell but maintain the storage state of the memory cell at "11"; when the lower page data is 1 and the upper page data is 0, the word line control circuit changes the gate voltage in the memory cell under control of the control circuit, so as to change the storage state of the memory cell to be "10"; when the lower page data is 0 and the upper page data is 0, the word line control circuit changes the gate voltage in the memory cell under control of the control circuit, so as to change the storage state of the memory cell to be "00," and, when the lower page data is 0 and the upper page data is 1, the word line control circuit changes the gate voltage in the memory cell under control of the control circuit, so as to change the storage state of the memory cell to be "01." In other words, when data is read, the control circuit identifies the storage state of a current memory cell according to the gate voltage in the current memory cell.
However, in such architecture where one memory cell is capable of storing multiple bits, if data stored on the memory cells of the same word line is not disarranged properly, errors may occur on the data identification due to factors such as uneven arrangement, shifts in reading voltage or uneven resistance on bit lines. Accordingly, it is one of the major subjects in the industry as how to effectively disarrange the written data when executing a programming operation on the rewritable non-volatile memory module.
Nothing herein should be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art of any portion of the present invention. Furthermore, citation or identification of any document in this application is not an admission that such document is available as prior art to the present invention, or that any reference forms a part of the common general knowledge in the art.

Memory control circuit unit, memory storage apparatus and data accessing method


An arctangent detector according to the present invention generates a demodulated signal based on the result of arctangent calculation of the ratio between an in-phase component and a quadrature component obtained from a frequency modulation (FM) received signal that are perpendicular to each other. A median filter substitutes the median value of the sample values obtained by sampling the demodulated signal generated by the arctangent detector as many times as the point number for the current value of the demodulated signal and outputs a resultant signal. The point number altering unit alters the point number in the median filter based on the signal intensity of the FM received signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a frequency modulation (FM) receiver. More particularly, the present invention is preferably applicable to a method by which a pulse noise generated by an arctangent detector can be reduced.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some FM receivers include arctangent detectors to demodulate FM received signals (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H6-77734). An in-phase component and a quadrature component perpendicular to each other obtained from an FM received signal are input to the arctangent detector. The arctangent (arctan) calculation of the ratio between the in-phase component and the quadrature component is performed, and the derivative value of the result of the calculation is output as a demodulated signal.
The arctangent detector generates a pulse noise when a weak electric field signal having a poor S/N ratio is input thereto. Therefore, in a conventional FM receiver, an output from the arctangent detector is passed through a low-pass filter, thereby removing such a pulse noise.
In a method by which a pulse noise is removed by using a low-pass filter, however, a high-frequency signal component that is fundamentally necessary is also removed. Therefore, an audio signal reproduced by an FM receiver may be deteriorated.


A query processor caches data retrieved from executing prepared statements, and uses the cached data for subsequent accesses to the data, if certain conditions for using the cached data are met. The preferred embodiments also include a data staleness handler that takes care of issues that arise from data that may have changed in the database but is not reflected in the cache. One way to handle data staleness in the cache is to specifically enable or disable caching in a query. If caching is disabled, the query processor will access the data in the database. Another way to handle data staleness in the cache is to provide a timer that causes the cache to be invalidated when the timer times out. Yet another way to handle data staleness in the cache is to provide specified conditions that must be met for caching to occur, such as time or date limitations. Still another way to handle data staleness in the cache is to provide an update trigger for the data in the database that corresponds to the cached data. When the data in the database is updated, the update trigger fires, causing the cache to be invalidated. Note that invalidating the cache could also be followed by automatically updating the cache. By caching the results of processing a prepared statement, other queries that use the same prepared statement may be able to access data in the cache instead of going to the database.

1. Technical Field
This invention generally relates to computer systems, and more specifically relates to apparatus and methods for accessing data in a computer database.
2. Background Art
Since the dawn of the computer age, computers have evolved and become more and more powerful. In our present day, computers have become indispensable in many fields of human endeavor including engineering design, machine and process control, information storage and retrieval, and office computing. One of the primary uses of computers is for information storage and retrieval.
Database systems have been developed that allow a computer to store a large amount of information in a way that allows a user to search for and retrieve specific information in the database. For example, an insurance company may have a database that includes all of its policy holders and their current account information, including payment history, premium amount, policy number, policy type, exclusions to coverage, etc. A database system allows the insurance company to retrieve the account information for a single policy holder among the thousands and perhaps millions of policy holders in its database.
Data is often accessed in a database using queries. A query is a statement in a particular syntax that specifies what data in the database to retrieve. A query processor typically processes a query and retrieves data from the database that matches parameters specified in the query. One particular type of query is known as a prepared statement, which is a query statement that contains variables. The prepared statement is used by specifying values for the variables, then executing the statement. Prepared statements enhance the efficiency of a query processor because once the prepared statement has been evaluated, it can be executed by the query processor using new values for the variables without having to perform all of the work to process the statement anew.
Some prepared statements are executed numerous times on data that does not often change. The use of the prepared statements reduces the work that must be performed by the query processor, but the data must still be retrieved from the database each time the prepared statement is executed. Without an apparatus and method that reduces the time to access data that seldom changes in a database, the computer industry will continue to suffer from excessive overhead in accessing database data.

Computer apparatus and method for caching results of a database query


A fuel delivery device for a fuel tank comprising a float chamber for sucking fuel in a normal state, a sub chamber for sucking a small quantity of fuel remaining within a tank and a communication chamber for communicating the float chamber and the sub chamber to each other in lower portions thereof En the fuel delivery device for a fuel tank, a sub float chamber is provided above the sub chamber, the sub float chamber has a gas discharge port communicating with-the fuel tank in an upper portion, a vent hole communicating with the sub chamber in a lower portion and a sub float valve within, and the sub float valve ascends and descends in accordance with a quantity of an excess fuel returned to the sub float chamber from the engine so as to open and close the vent hole. Further, in the fuel delivery device for a fuel tank, a bypass passage having bent passage sections of down, up and down which is formed by arranging a lower separation wall having a gap in an upper portion with respect to a communication passage for feeding out fuel from the sub chamber to the communication chamber and an upper separation wall having a gap in a lower portion with respect to the communication passage in order is formed within the sub chamber and the bypass passage and the communication passage are connected to each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel delivery device of a fuel tank for a vehicle, which supplies fuel to an engine.
2. Prior Art
A conventional fuel delivery device comprises, for example as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,175, a float chamber having a float valve within, a sub chamber having a mesh filter within and a communication chamber for communicating therebetween. When the fuel in the fuel tank is sufficient, since the float valve comes up and a main fuel introduction inlet is opened so that the float chamber and the communication chamber are communicated to each other, the fuel within the fuel tank is sucked to the communication chamber and a fuel pump through the float chamber and further is supplied to the engine. However, when the fuel is decreased, the float valve comes down and the main fuel introduction inlet is closed so that the suction force by the fuel pump is applied to the sub chamber and a small quantity of fuel remaining in the fuel tank is sucked through a fuel suction conduit so as to be introduced to the sub chamber, thereafter the fuel sucked from the sub chamber to the communication chamber and the fuel pump is supplied to the engine.
In the example disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,175, a function of the float valve within the float chamber is mainly improved and no particular attention has been given to the sub chamber. However, immediately after the suction of the fuel to the communication chamber is switched from the float chamber to the sub chamber, air (containing a gasified fuel) collected in the sub chamber is sucked to the communication chamber and is often fed to the fuel pump and the engine. Further, after the fuel is sucked from the fuel suction conduit, air comes into the sub chamber together with the fuel and the air is sucked to the communication chamber in a similar manner to that in the above case so that there is a risk that air is supplied to the fuel pump and further to the engine. This means that an appropriate mixture of fuel and air can not supplied with respect to the engine and this causes a trouble in an output of the engine.
Since a small quantity of fuel remaining in the fuel tank is sucked to the sub chamber, it is easily expected that air is sucked to the sub chamber together with the fuel. However, it is difficult to suck only the fuel with completely removing the air and if it is desired to achieve this, this achievement causes an increase of a cost. Since the more the fuel tank becomes flat, the more the fuel suction at a time when the liquid surface of the fuel is swung fuel sucking (to the engine) becomes unstable, such a suction of air easily occurs.


Embodiments are directed to apparatuses and methods of waveform equalization. More specifically, various embodiments provide independent rise and fall waveform shaping equalization. There are other embodiments as well.

Embodiments are directed to waveform shaping, and in particular to equalization approaches that independently address waveform rise and fall.
In today's communication applications, the data rates go beyond giga-bits per second. This high-speed data travels through the package, board, and then reach the receiver.
For optical communications, the electrical signals are converted to optic signals through non-linear devices such as laser diodes. However, high-speed signals may be distorted by the non-ideal channels. These can include but are not limited to a package, vias, traces, connectors, laser diodes, and others.
Such distortions can serve to increase the receiver bit error rates. Unaddressed, they can eventually result in the failure of the communication system.

Method and apparatus for independent rise and fall waveform shaping


This invention relates to a new class of polyene polyketides, their pharmaceutically acceptable salts and derivatives, and to methods for obtaining the compounds. One method of obtaining these compounds is by cultivation of novel strains of Streptomyces aizunensis; another method involves expression of biosynthetic pathway genes in transformed host cells. The present invention further relates to the novel strains of Streptomyces aizunensis used to produce these compounds, to the use of these compounds and their pharmaceutically acceptable salts and derivatives as pharmaceuticals, in particular to their use as inhibitors of fungal cell growth and cancer cell growth. The invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions comprising these novel polyketides or a pharmaceutically acceptable salts or derivatives thereof. Finally, the invention relates to novel polynucleotide sequences and their encoded proteins, which are involved in the biosynthesis of these novel polyketides.

Actinomycetes comprise a family of bacteria that are abundant in soil and have generated significant commercial and scientific interest as a result of the large number of therapeutically useful antibiotics, antifungals, anticancer and cholesterol-lowering agents, produced as secondary metabolites by these bacteria. Many actinomycetes, particularly those of the Streptomyces genus, have been extensively studied because of their ability to produce a notable diversity of biologically active metabolites. The intensive search for new natural products has led to the identification of new species of bacteria and the creation of improved strains.
Polyene polyketides are a group of natural products produced by actinomycetes that have generated significant commercial interest. For example Sakuda et al, 1996 J. of Chem. Soc., Perkin trans. 1, 2315-19; and Sakuda et al., Tetrahedron Letters, Vol 35, No. 16, 2777-2789 (1995) disclose the linear polyene linearmycin A produced by a Streptomyces sp. Sakuda et al. report that linearmycin A has shown both antifungal and antibacterial activity. Pawlak et al. J of Antibiotics, Vol. XXXIII No. 9, 989-997 disclose the polyene macrolide lienomycin produced by Actinomyces diastatochromogenes. Pawlak et al. report that lienomycin has shown antifungal, antibacterial and anti-tumor activity. Antifungal activity of polyene macrolides has also been correlated with hyperchlesterolemic effect (C. P. Schaffner, Polyene Microlides in Clinical Practice, in Macrolide Antibiotics: Chemistry, biology and practice, S. Omura, ed. Academic Press (1984), p. 491; C. P. Schaffner and H. W. Gordon, Proc Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 61, 36 (1968)).
Polyketides have carbon chain backbones formed of two-carbon units through a series of condensations reactions and subsequent modifications. Type I polyketides are synthesized in nature by modular polyketide synthase (PKS) enzymes having a set of separate catalytic active sites for each cycle of carbon chain elongation and modification. Because of the multimodular nature of PKS proteins, much is known of the specificity and mechanism of the biosynthesis of polyketides.
Although many biologically active compounds have been identified, there remains the need to obtain novel naturally occurring compounds with enhanced properties. Current methods of obtaining such compounds include screening of natural isolates and chemical modification of existing compounds, both of which are costly and time consuming. Current screening methods are based on general biological properties of the compound, which require prior knowledge of the structure of the molecules. Methods for chemically modifying known active compounds exist, but still suffer from practical limitations as to the type of compounds obtainable.
Thus, there exists a considerable need to obtain pharmaceutically active compounds in a cost-effective manner and with high yield. The present invention solves these problems by providing improved strains of Streptomyces aizunensis capable of producing potent new therapeutic compounds, as well as reagents (e.g. polynucleotides, vectors comprising the polynucleotides and host cells comprising the vectors) and methods to generate novel compounds by de novo biosynthesis rather than by chemical synthesis.

Polyene polyketides, processes for their production and their use as a pharmaceutical


A loop thermosyphon system has a semiconductor die with a plurality of microchannels. A condenser is in fluid communication with the microchannels. A wicking structure wicks fluid between the condenser to the semiconductor die.

The complexity and cost associated with power dissipation in computing systems continues to grow with increasing demands on computing performance. These systems commonly employ numerous semiconductor packages that must be coupled to sufficient power dissipation capacity. Air cooling of the packages may not be sufficient in systems incorporating highly dense physical architectures; in such instances, liquid cooling of the packages may be required.
Certain prior art techniques couple fluid (e.g., water or alcohol) directly to the semiconductor package to address thermal dissipation requirements. However, these techniques provide only a fraction of the total required thermal dissipation because most of the thermal impedance is internal to the semiconductor package, thereby dominating how thermal dissipation occurs, irrespective of coupling fluid or thermal sinks attached to the package. Accordingly, a reduction of the package's internal thermal impedance is needed in order to make significant improvement to overall thermal dissipation.
The prior art has also attempted to incorporate microchannels within the semiconductor element (or "die") of the package, to improve cooling efficiency. Each microchannel is for example etched into the semiconductor substrate so as to provide increased cooling area to the substrate. In one example, these microchannels are formed as a series of "fins" in the substrate to assist in dissipating internally-generated heat. One difficulty with the prior art's use of microchannels is that high pressure is used to couple fluid to the die; a pressure pump forces the fluid to flow through the microchannels. This pressure pump has significant failure modes that make it risky to use within computing systems.
The prior art has also attempted to utilize "loop thermosyphon" techniques to cool the semiconductor package. Loop thermosyphon of the prior art utilizes an evaporator, such as a metal block, to thermally cool the semiconductor package by coupling cooling liquid therebetween. The package heats up to generate vapor from the liquid, and the density differences between the liquid and the vapor assists heat transfer between the evaporator and the semiconductor package. However, loop thermosyphon of the prior art also does not reduce internal thermal impedance of the semiconductor package and, therefore, it too does not dissipate enough thermally generated energy from the package.

Loop thermosyphon with wicking structure and semiconductor die as evaporator

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP.


A ceramics heater comprises a circular heater plate formed of aluminum nitride and a metal foil heater wire formed of a high-melting metal and having a thickness of 100 μm to 175 μm. The heater wire is embedded in the heater plate. The heater wire has an inside portion located near the center of the heater plate and formed in zigzags at first pitches in the circumferential direction of the heater plate and an outside portion located near the outer periphery of the heater plate and formed in zigzags at second pitches in the circumferential direction of the heater plate. The second pitches are shorter than the first pitches.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ceramics heater used to heat works such as wafers, glass substrates, etc. in semiconductor manufacturing processes or the like, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ceramics heaters for heating wafers are used to perform CVD (chemical vapor deposition), PVD (plasma vapor deposition), etching, etc. in semiconductor manufacturing processes. The ceramics heaters are also used in filming apparatuses for forming thin films on glass substrates.
A conventional ceramics heater, such as the one described in Jpn. Pat. Appln. No. 3011528, includes a heater plate of ceramics, a metal foil heater wire embedded in the heater plate, etc. The heater plate is formed of a sintered product of silicon nitride or aluminum nitride. The metal foil heater wire, which is formed of a high-melting metal such as tungsten, is embedded concentrically or spirally in the heater plate.
In one such conventional ceramics heater, a metal foil heater wire having a thickness of 50 μm or less, in particular, is embedded in sintered ceramics. Possibly, the ceramics heaters involve the following problems.
[Problem 1]
Since the heater wire is thin and has a small cross section, its area ratio (S1/S2) is very low. S1 is the overall surface area of the heater wire, and S2 is the area of a work bearing surface of the heater plate. In this case, the heater plate has a lot of regions that are apart from the heater wire in the diametrical direction. Therefore, the temperature change in the diametrical direction increases with distance from the center of the heater plate, as indicated by two-dot chain line L1 in FIG. 4. Thus, the conventional ceramics heater is poor in temperature uniformity.
The heater plate for heating wafers in the semiconductor manufacturing processes, in particular, requires the maintenance of uniform temperature distribution, so that unevenness in its temperature is a serious problem. If its temperature is uneven, the heater plate is subjected to a thermal stress greater than in the case where the temperature distribution is uniform, so that it may be broken.
[Problem 2]
In the process of embedding the heater wire in ceramics material powder and sintering it, its surface layers react with carbon in the ceramics material and are carbonized, so that they may possibly suffer grain boundary cracks. If the heater wire is thin, grain boundary cracks 4 inevitably advance to the interior of a heater wire 1 through a reactive layer 3 between the heater wire 1 and ceramics 2, shown in FIG. 7 or 8. The heater wire 1 shown in FIG. 7 is 25 μm thick, while the heater wire 1 shown in FIG. 8 is 50 μm thick. FIGS. 7 and 8 are sectional views based on SEM (scanning electron microscope) photographs.
If the heater wire suffers the aforesaid grain boundary cracks, its electrical resistance is caused to exceed a normal value in the process of sintering the ceramics material powder. If the electrical resistance of the heater wire becomes higher, sufficient current cannot flow, so that the temperature characteristics of the ceramics heater are adversely affected.
[Problem 3]
Since the conventional heater wire is thin and has a small cross section, its load density (Q/S1) is high. Q is the heating value of the heater wire, and S1 is the overall surface area of the wire. If the load density is high, the heater wire may possibly snap during use (or when it is supplied with current). Since the heater wire is thin, moreover, variation of its thickness causes substantial fluctuations of the heating value and exerts a bad influence upon the temperature uniformity. Possibly, furthermore, the heater wire may snap when it is embedded in the ceramics material or sintered unless it is embedded carefully.


A method of forming a via. A substrate having a first conductive layer thereon is provided. An inter-metal dielectric layer is formed over the substrate layer by high density plasma chemical vapor deposition. An etch stop layer is formed on the inter-metal dielectric layer. An oxide layer is formed on the etch stop layer. The oxide layer is defined, so that a shallow opening aligned with the first conductive layer is formed to exposed the inter-metal dielectric layer. The inter-metal dielectric layer is etched away within the shallow opening until the first conductive layer is exposed. The opening is filled with a second conductive layer. The oxide layer is defined by photolithography and etching with a first selectivity, with which the oxide layer has a comparable etching rate to the etch stop layer. The inter-metal dielectric layer is etched with a second selectivity, with which the inter-metal dielectric layer has an etching rate higher than the etch stop layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of forming a via, and more particularly, to a method of forming an unlanded via penetrating through an inter-metal dielectric (IMD).
2. Description of the Related Art
As the integration of semiconductor devices increase, the dimensions of devices cannot supply enough area for interconnection. To match the requirements of the metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) devices with smaller dimensions, designs of multilevel interconnections are adapted in most of the integrated circuits (ICs). Normally, an inter-metal dielectric (IMD) layer is used to isolate two conductive layers. By the formation of a via, the conductive layers are electrically connected.
In FIG. 1A to FIG. 1E, a conventional method of forming a via penetrating an inter-metal dielectric layer is shown. In FIG. 1A, a substrate 10 having a conductive layer 11, for example, a metal layer or a poly-silicon layer, formed and defined thereon is provided. In FIG. 1B, an inter-metal dielectric layer 12 is formed over the substrate 10 by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), for example, by atmosphere pressure CVD (APCVD), low pressure CVD (LPCVD), or plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD).
In FIG. 1C, to achieve a global planarization, the inter-metal dielectric layer 12 is polished by chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP).
In FIG. 1D and FIG. 1E, forming a photo-resist layer 13 on the inter-metal dielectric layer 12. Using photolithography and etching, the photo-resist layer 13 is defined to form an opening 14, so that the conductive layer 11 is exposed therewithin. The etching is divided into two stages. In the first stage, a main etching is performed. The etching time is estimated in accordance with the material of the inter-metal dielectric layer 12. In the second stage, an over etching is performed. In the first stage, a residue of the inter-metal dielectric layer 12 is remained within the opening 14, so that a poor contact to the conductive layer 11 is caused. Therefore, the second stage is performed to ensure a proper contact to the conductive layer 11. The etching time in the second stage is normally shorter than that in the first stage.
In FIG. 1F, the photo-resist layer 13 is removed. A conductive layer is formed on the inter-metal dielectric layer 12 and fills the opening 14. Using dry etching or chemical-mechanical polishing, the conductive layer is etched back to form a via 16. A metal layer 15 is then formed on the inter-metal dielectric layer 12. The electrical connection between the conductive layer 11 and the metal layer 15 is performed by the conductive layer 16 within the opening 14.
Since the etching time is estimated in accordance with the material of the inter-metal dielectric layer, in case of a multi-layer structure or improper time control, a proper contact cannot be obtained. In particularly, as semiconductor devices are designed and developed towards a smaller and smaller dimension, the opening for forming a via becomes narrower and narrower. The aspect ratio is thus larger. In case that etching time is too short, a poor contact occurs as shown in FIG. 2. On the other hand, if a misalignment occurs between the opening and the conductive layer or the etching time is controlled to long, a short circuit occurs as shown in FIG. 3. Moreover, if moisture is absorbed, a void is form in the via.


A motor vehicle roof with a series of sliding louvers for selectively closing or at least partially exposing a roof opening in a fixed roof surface, in which the louvers abut one another in the closed position and form a flat interconnected louver assembly that is guided along guides such that, when the louvers are displaced in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, the louver assembly executes translational movement which causes the assembly to be separate on a louver by louver basis by pivoting each individual louver forward in an opening direction, and to be re-established when the roof is closed. Each louver (10a-10e) in the closed position is sealed on each side of the roof opening by a hollow chamber seal (30) that has a sealing surface (36) which is engaged by the louver side edges (37). To reduce seal friction and for improved tolerance compensation, the sealing surface (36), faces upwardly the top of the roof at an angle relative to the louvers (10a-10e) and is inclined in a downward direction toward a longitudinal center of the roof opening. Furthermore, the side edge (37) of the louvers, in the closed position, engage the sealing surface (36) roughly in its center.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a motor vehicle roof with a series of sliding louvers for selectively closing or at least partially exposing a roof opening in fixed roof surface, the louvers abutting one another in the closed position and forming a flat interlocked louver assembly which is guided along guides such that, when the louvers are slid in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, the flat interlocked louver assembly executes a translational movement which causes the louvers of the assembly to be separated one-by-one via a upward swivelling of the individual louvers in an opening direction, or which causes the separated louvers to be re-assembled by swivelling downward of the louvers as the roof is closed, each louver in the closed position, on either side of roof opening, being sealed by means of a hollow chamber sealing element which seals by a sealing surface engaging a louver side edge.
2. Description of Related Art
A motor vehicle roof of the type to which the invention is directed is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,961. As in a conventional sliding and lifting roof, in this known motor vehicle roof, the sliding louvers are sealed laterally relative to the roof opening. The hollow chamber sealing elements used for this purpose project laterally from the roof opening edge toward the louvers and abut the blunt louver side edge over a large area. While this sealing arrangement ensures the required sealing function, the relatively high seal friction is problematic when using a louver material with greater thermal expansion, for example, aluminum or plastic. In particular, when using a large number of movable louvers, as a result of the large friction surfaces between the sealing elements and the sliding louvers, strong drive forces are necessary. Due to the necessary compensation for play transversely relative to the longitudinal center of the roof opening, between the louver drive mechanism and louvers, there is furthermore the danger of twisting of the louver system due to the greatly limited louver motion transversely to the longitudinal center of the roof opening.
Comparable problems arise in the lifting motor vehicle roof known from German Patent DE 31 43 346 C2 in which, to seal the glass cover in the roof opening, opposite the bordering roof surface, there is a hollow chamber sealing element which projects towards the top of the roof and is squeezed together by the edge of the closed glass cover, such that it has a cross section in a roughly L shape, surrounding the roof cover edge and also the bottom of the roof cover.
Furthermore, a seal arrangement for a motor vehicle roof with a series of sliding louvers using a hollow chamber sealing element is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,635. In this known motor vehicle roof, the hollow chamber sealing element is clamped in the louver closing position between the bottom of a roof opening groove and a stepped surface on the edge of the louver, the step surface always remaining under the roof edge in any position of the louver. The aforementioned problems do not arise in the same way in this sealing arrangement, since the louvers there do not emerge upwardly from the roof opening.

Motor vehicle roof with a sequence of sliding louvers


Techniques for detecting a high gas pressure situation within a gas delivery system (e.g., for natural gas delivery to homes and businesses) are described. In one example, a device measures gas pressure. If a pressure over a threshold value is detected, a nearby device is messaged. The nearby device either confirms the over-pressure condition or indicates it may be more localized. If the condition is present within an area of the gas delivery system and/or within a group of devices within the gas delivery system, protective measures may be taken, such as closing valves providing gas to a number of service sites.

If gas pressure within a portion of a gas distribution system gets too high, it can cause pipes to burst, the venting of gas, dangerous pilot lights, damage to appliances and/or buildings, and even fires and explosions. Monitoring gas pressure is a complex matter, in part because pressure can vary due to many factors, including gas supply, user gas demand, pipe lengths, bends, joints, and gas friction with pipe interiors and other gas. Moreover, known systems tend to respond slowly to over-pressure events, in part because of latencies within communication networks, headend application latencies, and human delays. Accordingly, substantial gas pressure increases can result in damage before the increases are detected, reversed and/or mitigated.

Network edge detection and notification of gas pressure situation


A laser printer includes a photosensitive drum on which a toner image corresponding to an electrostatic latent image is formed, and a transfer roller in confronting relation to the photosensitive roller for transferring the toner image to a sheet passing between the drum and the transfer roller. The printer also includes a fixing portion at which the toner image on the sheet is fixed. A control unit is connected to the transfer roller for controlling a transfer bias to be applied thereto. A panel switch is provided to select one of a printing mode and a lamination mode. If lamination mode is selected, the fixing portion heat-seals a pair of lamination sheet members. In the lamination mode, no bias voltage is applied to the transfer roller when the lamination sheet members are passing between the photosensitive drum and the transfer roller for preventing residual toner on the drum and the roller from being transferred onto the lamination sheet members.

The present invention relates to an image forming device provided with a laminating function.
In a conventional image forming device such as a laser printer, there is provided a developing portion, a transfer portion, and a fixing portion. In the developing portion, an electrostatic latent image is formed on a photosensitive drum based on an imaging information, and a toner image corresponding to the electrostatic latent image is formed on the photosensitive drum. In the transfer portion, an image recording medium such as a sheet is interposed between the photosensitive drum and a transfer member imparted with a transfer bias voltage for transferring the toner image onto the sheet. In the fixing portion, the toner image transferred onto the sheet is fixed by heating the sheet. A sheet feed passage is provided passing successively through the transfer portion and the fixing portion.
In an electrophotographic type image forming device such as the laser printer and a facsimile machine those performing high speed printing, printing data such as text data and graphic data are transmitted from an external device such as a host computer or a personal computer. In the image forming device, the inputted printing data are developed into bit image data, and the developed bit image data are stored in a printing image buffer. In the developing portion, a line-base electrostatic latent image is successively formed on the photosensitive drum at every one dot line corresponding to one raster retrieved from the printing image buffer.
In a recent demand, a sheet protection such as a lamination becomes popular in such a manner that a rectangular sheet such as a card or a drive license card printed with an image is sandwiched and hermetically sealed by a pair of transparent lamination sheet members whose size is slightly greater than the rectangular card. For the lamination process, a lamination device is used where the pair of lamination sheet members are pressed at relatively high temperature.
As described above, the laser printer provides the fixing portion where the sheet is nipped between a heat roller and a pressure roller so as to pressedly melt the toner which has been transferred onto the sheet. To this effect, the fixing portion is adapted to generate a heating temperature of about 150.degree. C. Thus, the fixing portion of the laser printer is available for the lamination process in terms of heating and pressing the lamination sheet members.
In this regards, there has been proposed an image forming device capable of performing a lamination process by allowing the lamination sheet members to pass through the sheet feed passage if the image forming process is not conducted.
With this arrangement, pressing force and heat provided by the fixing portion can be effectively utilized.
However, if the pair of lamination sheet members are merely fed past the sheet feed passage, residual toners on the photosensitive drum may be adhered onto the lamination sheet members even if the developing operation is not performed. As a result, surfaces of the lamination sheet members may be darkened by the toners. In other words, the surface of the lamination sheet members is contaminated with the toner. Then if the contaminated lamination sheet members is subjected to heat lamination, the toner is fixed on the lamination sheet members to provide a fog which is a dark, hazy deposit or veil of uniform density over all or parts of a surface of the lamination sheet members. Such disadvantage may be accelerated if the developing portion is operated for a prolonged period.

Image forming device having laminating function


The UML model integration and refactoring method steps include extending the metamodels, composing an integrated UML model derived from the extended metamodels, defining refactoring opportunities and transformation operations during the integrated UML composition, and applying a set of composite refactorings to remove an identified smell from the integrated UML model.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Unified Modeling Language (UML) metamodeling with respect to refactoring, and particularly to a UML model integration and refactoring method that integrates use case, object constraint language (OCL), sequence, and class description metamodels.
2. Description of the Related Art
Code refactoring is a "disciplined technique for restructuring an existing body of code, altering its internal structure without changing its external behavior", undertaken in order to improve some of the nonfunctional attributes of the software. Code refactoring provides improved code readability and reduced complexity to improve the maintainability of the source code, as well as a more expressive internal architecture or object model to improve extensibility.
By continuously improving the design of code, developers make it easier and easier to work with. This is in sharp contrast to what typically happens, which is little refactoring and a great deal of attention paid to expediently adding new features. Continuous refactoring of code makes it easier to extend and maintain code.
Typically, refactoring is done by applying a series of standardized basic "micro-refactorings", each of which is a (usually) tiny change in a computer program's source code that either preserves the behavior of the software or at least does not modify its conformance to functional requirements. Many development environments provide automated support for carrying out the mechanical aspects of these basic refactorings.
In computer programming, code smell is any symptom in the source code of a program that possibly indicates a deeper problem. Code smells are usually not bugs. They are not technically incorrect and don't currently prevent the program from functioning. Instead, they indicate weaknesses in design that may be slowing down development or increasing the risk of bugs or failures in the future. Refactoring is usually motivated by noticing a code smell. For example, the method at hand may be very long, or it may be a near duplicate of another nearby method. Once recognized, such problems can be addressed by refactoring the source code, or transforming it into a new form that behaves the same as before, but that no longer "smells". For a long routine, one or more smaller subroutines can be extracted; or for duplicate routines, the duplication can be removed and replaced with one shared function. Failure to perform refactoring can result in accumulating technical debt.
There are two general categories of benefits to the activity of refactoring. Maintainability is a benefit because it makes it easier to fix bugs due to the fact that the source code is easy to read and the intent of its author is easy to grasp. This might be achieved by reducing large monolithic routines into a set of individually concise, well-named, single-purpose methods. It might be achieved by moving a method to a more appropriate class, or by removing misleading comments. Extensibility is a benefit because it makes it easier to extend the capabilities of the software application if it uses recognizable design patterns, and it provides some flexibility where none before may have existed.
Software development utilizes a systematic approach to design and development in the software engineering discipline. Methodologies can either be expressed in natural language description, or by a modeling language if the underlying methodology is complex and non-trivial. Since software design is composed of diagrams and elements that refer to each other in complicated manner, it is more viable for it to be expressed by a modeling language, rather than described through natural language.
Due to the popularity of the Object-oriented (OO) paradigm, UML has been adopted as a modeling language to express OO development methodology. Gonzalez-Perez and Henderson-Sellers defined a relationship between a methodology, model, and a metamodel as, "If a methodology is a model, creating that methodology is modeling, whereas creating the language concepts used to describe the methodology is metamodeling".
The Object Management Group currently defines the UML language using a metamodel. The UML specification document defines the metamodel in terms of abstract syntax in which a class diagram describes the abstract syntax of UML, which is composed of meta-classes and meta-associations. A meta-class describes each model element (e.g. Class, Attribute, Lifeline, Use case etc.) and meta-associations describe the interrelationships between these meta-classes. The syntax of UML is well defined and unambiguous.
The UML specification document metamodel definition includes well-formedness Rules, i.e., the specification of constraints on instances of the meta-classes (that represent the UML language constructs) is through a set of well-formedness rules. These constraints for well formedness are semi-formal, specified by a combination of OCL expressions and an informal description.
Moreover, the UML specification document metamodel definition includes semantics, which describe the meanings of the meta-classes introduced in the abstract syntax. Semantics of the metamodel consists of natural language description of the language constructs and their collaboration. Although the use of natural language makes them easier to understand, it also includes some incomplete and ambiguous information.
One of the main reasons of why UML is popular among OO developers is because it allows extension or even modification of the base language metamodel in order to adapt the language to a specific situation or domain. Lightweight extension mechanism and Heavyweight extension mechanism are extension mechanism categories provided by UML.
Lightweight extension mechanisms are termed as lightweight because they do not add new model elements to the UML metamodel. UML profiles are used to implement these types of extensions. A UML Profile is a collection of extensions that are packaged together to customize UML for a particular domain. It specifies a set of standard elements, well-formedness rules and semantics, beyond those specified by the UML metamodel. A UML profile consists of stereotypes, tagged values and constraints.
Tagged values allow association of user defined variables or metadata to a model element. A tag value is represented by a name-value pair and must be compatible with the constraints of the base class of the model element. Constraints, on the other hand, allow addition of semantic restrictions to the model elements. Constraints, similar to UML semantics, are written in OCL and must also be compatible with the constraints of the base class of the model element. Tagged values and constraints are grouped under a meaningful name that forms a stereotype.
Stereotypes are defined as an extension to the UML model elements, which implies that the tagged values and constraints it contains are associated with the model element implicitly. The keywords <<stereotype>>, <<TaggedValue>> and <<Constraint>> are used when including them in the extended metamodel. The relationship between stereotypes, tagged values, and constraints as part of a UML profile metamodel is shown in FIG. 11.
Adding new elements in the form of meta-classes, and defining suitable metadata and meta-associations is referred to as heavyweight extension. These extensions are guided by the Meta-Object Facility's (MOF) meta-metamodel language. The MOF meta-metamodel is a standard provided by OMG for specifying, interchanging, and extending the UML metamodel. The metamodel constructed by using the heavyweight extension mechanism is more expressive, but might end up with an exceedingly complex notation.
Both these approaches have their share of advantages and disadvantages. Using the lightweight extension mechanism allows the availability of standard UML notation, and hence, generic UML tools could be used. On the other hand, the stereotypes must adhere to the constraints of the base element it extends, which severely limits its expressiveness.
Using the heavyweight extension mechanism makes the metamodel incompatible with UML-compliant tools, as the notation would not conform to the UML standard. However, using this extension mechanism allows addition of any desired feature to the metamodel.
Instances of the UML metamodel form a suite composed of all the UML models. UML models are classified into three categories, based on the aspect of the system they describe. These categories are referred to as views, including structural view, behavioral view, and functional view. The structural view includes diagrams that capture the physical organization of the basic elements (classes, objects etc.) in the system. It describes the static structure of the system.
The behavioral view includes diagrams that focus on the interactions between the elements in the system. This view represents how elements work together, interact, and respond to the environment. The functional view is a collection of diagrams that depict how a system is supposed to work, modeling the workflow and business processes. It captures information about the system from the user's perspective. An integrated approach combining these three views is desired, and the aforementioned refactoring should be applied thereto.
Thus, a UML model integration and refactoring method solving the aforementioned problems is desired.

KING FAHD UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM AND MINERALS

KING ABDULAZIZ CITY FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


A switch configured to enforce MIL-STD-1553B communication protocol is provided. The protocol is a request-response protocol allowing a bus controller to send a request and a remote terminal to send a response. In one embodiment, the switch is configured to isolate communication between a bus controller and each remote terminal by blocking non-compliant communications issued from any remote terminal. The switch may also isolate communication preventing a first remote terminal from receiving communication from a second remote terminal when the communication is not addressed to the first remote terminal. In another embodiment, a system provides isolation for bus controller to remote terminal communications by using one-to-one pairings of bus controller terminals to remote terminals. The switch may select a particular bus-controller-terminal-to-remote-terminal pairing from amongst a plurality of bus-controller-terminal-to-remote-terminal pairings. In certain embodiments, the switch records and reports information regarding communications from remote terminals not complying with the MIL-STD-1553B protocol.

The MIL-STD-1553B data bus is a standard protocol for controlling communication between components on board a vehicle such as an aircraft or a space vehicle. In particular, MIL-STD-1553B is a protocol for a digital, command/response, time-division multiplexing data bus 100, as shown in FIG. 1. The components include a processing element called a bus controller 105 that sends commands to subsystems 115, 120 on board a vehicle. Subsystems 115, 120 include sensors, actuators, etc. Subsystems 115, 120 interface electronically with the data bus 100 via a remote terminal, where the remote terminal can be a separate line replaceable unit such as remote terminal 110 or can be part of a subsystem with an embedded remote terminal 120. The standard defines the physical medium (a shielded, twisted wire pair cable 125 in a bus topology with all components electronically interfaced to cable 125; redundant cables 130 may be used for fault-tolerance); its transmission bit rate (1 megabit/second); the types of allowed words (command words, status words, and data words); the format for words (16 bits per word, where the position of each bit conveys meaning, plus a 3 microsecond sync (i.e., 3 bits worth of time) and a parity bit for a total of 20 bit-times per word); and the defined sequences for communication. See, for example, FIGS. 2 and 3 for various types of transfer sequences and mode command sequences. Under MIL-STD-1553B, bus controller 105 always initiates commands, and the other components (e.g., remote terminal 110) respond to the commands. For example, if data is to be transmitted to remote terminal 110, bus controller 105 transmits a command (e.g., a 'receive' command) followed by data words to remote terminal 110. See, for example, FIGS. 1 and 2.
Because communication is relayed between bus controller 105 and subsystems 115, 120 using cable 125, bus controller 105 has to split communication between each subsystem 115, 120 according to time. For example, for the first few hundred microseconds, bus controller 105 may communicate with subsystem 115 and, for the next few hundred microseconds, bus controller 105 may communicate with subsystem 120. Under MIL-STD-1553B, after bus controller 105 sends a command to, for example, remote terminal 110, bus controller 105 waits for a response from remote terminal 110 before sending another command to, for example, subsystem 120.
However, a problem associated with MIL-STD-1553B protocol is that MIL-STD-1553B is a protocol of trust. That is, each component and terminal is expected to follow the protocol, but there is nothing about the layout (topology) of bus cable 125, 130 to prevent a component from doing something not allowed by the protocol, such as sending a message out of turn or sending an incorrectly formatted message.
Thus, an improved way to regulate protocol components may be beneficial.

System, apparatus, and method for MIL-STD-1553B communication enforcement


‘Kakegawa S81’ is a new Calibrachoa cultivar particularly distinguished by having a deep rose flower color, a white corolla throat color and a semi-creeping growth habit.

The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of Calibrachoa, botanically known as Calibrachoa sp., and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name 'Kakegawa S81'. It is characterized by having a rose flower color, a white corolla throat color and a semi-creeping growth habit. The new cultivar originated from a hybridization made in Kakegawa, Japan in 1998. A proprietary Calibrachoa breeding line with white flowers and a creeping growth habit (female) was crossed with a proprietary Calibrachoa breeding line with rose flower color and a semi-creeping growth habit (male).
In February 1999, F1 seed from the above hybridization was sown in the greenhouse. Four single-plant selections were made based on their purple-pink flower color and semi-creeping growth habit and intercrossed to produce F2 seed. In August 1999, F2 seed was sown and 120 total plants were evaluated. One single-plant selection was made based on its deep rose flower color and semi-creeping growth habit and asexually propagated through rooted plant cuttings in both Kakegawa, Japan and Salinas, Calif. 'Kakegawa S81' has been shown to reproduce true to type in successive generations of asexual propagation.


A computer-implemented method for analyzing a user session within an online environment includes receiving, by a path analysis computer system, usage data related to a user session within an online environment, wherein the usage data includes a plurality of events occurring within the user session, and generating, by the path analysis computer system, a plurality of user paths for the user session based on the usage data, including generating a separate user path beginning with each of the plurality of events. Each of the user paths is generated by selecting one of the plurality of events as a starting event, and arranging the plurality of events subsequent to the starting event in order of occurrence, such that the user path includes the starting event and each of the subsequent events up to and including a final event.

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of web path analysis. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for determining and analyzing online usage data within a website or other online platform.
Web path analysis may be utilized to understand the behavior of users (e.g., visitors) of a website or other online platform. An example path analysis tool may collect data related to a chain of events performed by the user (e.g., user clicks, input, etc.) during a set period of time or in order to accomplish a particular task or transaction. The tool may also analyze the data collected in order to gain actionable insights into the user behavior. For instance, usage data for an online platform may be collected and analyzed in order to improve the efficiency of a particular user interface, for use in marketing a company's products, or for troubleshooting purposes.
Often it may be difficult to accurately determine a user's path within a particular browsing session. For example, the user may perform a similar task or operation using two separate and different paths, such as by beginning the task from a different starting point within the online platform. The user's path may also include extraneous information which can skew the analysis, such as movement back and forward between the same web pages or inadvertently refreshing the page before moving on to the subsequent action or event. Thus, it may not be useful to compare such dissimilar paths using the current path analysis tools.

Systems and methods for online user path analysis


The state monitoring system includes a plurality of objects of monitor of the same kind, a monitor unit for monitoring the plurality of objects of monitor to determine if any of them malfunctions, and a consolidating unit interposed between the plurality of objects of monitor and the monitor unit. The consolidating unit consolidates alarm signals sent from the objects of monitor for each group of objects of monitor. When detecting, on the basis of the result of consolidation, that one of each group of objects of monitor has malfunctioned, the consolidating unit notifies an associated monitor unit of the occurrence of one fault. When detecting that two or more objects of monitor have malfunctioned, the consolidating unit notifies the associated monitor unit of the occurrence of a plurality of faults. Each monitor unit is interconnected via a communicator thereof, and judges the states of objects of monitor by mutually transferring monitor data concerning its own system and monitor data concerning the other system. Owing to this configuration, the number of signal lines for use in notifying occurrence of malfunction to a monitor unit can be reduced. This leads to easy judgment of an abnormal state. A change in the number of objects of monitor can be coped with flexibly without the need of modifying the design of each monitor unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system and, more particularly, to an art for monitoring a plurality of components of the same kind (for example, power source units, air cooling fans, and temperature sensors), which are incorporated in an information processing apparatus, to determine if any of the components have malfunctioned.
A plurality of the foregoing components are mounted in an information processing system or the like. In particular, insofar as a system is required to be fault-tolerant is concerned, redundant components are incorporated. A monitor unit for monitoring the components to determine that they are functioning normally is often duplicated. There is a growing demand for an art making it possible to construct such a monitoring system readily and flexibly.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a prior art state monitoring system. In FIG. 1, reference numerals 90 and 91 denote monitor units. 92 to 96 denote objects to be monitored, such as power source units and fans.
In a known state monitoring system, when a malfunction is detected, each of the objects to be monitored 92 to 96 issues an alarm signal ALM to notify the monitor units 90 and 91 of occurrence of a malfunction. Signal lines linking the objects of monitor 92 to 96 and the monitor units 90 and 91 and each carrying (i.e., conducting) the alarm signal ALM are laid down on a one-to-one basis. In the example of FIG. 1, ten alarm signal ALM lines are laid down.
The monitor units 90 and 91 monitor the objects of monitor 92 to 96 to see if any of the objects transmits the alarm signal ALM. Based on the alarm signal ALM, the occurrence of one fault (a fault occurs in one object of monitor) or the occurrence of a plurality of faults (a fault occurs in each of a plurality of objects of monitor) is detected. The two monitor units 90 and 91 are incorporated, so that in case one of the monitor units 90 and 91 fails, the objects of monitor can be continuously monitored for a malfunction by the other without the need of stopping the state monitoring system.
As shown in FIG. 1, according to the known system configuration in which two monitor units are incorporated, the signal lines for the alarm signal ALM link the objects of monitor 92 to 96 and the monitor units 90 and 91 on a one-to-one basis. Compared with the incorporation of one monitor unit, twice as many signal lines are needed. This results in complex wiring.
For analyzing a faulty state, it is necessary to produce information representing a definition of the patterns of states of signal lines. Each monitor unit is therefore required to carry out complex analyses.
Furthermore, when the number of objects of monitor is changed, for example, when a system is expanded, reconstruction of monitor units becomes necessary. This means that a change in system configuration cannot be coped with flexibly.

System for monitoring states of components of same kind incorporated into information processing apparatus


A securing device that requires wearer assistance for removal has a clasp that is unlocked by simultaneously disengaging movable ratchet teeth and sliding one half of the clasp past the other half. The clasp has a first portion and a second portion, each portion including a male connector having fixed ratchet teeth and a female connector having movable ratchet teeth. When the securing clasp is locked together by connecting the male connector of the first portion with the female connector of the second portion, and vice versa, it provides for the securement of an adjoining wristband. The securing device can be unlocked by anyone using a two-hand grip but not by a wearer of the device on their wrist, because the wearer only has the use of one hand to unlock the securing device.

Millions of people suffer from Alzheimer's, dementia, or other cognitive disorders. The number of people suffering from cognitive disorders will increase in the coming years as a larger percentage of the population enters old age. Many people suffering from cognitive disorders wander or otherwise become lost due to their disorder. If a person suffering from Alzheimer's or other dementia becomes lost, they may suffer serious injury.
Various means have been developed to track or locate patients with dementia or other cognitive disorders when they wander or get lost. These include Global Positioning System ("GPS") location-tracking devices that a patient may wear along with a receiver device for the family or caregiver. If the person with Alzheimer's or other dementia becomes lost, the caregiver will be able to determine the location of the person by utilizing the receiver.
Due to the patient's cognitive disorder, the patient may try to remove or otherwise dispose of any location-tracking device that they carry or wear. For this reason, typical securing or clasping mechanisms such as those used for jewelry, wrist watches, or the like are not adequate for use in attaching a location-tracking device to a patient suffering from dementia. These types of securing or clasping devices are designed to be removed by the wearer without the need for additional assistance and are therefore inadequate for use with a location-tracking device designed to be worn by a person that is suffering from Alzheimer's or other dementia.
To prevent the patient suffering from Alzheimer's or other dementia from removing or otherwise disposing of a location-tracking device, many location-tracking devices for use with patients feature a means for locking the location device to the patient. In the case of a wrist or ankle wearable location-tracking device, the method of attachment may typically involve (i) the use of a disposable plastic band and clasp combination that must be cut off or (ii) a reusable clasping band that is secured by the use of a lock and key.
The use of a location-tracking device attached to a patient by a disposable plastic band and clasp combination, or the like, that must be cut off in order to be removed from the patient has several drawbacks. First, these securing mechanisms are not reusable. Second, the clasp and band combinations are typically made of thin plastic and are not comfortable. Third, the clasp and band are typically obtrusive, resulting in the patient being self-conscious about wearing the device.
The use of a location-tracking device that is attached to a patient by a reusable securing device that can only be removed by unlocking the latch or clasp with a key or removal tool also presents problems. The key to the clasping band can be lost, forgotten, or otherwise unavailable to emergency responders. The use of a key or removal tool to lock and unlock the clasp may also upset some patients.
Due to the limitations of traditional and previously developed means and methods for securing a location-tracking device to a patient, there exists a current need for more efficient and effective devices and methods for securing a location-tracking device to patients with dementia or other cognitive disorders.

Locking clasp requiring wearer assistance for removal


A method for packaging electronic components wherein each of the electronic components having a first surface and an opposite second surface is placed in each of a plurality of pockets of a first film, bottom of each of the pocket has a protrusion that contacts the second surface of the electronic component, the pockets of the first film with the electronic components therein is covered with a second film, a pressure difference between the pockets as covered with the second film and an exterior of the pockets is created so that part of the second film is stuck to the first surface of each electronic component by the pressure difference to secure the electronic components within the pockets.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to an apparatus and method for storing an electronic component, a method for packaging electronic components and a method for mounting an electronic component and, more particularly, to a tape carrier package.
This is a counterpart of and claims priority to Japanese patent application Serial Number 152602/2002, filed on May 27, 2002, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional apparatus for storing an electronic component, in particular to be able to be winded onto a reel, is called an embossed carrier type tape. The conventional embossed carrier tape comprises an embossed carrier tape having a plurality of pockets in series, and wherein each pocket stores the electronic component, and a cover tape covering the first tape. The conventional embossed carrier type tape is winded onto the reel, and is carried to somewhere as it is. When the electronic components are mounted on a substrate, firstly the cover tape is peeled away from the embossed carrier tape, secondly the stored electronic components are extracted from the pockets of the embossed carrier tape, and finally the extracted electronic components are mounted on the substrate.
However, the electronic components which are stored in the conventional embossed carrier type tape freely move in the pockets due to shock or vibration during carrying. Therefore, terminals of the electronic components which are stored in the conventional embossed carrier type taping may be bent.

Apparatus and method for storing an electronic component, method for packaging electronic components and method for mounting an electronic component