An ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) cell transfer apparatus includes an input interface, a switch block, and an OAM cell processing hardware block having a memory unit. The input interface receives an SDH/SONET signal on each of a plurality of first transfer paths to output an input OAM cell corresponding to the SDH/SONET signal to one of a plurality of input ports of the switch block corresponding to the first transfer path for the SDH/SONET signal to be transferred. The switch block receives the input OAM (operation and maintenance) cell from the corresponding input port as an OAM input port to output to the OAM cell processing hardware block together with a port number of the OAM input port, and receives at least one output OAM cell from the OAM cell processing hardware block to output to at least one of the plurality of output ports based on the received output OAM cell. The OAM cell processing hardware block reads out the at least one output OAM cell corresponding to the input OAM cell from the memory unit based on the input OAM cell and the port number supplied from the switch block, and outputs the at least one output OAM cell to the switch block.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) cell transfer apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to an ATM cell transfer apparatus suitable for transferring an OAM (Operation And Maintenance) cell.
2. Description of the Related Art
A processing method of an OAM cell executed in an ATM cell transferring operation is defined in the specification I.610 of ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union—Telecommunication Standardization Sector). In this specification, a processing time required to transfer an OAM cell when any failure occurs is also defined. Further, an OAM cell transferring operation in PVC (Permanent Virtual Channel) is defined.
A processing operation of an OAM cell should be carried out as follows in this specification to notify the occurrence of any failure. That is, it is supposed that a receiving apparatus operates as a terminal point of either an end-end connection or a segment connection in a F4 (VP: Virtual Path) flow or a F5 (VC: Virtual Channel) flow while a cell is received. In this case, when an AIS (Alarm Indication Signal) OAM cell for either the F4(VP) flow or the F5(VC) flow is transmitted from a counter apparatus, the receiving apparatus must send back an RDI (Remote Defect Indication) OAM cell within a time period of 500 ms or transfer the AIS OAM cell in the time interval of one second in accordance with the connection.
FIG. 15 shows a definition of a terminal point of an end-end connection of an F4(VP) flow or an F5(VC) flow, or a terminal point of a segment connection of the F4(VP) flow or the F5(VC) flow. Referring to FIG. 15, when a PVC connection is actually set between apparatuses, an ATM cell signal flows through the connection in an F4(VP) flow or an F5(VC) flow. In this case, a connection point for terminating the ATM cell signal is defined as an "end point". A connection point which is arbitrarily defined by an operator of an apparatus on an end-end connection is defined as a "segment point". FIG. 15 represents these definition states. It could be considered that a segment connection point may be defined as a node point in the end-end connection or as one end node point in the end-end connection.
As types of OAM cells, there are AIS, RDI, Loop Back, Continuity Check, Performance Monitoring (PM), and so on. All of these OAM cells other than a PM OAM cell must be sent back to a counter apparatus within a certain time period, when they are received.
FIG. 14 shows a processing operation of an OAM cell. Referring now to FIG. 14, the processing operation will be described. Here, it is supposed that an ATM cell is transferred through a physical link layer from a left direction to a right direction in this drawing. In this case, the transfer direction of the ATM cell is referred to as a "signal forward direction", whereas the direction opposite to the transfer direction of the ATM cell is referred to as a "signal backward direction". For example, in case that any failure such as an LOS or an LOF (Loss Of Frame) occurs in the physical link layer, an RDI OAM cell is generated, and then is sent out in the signal backward direction.
Also, an AIS OAM cell is generated in case that any failure such as interruption of signal input, any error on a transfer path, and LOF occurs in a port for terminating a transfer path or an interface with another connection point. As described above, in case that any abnormal state is caused in the F4(VP) flow or the F5(VC) flow so that the AIS OAM cell is received, the AIS OAM cell is detected in an SDH/SONET layer as a physical layer. At this time, the AIS OAM cell is transferred in the signal forward direction. In addition thereto, an RDI OAM cell is sent back to the signal backward direction.
As above described, when the failure occurs, the sending back of the RDI OAM cell or the generation and transfer of the AIS OAM cell at the connection relaying point need to be carried out for each of the end-end connection and the segment connection with respect to a plurality of F4(VP) flows within the above port, and a plurality of F5(VC) flows within each of the plurality of F4(VP) flows.
FIG. 1 shows the structure of a conventional ATM cell transfer apparatus. A switch block is put between physical interfaces. Transfer paths on which SDH/SONET signals are transferred are connected to each of the physical interfaces. A CPU is connected to the switch block.
As shown in FIG. 1, the generating and transferring operations of the OAM cell is carried out by the CPU in the conventional ATM cell transfer apparatus. Every time an ATM cell is received, the CPU analyzes the content of the received ATM cell. Then, the CPU carries out the sending back operation of the RDI OAM cell in the F4(VP) flow or the F5(VC) flow, and the transferring operation of the AIS OAM cell based on the analyzed content. However, it is sometimes difficult that the CPU carries out all of the processing operations of the OAM cells.
Of the above described OAM cells, the OAM cell of Loop Back and the OAM cell of Continuity Check need to be sent back only when an on-demand is issued from a counter apparatus. As a result, these OAM cells of Loop Back/Continuity Check are not frequently generated or sent back while the actual ATM service operation is carried out. Therefore, the generating and sending back operations of these OAM cells may be satisfactorily carried out even by the processing operation of the CPU.
However, as shown in FIG. 14, there is a problem in the processing operation of the AIS/RDI OAM cell. As types of the processing operation, there are two types of the end-end connection and the segment connection, also there are cases that a plurality of F4(VP) flows are present in a transfer port in STM-1 and OC-3c, and furthermore, a plurality of F5(VC) flows are present in each of the F4(VP) flows.
As above described, when any failure occurs in a plurality of transfer paths or ports which have a large number of F4(VP) flows or F5(VC) flows in the PVC connection, a large amount of AIS OAM cells need to be generated within one time. In the case that all of the processing operations are carried out in a software manner by the CPU, such a large amount of AIS OAM cells can not be generated at a time as defined in the above-described I.610 specification of ITU-T. This is because the CPU determines the OAM cells one by one in accordance with a software program as to whether the OAM cells should be generated. Therefore, even when the OAM cells should be generated by the CPU, the generation timing thereof may be deviated. In the worst case, there is a possibility that this CPU itself may stop the processing operation thereof. Also, there is another possibilities that a similar unfavorable result may be caused, when a large number of AIS OAM cells are transferred from the counter apparatus in a large number of F4(VP) flows or F5(VC) flows.
To solve these problems, Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 9-36869) is known. In this reference, an OAM cell is not transferred based on the software processing operation carried out by the CPU, but the generation of an RDI OAM cell and the detection of the occurrence of any failure on a transfer path is carried out by a hardware circuit in response to the reception of an AIS OAM cell. Then, the generated OAM cell is sent out on a VP having a VPI (Virtual Path Identifier) value specified by a CPU.
In this reference, as shown in FIG. 2, an OAM cell is transferred from the counter apparatus and is detected by an OAM cell detecting unit (1). Then, the OAM cell having a VPI value indicative of a transfer destination is stored in a buffer (9). Also, the AIS OAM cell which should be generated when any failure occurs on the transfer path is stored into the buffer (9) after the value of the VPI register (4) is set by the CPU. The OAM cells stored in the buffer (9) are finally sent out from the OAM cell transmitting unit (10).
In this reference, the CPU does not determine and send out all of the OAM cells which should be transferred to the counter apparatus based on the given data such as input OAM cell and alarm information.
However, as the types of the OAM cells transferred from the counter apparatus, not only the VPI value but also the VC value should be considered. Also, in this conventional ATM cell transfer system, the manipulating operations for the respective OAM cells on the end-end connection or the segment connection are not considered. Further, this conventional. ATM cell transfer system does not consider which type of OAM cell should be inputted, and whether or not an OAM cell corresponding, to the inputted OAM cell should be sent back. In addition, this conventional ATM cell transfer system similarly does not consider the manipulating operation of the OAM cell when the failure occurs on the transfer path.
Moreover, in the above described conventional ATM cell transfer apparatus, in case that a plurality of F5(VC) flows are present in an F4(VP) flow, if the transferred OAM cell is the OAM cell in the F4(VP) flow, the OAM cell can not be transferred for the F5(VC) flows within the F4(VP) flow.
In conjunction with the above description, a cell output apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 4-363939). This conventional cell output apparatus is provided with a buffer (3) for storing the cell of a transfer data and buffers (4 and 5) for storing the cell having a characteristic pattern. A buffer selecting apparatus (6) refers to an output priority order reference table (14) to select any one of these buffers (3, 4 and 5). The cell stored in the selected buffer is transferred from a cell transmitting apparatus (7). In this manner, the cell output apparatus is capable of changing the data pattern of a physical layer OAM cell and the output priority order of the physical layer OAM cell without expanding the scale of the hardware.
Also, an OAM processing method at a plurality of line terminating apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 10-262064). In this conventional OAM processing method, a physical layer terminating unit (30) is connected to a plurality of lines to convert reception signals into cells. The converted cell is added at the header with a line identifier which specifies a line on which the converted cell is transferred. A header converting unit (34) converts the line identifier VPI/VCI value of the cell into an internal processing ICID. An OAM processing unit (37) collectively manages the data required for carrying out the OAM processing operations for the respective lines by using an internal processing connection management table which uses the internal processing identifier as an address. The data is read out from the management table based on the ICID of the cell received from each of the lines, and then the OAM processing operation corresponding to the line is carried out based on the read data. In this way, the plurality of lines are commonly controlled by the single OAM processing unit.
Also, an OAM cell inserting apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2746284. In this conventional OAM cell inserting apparatus, normal data cells are stored in a cell memory unit (30). An OAM cell is generated in response to an OAM cell output instruction before a total number of cells stored in the memory cell unit (30) is reached to a predetermined value. Thus, either of the data cell or the OAM cell is outputted. As a result, the OAM cell is outputted from the OAM inserting apparatus without any delay, if necessary.
Also, an operation maintenance cell sending circuit is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2851941. In this conventional cell sending circuit, a line interface unit (3) is connected to the line and a switch unit (7), and contains a physical layer terminating unit (4) and a VPI converting unit (5). Furthermore, the VPI converting unit (5) is composed of an operation maintenance sending circuit (6).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

ATM cell transfer apparatus with hardware structure for OAM cell generation


A filter element for a particle filter having a porous filter body made of a ceramic material and including a plurality of flow channels extending fluidically in parallel. The filter body is provided at least in a part of the flow channels with a coating made of a coating material, which is different from the ceramic material and is made up of orthorhombic crystals. A particle filter, a method for producing a filter element, and the use of a coating material for coating a filter element is also provided.

For example, document DE 20 2006 017 355 U1 is known from the prior art. This relates to a porous ceramic honeycomb substrate having a porosity in the range from approximately 60% to approximately 85%, having a structure which is essentially formed from bonded ceramic fibers, and includes an array of honeycomb-shaped channels, and wherein the honeycomb substrate is produced by an extrusion process comprising the following steps: mixing the ceramic material fiber with additives and a fluid to form an extrudable mixture; extruding the extrudable mixture to form a honeycomb green body substrate; and curing the green body substrate to form the porous honeycomb substrate.
Furthermore, document EP 2 043 964 B1 describes a porous ceramic honeycomb structure having a primary cordierite ceramic phase, which has the following: Eratio<1.01, wherein Eratio=EH/ERT, wherein ERT is a room temperature modulus of elasticity at 25° C. and EH is a high temperature modulus of elasticity at 1000° C., and TSP>525° C., wherein TSP is a temperature shock parameter, defined as TSP=MORRT/[ERT][CTEH], wherein MORRT is a room temperature tear resistance modulus and CTEH is a high temperature coefficient of thermal expansion between 500 and 900° C., wherein the structure has an overall porosity of >55%.

Filter element for a particulate filter, exhaust gas particulate filter, process for manufacturing a filter element, and use of a coating material


A voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) with improved frequency characteristics is provided. The VCO includes a converting circuit supplied between a bias voltage and a ground voltage for converting the control voltage into a control current, a replica bias circuit coupled to the converting circuit for providing a swing voltage, and a ring oscillating circuit coupled to the replica bias circuit having at least two delay units coupled in series for successively delaying an input signal as the oscillating signal after a period of delay time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to voltage-controlled oscillators (VCO), and more particularly, the present invention relates to a VCO that provides an improved voltage-oscillation frequency characteristic, and a related method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a modern information society, all kinds of knowledge, information, documents, statistics, and multimedia files are rapidly transferred, processed, managed, and stored by use of digital signals, and all kinds of corresponding digital circuits have become an important foundation for the modern information society.
As one of ordinary skill in the art would know, a phase-locked loop is widely used in many circuits, such as wired/wireless communications circuits, signal processing circuits, and even clock control sequential circuits/processors. Therefore, a stable voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) in the PLL is a serious designed consideration.
The VCO generates an oscillating signal (or clock) with a frequency corresponding to an input voltage. In a poor VCO design, jitter affects the stability of the VCO and should be overcome.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) with improved frequency characteristics, and a related technique. The VCO has reduced device drift and reduced jitter which protects the VCO from performance instability.
The VCO of the present invention includes a conversion circuit supplied between a bias voltage and a ground voltage for converting the control voltage into a control current, a replica bias circuit connected to the converting circuit for providing a swing voltage, and a ring oscillating circuit connected to the replica bias circuit having at least one delay unit connected in series for successively delaying an input signal as the oscillating signal after a period of delay time, wherein each delay unit has two differential input ends and two differential output ends. The replica bias circuit adjusts a supply voltage applied to the ring oscillating circuit to determine the period of delay time according to the control current and the swing voltage.
The method for providing an oscillating signal according to a control voltage in the present invention includes converting the control voltage to a control current according to a reference impedance, providing a swing voltage according to a reference current, and delaying an input signal for a period of delay time for outputting the oscillating signal. The period of delay time is determined by the control current and the swing voltage.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.

Voltage controlled oscillator with improved voltage oscillation frequency characteristic


A seam sealing applicator for dispensing chemical sealant into seams between adjacent sheets of flooring is comprised of a sealant reservoir mounted atop an improved seam sealer applicator tip. The applicator tip of the invention has an elongated, hollow, rigid plastic body with a pair of laterally projecting wings or flanges between its proximal end which receives the sealant reservoir and its opposite, distal sealant dispensing end. The distal end of the plastic body terminates in a flat face, preferably oriented at an angle of about seventy degrees relative to the alignment of the linear sealant delivery duct formed within the body. A thin, hollow, narrow metal insert is set into the distal end of the body. A keel or fin portion of the metal insert protrudes beyond the flat face and projects into a seam between adjacent sheets of flooring. The fin portion of the metal insert defines a thin, narrow, dispensing slit through which sealant may be dispensed deep into the seam between sheets of adjacent flooring. A tracking sight ridge is preferably formed on the front of the applicator tip at the distal end thereof, directly above the flat sealant application flow face. The applicator tip body is at least three inches in length so that it can be gripped by the hand of the installer in a variety of different ways.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for applying chemical sealants to seams between adjacent sheets of flooring.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the flooring trade sheets of flooring formed of linoleum and other thermoplastic or plastic composition materials are laid in relatively large sections, side-by-side and secured one by one with a chemical adhesive to a floor underlayment. The seams between adjacent sheets of flooring represent a particularly vulnerable location in the flooring installation. That is, although flooring installers attempt to abut adjacent sheets of flooring tightly against each other, there is always a seam between adjacent flooring sheets. Dirt and moisture can penetrate the seam and seep beneath the flooring sheets. This often results in a deterioration of the bond between the flooring and the underlayment. Such deterioration results in a separation of the flooring from the underlayment where the edges of the sheets of flooring abut.
To avoid these types of problems it is highly desirable for the seams between adjacent sheets of flooring to be sealed. Sealing can be performed by grooving the adjacent edges of the abutting sheets of flooring and filling the grove with a molten, thermoplastic sealant which bonds to the adjacent edges of the flooring and forms a seal when cool. This process is sometimes referred to as "hot welding". Alternatively, a chemical sealant can be applied to the abutting edges of the adjacent sheets of flooring to seal them together. This process is sometimes termed "cold welding". The sealing of adjacent sheets of flooring using chemical adhesives in this manner is widespread in this country, particularly in residential flooring installations. The chemical composition of flooring products utilized in residential installations lends itself to cold welding or chemical sealing with adhesive applied in liquid form at room temperature, rather than heat welding, due to the chemical composition of the flooring products typically utilized in residential installations.
A number of different seam sealing applicators have been devised to apply chemical adhesive sealants to the interfaces between abutting edges of sheets of flooring. Very typically, a flow or squeeze bottle of liquid adhesive will be equipped with a seam sealer applicator tip having an orifice through which the liquid chemical adhesive is directed into the seam between adjacent sheets of flooring. Several very popular seam sealing applicators of this type employ a fin or keel structure as a seam follower in order to ensure that the flooring installer is directing the chemical adhesive sealant directly into the seam between adjacent sheets of flooring, and not onto the adjacent flooring surfaces.
As the surfaces of flooring goods utilized in residential flooring have improved and become more durable, conventional seam sealing applicators have become less and less satisfactory. One very popular seam sealing applicator is formed with a plastic tip that narrows at its extremity and terminates in an orifice located above a small fin. The fin follows the abutting edges between adjacent sheets of flooring and serves as a wedge or plow to temporarily widen the gap between the abutting edges of flooring so as to allow the liquid sealants to flow down into the gap.
While this device is quite acceptable for many types of flooring, it has been found that the fin tends to break off when this applicator is utilized with the harder, more durable types of flooring now increasingly utilized in residential floors. Also, even when utilized on softer flooring materials, a great deal of pressure is required to maintain the fin in the crevice between the adjacent sheets of flooring. The discharge end of the tip is quite narrow, so that the surface of force application is quite small and is located down at the flooring surface. Downward force can therefore only be applied to the tip by pressing downward on the lower extremity of the tip with the index finger of one hand.
A constant application of pressure by an installer using the index finger of one hand is fatiguing and also exposes the installer's index finger to the caustic effect of the seam sealing adhesive. In addition, the bead of sealant created is typically inordinately wide, thus leading to an unsightly appearance of the flooring on the edges adjacent the seam interface.
Another popular type of seam sealer applicator has a metal tip that has a T-shaped configuration. A narrow slit is formed in the vertically oriented leg of the T-shaped tip. However, a great deal of downward force is required in order to force the vertical leg of the T-shaped tip into the crevice between the adjacent sheets of flooring. The tip is quite narrow so that all of this force must be applied using only the tip of the installer's index finger. This creates considerable fatigue. It also exposes the index finger to an excessive amount of caustic sealant chemicals. Furthermore, the metal flanges of the tip tend to scrape and gouge the surface of the flooring on both sides of the seam between the flooring sheets.
Another type of conventional seam sealer applicator employs a brass tip that also has a T-shaped configuration. The orifice opening for dispensing the sealants is in the vertical leg of the T-shaped tip. While this device is effective for properly dispensing sealants deep into the seam, it tends to be self-sharpening. That is, as the device is used the depending leg of the applicator tip becomes sharper and sharper and tends to cut too deeply into the material. Also, this device, like many other conventional seam sealer applicators, requires an inordinate, fatiguing amount of force applied by only the installer's index finger of one hand. As with other conventional devices that necessitate the application of force by an installer utilizing a single index finger, the installer's finger is exposed to the irritating adhesives employed in the sealants.


A heat-resistant rubber hose for a diesel engine is provided, which is excellent in exhaust gas water resistance (acid resistance), heat resistance, flame resistance and low-temperature property. The heat-resistant rubber hose includes a tubular inner layer (1) and an outer layer (2) provided on an outer peripheral surface of the tubular inner layer (1), the inner layer (1) being composed of an inner layer material essentially including the following components (A) and (B) and free from an acid acceptor, the outer layer (2) being composed of an outer layer material essentially including the following components (A) to (C):    (A) an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer rubber (EVM);    (B) an organic peroxide crosslinking agent; and    (C) at least one of a metal hydroxide and a surface-treated metal hydroxide.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat-resistant rubber hose for a diesel engine for use as a diesel particulate filter (DPF) sensor hose, a vacuum brake hose, an air hose, a turbo (supercharger) air hose and the like for a diesel engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
With increasing worldwide environmental awareness, DPF systems and turbo systems have been positively employed for reducing PM (particulate matter) and NOx in exhaust gas. Conventionally, hoses each configured such that an inner layer thereof to be kept in contact with fuel is formed of a fluororubber or an acrylic rubber are proposed for use as fuel hoses and air hoses (see, for example, JP-A-7 (1995)-229584 and JP-A-2003-82029).
In recent years, emission control for diesel-powered vehicles has been tightened. To cope with this, new engine systems (e.g., common-rail injection systems), and DPF systems and turbo systems for the reduction of PM and NOx in the exhaust gas have been positively employed. Under such circumstances, stricter performance requirements are imposed on heat-resistant rubber hoses such as DPF sensor hoses for diesel engines. More specifically, where combustion efficiency is increased for the reduction of PM and NOx in the exhaust gas, the DPF system and the turbo system are subjected to elevated temperatures. Therefore, the heat-resistant rubber hoses are required to be more excellent in heat resistance, acid resistance, flame resistance and low-temperature property than conventional hoses. However, a conventional hose having an inner layer of a fluororubber (FKM) contains an acid acceptor (a metal salt such as magnesium oxide, zinc oxide or calcium oxide) and, therefore, is inferior in resistance to exhaust gas water (acid resistance). A conventional hose having an outer layer of an epichlorohydrin-ethylene oxide copolymer (ECO) is insufficient in heat resistance. Further, a conventional hose having inner and outer layers of an acrylic rubber (ACM) essentially requires a post cure process, so that the outer layer thereof has poorer flame resistance.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a heat-resistant rubber hose for a diesel engine, which is excellent in exhaust gas water resistance (acid resistance), heat resistance, flame resistance and low-temperature property.

Heat-resistant rubber hose for diesel engine


The present invention relates to a cryo-charging specimen holder for the electron microscope, particularly to a cryo-charging specimen holder for the electron microscope to hold various biological materials. The major feature of the invention is to charge the biological specimen and freeze the specimen at low temperature. The ice around the biological sample is also doped, so that after charging the doped ice surrounding the sample has a conductivity level comparable to that of conductor. Therefore, the sample can be embedded by the doped and charged ice obtaining the property of conductor, in order to be observed by the electron microscope.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cryo-charging specimen holder for the electron microscope, and more particularly, to a cryo-charging specimen holder for the electron microscope to hold various biological materials.
2. Description of the Prior Art
At present, the knowledge of the mankind have already tried to enter the post gene era, but unfortunately, only can understand less than 0.5% of the protein structure. For the analysis of protein structure, especially the analysis for the nano-scale biological molecular structure is very important on the disease prevention, gene replication and renovation etc.
In the prior art, the primary tools for determining protein structure are the x-ray diffraction (XRD) and the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) techniques. Nevertheless, the structures of only a small number of macromolecular complexes and proteins have been successfully determined by using XRD, comprising only a tiny portion of the protein data bank. In fact, not all proteins can be crystallized for XRD measurements. Crystallization of protein remains a major hurdle, and to date 99.5% of proteins are difficult to be formed as crystal. Moreover, the crystallization for every kind of protein is a highly difficult process, and process may somehow damage the native form of protein. On the other hand, the conventional NMR technique is only suitable for the observation of small molecules, not generally applicable to all macromolecular complexes and proteins.
In addition, the cryo-electron microscopy can be used to observe protein structure. In the cryo-electron microscopy, the proteins do not need to be crystallized. Rather, the biological specimens are prepared by rapid freezing the samples. Then, the samples are embedded in amorphous ice to form as observable specimens. There are many advantages for the cryo-electron microscopy compared to the above-mentioned XRD and NMR techniques. However, the cryo-electron microscopy is not able to provide the atomic resolution. The main reason is that the dosage of electron radiation must be restricted to 10-20 e/Å2 in the cryo-electron microscopy. It means excess electron dosage will damage the biological materials. The movement of damaged molecular fragments caused by electron radiation can blur the image anisotropically in a relatively unpredictable manner, preventing the atomic resolution from being obtained. Therefore, the cryo-electron microscopy is not well practicable.
Thus, after the mankind enters the post gene era, in order to understand the structure and function for more proteins, it is necessary to develop the bio-molecular microscope with the atomic-level resolution, and promote the development and advancement of natural science field through the observation of biological materials and proteins etc. via the improvement of the technical tools.

Cryo-charging specimen holder for electron microscope


A method and apparatus are disclosed for externally and noninvasively determining the temperatures of chemical reactions inside a plurality of separate closed vessels that are made of materials that substantially transparent to microwave radiation but that are poor conductors of heat. The method comprises exposing a plurality of substantially microwave-transparent of vessels containing chemical reagents therein to microwave radiation, concurrently measuring the temperature of the reagents inside a first vessel using a first temperature sensor inside the first vessel and while measuring the temperature of the exterior of the first vessel using a second temperature sensor positioned externally to the first vessel, and immediately thereafter successively measuring the temperature of the exterior of the remainder of the vessels using the second sensor.

The term "microwave assisted chemistry" refers to the use of electromagnetic radiation within the microwave frequencies to provide the energy required to initiate, drive, or accelerate certain chemical reactions. As chemists have long been aware, the application of heat energy is one of the most significant factors in increasing the rate of a wide variety of chemical reactions. Thus, generally familiar devices such as the Bunsen burner, other types of gas burners, hot plates, and other similar devices have historically been used to initiate or accelerate various chemical reactions.
As a relatively crude comparison, microwave assisted chemistry techniques are used to heat chemical reagents in the same way that a consumer microwave oven cooks food. There are significant differences, however, between the ordinary consumer use of microwave energy with food and its laboratory use with chemical reagents. Thus, the devices and techniques required for microwave assisted chemistry are generally much more sophisticated than are the consumer-oriented devices and techniques.
In one comparison, however, a laboratory microwave device and a consumer microwave offer the same advantage: in many circumstances they both greatly increase the rate at which materials can be heated as compared to the rates that they could be heated by ordinary conduction or convection heating. Thus, microwave assisted chemistry has been particularly valuable in driving or accelerating reactions that tend to be time-consuming under more conventional heating techniques. Particular examples include moisture analysis, in which samples must effectively be heated to dryness; digestion, a process in which a chemical composition is broken down into its elements for further analysis, with the breakdown generally being accomplished by heating the composition in one or more mineral acids; and the Kjeldahl techniques for nitrogen determination. Using conventional heating techniques, moisture analysis, Kjeldahl, or digestion reactions can be very lengthy, extending for hours in some cases. When the reactions are microwave assisted, however, they can be completed in a much shorter period of time. It will be understood that this time savings has a particularly significant advantage in any situation in which large number of samples must be tested on an almost continuous basis. Thus, although microwave assisted chemistry is relatively new compared to some other techniques, it has become well established and accepted in a number of analytical applications.
As well understood by those familiar with the electromagnetic spectrum, the term "microwave" is often used generically to refer to radiation with wavelengths of between about 1000 and 500,000 microns (.mu.), and corresponding frequencies of between about 1.times.10.sup.9 and 5.times.10.sup.11 Hertz (Hz). These are arbitrary boundaries, however, and other sources refer to microwaves as having frequencies of between about 10.sup.8 Hz and 10.sup.12 Hz and wavelengths of between about 300 centimeters (cm) and 0.3 millimeters (mm). For commercial and consumer purposes in the United States, the available microwave frequencies are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission and are generally limited to selected frequencies. Because of the relatively long wavelength of microwave radiation, microwave assisted chemistry techniques are often carried out in closed vessels which are in turn placed inside a device that bears a superficial relation to a consumer microwave oven, but that is much more sophisticated in its source, waveguide, cavity, and control elements.
Although the simple application of microwave energy to devices in sealed vessels has some advantages, the technique becomes particularly useful when the reactions inside the vessels can be monitored while microwaves are being applied. Thus, in a typical microwave assisted chemistry system, a plurality of similar reactions are carried out at the same time in separate closed vessels that are placed together in a single cavity and then concurrently exposed to microwaves from a single source. Typically, one of the vessels carries temperature and pressure measuring devices. This "sensor vessel" is monitored and the conditions therein are assumed to be representative of the conditions in the remainder of the vessels to which microwaves are being applied.
Stated differently, in certain microwave assisted systems, a group of reaction vessels (typically six or eight) is placed into the microwave device at the same time, and often on a turntable that rotates as the microwaves are being applied. As noted above the wavelength of microwaves is typically larger than the items being heated, so that stationary items are not always evenly exposed to the microwaves. Accordingly, smaller items such as reaction vessels and relatively small amounts of chemical reagents are best moved on a periodic basis while being exposed to the microwaves. For similar reasons, consumer kitchen microwave ovens typically include fan-like stirrers to more evenly reflect microwaves within a cavity, or turntables for rotating food as it cooks. Alternatively, microwave cooking instructions typically tell the consumer to turn, stir, or otherwise move the food during the cooking process.
By monitoring the temperature and pressure of the sensor vessel, the application of microwave power, either in terms of energy level or time, can be adjusted on a regular basis based on the feedback from the sensor vessel. Because in typical applications a plurality of vessels are rotating on a turntable, however, attempting to monitor every single reaction vessel becomes at least unwieldy, or at worst impossible. Thus, if the reaction inside one of the unmonitored vessels differs significantly from the reaction inside the monitored vessel, the reaction in one or more of the unmonitored vessels can proceed in quite undesirable fashion. As a result, the reactions in the unmonitored vessels can proceed either too far or not far enough to accomplish their intended purpose. Such results can significantly reduce the advantages of the microwave assisted technique.
An ideal method of measuring the temperature of ongoing chemical reactions in a plurality of separate vessels is to attempt to place a high-quality temperature sensor such as a thermocouple in each vessel and connect all of the thermocouples to appropriate electronic circuitry and memory that can convert the thermocouple signal into a temperature reading.
To date, however, individual temperature measurement from inside the vessels has remained somewhat unwieldy for several reasons including the movement of the vessels in the cavity, for example on a turntable as noted above. This movement greatly increases the complexity of physical connections between the individual moving vessels and the remaining stationary portions of the device.
Furthermore, in microwave assisted techniques, external temperature measurement also presents certain problems. In particular, the reaction vessels used in microwave assisted chemistry, particularly closed reaction vessels, must be formed of materials that are transparent to microwave radiation, resistant to chemical attack, and strong enough to withstand high internal gas pressures. Typically, the vessels are formed from certain types of engineering polymers that offer these properties. Although the microwave transparency of such materials is a great advantage, such polymers tend to have relatively poor heat conductivity and instead act as insulators. Thus, as opposed to vessels intended for external temperature measurement (such as the stainless steel "bomb" of a calorimeter), the external temperature of vessels for microwave assisted chemistry tend to differ widely from the actual internal temperature. Although some of these polymer materials will eventually reach an equilibrium temperature with their contents, the time required to reach such equilibrium temperature ("lag time") can be longer than the progress of many chemical reactions taking place under microwave assistance. Thus, the temperature feedback from the exterior of a microwave assisted chemistry vessel is often unsatisfactory for analytical or control purposes.
Additionally, external measurements carried out by radiometric techniques can be affected by the changes in thermal emission properties of the vessel material that follow a change in temperature. Stated differently, for some materials the change in the black body radiation they emit does not linearly follow the change in temperature. These nonlinear relationships can add to the complexity of external temperature measurement.

Method and apparatus for temperature calibration in microwave assisted chemistry


A threaded joint for steel pipes comprising a pin 1 having a tapered male thread 11, a tapered sealing surface 13, and an end shoulder surface 14 and a box 2 having correspondingly a tapered female thread 21, a tapered sealing surface 23, and a shoulder surface 24 which is capable of easy tightening and has improved air tightness by the sealing surfaces is arranged such that the pin and the box each have a noncontacting region B where the peripheral surfaces of the pin and the box do not contact each other between the sealing surfaces 13, 23 and the shoulder surfaces 14 and 24. At least a portion of the noncontacting region of the pin adjoining the to end of the pin is a tapered surface portion 18 having substantially the same angle of slope as the tapered sealing surface 13, and the noncontacting region of the box is a substantially cylindrical surface.

Threaded joints for steel pipes, such as oil country tubular goods and riser pipes, which are widely used in installations of the oil-producing industry are constituted by a pin which is a male threaded element provided on the end portion of a first tubular member and a box which is a female threaded element provided on the end portion of a second tubular member. Connection is carried out by threaded engagement of the male thread and the female thread, which are both tapered threads.
The first tubular member is typically a pipe such as an oil country tubular good, and the second tubular member is typically a separate member in the form of a coupling. (This type of threaded joint for steel pipes is referred to as a coupling type.) In this type, a pin is formed on both ends of the pipe, and a box is formed on both sides of the coupling. There are also integral threaded joints for steel pipes in which a pin is formed on the outer surface of one end of a pipe and a box is formed on the inner surface of the other end of the pipe. In this type, the first tubular member is a first pipe and the second tubular member is a second pipe.
In the past, oil country tubular goods were connected primarily using standard threaded joints prescribed by API (American Petroleum Institute) standards. However, in recent years, as the environments for excavation and production of crude oil and natural gas are becoming more severe, high-performance special threaded joints referred to as premium joints are being increasingly used.
In a premium joint, the pin and the box each have, in addition to a tapered thread which enables connection, a sealing surface provided on the peripheral surface in the vicinity of the threaded portion and a shoulder surface which functions as a stopper which undergoes abutment during make-up of the joint. Radial interference is provided between the sealing surfaces of the pin and the box. When a threaded joint is tightened until the shoulder surfaces of the pin and the box abut each other, the sealing surfaces of these two members intimately contact each other around the entire periphery of the joint and form a seal by metal-to-metal contact. In addition to acting as abutting stoppers at the time of make-up, the shoulder surfaces perform the function of bearing a compressive load during use of the joint.
FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory view of a typical premium threaded joint for steel pipes of the coupling type. FIG. 1(A) is an overall view, and FIG. 1(B) is an enlarged view of a portion thereof. As shown in FIG. 1(B), this threaded joint for steel pipes has a pin 1 which is a male threaded element provided on the end of a pipe and a box 2 which is a corresponding female threaded element provided on both sides of a coupling. The pin 1 has on its outer surface a tapered male thread 11 and an unthreaded cylindrical abutting portion 12 called a lip (referred to below as a lip portion) provided on the end of the pin and adjoining the male thread 11. The lip portion 12 has a sealing surface 13 on its outer peripheral surface and a shoulder surface 14 on its end surface. The sealing surface 13 is a tapered surface (frustoconical surface) which gradually decreases in diameter towards the end of the pin.
The opposing box 2 has on its inner surface tapered female thread 21, a sealing surface 23, and a shoulder surface 24 which can threadingly engage with or contact or abut with the tapered male thread 11, the sealing surface 13, and the shoulder surface 14, respectively, of the pin 1.
As shown in the drawings, the lip portion, which has a shoulder surface on its end, is mostly provided on the end portion of the pin. In addition to serving as a stopper (torque shoulder) during tightening, the shoulder surface bears compressive loads acting on the joint.
When vertical wells were predominant, a threaded joint for steel pipes had sufficient performance if it could withstand the tensile loads due to the weight of the pipes connected thereto and could prevent leaks of high pressure fluid flowing along its interior. However, in recent years, wells are becoming deeper and the number of sloping wells or horizontal wells which bend or curve under the ground increases. In addition, oil wells in severe environments such as in the sea or polar regions are being increasingly developed. Accordingly, there is a strong demand for threaded joints for steel pipes to have increased resistance to compression and increased sealing performance particularly in the presence of internal and external pressure.
When external pressure acts on the above-described conventional premium joint, the applied external pressure is transmitted along gaps between the threads and permeates to the location indicated by 31 in FIG. 1(B) just before the sealing surfaces. Since the lip portion 12 has a considerably smaller wall thickness than the pipe body, it sometimes undergoes deformation toward reduction in diameter by the penetrated external pressure. As a result, if the external pressure increases, a situation may develop in which a gap forms between the sealing surfaces, leading to leakage, namely, penetration of exterior fluid to the interior of the pipe body.
When a compressive load acts on a premium joint, such as when an oil country tubular good is installed underground in a horizontal well or a sloping well, with most joints, the gap between the male thread and the female thread is made relatively large in order to facilitate stabbing, as a result of which the ability of the threads to bear a compressive load is low. Therefore, a compressive load is primarily borne by the shoulders. However, the wall thickness of the shoulder surface at the end of the lip portion (the pressure-receiving area for compressive loads) is normally much smaller than that of the pipe body, so when a compressive load corresponding to 40-60% of the yield strength of the pipe body is applied, the lip portion of most premium joints undergoes large plastic deformation, and the sealing ability of the adjoining sealing surface markedly decreases.
In order to increase the sealing ability of a joint against external pressure (external pressure sealing ability), the stiffness of the lip portion of the end of the pin can be increased so as to increase its resistance to deformation toward a reduction in diameter. With this object, a method referred to as swaging in which the wall thickness of the lip portion is increased by axial constriction at the end of the pipe is often used.
However, if the amount of swaging is too great, in the case of connecting casings, a pipe inserted into the interior of the connected casings sometimes catches on the swaged portion, and in the case of connecting tubings, the swaged portion causes turbulence in the fluid such as crude oil which is flowing inside the connected tubing, and this turbulence sometimes causes erosion. Therefore, the amount by which the wall thickness of the pin lip can be increased by swaging is limited.
Other conventional techniques for increasing the stiffness of the end of a pin and increasing sealing performance are described in below-mentioned Patent Documents 1 and 2. These patent documents disclose technology in which sealing performance is increased by installing a cylindrical portion which does not contact the box at the end of the sealing surface of a pin so as to increase the stiffness of the periphery of the sealing surface of the pin against diameter-reducing deformation and producing uniform contact between the sealing surfaces of the joint.
Even if the wall thickness of the lip portion of a threaded joint for pipes is increased by swaging, it is necessary for the threaded joint to provide tapered threads, a sealing surface, and a shoulder surface within a limited wall thickness. However, according to the technology disclosed in the above-described patent documents, the end of the pin does not abut the box, so the shoulder surface must be provided in a location other than the lip, and the lip necessarily becomes thin. Accordingly, there is a limit to the extent to which the stiffness of the lip can be increased so as to resist diameter reducing deformation of the lip caused by external pressure, and a high degree of sealing ability against external pressure cannot be achieved. In addition, because the shoulder surface of the pin cannot be given a sufficient wall thickness, high resistance to compression cannot be obtained, and the sealing performance under a combined load of compression and external pressure is low.
As shown in FIG. 2, below-mentioned Patent Document 3 proposes a threaded joint for steel pipes in which, a nose portion 15 which is an extended lip portion is provided between the sealing surface 13 of a pin 1 and the shoulder surface 14 at the end of the pin. The nose portion 15 of the pin 1 is a noncontacting region which does not contact the opposing portion of the box 2. At the same time, the sealing surfaces 13 and 23 and the shoulder surfaces 14 and 24 of the pin and the box contact each other. By extending the lip portion of the pin 1 so as to provide a nose portion 15 having an outer surface with a cylindrical shape (having a constant outer diameter) which does not contact the box in a position closer to the end of the pin than the sealing surface 13 of the pin, the wall thickness of the lip portion having a limited pipe wall thickness and accordingly the wall thickness of the shoulder surface and the sealing surface of the pin can be increased, whereby the resistance to compression and the sealing properties against external pressure of a threaded joint for pipes can be markedly increased.
In the threaded joint shown in FIG. 2, in order to allow the male thread 11 to approach as close as possible to the sealing surface 13, a circumferential groove 32 is provided in the box such that the male thread in a portion closest to the end of the pin does not threadingly engage with the female thread in a position in the vicinity of the sealing surface of the box.
A threaded joint for steel pipes like that proposed in Patent Document 3 which has a noncontacting region on the side of the sealing surface of a pin closest to the end of the pin exhibits adequate sealing performance and resistance to compression even when it receives a tensile or compressive load applied thereon in a state in which internal or external pressure is applied to the threaded joint. However, it has a relatively long nose portion on the side of the sealing surface closest to the end of the pin, with the sealing surface having a tapered shape with an outer diameter which gradually decreases towards the end of the pin. Therefore, if the tip of the pin impinges on the box at the time of joint make-up or if it previously impacts some other object, the tip of the pin may deform so as to swell outward. As a result, there is the possibility of it being impossible to further tighten the pin, or even if stabbing and tightening are possible, the sealing properties of the sealing surface may be impaired by the swelling of the tip of the pin such that the gastightness (the sealing performance) of the threaded joint for steel pipes is worsened.
In particular, as shown by 16 and 26 in FIG. 2, when a chamfer is provided on the inner peripheral surface in the vicinity of the shoulder surfaces of the pin and the box with the object of preventing turbulent flow of the fluid flowing in the interior of the joint, the wall thickness of the end of the nose portion becomes thin, and deformation of the end of the pin due to impact with the box occurs more easily.
As the nose portion of the end of the pin is relatively long, there is the danger of the sealing surface of the box being damaged due to deviation of the stabbing angle at the time of stabbing of the pin. In addition, if the outer peripheral surface of the end of the pin is a substantially cylindrical surface, a guide in the direction of stabbing of a pin for correcting deviation of the pin axis with respect to the box axis is not obtained.    Patent Document 1: U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,488    Patent Document 2: U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,200    Patent Document 3: WO 2004/109173


This disclosure deals with an apparatus in a base station for controlling transmission of delay-sensitive data from a transmitter over a transmission link in a packet data communication network, which transmitter is capable of changing between a TTI bundling enabled mode and a TTI bundling disabled mode. The apparatus comprises: a receiver for receiving data from the transmitter over the transmission link; a decision unit for deciding that the transmitter should change TTI bundling mode; a silent mode detection unit for detecting that the transmitter is in the silent mode; and a triggering unit for triggering change of TTI bundling mode in response to deciding that the transmitter should change TTI bundling mode and in response to detecting that the transmitter is in the silent mode. The disclosure further relates to a corresponding method.

Cellular communication networks evolve towards higher data rates, together with improved capacity and coverage. In the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standardization body, technologies like Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) have been and are currently being developed.
LTE is the latest technology standardized. LTE uses an access technology based on Orthogonal Frequency Divisional Multiplexing (OFDM) for downlink communication (DL), i.e. communication from a base station, called eNodeB in LTE, to a user equipment (UE), and Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) for uplink communication (UL), i.e. communication from a UE to an eNodeB. The resource allocation to UEs on both DL and UL is performed adaptively by a scheduling mechanism called fast scheduling that takes into account current traffic patterns and radio propagation characteristics for each UE. Assigning resources in both DL and UL is performed in a scheduler situated in the eNodeB.
In LTE, data packets in all services are delivered using the IP protocol. This means that also delay-sensitive data such as voice conversation, which traditionally has been a circuit switched service, is sent over IP. The voice conversation service may then be called Voice over IP (VoIP).
For VoIP being a real-time service, there is not much time for queuing of data packets and for retransmissions. Especially for users experiencing bad channel conditions, such as users at a cell edge, a data frame arriving at a receiver may have such a high frame error rate that it needs to be retransmitted for the receiver to understand the data. When many data packets have to be retransmitted, there will be an increased data packet delay resulting in bad voice quality. Also, frequent retransmissions for one user equipment take up system resources and will thereby reduce the total system performance. Consequently, the retransmissions to/from a user equipment experiencing bad channel quality will lead to increased packet delay to the user equipment and will also require much system resources which will lead to reduced voice quality for other user equipments in the cell.
A way to solve such a problem may be to split a VoIP packet into a number of segments, which are transmitted over the air interface individually. Since each segment is smaller than the VoIP packet, each segment can be transmitted with a larger success probability than the VoIP packet. But since every segment needs its own control information in a header, such as a Radio Link Control and a Medium Access Control header, the transmission of many small segments will result in increased overhead, and thereby decreased system capacity. Also, load on control channels will increase since smaller scheduling units mean that more scheduling needs to be performed and every segment requires a new control message, e.g. a Physical Downlink Control Channel message.
To alleviate this problem a mechanism called Transmission Time Interval (TTI) bundling has been standardized in the 3GPP for UMTS, LTE etc. A TTI is generally a duration of time for a transmission over an air interface. Especially, TTI relates to encapsulation of higher layer data into frames and further into packets for transmission on the radio link layer.
When TTI bundling is used for a UE, the same VoIP packet is transmitted in four consecutive TTIs. The receiver can then combine the four received TTIs using a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) mechanism and get effectively four times the received energy for the same VoIP packet. With this increase in received energy, the VoIP packet can be received with better quality and without extensive retransmission or segmentation, thus leading to decreased packet delay.
But since the same VoIP frame is transmitted four times in a row, lots of transmission resources are used for the transmission, i.e. resources that may otherwise have been used for other UEs in the cell. Also, when TTI bundling is used, only a limited number of physical resource blocks, and the most robust Modulation and Coding Schemes can be used. Hence the transport block size and thereby also the throughput that can be achieved for a user using TTI bundling is very limited.
Consequently, the use of TTI bundling in a cell should be limited, e.g. to user equipments in need of TTI bundling and/or to a maximum amount of user equipments in the cell. This implies that it is necessary to perform switching of user equipments from a TTI bundling enabled mode to a TTI bundling disabled mode, and vice versa.
To perform a switch between TTI bundling enabled mode and TTI bundling disabled mode in LTE today is initiated through an RRC Connection Reconfiguration Request message sent from the eNodeB to the UE. The duration of the whole procedure from initiation to completion of the switch varies but can be as high as 50-100 ms. During this time period no data packets can be transmitted to or from the UE. This means that an extra delay of up to 50-100 ms will be added to the already existing data frame delay caused by e.g. bad reception quality. Thus, the total delay may become so large that the quality of the received speech will be reduced, and speech frames received too late may need to be discarded.

Method and arrangement for controlling transmission of delay sensitive data in a packet data communication network


The invention relates to a high-voltage diode having a specifically optimized switch-off behavior. A soft recovery behavior of the component can be obtained without increasing the forward losses by adjusting in a specific manner the service life of the charge carriers by irradiating only the n+-conducting cathode emitter (6) side or both sides, i.e. the n+-conducting cathode emitter (6) side and the p+-conducting anode emitter (4) side.

German patent application no. DE 100 31 461.9 A1 discloses a high-voltage diode. In the case of such high-voltage diodes, often used as free-wheeling diodes, a soft turn-off behavior is desired in order to avoid the so-called "chopping" of the component during the turn-off process, since this effect can entail destruction of the power semiconductor. Component chopping has been avoided hitherto either by choosing a sufficiently large thickness for the component and/or by means of an anodal local lifetime setting.
The accompanying FIG. 1 schematically shows the structure of the known high-voltage diode in the form of a central cross section. Such a high-voltage diode comprises a silicon body. Instead of silicon, it is also possible to choose another suitable semiconductor material, such as e.g. SiC, etc. The silicon body has an n−conducting drift zone 1, a p-conducting zone 2, which forms a pn junction 3 with the n-conducting drift zone, a p+-conducting anode emitter 4, an n-conducting zone 5 and an n+-conducting cathode emitter 6 formed therein. On the front side V, the anode emitter 4 is provided with an anode metallization 7. On the rear side R of the component, the cathode emitter 6 is provided with a cathode metallization 8. Known contact materials such as e.g. aluminum, AlSi, etc. may be chosen for said metallization. It should be mentioned that the dimensions of the known high-voltage diode shown in FIG. 1 serve merely for elucidation purposes and do not represent the actual relationships.
In the case of the high-voltage diode disclosed in this document, the setting of the charge carrier lifetime takes place by means of crystal damage near the surface in the anode emitter or in the cathode emitter.
For optimizing the turn-off behavior of a high-voltage diode, the procedure heretofore has been such that the charge carrier lifetime has been reduced exclusively in the p+-conducting anode emitter. FIG. 2 illustrates a simulation of the resulting relationships of the doping concentration (curve A) and the defect concentration (curve B) of a high-voltage diode influenced in this way, to be precise relative to the depth y from the front side V here, y starting with the top side of the p+-type anode emitter. FIG. 2 shows that a large local increase in the defect concentration (curve B) occurs in the p+-type anode emitter approximately at a depth y of between 15 and 18 μm from the top side thereof, which locally reduces the charge carrier lifetime (τ) there.
In the case of such high-voltage diodes, it is always necessary to find a compromise between the "soft recovery behavior" of the component, the switching losses and the forward voltage drop or the on-state losses. This requirement is not taken into account by the known method for optimizing the turn-off-method as explained with reference to FIG. 2 since, although it obtains a soft turn-off behavior, this is at the expense of a higher forward voltage drop or an increased on-state power loss.
Humble O. et al.: "4.5 Kilovolt-Fast Diodes with Expanded SOA Using a Multi-Energy Proton Life Time Control Technique", 11th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs, ISPSD 99. Proceedings, Toronto, May 26-28, 1999, International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs, New York, N.Y.: IEEE, US, May 26, 1999, May 26, 1999 pages 121-124, XP000903559 ISBN: 0-78-03-5291-2, describes a power diode with setting of the emitter efficiency and charge carrier lifetime both in the cathode region of the diode and in the n-type base region, to be precise by irradiation with proton beams or α-particles. FIG. 3 in the right-hand column of page 121 of this document shows that although the first proton peak lies in the cathode region of the diode, the second proton peak lies near the center of the n-type base.

High-voltage diode with optimized turn-off method and corresponding optimization method


A flat discharge lamp transmitting radiation in ultraviolet or visible, including first and second flat, or substantially flat, glass elements substantially parallel to each other and defining an internal space filled with gas, the first and/or second glass element being made of a material that transmits the radiation; at least one first electrode and at least one second electrode, which may be at different potentials and may be supplied by an AC voltage, the first and second electrodes being associated with one or more main faces of the first glass element, the first and second electrodes being essentially elongate and substantially parallel to one another, and separated by at least one interelectrode space of given width substantially constant; and at least one third electrode which may be at a given potential associated with a main face of the second glass element and at least partly occupying, in projection, the interelectrode space.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of flat lamps and in particular it relates to flat coplanar-discharge lamps and to the use of these lamps.
II. Description of Related Art
As is known, flat lamps, used for the manufacture of back-lit liquid-crystal display (LCD) devices or as decorative or architectural luminaires, consist of two glass sheets kept apart by a short distance, generally less than a few millimeters, and hermetically sealed. The internal space contains a gas under reduced pressure, which emits ultraviolet (UV) radiation which excites a phosphor material emitting in the visible and covering the internal faces of the glass plates.
UV lamps are also formed by choosing a glass that transmits the UV radiation from the emitting gas or a phosphor material emitting in the UV.
In a conventional flat lamp structure, one of the glass sheets also has, on its internal face, electrodes mainly in the form of mutually parallel conducting bands. At a given instant, two adjacent electrodes constitute a cathode and an anode, between which what is called a coplanar discharge is produced, that is to say a discharge in a direction hugging the main surface of the supporting glass sheet.
To supply this coplanar discharge, a high-frequency voltage source is used that delivers a train of pulses with a short rise time, usually rectangular pulses.
It is also accepted that this coplanar discharge is homogeneous (i.e. filament-free) only with a duty cycle, (corresponding to the ratio of the conduction time to the period of the pulse train) that is very short, around 4%, which is technically complicated to achieve and consequently expensive.
To guarantee the homogeneity of the radiation from a conventional lamp, with a pulse train having a longer duty cycle, it will be necessary to combine an optical diffuser with the emitting surface. Here again, this complicates the production of the flat lamp. What is more, the thickness is increased, as is the weight. Furthermore, this solution cannot be easily transposed to UV lamps.

Flat coplanar-discharge lamp and uses of same


A system comprises a first host bus adapter (HBA) that uses a first context to facilitate the transmission of packets through a logical connection through the first HBA. The system also comprises a second HBA and memory in which the first context is stored. The memory is accessible by both of the first and second HBAs. Upon receiving a packet associated with the logical connection, the second HBA accesses the memory to use the first context to process the packet in accordance with the first context.

A host bus adapter (HBA) refers to logic that couples a host system to an external device. More specifically, an HBA provides an interface to a host bus within the host system and another interface to an external device. The host system may comprise a computing device (e.g., a server) and the external device may comprise a storage device or other type of external device. An HBA implements one or more logical connections between the logic in the host system and logic in the external device. A logical connection refers to a path between a source point and a destination point that is defined by source information (e.g., source identifier), destination information (e.g., destination identifier), and other information such as state, type, command, message, data, etc. Each logical connection has logical connection specific information ("context") that the HBA uses to process packets through the logical connection. The context for a logical connection comprises some or all of the aforementioned elements that define the logical connection, such as any or all of the source information, destination information, state, type, command, message, data, a sequence number (which specifies the order in which bytes are sent and received across a network), etc.
An HBA may be unable to continue working correctly. The inability of an HBA to continue working correctly may be due, for example, to a failure of the HBA or a cable becoming disconnected. The inability of an HBA to continue to process packets through the HBA's logical connections is problematic.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A method for depositing dielectric material into gaps between wiring lines in the formation of a semiconductor device includes the formation of a cap layer and the formation of gaps into which high density plasma chemical vapor deposition (HDPCVD) dielectric material is deposited. First and second antireflective coatings may be formed on the wiring line layer, the first and second antireflective coatings being made from different materials. Both antireflective coatings and the wiring line layer are etched through to form wiring lines separated by gaps. The gaps between wiring lines may be filled using high density plasma chemical vapor deposition.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for forming conductive regions such as wiring lines and for filling the gaps between conductive regions in a semiconductor circuit with a dielectric material using high density plasma chemical vapor deposition.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many highly integrated semiconductor circuits utilize multilevel wiring line structures for interconnecting regions within devices and for interconnecting one or more devices within the integrated circuits. In forming such structures, it is conventional to provide first or lower level wiring lines or interconnect structures and then to form a second level wiring line in contact with the first level wiring lines or interconnect structures. A first level interconnect might be formed in contact with a doped region within the substrate of an integrated circuit device. Alternately, a first level interconnect might be formed to a polysilicon or metal wiring line that is in contact with one or more device structures in or on the substrate of the integrated circuit device. One or more interconnections are typically formed between the first level wiring line or interconnect and other portions of the integrated circuit device or to structures external to the integrated circuit device. This is accomplished, in part, through the second level of wiring lines.
Most often, the wiring lines of the multilevel interconnect structure are formed by conventional photolithographic techniques. For example, devices such as FETs, diodes or transistors are formed in and on the substrate to form an integrated circuit device and a first level of insulating material is deposited over the device. A pattern of contact holes is defined through the first level of insulating material and, at some point in the process, the contact holes are filled with a conducting material to define vertical interconnects through the first level of insulating material to contact points of the appropriate ones of the devices on the surface of the substrate. A first metal layer that will be patterned to form a first level of wiring lines is provided on the first level of insulating material and over the surface of the device. An etch mask is formed on the surface of the first metal layer that defines a pattern of wiring lines to connect to various ones of the vertical interconnects. Generally, the etch mask is formed by providing a layer of photoresist on the surface of the first metal layer, exposing the layer of photoresist through an exposure mask and developing the photoresist to form the etch mask. Etching processes remove those portions of the first metal layer exposed by the etch mask, leaving behind the desired pattern of wiring lines.
Reduced design rules for forming integrated circuit devices have necessitated the use of photolithography steppers that use short wavelength exposure sources. Such short wavelength exposure sources allow for finer resolution lithography, but have the drawback of much higher levels of reflection from different components of the integrated circuit device. For example, during exposure of the photoresist mask, it is possible that light may pass entirely through the photoresist and reflect from the surface of the first metal layer back into the lower portions of the photoresist layer. To the extent that the reflected light is scattered by the surface of the first metal layer, it is possible that unwanted portions of the photoresist layer might be exposed. These unwanted reflections could undesirably narrow the first level metal wiring lines formed in this process.
It is desirable for the wiring lines and gaps between the wiring lines to be formed as accurately as possible. Misalignment or improper thickness of the developed photoresist protective layer may cause light to be reflected from the surface of a metal layer back up to the photoresist layer, exposing portions of the photoresist layer that are intended to not be exposed. Such additional exposure from light reflecting from the underlying metal layer may cause the developed portion of the photoresist layer to have a larger width than intended, which means that a narrower than intended surface area will be etched and the wiring lines may be too close together, leading to undesirable capacitive coupling or even shorting between lines. In addition, light reflected from the underlying metal layer may cause portions of the photoresist layer to be thinner than intended, which may result in the thinner portions being etched through and the underlying metal layer, which should be protected by the photoresist, will be partially etched. Such partial etching may form voids in the wiring lines and lead to decreased device performance and/or failure. The use of photoresist masks can also lead to contamination from the photoresist, such as carbon compounds, being deposited in the gaps between wiring lines or on the wiring lines and forming defects that interfere with processing and ultimately hinder device performance.
As devices are scaled to smaller geometries, the gaps formed between wiring lines generally have high aspect ratios (ratio of height to width) which are harder to fill with dielectric material than small aspect ratio gaps. In addition, as the distance between wiring lines and other conductors becomes smaller, capacitive coupling between wiring lines and other conductors becomes a limitation on the speed of the integrated circuit device. For adequate device performance in reduced dimension devices, it is necessary that the lithography and etching steps be accurately carried out to ensure proper location and sizing of the wiring lines and gaps. It is also necessary that the dielectric material subsequently deposited into the gaps between wiring lines meet a number of requirements. The dielectric material should be able to completely fill the gap between conductors and should be planarizable so that successive layers can be deposited and processed. The dielectric material should also be resistant to moisture transport and have a predictable and low dielectric constant to minimize capacitance between adjacent wiring lines and between wiring lines on different layers.
It is thus important to accurately form the wiring lines and gaps, and to deposit a high quality, substantially void-free dielectric into the gaps. Dielectric layers for wiring line isolation are often formed by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes, which deposit material onto a surface by transporting certain gaseous precursors to the surface and causing the precursors to react at the surface. Common CVD methods include atmospheric-pressure CVD (APCVD), low-pressure CVD (LPCVD) and plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD). High quality APCVD and LPCVD oxides may be deposited at high temperatures (650-850° C.), but such temperatures are generally not compatible with preferred wiring materials such as aluminum. Lower temperature APCVD and LPCVD processes tend to yield oxides that are comparatively more porous and water absorbing and that may be poorly suited to use as intermetal dielectrics. Acceptable oxides may be formed using PECVD processes, which use a plasma to impart additional energy to the reactant gases. The additional energy supplied by the plasma enables PECVD processes to be carried out at lower temperatures (approximately 400° C. and less) than APCVD or LPCVD processes.
One known method for depositing dielectric material between wiring lines forms a sandwich of a layer of silane-based or TEOS-based oxide deposited by PECVD together with a layer of spin-on-glass provided in the gaps and over the wiring lines. Another method deposits only a TEOS-based dielectric layer into the gaps and over the wiring lines. Problems relating to moisture absorption, spin-on-glass outgassing and incomplete gap fill in small geometries are observed and are likely to become more problematic for further reductions in device size. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a method for filling small geometry, high aspect-ratio gaps with a dense, high quality dielectric material.

High density plasma chemical vapor deposition process


A percussion instrument is provided. The percussion instrument having: a seat; a pair of sidewalls extending downwardly from the seat towards a bottom of the percussion instrument, each of the pair of sidewalls providing a first tone when contacted; a forward surface extending from the seat and located between the pair of sidewalls, the forward surface providing a second tone when contacted, the second tone being higher than the first tone.

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a percussion instrument that can be utilized as a seat as well as being struck by both feet and hands of a user of the instrument. In addition, the percussion instrument can be used in conjunction with another musical instruments including but not limited to guitars, piano, bass or any other musical instrument.
Solo musicians strive to provide live performances that emulate sounds produced by bands having multiple musicians playing multiple instruments. Moreover, individual musicians continuously strive for seats suitable for use as a seat without interfering with the playing of their instruments.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a percussion instrument that can function as both a seat as well as a complement to another instrument being played by the user who is sitting on the seat.


A positioning system comprises a feeding mechanism having three or more feeding units disposed in a moving direction of a moving body. Each of the feeding units has first and second moving elements for clamping and unclamping the moving body, feeding the moving body in the moving direction from an initial position to a target position, and returning the moving body to the initial position. A memory device stores preselected phase and amplitude values of the first and second moving elements. A calculating device calculates phase and amplitude command values for the first and second moving elements based on the phase and amplitude values stored in the memory device. An output device outputs driving command values to the first and second moving elements based on the calculation result of the calculating device. A control device controls the feeding units to clamp the moving body by all of the feeding units after the moving body has been moved to the target position.

The present invention relates to a super-precision positioning system and more particularly to a super-precision positioning system which realizes a move of long stroke and a high rigidity.
With the recent advancement of precision of super-precision machine tools, semiconductor related equipment and measuring instruments, it has been strongly desired to improve performance of a super-precision positioning system and a super-precision feeding system which are important components of those equipment. A piezoelectric element is often used as an actuator in the system which requires high rigidity, high resolution and the like among those systems. However, the piezoelectric element has a disadvantage that its displacement is very small. In order to make up for such disadvantage, a spanworm method, a method combined with Walking Drive and a coarse actuator, a method utilizing rapid deformation of the piezoelectric element and the like have been proposed. Although these methods allow the piezoelectric element to be driven for a long stroke, it cannot be said that the rigidity of the piezoelectric element is fully utilized from the aspect of the rigidity when it is used in a positioning system.
The circumstances around this point will be explained by exemplifying the spanworm method. FIG. 17 shows the driving principle of the spanworm method which has been implemented since the past and FIG. 18 shows patterns of driving voltages applied to each piezoelectric element used in the spanworm method. In FIG. 17, a pair of feeding elements 3 are secured to a pair of supporting sections 2 provided at spatial positions which face each other while interposing a moving body 1 therebetween so that the center the elements 3 is supported by the supporting sections 2. One end of pairs of clamp elements 4a and 4b are secured to both ends of the pair of feeding elements 3 such that the other end of the clamp elements are opened to be extendible.
Next, the operation of the spanworm method will be explained based on FIG. 18. Numbers marked at the upper part of FIG. 18 represent timings. Each timing of 1 through 6 corresponds to steps 1) through 6) in FIG. 17. The horizontal axis represents a phase (it is shown as 2.sup.1 radians until when one period of the operation of the spanworm method is completed and the vertical axis represents a voltage value to be applied to each piezoelectric element. FIG. 18 shows each voltage pattern of the clamping element 4a, the feeding element 3 and the clamping element 4b. At first, at Timing 1, the clamping element 4a is released and the clamping element 4b is clamping the moving body 1. Next, the feeding element 3 extends while clamping the moving body 1 by the clamping element 4b between Timing 1 and Timing 2. Accordingly, the moving body 1 is driven in the right direction. At Timing 2, a stroke of the feeding element 3 reaches its limit and the clamping element 4a clamps the moving body 1 at Timing 3. Then, the clamping element 4b releases the clamp at Timing 4. The feeding element 3 contracts to the original state in order to restore the stroke between Timing 4 and Timing 5. During this time, the moving body 1 is driven in the right direction further. At Timing 5, the contraction of the feeding element 3 reaches to its limit and the clamping element 4b clamps the moving body 1. After that, the clamping element 4a releases the clamp at Timing 6, thus returning to Timing 1. The moving body 1 is driven in the right direction for a long stroke by repeating such operations, though it is not continuous operation.
However, while at least either one of the clamping elements always clamps the moving body 1 to support the moving body 1 during the operation of one such period, the clamping elements 4a and 4b clamp the moving body 1 in the same time only at small periods of time between Timing 3 and Timing 4 and Timing 5 and Timing 6. Accordingly, seeing the phase of the clamping elements after positioning, one or two clamping elements clamp the moving body 1 and an enough rigidity may not be realized even though a highly rigid piezoelectric element is used. While the rigidity increases almost proportionally with an increase in the number of the clamping elements clamping the moving body 1, the rigidity is cut almost into a half in case of the above-mentioned spanworm method because one clamping element clamps the moving body 1 most of the time as compared to a case when two clamping elements clamp the moving body 1.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned prior art problem by providing a super-precision positioning system which allows driving in a long stroke, which is highly rigid and which can position at super precision.


An air bag pad in which an ornament is disposed on a front surface of a synthetic resin pad body covers a folded air bag. The ornament is shaped like a sheet having a bonding layer provided in its rear surface so as to be capable of being bonded to the pad body easily. The ornament is used as an insert so that the pad body is insert-molded. The bonding layer is bonded to the pad body when the pad body is molded.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a synthetic resin air bag pad in which an ornament is disposed on a front surface of a synthetic resin pad body so as to cover a folded air bag. This invention also relates to a method of producing such an air bag pad.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a conventional air bag pad, there is known an air bag pad in which an ornament provided separately from a pad body is attached to the pad body in order to make the design of the external appearance good. The ornament is provided because the relief-like uneven surface of the pad body is not aesthetically attractive (see Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Hei. 1-81351).
The air bag pad is, however, used in such a manner that during inflation of a folded air bag a predetermined position of the pad is ruptured to permit the inflating air bag to protrude through the pad. The ornament is attached to the pad body while a sufficient attachment strength is secured by suturing means with elastic thread, rivetting means, means for bending a pin protruded from the ornament after passing the pin through the pad body, or the like, so that the ornament does not scatter when the air bag is inflated.
Accordingly, much labor is required for attaching the ornament to the pad body because the ornament is provided separately from the pad body. Thus, drawbacks of conventional air bag pads include the large number of steps and high cost required for producing the air bag pad, as well as the heavy weight of the pad.


The present invention provides for a method and an apparatus for performing field-to-field compensation during semiconductor manufacturing. At least one semiconductor device is processed. Metrology data is collected from the processed semiconductor device. A field-to-field metrology analysis is performed based upon the metrology data. Residual-error analysis is performed based upon the field-to-field analysis.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to semiconductor manufacturing, and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for performing field-to-field compensation for errors in semiconductor manufacturing processes.
2. Description of the Related Art
The technology explosion in the manufacturing industry has resulted in many new and innovative manufacturing processes. Today's manufacturing processes, particularly semiconductor manufacturing processes, call for a large number of important steps. These process steps are usually vital, and therefore, require a number of inputs that are generally fine tuned to maintain proper manufacturing control.
The manufacture of semiconductor devices requires a number of discrete process steps to create a packaged semiconductor device from raw semiconductor material. The various processes, from the initial growth of the semiconductor material, the slicing of the semiconductor crystal into individual wafers, the fabrication stages (etching, doping, ion implanting, or the like), to the packaging and final testing of the completed device, are so different from one another and specialized that the processes may be performed in different manufacturing locations that contain different control schemes.
Among the factors that affect semiconductor device manufacturing are effectively initiating and continuing a manufacturing process without significant human interaction, which can cause delays or errors in the manufacturing process. One of the process steps that is adversely affected by such factors is the photolithography overlay process. Overlay is one of several important steps in the photolithography area of semiconductor manufacturing. Overlay control involves measuring the misalignment between two successive patterned layers on the surface of a semiconductor device. Generally, alignment is important to ensure that the multiple layers of the semiconductor devices are connected and functional. As technology facilitates smaller critical dimensions for semiconductor devices, the need for reduced of misalignment errors increases dramatically.
Generally, photolithography engineers use results from the analysis of the overlay errors to make updates to exposure tool settings manually. Some of the problems associated with the current methods include the fact that the exposure tool settings are only updated a few times a month. Furthermore, often the exposure tool updates are performed manually. Similarly, improvements in error prevention and correction in other types of semiconductor manufacturing processes are also needed to improve yields in semiconductor manufacturing processes.
Generally, a set of processing steps is performed on a lot of wafers on a semiconductor manufacturing tool called an exposure tool or a stepper. The manufacturing tool communicates with a manufacturing framework or a network of processing modules. The manufacturing tool is generally connected to a machine interface. The machine interface is connected to a machine interface to which the stepper is connected, thereby facilitating communications between the stepper and the manufacturing framework. The machine interface can generally be part of an advanced process control (APC) system. The APC system initiates a control script, which can be a software program that automatically retrieves the data needed to execute a manufacturing process. The input parameters that control the manufacturing process are revised periodically in a manual fashion. As the need for higher precision manufacturing processes are required, improved methods are needed to revise input parameters that control manufacturing processes in a more automated and timely manner. Furthermore, wafer-to-wafer manufacturing variations can cause non-uniform quality of semiconductor devices.
Many times processed semiconductor wafers can have portions that contain errors, such as overlay errors. Often, a small error on a portion of a processed semiconductor can go unnoticed. This small error may cause a persistent bias in that portion, and subsequent processes may add to the error, causing a substantial error. Many times, these small errors can be caused by abnormalities in a stepper lens, errors in the manner the wafer is positioned in a stepper, and the like. Small residual errors, such as errors caused by persistent biases, can cause yield degradation in the manufacturing of semiconductor wafers.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.

Method and apparatus for performing field-to-field compensation


A dense composite material according to the present invention contains, in descending order of content, silicon carbide, titanium silicon carbide, and titanium carbide as three major constituents. The dense composite material contains 51% to 68% by mass of silicon carbide and no titanium silicide and has an open porosity of 1% or less. This dense composite material has properties such as an average linear thermal expansion coefficient of 5.4 to 6.0 ppm/K at 40° C. to 570° C., a thermal conductivity of 100 W/m·K or more, and a four-point bending strength of 300 MPa or more.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to dense composite materials, methods for manufacturing such materials, joined bodies, and members for semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electrostatic chuck, which is heated to high temperatures during semiconductor processes, has a cooling plate joined thereto for heat radiation. In this case, the material used for the electrostatic chuck may be aluminum nitride, the material used for the cooling plate may be aluminum, and the joining material used may be a resin. Aluminum nitride and aluminum have an extremely large difference in linear thermal expansion coefficient. For example, aluminum nitride has a linear thermal expansion coefficient of 5.0 ppm/K (RT-800° C., "Physics of Ceramics", Uchida Rokakuho Publishing Co., Ltd.), whereas aluminum has a linear thermal expansion coefficient of 31.1 ppm/K (RT-800° C., "Thermophysical Properties Handbook New Edition", edited by Japan Society of Thermophysical Properties). Such an electrostatic chuck uses a soft resin as the joining material so that the stress due to the difference in linear thermal expansion coefficient can be relieved.

Dense composite material, method for manufacturing the same, joined body, and member for semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses


For an electrical connector for connecting insulated electrical conductors, preferably an electrical plug and socket connector, with contact elements disposed in chambers of a carrying base with cutting and insulation displacement connections for connection to the conductor, the conductors being introduced into the connector in the axial direction, relative to the contact elements, it is proposed that the conductors be pressed by means of a conductor guiding element, which is constructed as a pressure part, into the cutting and insulation displacement connections. At the same time, the conductors are pushed through a guiding borehole, in which they are deflected in such a manner, that they are guided obliquely through a recess in the conductor guiding element. When the carrying base and the conductor guiding element are joined together, the cutting and insulation displacement connections dip into these recesses and, in so doing, are connected with the conductors.

The invention relates to an electrical connector for connecting insulated electrical conductors, preferably electrical plug and socket connectors, with contact elements disposed in recesses or chambers of a carrying base/insulator, the contact elements being provided at least at one end with a cutting and insulation displacement connection for connection to a conductor and the conductors being taken into the connector in the axial direction, relative to the longitudinal dimension of the contact elements or the chambers.
For such connectors it is necessary to force the electrical conductors together with their insulation into the cutting and insulation displacement connections with penetration of the insulation and electrical contacting between the metal conductor and the respectively assigned connecting element. At the same time, the electrical conductors should be introduced in the axial direction into the carrying or insulating base of the connector for the purpose of enabling several connectors to be disposed tightly next to one another.
The EP 0 102 156 B1 discloses a connecting device, for which a contact element with a cutting and insulation displacement connection is disposed in a carrying base and for which the conductor, which is to be connected, is introduced in the axial direction, based on the longitudinal dimension of the contact element, into the contact element or the carrying base. After the conductor is introduced, pressure is then exerted onto the front end of the contact element, by means of which a rear region of the contact element, into which the conductor is introduced, is folded up.
As a result of this folding, the cutting edges of the folded contact element side walls penetrate the insulation of the conductor and achieve electrical contact with the metallic part of the conductor. However, for this connection device, which on the whole is satisfactory, a contact element of sophisticated design is necessary in order to ensure satisfactory contacting.