A method for determining whether a physical layer device under test is defective may include establishing a closed communication path between a verified physical layer device and the physical layer device under test via an optical interface of the verified physical layer device and an optical interface of the physical layer device under test. Alternately, the electrical interface may also be used for testing. A packet generator may transmit test packets over the established closed communication path and at least a portion of the test packets from the physical layer device under test may be received by the verified physical layer device. Subsequently, the verified physical layer device may compare at least a portion of the received test packets with at least a portion of the generated test packets in order to determine whether the physical layer device is defective or operational.

Embodiments of the present application relate generally to optical networking hardware, and more particularly to a system and method for performing self-testing on a physical layer multimode device.
High-speed digital communication networks over copper and optical fiber are used in many network communication and digital storage applications. Ethernet and Fiber Channel are two widely used communication protocols which continue to evolve in response to increasing need for higher bandwidth in digital communication systems.
The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model (ISO standard) was developed to establish standardization for linking heterogeneous computer and communication systems. It describes the flow of information from a software application of a first computer system to a software application of a second computer system through a network medium. The OSI model has seven distinct functional layers including Layer 7: an application layer; Layer 6: a presentation layer; Layer 5: a session layer; Layer 4: a transport layer; Layer 3: a network layer; Layer 2: a data link layer; and Layer 1: a physical layer. Importantly, each OSI layer describes certain tasks which are necessary for facilitating the transfer of information through interfacing layers and ultimately through the network. Notwithstanding, the OSI model does not describe any particular implementation of the various layers.
OSI layers 1 to 4 generally handle network control and data transmission and reception. Layers 5 to 7 handle application issues. Specific functions of each layer may vary depending on factors such as protocol and interface requirements or specifications that are necessary for implementation of a particular layer. For example, the Ethernet protocol may provide collision detection and carrier sensing in the data link layer.
Layer 1, the physical layer, is responsible for handling all electrical, optical, opto-electrical and mechanical requirements for interfacing to the communication media. Notably, the physical layer may facilitate the transfer of electrical signals representing an information bitstream. The physical layer may also provide services such as, encoding, decoding, synchronization, clock data recovery, and transmission and reception of bit streams. In high bandwidth applications having transmission speeds of the order of Gigabits, high-speed electrical, optical and/or electro-optical transceivers may be used to implement this layer.
As the demand for higher data rates and bandwidth requirements continues to increase, transmission rates of the order of 10 Gigabits and higher is being developed for high-speed network applications. Accordingly, there is a need to develop a 10 Gigabit physical layer device that may facilitate such high-speed serial data applications. For example, XENPAK multi-source agreement (MSA) defines a fiber optical module that conforms to the well-known IEEE standard for 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) physical media dependent (PMD) types. In this regard, XENPAK compatible transceivers may be used implement the physical layer. Notwithstanding, there is a need for transceivers, which are necessary for 10 Gigabit physical layer applications. The well-known IEEE P802.3ae draft 5 specifications describes the physical layer requirements for 10 Gigabit Ethernet applications and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
An optical-based transceiver, for example, may include various functional components such as clock data recovery, clock multiplication, serialization/deserialization, encoding/decoding, electrical/optical conversion, descrambling, media access control (MAC), controlling, and data storage. These functional components may be implemented in a separate chip or and integrated circuit (IC).
The proliferation of physical layer devices designed to meet the needs of high speed communication will, without a doubt, give rise to the need for testing these devices. The testing of ICs or chips may often involve the application of one or more test signals to the inputs of the chip and capturing the output signals by an external device. The external device may typically store and compare the captured outputs against expected outputs that are known to be accurate. In this regard, defective chips may be detected when the captured output signals are inconsistent with the expected outputs.
Testing a chip by applying input signals and capturing of outputs by an external device may become difficult as the data rate of the chip increases. To simulate operational conditions, the external device must apply the input signals and capture the outputs at the operational data rate of the chip. Testing optical transceivers may be challenging because of the high speeds at which these devices operate. Accordingly, a need exists for testing physical layer multimode devices that may operate at speeds of the order of about 10 Gbps.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.

System and method for performing on-chip self-testing


A side window washing device has a washing unit positioned on each side of the side window and coupled to an interior section of a door frame of the vehicle. The washing unit is capable of dispensing a liquid and moving to clean the side window. A driving unit is coupled to the washing unit. The driving unit is used for dispensing the liquid through the washing unit and for moving the washing unit. A drying unit is positioned above each washing unit and coupled to the interior section of a door frame. The drying unit is used for removing any liquid remaining on the side window.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to window cleaning devices and, more specifically, to a device which is installed in the doors of a vehicle which will wash and clean the side windows of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Presently, most all vehicles on the road have a windshield wiper system which may be used to clean the front window of the vehicle. Some vehicles even have a windshield wiper system on the rear of the vehicle to clean the rear window. Present windshield wiper systems include a device for spraying water on the window and one or more wipers to remove the water and other debris from the window.
While the above systems do work, there is presently no system available which will wash and clean the side windows on a vehicle. Once a side window becomes dirty, the only way to clean the window is to stop at a gas station or other location and to manually clean the side window with a wet cloth or squeegee. Present windshield wiper systems would not work because of the many different shapes and sizes of the side windows. Furthermore, having a windshield wiper system on the side windows would hinder individuals from lowering the side window when driving.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a side window washing device for vehicles. The side window washing device must overcome problems associated with prior art devices. The side window washing device must be able to wash and clean a side window of a vehicle without hindering a person's ability to lower the side window.

Device for washing side windows of a vehicle


A resistance welding machine includes a circuit for detecting a timing when the time derivative of primary winding current of a welding transformer becomes almost zero. The machine includes a circuit for measuring the primary winding current and primary winding voltage of the welding transformer, when the timing is detected by the timing detecting circuits. There is also for calculating a resistance of a secondary circuit from the primary winding current and y winding voltage measured by the measuring circuit as well as a characteristic value of the welding transformer. The machine includes a circuit for calculating variation of the resistance of the secondary circuit calculated by the calculating circuit in a predetermined period of time, and a circuit for discriminating presence or absence of flash occurrence by comparing the value relating to the variation calculated by the variation calculating circuit with an intermediate value between a value relating to the variation when flash occurs and a value relating to the variation when no flash occurs. Additionally, the machine includes a welding current regulator for comparing the number of flash occurrence discriminated by the discriminating circuit with the number of flash occurrence at optimum welding, and decreasing the welding current if the former is larger than the latter, and increasing the welding current if the former is smaller than the latter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a controller for a welding machine of the type including a welding transformer which has a primary winding circuit and a secondary winding circuit, the secondary winding circuit including a pair of welding electrodes between which a workpiece to be welded is held, supply of welding current to the primary winding circuit causing resistance heating of the workpiece.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the welding machine of this type, too small welding current cannot provide satisfactory welding, while too large welding current will cause flash or spattering which will disadvantageously degrade appearance of the welded portion. For this purpose, the welding current must be properly regulated. Furthermore, repeated welding operations cause deformation of the welding electrodes, which results in corresponding change of a proper value for the welding current. Therefore, the controller for the welding machine is required to have a function of determining a proper value for the welding current in such a condition and regulating the welding current to the determined value.
In order to perform the above control, measurement of the interelectrode resistance is effective. There has been proposed a technique of regulating the welding current in such a way as to cause predetermined change of the interelectrode resistance. An example of such a technique is described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 62-18273.
In the above prior art, the primary winding current and voltage across the electrodes are measured to derive the interelectrode resistance. It is, then, necessary in the prior art to add a voltmeter between the electrodes. Such addition of the voltmeter between the electrode, however, requires specific machining of a gun holding the electrodes so as to place lead wires. Furthermore, in many cases, such a gun is disposed at an inner portion of a welding jig, resulting in difficulty in maintenance. There often occurs a problem of breaking of the lead wires caused by movement of the gun or a workpiece, or flash generated during welding operation. These problems have limited application of the method of controlling a welding machine through interelectrode resistance to actual production lines.
In such a prior art technique of control based upon the interelectrode resistance, a target value or curve is previously set, and the welding current is controlled so as to be equal to the target. Such control of the welding current to be equal to the target will, however, sometimes fail to provide satisfactory welding due to variations of thickness of the workpiece, thickness of a plated layer of the workpiece or the like.


A mobile IP communication terminal connected to a network at a remote place decides whether position registration can be performed by the IP (IPv4). When the position registration is possible, a normal position registration process is performed. When the position registration is impossible, the mobile IP communication terminal uniquely generates a CoA (Care of Address), edits a position registration signal, and transmits a position registration signal to a network repeater, which has a position registration function of the mobile IP communication terminal, based on a header obtained by an IP (IPv6) of the network to which the mobile IP communication terminal is connected and a designated IP (UDP).

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for performing mobile internet-protocol (IP) communication on a network in which a plurality of IPs coexist.
2) Description of the Related Art
IP version 4 (IPv4) is a protocol of a network layer, and is used for packet communication in the Internet. IP addresses of IPv4 are allocated to IP communication terminals that are connected to the networks that follow IPv4. The IP address is used to identify each communication terminal and specify a position of the IP communication terminal. In other words, if one IP communication terminal wants to perform communication with other IP communication terminal connected to the network, the one IP communication terminal must know an IP address of the other IP communication terminal.
If the other IP communication terminal is a fixed communication terminal, i.e., an IP communication terminal that is always connected to a network through the same router (network repeater), a problem does not occur; because, the IP address of the other IP communication terminal is known and the IP address does not change. However, if the other IP communication terminal is a mobile communication, i.e., an IP communication terminal that is connected to a network through different routers each time the other IP communication terminal is connected to the network, its IP address changes each time it is connected to the network, and it becomes necessary to identify its IP address each time.
Conventionally, a mobile IP communication terminal performs packet communication by the following method. FIG. 10 is a schematic of an IPv4 mobile communication terminal 702 in an IPv4 network 700. It is assumed that the IPv4 mobile communication terminal 702 performs communications with an IPv4 communication terminal 703 via the IPv4 network 700. The mobile communication terminal 702 is shown to be connected to the IPv4 network 700 through a router 704b; however, the IPv4 mobile communication terminal 702 can be moved, as shown in FIG. 10 with an arrow, and connected to the IPv4 network 700 through a router 704c.
When the IPv4 mobile-communication terminal 702 is connected to the IPv4 network 700, the IPv4 mobile-communication terminal 702 acquires Care of Address (hereinafter, "CoA") from the IPv4 network 700. The CoA is used as a temporary IP address and indicates connection position of the IPv4 mobile-communication terminal 702. The IPv4 mobile-communication terminal 702 edits a registration information signal to register the CoA and transmits the registration information signal to the IPv4 home agent 701 via the IPv4 network 700. The IPv4 mobile-communication terminal 702 sets Home Address (hereinafter, "HoA") in the IPv4 home agent 701 as a fixed IP address, and notifies the IPv4 communication terminal 703 of the HoA as a receiving address. As a result, when the IPv4 communication terminal 703 transmits a packet to the HoA, the packet is always received by the IPv4 home agent 701. Then, the IPv4 home agent 701 transfers the packet to the registered CoA, i.e., to the IPv4 mobile communication terminal 702.
FIG. 11 is a schematic for explaining encapsulation of a packet when the packet is transmitted to a mobile communication terminal through an IPv4 network, FIG. 12A is a schematic for explaining a packet when mobile communication is performed through an IPv4 network, and FIG. 12B is a schematic for explaining encapsulated packet when mobile communication is performed through an IPv4 network.
As shown in FIG. 11, a packet is transferred based on an HoA-CoA correspondence table 800 that is stored in the IPv4 home agent 701. A packet on a route R801 between the IPv4 communication terminal 703 and the IPv4 home agent 701 has a configuration as a packet model 820 shown in FIG. 12A. The packet model 820 includes a header 821, which has a destination address and a source address, and a payload 822 corresponding to user's data. A packet on a route R802 between the IPv4 home agent 701 and the IPv4 mobile-communication terminal 702 has a configuration as a packet model 830 shown in FIG. 12B. The packet model 830 includes the packet model 820 and a header 831. The header 831 includes CoA of the destination terminal as a destination address and the address of HAv4 as a source address. Such a process of encapsulating one packet, i.e., the packet model 820, in other packet, i.e., the packet model 830, is called packet encapsulation. When the packet model 830 arrives at the IPv4 mobile-communication terminal 702, the packet model 830 is decapsulated to obtain the packet model 820.
IPv4 has a 32-bit address; however, recently the address is thought to be too short to express required information. As a countermeasure, an IP version 6 (IPv6), which has a longer address, i.e., a 128-bit address, has been developed.
However, it is physically impossible, or, it is impossible under circumstances of users, to shift all the IP environments from IPv4 to IPv6; therefore, currently both IPv4 and IPv6 coexist. Therefore, if two or more protocols coexist in a network, it becomes necessary to switch protocols in such a manner that the communication can be performed seamlessly. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-18185 discloses a method for this purpose.
It has been anticipated that IPv6 is going to be the main trend in the future, and that an IPv4 mobile-communication terminal may not be used in several cases. For example, an IPv4 mobile communication terminal cannot be used in a network that supports only IPv6. Moreover, an IPv4 mobile-communication terminal can not be used if an IPv4 address for CoA of a mobile-communication terminal cannot be acquired in a network even though the network supports both IPv4 and IPv6, and if it is impossible to perform packet communication with an external network by IPv4 in a network.

Mobile IP communication terminal, mobile IP communication method, and computer product


To provide a circuit arrangement (100) and a method for generating and amplifying an amplitude-limited DC signal whose level voltage is substantially proportional to the logarithm of the voltage amplitude of an input signal, by which the level indication, i.e. the level voltage of the DC signal generated and amplified in the circuit arrangement and by the method only depends on the amplitude and not on the frequency of the input signal, it is proposed that the last amplifier stage (30), particularly the collector circuits of the last amplifier stage (30) of an amplifier circuit comprising at least two amplifier stages (10; 20; 30) precedes a frequency (FM) demodulator unit (40), the frequency (FM) demodulator unit (40) precedes at least one quadrature stage (50, 60, 70) for squaring the output signal of the frequency (FM) demodulator unit (40), particularly the AC component of the output signal of the frequency (FM) demodulator unit (40), and at least one current adder unit (80) is provided for adding the level voltage of the output signal of the quadrature stage (50, 60, 70) to the level voltage of the amplifier stages (10; 20; 30).

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a circuit arrangement and a method for generating and amplifying an amplitude-limited DC signal whose level voltage is substantially proportional to the logarithm of the voltage amplitude of an input signal. Generally, the invention relates to the field of analog integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such circuit arrangements as well as such methods fulfill two functions. On the one hand, they are used for amplifying an AC signal which is applied to the circuit arrangement via its input terminals and, on the other hand, the amplitude of the output signal is limited by such a circuit arrangement and such a method. Consequently, the word xe2x80x9climiter amplifierxe2x80x9d is generally used for such a circuit arrangement. Such limiter amplifiers are used, for example, in the frequency-modulated IF amplification in radio receivers or for gaining carriers from amplitude-modulated signals.
When such a limiter amplifier is given a simple extension, for example, in the form of a rectifier stage, a DC voltage can be generated which is widely proportional to the logarithm of the amplitude of the voltage of the input signal. When the amplitude of the output signal is plotted against the logarithm of the amplitude of the input voltage, a wide range of the input voltage shows a straight characteristic with a substantially constant rise. This straight characteristic is commonly referred to as xe2x80x9clevel characteristicxe2x80x9d.
Regarding such circuit arrangements and such methods for generating and amplifying an amplitude-limited DC signal, it is to be taken into account that the level voltage of the DC signal in the case of a frequency-modulated input signal (referred to as xe2x80x9cFM-modulated input signalxe2x80x9d) is distorted when the input signal has previously passed through a circuit having a frequency-dependent amplitude variation, for example, in the form of an IF filter. In such a circuit, the frequency modulation (FM) is converted into an amplitude modulation (AM) which then undoubtedly becomes manifest as an unwanted level fluctuation in the level voltage of the DC signal, although the input signal was basically only frequency modulated (FM).
Based on the previously mentioned drawbacks and shortcomings, it is an object of the present invention to provide a circuit arrangement and a method of the type described in the opening paragraph, by which the level indication, i.e. the level voltage of the DC signal generated and amplified in the circuit arrangement and by the method only depends on the amplitude and not on the frequency of the input signal.
This object is solved by a circuit arrangement as defined in claim 1 and by a method as defined in claim 18. Advantageous embodiments and essential further improvements of the present invention are defined in the dependent claims.
In accordance with the teaching of the present invention, the level signal is corrected by means of a correction signal gained from the frequency (FM) demodulator unit, which correction signal compensates the influence of the frequency-dependent amplitude variation on the level signal. In other words, the amplitude-limited DC signal generated and amplified in accordance with the invention and having a level voltage which is substantially proportional to the logarithm of the voltage amplitude of an input signal only comprises information about the amplitude and not about the frequency.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention provides a correcting compensation of the influence of the frequency modulation on the (logarithmic) level voltage. Such a compensation is required because frequency-modulated signals have amplitude fluctuations which were absent before they passed through a filter stage, because the filter stage has a frequency-dependent passband attenuation. By virtue of the present invention, it is surprisingly possible for those skilled in the art to acquire considerably more accurate indications of the level voltage about the signal level so that the circuit arrangement can be used in completely new fields of application.
The fundamental aspect of the present invention is that the level information of the input signal is initially indicated and/or detected by means of the at least one amplifier circuit comprising the at least two amplifier stages. After the output signal of the last amplifier stage, particularly the collector circuits of the last amplifier stage, has been frequency-demodulated by means of the at least one frequency (FM) demodulator unit, the output signal of the frequency (FM) demodulator unit, particularly the AC component of the output signal of the frequency (FM) demodulator unit, is corrected in the at least one quadrature stage. Finally, the level voltage of the output signal of the quadrature stage is added to the level voltage of the amplifier stages in at least one current adder unit.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the quadrature stage is constituted by at least one, particularly non-negatively fed-back differential amplifier stage, at least one intermediate stage assigned to the differential amplifier stage, and at least one subsequent multiplier stage for multiplying the output signal of the intermediate stage. This multiplication product is added in the at least one current adder unit to the parts of the level characteristics of the amplifier stages.
In this connection, the level voltage of the output signal of the quadrature stage can be adapted to different circuits having a frequency-dependent amplitude variation and preceding the amplifier circuit, for example, to IF filters each having differently curved filter response curves, by varying the amplification of the quadrature stage.
The differential amplifier stage is suitably connected to the output of the frequency demodulator stage. In this connection, the differential amplifier is principally a linearly amplifying DC amplifier whose output voltage is proportional to the difference between the two input voltages. The basic circuit comprises two transistors jointly connected to the emitter and fed from a common constant current source. The differential amplifier is usually symmetrical because temperature influences and non-linearities then substantially compensate each other, which results in a small offset behavior.
In connection with the present invention, it is to be taken into account that it is known from the state of the art that the error in a frequency (FM) demodulator unit, caused by the group delay time of a filter preceding the frequency (FM) demodulator unit, can be compensated (cf. JP 61-187402). The prior art also discloses several types of frequency (FM) demodulator units (cf. DE-OS 17 66 837, JP-A-04-207209, JP-A-11-055038, JP-A-57-015505, or JP-A-60-070804), as well as filtering of the output signal of a limiter amplifier preceding a frequency (FM) demodulator unit for the purpose of avoiding distortions (cf. JP-A-55-083347).
However, none of the above-mentioned documents known from the state of the art deals with the detection of not only the amplitude butxe2x80x94due to the frequency-dependent transfer characteristicxe2x80x94also the frequency of the input signal. In other words, the prior art documents do not provide any stimulus concerning the reduction of the unwanted influence of the frequency-dependent amplitude variation.
The invention also relates to an integrated circuit, particularly an analog integrated circuit comprising at least one circuit arrangement of the type described hereinbefore and/or operating in accordance with a method as described hereinbefore.
These and other aspects of the invention are apparent from and will be elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter.

Circuit arrangement for generating and amplifying an amplitude limited DC signal


A device for a light detection system includes an electroluminescent layer stack on a transparent member, such as a glass substrate, with at least one layer of the layer stack being patterned to define first and second electroluminescent regions spaced apart by a transparent light collection path for passage of backreflected light. The layer stack includes first and second electrode layers on opposed sides of one or more active layers. In one embodiment, the second electrode layer is the only layer that is patterned to define the light collection path. In this embodiment, the other layers extend continuously across the light collection path. In another embodiment, all of the layers are patterned to form a gap between the first and second electroluminescent regions. The layer stack is hermetically sealed to protect the active layer or layers from atmosphere-induced degradation. An illumination collector is aligned with the light collection path to receive light that is backreflected from a surface of interest through the light collection path. The illumination collector may be an optical arrangement, a photodetector, or both. In the preferred embodiment, the electroluminescent layer stack is an organic light-emitting source.

Many light detection systems require artificial illumination sources in order to ensure that the system has sufficient light for reliable performance. For example, a scanner may include an illumination source--to provide the necessary print-to-background contrast for forming image signals representative of a scanned original. A high contrast level enhances the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of image signals generated by one or more photodetectors. The enhanced SNR increases the accuracy of image reproduction. Moreover, high contrast levels also permit the scanning operation to be performed at a higher speed.
The selection of an appropriate illumination source for a light detection system depends upon a number of factors. A multi-feature photocopier typically utilizes a fluorescent lamp to permit high speed document reproduction. In comparison, illumination sources for a hand-held scanner must be compact and energy efficient.
An attractive approach to providing a compact, low energy illumination source for a detection system is an electroluminescent device that emits light from a planar surface in response to an excitation signal. Thick film and thin film electroluminescent devices are well known. One or more active layers may be sandwiched between two electrode layers connected to a voltage source. At least one of the electrode layers is transparent. When a potential difference is applied by means of the two electrode layers, energy is emitted at specific wavelengths that depend upon the selection of the active layers. The radiation passes through the transparent electrode and may be used to provide a generally uniform illumination field on a surface of interest, such as a document. A charge coupled device (CCD) array or other detector arrangement may be used to form signals representative of light scattered from the surface of interest. A concern is that the intensity of the illumination field drops off considerably with distance from the electroluminescent device. The reduced intensity may adversely affect performance of the detection system, particularly if the detector array is adjacent to the electroluminescent device in a surface-contact application, i.e., an application in which the device is brought into contact or near contact with the surface of interest. The radiating region of the electroluminescent device does not typically extend to the edge of the device, since the layers are hermetically sealed. Humidity and oxygen significantly reduce the useful life of most electroluminescent devices. Consequently, the edges of the device are sealed to exclude water and oxygen from the active layers. The seal reduces the susceptibility of the device to rapid degradation, but increases the distance between the radiating region and the field of view of the CCD array or other light detection device, as shown in FIG. 1. The seals 11 and 13 in FIG. 1 protect the electroluminescent layer stacks 15 and 17. Each layer stack is sandwiched between a pair of transparent substrates 19, 21, 23 and 25. A space between the two pairs of substrates allows light reflected from a document 27 to pass to an optical arrangement 29, as represented by the vertical line from the document to the optical arrangement. The presence of the seals 11 and 13 at the edges of the layer stacks 15 and 17 determines the minimum distance between the radiation regions of the layer stacks and the field of view of the optical arrangement 29.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,491,384 to Cheng et al. describes a light source for use in a surface-contact application, such as scanning a document for facsimile transmission. An electroluminescent source is formed between two water-proof layers. A narrow slot is then formed through the device. The device is fastened to a scanning face glass that is to be brought into contact with the surface of interest. Light reflected from the surface of interest passes through the narrow slot to a lens of a contact image sensor. Because the narrow slot is formed directly through the active layers, there is no sealant at the narrow slot. While this arrangement improves the intensity distribution into the line of sight of the sensor, it exposes the active layers to moisture and oxygen. What is needed is a device which provides substantially uniform illumination intensity over a region of interest to a light detection system in a compact and energy efficient manner. What is further needed is a method of fabricating such a device so as to protect the device from atmosphere-induced degradation.

Electroluminescent device and fabrication method for a light detection system


Provided are a solder alloy which has excellent temperature cycle characteristics and in which yellowish discoloration is suppressed, excellent wettability is maintained, and an increase in viscosity of a solder paste over time can be suppressed, and a solder paste, a solder ball, and a solder joint in which the solder alloy is used.

With the rapid development of electronic devices, many technological innovations have been made rapidly in various joining technologies, especially solder joining technologies, and highly appropriate solder materials have come to be used for each specific application. For example, materials such as materials suitable for thinning or fine granulation, materials having high strength, and materials exhibiting high corrosion resistance in a specific environment have been developed according to high-level specifications required each time. In particular, today's electronic devices tend to be large in size and the demand for reliability with respect to soldering is particularly strict. For this reason, advanced technology is also required for the development of materials.
Electronic devices requiring high density mounting are used in a strict atmosphere under the environmental conditions of the environment in space (artificial satellites such as communication satellites, meteorological satellites, and military satellites), the automobile environment, or the like. Such high density mounting is also required for electronic devices in which the occurrence of failures leads to serious accidents. In particular, if a solder joint that joins a printed substrate to an electronic component peels off even at one site, a function of an electronic device may not be able to be fulfilled due to lack of conduction, which may lead to a serious accident. Accordingly, in such electronic devices, it is necessary to use solder alloys that make it difficult for solder joints to peel off. For this reason, high reliability is required for soldering.
Incidentally, since there is no air, which is a heat medium, in outer space where artificial satellites fly, the temperature of artificial satellites becomes extremely high, for example, 125° C. when artificial satellites are directly exposed to sunlight, and on the other hand, the temperature of artificial satellites becomes low, for example, −40° C. when sunlight is blocked by the Earth. Moreover, this is repeated every time satellites orbit.
In this manner, artificial satellites are subjected to thermal fatigue when they are exposed to high- and low-temperature environments due to their orbiting. Therefore, it is necessary to use solders having excellent temperature cycle characteristics for electronic devices to be mounted on artificial satellites. If solder joints are subjected to thermal fatigue, thermal expansion and thermal contraction are repeated in not only solder alloys but also leads, printed substrates, or the like of soldered electronic components. With a solder sensitive to temperature cycles, cracks occur in the solder itself and solder joints may peel off.
In addition, in order to keep solder joints stable when artificial satellites are exposed to high temperatures, solders used for electronic devices of artificial satellites need to be high-melting-point solder alloys which do not melt even at a high temperature, for example, 150° C. and have characteristics such as strong adhesive strength at high temperatures.
In the related art, several high-melting-point solder alloys containing Sn as a main component have been proposed. For example, an Ag—Sb—Cu—Bi—Sn high-temperature solder for joining joints is disclosed in Patent Literature 1. This has been developed exclusively as an alternative to a Cd—Zn high-melting-point solder alloy in the related art. However, it is essential to add 0.5% to 2.0% of Bi to improve the tensile strength of the solder itself.
On the other hand, since the solder alloy contains Sn as a main component, if the surface of the solder alloy is oxidized, an SnO coating film, which is an oxide film, is formed, and the surface thereof turns yellow. The thicker the film thickness of the SnO coating film, the greater the yellowness of the surface of the solder. If the surface of a solder alloy turns yellow and loses its metallic luster, the solder alloy is not detected during automatic processing of image recognition of the solder alloy. Therefore, in some cases, a solder alloy that actually exists is not recognized.
Regarding solder materials of which yellowish discoloration of surfaces thereof is suppressed in the related art, Patent Literature 2 discloses, for example, a solder material, which is a sphere having a diameter of 1 to 1,000 μm, including: a solder layer consisting of a metallic material made of an alloy containing 40 mass % or more of Sn or a metallic material containing 100 mass % of Sn; and a coating layer that covers the surface of the solder layer, in which, in the coating layer, an SnO film is formed outside the solder layer and an SnO2 film is formed outside the SnO film, and the thickness of the coating layer is greater than 0 nm and less than or equal to 4.5 nm. In the solder material. yellowish discoloration of the surface of the solder material is suppressed through formation of an SnO2 film.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Solder alloy, solder paste, solder ball, solder preform, and solder joint

Abstract: The solder alloy consists of, by mass %, 1.0% to 5.0% of Ag, 0.5% to 3.0% of Cu, 0.5% to 7.0% of Sb, 0.0040% to 0.025% of As, and a balance of Sn.


A light guide mechanism includes a surface member, a bottom member, a connecting member and a light source. The connecting member is used to connect the surface member and the bottom member. The bottom member has a first side and a second side, and the light source faces the first side and is separated from the first side by a distance of 11 mm˜15 mm. The light source is also separated from the top surface by a distance of 10 mm˜15 mm. The first side is covered by a diffusion material to diffuse the light from the light source and the second side is covered by an aluminum material to prevent the light source from being diffused.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a light guide mechanism. More particularly, the present invention relates to a uniform light guide mechanism.
2. Description of Related Art
Light guide mechanisms are used in various electronic devices such as computer devices or docking devices to indicate the operating status; for example, whether a hard drive is transmitting data or not and whether the wireless function is working right now or not. In FIG. 1, a base 11 of a conventional notebook is shown. The base 11 has a first light guide mechanism 12 and a second light guide mechanism 13 that indicate, for example, whether the AC power is plugged in or not, whether the wireless function is working right now or not and whether the hard drive is transmitting data or not.
The disadvantage of most conventional light guide mechanisms is that they have non-uniform light guides (i.e. an obvious bright spot is seen from outside the light guide mechanism). It is difficult to design a well lit guide mechanism in a small, short, thin electronic device. Another reason is that the light source is usually set directly behind the light guide. The traditional solution usually adopts a specific material such as partly acrylic and partly diffusion material to overcome the disadvantage; however, the forgoing methods would increase the cost.


Water contaminated with crude oil and/or hydraulic fracturing fluids from oil reservoirs or gas/oil fracturing wells is stripped of these contaminating products with a specialized gas sparged hydrocyclone apparatus in conjunction with the method of the present invention. Various products are recovered with the present invention, including water, petroleum products, hydraulic fracturing fluids, and other hydrocarbon compounds. These products can be returned to the source, stored, transported, sold, or otherwise reused.

Pressurized fracturing fluids are injected into wells, creating cracks in geological formations, that allow oil and gas to escape through the wall to be collected on the surface. The release of the hydraulic fracturing fluid is a mixture of chemicals, hydrocarbons, natural occurring substances and propants. The design of this process is to remove these materials so that water can be cleaned and can be re-used for additional hydraulic fracturing projects or disposed into a safe above ground environment to be further cleaned to produce clean potable water.
The second application of this technology is the removal of crude oil from water in oil production fields. Oil production wells commonly contain a combination of crude oil and water. In many instances, the produced water from these fields is re-injected back into the underground oil reservoir. The water that is pumped with the crude oil will contain a certain amount of crude oil after the oil/water separation is performed above ground. The separation techniques used is typically a static gravity collection system consisting of large tanks plus an oil water separator system. These techniques require a long retention time in large oil/water tanks.
Alternatively, contaminates from the hydraulic fracturing fluid and the crude oil reservoir water are removed by using a reacting or stripping gas, such as air, carbon dioxide or other gas. In some instances, an air sparged hydrocyclone apparatus is used for the flotation or cleaning of coal, for the flotation or processing of tar sands, and for separating minerals from their host material by flotation. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,279,743; 4,397,741; and 4,399,027, each issued to Miller, disclose an air sparged hydrocyclone apparatus. The apparatus of Miller does not remove hydrocarbons from water.
Shumeng, et al. disclose a hydrocyclone unit in published Chinese patent application No. 200620148747.2 (Patent ID: CN 200981025 Y). According to Shumeng, et al., the hydrocyclone units is used for separating oil from water. The apparatus of Shumeng, et al. does not utilize negative pressure in conjunction with the apparatus. Nor does the hydrocyclone unit of Shumeng et al. have an unrestricted lower outflow opening. Rather, the lower outflow from the unit restricts flow with a tapered outlet.
Kalnins discloses a hydrocyclone unit in Published PCT application No. WO 88/09696. The hydrocyclone unit utilizes a pressure-reducing device in the form of a venturi positioned at the end of a fluid inlet where inflowing contaminated liquid is introduced to the lower end of the hydrocyclone unit. The negative pressure created by the venturi increases the rate of flow of the inflowing contaminated liquid. Kalnins does not use negative pressure to separate hydrocarbon compounds from liquids, such as water.
Accordingly, none of these references disclose methods of removing hydrocarbon compounds and related products from water according to the present invention.

Method of stripping crude oil and hydraulic fracturing fluids from water using a gas sparged hydrocyclone


An electronic monitor for monitoring characteristics of an AC power line for swells, sags, RMS voltage, impulses, total harmonic distortion (THD) and frequency. The waveform is received at the monitor, scaled to a lower magnitude, rectified by an op amp with zero offset voltage, converted a digital form which is representative of the waveform and processed to determine the occurrence of any irregularity in the AC power waveform. Two DMA channels are used to store each cycle, or groups of cycles, of the waveform into two buffers for further processing. An input surge protective circuit limits impulse voltage to the power supply. Related methods are also disclosed.

Voltage disturbances and harmonics cause premature equipment failures, automation failures, erratic computer operation, lost data and data errors, burned out motors, electronic module failure, premature lighting failure and the like. There is more equipment in homes, offices and industrial facilities that is sensitive to voltage disturbances and harmonics. For example, some types of equipment that are affected by poor power quality include electronic lighting ballasts, computers, copiers, laser printers, adjustable speed drives, industrial programmable logic controllers (PLCs), medical equipment and many microprocessor-controlled devices. Some equipment also contributes to poor power quality. Poor power quality may also reduce the useful life of many types of equipment.
Thus, stable power is needed for the complex electrical installations typically encountered in today's buildings. Of course, voltage surges can be caused by lightning. However, the cause of poor power quality frequently resides in the building rather than in the electrical power distribution system outside of the building. Thus, monitoring of the power quality inside of the building, such as on selected electrical circuits, may assist in diagnosing where any problems occur. Insurance studies indicate that about one-half of the cost associated with electrical failures could be prevented by regular maintenance.
A voltage disturbance and harmonics monitor can verify and diagnose voltage sags, swells, impulses and total harmonic distortion (THD) to assist in the monitoring of power quality. Sags and swells are temporary increases or decreases in voltage that can affect the performance of equipment. Sources of such voltage events include motors, photocopiers, arcing switches, water coolers, air conditioners and some routine utility operations.
Harmonic distortion is an increasing problem due to the increase of electronic loads. A harmonic is an integer multiple of the fundamental 60 Hz waveform. Electronic loads typically convert AC voltage to DC voltage for supplying power to lower voltage electronic circuitry. This process distorts the AC voltage waveform and contributes to the "flat-topping" of the AC supply voltage, which starves other power supplies of the optimal peak voltage needed to power their loads. The more devices that are present, the greater the likelihood of this type of voltage distortion and the greater the likelihood of adverse effects on other equipment. Harmonics can also be caused by loads switching on and off, electronic ballasts in fluorescent lighting, variable speed motor drives, soft start motors, welding equipment and the like. Harmonics also affect traditional loads and wiring as well, in the form of added heat, nuisance tripping of peak detecting circuit breakers and noise on communication equipment. In general, a THD above about five percent should be investigated and mitigated where feasible.
There has therefore a need for an improved voltage disturbance and harmonic monitor for monitoring the quality of the electrical power.
A general object of the present invention is to therefore provide an improved voltage disturbance and harmonic monitor for monitoring the quality of the electrical power.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved voltage disturbance and harmonic monitor which is capable of monitoring power quality for all power systems throughout the world.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a voltage disturbance and harmonic monitor which includes improved surge protection for high voltage surges in the power system.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a voltage disturbance and harmonic monitor with low-distortion signal conditioning.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a voltage disturbance and harmonic monitor with improved storage of sample data collected during the monitoring of power quality.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a voltage disturbance and harmonic monitor with double buffering of sample data acquired during the monitoring of power quality.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a voltage disturbance and harmonic monitor which utilizes direct memory access (DMA) techniques to alternately store sample data acquired during the monitoring of power quality in dual buffers.

Voltage disturbance and harmonics monitor


The invention relates to a transmission device for a motor vehicle comprising a plurality of connecting elements that are mounted in an axially movable manner and are each provided with a shift mouthpiece and comprising an actuating device having a control shaft that is mounted in a swiveling and axially movable manner, on which is provided a main control element and at least one secondary control element, the at least one secondary control element having functional regions for a movement in the same direction as well as functional regions for movement in the opposite direction, the at least one secondary control element extending in its neutral position essentially perpendicular to the direction of movement of the connecting elements, and, with respect to this neutral position on the secondary control element and on at least one shift mouthpiece, the particular functional regions for the movement in the same direction being designed with a bent shape and being axially symmetric to the particular, likewise bent functional regions for the movement in the opposite direction, and specifically with respect to a plane that is defined by the axis of rotation of the control shaft and the direction of movement of the connecting element.

For gear shifting operations in classically configured stepped motor vehicle transmission devices, the following three steps—starting from the old gear—are run through in timed sequence: "disengagement of the old gear"—"selection"—"engagement of the target gear". Moreover, motor vehicle transmission designs have become known in which the selection or select movement may occur before the disengagement of the old gear. In such configurations, it is provided, for example, that a main control element or shift finger is essentially responsible only for the engagement of gears and additional geometries take on the function of disengaging gears. In this context, secondary control elements are used for the disengagement function. It is further known that the additional geometries are located on the one hand on central shift shafts and on the other hand on shift mouthpieces that are provided on final output mechanisms or shift forks or shift rails.
The disengagement geometries as a rule are operative in gates in which the shift finger is not active. In this context, it may be provided that a fixed assignment between shift finger and disengagement geometry thereby simultaneously represents an active gear lock. Structural implementations of this approach are therefore also referred to as "active interlock".
In such an "active interlock", it is generally provided that the main control element or the shift finger may be moved back into a central or neutral position without disengaging the gear. The select movement is therefore possible before the gear is disengaged.
A transmission device known to the applicant in which the selection may be carried out before the disengagement of the old gear, or which is provided with "active interlock", is shown in partial view in FIGS. 4a to 4f. This transmission device 100 has several shift rails 104, each of which is a component of a particular final control mechanism 102. Each of the final control mechanisms 102 therefore has one shift rail 104.
In the illustration according to FIG. 4a, shown in particular is a shift rail 104 and the cross-section of a secondary control element 106. This secondary control element 106—just like main control element 108 shown in FIG. 4c—is rotatably mounted, and in particular about an axis 110. For this purpose main control element 108 and secondary control element 106—axially offset—are disposed on a rotating or actuating shaft 112 that is mounted in a rotatable and axially displaceable manner. A cutout, which represents a shift mouthpiece 114, is provided in each of shift rails 104. In FIG. 4a, both elements, that is, shift rail 104 and secondary control element 106, are located in the "neutral" shift position.
Shift mouthpiece 114 has one or two edges 116 and one or two flanks 118 that come into contact with secondary control element 106 via flanks 120 or edge 122 to disengage the gears. If flank 120 comes into contact with edge 116 as a result of a corresponding rotation of secondary control element 106 and triggers a translatory movement of shift rail 104 (see arrow 124), a "movement in the same direction" for secondary actuating element 106 and shift rail 104 is produced. If flank 122 comes into contact with edge 116 as a result of a corresponding rotation of secondary control element 106 and triggers a translatory movement of shift rail 104 (see arrow 124), a "movement in the opposite direction" for secondary control element 106 and shift rail 104 is produced. The connection is symbolically represented in FIG. 4b.
FIG. 4c shows shift rail 104 on the plane of main control element 108. Main control element 108 comes into contact with edge 130 of shift rail 104 via flank 128 of this main control element 108 as a result of the corresponding rotation of this main control element 108 and moves shift rail 104 in a translatory manner (see arrow 124). The disengagement and engagement movement phases occur according to the known scheme of active interlock. Therefore, it is provided in particular that when there is a movement, in this case rotation, of main control element 108 out of its neutral position (see FIG. 4c), secondary control elements 106 in other planes cooperate with shift rails 104 of the same partial transmission in such a manner that—if present—a shift rail 104 that is positioned outside of its neutral position is moved into its neutral position and these shift rails 104 that are positioned in other planes are locked in their neutral position by these secondary control elements 106 via their shift mouthpieces 114. When there is a continued rotation of main control element 108, it then acts on shift rail 104—inside of which it is positioned—in such a manner that this shift rail 104 is positioned in a disengaged position such that a gear ratio step is engaged via this shift rail 104.
FIG. 4d shows the projection from the different planes of main 108 and secondary control element 106. Both elements 106, 108 rotate continuously synchronously and actuate shift rails 104 of a partial transmission when a parallel shift transmission (PST) is used.
FIG. 4e shows secondary control element 106 when a "movement in the opposite direction" of shift rail 104 at an advanced angle of rotation is produced. For the purposes of comparison, FIG. 4f shows secondary control element 106 when a "movement in the same direction" of shift rail 104 is produced. The position of flank 118 at the height of axis of rotation 110 of secondary control element 106 in the position according to FIG. 4e leads to the problem that secondary control element 106 comes into contact with shift rail 104 at a very poor force application angle. Consequently, the resulting force for the translatory movement of shift rail 104 is substantially reduced, which under unfavorable friction or tolerance situations may lead to jamming. On the other hand, short-term jamming exerts an additional bending stress on shift rail 104.
In the position according to FIG. 4f, secondary control element 106 comes into contact with shift rail 104 at a favorable or more favorable force application angle. A jamming or a bending stress at the force application angle that is operative there is insignificant.
From German Patent Application 102 06 561 A1, a transmission device is known to the applicant in which the selection may be carried out before the disengagement of the old gear or which is provided with "active interlock". There it is proposed (FIG. 7, Illustration a, b, d, e), that the secondary control element be configured as a double cam (Illustration a, d) or as recesses or with recesses (Illustration d, e). In this neutral position, these secondary control elements are aligned in such a manner that they essentially extend in the displacement direction of the shift rail or the shift fork. Also in these designs, the force ratios when the shift fork is moved back into its neutral position are unfavorable. Furthermore, a design is proposed there (FIG. 7, Illustration c) in which the secondary control elements are configured in rectangular shapes and in their neutral position extend perpendicular to the direction of displacement of the shift fork. When the shift rail is moved into its neutral position, these rectangular-shaped areas of the secondary control element are engaged with likewise rectangular-shaped cutouts of the shift mouthpiece disposed—transverse to the displacement direction of the shift fork—above and below. It has been proven that the force ratios in this design are such that there is a rather high susceptibility to wear.

Luk Lamellen und Kupplungsbau Beteiligungs KG


The disclosure discloses a method for sending a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) message in a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system and a User Equipment (UE), in order that the UE feeds back the HARQ-ACK message of each downlink serving cell and downlink subframe in Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) format 1b with channel selection in the TDD system. When there are more than 1 downlink subframes in a downlink subframe window corresponding to an uplink subframe, the feedback mode when the UE feeds back the HARQ-ACK message in format 1b with channel selection is determined through the configuration of the high layer or according to the result about whether the UE receives the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) from a secondary downlink serving cell. In feedback mode 1, the UE adopts the mapping table defined by Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) (Rel-10), generates the HARQ-ACK message in the mapping table by a time domain bundling method, and determines the corresponding PUCCH resources in the mapping table by a preset new PUCCH resource determining method.

In the HARQ way, the codeword sent by a sending end not only can detect an error but also can correct the error sometimes. After receiving the codeword, a receiving end detects the error at first, and then corrects the error automatically if the error is within the error correction capability of the codeword; if there are many errors and the errors are beyond the error correction capability but can be detected, the receiving end sends a decision signal to the sending end through a feedback channel to demand the sending end to resend the message. In an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) system, the transmission correctness/wrongness is represented by an Acknowledgement/Negative-Acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) message, so as to judge whether retransmission is required. The transmitted ACK message or NACK message is collectively referred to as HARQ-ACK message.
In a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system (its corresponding standard protocol is Rel-8/9), an HARQ-ACK message can be sent separately in a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) or sent with data in a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH).
In a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, since uplink and downlink subframes are in a one-to-one correspondence relationship, if only one codeword stream is included in a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), the UE will feed back an HARQ-ACK message of one bit; if two codeword streams are included in the PDSCH, the UE will feed back an HARQ-ACK message of two bits; and if there is no PUSCH for the UE to send in the current subframe, the UE will send the HARQ-ACK message of one bit or two bits in PUCCH in format 1a/1b; while if there is PUSCH for the UE to send in the current subframe, the UE will perform ACK/NACK-state-to-bit mapping, channel coding, scrambling and modulation on the one bit or two bits and then multiplex it with data, so as for transmission in PUSCH.
In a TDD system, since the uplink and downlink subframes are not in a one-to-one correspondence relationship, that is to say, the HARQ-ACK messages corresponding to a plurality of downlink subframes have to be sent in the PUCCH/PUSCH of a single uplink frame, where a set of downlink subframes corresponding to a single uplink frame form a bundling window. In the LTE TDD, two methods for sending the HARQ-ACK message are defined. One is an HARQ-ACK bundling method. The basic idea of this method is to perform logic AND operation on the HARQ-ACK messages fed back in the uplink subframe corresponding to the respective codeword streams corresponding to the downlink subframes. If the PDSCH transmission of one downlink subframe includes two codeword streams, the UE has to feed back a two-bit (each bit corresponding to a respective codestream) HARQ-ACK message subjected to the subframe logic AND operation; if the PDSCH transmission of each subframe only includes one codeword stream, the UE has to feed back an one-bit (which corresponds to the codeword stream) HARQ-ACK message subjected to the subframe logic AND operation; if there is no PUSCH for the UE to send in the current subframe, the UE will send an one or two-bit HARQ-ACK message in PUCCH format 1a/1 b; while if there is a PUSCH for the UE to send in the current subframe, the UE will perform ACK/NACK-state-to-bit mapping, channel coding, scrambling and modulation on the one bit or two bits and then multiplex it with data, so as for transmission in PUSCH. The other one is an ACK/NACK multiplexing method. By this method, it is necessary to feed back one HARQ-ACK message for each downlink subframe, and it is necessary to feed back a plurality of HARQ-ACK messages for a plurality of subframes. When the PDSCH transmission of a downlink subframe includes two codeword streams, the HARQ-ACK message of each codeword is subjected to logic AND operation at first, such that finally each downlink subframe corresponds to one HARQ-ACK message. If there is a downlink subframe which is not scheduled, its HARQ-ACK message is set to a Discontinuous Transmission (DTX) state. That is to say, in an HARQ-ACK multiplexing mode, the HARQ-ACK message can indicate three feedback states: ACK, NACK and DTX. When there is no PUSCH for the UE to send in the current subframe, the UE will send the plurality of HARQ-ACK messages in PUCCH in format 1 b with channel selection. The core idea of this method is to represent the HARQ-ACK messages on different subframes by using different PUCCHs and different modulation symbols on a channel. By this method, an HARQ-ACK message of up to four bits can be carried in PUCCH format 1b with channel selection. LTE defines the mapping table (mapping table for short) between the state combination of the HARQ-ACK messages and the selected PUCCH as well as the two bits b(0)b(1) carried in the channel when different subframes are assigned, namely, when the uplink and the downlink subframes are assigned to be 1:2/3/4 respectively. Here, the three mapping tables are called mapping tables of the LTE.
Whether the UE uses the HARQ-ACK bundling or the HARQ-ACK multiplexing to feed back the HARQ-ACK message is configured by a high layer signaling.
To meet the requirements of the International Telecommunication Union-Advanced (ITU-Advanced), as the evolution standard of the LTE (its corresponding standard protocol is Rel-10), a Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) system must support an increased system bandwidth (up to 100 MHz), and must be backward compatible with the current LTE standard. Based on the current LTE system, the bandwidth of the LTE system can be combined to obtain an increased bandwidth, which is called Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology. And this technology can improve the spectrum efficiency and alleviate the shortage of spectrum resources of the IMT-Advance system, so as to optimize the utilization of spectrum resources.
In a system in which the CA is introduced, the carrier to be aggregated is called a Component Carrier (CC) or a Serving Cell (SC). Meanwhile, the concepts of Primary Component Carrier/Cell (PCC/PCell) and Secondary Component Carrier/Cell (SCC/SCell) are also put forward. The system in which the CA is performed includes at least one PCell and one SCell, where the PCell is active all the time. In the following description, the component carrier and the Serving cell are equivalent.
When the LTE-A uses the CA technology and a base station configured a plurality of downlink Serving cells for the UE, the UE has to feed back HARQ-ACK messages of corresponding codeword streams of the downlink Serving cells. In the LTE-A, two feedback modes are defined for the transmission of the HARQ-ACK message in PUCCH: a feedback mode of PUCCH format 1b with channel selection and a DFT-s-OFDM based feedback mode.
For an FDD system, format 1 b with channel selection is only applicable to the scenario in which two Serving cells are aggregated, and thus, in this scenario, the codeword stream in each SC corresponds to a respective HARQ-ACK message. The number of bits of the HARQ-ACK message fed back in the FDD system is determined according to the number of assigned Serving cells and the transmission mode, that is to say, when two Serving cells are assigned for the UE, if both the Serving cells are configured in a transmission mode of single codeword stream and the UE uses PUCCH format 1b with channel selection as the HARQ-ACK feedback mode, the UE will use the mapping table A=2 (as shown in FIG. 1), where A represents the number of HARQ-ACK messages corresponding to the codeword streams; if one of the Serving cells is assigned in a transmission mode of single codeword stream and the other is assigned in a transmission mode of dual codeword streams, the UE will use the mapping table A=3 (as shown in FIG. 2), and if both the Serving cells are assigned in the transmission mode of dual codeword streams, the UE will use the mapping table A=4 (as shown in FIG. 3). Here, the mapping tables are called LTE-A mapping table.
For a TDD system, because uplink and downlink subframes are not symmetric, for some uplink subframes, the HARQ-ACK messages of a plurality of downlink subframes have to be feed back in each of them according to different uplink and downlink configurations. In a TDD system in which the CA technology is introduced, a single uplink subframe may be used to feed back the HARQ-ACK messages of a plurality of downlink subframes and downlink Serving cells. In an LTE-A TDD system, PUCCH format 1 b with channel selection can also be used to feed back the HARQ-ACK message. Since PUCCH format 1b with channel selection can support four bits at most, the HARQ-ACK messages fed back have to be bundled in the LTE-A TDD system in a certain form in order that the number of the feedback bits is limited to four and the number of supportable downlink Serving cells is limited to two. It is assumed that time domain bundling is performed but inter-cell bundling is not supported now, but there is still no specific scheme about how to feed back the HARQ-ACK messages of each downlink serving cell and downlink subframe in PUCCH format 1 b with channel selection. Moreover, regarding how to obtain the corresponding PUCCH resources for PUCCH format 1 b with channel selection, there is still no conclusion in the TDD system. Another problem is that there is still no conclusion about whether the LTE-A mapping table used by the FDD is applicable to the TDD system now.

Method for sending hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement message and user equipment


In detecting indices (references) provided on a base paper with a distance therebetween along the longitudinal direction of the base paper, wherein either passed or reflected light amount through or from the indices differs, by a light detector positioned on a feed path while the indices are fed along the longitudinal direction, a threshold value is renewed each time when at least three indices are detected based upon peak values (maximum and minimum values) of output signals from the light detector. This is accomplished by renewing the threshold value by calculating the new threshold value based upon an intermediate or average value among the peak values between, for example, the indices in order to continue the indices position detecting process in an accurate fashion even if there is an abnormality in the base paper or others when the abnormality is minor such that it does not interfere with the subsequent process.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a method and an apparatus for detecting the positions of indices which differentiates an amount of transmission light or reflection light and are provided on an elongated base paper along its longitudinal direction with a predetermined distance therebetween (such as, labels or between labels) adhered to an elongated paper or eye marks printed on an elongated paper or notches formed on a tag paper.
2. Description of Prior Art
As to an apparatus of this kind, there is, for example, a label detection apparatus for a label printer as described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 1-44573.
This label detection apparatus detects the positions of the labels by comparing an output from a light detector with a predetermined standard value (a threshold value), wherein the light detector is installed on a feed path or an elongated base paper to which the labels are adhered so as to detect an amount of transmission light through both the portion of the base paper alone and the portion where the labels are adhered.
The apparatus detects and memorizes a peak value of an output from the light detector, and, based upon the memorized value, reestablishes a new standard value for a new label (every time the base paper is moved up for a distance of a pitch of the adhered labels).
Therefore, even if a detection level has changed due to changes of external lights or label paper quality, or by contamination on the light detector, the apparatus ensures the detection of label positions without fail by alternating the level of the standard value in response to those changes.
With the conventional apparatus, however, for each new upcoming label, a new standard value (a threshold value) is set, if an extraordinary detected value is put out in a range of a single-label detection (for example, in a case where the light detector passes over a hole or a perforation between labels), the extraordinary value is memorized as the peak value, and a new standard value is calculated and determined for the next label detection based upon the extraordinary value. Then, it becomes impossible to perform the subsequent label detection and the printer will cease to operate.
However, the above teachings of the conventional apparatus requires an operator even if there is nothing wrong in the printing of the labels.

Method and an apparatus for detecting indices of paper based on a replaceable intermediate or average threshold value


A method of fabricating single-side corrugated cylindrical capacitor of high density Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) cells. The corrugated capacitor shape is achieved by depositing the thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) oxide and the plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) oxide alternating layers. Then, the thermal CVD oxide and the PECVD oxide layers are lateral etched by hydrofluoric acid (HF). Because hydrofluoric acid (HF) etches the thermal CVD oxide at a slower rate than etches the PECVD oxide, a cavity (undercut) is formed in each PECVD oxide layer. Therefore, the single-side corrugated shape capacitor surface is created that increases the surface area of the capacitor considerably. The cylindrical capacitor storage node of the DRAM capacitor of this method has much greater surface area so as to increase the capacitance value of the DRAM capacitor, that can achieve high packing density of the integrated circuit devices.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of fabricating the capacitors of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cells, and more particularly to the single-side corrugated cylindrical capacitor structure of high density DRAMs.
(2) Description of the Related Art
A DRAM cell comprises a metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) and capacitors which are built in a semiconductor silicon substrate. There is an electrical contact between the source of a MOSFET and the storage node of the adjacent capacitor, forming a memory cell of the DRAM device. A large number of memory cells make up the cell arrays which combine with the peripheral circuit to produce DRAMs.
In recent years, the sizes of the MOSFETs and capacitors have become continuously smaller so that the packing densities of these DRAM devices have increased considerable. For example, a number of semiconductor manufacturing companies in the world have already begun mass production of 16M bit or even 64M bit DRAMs.
In order to achieve high packing density, the cell size of a DRAM cell must shrink. As the sizes of the capacitors become smaller, so as the capacitance values of the capacitors are decreasing, that reduces the signal to noise ratio of the DRAM circuits, causing the performance problem. In order to maintain or even increase the value of the capacitance for smaller size capacitors, increasing the surface area of the polysilicon storage nodes or reducing the thickness of the dielectric layer is necessary.
Various shapes of capacitor structures have been used to address this issue. U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,282 to Lee et al. (the entire disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference) provides a method of fabricating cup-shaped capacitor storage node. Another U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,357 to Taguchi et al. (the entire disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference) supplies a method of fabricating fin structure capacitor electrode. These capacitor structures can effectively increase the capacitance values of the capacitors, however these processes are too complicated and highly fastidious. So they are difficult to be practically employed for mass-production.
Most recently, H. Watanabe et al. in IEDM 92 (the entire disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference) discloses a method of fabricating cylindrical capacitor electrode. Please refer to FIG. 1, the cylindrical capacitor structure 5 increases the capacitor surface area tremendously without increasing the silicon area. The cylindrical capacitor structure is also more stable than the fin capacitor structure.
The present invention discloses a new method to fabricate high-capacitance cylindrical capacitors of high density DRAMs which further increases the capacitor surface area.

Single-side corrugated cylindrical capacitor structure of high density DRAMs


An active rotary inertia driver system includes an output support, a drive assembly and a rotary inertia plate. The output support includes a partition plate and a housing. The partition plate is fixed on an inner wall of the housing, and the housing is connected with a controlled structure. One end of the drive assembly is fixed on the housing and connected to one end of an output shaft. The other end of the drive assembly is fixed on the partition plate. The other end of the output shaft extends out of the housing and connected to the rotary inertia plate. The rotary inertia plate is a disc or a ring with a preset mass.

Recently, with the development of economy and society, people's demands for living space have been improved continuously, so the infrastructure investment has been gradually increased. With the increase in the investment for civil engineering, more and more highways, railways, bridges, high-rise buildings and large-span spatial structures have been continuously built. Moreover, the exploration and development for spaces have gradually extended to deep sea and deep space, so that offshore platforms and space stations have received rapid development. During the construction and later operation, these space structures will inevitably suffer various loads, such as static loads and dynamic loads. During the operation, the dynamic loads, such as earthquake, wind, wave, stream, ice and explosion, generally show larger impact on the structure, and such dynamic loads will result in vibrations in the structure, which may give rise to fatigue and reliability problems, and even destruction of the structure, casualties and property losses. After exposed to the dynamic loads such as earthquake, the structure may suffer from serious destruction and fail to be used anymore, or even if the dynamic load does not cause the structure to collapse, the facilities, decorations and systems inside the structure may fail to be used anymore. Moreover, there may be a hidden danger of secondary disaster, posing great threat to human life and property safety.
Besides, with the advancement of techniques, the structure is expected to be not only usable, but also safe and durable, and further comfortable during the use. In the case that there are not any vibration isolation/reduction facilities in the high-rise structures, users will feel the swing of the structure under the impact of wind load, and when the wind is intense enough, the internal facilities will be destroyed due to the structural vibration, which has seriously threaten the life and property safety, let alone meet the requirement of comfortability.
To develop a system or method to eliminate or reduce the structural vibration caused by the external loads, extensive researches have been performed on the vibration control techniques and a great progress has been made. Currently, the vibration control is applied not only in the civil engineering, but also in the fields of aerospace, automobile, and mechanical, marine and military engineering. The vibration control devices can effectively reduce the dynamic response of civil engineering structures to relieve the destruction or fatigue of the structure, allowing for desirable safety, comfortability, economy and reliability. It has been demonstrated that the vibration control techniques are of important significance in the civil engineering, which can not only avoid or reduce the destruction of the structure, improve the hazard prevention performance of the structure and ensure the safety of lives and properties, but also extend the service life and reduce the maintenance cost of the structure, and maximumly satisfy the comfort requirements for the structure under extreme conditions.
The vibration control techniques for the civil engineering can be divided into four types: active control, passive control, semi-active control and hybrid control. Among them, the passive control has been relatively mature, in which a passive tuned vibration absorber generally includes a tuned mass damper (TMD) and a tune liquid damper (TLD), which have been used in many civil engineering structures. The tuned mass damper system is operated by adjusting the frequency of the substructure, i.e. the tuned mass damper and the tune liquid damper, to be the same as or close to the main structure, i.e. controlled structure, to allow the substructure to resonate with the main structure, so that the vibration energy in the main structure is dissipated by the inner damping mechanism of the substructure to reduce the dynamic response of the main structure, achieving the vibration control. The passive control TMD system has been applied in many high-rise buildings, such as the 60-story John Hancock Tower (Boston, US), the Petronas Towers (Kuala, Malaysia) and the 101 building (Taipei, China), and these practical applications indicate that the passive control TMD system has a stable and good controlling effect.
The movement of the structure is complicated and diverse, and is generally a combination of translation and torsion oscillation. When using the TMD system to control the vibration of a suspended structure, if the hanging direction is parallel to the swing vibration direction of the structure, the TMD system is capable of providing an effective control under the excitation input of whether the initial offset or the harmonic load; if the hanging direction is perpendicular to the swing vibration direction of the structure, no matter how to adjust the parameters (such as the pendulum length of the structure and the position of the control system), the TMD system always fails to work. Based on plenty of theoretical analysis and experiments, it can be concluded that the translatory TMD system is only effective to the translation movement of the structure and fails to control the swing vibration, where the reason is that the passive control systems such as the TDM system and the TLD system are in a centrifugal state at this time and lose their function, the mass block of the system (or the water in the tank of the TLD system) is static, and even the active control force of an active mass damper/driver (AMD) system needs to overcome the gravity component of the mass block, which leads to great reduction in the control efficiency. However, the swing vibration of the structure is very common, such as the swing of the suspended structure; the torsional swing vibration of the irregular building under the wind load; the torsional swing vibration of the offshore platform under a combined effect of wave, wind and ice. Therefore, it is required to design a special control system for the structural vibration/movement, which can overcome or get rid of the constraint of gravitational field (i.e. the centrifugal force) or allow the work/movement law to be decoupled with the gravitational field to promote the control system to move sufficiently to effectively control the structural vibration/movement.
In conclusion, the control device/system for structural vibration is currently indispensable in the civil engineering and is of important significance for the protection of users' life and property safety. However, the existing vibration control device/system generally has the following defects: (1) the translatory TMD system is only effective to the translation movement of the structure and fails to control the swing vibration; (2) the translatory AMD system is capable of controlling the swing vibration but the control efficiency is too low to satisfy the requirements; (3) the tuned mass damper and the tune liquid damper can effectively control the swing vibration, but a complicated frequency adjustment is required for the structure, so that they generally have defects of low control efficiency, poor effect, low robustness, low controllability and narrow application range when used for the control of some complicated structures.


A method of collecting market research information is disclosed. A geographic database contains data entities that represent geographic features, such as roads, located in a geographic region. Advertising zones are defined within the geographic region. Users of mobile computing platforms are provided with geographically-related services that use the geographic database. As users of the mobile computing platforms travel in the geographic region, the locations of the mobile computing platforms are determined. Demographic information of the mobile computing platform is associated with the position of the mobile computing platform. A market research record identifies which of the mobile computing platforms are located within or passing through one of the advertising zones.

The present invention relates to a method of collecting market research information of mobile consumers moving through a geographic region.
Persons who travel through a geographic region can use different types of mobile or portable computing platforms to obtain various geographically-related features and services. Mobile or portable computing platforms that provide geographically-related features and services include dedicated computing devices and general purpose computing devices. Dedicated computing devices include in-vehicle navigation systems and personal (i.e., portable or hand-held) navigation systems. General purpose computing devices include devices, such as portable personal computers (e.g., notebook computers) and personal digital assistants (e.g., PDAs). General purpose computing devices can provide geographically-related features and services by operating navigation application software or by using geographic data. Mobile or portable computing platforms that provide geographically-related features and services include standalone systems that have geographic data and navigation application software installed locally, client devices that access geographic data or navigation application software located at a remote location, and hybrid devices that have some geographic data or navigation application software installed locally but obtain or use geographic data or navigation application software located at a remote location.
Some of the various geographically-related features and services provided by the different types of mobile or portable computing platforms include route calculation and guidance. For example, some mobile or portable computing platforms are able to provide users with an optimum route to travel by roads between locations in a geographic region. Using input from an end user, and optionally from equipment that can determine the end user's physical location (such as a GPS system), a navigation application program used by a mobile or portable computing platform system examines various paths between two locations to determine an optimum route to travel from a starting location to a destination location in the geographic region. The user of the mobile or portable computing platform is then provided with information about the optimum route in the form of instructions that identify the maneuvers required to be taken by the end user to travel from the starting location to the destination location.
Another geographically-related feature provided by some mobile or portable computing platforms is business or person finding services (e.g., electronic yellow or white pages). These services can identify addresses of individuals or businesses. These services can also identify for a user which businesses of a certain type (e.g., Chinese restaurants) are located within a given range (e.g., 3 miles) of a given location.
Although present mobile or portable computing platforms that provide geographically-related features and services are able to provide many useful advantages, there continues to be room for improvement. One area in which there is room for improvement relates to the collection of market research information. Traditional market research techniques have shortcomings of being very labor intensive and/or unable to provide accurate demographic information. For example, the market research technique of manually counting vehicles or pedestrians passing a point is a very time consuming process. Additionally, the market research technique measuring the number of vehicles that cross a pressure hose stretched across a road can only be associated with the demographics of the people living near the monitored road. Thus, there is a need for improvement in the collection of market research information.

Method of collecting market research information


An apparatus for a programmable self sanitizing water dispenser apparatus with a digital computer as well as a programmable method for generating ozone for cleaning the reservoir and the water contained within it.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for programably treating water (preferably refrigerated) in a water cooler and more particularly to an improved method and apparatus for sanitizing water that is to be dispensed from a water cooler of the type having a cabinet with one or more spigots from a reservoir water supply that is hidden inside the cabinet.
There are several types of cabinet type water dispensers in use today. One of the most common types of such water dispensers is a floor standing cabinet having an open top that receives a large inverted bottle. The bottle is typically of a plastic or glass material having a constricted neck. The bottle is turned upside down and placed on the top of the cabinet with the neck of the bottle extending into a water filled reservoir so that the water seeks its own level in the reservoir during use. As a user draws water from a spigot dispenser, the liquid level in the reservoir drops until it falls below the neck of the bottle at which time water flows from the bottle and bubbles enter the bottle until pressure has equalized. Inverted bottle type water dispensers are sold by a number of companies in the United States and elsewhere. Many are refrigerated.
Other types of water dispensers have an outer cabinet that contains a reservoir or water supply. These other types of water dispensers having a cabinet include one type that stores a large bottle (such as three or five gallon) at the bottom of the cabinet. A pump transfers water from the large bottle to the reservoir. At the reservoir, the water is typically refrigerated.
Another type of water dispenser simply connects a water supply (e.g., city water, well water) directly to a reservoir that is hidden inside the cabinet. A float valve or other water level controller can be provided to insure that the reservoir is always filled with water but does not overflow. Water that is transferred from city water, well water or another source can be filtered or otherwise treated before being transmitted to the reservoir.
All of these types of water dispensers that employ cabinets typically have one or more water dispensing spigots on the outside of the cabinet. These spigots are typically manually operated, but can be automatically operated. For example, water vending machines dispense after a consumer pays for water. The water is automatically dispensed when coins are fed to the machine.
One of the problems with cabinet style water dispensers is that of cleansing the reservoir from time to time. Because the reservoir is not air tight, it breathes allowing bacteria to enter the reservoir over a period of time. The reservoirs are typically contained within the confines of the cabinet and are not easily accessed and cleaned by consumers or end users.
For inverted bottle type dispensers, in addition to the problem of an open top, the five gallon bottles are themselves a source of bacteria and germs. Most of these bottles are transported on trucks where the bottles are exposed to outside air. They are handled by operators that typically grab the bottle at the neck, the very part of the bottle that communicates with the open reservoir during use. Unfortunately, it is difficult to convince every person that handles these bottles to wash their hands frequently enough. In order to properly sanitize such a water dispenser or cooler, the user must carefully clean the neck of the bottle prior to combining the bottle with the cabinet. Further, the user should drain and sanitize the reservoir from time to time. The cleansing of the reservoir in such a water dispenser is a time consuming project that is typically not performed at regular intervals.
The dispensing spigots that are provided on common cabinet type water dispensers can also be a source of contamination. These spigots are typically manually operated and are therefore a source of contamination from the users that operate them. Individuals have also been known to drink directly from the spigot. Therefore, sanitation of the spigots as well as the reservoir should be a part of routine maintenance.
Process ozone diffusion by bubble reactor method in small static volumes of water with abbreviated water columns to diffused ozone levels satisfactory to disinfect microorganisms in brief time periods can be difficult to achieve. An ozone generator can be used as the source of ozone. The ozone generator can include an air pump as a source of oxygen for generating ozone. The air pump preferably includes a microbial filter to filter contaminants. A diffuser can be used to diffuse the generated ozone into the water reservoir.
Various factors impact the effectiveness of bacterial removal from the water such as the microbial load, pH, temperature, conductivity, and cooler characteristics (e.g., whether an ice ring has formed which can act as a shield for microbes trapped in the ice ring). Furthermore, the variability of power supply (e.g., European power supplies versus US power supplies) can cause a generator's application to be geographically limited unless modified. Additionally, time constraints for operation of the ozone generator and diffuser can impact operation.
Additionally, in certain refrigerated reservoirs an ice ring can form inside the reservoir adjacent to the cooling coils for the reservoir. Such an ice ring can serve as a form of protection for microbes contained in the ice ring when ozone is being diffused in the reservoir. After an ozone cycle, when the ice melts wholly or partially, the trapped microbes can enter the water and thus contaminate the reservoir.
Additionally, certain waters contain loadings of bromates which can cause problems.
The above indicate a need for developing a generator and diffuser containing flexibility regarding the timing, amount, and duration of ozone generated; along with the timing, amount, and duration of air supplied. Additionally, there is a need for killing microbes which may be trapped in ice rings. Furthermore, there is a need for addressing water containing bromates. Additionally, there is a need for addressing different types of electrical supplies for various geographical areas.
In a preferred embodiment the method and apparatus is directed to an economical means of overcoming each of the factors that limit process ozone's potential disinfecting capacity. It is concerned with the optimization of each point in small automated ozonation systems both upstream and downstream from the ozonator. The object of this effort is to devise a single, economical, high longevity system capable of sanitizing many of the shapes and sizes of water dispensers in use today.
The present invention thus provides an improved self sanitizing water dispenser apparatus as well as a method for generating ozone for cleaning the reservoir and the water contained within it.
While certain novel features of this invention shown and described below are pointed out in the annexed claims, the invention is not intended to be limited to the details specified, since a person of ordinary skill in the relevant art will understand that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention. No feature of the invention is critical or essential unless it is expressly stated as being "critical" or "essential."

Method and apparatus for programably treating water in a water cooler