Methods and apparatus for providing Bernoulli stabilization to flexible media in an information storage system, are shown to include a stabilizer having a body on which a first surface is formed of a contour sufficient to provide Bernoulli stabilization to media passing thereover. The stabilizer is positioned so that the first surface is proximate backside of the media. In one embodiment, the first surface has a number of grooves which channel air passing between the first surface and the backside. In those situations where the flexible media includes two flexible disks, each having an active side and a backside and where the disks are oriented so that the backsides face one another, the body further includes a second surface of a contour sufficient to provide Bernoulli stabilization to media passing thereover. In such situations the stabilizer is positioned between the disks. In a still further embodiment the disks are rotatably mounted in a cartridge which includes a housing having an opening along one side thereof to allow access to the disks and a separator, attached to the housing and positioned between the disks, for providing separation of the disks. In such a situation when the cartridge is positioned in relation to the information system the space between the disks is accessible.

In present information storage systems utilizing flexible disk-type media, the media is typically enclosed within a cartridge or a sleeve for insertion into a disk drive. A drive spindle engages the media at a hub, and the disk is rotated about a central axis. Information is generally recorded to or read from the outside surfaces of the media by either a magnetic head in a magnetic disk drive, an optical head in an optical disk drive or a combination magnetic and optical head in a magneto-optical disk drive. Typically the outside surface of the media is covered with an active layer in which recording of information occurs.
In a magnetic disk drive the spacing between the magnetic head and the media active layer must be very small and accurately controlled in order to allow the magnetic coil and gap on the magnetic head to either change the polarity of the magnetic media during a write operation, or to sense the polarity of the media during a read operation, over a small precise location on the media. In an optical disk drive the spacing between the objective lens on the optical head and the media active layer must be accurately controlled in order to allow a laser beam to be focused onto a small precise location on the media disk.
In a magnetic disk drive for flexible magnetic media the magnetic heads are either suspended on a flexure mechanism which allows them to accurately follow the surface contour of the media or the magnetic heads are designed to make the media conform to the contour of the head, as in a Bernoulli stabilized disk drive disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,414,592--Losee et al.
In an optical disk drive for flexible optical media the optical head is either provided with a focus motor which allows the focused beam to accurately follow the surface contour of the media or a feature of the cartridge, optical head or both is designed to make the media conform to the focus requirements of the optical head.
One approach for forcing optical media to conform has been the provision of gross and fine Bernoulli stabilization. Such a system is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 167,652, filed Mar. 14, 1988 and entitled OPTICAL READ/WRITE STORAGE SYSTEM FOR FLEXIBLE MEDIA HAVING BERNOULLI STABILIZATION AT THE OPTICAL HEAD, owned by the Assignee of the present invention. In that system, a Bernoulli surface provides gross stabilization to the flexible optical media while a coupler element provides fine Bernoulli stabilization in the region immediately proximate the optical head assembly objective lens.
In a magnetic flexible media disk drive the magnetic heads are either retracted and lifted away from the outer surface of the media during insertion of the media or the edges of the magnetic heads, which could possibly engage the media during insertion, are carefully contoured to allow the media to slip over the edge of the magnetic head with minimum force. In an optical disk drive which uses a focus motor the optical heads are located far enough away from the media area during media insertion so that no contact is made with the media. In an optical disk drive which uses Bernoulli stabilization on the optical head, the heads are contoured to allow the media to slide over the edge of the optical head during insertion of the media cartridge.
In the aforementioned magnetic and optical flexible media disk drives the heads and/or stabilizing mechanisms are only used on the outer (active layer) surface of the media. In the case of the magnetic flexible media disk drives or in the case of optical flexible media disk drives which use Bernoulli stabilization on the optical head there can exist continuous or intermittent contact of the head with the active surface of the media. This can cause wear or damage to the recording layer. This problem is much more severe in the case of the optical disk drive which uses Bernoulli stabilization on the active surface because the recording density of the optical media is much higher than that of the magnetic media. A scratch on a flexible disk which is small enough to be ignored by the magnetic head in a magnetic disk drive could easily be large enough to destroy many bytes or tracks of information in an optical disk drive. Additionally, in the case of both the magnetic flexible media disk drives and the optical flexible media disk drive the present insertion techniques limit the number of heads which can be used in a flexible media drive, since the heads are constrained to the outer surface of the media only.
In certain situations, the closeness of the media to the fine stabilization surface has exhibited excessive wear. As will be appreciated, such wear will cause reflection phase shifts. If the wear is significant, i.e., a scratch, such reflection phase shifts can reach between 180.degree. and 360.degree..
These problems are magnified if one is using cartridges having multiple disks, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,989--Bauck et al.
Consequently, a need exists to stabilize flexible media, while simultaneously locating the optical head a sufficient distance from the media to eliminate wear and further maintain the overall weight of the optical head assembly at a minimum.

Apparatus and methods for backside stabilization of flexible optical media in information storage system


An electro-optical device having a plurality of pixel electrodes, each with at least one thin film transistor. The channel region of the transistor is spoiled by an impurity such as oxygen, carbon, or nitrogen. The photosensitivity of the channel region is reduced by the spoiling impurity and therefore the transistor includes immunity to illumination incident thereupon, which would otherwise impair the normal operation of the transistor. The spoiling impurity is not introduced into transistors that are located such that they do not receive light rays.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same and, more particularly to thin film gate insulated field effect transistors suitable for use in liquid crystal displays and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have been well known in the art active liquid crystal displays which are driven by thin film transistors (TFTs). The displays of this type comprise visual panels and peripheral circuits for driving the panel. The peripheral circuit is formed by attaching a single crystalline chip containing integrated circuits on a glass substrate by tab-bonding or COG (chip on glass). The visual panel comprises a plurality of pixels each being provided with a driving TFT. The TFT is usually an N-channel FET formed within an amorphous or polycrystalline semiconductor film which is electrically coupled to a respective pixel.
The carrier mobility in amorphous semiconductors, however, is substantially low, particularly the hole mobility is of the order of 0.1 cm.sup.2 /Vsec or less. The drain dielectric strength of polycrystalline semiconductors, on the other hand, can not be sufficiently improved because of dangling bonds and impurities such as oxygen collected at grain boundaries, so that it is very difficult to realize usable P-channel TFTs having sufficient characteristics. Furthermore, such TFTs possess photosensitivities, which change Vg-ID characteristics in response to irradiation. Because of this, when used in displays accompanied by back-lights which light up the visual areas, e.g. at 2000 cd, the channel regions of the TFTs have to be covered by particular blind means.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the equivalent circuit of an exemplary liquid crystal display. The diagram shows only a 2.times.2 matrix for the sake of convenience in description whereas ordinary liquid crystal displays consist of more great numbers of pixels such as those in the form of a 640.times.480 matrix, a 1260.times.960 matrix and so on. The liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal layer 42 disposed between a pair of glass substrates 11 and 11' as shown in FIG. 2. Numeral 54 designates a polarizing plate. The inner surface of the glass substrate 11' is coated with a ground electrode 53. The inner surface of the other substrate 11 is provided with a plurality of conductive pads each constituting one pixel of the display. Each conductive pad are formed together with an N-type FET 51 whose source is electrically connected with the corresponding pad. The drains of the FETs on a similar row in the matrix is connected with a control line of the row to which control signals are supplied from a row driver 47. The gates of the N-type FETs on a similar column is connected with a control line of the column to which control signals are supplied from a column driver 46.
In the operation of the display, the column driver 46 supplies control signals of a high level to selected columns to turn on the TFTs on the column. There are, however, undersirable cases in which the on-off action of the TFTs can not sufficiently carry out so that the output voltage of the TFT (i.e. the input to the pixel) reaches only short of a predetermined high voltage level (e.g. 5V), or the output voltage does not sufficiently fall to a predetermined low voltage (e.g. 0V). The liquid crystal is intrinsically insulating and, when the TFT is turned off, the liquid crystal voltage (VLC) becomes floating. The amount of electric charge accumulated on the liquid crystal which is equivalent to a capacitance determines the VLC. The accumulated charge, however, will leak through a channel resistance RSD of the photosensitive TFT resulting in fluctuation of the VLC. Because of this, high efficiencies can not be expected when a large number of pixels are formed within one display panel.

Electro-optical device including thin film transistors having spoiling impurities added thereto

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A machine learning device of an amount of unburned fuel using a neural network in which the correlation functions showing correlations between parameters and an amount of unburned fuel are found for parameters relating to operation of an internal combustion engine, and the parameters with strong degrees of correlation with the amount of unburned fuel exhausted from the engine are selected from among the parameters based on the correlation functions. The amount of unburned fuel is learned by using the neural network from the selected parameters and amount of unburned fuel.

Known in the art is an unburned fuel amount estimating device in which the amount of unburned fuel exhausted from an engine is stored in advance as a function of a demanded engine torque and engine speed in the form of a map and an estimated value of the amount of unburned fuel is found by correcting the amount of unburned fuel stored in the map based on an exhaust temperature (for example, see Japanese Patent Publication No. 2008-38822).
That is, if the amount of fuel made to burn in the supplied fuel is large, the exhaust temperature rises and the amount of unburned fuel exhausted from the engine is decreased. On the other hand, if the amount of fuel made to burn in the supplied fuel is small, the exhaust temperature falls and the amount of unburned fuel exhausted from the engine is increased. In this way, the amount of unburned fuel exhausted from the engine changes in accordance with the exhaust temperature. Therefore, in the above-mentioned unburned fuel amount estimating device, the estimated value of the amount of unburned fuel is found by correcting the amount of unburned fuel stored in the map based on the exhaust temperature.

Machine learning device of amount of unburned fuel, machine learning method, learned model, electronic control unit, method of production of electronic control unit, and machine learning system


An ink jet ink composition comprising water, a humectant, and a polyvalent transition metal complex of 8-heterocyclylazo-5-hydroxyquinoline.

Ink jet printing is a non-impact method for producing images by the deposition of ink droplets in a pixel-by-pixel manner to an image-recording element in response to digital signals. There are various methods which may be utilized to control the deposition of ink droplets on the image-recording element to yield the desired image. In one process, known as continuous ink jet, a continuous stream of droplets is charged and deflected in an imagewise manner onto the surface of the image-recording element, while unimaged droplets are caught and returned to an ink sump. In another process, known as drop-on-demand ink jet, individual ink droplets are projected as needed onto the image-recording element to form the desired image. Common methods of controlling the projection of ink droplets in drop-on-demand printing include piezoelectric transducers and thermal bubble formation. Ink jet printers have found broad applications across markets ranging from industrial labeling to short run printing to desktop document and pictorial imaging.
The inks used in the various ink jet printers can be classified as either dye-based or pigment-based. A dye is a colorant, which is dissolved in the carrier medium. A pigment is a colorant that is insoluble in the carrier medium, but is dispersed or suspended in the form of small particles, often stabilized against flocculation and settling by the use of dispersing agents. The carrier medium can be a liquid or a solid at room temperature in both cases. Commonly used carrier media include water, mixtures of water and organic co-solvents and high boiling organic solvents, such as hydrocarbons, esters, ketones, etc.
The choice of a colorant in ink jet systems is critical to image quality. For colors such as cyan, magenta, yellow, green, orange, etc., the peak wavelength (.lambda.-max), the width of the absorption curve and the absence of secondary absorptions are important. The colorants should also have a high degree of light fastness after printing onto the ink-receiving element. For aqueous dye-based inks, the dyes need to be sufficiently soluble in water to prepare a solution that is capable of producing adequate density on the receiving element and stable for extended periods of storage without precipitation. High quality ink jet printing with dye-based inks requires dyes which will provide both bright hue and good light stability. It is difficult to find dyes which meet all of these requirements, particularly magenta dyes.


Submersible cables that are placed in a body of fluid such as water or other fluids such as chemicals or sewage often require a takeoff to be added to the submersible cable wherein a window is cut in the exterior insulation of the submersible cable or parent trunk exposing interior wires or fiber optical cables or tubes and the like. The device and method for this fluid stop splice for a submersible cable where the desired conductors such as wires, fibers or tubes of the takeoff are suitably spliced to the necessary or desired wires, fibers or tubes of the parent trunk cable is such that a cofferdam is placed around the spliced area of the cables, fibers or tubes and a glutinous material is pumped, poured, or injected into the cofferdam where the glutinous material cures around the splice of the cables, fibers and or tubes and further forms a fluid tight seal around the cables, fibers and tubes to further stop fluid flow into the parent truck when the primary cable and takeoff are submerged into the fluid and further prevents electrical leakage, or the distribution communication leakage of the cables, fibers or tubes.

Submersible cables that are placed on the sea floor, in sewage treatment plants, in chemical storage pits, or other tanks of liquid often require a takeoff cable to be added to the existing submersible cable. When the takeoff is added, the area wherein the takeoff is spliced to the parent trunk is often spliced in a manner that will allow fluid flow from an unknown location in to the takeout. The fluid could then migrate into parent trunk causing electrical leakage form one internal conductor to another internal conductor and the fluid could also destroy any cables, fibers or tubes in the parent trunk that require protection form foreign fluids, liquids or chemicals.
There are many methods of splicing cables, however, none of the methods or devices teach the splicing of a takeoff to a parent trunk wherein the splice is a fluid stop. Some of the other cable splicing devices are: Harian A. Vanes U.S. Pat. No. 3,914,014; Ernest M. Hall Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,970; William O. McNeel U.S. Pat. No. 4,249,788; John M. Mollere U.S. Pat. No. 4,260,211; Ben B. Thigpen et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,185; Gary A. Vincent et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,961; Robert G. Knowles U.S. Pat. No. 4,969,539.
These inventions have no means of eliminating or stopping fluid as it may flow from the takeoff to the parent trunk.

Device and method for a fluid stop splice for a submersible cable


A device comprises a detector for detecting markers along the railway track processor for processing the signals supplied by the detector, in order to control the speed of a rail vehicle as a function of its position and instantaneous speed on a track section. The markers comprise, on each track section, markers (1) arranged at constant or random intervals at the entry of each section and markers (2) arranged to form a beacon for identifying the section in question and for initializing the device. The signal processor comprises a memory (9) in which a vehicle progress program is stored in the form of codes associated with each marker arranged on the ground and each containing a data item relating to the type of ground marker which is to be detected, a data item relating to a set-point speed of the vehicle on a level with the marker, and a data item relating to the number of the track section covered.

The present invention relates to devices assisting the driving of rail vehicles.
French Patent No. 83 03 706 filed on Mar. 7, 1983 in the name of Mr Jean-Pierre Malon described a device for the driving and/or control of a rail vehicle, comprising means for dividing the route intended for the vehicle into successive space intervals, forming at least one program inscribed within the route, and means for detecting the limits of the space intervals, intended for controlling the means for the piloting and/or control of the vehicle.
The successive space intervals are delimited by markers arranged along the route, and take the form of codes identifying this at least one program, the detection means having at least one sensor for reading the codes and means for discriminating between the output signals of the sensor as a function of the operating conditions for the purpose of determining the program to be executed.
The known device of the abovementioned type ensures the safe movement of trains on an underground network.
The control of the train is ensured by the knowledge of two essential data items:
the state of occupation of the track downline from the moving vehicle in question (signalling); and
the limiting possibilities of the track at the location of the moving vehicle (speed limit polygon).
In the device described in the abovementioned patent, there is transmission of the signalling state by means of carrier frequencies injected into the rails.
The markers arranged on the ground determine the speed profiles. They are read on board the train by on-board sensors.
Moreover, French Patent No. 90 05 285, filed on Apr. 25, 1990 in the name of ACELEC, makes known a device for automatic speed control which employs "retractable" markers when a plurality of program can be read.
In the two instances mentioned above, the control of the speed is obtained by a measurement of the running time between two successive markers.
Whatever the known control device to be used, the safety of the device is based on perfect detection of the ground markers.
In fact, an undetected marker allows, locally, an overspeed in relation to the speed which would be allowed in the event of normal detection of all the markers.
For example, a detection failure eliminating one marker out of two over a constant-speed zone allows a doubling of the maximum speed of the train.
In contrast, the inopportune detection of "phantom" markers is not detrimental to safety, since this detection of additional markers which do not actually exist, artificially decreases the maximum permitted speed.
It is therefore necessary to execute a safety validation of the detection of all the markers of each line, whether these markers are stationary or retractable.

Automatic control system for a railway vehicle's speed and stopping


A discharging device for a vinasse tank, including a flipping component and a lifting component. The flipping component includes convex rods externally connected with opposite side surfaces of the tank, and a frame matched with the tank; the frame includes an outer frame and an inner frame; opposite inner supporting rods of the inner frame are provided with C-shaped grooves having openings downward and matched with the convex rods; respective C-shaped grooves include a through hole penetrating through lower parts of groove walls on both sides; a gear lever matched with the through hole and a first driving mechanism for driving the gear lever to move left and right axially along the through hole are arranged in the inner supporting rod; and a second driving mechanism for driving the inner frame to flip is arranged at a joint between the inner supporting rod and an outer supporting rod.

Vinasse, also known as red vinasse and fermented grain vinasse, is residue that remains after making wine by crops such as rice wheat. In the past, the vinasse was mainly used as livestock feed, and discarded at will, without further researching the practical value of the vinasse. With the development of science and technology, people discover more hidden value in the vinasse. For example, the vinasse can be used as fertilizer for agricultural production, and some scientific research institutions also find that some components in the vinasse can be used in health products and skin care products. Therefore, the in-depth research and utilization of the vinasse are gradually increased, and the potential practical value of the vinasse is also increasingly concerned. Most of the existing vinasse extraction processes rely on manual shoveling and loading to shovel the vinasse into a bucket truck, and then the bucket truck is transported to a discharge port to transfer the vinasse to a recovery tank through a loading truck. For existing loading trucks such as "a vinasse loading truck with clean unloading (Chinese utility model patent, publication number CN207435406U)" and "a vinasse loading truck used in a vinasse extraction process (Chinese utility model patent, publication number CN207390372U)", in practical use, the process of transporting the vinasse by the loading truck has the problem of spilling of the vinasse due to crawler vibration and manual shoveling process, thereby polluting the loading environment. At the same time, the process of manually transporting the vinasse to the loading truck may spill the vinasse due to shaking, and pollute a cellar; and the separate arrangement of the loading vehicle also consumes energy and labor, resulting in low resource utilization efficiency. In addition, because the vinasse has strong viscosity, part of the vinasse may be easily attached to the surface of a hopper due to inadequate discharging in the process of discharging by using the feeding truck, thereby causing inconvenience in cleaning and shortening the service life of the hopper.


The present invention discloses a fan assembly for a power supply and improves the traditional installation of a fan onto a power supply that leaves insufficient spaces for designing the connecting holes as required by the existing installation specification, and mounts the fan into a power supply at a specific position by a specific fixing member and uses the fixing member to keep the fan at a specific interval from the end surface of the power supply without being in direct contact with the power supply. Therefore, the interval from the end surface provides sufficient space for the design of the ventilation holes for the airflow and the connecting holes as required by the installation specification of the power supply.

A power supply could be considered as the most important part of an electronic device that supplies electric power for the operation of the electronic device. However, when the power supply is switching, a great deal of heat is produced due to a power loss. Thus, a power supply A1 usually comes with a fan A11 for dispersing the heat as shown in FIG. 1. The fan A11 of a power supply A1 is usually installed at an end surface of the power supply, and a through hole is disposed at a connecting hole on the end surface corresponding to an end of the fan, and the connection is usually achieved by securing a screw into the through hole to mount the fan A 11 at a fixed position. Further, the electronic device also has a connecting position according to a certain required specification to facilitate its production and assembly. Therefore, the power supply must be installed at a position corresponding to the specified connecting holes. However, one fan no longer can meet the requirement for dispersing so much heat produced by a high-power power supply. Therefore, a dual fan B11, B12 design for the power supply B1 as shown in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, after two fans B11, B12 are installed to the power supply B 1, there will be no remaining space for the design of the connecting holes, and thus manufacturers have to think of some other designs to fix the electronic device into position. These designs may ruin the existing external look of the power supply and limit the way of installing a power supply onto an electronic device appropriately.
Please refer to FIG. 3 for the current power supply sold in the market, and such power supply C1 is equipped with two fans C11 and C12 with the design of connecting holes. From the figure, it is obvious that the design of the connecting holes is unable to meet the requirement for a universal connection at the existing installation position of the electronic device. In other words, the computer power supply must be designed according to some other specification for its assembly and installation, and thus this type of power supply cannot fully meet the universal application and needs further improvements.


Techniques are described for enabling or suspending access to one or more datastores based on a determined quality of the stored data. The datastores may use relational or non-relational formats. User-specified rules may be applied to statistically determine the data quality of at least a portion of the data in the datastore. The rules may perform statistical tests on the data, such as determining whether an amount of stored data is within a margin of a historical average, whether a number of records storing particular data is within a historical average, and so forth. Based on the rules, a flag may be set to indicate the determined data quality. Access to the data may be based on the value of the flag.

Commercial enterprises and other organizations often store large amounts of data related to their operations. For example, an online business may store terabytes, petabytes, exabytes, or more of data describing products, sale transactions, customers, vendors, online activities of customers, and so forth. In some cases, data produced by one group, process, or individual in an organization may be consumed by various other groups, processes, or individuals in the organization. In such cases, corrupted, incomplete, or otherwise low quality data produced in one part of the organization may cause problems elsewhere in the organization.
Certain implementations and embodiments will now be described more fully below with reference to the accompanying figures, in which various aspects are shown. However, various aspects may be implemented in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the implementations set forth herein. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

Statistical data quality determination for storage systems


A method of communicating data between a base station and a plurality of terminal devices in a wireless telecommunications system. The method comprises transmitting data from the base station to the plurality of terminal devices in a multicast transmission and transmitting response signals from the terminal devices to the base station to indicate whether the respective terminal devices have successfully received the multicast transmission. The use of a multicast transmission provides an efficient mechanism for communicating the same data to a plurality of terminal device, for example as might be desired in a machine-type communication network. In combination with this, the use of individual response signals, such as ACK/NACK signalling, from the terminal devices allows the base station, or other entity, such as a machine-type communications server, to track which terminal devices have indicated successful receipt of the multicast transmission, and to instigate an appropriate re-transmission protocol accordingly.

The present invention relates to methods, systems and apparatus for transmitting data in mobile telecommunication systems, and in particular transmitting data in a multicast transmission.
Third and fourth generation mobile telecommunication systems, such as those based on the 3GPP defined UMTS and Long Term Evolution (LTE) architecture are able to support more sophisticated services than simple voice and messaging services offered by previous generations of mobile telecommunication systems.
For example, with the improved radio interface and enhanced data rates provided by LTE systems, a user is able to enjoy high data rate applications such as mobile video streaming and mobile video conferencing that would previously only have been available via a fixed line data connection. The demand to deploy third and fourth generation networks is therefore strong and the coverage area of these networks, i.e. geographic locations where access to the networks is possible, is expected to increase rapidly.
The anticipated widespread deployment of third and fourth generation networks has led to the parallel development of a class of devices and applications which, rather than taking advantage of the high data rates available, instead take advantage of the robust radio interface and increasing ubiquity of the coverage area. Examples include so-called machine type communication (MTC) applications, which are typified by semi-autonomous or autonomous wireless communication devices (i.e. MTC devices) communicating small amounts of data on a relatively infrequent basis. Examples include so-called smart meters which, for example, are located in a customer's house and periodically transmit information back to a central MTC server data relating to the customers consumption of a utility such as gas, water, electricity and so on. Further information on characteristics of MTC-type devices can be found, for example, in the corresponding standards, such as ETSI TS 122 368 V10.530 (2011 July)/3GPP TS 22.368 version 10.5.0 Release 10) [1].
Multicast data transmission is an established technique for efficiently communicating content, for example, streaming media, to multiple recipients in an efficient manner. It can be foreseen that multicast data transmissions may in future be used more and more, for example, to transmit operational data, e.g. software updates, to a plurality of MTC connected to a server through a wireless network.
Furthermore, whilst it can be convenient for a terminal such as an MTC type terminal to take advantage of the wide coverage area provided by a third or fourth generation mobile telecommunication network there are at present disadvantages. Unlike a conventional third or fourth generation terminal device such as a smartphone, an MTC-type terminal is preferably relatively simple and inexpensive. The type of functions performed by the MTC-type terminal (e.g. collecting and reporting back data) do not require particularly complex processing to perform. However, third and fourth generation mobile telecommunication networks typically employ advanced data modulation techniques on the radio interface which can require more complex and expensive radio transceivers to implement. It is usually justified to include such complex transceivers in a smartphone as a smartphone will typically require a powerful processor to perform typical smartphone type functions. However, as indicated above, there is now a desire to use relatively inexpensive and less complex devices to communicate using LTE type networks. In parallel with this drive to provide network accessibility to devices having different operational functionality, e.g. reduced bandwidth operation, is a desire to optimise the use of the available bandwidth for communicating with such devices, for example using multicast techniques.

Telecommunications apparatus and methods


A relay is formed by a magnet system containing a wound coil body, an L-shaped core arranged axially therein, an L-shaped armature and a base element with terminal elements. Stationary and moving contact elements are arranged between the base element and the magnet system. The armature is mounted with the free end of its transverse leg at the free end of the longitudinal leg of the core. The armature is secured through a U-shaped armature spring wrapping around the armature. The spring is secured with one arm at the longitudinal leg of the armature and a second arm is inserted in a recess between the coil body and the core. The actuation of the moving contact elements is provided via a slide coupled to the armature. This slide is hooked to the armature by spring tabs of the armature spring at opposing sides of the armature through snap latches formed at the ends of the side arms of the slide.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electromagnetic relays and more particularly to electromagnetic relays including a coil with coil body and wending; an L-shaped core whose longitudinal leg is arranged axially in the coil body and whose transverse leg lies perpendicular thereto at a first face of the coil; an L-shaped armature which forms an air gap with one end opposite a first end of the core, and which is mounted with its other end at the second end of the core such that, given a closed air gap, core and armature approximately form a rectangle, wherein a magnet system is formed by coil, core and armature; a basic element of insulating material which is connected with the magnet system at the side of the coil opposite the armature and in which the basic element includes at least one stationary contact element and at least one contact spring that cooperates therewith as a moving contact element and wherein the contact elements are respectively connected to terminal elements; and a slide transferring the armature motion to the at least one contact spring.


A surface-mounted LC device that includes a substrate having a first surface, multiple inductors formed on the first surface and formed respectively by multiple coiled conductor patterns, a first insulating layer covering the multiple coiled conductor patterns, and a capacitor that is formed on the first insulating layer by a planar electrode. Moreover, the planar electrode covers first zones in which portions of the coiled conductor patterns are adjacent to each other and current directions are opposite to each other in a plan view of the surface-mounted LC device.

Currently, there is a thin film IPD (Integrated Passive Device) in which an inductor and a capacitor are integrally formed on a silicon substrate, an alumina substrate, or the like by a thin film process. Such existing IPD designs are generally disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 (identified below).
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique of, in a step of fabricating a thin film circuit, forming a dielectric film for a thin film capacitor and an interlayer insulating film for a thin film inductor at the same time.
Moreover, Patent Document 2 discloses a technique of constituting a capacitor by successively forming a first electrode layer, a dielectric layer, and a second electrode layer on a substrate, and forming, on the capacitor, a planar inductor that is made up of magnetic films and a coil, thereby ensuring isolation between the capacitor and the inductor.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-53406.
Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-44778.
Because the IPD is a passive component formed by a thin film process, its thickness can be considerably reduced in comparison with thicknesses of passive components that are formed by a thick film process and a sheet multilayer process. However, when the inductor and the capacitor are arranged flush with each other as described in Patent Document 1, for example, it is necessary to increase the substrate area, which therefore unavoidably increases the size of the thin film IPD.
On the other hand, when the capacitor is formed on the substrate and the inductor is formed on the capacitor as in Patent Document 2, the necessary substrate area is reduced, but a capacitor electrode intercepts magnetic flux of the inductor coil in such a structure. Therefore, an eddy current generates in the capacitor electrode, and a Q-value of the inductor deteriorates. Furthermore, because distances from input/output terminals to the capacitor are increased, a parasitic inductance component generates and, particularly, a loss in a radio frequency circuit increases.
In the field of IPDs, an array device including a plurality of assembled inductors is also often demanded for a power supply circuit and a radio frequency circuit in a mobile terminal, for example. However, when a plurality of coil patterns are formed in a saved space, undesired significant coupling may occur among the coil patterns. Moreover, when the IPD is surface-mounted to a printed circuit board, distances between a conductor pattern, such as a ground conductor formed in the printed circuit board, and the coil patterns in the IPD may vary depending on height accuracy of the IPD and the printed circuit board. Accordingly, inductances of the individual inductors may vary in some cases.


A method for reducing acid corrosion and products of acid corrosion in a thermal cracking plant, the acid corrosion products being compounds of iron, chromium, nickel, lead, cadmium, manganese, mercury, magnesium, calcium, sodium, copper, zinc, lead, molybdenum, and aluminum, the improvement comprising introducing ethylene diamine into at least one process stream of the plant.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the control of corrosion and corrosion products in an olefins production plant that employs a hydrocarbon cracking process such as steam cracking in a pyrolysis furnace.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Thermal cracking of hydrocarbons is a petrochemical process that is widely used to produce olefins such as ethylene, propylene, butenes, butadiene, and aromatics such as benzene, toluene, and xylenes.
This process is carried out in a pyrolysis furnace (steam cracker) at pressures in the reaction zone of from about 10 psig to about 30 psig. Pyrolysis furnaces have internally thereof a convection section and a radiant section. Preheating is accomplished in the convection section, while cracking occurs in the radiant section.
Basically, a hydrocarbon feedstock such as naphtha, gas oil or other fractions of whole crude oil, is mixed with steam which serves as a diluent to keep the hydrocarbon molecules separated. The steam/hydrocarbon mixture is preheated in the convection section of the cracking furnace to from about 900° F. to about 1,000° F., then enters the reaction zone (the radiant section of a cracking furnace) where it is very quickly heated to a hydrocarbon cracking temperature in the range of from about 1,450° F. to about 1,550° F.
After severe cracking, the effluent from the pyrolysis furnace contains gaseous hydrocarbons of great variety, e.g., from one to thirty-five carbon atoms per molecule. These gaseous hydrocarbons can be saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated, and can be aliphatic and/or aromatic. The cracked gas also contains significant amounts of molecular hydrogen.
Thus, conventional steam cracking, as carried out in a commercial olefin production plant (olefin plant), employs a fraction of whole crude oil and totally vaporizes that fraction while thermally cracking same. The cracked product can contain, for example, about 1 weight percent (wt. %) molecular hydrogen, about 10 wt. % methane, about 25 wt. % ethylene, and about 17 wt. % propylene, all wt. % being based on the total weight of the cracked product, with the remainder consisting mostly of other hydrocarbon molecules having from 4 to 35 carbon atoms per molecule.
The cracked product is then processed in the olefin plant to produce, as products of the plant, various separate individual streams of high purity such as molecular hydrogen, ethylene, propylene, mixed hydrocarbons having four carbon atoms per molecule, and pyrolysis gasoline. Each separate individual stream aforesaid is a valuable commercial product in its own right.
Thus, an olefin plant takes a part (fraction) of a whole crude oil stream and, through complex and thorough processing of same, generates a plurality of separate, valuable products therefrom.
In addition to these valuable products, the pyrolysis process can produce small amounts of undesirable byproducts which can cause deleterious effects to the process, plant equipment, or both.
One class of chemicals in this category is acids, both organic and inorganic. For various reasons and purposes, acids are introduced into the process, or are made in the process itself, or otherwise find their way into various process streams within an olefin plant. They can cause corrosion problems since the equipment and piping in an olefin plant is largely composed of carbon steel.
For example, acetic acid can be found in various streams in an olefin plant. The acetic acid reacts with iron in carbon steel pipe and equipment thus forming iron acetate and causing corrosion of the carbon steel. The iron acetate is relatively stable and moves on in the olefin plant without causing further damage to the plant until it encounters some oxygen, for example as found in some pyrolysis gasoline (pygas) streams, particularly mixed pygas and C5 streams from an olefin plant that cracks light hydrocarbon feeds. When the iron acetate encounters molecular oxygen, the oxygen destabilizes the iron acetate and breaks it down to ferric oxide and acetic acid, thereby releasing fresh acetic acid to cause additional corrosion in other parts of the olefin plant that are formed of carbon steel by forming more iron acetate. Such a corrosion-acid regeneration-corrosion cycle can go on in many locations throughout an olefin plant.
Iron acetate, for example, dissolves in either a water phase it encounters, or a hydrocarbon phase, or both phases if present. Thus, it will find oxygen in any phase by which to generate fresh acetic acid for additional iron corrosion.
It is desirable to neutralize acids that are coursing through an olefin plant. This is not an easy task.
Many salts can be made of the acids to neutralize same, but it is difficult to find one that will be stable under the various conditions existing in an olefin plant. For example, ammonia could be used to neutralize the aforesaid acetic acid, but ammonium acetate, although more stable than iron acetate in the presence of oxygen still breaks down under certain thermal conditions or certain acidic conditions to free up fresh acetic acid. Under basic conditions ammonia is generated. None of this is desirable in an olefin plant.
Thus, it is highly desirable to have a means by which acids can be neutralized in a stable manner under the varying conditions found in an olefin plant and that will not adversely affect operations in the olefin plant.

Corrosion control in olefin production plants


An Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM) memory cell and a method of operation are disclosed for creating an EEPROM memory cell in a standard CMOS process. A single polysilicon layer is used in combination with lightly doped MOS capacitors. The lightly doped capacitors employed in the EEPROM memory cell can be asymmetrical in design. Asymmetrical capacitors reduce area. Further capacitance variation caused by inversion can also be reduced by using multiple control capacitors. In addition, the use of multiple tunneling capacitors provides the benefit of customized tunneling paths.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the field of memory cells, and specifically to a single-poly memory cell fabricated in a standard CMOS process flow.
2. Description of Related Art
One of the recent developments in Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM) cells has been the use of a single polysilicon deposition process to form a link between a control capacitor, a tunneling capacitor and an EEPROM Field Effect Transistor (FET). Because there may be no direct electrical connections to the single-poly layer, it is referred to as a 'floating gate'. The floating gate also forms the gate of the EEPROM FET. Before the use of a single poly layer, an EEPROM cell was typically constructed from two poly layers. One such dual-poly EEPROM cell 100a is illustrated in FIG. 1a. A goal of the dual-poly EEPROM cell is to tunnel electrons through the tunneling capacitor 102 onto the floating gate 112. By way of capacitive coupling, a voltage potential 110 is applied to the top plate connection 106 of the control capacitor 108 and this applied voltage is realized across the tunneling capacitor 102 and the FET gate capacitance 104. The applied potential will cause electrons, via Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling, to tunnel through the tunneling capacitor 102 and onto the floating gate 112. Electrons are removed in a similar way but with an opposite applied potential across the tunneling capacitor 102.
FIG. 1b is a schematic drawing of the control capacitor 108, tunneling capacitor 102, and FET gate capacitor 104 drawn in the cross-section of FIG. 1a. In order for a significant amount of applied voltage to be distributed across the tunneling capacitor 102, the capacitance of the control capacitor 108 should be much larger than the sum of the tunneling capacitor 102 and FET gate capacitor 104. The output voltage across the tunneling capacitor is calculated as:
      V    FG    =                    C        C                              C          C                +                  C          T                +                  C          G                      ·          V      IN      When Cc>>(CT+CG) this simplifies to:
            V      FG        ≈                            C          C                          C          C                    ·              V        IN              =      V    IN  and essentially very little of the applied voltage is lost across the control capacitor 108.
A goal of single-poly memory cells is to operate in the same manner as a dual-poly EEPROM cell, but to lessen additional processing steps outside the process flow of standard CMOS processing. Thus far, however, this goal may not be completely realized. For example, FIG. 2 is a cross section of a typical single-poly EEPROM cell 200. The dual polysilicon stack is eliminated and a single poly layer 212 connects the tunneling 102, FET gate 104, and control 208 capacitors. In addition, the control capacitor 208 is constructed from an n+ well 214 and a thin oxide layer is grown on the well. In this example, the single-poly EEPROM cell 200 is easier to manufacture in standard CMOS processing because it may be manufactured with only one polysilicon deposition step and fewer overall fabrication steps. However, this particular single-poly EEPROM may not be completely manufacturable with a standard CMOS process flow in that it requires additional fabrication steps to support the oxide on top of the n+ diffusion 214 that forms part of the control capacitor 208.
In the above example, the n+ diffusion 214 provides contact to the bottom plate of the control capacitor and eliminates the voltage dependency of the control capacitor 208. Typically, the control capacitor oxide is grown from the n+ diffusion 214 to ensure quality oxide that provides good electrical insulation. That is, the control capacitor oxide does not easily allow charge stored on the single poly layer 212 to leak away. Given that it is desirable to have the control capacitance much larger than the capacitance of other capacitors connected to the single poly layer, the thickness of the oxide of the control capacitor is usually less than or equal to the thickness of the oxide of the tunneling or FET capacitor. The need for thin oxide grown on a heavily doped (n+) region implies additional processing that is beyond the scope of the standard CMOS process. Therefore, one object of the present application is to provide a single-poly memory device that is constructible in a standard CMOS processing flow.

Single-poly EEPROM cell with lightly doped MOS capacitors


A system is provided for measuring a head during a lapping process. First provided is a wafer including at least one head each having an electrical lapping guide (ELG), a plurality of wafer contacts in electrical communication with the ELG, and a closure formed thereon defining a slot in which the wafer contacts are positioned. Also included is a lapping cable coupled to a testing device. The lapping cable includes a plurality of lapping cable contacts. An adapter includes a plurality of adapter contacts in electrical communication with the lapping cable contacts. The adapter contacts are removably positionable in electrical communication with the wafer contacts for measuring the head during a lapping process.

Conventional recording heads for linear tape drives have small transducers incorporated into a large head assembly to span the full width of the tape. For recording heads fabricated using thin film wafer technology, this requires that the head either be fabricated individually on a wafer which is at least as wide as the recording tape and lapped individually to the proper shape, or be fabricated as a small part and assembled with larger pieces. In the second case, either the small parts or the full assembly is lapped to the proper shape.
Prior art FIG. 1 illustrates a wafer 100 on which a plurality of heads 102 may be manufactured. It should be noted that the wafer 100 is set forth for illustrative purposes only and the exact configuration of the wafer 100 may vary per the desires of the user. As shown, the wafer 100 includes two columns of multiple rows of heads 102. During the fabrication of the wafer 100, an array of heads 102 including transducers and auxiliary circuits are fabricated on a common substrate in a deposition of metallic and non-metallic layers. The auxiliary circuits are sometimes referred to as electrical lapping guides (ELGs). Patterning of the array of transducers and ELGs is accomplished using photolithography in combination with etching and lift-off processes. The finished array or wafer is then optically and electrically inspected and subsequently cut into smaller arrays of heads 102. Next, individual heads 102 are machined, at a surface 106 which will eventually face the recording medium, to obtain a desired read transducer height (sometimes referred to as the stripe height (SH) and a desired inductive transducer height (sometimes referred to as the throat height (TH).
During the manufacturing process, the surface 106 of each head 102 is lapped before being removed from the wafer 100. Such lapping reduces the height of the transducers. The primary function of the ELG(s) is to control the machining process such that the desired transducer height is achieved. After a particular row of transducers is machined to the desired transducer height as controlled by the ELG(s), the heads 102 are cut from the wafer 100. During this process, the ELG(s) can be destroyed if desired.
Typically, each ELG includes one or two resistors which are fabricated in the deposition of layers along with the transducers of the heads 102. A very simple ELG design has one resistor which is aligned with a transducer such that the machining process reduces the height of both the transducer and the resistor at the same time. The resistance of the machined resistor is monitored to determine when the desired height of the transducer has been achieved so that the machining process can be halted at this point.
In order to carry out the foregoing process utilizing the ELGs, an electrical connection must be established between the ELGs and a testing device. This is conventionally accomplished by way of a plurality of contacts 110 formed on each of the heads 102.
Prior art FIG. 2A is top plan view of a lapping cable 200 which is traditionally employed to connect a testing device to the contacts 110 formed on each of the heads 102. It should be noted that the lapping cable 200 is set forth for illustrative purposes only and the exact configuration of the lapping cable 200 may vary per the desires of the user. As shown, the lapping cable 200 is formed from a thin resilient material having a rectangular configuration. Such lapping cable 200 includes a plurality of wires 202 embedded therein which terminate at exposed planar contact pads 204 that are adapted to remain in electrical communication with the contacts 110 formed on each of the heads 102 during the lapping process. Prior art FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view of the lapping cable 200 taken along line 2B-2B of FIG. 2A showing the planarity of the contact pads 204.
While the lapping cable 200 of FIG. 2A works well with the prior art wafers 100 of FIG. 1, difficulty arises when used with wafers having rows of closures formed thereon.
Prior art FIG. 3 illustrates a wafer 300 including a plurality of strips of closures 302 attached thereto. Such closures 302 define a plurality of slots 304 in which the aforementioned contacts 306 associated with the ELGs reside. Such closures 302 have recently become a common part of wafer processing in view of the benefits they afford in resultant heads. More information on the manufacture and use of closures 302 and the related benefits may be found with reference to U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,883,770 and 5,905,613 which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
While such closures 302 of FIG. 3 afford various benefits, they cause complications in the lapping process. In particular, it is impossible for the contact pads 204 of the lapping cable 200 of FIGS. 2A & 2B to make contact with the contacts 306 positioned between the closures 302 of the wafer 300 of FIG. 3.
There is thus a need for an apparatus and method for affording electrical communication between a lapping cable and the contacts of a wafer during the lapping process associated with thin-film head manufacture involving closures.

Apparatus including pin adapter for air bearing surface (ABS) lapping

International Business Machines Corporation


A fuel injector includes an injector body which accommodates a pole piece of a solenoid actuator. A top portion of the injector body includes a cylindrically formed generally open-ended recessed portion. The recessed portions accommodates a generally cylindrical pole piece, wherein the pole piece includes a bore located along a central axis to provide a fuel flow path. The top portion of the pole piece includes a cylindrically formed recess so as to form a sleeve or lip portion.

Typically pole pieces of fuel injectors are press fitted into a recess (providing a fuel passage) in an injector body. One development path to improve (e.g. gasoline engine) fuel injector performance is to increase the system pressure in fuel injectors. This requires high structural resistance of the injector pressure vessel and as well as structural integrity for the retention of the pole piece which is maintained in position by a press-fit.
This press-fit decreases with the increase of the internal pressure. The interference area of the press-fit cannot be increased more since the insertion force and the material strength limits are finite. The insertion force of the pole piece into the injector body has to be limited, and pole piece retention has to be ensured under pressure with a material with weaker mechanical properties but with higher magnetic performance.
Any welding process to assembly the pole piece to the upper housing generates the weakest point of the injector in regards to the internal pressure.
It is an object of the invention to provide a design and method of pole piece retention which allows increased pressure application and which also overcomes the aforementioned problems.

Pole piece retention and insertion method


A fuel cell includes a fuel cell stack, a buffer, an actuator, and a control circuit. The control circuit controls the operation of the actuator according to a reference value of a reference volume of fuel disposed in the buffer. The fuel cell is operated by measuring a value corresponding to a volume of fuel disposed in the buffer, comparing the value with a reference value, and operating the actuator according to a result of the comparison.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to a fuel cell, and more particularly, to a fuel cell having an actuator control unit and a method of operating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A fuel cell system is an apparatus that generates energy using fuel such as methanol. The fuel cell system generally includes a fuel cell and a cartridge. The fuel cell is an electricity generation device that generates electrical energy by reacting hydrogen from a fuel and oxygen from the air. The cartridge is a fuel tank that supplies the fuel to the fuel cell.
FIG. 1 illustrates the structure of a conventional fuel cell system SS1. Referring to FIG. 1, a fuel cell 10 includes a fuel cell stack 10A, a buffer 10B, and an actuator 10C. The fuel cell stack 10A generates electricity and includes a plurality of unit cells. The actuator 10C delivers fuel from the cartridge 12 to the buffer 10B. When the cartridge 12, which supplies fuel to the actuator 10C, is regarded as primary fuel storage of the fuel cell system SS1, the buffer 10B can be secondary fuel storage. The buffer 10B temporarily stores the fuel supplied by the actuator 10C and supplies an amount of the fuel to meet the needs of the fuel cell stack 10A. Since the amount of fuel instantaneously used by a load on the fuel cell system SS1 is variable, the amount of fuel consumed by the fuel cell stack 10A varies. The buffer 10B supplies the fuel to the fuel cell stack 10A corresponding to the amount of fuel consumption of the fuel cell stack 10A, which varies at each moment.
The fuel amount consumed by the fuel cell stack 10A can be greater than the amount of fuel supplied from the actuator 10C to the buffer 10B. In other words, the amount of fuel output from the buffer 10B can be greater than the amount of fuel input to the buffer 10B. As the buffer 10B is used as the secondary fuel storage, the buffer 10B is able to compensate when the amount of fuel output from the buffer 10B is greater than the amount of fuel input to the buffer 10B for a period of time.
However, when the amount of fuel output from the buffer 10B is continuously greater than the amount of fuel input to the buffer 10B, even when the buffer 10B is regarded as the secondary fuel storage, the buffer 10B may not be able to provide a necessary amount of fuel to the fuel cell stack 10A. In such a case, the buffer 10B may run out of fuel to supply to the fuel cell stack 10A and portions of the buffer 10B may become dry.
In contrast, the amount of fuel consumed by the fuel cell stack 10A and supplied from the buffer 10B can be less than the amount of fuel input to the buffer 10B. If such a case is not continuous or not continuous for an extended period of time, the buffer 10B can compensate if the buffer 10B is not full so that the buffer 10B has fuel storage capacity to accept the greater input of fuel than output. However, when the buffer 10B is completely filled with fuel, the amount of fuel input from the actuator 10C to the buffer 10B is supplied to the fuel cell stack 10A, resulting in the fuel being excessively supplied to the fuel cell stack 10A.
When the fuel cell system SS1 is in an off state, the fuel remaining in the fuel cell stack 10A continuously reacts. As a result, the performance of the fuel cell stack 10a may be degraded. Furthermore, when the fuel cell system is turned off in a state in which the fuel cell stack 10A is excessively filled with fuel, the degradation of performance of the fuel cell stack 10A can be more serious. This leads to a decreased efficiency and a lower fuel utilization of the fuel cell system SS1.

Fuel cell having actuator controlling unit and method of operating the same


An exemplary cable connector plug (20) includes a contact (21) and an insulator (25). The first contact includes a contact portion (210) and an extension portion (211) extending from the contact portion along an axis of the cable connector plug. The first contact further includes a hooking portion (2115) provided at the extension portion. The insulator surrounds the hooking portion, and is lockingly engaged with the hooking portion such that when the extension portion is moved along an axis of the cable connector plug, the first insulator correspondingly moves in unison with the extension portion. The cable connector plug has good mechanical strength and stability.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical connector plugs, and more particularly to a cable connector plug used in a connector for transmitting audio signals or other signals.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
FIG. 5 is a side cross-sectional view of a conventional cable connector plug 10. The cable connector plug 10 includes a first metallic contact 11, a second metallic contact 12, a third metallic contact 13, a fourth metallic contact 14, and a plurality of insulators 15. The metallic contacts 11, 12, 13, 14 are electrical conductors, and are insulated from each other by the insulators 15.
The first contact 11 includes a contact portion 110, an extension portion 111 extending rearwardly from the contact portion 110 along an axis of the cable connector plug 10, and a rear portion 112 extending rearwardly from the extension portion 111. The extension portion 111 includes a first shaft portion 1111, a neck portion 1112, and a second shaft portion 1113. The neck portion 1112 interconnects the first shaft portion 111 and the second shaft portion 1113.
The second and third contacts 12, 13 respectively include an annular contact portion 120, 130, a cylindrical extension portion 121, 131 extending rearwardly from the contact portion 120, 130, and a rear portion 122, 132 extending rearwardly from the extension portion 121, 131. The fourth contact 14 includes a cylindrical contact portion 140, an annular extension portion 141 extending rearwardly from the contact portion 140, and a rear portion 142 extending from the extension portion 141. The extension portions 111, 121, 131, 141 of the first, second, third, and fourth contacts 11, 12, 13, 14 are coaxially arranged in that order from an inside to an outside of the cable connector plug 10. Accordingly, diameters of the extension portions 111, 121, 131, 141 increase in that sequence. The contact portions 110, 120, 130, 140 of the contacts 11, 12, 13, 14 are insulated from each other by a plurality of annular insulating ring portions (not labeled) of the insulators 15. The extension portions 111, 121, 131, 141 of the contacts 11, 12, 13, 14 are insulated from each other by a plurality of cylindrical portions (not labeled) of the insulators 15.
The rear portion 112 of the first contact 11 extends rearwardly beyond the insulators 15 for soldering with a first wire (not shown) of a cable (not shown). A rearmost part of the rear portion 122 of the second contact 12 is exposed for soldering with a second wire (not shown) of the cable. The other part of the rear portion 122 of the second contact 12 is embedded between the corresponding insulators 15. A rearmost part of the rear portion 132 of the third contact 13 is exposed for soldering with a third wire (not shown) of the cable. The other part of the rear portion 132 of the third contact 13 is embedded between the corresponding insulators 15. The rear portion 142 of the fourth contact 14 extends perpendicularly outward from the insulator 15 that is between the third and fourth contacts 13, 14, and is for soldering with a fourth wire (not shown) of the cable.
Generally, a diameter of the first shaft portion 1111 is greater than that of the second shaft portion 1113. A shape of the neck portion 1112 is a conical frustum having an end at the first shaft portion 1111 and an opposite end at the second shaft portion 1113. When the cable connector plug 10 is pulled out of a mating socket (not shown) of a housing (not shown) of a complementary connector (not shown), the first contact 11 is liable to become detached from the adjoining insulator 15. When this happens, the cable connector plug 10 may become loosened or even break apart.
What is needed, therefore, is a new cable connector plug that can overcome the above-described shortcomings.

Cable connector plug having contact with hooking portion

Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd.


The present invention relates to mutant strains of Bradyrhizobium japonicum that are characterized in an increased nitrogen fixation rate and an altered molybdenum metabolism. The mutant strains require higher levels of molybdate than wild-type Bradyrhizobium japonicum for expression of nitrate reductase activity. In addition, the mutant strains express free-living nitrogenase activity in medium treated to remove molybdate, where the wild-type require molybdate supplementation.

Studies on nodulated soybean plants have indicated that the lack of molybdenum (Mo) can limit biological N.sub.2 fixation, as Mo supplementation can increase the rate of symbiotic N.sub.2 fixation (see references 4, 11, 14, 16 identified hereinafter). The abundance of Mo in the earth's crust is only at an average concentration of about 15 .mu.moles/Kg (22). Accordingly, it is unlikely that soil organisms such as legumes and their associated "root nodule" bacteria will commonly encounter high levels of Mo. Specific high affinity systems for Mo-sequestering would, therefore, be useful, especially in acidic soil environments where Mo is not readily available to the organism, and it would seem likely that N.sub.2 -fixing bacteria possess efficient mechanisms for scavenging trace levels of Mo.
High affinity molybdate sequestering processes have been described for N.sub.2 -fixing Klebsiella pneumoniae (12, 13, 25), Clostridium pasteruianum (5), and free-living (20), and bacteroid forms of B. japonicum (17). From these studies, it is clear that many N.sub.2 -fixing bacteria, even wild type Bradyrhizobium japonicum harbored in root nodules of soybean, have excellent Mo-sequestering abilities. Some nitrogenase systems are independent of the need for Mo (15), but it is not yet known if this is true for N.sub.2 -fixing systems of any of the rhizobia.
The metabolic processes between Mo sequestering and insertion into nitrogenase apparently involve several steps (10, 13, 25), including internalization from the free molybdate pool, and the synthesis of intermediates such as the iron molybdenum cofactor (25, 27). Studies thus far have implicated several Mo-binding intermediates prior to Mo bound in nitrogenase for several N.sub.2 -fixing bacteria (10, 21, 25) and at least 5 genes have been assigned roles in intracellular Mo metabolism in K. pneumoniae (13, 24-26). Most and perhaps all of these Mo-metabolizing genes are present in the symbiotic N.sub.2 -fixing bacterium B. japonicum as well (2, 26). For B. japonicum bacteroids, Mo is taken up by a high affinity process that is dependent on a transmembrane proton gradient (17). The Mo that is taken up by bacteroid suspensions in 1 min. is tightly associated with the cell, as most of it is not exchangeable with a 100-fold greater amount of exogenously-added Mo (17).
Mutants of B. japonicum in Mo metabolism and free-living N.sub.2 -fixation have previously been isolated (20). Some of the mutant strains appeared to be deficient in early Mo metabolism steps (such as binding Mo extracellularly) and other strains in later, presumably intracellular, Mo metabolism processes. Even though the phenotype of the mutants with respect to N.sub.2 -fixation was the primary interest, all of the mutants were isolated on the basis of the ability of added Mo to restore the activity of nitrate reductase, another Mo-containing enzyme.

Mutant strain of Bradyrhizobium japonicum


In a conventional semiconductor device, for example, a MOS transistor, there is a problem that a parasitic transistor is prone to be operated due to an impurity concentration in a back gate region and a shape of diffusion thereof. In a semiconductor device of the present invention, for example, a MOS transistor, a P type diffusion layer 5 as the back gate region, and an N type diffusion layer 8 as a drain region, are formed in an N type epitaxial layer 4. In the P type diffusion layer 5, an N type diffusion layer 7 as a source region and a P type diffusion layer 6 are formed. The P type diffusion layer 6 is formed by performing ion implantation twice so as to correspond to a shape of a contact hole 15. Moreover, impurity concentrations in surface and deep portions of the P type diffusion layer 6 are controlled. By use of this structure, a device size is reduced, and an operation of a parasitic NPN transistor is suppressed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device which realizes reduction in a device size and prevents an operation of a parasitic transistor, and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional semiconductor device, an N type drain well region and a P type back gate region are formed on a surface of a silicon substrate. Moreover, in the drain well region, a high-concentration N type drain region is formed. Meanwhile, in the back gate region, an N type source region is formed. On the surface of the silicon substrate between the drain region and the source region, a gate electrode is formed. Furthermore, in the back gate region, a P type diffusion layer connected to a source electrode is formed. Thus, an N-channel MOSFET is formed. By use of this structure, the back gate region and the source region are maintained to have the same potential. Thus, an operation of a parasitic NPN transistor is suppressed. This technology is described for instance in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-119019, pp. 6 to 7 and FIGS. 1 to 3.
In a conventional method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, an N type diffusion layer used as a drain region, a P type diffusion layer used as a back gate region, and an N type diffusion layer used as a source region are formed by ion implantation after an oxide film is formed on a substrate surface in a MOSFET formation region. Thereafter, depending on the need, in the P type diffusion layer used as the back gate region and the N type diffusion layer used as the source region, a P type diffusion layer connected to the source electrode are formed by ion implantation. Subsequently, the source electrode is formed so as to be connected to the N type diffusion layer used as the source region and the P type diffusion layer used as the back gate region. As a result, the P type diffusion layer used as the back gate region and the N type diffusion layer used as the source region are set to have the same potential. Thus, the operation of the parasitic NPN transistor is suppressed. This technology is described for instance in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 9 (1997)-139438, pp. 5 to 6 and FIGS. 4 to 6.
As described above, in the conventional semiconductor device, a contact hole for the source electrode is formed after the source region and the P type diffusion layer which suppresses the operation of the parasitic transistor are formed in the back gate region. Thus, the source electrode is connected to the P type diffusion layer and the source region through the contact hole. By use of this structure, when the contact hole is formed, mask misalignment at the time of formation of the P type diffusion layer and mask misalignment at the time of formation of the contact hole are taken into consideration. Thus, a width of the contact hole is increased. As a result, there is a problem that it is difficult to reduce a device size.
Moreover, in the conventional semiconductor device, the P type diffusion layer is formed in the back gate region in order to suppress the operation of the parasitic NPN transistor in the N-channel MOSFET device. However, since the P type diffusion layer is formed by a thermal diffusion step, a formation region in a deep portion of the back gate region is reduced. By use of this structure, there is a problem that it is difficult to reduce a resistance value in the deep portion of the back gate region and to suppress the operation of the parasitic NPN transistor. Meanwhile, in the case where the P type diffusion layer is formed across a large area in the deep portion of the back gate region, thermal diffusion time is increased. Thus, it is required to take account of lateral diffusion. In this case, there is a problem that the device size is increased more than necessary.
Furthermore, in the conventional method for manufacturing the semiconductor device, the P type diffusion layer is formed in the back gate region in order to suppress the operation of the parasitic NPN transistor in the N-channel MOSFET device. In this event, in order to reduce a resistance value of the back gate region and to reduce a base resistance value of the parasitic NPN transistor, a P type diffusion layer having a high impurity concentration is formed. However, mask misalignment at the time of formation of the P type diffusion layer may cause the P type diffusion layer to be formed in a region where a channel is formed below the gate electrode. In this case, the operation of the parasitic NPN transistor can be suppressed. However, there is a problem that a threshold (Vth) of the MOSFET is modulated.
In addition, in the conventional method for manufacturing the semiconductor device, after the back gate region of the MOSFET is formed in the silicon substrate and the source region and the P type diffusion layers of the MOSFET are formed in the back gate region of the silicon substrate, an insulating layer is formed on the silicon substrate. Subsequently, after contact holes are formed in the insulating layer by use of a heretofore known photolithography technology, the source electrode and the like are formed. By use of this manufacturing method, when the contact hole for the source electrode is formed, it is required to take account of mask misalignment at the time of formation of the P type diffusion layers in addition to mask misalignment with respect to the P type diffusion layers. For this reason, the width of the contact hole for the source electrode is increased. As a result, there is a problem that it is difficult to reduce the device size.

Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof


An improved method and system for transmitting a stream of data bytes through a channel whose capacity may change during transmission. By utilization of selective regions of sequence number space, the enhanced radio link protocol (RLP) provides the benefits of large byte sequence numbers while transmitting a fraction of the sequence number bits in the majority of over-the-air frames. Frame header sequence numbers are shortened by dividing the byte sequence number by a page size, and by performing a modulo function on the byte sequence number.

I. Field of the Invention
II. Description of the Related Art
The use of code division multiple access (CDMA) modulation techniques is one of several techniques for facilitating communications in which a large number of system users are present. Other multiple access communication system techniques, such as time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA) and AM modulation schemes such as amplitude companded single sideband (ACSSB) are known in the art. These techniques have been standardized to facilitate interoperation between equipment manufactured by different companies. Code division multiple access communications systems have been standardized in the United States in Telecommunications Industry Association TIA/EIA/IS-95-B, entitled "MOBILE STATION-BASE STATION COMPATIBILITY STANDARD FOR DUAL-MODE WIDEBAND SPREAD SPECTRUM CELLULAR SYSTEMS", incorporated by reference herein, and hereinafter referred to as IS-95.
IS-95 was originally optimized for transmission of variable-rate voice frames. In order to support two-way voice communications, as typified in wireless phone applications, it is desirable that a communication system provide fairly constant and minimal data delay. For this reason, IS-95 systems are designed with powerful forward error correction (FEC) protocols and vocoders which are designed to respond gracefully to voice frame errors. Error control protocols which require frame retransmission procedures add unacceptable delays to voice transmission, so are not designed into the IS-95 specification.
The optimizations which make the standalone IS-95 specification ideal for voice applications make it difficult to use for packet data applications. In many non-voice applications, such as the transmission of Internet protocol (IP) data, the delay requirements of the communication system are much less stringent than in voice applications. In the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), probably the most prevalent of protocols used in an IP network, virtually infinite transmission delays are allowed in order to guarantee error-free transmission. TCP uses retransmissions of IP datagrams, as IP packets are commonly called, to provide this transport reliability.
IP datagrams are generally too large to fit into a single IS-95 frame. Even after dividing an IP datagram into segments small enough to fit into a series of IS-95 frames, an entire series of IS-95 frames would have to be received without error for the single IP datagram to be useful to TCP. The frame error rate typical of an IS-95 system make the probability of error-free reception of all segments of a single datagram very low.
As described in IS-95, alternative service options enable the transmission of other types of data may in lieu of voice frames. The TIA/EIA/IS-707-A, entitled "DATA SERVICE OPTIONS FOR SPREAD SPECTRUM SYSTEMS", hereafter referred to as IS-707, describes procedures used in the transmission of packet data in an IS-95 system.
Radio Link Protocol (RLP) is described in TIA/EIA/IS-707-A.8, entitled "DATA SERVICE OPTIONS FOR SPREAD SPECTRUM SYSTEMS: RADIO LINK PROTOCOL TYPE 2", hereinafter referred to as RLP2, and incorporated herein by reference. RLP2 incorporates an error control protocol with frame retransmission procedures over the IS-95 frame layer. RLP is of a class of error control protocols known NAK-based ARQ protocols, which are well known in the art. The IS-707 RLP, facilitates the transmission of a byte-stream, rather than a series of voice frames, through an IS-95 communication system.
Several protocol layers typically reside above the RLP layer. IP datagrams, for example, are typically converted into a Point-To-Point Protocol (PPP) byte stream before being presented as a byte stream to the RLP protocol layer. As the RLP layer ignores the protocol and framing of higher protocol layers, the stream of data transported by RLP is said to be a "featureless byte stream".
RLP was originally designed to satisfy the requirements of sending large frames through an IS-95 channel. For example, if an IP datagram of 500 bytes were to be simply sent in IS-95 frames carrying 20 bytes each, the IP datagram would fill 25 consecutive IS-95 frames. Without some kind of error control layer, all 25 of these frames would have to be received without error in order for the IP datagram to be useful to higher protocol layers. On an IS-95 channel having a 1% frame error rate, the effective error rate of the IP datagram delivery would be (1−(0.99)25), or 22%. This is a very high error rate compared to most networks used to carry Internet Protocol traffic. RLP was designed as a link layer protocol which would decrease the error rate of IP traffic to be comparable to the error rate typical of a 10Base2 ethernet channel.
The International Telecommunications Union recently requested the submission of proposed methods for providing high rate data and high-quality speech services over wireless communication channels. A first of these proposals was issued by the Telecommunications Industry Association, entitled "The cdma2000 ITU-R RTT Candidate Submission", and hereinafter referred to as cdma2000. A second of these proposals was issued by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), entitled "The ETSI UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) ITU-R RTT Candidate Submission", also known as "wideband CDMA" and hereinafter referred to as W-CDMA. A third proposal was submitted by U.S. TG 8/1 entitled "The UWC-136 Candidate Submission", hereinafter referred to as EDGE. The contents of these submissions is public record and is well known in the art.
RLP2 is optimized for use with IS-95B, in which the rate set, derived from channel capacity, used during a packet data call remains essentially fixed for the duration of the call. Based on this assumption of fixed rate sets, RLP2 is designed with the assumption that retransmitted RLP frames can be sent within a maximum of three consecutive RLP segments. The probability that one of three segments is lost, causing the loss of a retransmitted RLP frame, has been deemed acceptable by the designers of RLP2.
In cdma2000, however, the channel capacity available to a single user, and hence the maximum data rate used during a packet data call, can vary widely and rapidly. For example, during the course of a single cdma2000 call, the supplemental channel capacity used by a packet data service option may vary from 9.6 kilo-bits per second (kbps) to more than 307 kbps. In a simple extension of the RLP2, the maximum number of segments used during retransmissions could be increased as necessary to accommodate the change in data rates. Because the capacity of a call channel may diminish during a call, a full-rate frame transmitted unsuccessfully at a high rate might span 30 or more consecutive lower-rate-set cdma2000 segments. The high likelihood that one or more of those cdma2000 segments makes such a simple extension of the RLP2 largely impractical for use with cdma2000.
RLP2 has been optimized to require minimal protocol overhead space over the two IS-95 rate sets, known as Rate Set 1 (RS1) and Rate Set 2 (RS2). The RLP frame sequence numbers in RLP2 are 8 bits long, a size which is ideal for computer processing. Since the rate sets specified in cdma2000 include RS1 and RS2, it would be highly desirable for an RLP designed for cdma2000 (RLP2000) to be at least as efficient as RLP2 when used at RS1 and RS2. Because switching RLP protocols whenever the rate set changes would add complexity to RLP2000, it is desirable that a single RLP2000 protocol efficiently support RS1, RS2, and all the higher cdma2000 data rates without requiring resynchronization or substantial protocol complexity.
Another problem that arises in using RLP2 on a high-data-rate channel is transmit sequence number ambiguity. Though the sender and receiver in an RLP2 link maintain 12-bit RLP sequence numbers, all data-bearing frames carry only the least-significant 8 bits of their sequence numbers. The number of sequence-number bits contained in over-the-air RLP frames determines the number of outstanding frames that can be unambiguously tracked by the receiver of the data. The sequence number space within such a block of outstanding frames is often referred to in the art as a "sliding window." In RLP2, each 8-bit over-the-air sequence number can be used to unambiguously identify one 12-bit sequence number, and hence one data frame, within a window of 256 consecutive sequence numbers. Any frame whose 12-bit sequence number falls outside the sliding window will have a counterpart within the sliding window whose 12-bit sequence number has the same least-significant 8 bits. The receiver of both of these data frames will be unable to tell the frames apart from each other.
In older versions of the IS-95 protocol (earlier than IS-95B), one data frame is transmitted every 20 milliseconds (50 per second), and the 8-bit RLP sequence number space spans approximately 5 seconds of consecutive data frames. On such a channel, a deep fade lasting longer than 5 seconds could cause the loss of more than 255 consecutive data frames. As a result, the 8-bit RLP sequence numbers would "wrap-around" and can cause ambiguity for new-data frames and for retransmit frames containing 8-bit shortened sequence numbers. With older IS-95 implementations, the wrap-around problem does not occur, because a 5-second fade causes the call to drop entirely. Whenever RLP performs a reset, data in the RLP byte stream is lost.
Newer protocols such as IS-95B, however, allow sending multiple frames in a single 20-millisecond period. This makes it possible to exhaust the over-the-air sequence numbers in a much shorter fade. For example, in IS-95B, which allows sending eight frames per 20-millisecond period, an 8-bit sequence number window can be exhausted in 640 milliseconds. In RLP2, which is designed for use with IS-95B, RLP performs a reset whenever 255 consecutive received frames are classified as erasures. Thus, a deep fade on an RLP2 link which lasts as little as 640 milliseconds may cause an RLP reset, along with its associated data loss.
As discussed in the aforementioned RLP2 and all existing RLP implementations, three variables are maintained at either side of an RLP protocol link. These variables are V(R), V(N) and V(S). As discussed in the RLP standards, V(R) contains the expected value of the RLP frame sequence number field in the next new traffic channel frame to be received. V(N) contains the sequence number of the next needed traffic channel frame not received in sequence. The sequence number field 'SEQ' in each new RLP data frame sent and in each RLP idle frame sent shall be set to V(S). Each of the variables V(R), V(N) and V(S) are the shortened (8-bit), over-the-air versions of the full (12-bit) sequence numbers L_V(R), L_V(N) and L_V(S) also maintained at either side of an RLP protocol link.
RLP is a NAK-based protocol, which means that a sender continues to send new data until it receives a NAK. Since a deep fade often causes the loss of packets in both directions of a channel, a deep fade can cause the loss of both data frames sent in one direction and the corresponding NAK frames in the other direction. The same problem can occur whether frame sequence numbers or byte sequence numbers are used, because a minimal number of bits are used in over-the-air sequence numbers in either method. A deep fade that causes the loss of a large number of sequential frames can cause sequence number wrap-around with either sequence number scheme.
Thus, a method of resolving sequence number ambiguity that is simple, efficient and does not significantly add to over-the-air sequence number overhead is highly desirable.

Radio link protocol enhancements for dynamic capacity wireless data channels


A method and an apparatus of identifying welding seams of a welding object. The method includes identifying intersection lines between geometrical bodies of the welding object in a three-dimensional model for the welding object, based on geometry of the geometrical bodies to form a collection of welding seams for the welding object. The method also includes eliminating hidden seams from the collection of welding seams for the welding object based on overlapping relationship among the welding seams to form a candidate seam list. Welding seams can be identified automatically and efficiently, and the method or the apparatus makes the automatic programming of the welding robot possible and thus facilitates use of a robot in welding huge and complex structures manufactured in a small batch.

Nowadays, robots are wildly used in many fields such as welding, assembling, conveying, paint spraying, laser machining, etc. A welding robot can perform welding operations automatically in a predetermined way in accordance with the robot program. In shipbuilding industry, for example, a small-type steel ship usually has 100 thousands of welds to millions of welds, which means a large amount of workloads. However, currently, the automation level of welding in shipbuilding is still rather low and it will require a great deal of manpower to perform welding operations on the ship. The main barrier of using a robot in this industry lies in that robot programming is not only time consuming but also very complex. Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide a solution of facilitate use of a robot in such a complex situation.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus of identifying welding seams of a welding object


In an embodiment, a magneto-dielectric material comprises a polymer matrix; a plurality of hexaferrite microfibers; wherein the magneto-dielectric material has a permeability of 2.5 to 7, or 2.5 to 5 in an x-direction parallel to a broad surface of the magneto-dielectric material and a magnetic loss tangent of less than or equal to 0.03; as determined at 1 GHz, or 1 to 2 GHz.

The present disclosure relates generally to a magneto-dielectric material comprising hexaferrite fibers, methods of making, and uses thereof.
Newer designs and manufacturing techniques have driven electronic components to increasingly smaller dimensions, for example, components such as inductors on electronic integrated circuit chips, electronic circuits, electronic packages, modules, and housings, and antennas. One approach to reducing electronic component size has been the use of magneto-dielectric materials as substrates. In particular, ferrites, ferroelectrics, and multiferroics have been widely studied as functional materials with enhanced microwave properties. However, these materials are not entirely satisfactory, in that they may not provide the desired bandwidth or they exhibit a high magnetic loss at high frequencies such as in the gigahertz range.
There accordingly remains a need in the art for a magneto-dielectric material with a low magnetic loss in the gigahertz range.

Magneto-dielectric material comprising hexaferrite fibers, methods of making, and uses thereof


A process for preparing articles having a fluorocarbonsulfonic ionomer layer, such as membranes and catalysts, is disclosed wherein the fluorocarbonsulfonic ionomer is deposited upon support using an new annealing process. The annealing process of the present invention includes the step of heating a fluorocarbonsulfonic ionomer coated substrate in the presence of a vaporous solvent. This process provides for fluorocarbonsulfonic ionomer coated articles which can be annealed quickly at temperatures below the degradation point of many desirable support materials.

This invention relates to a process for depositing fluorocarbonsulfonic ionomers on a support. This invention particularly relates to a process for preparing fluorocarbonsulfonic ionomer membranes and catalysts.
Fluorocarbonsulfonic ionomers are polymers that are substantially fluorinated and have pendant chains containing sulfonic acid or salt groups. Fluorocarbonsulfonic acid polymers are an important class of fluorocarbonsulfonic ionomers. These ionomers are normally produced by copolymerization of a fluorocarbonsulfonyl fluoride polymer precursor, followed by conversion to the ionomer. Methods for the production of monomers, the polymerization and the conversion are well known in the art of preparing polymers.
Fluorocarbonsulfonic ionomers are known to be useful as ion exchange media as well as for preparing gas separation membranes, fuel cell membranes, electrodes, and chlor-alkali membranes. Fluorocarbonsulfonic acid polymers are very strong acids and are also known to be useful as strong acid catalysts. In catalytic uses, fluorocarbonsulfonic acid polymers are known to catalyze many different reactions: hydration of olefins and epoxides, dehydration of alcohols, alkylation and acylation of paraffins, and the like.
It is known in the art to prepare fluorocarbonsulfonic ionomer articles by several methods. For example, thermoplastic sulfonyl fluoride polymer can be extruded into tubing and converted to the sulfonic ionomer form. But extrusion is not always an advantageous method of preparing such articles. Equipment for extrusion can be both expensive and difficult to handle. In addition, the mechanical properties of fluorocarbonsulfonic ionomer tubing are such that extruding very thin tubes can be impractical.
Another means of preparing fluorocarbonsulfonic ionomer articles is to melt deposit thermoplastic sulfonyl fluoride polymer onto a support and convert the surface to the sulfonic acid form. This process also requires specialized equipment to form the thermoplastic into the desired shape. For catalytic uses, only the surface is used.
A more preferable means of preparing fluorocarbonsulfonic ionomer articles is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,411 to Martin, et al. Therein it is disclosed that fluorocarbonsulfonic ionomer articles can be prepared by depositing a fluorocarbonsulfonic ionomer onto a substrate from a solution by soaking a substrate with a solution that contains a fluorinated polymer having pendant chains containing sulfonic acid groups, removing the solvent from the mixture, and heating the remaining composition to above the glass transition temperature for a time sufficient to render the ionomer insoluble. This process provides advantages including a greater utilization of the polymer. This process is not without problems. It would be desirable in the art to prepare articles with insoluble ionomer layers prepared by means of a process which is substantially faster and utilizes lower temperatures than conventional processes.

Process for depositing a fluorocarbonsulfonic ionomer on a support and articles prepared therewith


A food baking machine includes a heating device. The heating device includes a lower hot plate on a lower side of the heating device, a rotatable and vertically slidable upper hot plate on an upper side of the heating device, a rotatable connecting member for connecting the lower hot plate and the upper hot plate and a sliding member. The upper hot plate is slidably connected to the connecting member and fixes its position thereunto by the sliding member. The upper hot plate is rotatable connected with the sliding member. The upper hot plate and the lower hot plate are connected to power supply separately. The connecting member includes a first connecting segment, a second connecting segment and an axle. The second connecting segment is rotatable connected to the first connecting segment by the axle.

The existing bread machines, usually called toasters, consist mainly of housing, baking chamber, bread holder, pull-in and lifting/lowering device, power supply and relevant electric circuit. The baking chamber consists of reflector plate, hot plate, separating grid, bread holder, end plate and bottom plate. The reflector plate, hot plate and separating grid are fixed between two end plates and arranged sequentially at both sides of bread holder, which can vertically move upwards and downwards. During operation, bread slices are inserted into the baking chamber, onto the bread holder, which cuts in the power under the action of external force, resulting in a traction by the pull-in device and starting of baking process. The existing hot plates include a number of heating wires. As the slices of bread might be different in thickness, and that hot plates and separating grids are fixed in position, uneven space may exist between slices and hot plates. If a slice is not placed centered and in contact with hot plate, the slice would emit burning smell as it touches the heating wires during baking, thus affecting the taste of sliced bread. And when taking the bread directly from the baking chamber with hand, a contact with the hot plates at both sides of the bread may happen, which causes electric shock accident. On the other hand, due to limited space of baking chamber, other types of food such as sandwich cannot be baked. It restricts the use of the baking machines.

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