An attentuating voltage-follower circuit has an input stage that buffers an input voltage signal, which varies about a reference voltage, to form an intermediate voltage signal without a DC level shift. A reference stage sets a pivot voltage which is equivalent to the reference voltage so that an attentuated voltage signal can be generated in response to the difference in voltage between the intermediate voltage signal and the pivot voltage across a simple voltage divider stage. The voltage difference between the intermediate voltage signal and the pivot voltage generates a divider current which flows through the voltage divider stage. The divider current, if uncorrected for, would shift the DC level of the intermediate voltage signal. A correction stage senses the magnitude and direction of the divider current and both sources a compensation current and sinks a buffer current which offsets the divider current, thereby eliminating the DC level shift produced by the divider current.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to voltage-follower circuits and, in particular, to a voltage-follower circuit that generates an attenuated voltage signal that swings around a reference voltage in response to an input voltage signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
A voltage-follower is a circuit that interfaces a high-impedance circuit with a low-impedance load. One application for a voltage-follower is within the voltage to frequency converter block of a phase lock loop. The converter block converts the voltage of an input voltage signal, which represents the frequency difference between a reference signal and an oscillator output signal, into an exponential control current which is utilized to control the frequency of the oscillator.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a portion of a conventional converter block 2. As shown in FIG. 1, converter block 2 includes a first voltage-follower stage 4 that generates an intermediate voltage signal V.sub.M at an intermediate node N.sub.M in response to an input voltage signal V.sub.IN. Voltage-follower 4, which is well-known in the art, provides a high input impedance to isolate converter block 2 from the input voltage signal V.sub.IN as well as wide bandwidth and no D.C. voltage level shift. As a result, the intermediate voltage signal V.sub.M is substantially equivalent to the input voltage signal V.sub.IN.
Converter block 2 also includes a reference stage 6 that generates a pivot voltage V.sub.P at a pivot node N.sub.P. The pivot voltage V.sub.P is typically selected to represent the approximate midpoint of the range of input voltage signals V.sub.IN. Thus, as the input voltage signal V.sub.IN varies, the input signal V.sub.IN will be greater than the pivot voltage at times, less than the pivot voltage at other times, and equivalent to the pivot voltage from time to time. Therefore, as the input voltage signal V.sub.IN varies around the pivot voltage V.sub.P, the intermediate voltage signal V.sub.M also varies around the pivot voltage V.sub.P.
Converter block 2 additionally includes a voltage divider stage 8 which is connected between the intermediate node N.sub.M and the pivot node N.sub.P and that generates an attenuated voltage signal V.sub.ATTEN in response to the difference between the intermediate voltage signal V.sub.M and the pivot voltage N.sub.P.
As shown in FIG. 11, voltage divider stage 8 includes nine series-connected resistors R14A, R14B, R14C, R14D, R14E, R14F, R14G, R14H, and R14I connected between the intermediate node N.sub.M and an attenuation node N.sub.A, and two parallel connected resistors R15A and R15B, connected between the attenuation node N.sub.A and the pivot node N.sub.P.
Voltage divider stage 8 functions as a simple voltage divider. In operation, when the intermediate voltage signal V.sub.M varies about the pivot voltage V.sub.P, an attenuated voltage signal is generated which also swings around the pivot voltage V.sub.P, but with a reduced magnitude.
In FIG. 1, for example, the pivot voltage V.sub.P is set at approximately 2.1 volts as a result of the voltages across the base-emitter junctions of transistors Q1, Q12, and Q13. When the intermediate voltage signal V.sub.M and the pivot voltage V.sub.P are equivalent, such as 2.1 volts, an equivalent attenuated voltage signal is generated at the attenuation node N.sub.A. When the intermediate voltage signal V.sub.M increases to 2.2 volts (compared to a 2.1 volt pivot voltage), the attenuated voltage signal V.sub.ATTEN increases to approximately 2.105 volts. Similarly, when the intermediate voltage signal V.sub.M decreases to 2.0 volts, the attenuated voltage signal V.sub.ATTEN decreases to 2.095 volts.
In addition, when the intermediate voltage signal V.sub.M and the pivot voltage V.sub.P are different, a divider current I.sub.D is generated which flows through the voltage divider stage. When the voltage of the intermediate voltage signal V.sub.M is greater than the pivot voltage V.sub.P, divider current I.sub.D flows away from the intermediate node N.sub.M into the pivot node N.sub.P. Similarly, when the intermediate voltage signal V.sub.M is less than the pivot voltage V.sub.P, divider current I.sub.D flows from the pivot node N.sub.P into the intermediate node N.sub.M.
Converter block 2 further includes a second voltage-follower stage 10 that generates an attenuated input voltage signal V.sub.AIV in response to the attenuated voltage signal V.sub.ATTEN. Voltage-follower 10, which is also well-known in the art, provides a high input impedance to isolate divider current I.sub.D of voltage divider stage 8 from the remainder of converter block 2 as well as wide bandwidth and no D.C. voltage level shift. As a result, the attenuated input voltage signal V.sub.AIV is substantially equivalent to the attenuated voltage signal V.sub.ATTEN.
Converter block 2 also includes a transconductance stage 12 that generates an exponential control current I.sub.C in response to the attenuated input voltage signal V.sub.AIV. As stated above, the exponential control current is utilized to control the frequency of the oscillator output signal.
As shown in FIG. I, transconductance stage 12 commonly utilizes a bipolar transistor, such as transistor Q29, as an exponential transconductance amplifier to generate the exponential control current I.sub.C. It is the high transconductance of a bipolar transistor (small changes in the base voltage produce large changes in the collector current) that necessitates the voltage gain reduction provided by voltage divider stage 8.
One problem with converter block 2 is the extensive circuitry that is required to generate the attenuated input voltage signal V.sub.AIV from the input voltage signal V.sub.IN, particularly the need for a second voltage-follower stage 10 to isolate voltage divider stage 8 from transconductance stage 12. The presence of second voltage-follower stage 10 increases both the power consumed and the circuit area required by converter block 2.
Thus, there is a need for an attenuating voltage-follower circuit that can generate an attenuated input voltage signal without the second voltage-follower stage, thereby significantly reducing both the power consumed by the converter block and the circuit area required for the converter block.


A digital printing system includes a development member in rotational contact with a further member for imagewise transferring liquid toner from the development member optionally via the further member to a substrate. The system is such that toner residue remains on the development member after the transfer. A treatment device is present for patternwise treatment of the toner residue on the development member, especially by addition of a dispersing agent to facilitate removal of the toner residue. A controller is present for controlling the patternwise treatment. A system is used for robust and continuous printing and is suitable for recycling of the toner residue into liquid toner.

Digital printing apparatus using liquid developer dispersion—also known as liquid toner—are known from US patent application publication no. 2011/0249990. The known digital printing apparatus comprises a feed roller, a developer roller, developer roller cleaning means, and an image carrying roller; the feed roller being arranged to transfer a quantity of liquid toner from a reservoir onto the developer roller; and the developer roller being arranged to transfer a portion of the quantity of liquid toner onto the image carrying roller in accordance with a charge pattern sustained on a surface of said image carrying roller. A liquid toner residue, also referred to as an excess liquid developer dispersion, remains on (the surface of) the developer roller after the imagewise transfer of the liquid toner from the developer roller to a further roller, particularly the image carrying roller.
In digital printing systems of this kind, it is necessary to remove the liquid toner residue that remains on the surface of the developer roller after contact with the image carrying roller. Any liquid toner residue that remains on the surface of the image carrying roller after contact with a transfer roller of after contact with a substrate needs to be removed as well. Conventionally, use is made of a removal device, such as a scraper, as is disclosed in US2011/0076052A1, paragraph [0044].
It has been observed in preliminary investigations leading to the invention that these highly concentrated and therefore highly viscous compacted toners are not easily decompacted and removed from rollers. Thus, the removal of such a residue can be quite challenging.
Particularly, marking particles in the liquid developer dispersion tend to form lumps in the dispersion resulting in a liquid with a non-uniform distribution of marking particles. This is called caking and often results in an increase of the viscosity of the liquid dispersion. This viscosity increase is significant and could be a tenfold increase or even more.
Liquid developer dispersion that shows caking cannot be used for printing as such and needs to be treated first in order to re-obtain a homogeneously dispersed liquid toner which has similar conductivity and viscosity properties as the starting liquid developer dispersion.
It is thought that caking is the result of marking particles that come so close into each other's neighborhood on the developer roller, so that they start to feel each other's presence and start interacting with each other. Caking can also be the result of injecting charge and applying high shearing forces which are typically present when a thin layer of liquid developer dispersion passes through a very narrow gap between two (rotating) members of the printing apparatus or huge (microsized) mechanical interaction like a cleaning blade scraping on a rotating surface.
The removal of the liquid toner residue starts then to be problematic. As a result, liquid toner residue could remain on the developer roller, which constitutes a contamination and may lead to a non-uniform distribution of fresh developer dispersion resulting in a ghost image and or image quality that is not perfect, in other words incorrect. Specific examples of issues are density instability and incorrect reproduction of fine lines. Removal of the toner residue by a removal device may reduce the issue, but is not known to solve the issue completely. It is therefore a major problem to solve the caking issue.
Unpublished European patent application no. 12 175 762.9 in the name of the Applicant describes the use of an oscillating electric field arranged to substantially decompact the chargeable imaging particles in a liquid toner residue on a developer roller, prior to or during its mechanical removal. Unpublished European patent application no 131625774 in the name of the Applicant describes the use of a loosening member with a rubbing portion, which is arranged to rub the liquid toner residue to be loosened. In use, the rubbing portion is suitably compressed by a development member, particularly the development member. This compression results in absorption of the liquid toner residue in the loosening member, and particularly the rubbing portion thereof. Thereto, the rubbing portion suitably comprises a porous material, such as an elastic foam material.
Unpublished Dutch application NL2010581 in the name of the Applicant describes the addition of an amount of dispersing agent to the excess liquid developer dispersion. This dispersing agent turns out to reduce the viscosity of the excess liquid developer dispersion, and helps to deagglomerate marking particles in the dispersion and/or decrease adhesion of the marking particles to a development member. Therewith the excess liquid developer dispersion is stabilised and its effective viscosity decreased. The amount of the dispersing agent to be added may be controlled on the basis of image information, i.e. when the transferred image is large, less toner residue remains on the development member than when the image is comparatively small. Hence, with a large image, less dispersing agent needs to be added. The dispersing agent is suitably added via a loosening member.
It is desired to improve the treatment process further, so as to facilitate the removal of excess liquid developer dispersion from the development member, in a form that does not harm the recycling of the developer dispersion.

Method of digitally printing an image on a substrate and system therefor


A thermal fixing apparatus including a heater and a pressure roller pressed against the heater. The heater has a substrate, an electrical heating element mounted on the substrate and a protective layer covering the electrical heating element, the protective layer having a concave contacting edge. The pressure roller is fitted against the concave contacting edge of the protective layer of the heater.

In a conventional image forming apparatus, such as electric copying equipment, facsimile equipment, etc., a thermal fixing apparatus is used for fixing a toner image developed on a paper for copying to the paper.
In a conventional thermal fixing apparatus, a copying paper carrying a toner image is fed between a heater and a pressure roller.
The heater typically has a strip shape. The heater has a strip substrate of heat-resisting alumina ceramics, a thin film heater of silver-palladium alloy coated on the substrate and a protective layer of vitreous film coated on the thin film heater for protecting it from wear caused by the copying paper.
The pressure roller has a rotary shaft aligned in parallel with the heater, a cylinder coaxially mounting the shaft and a sleeve fitted on the cylinder. The sleeve is typically made of a heat resisting elastic material.
The heater is stationary mounted on a suitable base. The pressure roller rotates in rubbing against the heater. Thus, the copying paper carrying the toner image is transmitted through the thermal fixing apparatus. During the transmission of the copying paper, the heater fuses the toner image, while the pressure roller presses the copying paper against the heater. Thus, the toner image is fixed to the copying paper.
In such a heater, the vitreous protective layer has a single edge or peak extending along the longitudinal direction of the substrate. Thus, the heater has a thin line contact with the copying paper or the pressure roller at the single edge or peak of the vitreous protective layer.
Such a thin line contact allows a smooth sliding of the copying paper passing over the heater. However, the thin line contact is disadvantageous or insufficient for fixing the toner image to the copying paper, because such a thin line contact hardly conducts heat to its contacting object, e.g., the copying paper.

Thermal fixing apparatus and a heater therefor


Pyridazinone derivatives represented by the formula (I) and antiplatelet agents containing them: ##STR1## wherein R is a hydrogen atom or a C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl group, X is a hydrogen atom, a chlorine atom or a bromine atom, Ar is a pyridyl group or a phenyl group substituted with OR.sup.1 (wherein R.sup.1 is a hydrogen atom or a C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl group) and A {wherein A is a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, a C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl group or OR.sup.2 (wherein R.sup.2 is a hydrogen atom or a C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl group)}, Y is C.sub.1 -C.sub.8 alkylene wherein one carbon atom on the straight chain is substituted with one OR.sup.1 group (wherein R.sup.1 is the same as defined above), and Z.sup.1 and Z.sup.2 are independently a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, a C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl group or a OR.sup.1 group (wherein R.sup.1 is the same as defined above)!. These compounds have strong antiplatelet effects, are excellently safe, and can be used as active ingredients of prophylactic and therapeutic drugs for various thrombotic diseases.

It is known that platelet aggregation plays an important role in thrombus formation, in connection with a disease state. Main thrombotic diseases caused by thrombus formation include cerebral thrombosis, pulmonary thrombosis, myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, occlusion of peripheral arteries and the like, and all of these diseases require development of useful drugs. As a prophylactic or therapeutic drug, an antiplatelet agent having an inhibitory action on platelet aggregation draws public attention. Heretofore, the effect of aspirin has been widely studied, and more recently ticlopidine and cilostazol have been clinically developed. However, they are not active enough or do not act selectively enough. Therefore, a more strongly effective drug is demanded.
In addition to the above-mentioned various thrombotic diseases, various diseases are enumerated as related to platelets. Examples of these diseases include nephritis, cancer cell metastasis and the like, and recently various studies have been conducted with regard to prophylactic or therapeutic effects mainly on these diseases of an antiplatelet agent having an action of controlling the function of the platelet ("Journal of Royal College of Physicians", Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 5-18, 1972; "Japan Clinics (Nihon Rinsho)", Vol. 4, No. 6, pp. 130-136, 1988; Anticancer Research, Vol 6, pp. 543-548, 1986).
Now, the relationship of 3(2H)-pyridazinone derivatives of the general formula (I) and their salts according to the present invention with compounds disclosed in published references will be described.
(a) German Laid Open Patent Application No. 1,670,169 (hereinafter referred to as reference (a)) discloses 3(2H)-pyridazinone derivatives having a hydrogen atom or an aliphatic, cycloaliphatic, araliphatic or aromatic group at the 2-position, a chlorine or bromine atom at the 4-position, an amino group inclusive of an aralkylamino group at the 5-position, and a chlorine or bromine atom or a hydroxy or C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkoxy group at the 6-position.
This reference (a) discloses a process for synthesis of the 3(2H)-pyridazinone derivatives, their application to agricultural chemicals, their application as intermediates for medicines, dyestuffs or various other chemicals, and, however, neither mentions their pharmacological activities nor gives any specific examples of such compounds. Further, such compounds are not specifically described.
(b) Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 183675/1983 (hereinafter referred to as reference (b)) discloses 3(2H)-pyridazinone derivatives having a lower alkyl group at the 2-position, a hydrogen atom at the 4-position, a substituted or unsubstituted anilino group at the 5-position and a hydroxyl group or a lower alkoxy group at the 6-position. This reference (b) discloses that the 3(2H)-pyridazinone derivatives have an analgesic action, an anti-inflammatory action, an anti-allergic action and an anti-rheumatic action, but there is no specific disclosure concerning their pharmacological activities.
(c) Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 301870/1988, European Laid Open Patent Publication No. 275997 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,665 (hereinafter referred to collectively as reference (c)) disclose 6-substituted alkoxy-5-substituted benzylamino-3(2H)-pyridazinone derivatives, which are relatively similar to the compounds of the present invention and their use as an anti-SRS-A agent.
(d) International Patent Application WO-91/16314, European Laid Open Patent Publication No. 482208 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,202,323 (hereinafter referred to collectively as reference (d)) disclose 6-substituted alkoxy-5-substituted arylamino-3(2H)-pyridazinone derivatives, which are relatively similar to the compounds of the present invention, and their use as a platelet aggregation inhibitor, a cardiotonic, a vasodilator and an anti-SRS-A agent.
The present invention relates to novel 3(2H)-pyridazinone compounds and their derivatives useful as an antiplatelet agent as an active ingredient of a prophylactic or therapeutic drug for thrombosis and other diseases attributable to pathological activation of the platelet.


The invention provides masking machines for applying masking to glazing panels. Also provided are methods of applying masking to glazing panels.

In most industrialized countries, windows touch people's lives every day. Where ever people work and live there are windows. Windows allow the occupants of a building to view the outside world, while allowing sun light to enter the interior of the building. Sunlight is a natural antidepressant and helps the human body produce vitamin D. Thus, a certain amount of sunshine is essential to mental and physical well-being.
In extreme climates, significant energy may be lost through windows during the winter when a building is being heated, and/or during the summer when a building is being cooled. With the high cost of energy, efforts have been made to provide homes and other buildings with insulation that will more efficiently prevent the transfer of heat between the inside and the outside of a building. Multiple-pane insulating glass units ("IGUs") have been developed as an effective way to reduce the amount of heat transfer through windows.
There are basically two types of multiple-pane IGUs in widespread commercial production. These are often referred to as double glazing and triple glazing. Double glazed insulating glass units are the most common. They have a space sealed between two panes. This space provides thermal insulation. The insulating effect can be enhanced by filling the space with an insulative gas mix, e.g., a mix of air and argon or krypton. Alternatively, the space can be evacuated, so as to provide a vacuum IG unit. Compared with a single pane glazing, double glazed IGUs can reduce the heat loss through a window by nearly half. Triple-glazed IGUs (or "triple glazing") can provide even more insulating effect, but are currently less common. They have three panes and two thermal insulation spaces.
Because of the dramatic energy savings that can be achieved with multiple-pane IGUs, building codes in many areas have been revised to require their use. The relative energy performance of these units is an important factor to consider when consumers purchase windows.
The front and rear surfaces of an IGU may be damaged (e.g., scratched) or soiled during storage, handling, transportation to a building site, and/or during the building process (e.g., during installation of the IGU, or during various finishing operations, such as painting, brick washing, etc.). It is therefore desirable to provide removable masking over one or both of the front and rear surfaces of an IGU. Once an IGU has been mounted in its final position and all finishing of the surrounding structures has been completed, the masking can be removed from the IGU to reveal the pristine underlying pane surface.
In the past, various methods and machines have been developed for masking glass panes. Some of these methods and machines have been limited in terms of their production speed, their ability to support made-to-order production, the extent to which they are automated, their ability to securely yet removably place masking film on glass without wrinkles, folds, and/or air bubbles, the manner in which they integrate with upstream or downstream IGU manufacturing equipment, and/or their reliability in terms of not having the machine or certain parts wear prematurely.
It would be desirable to provide masking machines and methods that solve one or more problems attendant in state-of-the-art masking application technology, or that otherwise offer improvements over state-of-the-art masking machines and methods.


Methods and apparatuses for the application of image intensity and luminance adjustment and gamma adjustment for the purpose of compensating perceived image brightness, and thus enhancing the range of display backlight brightness adjustment that may be applied to conserve power, while minimizing impact to image color shade, hue or saturation characteristics.

Because batteries provide power to operate a laptop computer or other portable electronic device for a limited period of time, a need exists to efficiently use the power available to provide the longest possible operating period. This need has resulted in various power saving techniques such as, for example, shutting down or reducing power in components that are not being heavily used, or where policy is to prefer power savings over performance.
One component that can have power reduced during periods of inactivity or when power conservation is preferred is the LCD panel and backlight. In a typical laptop computer, for example, the display can consume 30% or more of the power consumed by the system. In order to reduce display power consumption, some laptop computer systems reduce the panel backlighting when in battery-powered mode. However, because LCDs are transmissive display devices (i.e., LCDs depend on the quantity and quality of the backlight source for producing the perceived color gamut), reduction of backlight brightness alone results in an image that the user often perceives as of lower quality than the same image with a brighter backlighting.
Display image quality is further affected by ambient light surrounding the display, which can reduce the environments in which a user may feel comfortable using a battery powered device that adjusts the backlight to save power, which is especially important considering the self-contained battery power-source is one of the key factors facilitating mobility that allows the use to move at will between different indoor and outdoor environments.

Dynamic backlight and image adjustment using gamma correction


A performance information display method using a computer, includes the steps, in the computer, of reading out information data of a storage device previously stored in a storage device and information data of a plurality of devices utilizing the storage device, displaying an identifier of the storage device and identifiers of a plurality of devices utilizing the storage device on a screen on the basis of the information data read out, accepting a command to select the displayed identifier of the storage device, and displaying performance information data of the devices utilizing the selected storage device in association on the basis of the accepted command and the information data read out.

The present invention relates to a system for displaying/analyzing performance information of servers and storage devices.
In recent years, configurations in which a plurality of servers share a single storage device have increased because of the development of the SAN (Storage Area Network) technique. The reason why such configurations are increasing is that the localization of the operational business such as backup and fault control is facilitated and the operation management cost can be compressed.
On the other hand, however, since a plurality of servers share a single storage device, volume assignment and storage performance management become complicated. A method for simplifying the volume assignment in the SAN environment is disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 2003/0005119A1.
In computer systems, the storage device is a low speed storage medium as compared with caches and memories in the CPU. Often, therefore, the storage device becomes a bottleneck for the whole system. Therefore, it is important to acquire various performance index values in the construction phase and the operation phase and make an analysis to determine whether predetermined performance values have been obtained so that the storage device may exhibit as high performance as possible.
In a configuration in which a plurality of servers share and use a single storage device, I/O transactions from a plurality of servers overlap on a specific resource within the storage device and consequently serious performance degradation is caused in some cases.
As an example, I/O loads from a plurality of servers concentrate on a specific physical disk group within a storage device, and the I/O performance seen from the server side is not sufficiently exhibited due to the I/O contention.
Owing to a tool provided by the storage device, the I/O quantity processed by a specific resource within the storage device can be perused/analyzed. In this method, however, it is difficult to discriminate the cause of an I/O contention performance problem caused by setting on the outside of the storage device, i.e., specifically a server group that burdens an I/O load on a specific resource within the storage device or a portion that becomes a bottleneck of the performance.

Method for analyzing performance information


An air suspension includes a crossover valve in fluid communication with a manifold, a first set of springs in fluid communication with the manifold through a first set of valves, and a second set of springs in fluid communication with the manifold through a second set of valves. The crossover valve is movable between an open position to allow fluid communication to each of the first and the second sets of springs and a closed position that separates the first set of springs from the second set of springs.

Air suspensions are often utilized in off-road vehicles; however, operational performance of these off-road vehicles can be limited by roll stiffness of the suspension. Roll stiffness limits an articulation angle of the suspension and keeps some vehicle tires from contacting the ground under certain off-road conditions. For example, uneven ground can cause one wheel to have ground contact while a laterally opposite wheel remains out of contact with the ground due to the limited articulation of the suspension.
One solution has been to use a crossover valve in an axle to vary stiffness as needed between laterally opposed springs in an attempt to maintain four wheel contact with the ground. The crossover valve attenuates stiffness by allowing air from one spring on one side of the vehicle to be communicated to a laterally opposite spring on the other side of the vehicle. For a typical four-wheel drive vehicle, one crossover valve is used on a front axle to allow air communication between front right and front left springs, and another crossover valve is used on a rear axle to allow air communication between rear right and rear left springs.
The inclusion of the two crossover valves is disadvantageous from a cost and material perspective. Further, due to limited packaging space, it is a challenge to route and plumb the crossover valves into the suspension.
Thus, there is a need for a more cost effective suspension control that provides desired stiffness attenuation in addition to overcoming other deficiencies in the prior art as outlined above.


The present invention relates to a bipolar battery, especially a NiMH battery, having: a sealed housing, a negative end terminal, a positive end terminal, and at least one biplate assembly comprising a biplate, a positive and a negative electrode. A separator is arranged between each negative and positive electrode forming a battery cell, said separator includes an electrolyte. An inner barrier of a hydrophobic material is arranged around at least one electrode, whereby said inner barrier prevents an electrolyte path from one cell to another cell, and a frame is present to provide predetermined cell spacing between each biplate and/or biplate and end terminal. The frame is attached in such a way to each biplate to permit ambient gas to pass between adjacent cells, thereby creating a common gas space for all cells in the battery. The invention also relates to a method for manufacturing a bipolar battery.

Traditionally, bipolar batteries including several cells have been designed to have separately sealed cells to contain both electrolyte and gas created during operation. A problem that has occurred is the creation of an electrolyte path between adjacent cells due to inadequate sealing properties, which in turn mainly depend on a pressure difference between adjacent cells. The pressure difference arises when a cell starts to gas before the cell next to it starts gassing. This is a normal behaviour of cells in a bipolar battery.
A solution to this problem has been suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,723 by Bronoel et al., which discloses a bipolar battery having a common gas chamber, which is created by providing an opening through the biplate (conductive support/separator). The opening is also provided with a hydrophobic barrier to prevent passage of electrolyte through the hole. Although the problem with pressure differences between the cells is solved, there is still a disadvantage with the described battery. The outer sealing around the edge of each biplate still has to be fluid-tight, which is very difficult to achieve. If the outer sealing is not fluid-tight, the electrolyte, contained in the separator between the electrodes, may form an electrolyte path from one cell to another.
Furthermore, the suggested solution is rather expensive to implement since an opening has to be made through the biplate to create the common pressure chamber. If the biplate is relatively thin, it is even harder to create an opening through the biplate because tears, stretching, or metal slivers may form.
There is a need for a battery that is easy to manufacture at affordable prices, and that are safe to handle during charge and discharge procedures.

Bipolar battery and a method for manufacturing a bipolar battery


A diaphragm type fluid flow controller comprises a valve body having formed therein an inlet and an outlet passage, the passages communicating with a valve chamber formed in the valve body. The valve chamber is sealed by a flexible diaphragm. A threaded valve stem is rotated by a handle to cause pressure to be applied to the diaphragm to selectively open or close the valve. A stop ring limits movement of the valve stem in the direction of the diaphragm so that the pressure applied to the diaphragm is limited once the valve is closed. The diaphragm comprises a plurality of nested thin metal dome-shaped plates having upturned peripheral edges which are clamped between the stop ring and a rim formed on the valve body at the upper extent of the valve chamber. The plural plates insure air-tightness of the valve chamber because any rotation of the stop ring, resulting from tightening the valve after closure, is not transmitted to the lower-most diaphragm plate. The upturned edges make individual diaphragm plates easier to handle. In addition, plural nested plates may be assembled and inserted into a valve as a unit. The upturned edges of the plates make it easier to grip and remove the plates from a valve in instances where it is desirable to leave the valve in-line during the removal process.

In a typical diaphragm valve of the prior art a valve body includes inlet and outlet passages communicating with a valve chamber with a seating ring surrounding the region where one of the passages connects with the chamber. A flexible diaphragm is mounted in the valve body and is selectively moved away from the seating ring to permit fluid flow through the valve or pressed against the seating ring to block fluid flow. A handle is rotated to move a threaded valve stem which engages a threaded valve bonnet so that longitudinal movement of the valve stem forces the diaphragm to seat against the valve seating ring.
If, after the diaphragm has seated against the seating ring, the handle is rotated to move the valve stem further in the direction of the diaphragm, an excessive force may be exerted against the diaphragm causing it to rupture or fail. Using a thicker diaphragm will not solve the problem because a thick diaphragm is less flexible than a thin one and, because it is less flexible it has a greater tendency to crack as a result of the force repeatedly exerted against it.
In some valves of the prior art, the problem of diaphragm failure by rupture or cracking is overcome by providing a stop ring for limiting movement of the valve stem in the direction of the diaphragm. However, if the stop ring also serves as a clamp for holding the peripheral edge of the diaphragm, a further problem is introduced. After the diaphragm has seated against the seating ring further rotation of the handle causes a rotational force to be exerted via the stem and the stop ring to the diaphragm causing a rotational movement of the diaphragm with an attendant loss of air-tightness of the valve chamber. The prior art solves this problem by employing a diaphragm comprising a plurality of generally flat thin plates which may slide relative to each other so that rotational movement of the stop ring is not transmitted to the plate which seals the valve chamber.
It is difficult to handle the flat thin plates and during assembly they are frequently dropped and/or damaged. They cannot be assembled as a unit hence they must be placed in a valve one plate at a time. Furthermore, it is difficult to remove the flat plates from a valve, particularly in instances where it is desirable or necessary that the valve be repaired without removing it from the pipe or conduit in which it is installed.

Fluid flow-controller with improved diaphragm


A sigma delta digital-to-analog (D/A) converter system (10) includes a summing device (35) at an input of a D/A converter (30), and a low frequency low amplitude wave signal (31) injected at an input of the summing device that remains unfiltered and is used to suppress spurious tone artifacts. The D/A converter system can further include an amplitude control and a frequency control for selectively adjusting the frequency and the amplitude of the low frequency low amplitude wave signal being injected. Note, the low frequency low amplitude repeating wave signal generator can take the form of a digital signal processor (DSP) (37) having the appropriate software to generate such signals.

Sigma-Delta based digital to analog converters (D/A) are mostly used to convert digital signals to analog signals for playback on the earpiece transducer or loudspeaker of a mobile phone. The advantage of these types of converters is that their over-sampling nature allows quantization noise to be reduced to lower levels than with other converters, as well as benefiting from integrated circuit (IC) lithography feature size reductions. These converters, in general, may produce a low-level background noise and other artifacts due to non-linear behaviors. This is the effect of limit cycle oscillations that results in the presence of periodic components in the output. These components may translate into low-level correlated audio tones, possibly random in amplitude that will be audible to the person using the phone, especially during periods of silence.
Attempts in the past to alleviate the problem described above, also known as spurious tone artifacts, have included dithering techniques or adding an out-of-band sine or square wave dither that would involve complicated generation of such dither as well as complicated filtering out of the dither. In one instance, dithering with pseudo-random white noise is effective if the dither signal is shaped according to the quantization noise transfer function of the modulator where the dither amplitude is intended to be relatively high.

Method and system for mitigating background noise for a Sigma-Delta digital-to-analog converter


A high altitude lighter-than-air (LTA) system can include a zero-pressure balloon (ZPB) attached in tandem with one or more variable ballast air super-pressure balloons (SPB). The ZPB provides lift for the system while the SPB uses a centrifugal compressor to provide a variable amount of ballast air by pumping in or expelling out ambient air. A solar array coupled with an elongated ladder assembly can be coupled to a payload support for a payload carried by the LTA system. Various advanced performance targets relating to ascent rate, descent rate, range and maximum altitude are achievable with various scaled versions of the basic design of the LTA system. Advanced navigation and control techniques, such as efficient high altitude station-keeping approaches, are made possible with the LTA system.

Field
The technology relates generally to high altitude flight, in particular to systems and methods for lighter-than-air high altitude flight.
Description of the Related Art
High altitude flight, generally above about 50,000 feet, with lighter-than-air (LTA) systems is of interest for many applications, including communications, scientific research, meteorology, reconnaissance, tourism, and others. These and other applications impose strict requirements on the LTA system. LTA systems can include balloon systems in which a balloon envelope includes a lighter-than-air gas (e.g., helium or hydrogen).

High altitude balloon systems and methods


A snap-action device, for use in electrical switches, which includes at least one toothed wheel, a switch having a base with a shoulder guide and a cylindrical wall for supporting the toothed wheel, with an inclined portion at opposite ends thereof, at least one spring, and a pawl having a pawl base and side walls with at least one surface inclined along the pawl base. The pawl is slidably attached to the shoulder guide and connected to the switch by snapping steps on the pawl onto corresponding counter-steps on the switch to prevent accidental separation of the pawl from the switch. At least one tang is arranged with the surface of the side walls and the portions of the cylindrical wall to define a cavity wherein the spring is inserted and pre-loaded.

This invention relates to a snap-action device for cooperating with toothed wheels, in particular for use in change-over or other electrical switches or the like.
Electrical change-over switches usually comprise a shaft for shifting the contact unit, this shaft being connected to a toothed wheel. This latter cooperates generally with two opposing pawls, each loaded by a spring.
The usual pawls generally have a substantially U-shaped profile and rest with their base on horizontal guides which also act as the support for the loading spring.
Said pawls are very difficult to mount. To do this, the spring has to be preloaded, then inserted into the appropriate seat for the pawl and the pawl finally positioned on the guides along which it slides.
The small dimensions of the elements which have to be handled make these operations even more complicated. In addition, after the pawl has been correctly mounted and positioned, if the pawl is accidentally knocked or if the toothed wheel is not inserted correctly, it can escape from its housing seat urged by the spring, in which case it has to be remounted.

Snap-action device for cooperating with toothed wheels or the like, in particular for use in electrical change-over or other switches


A rotary drive which is suitable in treatment of three-dimensional workpieces. In this rotary apparatus, only the removably mounted rotatable rods that serve as sample holders are connected to high voltage, which is delivered via a central high-voltage lead-in at the lower end of the rods, while the actual drive elements for rotating the rods are electrically insulated therefrom by suitable ceramic insulating elements.

The present invention relates to a rotary apparatus for plasma immersion-assisted treatment, in particular ion implantation treatment, of three-dimensionally shaped workpieces, of which at least one is immersed, within a vacuum chamber, at least temporarily into an ionized plasma while it is exposed to a periodically pulsed high voltage, so that the extracted ions not only react on the workpiece surface but are implanted beneath the workpiece surface; and a treatment method using this rotary apparatus.
In many industrial sectors today, surface properties of properties are already being deliberately modified by depositing or converting thin films under vacuum. Also known, in addition to deposition methodsxe2x80x94which apply or deposit atoms or molecules onto a product surface from the gas phase, or by atomization or evaporation using a heating system, or by electron beam or arcxe2x80x94are non-deposition methods such as thermal and plasma treatment in inert or reactive gases, electron and laser treatments, or the implantation of inert, reactive, nonmetallic, or metallic ions into a substrate material.
Methods and apparatuses which combine an ion or plasma treatment with a coating operation are already known. These methods constitute the present standard for low-temperature deposition of high-melting-point alloy films which are used, for example, to protect mechanical components, e.g. highly stressed metal components, from wear, or to modify optical components, for example camera optics and spectacle lenses. Conversion of the applied ion energy into heat is utilized in this context. The ions are generated either in ion beam sources with or without mass separation, or in plasmas that either are excited in additional plasma sources with direct current, high-frequency currents or with microwaves, or are already present in any case in the context of plasma-assisted coating processes.
In the above described ion beam sources, ions are preaccelerated and directed onto one side of the workpieces to be treated. What is achieved thereby is a treatment or coating of substantially flat substrate surfaces. With the plasma technologies described above, however, negative DC electrical voltages are applied to the workpieces; these voltages can range from approx. 50 V to 1 kV, and with them the ions are directed, from all sides and in undirected fashion, not only onto substantially flat components but also onto the surface of three-dimensionally shaped components. At low ion energies (less than 1 keV), implantation effects such as doping, nonthermal alloying of nonequilibrium phases, interface mixing for adhesion enhancement, or accelerated diffusion via ion beam-induced structural defects are improbable and thus not industrially usable. For reasons of profitability, however, conventional ion-beam treatment (which is suitable for the purpose) is used in cost-sensitive production sectors (such as machine construction) only for specific and very limited product sectors.
A cost-effective plasma immersion-assisted ion implantation technology/has been developed by J. Conrad, J. L. Radke, R. A. Dodd, and F. J. Worzala and described in J. Applied Physics 62 (1987), p. 4591 (see also U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,394 issued to J. Conrad). In this so-called plasma immersion ion implantation method, also called PII, the workpieces are immersed, as with ion- or plasma-assisted coating, in a plasma. In contrast to the latter method, the magnitude of the applied negative voltage is from several kV to a few hundred kV, as a result of which the extracted ions not only react on the workpiece surface but are implanted beneath it, and initiate the aforementioned implantation effects. The high voltage is applied in the form of short pulses with a length of between several xcexcs and several hundred xcexcs, at a repetition frequency of between several hundred Hz and several kHz, in order to control heat input and at the same time minimize the complexity of the high voltage power supply. A further advantage of this pulsed technique is that buildup of the cathodic plasma edge layer along the workpiece contour, in which the voltage drop essential for ion acceleration occurs, is continuously being restarted. Immediately after the pulse start, an ion bombardment directed in perpendicular fashion onto the particular sample surface is thus always guaranteed, even in depressions or on elevations of structured geometries. Insufficient or raking ion bombardment, which occurs in unfavorable fashion in ion beam treatments, occurs with PII at the end of very long pulses when the plasma edge layer has expanded sufficiently far away from the plasma surface to create an enveloping plasma front that no longer follows the sample contour everywhere. This plasma edge layer propagates very quickly, e.g. within a few microseconds.
The PII processes that have hitherto been disclosed are used only for ion implantation, for example for nitriding steels or doping semiconductors. In this context, usually a separate plasma is generated by autonomous DC discharge or by high-frequency or microwave excitation, and the reactive components are usually admitted into it in gaseous form.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,394 also describes, for carrying out the PII treatment method, an apparatus that substantially has a high-vacuum treatment chamber with electrically conductive walls, for example made of stainless steel. All the conductive walls of this chamber are electrically connected to one another and to ground.
A three-dimensionally shaped workpiece is placed on an electrically conductive stationary pedestal spaced away from the chamber walls, and the conductive pedestal is joined to an electrically conductive support arm which holds the workpiece immovably and in electrical contact on the pedestal. The conductive support arm is electrically insulated from the conductive walls of the chamber by an insulator. High-voltage pulses are delivered to the workpiece from an external high-voltage pulse generator via a high-voltage line that is connected to the support arm and the pedestal.
When a high vacuum has been produced in the chamber, gas is admitted into the chamber to form a plasma that surrounds the workpiece (immersion). This gas is a mixed gas that contains the components necessary for implantation treatment. This neutral gas mixture within the chamber is ionized, for example, by a diffuse electron beam that proceeds from a heating coil inside the chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,394 also mentions various other sources for the gas mixture needed for the PII treatment, e.g. by evaporation of liquids and solids. By way of magnet elements placed outside the chamber, there is generated inside the chamber a magnetic field that deflects the diffuse electrodes proceeding from the electron source away from the chamber walls and into the interior of the chamber, where they can collide with gas atoms or molecules and ionize the gas.
The above US Patent mentions neither a coating treatment of workpieces nor the use of a large-area coating plasma as an immersion plasma. In addition, the apparatus described in this US Patent does not provide for rotation of the workpiece being treated within the reaction chamber.
Since it is necessary, in the case of the aforementioned plasma immersion-assisted treatments, for high-voltage pulses of up to 100 kV to be delivered to the workpiece or workpieces within the high-vacuum treatment chamber, movement o f the workpiece by way of a rotary drive is possible only with special designs. This is complicated, among other factors, by the risk of high-voltage flashovers; there is a risk in particular of linear creepage sparks, i.e. discharges along regions in which metal, insulating ceramic, and plasma meet one another. In addition, reliable contact must be made to the moving parts, since only durable planar contacts make possible nonsparking delivery of voltage or current.
The basic idea of plasma immersion-assisted ion implantation is that a workpiece is immersed in a plasma and then, by application of a pulsed high voltage, experiences homogeneous treatment on all sides by ion implantation. The use of a magnetron sputtered plasma as the immersion plasma allows this ion implantation method to be combined with coating techniques.
Plasma sources, but principally coating plasma sources, often have a certain directional characteristic. In order to obtain homogeneous, uniform treatment of the workpiece even in this situation, it must be moved during the process. In known coating methods, this is achieved by way of a rotary drive. Because of the pulsed high voltage that is applied to the workpieces in the PII method, however, this has hitherto not been possible for that PII process.
In view of the above, one object of the present invention is to provide a rotary drive for plasma immersion-assisted treatment of workpieces such that with it, ion implantation operations and ion-assisted low-temperature coating operations can be performed economically, with high adhesion and structural quality, even on three-dimensionally structured workpieces of complex geometry; such that multiple workpieces can be rotated; and such that economical, homogeneous, and temperature-stable coating using the PII treatment method is achieved without the risk of high-voltage flashovers, linear creepage sparking, or poor high-voltage delivery.
An apparatus achieving the above-described object for rotating at least one workpiece, in particular for performing a plasma immersion-assisted treatment includes, among other things.
at least one rotatably driven sample holder in the form of a rotatably mounted, electrically conductive sample rod;
a rotary drive that engages on each sample rod in order to rotate it;
a high-voltage lead-in that delivers high voltage to the sample rod; and
at least first insulating means which insulate the sample rod (11) from the rotary drive in a manner withstanding high voltage.
The fundamental idea of the design of the rotary drive according to the present invention is that the entire apparatus is not at high-voltage potential, but rather that the actual driving and moving parts are at low-voltage potential, e.g. grounded, in a floating or defined state at up to the 1000 volt level. The insulating means (e.g., an arrangement) which are provided between the sample rods and the other driving and moving parts, and whose dimensions depend on the maximum voltage, electrically separate the sample rods, which serve to attach the workpieces, from the other parts of the apparatus. Contacting and delivery of high voltage to the sample rod or rods is accomplished at the other end thereof via planar wiper contacts.
Described below is an embodiment of the rotary drive usable for plasma immersion-assisted treatment in particular of three-dimensional workpieces, and exemplary embodiments of the method according to the present invention.

Rotating device for plasma immersion supported treatment of substrates


Improper actuation of a hanger for bobbins and bobbin core sleeves on a yarn-producing machine as a result of failure of the sleeve to seat properly at a spindle, is prevented by providing hangers with switching sleeves so that these can only be operated by a spindle shaft upon full insertion of the spindle into the roving sleeve.

In the production of yarn, roving frames are used to transform sliver into roving which is wound on bobbins in roving frames. In a typical construction of such frames, two rows of spindles are provided on a vertically displaceable spindle rail and the spindles can be associated with flyers which receive drafted sliver downstream from a drafting frame and which serve to apply the roving to the bobbins.
The bobbins are wound on bobbin tubes, cores or core sleeves which, for that purpose, must be mounted on the spindle. It is a common practice to suspend the empty core tube from a hanger and to transfer the core tube from that hanger to the spindle, e.g. by a vertical movement of the spindle rail. Similarly, the full bobbin on the spindle may be transferred to a hanger by such a movement of the bobbin rail.
The hangers can be provided with latch or gripper mechanisms which engage in the upper ends of the empty core tubes or the fully-wound core tube, i.e. the core tube carrying the bobbin, and this mechanism may operate with an up and down movement of the core tube relative to the hanger to, for example, engage or latch the core tube in the hanger upon an initial upward movement and downward movement of the core tube and to release the core tube in another axial displacement of the core tube. The process is referred to as a change-over since it allows a core tube carried by a hanger to be seated on a spindle or a core tube carrying a full bobbin to be picked up from a spindle in the roving frame. Of course at a location outside the roving frame or outside the roving winding region, full bobbins are removed from hangers and these hangers may be supplied with empty core tubes.
There are mechanisms for automatically supplying the roving frame with empty core tubes and replacing fully-wound bobbins by such empty core tubes automatically (see DE 36 30 214 C). The core tubes fed to the hangers can be transferred to the spindles by raising the spindle rail and then lowering it. Similarly the full bobbins can be affixed on the hangers by raising the spindle rail, when the spindle carry such full bobbins, and then lowering it.
In the automatic transfer of empty roving core tubes to the bobbin carriers in the spindle rail of a roving frame, the hangers can be switched over by the upward movement of the core tubes.
During this process, the core tubes should have devices for entraining each core tube with the spindle in appropriate engagement. For this purpose, axially-extending teeth in a gear crown can be provided at the bottom of a core tube and can be interdigitated with a plurality of upstanding pins on the bobbin carrier.
The flanks of the pins and the teeth are so beveled that the two can interdigitate easily. In practice, however, this type of registry does not always occur and it is possible for the core sleeve to rest upon the tips of the pins and thus to seat somewhat higher, relative to the spindle, than is desirable during a changeover operation. In this case, with the axial movement of the core tube to release it from the latch of the hanger, the hanger disengages without full seating of the core tube on the spindle and the core tube can fall freely at least to a limited extent. When the fall is greater than the stroke required to latch or release the hanger, the core sleeve may be reengaged by the hanger and then not properly deposited on the spindle. The result is a failure in the changeover process and can lead to problems in machine operation and in the yarn-making process.

Hanger assembly for roving bobbins and core tubes


A device for the operation of a hydrostatic drive (1) having a periodically operable switch valve (2) which connects a resonant pipe (4) connected with the hydrostatic drive (1) for the formation of standing pressure waves in the hydraulic fluid under resonant conditions alternately to a pressure-fluid supply line (5) and to a return line (6). In order to create advantageous control condition, the resonant pipe (4) has a pressure outlet (7) in an oscillation node in the standing pressure waves, and that the switch times of the switch valve (2) be controllable with constant switch frequency.

The invention relates to a device for actuating a hydrostatic drive with a periodically operable switch valve which connects a resonant pipe connected to the hydrostatic drive for the generating of standing pressure waves in the hydraulic fluid under resonant conditions alternately to a pressure supply line and a return line.
In order to avoid the disadvantages of throttle-controlled hydrostatic drives, particularly the throttle losses, it is known to connect the drive not continuously via a throttle valve but periodically to a hydraulic fluid supply line or a return line, namely via switch valves, to each of which a non-return valve is connected in parallel. The opening of the switch valve in the hydraulic fluid supply line causes an accelerating of the drive, the inertia of which upon the closing of this switch valve leads to a reduction in the pressure of the compressible hydraulic fluid in the drive range to a pressure which is less than the closing pressure of the non-return valve in the region of the return line, so that hydraulic fluid can be drawn in via the return line until the switch valve in the supply line again opens and the process is repeated. In the case of a regenerative braking of the drive, there is obtained, upon the closing of the switch valve in the return line, an increase in the pressure of the drive-side hydraulic fluid to an amount exceeding the closing pressure of the non-return valve in the region of the supply line, which results in a pumping of the hydraulic fluid back into the supply line. This additional flow of hydraulic fluid caused by the pulsed actuation of the drive causes a corresponding recovery of energy and thus an improved efficiency which, to be sure, is obtained at the cost of a comparatively small dynamics and a corresponding structural expense.
If the development of standing pressure waves in the hydraulic fluid under resonant conditions is assured in a resonant pipe connected in front of a hydrostatic drive in the manner that the resonant pipe is connected via a switch valve actuated with a corresponding resonant frequency alternately to a hydraulic fluid supply line and a return line, then, with such pulsed actuations there is obtained a simple storing of energy during the pressure-pulse pauses, as has been shown by fundamental examinations. To be sure, these known examinations still do not provide any solution for the technical use of this resonant pipe upon the pulsed actuation of hydrostatic drives since, with the operating path of these drives, the resonant conditions for the development of the standing pressure waves change and therefore the resonant conditions cannot be maintained.

Device for actuating a hydrostatic drive


A light guide plate has an emission face provided with a plurality of projection rows. Each projection row consists of a pair of slopes, a first slope (a slope far from an incidence end face) and a second slope (another slope near to the incidence end face). An inclination angle of the first slope with respect to an imaginary plane perpendicular to a frontal direction decreases gradually in first region on the emission face (or back face) according to an increasing distance from the incidence end face, then increasing gradually in second region according to an increasing distance from the incidence end face. The inclination angle at an incidence-end-face-side end of first region is greater that at a distal-end-face-side end of second region. Variation of the inclination angle in the first region is greater that in the second region.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a light guide plate and surface light source device provided with the light guide plate, and to an image display provided with the surface light source device. The present invention is applied to an image display provided with a member-to-be-illuminated (object-to-be-illuminated) such as image display panel backlighted by a surface light source device, and to a surface light source device and light guide plate used therein. A light guide plate, surface light source device and image display in accordance with the present invention may be used for image displaying in portable phones, portable terminals, electric dictionaries, various electronic devices or personal computers.
2. Related Art
It is known well to use liquid crystal displays for image displaying in portable phones, personal computers or other devices. A liquid crystal display is provided with a liquid crystal display panel as a member-to-be-illuminated. In many cases, backlighting is applied to the liquid crystal display panel and a so-called side light type surface light source device is utilized for backlighting.
FIG. 17 is a cross section view of a well-known fundamental structure of a side light type surface light source device, wherein a light path, which is depicted while primary light (i.e. light from a primary light source) enters into a light guide plate and then is emitted, is shown additionally.
Referring to FIG. 17, surface light source device 90 is provided with light source (primary light source) 91 and light guide plate 92. Light from light source 91 enters into light guide plate 9 92 sideways, propagating within light guide plate 9 92. On the way of such inner-propagation, inner-incidence to emission face 93 of light guide plate 92 occurs repeatedly. If inner-incidence angle is not greater than critical angle, some of inner-incident light outgoes from emission face 93. It has been proposed recently to aim to obtain uniformalized and highly bright emission from an emission face of a light guide plate by forming prismatic projections having emission promotion function on the emission face.
FIG. 18 shows an example thereof (first prior art), which is disclosed in Document 1 noted below. Referring to FIG. 18, surface light source device 112 is provided with light guide plate 102 and light source (primary light source) 110. Light guide plate 102 has an emission face 104 on which a great number of prismatic projection rows 113 running in a direction along incidence face 103 of light guide plate 102. These projection rows 113 promote outgoing of inner-propagation light in light guide plate 102.
Each projection row 113 is a prismatic projection having a triangle-like cross section, being provided with first slope 117 and second slope 118. First slope 117 is gently inclined so that light guide plate 102 decreases in thickness with an increasing distance from incidence face 103. On the other hand, second slope 118 is sharply inclined so that light guide plate 102 increases in thickness with an increasing distance from incidence face 103. On the other hand, Area occupied by first slope 117 is greater than area occupied by second slope 118. In addition, inclination angle θa of first slope 117 gets smaller gradually from incidence face 103 to distal end face 120. This and inclination of angle (wedge angle) α made by back face 107 of light guide plate 102 with respect to emission face 104 results in a cooperative effect such that emission from emission face 104 has a high and uniform brightness.
Next, FIG. 19 shows another prior art (second prior art), which is disclosed in Document 2 noted below. The second prior art aims to uniformalize and heighten emission brightness in generally the same manner as the first prior art (FIG. 18).
Referring to FIG. 19, surface light source device 130 employs light guide plate 131. Light guide plate 131 has back face 133 on which a great number of prismatic projection rows 132 are formed.
All projection rows 132 of light guide plate 131 shown in FIG. 19 gives the same inclination angle θa of first slopes 134 while intervals between two projection rows 132, 132 adjacent to each other varies in a suitable manner. This causes area ratio relation between first slope 134 and second slope 135 and height h of projection row 113 h to vary.
Document 1; International Laid-open pamphlet 2004/079258.
Document 2; Tokkai 2005-259361 (JP)
However, the above-mentioned first prior art fails to achieve sufficiently high and uniform emission brightness, for example, in cases as follows.
(1) Cases where inclination angle α of back face 107 of light guide plate 102 can not designed flexibly due to limitation, such as thickness, size or others, which light guide plate 102 is subject to.
(2) Cases where emission face 104 has short of emission ability depending on position thereon under condition such that inclination angle α is constant.
Although known are arts according to which emission face 104 or back face 107 is roughened in order to compensate short of emission ability, such arts causes, in general, emission face 104 to have a reduced emission directivity and, with the result that high brightness is hardly obtained.
According to the above-mentioned second prior art, intervals between two prismatic projection rows 132 adjacent to each other vary appropriately in order to uniformalize emission brightness, failing to enable individual projection rows to have an adjusted emission promotion ability due to absence of configuration variation thereof. Therefore, it is difficult to avoid emission face 104 from having control short or excess of emission brightness which can occur depending on position thereon,

Light guide plate, surface light source device and image display


The present disclosure relates to a washing machine and a control method of the same. The washing machine includes a tub, a drum, and a detergent supply device configured to supply an additive to the tub. The detergent supply device includes a plurality of cartridges configured to contain the additive, a plurality of check valve assemblies that are respectively connected to the plurality of cartridges and configured to control extracting of the additive from the plurality of cartridges, a pump, a water supply valve configured to receive water from an external water source, and an outlet pipe having a plurality of check valve connection pipes that are respectively connected to the plurality of check valve assemblies, the outlet pipe passing therethrough the water supplied from the water supply valve and the additive extracted from the plurality of cartridges.

A washing machine is an apparatus that can process laundry through various actions such as washing, dehydration and/or drying. A washing machine is an apparatus that removes contamination from laundry (hereinafter, also referred to as "clothes" or "clothing") by using water and detergent.
Recently, there has been an increasing demand for an automatic detergent supply device that automatically mixes and supplies various types of detergents to suit the clothing, and related technologies are being developed.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for washing machine


Capacitors 10, 20, 40, 50, 70, 80) having a fluid dielectric material that is transported or undergoes a phase change are disclosed. The dielectric medium change results in a change in the total dielectric constant of the material between the electrodes (12, 14, 72, 74, 81, 82), thus changing the capacitance of the capacitors. Transporting or phase changing the dielectric fluids into and out of a the electric field of the capacitor, changes the effective dielectric constant and the capacitance of the capacitor.

Several types of tunable capacitors have been used in electronics. These include physically tuned capacitors where the plates of the capacitor are moved relative to each other to change the amount of effective area of the plates, or the distance between the plates, to thereby change the capacitance of the capacitor. These types of capacitors can have a large amount of variance in their capacitance, but they require an actuator to be controlled automatically. Other tunable capacitors include those that use electrically active materials that have a dielectric constant that can be changed by applying an electric field through the material. These materials are either ferroelectric (f-e) or paraelectric (p-e). While the dielectric constant of these materials can be change relatively quickly, the change in capacitance with a voltage applied is rather small.
Electrical, radio frequency (RF), or microwave applications of these tunable capacitors include such general classifications as varactor diode replacement, tunable filters, phase shifters, multiplexers (to include duplexers), voltage controlled oscillators, tunable matching networks for power amplifiers (PA's), low noise amplifiers (LNA's), thermoelectric effects including power systems, general impedance matching networks, and charge pumps.
Tunable capacitors can be exploited in the design of components, subsystems and/or systems in mobile communication systems to achieve:                1) new capability and improved electrical (RF or microwave) performance over a wide range of frequencies but most particularly from 300 MHz to ˜30 GHz        2) smaller size,        3) lower power consumption,        4) less weight,or any combination of these four items as determined by specific system design requirements.
Electronics, including wireless handsets are characterized by their need for low voltage operation, typically <40 VDC, and ideally <3.0 VDC. It is expected that this voltage will decrease further in future designs. Thus, any tunable device must be able to be designed in such a way as to create appropriate electric fields from a small DC power supply voltage. One way to achieve a suitable geometry is to design variable capacitors consisting of thin films of f-e materials, with closely spaced biasing electrodes. The small DC tuning voltage also results in reduced power consumption (and heat dissipated) from RF and E-O devices. Another use of tunable capacitors to achieve the tunability required is to provide a higher tuning voltage from a low voltage source using charge pumps. This is done conventionally by charging a number of capacitors in parallel and them switching them to a series configuration, to add the voltages together. These techniques provide tunable capacitors, while avoiding the limitations of f-e materials.
Another use of interest for the capacitors of the present invention, is pressure or temperature sensors. Changes in temperature/pressure affect many applications and smaller temperature/pressure sensors are always in need in a wide range of industries that include hydraulic and pneumatic systems. Currently these work on a number of principles including the movement of one capacitor electrode relative to another electrode. The relative movement between electrodes causes a change in capacitance which results in a change in an electrical signal that is used to detect and/or direct the operation of systems. The higher the capacitance change the more sensitive the feedback of data and the greater the accuracy of system control.

Tunable capacitors using fluid dielectrics


A track means defined by magnetic recording media on a substrate, the media along the track means having two levels, one for recording of data, and the other for recording of servo information, wherein recorded magnetic transitions at the second level define the servo information, the transitions arrayed along the track means as groups of converging lines which extend in crosswise or spanwise relation to multiple tracks. The data is recorded without any wasted magnetic space between tracks (zero guardband) using alternating angles (azimuthal) of magnetic orientation so that they do not interfere with each other when read. The read bead cores or gaps may be "oriented" to read recorded data transitions extending at different angles relative to track length direction.

This invention generally relates to increasing the data storage capacity of systems using magnetic media by increasing the ability to record and reproduce more tracks in the same area of recording media; i.e., the recording and reproducing of data tracks at very high track densities.
The invention specifically relates to the generation of reference location data (indicia) on or in magnetic recording media by the generation of configurations of such reference data at buried locations in such media, to enable accurate lateral positioning is control of a read and/or write head relative to which the media travels longitudinally, to the extent that more information data can then be provided (magnetically recorded) on the media.
There has been a consistent increase in data storage densities of other devices using magnetic media such as floppy discs and Winchester discs. The density of data storage on Winchester disc drives and helical scan tape drives has increased much faster than areal densities of conventional longitudinal recorders, i.e., tape.
The density of data storage capability on longitudinal tape recorders and floppy discs has increased more slowly than on Winchester and helical scan devices, particularly as to increasing the number of data tracks per inch recorded/reproduced, i.e., the lateral storage density. Some reasons for this are: Winchesters use various servo locating reference modalities to accurately locate the data record/reproduce (or write/read) head over the track when it is recorded or reproduced. Helical scan recorders guide tape carefully on "fences" or leads around a cylindrical drum, and use servo schemes to position the head over the relocated data track, when reading data.
Longitudinal recorders employing one quarter inch data cartridge drives have generally used less accurate head reference or locating schemes. They have depended on holding "open loop" tolerance accumulations to tape, guides and head track variations to position the write head approximately on or at a required physical location. In the read mode, most conventional tape drives use the same approach of "open loop" positioning (no servo feedback) to position the read head. This requires that space be left between the tracks to allow for these tolerances. These are called "guardbands". Some drives have used servo approaches as outlined below. However, because of the relatively coarse or approximate head positioning for writing, azimuthal recording is not being used because the tolerance accumulations would not, in practice, allow "zero guardband recording", i.e., the tolerance variations are too large.
As will be explained, the present invention directly addresses the problem of accurate track location relative to the write/read head for the initial write or recordation of data and the subsequent reproduction of data. The invention provides location reference information by (a) an approach that does not use media surface area to record reference data, and (b) a technique enabling unusually precise head location relative to a data track. The use of so-called "buried servos" (i.e., reference data locations deep in the media) was proposed some time ago, i.e., as in IBM Tech. Disclosure Bulletins Vol. 23, #7A, December 1980 and Vol. 23 July 1980. Such buried servos were difficult or impractical to implement in disc drives. One buried servo scheme used a combination of recording separate signal frequencies in separate sub-data media areas and then comparing amplitudes of respective frequencies to determine head position. This amplitude sensing and comparison approach is less accurate, and more difficult to implement than the signal phase technique disclosed herein.

Systems using superimposed, orthogonal buried servo signals


An integrated circuit includes a first well of the first conductivity type formed in a semiconductor layer where the first well housing active devices and being connected to a first well potential, a second well of a second conductivity type formed in the semiconductor layer and encircling the first well where the second well housing active devices and being connected to a second well potential, and a buried layer of the second conductivity type formed under the first well and overlapping at least partially the second well encircling the first well. In an alternate embodiment, instead of the buried layer, the integrated circuit includes a third well of the second conductivity type formed in the semiconductor layer where the third well contains the first well and overlaps at least partially the second well encircling the first well.

Monolithic Power Integrated Circuits (PICs) for high-voltage applications may sometimes integrate thereon analog and digital circuitry. For example, one type of power integrated circuits is a DC-to-DC converter which may integrate the controller and one or both of the power switches on a single integrated circuit. As thus integrated, CMOS devices forming the analog circuits in the power integrated circuit need to be isolated from the noisy substrate to avoid circuit malfunction due to noise. In particular, the analog circuits typically include sensitive circuitry such as bandgap, amplifier and sensing circuits. The digital circuits typically include the oscillator, logic circuitry and the PWM controller. Conventional power integrated circuit includes separate ground connection for the analog circuits (analog ground) and for the digital circuits (digital ground). The substrate of the power integrated circuit, typically a P-type substrate, is typically connected to the digital ground which tends to be noisy due to the switching action of the digital clocking circuitry. The sensitive CMOS analog circuits of the power integrated circuit need to be isolated from the P-type substrate and the noisy digital ground.
In the CMOS analog circuits, PMOS devices are self-isolated from the P-type substrate by the virtue of being formed in N-wells. However, NMOS devices are formed in P-wells and are thus directly connected to the P-type substrate if not isolated. Conventional power integrated circuits isolate the CMOS devices from the P-substrate by using an N-type buried layer ("N-buried layer") and deep N-well ring connected to the N-type buried layer. FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate the conventional CMOS device isolation structure in an integrated circuit. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an integrated circuit 1 is typically formed using one or more circuit blocks 1-3, each circuit block housing analog or digital circuits. In the example shown, each of the circuit blocks 1-3 is isolated by a CMOS device isolation structure including a deep N-well ring 5 and an N-type buried layer 14 underlying the entire area within the circuit block defined by the ring 5. As shown in the example circuit block 10 of FIG. 2, the N-buried layer 14 extends across the entire area under the circuit block between the deep N-well ring 5. PMOS and NMOS devices are then formed in respective N-well 18 and P-well 20 in the epitaxial layer 13 above the N-buried layer 14. As thus configured, the PMOS and NMOS devices are completely enclosed by the deep N-well ring 5 and the N-buried layer 14 and are thus isolated from the P-type substrate 12 which is typically connected to the digital ground. Although it is more critical to isolate the analog circuit blocks from the noisy P-type substrate, conventional integrated circuits typically isolate both the analog and the digital circuit blocks to keep the substrate less noisy which results in lower noise coupling from substrate to analog blocks.
Although the conventional CMOS device isolation structure is effective, the isolation structure takes up large amount of silicon area because of the use of the deep N-well ring. Deep N-well is typically associated with large out-diffusion. Therefore, it is necessary to have a large spacing between adjacent deep N-wells. Thus, the die size for the integrated circuit formed using the conventional CMOS device isolation structure tends to be large, increasing the cost of the integrated circuit.

Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Incorporated


A heart valve prosthesis disclosed in two- and three-leaflet versions includes a ring-shaped body, leaflets, and leaflet turn stops. For the two-leaflet version, the stops represent two pairs of prominences located on a body end surface facing the blood down-flow. The first pair has internal surfaces, at least partially made flat, adapted to interact with flat sections of the leaflets to restrict the return blood flow in the closed position. The first pair is equipped with at least two rests interacting with a leaflet top surface facing the blood down-flow in its open position determining a leaflet turning angle. Each prominence of the second pair is located opposite a portion of the lateral surface of the corresponding leaflet most distant from a leaflet central surface and can interact with its internal surface with that part of the lateral surface during opening of the heart valve prosthesis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to medicine, and in particular, to cardiovascular surgery and is designed for replacement of affected natural heart valves during cardiac surgery.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many designs of heart valves prostheses used for replacement of natural valves: ball, frameless, single leaflet, bi-leaflet, tri-leaflet prostheses. Widely used implanted frame prostheses are very reliable and ensure satisfactory hemodynamics, appropriate improvements reduce acoustic noises, anxiety of patients, increase the time of continuous operation. Standard prostheses include a ring-shaped body providing a channel for the flow of blood. Installed in the body is one or more leaflets configured for the alternation of an open position for the passage of a direct flow of blood and a closed position for the closure of the channel and restriction of a reverse flow of blood. In addition, the heart valve prosthesis contains a coupling arrangement for the connection of the valve body with surrounding heart tissues. Basically, this arrangement is made in the form of a cuff which is sewed to the heart tissues and envelopes the lateral surface of the prosthesis valve body.
Research and engineering activity have been permanently carried out for the creation of new designs of valve prostheses and modernization of existing ones by means of improvement of their features.
Efforts to increase the efficiency of heart valve prostheses are continued. The efficiency of the heart valve prosthesis is determined by the area of the flow section when the leaflets are in the open position. The valve body of the prosthesis sewed in with the help of the cuff into place of a removed natural valve has a certain thickness reducing the flow section, the leaflets exhibiting resistance to the flow and partially closing a passage opening, especially when positioned centrally. The effective area of the valve flow section is thus reduced, which is one of the main critical factors of the heart valve prostheses. This is particularly dangerous in valves of small diameters.
Known from the prior art have been artificial heart valves which eliminate this disadvantage to a certain extent—these are the valves with an increased flow section and central positioning of leaflets upon the opening of the valve (see e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,007,577, 6,176,877, 6,719,790). The increase of the flow section in these prostheses is achieved by making the valve body with a flow section one size up (by approx. 2 mm) as compared with a regular valve, a cuff of a special design ensuring the installation of such valve into a position over the excised natural one. Thus, the thickness of the prosthesis body does not change the flow section of the valve, which remains equal to that the natural valve used to have.
However, a problem of hemodynamics distortion stays unsolved for such artificial valves. Indeed, the leaflets in the open position of the valve stay in the central area of the velocity profile distorting it and reducing the blood flow velocity through the valve.
A number of designs is known (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,437, RU 2066984) where the main flow section is provided in the center. It is obvious in such a design that the central part of the flow through the valve remains weakly disturbed and the distortions caused by the leaflets are minimal. However, these valves have no practical application in surgery because of low reliability and high probability of the falling out of the leaflets. As it turned out, the central problem was designing such leaflet traveling stops, which could reliably hold the leaflets during the whole life of the valve and contribute to its continuous operation.
So a need for a new design of the heart valve prosthesis combining the reliability and undistorted hemodynamics of the blood flow is obvious.
The closest analog for this invention is an artificial heart valve (RU 2066984) containing a ring-shaped body and two leaflets placed therein with a possibility of turning between top and bottom stops in relation to the blood flow and of forming the main zone of the flow section in the center, the zone being limited by round sections of inner walls of the body and bottom edges of the leaflets in relation to the blood flow, the bottom stops of each leaflet including a pair of half-axles installed near the periphery of the valve section and the top stop of each leaflet including a rest, the end of which is located in a groove of the rectangular cross-section made on a leaflet peripheral edge facing the rest.


This specification relates to a method for providing information about a caller before the call is completed. The invention comprises a method for intercepting a telephone number from a phone line or phone system, searching a database for information associated with that phone number and displaying the information on a computer screen, such that a person may see the information before the phone is answered. This provides immediate access to information related to an incoming or outgoing call to an individual without the need to manually search for the file.

It is often convenient and helpful to know the identity of a caller before one answers the phone. This allows a person to optimize their time by not answering calls from telemarketers or unknown callers, while only answering calls they are expecting or are otherwise important to them. Caller identification systems, where the number and sometimes name of a caller are displayed on the telephone or on a small display screen near the phone, allow the identity of a caller to be ascertained before answering.
However, conventional caller identification units do not display information other than a party's name and phone number. Furthermore, if the number is from out of the area often only the phone number is displayed without the caller's name. There is often a need to have more information than is displayed through a caller identification system, and to have the information organized in a user-friendly manner. It would, therefore, be desirable to have more information associated with the caller available at the time the phone is answered.
One solution to this problem used by many in a business setting is to answer the phone while simultaneously reviewing one's notes, either on a Rolodex™ or computerized database, to retrieve further information about the caller. For example, if a salesperson is receiving a call from a customer, he may look for notes regarding the customer's past purchases, present orders and other such information while talking with the caller. Whether computerized databases or hand written notes are used, this process is time consuming and the caller may feel that they are not being well served by a salesperson who does not initially remember them. If the information were immediately available to the salesperson, the caller would not have to wait while their information was located.
Currently some businesses use a system in which a call comes in and the number of the incoming call is matched against phone numbers in a database. If a matching phone number is located, information associated with that number is displayed on a screen in front of the operator who answers the call. This system is often employed in call centers where a customer calls with regard to a product or service and their information is displayed in front of the operator as a reference during the call. The customer data is held in a central database for the company. The operators do not keep separate profiles for the callers or have continued contact with the caller. The information is displayed for the duration of the call and may be added to, but only for reference during subsequent calls. This system does not allow caller profiles based on personal contact between the operator and the caller. Furthermore, the operator has no control over what numbers are listed in the database and for which numbers contact information is provided. These systems are also limited to businesses and cannot be employed by persons at home or by those who are not connected to the central computer containing the database of customer information.
It would, therefore, be useful to have information about a caller automatically retrieved from a personal database and displayed on a personal computer screen when the phone begins to ring. This would enable a person to view information about the caller before the phone is answered.

System and method for displaying a party profile for incoming and outgoing calls