The antenna device includes a first antenna 11 that includes a first ground terminal 12; a second antenna 18 that includes a second ground terminal 20; a ground conductor 28 to which the first antenna 11 is connected through the first ground terminal 12 and the second antenna 18 is connected through the second ground terminal 20; and a phase shifter 24 that controls a phase difference between a first current ie1 and a second current ie2. The phase shifter 24 controls the phase difference between the first current ie1 and the second current ie2 so that the first current ie1 and the second current ie2 have components to cancel each other.

in the related art, a monopole antenna having a small size and a simple structure has been widely used as an antenna device of a mobile phone (refer to NPL 1). Hereinafter, an antenna device of a mobile phone that is mounted with the monopole antenna in the related art will be described referring to FIGS. 13(a) and 13(b).
FIGS. 13(a) and 13(b) show an antenna structure of a monopole antenna mounted to a mobile phone and electric current distribution in operation. In FIG. 13(a), a ¼λ monopole antenna 102 is mounted to a printed circuit board 101 of a mobile phone main body through a power supply point 103. In FIGS. 13(a) and 13(b), since the monopole antenna 102 resonates at a desired frequency by an antenna element and an antenna ground and forms a single antenna, a ground current ie over the printed circuit board 101 and the ground according to an antenna current ia flows in the printed circuit board 101, as shown in the figures.
In such a configuration, in terms of the size reduction for the SAR or the electromagnetic wave interference to the hearing aid, the antenna structure shown in FIGS. 13(a) and 13(b) has the following problem. In the ¼ monopole antenna, since the printed circuit board 101 of the mobile phone main body forms the ground, the ground current ie flows in the printed circuit board 101. The ground current intensively flows in the vicinity of the power supply point 103, but the portion where the electric current intensively flows is a portion where a head part is closest to a portion where a speaker 104 is installed. Thus, in the mobile phone mounted with the monopole antenna, it is difficult to reduce the SAR or the electromagnetic wave interference in the hearing aid.

Antenna device and wireless communication apparatus

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.


A method and apparatus for a circuit physically realizing a virtual ground function producing a virtual ground voltage halfway between the supply and common voltages and having improved accuracy and stability is described. A stable bias current source is coupled to a precision resistor voltage divider network, which is used as a voltage reference generator to produce a virtual ground voltage of a precise value. This reference voltage is coupled to an operational amplifier configured in a unity gain configuration. The circuit thus created offers numerous advantages over the virtual ground circuits in use in the prior art. An integrated circuit implementing this circuit is described, and alternative packaging embodiments are disclosed. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in terms of virtual ground circuits used in analog system design and further in connection with an integrated circuit system which implements a convenient virtual ground circuit for use in an analog amplifier circuits using an operational amplifier, as an example.
Heretofore, in the field of single supply circuits in general, there have been several approaches to designing a virtual ground voltage reference which allow an analog circuit, for example an inverting amplifier built around an operation amplifier, to accept as input a signal centered around ground and having both positive and negative values over time, and create an output which reflects the entire waveform without loss of data due to waveform clipping. To prevent the clipping of the input waveform and a resulting loss of data, a virtual ground is required to terminate the input voltage signal and the output load and thus create an output signal which is centered around the virtual ground voltage.
Some typical approaches to designing a virtual ground voltage reference are to create voltage divider circuits using discrete components. These discrete solutions have several drawbacks which disadvantageously affect the circuits in which they are used, including poor load regulation, excessive power dissipation, large circuit board area requirements, and excessive numbers of component requirements. Accordingly, improvements which overcome any or all of these problems are presently desirable.

Rail splitting virtual ground generator for single supply systems


An optical waveguide mounting member for mounting to a substrate is disclosed. The optical waveguide mounting member includes an optical waveguide for transmitting optical signals therethrough and an optical waveguide mounting base material having a through-hole to which the optical waveguide is mounted. The optical waveguide mounting base material is formed of silicon.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an optical waveguide mounting member, a substrate, a semiconductor device, a method of manufacturing an optical waveguide mounting member, and a method of manufacturing a substrate, and more particularly to an optical waveguide mounting member, a substrate, a semiconductor device, a method of manufacturing an optical waveguide mounting member, and a method of manufacturing a substrate for transmitting optic signals to an optical element via an optic fiber.
2. Description of the Related Art
Development of optical communication is advancing along with the increases in speed and size of recent information communication. Ordinarily, in optical communication, electric signals are converted to optical signals, the optical signals are transmitted through an optic fiber, and the received optical signals are converted to electric signals by an optical element having a light emission and/or light reception part (hereinafter referred to as "light emission/reception part). The light emission/reception part is a part for transmitting and receiving optical signals. The optical element includes, for example, a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL), a photodiode (hereinafter referred to as "PD"), and a laser diode (hereinafter referred to as "LD").
In a semiconductor device having a substrate provided with the optical element, a core part of an optic fiber, which is mounted in a through-hole penetrating the substrate, is positioned in a manner facing the light emission/reception part of the optical element.
A conventional semiconductor device 10 including optical elements 15 and 16 is described with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing the semiconductor device 10 having the optical elements 15, 16. The semiconductor device 10 mainly includes a substrate 20, optical elements 15, 16 having light emission/reception parts 15A, 16A, an optical waveguide 17, and mirrors 21, 22.
The substrate 20 mainly includes a resin base material 11, through-holes 12a, 12b, an optic fibers 13, 14, and pads (not shown), wirings (not shown), and solder resist that covers the wirings (not shown). The pads, wirings, and the solder resist are provided on a plane 11A of the resin base material 11. The pads are provided for connecting to solder balls 24, 25 of the optical elements 15, 16. The pads are provided in an exposed state (i.e. not covered by the solder resist).
The through-holes 12a, 12b are formed in the resin base material 11 in a manner penetrating the resin base material 11 by irradiating a laser (e.g. a YAG laser, a CO2 laser, an excimer laser) to the resin base material 11. The through-hole 12a is provided with an optic fiber 13, and the through-hole 12b is provided with an optic fiber 14. The optic fibers 13, 14 include core parts 13a, 14a, and clad parts 13b, 14b that cover the core parts 13a, 14a. Optical signals are transmitted by the core parts 13a, 14a.
The optical element 15, which is provided with the solder ball 24, has the solder ball 24 connected to the pad (not shown) of the substrate 20. Accordingly, optical element 15 is electrically connected to the substrate 20. The optical element 15 is mounted on the substrate 20 in a manner that the light emission/reception part 15A of the optical element 15 faces the core part 13a of the optic fiber 13.
The optical element 16, which is provided with the solder ball 25, has the solder ball 25 connected to the pad (not shown) of the substrate 20. Accordingly, optical element 16 is electrically connected to the substrate 20. The optical element 16 is mounted on the substrate 20 in a manner that the light emission/reception part 16A of the optical element 16 faces the core part 14a of the optic fiber 14.
The mirror 21 is provided at an end part 13B of the optic fiber 13 and the mirror 22 is provided at an end part 14B of the optic fiber 14. The mirrors 21, 22 are provided for enabling optical transmission between the optical waveguide 17 and the optic fibers 13, 14.
The optical waveguide 17 includes a core part 18 and a clad part 19 that covers the periphery of the core part 18. The optical waveguide 17 is provided between the mirror 21 and the mirror 22 for allowing optical signals to be transmitted therethrough (See, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2004-54003).
In the semiconductor 10, it is desirable to reduce deviation between the positions of the core parts 13a, 14a of the optic fibers 13, 14 (mounted in the through-holes 12a, 12b) and the positions of the corresponding light emission/reception parts 15A, 16A facing the core parts 13a, 13b, so that transmission loss between the optic fibers 13, 14 and the light emission/reception parts 15A, 16A can be reduced.
FIG. 2 is a plane view of the substrate 20 having the optic fiber 13 mounted in the through-hole 12a. In FIG. 2, L1 indicates a space formed between the wall of the through-hole 12a (12b) having a diameter R2 and an outer diameter R1 of the optical fiber 13 (14) (hereinafter referred to as "space L1"). However, in the semiconductor device 10, since the through-holes 12a, 12b corresponding to the optic fibers 13, 14 are formed by irradiating a laser (e.g. a YAG laser, a CO2 laser, an excimer laser) to the resin base material 11, it is difficult to form the through-holes 12a, 12b in a precise predetermined position in the resin base material 11, and it is difficult to control the size of the diameters of the through-holes 12a, 12b.
Furthermore, since a large space L1 (e.g. approximately 10 μm) is provided between the wall of the through-hole 12a, 12b having diameter R2 and the optic fiber 13, 14 having outer diameter R1 for enabling attachment between the optic fibers 13, 14 and the through-holes 12a, 12b, the position of the core parts 13a, 14a of the optic fibers 13, 14 attached to the through-holes 12a, 12b tends to deviate from the position of the corresponding light emission/reception parts 15A, 16A. This makes it difficult to reduce transmission loss of optical signals.
Furthermore, even if the position between the core parts 13a, 14a and the light emission/reception parts 15A, 16A is optimized, the resin base material 11 in which the through-holes 12a, 12b are formed may change the position of the optic fibers 13, 14 attached to the through-holes 12a, 12b in a case where thermal deformation (thermal contraction or thermal expansion) of the resin base material 11 occurs when the temperature of the substrate 20 changes. This results in an increase of transmission loss of optical signals.
FIG. 3 shows an example a substrate having optic fibers in a state before being subjected to a polishing process. In FIG. 3, letters "A" and "B" each indicate a part of an optic fiber 36 protruding from a resin base material 331 (hereinafter referred to as "protruding part A" and "protruding part B"). With reference to FIG. 3, the process of polishing the protruding parts A, B is performed after pads 32, 37, wirings 33, 38, and solder resist 34, 39 are formed on both sides of the resin substrate 31. Therefore, the presence of the pads 32, 37, wirings 33, 38, and solder resist 34, 39 formed on both sides of the resin substrate 31 may obstruct the process of polishing the protruding parts A, B. Therefore, it is difficult to polish the protruding parts A, B of the optic fiber 36 with satisfactory precision in a direction perpendicularly intersecting with a plane direction of the resin substrate 31.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Optical waveguide mounting member, substrate, semiconductor device, method of manufacturing optical waveguide mounting member, and method of manufacturing substrate


A multi-word line refresh-type semiconductor device may have a plurality of memory banks and performs a refresh operation simultaneously with respect to a plurality of word lines for each of the banks in a self-refresh mode. The semiconductor device includes an address controller for receiving a normal address and a refresh address and selectively outputting the received refresh address in a refresh mode, a fuse circuit for receiving the refresh address, determining whether the received refresh address corresponds to a word line to be repaired and outputting a redundancy word line enable signal and a first control signal according to a result of the determination, a first signal generator for, in response to a bit value for block selection of the refresh address and the first control signal, outputting a second control signal which defines a multi-word line refresh period, a refresh address generator for generating the refresh address in response to the second control signal, and a row controller for receiving the refresh address, second control signal and redundancy word line enable signal and controlling the refresh operation with respect to a memory core.

1. Technical Field
This patent relates to a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a multi-word line refresh-type semiconductor device for performing a refresh operation simultaneously with respect to a plurality of word lines for each bank in a self-refresh mode.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the advance of wireless communications and the development of various contents, a matter of reduction in power consumption of mobile products has become a very important issue. In this regard, a matter of reduction in refresh current has become one important issue in dynamic random access memories (DRAMs). The refresh operation of a semiconductor device, such as a DRAM, is classified into an auto-refresh type and a self-refresh type. In the refresh operation, the semiconductor device refreshes each word line of a memory core at a certain period appropriate to a refresh retention time of each cell in the memory core according to a given operation type.
A self-refresh mode is an operation mode where, when a system including the DRAM is not operated for a certain time, the DRAM performs the refresh operation by itself for retention of information stored therein. It is therefore preferable that a smaller amount of current is consumed in the self-refresh mode.
Conventionally, the refresh operation is performed with respect to one word line for each bank in the DRAM in the self-refresh mode. Accordingly, whenever the refresh operation is performed, a series of control circuits are operated to activate a corresponding word line and a sense amplifier which drives that word line. For this reason, assuming that 8×1024 word lines are present in each bank, the series of control circuits must be operated 8×1024 times to refresh data in cells connected to all those word lines, resulting in a large amount of operating current being consumed.
In order to solve the above problem, a multi-word line refresh-type semiconductor device has been proposed in which an increased number of word lines, namely, two or more word lines, not one word line, are activated in one refresh operation. That is, in one refresh operation, at least two word lines are refreshed for each bank. As a result, in the proposed semiconductor device, the refresh rate is increased to at least twice that in the above-mentioned method. However, this multi-word line refresh-type semiconductor device has a problem as will be described below.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional multi-word line refresh-type semiconductor device, which is an exemplary semiconductor device for performing a refresh operation simultaneously with respect to two word lines for each bank in a self-refresh mode.
As shown in FIG. 1, in the conventional semiconductor device, one bank is partitioned into an upper block and a lower block, and a row controller 121 and a row controller 122 are separately installed to control the refresh operation with respect to the upper block and lower block, respectively. An upper fuse circuit 111 and a lower fuse circuit 112 are separately installed to receive a refresh address xadd, determine whether the received refresh address xadd corresponds to a word line to be repaired (i.e., a failed word line to be replaced with a redundancy word line), and output a redundancy word line enable signal red_en_h and a redundancy word line enable signal red_en_l according to a result of the determination, respectively.
In the conventional semiconductor device, as shown in FIG. 1, in the self-refresh mode, two word lines whose bit values of the refresh address xadd, except a bit value for block selection (for example, a most significant bit (MSB) value), are the same are selected one by one respectively in the upper block 131 and lower block 132, and the refresh operation is performed simultaneously with respect to the selected two word lines. For example, the refresh operation is performed simultaneously with respect to a word line SWL00_h and a word line SWL00_l. This refresh operation is performed sequentially with respect to up to a word line SWLx_h and a word line SWLx_l. On the other hand, in the case where the refresh address xadd corresponds to a word line to be repaired which is a failed word line to be replaced with a redundancy word line, the upper fuse circuit 111 or lower fuse circuit 112 determines the refresh address xadd to correspond to the word line to be repaired, and then outputs the control signal red_en_h or control signal red_en_l to replace the word line to be repaired with the redundancy word line. Then, the row controller 121 or row controller 122 performs the refresh operation with respect to the redundancy word line in response to the control signal red_en_h or control signal red_en_l. As a result, in this case, redundancy word lines installed respectively in the upper block and lower block in one bank are used for only the corresponding blocks. In other words, the conventional dual word line refresh scheme requires redundancy word lines which are twice as many as those in a single word line refresh scheme which performs the refresh operation with respect to only one word line. For this reason, the conventional semiconductor device has a disadvantage in that the number of redundancy word lines is increased, resulting in an increase in chip area. It is also disadvantageous in that repair efficiency of each redundancy word line is reduced.


A class of biopolymer including sulfur in the form of a thioester in the polymer backbone or a thioether in the polymer side chains has been developed. These are preferably produced by fermentation of bacteria with appropriate sulfur containing substrates, which are incorporated by a broad spectrum polyhydroxyalkanoate (xe2x80x9cPHAxe2x80x9d) polymerase. The sulfur-containing PHAs allow various applications and uses in industry. Representative embodiments of the applications of the sulfur-containing PHAs include their uses in the packaging industry, medicine, pharmacy, agriculture or food industry, as active agents or as coatings, packaging, or carriers.

The present invention is generally in the field of biopolymers, and in particular describes a class of polythioesters which can be produced by bacterial fermentation.
Polymers are the most abundant molecules in living matter. There are seven general classes of biopolymers are distinguished: polynucleotides, polyamides, polysaccharides, polyisoprenes, lignin, polyphosphate and polyhydroxyalkanoates, PHA (Mxc3xcller and Seebach, 1993) (Table 1). Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate), PHB, belongs to the latter class as a wide spread bacterial storage compound and was already observed in 1926 as hydrophobic inclusions in the cytoplasm of Bacillus megaterium (Lemoigne, 1926). Today many genera of bacteria are known to accumulate PHAs as energy and carbon source mostly under restricted growth conditions, e.g. oxygen- or nitrogen-limitation (Anderson and Dawes, 1990; Steinbxc3xcchel, 1991).
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are polymers with repeating hydroxy acid monomeric units. PHAs have been reviewed in several publications, including Byrom, xe2x80x9cMiscellaneous Biomaterials,xe2x80x9d in Biomaterials (D. Byrom, ed.) pp. 333-59 (MacMillan Publishers, London 1991); Hocking and Marchessault, xe2x80x9cBiopolyestersxe2x80x9d in Chemistry and Technology of Biodegradable Polymers (G. J. L. Griffin, ed.) pp. 48-96 (Chapman and Hall, London 1994); Mxc3xcller and Seebach, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl., 32:477-502 (1993); Steinbxc3xcchel, xe2x80x9cPolyhydroxyalkanoic Acids,xe2x80x9d in Biomaterials (D. Byrom, ed.) pp. 123-213 (MacMillan Publishers, London 1991); and Williams and Peoples, CHEMTECH, 26:38-44 (1996).
A wide range of bacteria are known to accumulate polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) as intracellular storage compounds. Due to the properties of these polymers as biodegradable thermoplastics, and elastomers they have attracted much interest and are considered for various technical applications in industry, medicine, agriculture and other areas (Anderson, A. J. and Dawes, E. A., Microbiol. Rev. 54, 450-472 (1990); Steinbxc3xcchel, 1991).
Several types of polyhydroxyalkanoates are formed in nature by various organisms in response to environmental stress. These PHAs can be broadly divided into three groups according to the length of their pendant groups and their respective biosynthetic pathways. Relatively short pendant groups include the C3-5 hydroxy acids, whereas relatively long pendant groups include C6-14 hydroxy acids.
There are three major types of naturally occurring PHAs. The first type includes only relatively short hydroxy acid monomeric units. The second type include both relatively short and relatively long hydroxy acid monomeric units. The third type includes only relatively long hydroxy acid monomeric units. Those with short pendant groups, such as polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), a homopolymer of R-3-hydroxybutyric acid (R-3HB) units, are highly crystalline thermoplastic materials (Lemoigne and Roukhelman, Annales des fermentations, 5:527-36 (1925)). PHAs containing the short R-3HB units randomly polymerized with much longer pendant group hydroxy acid units were first reported in the early seventies (Wallen and Rohwedder, Environ. Sci. Technol., 8:576-79 (1974)). A number of microorganisms which specifically produce copolymers of R-3HB with these longer pendant group hydroxy acid units are also known and belong to this second group (Steinbxc3xcchel and Wiese, Appl. Microbiol Biotechnol., 37:691-97 (1992)). In the early 1980""s, a research group in The Netherlands identified the third group of PHAs, which contains predominantly longer pendant group hydroxy acids (De Smet, et al., J. Bacteriol., 154:870-78 (1983)).
PHAs may constitute up to 90% of the dry cell weight of bacteria, and are found as discrete granules inside the bacterial cells. These PHA granules accumulate in response to nutrient limitation and serve as carbon and energy reserve materials. Distinct pathways are used by microorganisms to produce each group of these polymers. One of these pathways leading to the short pendant group polyhydroxyalkanoates (SPGPHAs) involves three enzymes: thiolase, reductase, and PHB synthase (sometimes called polymerase). Using this pathway, the homopolymer PHB is synthesized by condensation of two molecules of acetyl-Coenzyme A to give acetoacetyl-Coenzyme A, followed by reduction of this intermediate to R-3-hydroxybutyryl-Coenzyme A, and subsequent polymerization. The last enzyme in this pathway, the synthase, has a substrate specificity that can accommodate C3-5 monomeric units, including R-4-hydroxy acid and R-5-hydroxy acid units. This biosynthetic pathway is found, for example, in the bacteria Zoogloea ramigera and Alcaligenes eutrophus.
The biosynthetic pathway which is used to make the third group of PHAs, long pendant group polyhydroxyalkanoates (LPGPHAs), is still partly unknown. However, it is currently thought that the monomeric hydroxyacyl units leading to the LPGPHAs are derived by the xcex1-oxidation of fatty acids and the fatty acid pathway. The R-3-hydroxyacyl-Coenzyme substrates resulting from these routes are then polymerized by PHA synthases (sometimes called polymerases) that have substrate specificities favoring the larger monomeric units in the C6-14 range. LPGPHAs are produced, for example, by Pseudomonads.
The second group of PHAs containing both short R-3HB units and longer pendant group monomers are believed to utilize both the pathways to provide the hydroxy acid monomers. The latter are then polymerized by PHA synthases able to accept these units.
Roughly 100 different types of PHAs have been produced by fermentation methods so far (Steinbxc3xcchel and Valentin, FEMS Microbiol., Lett., 128:219-28 (1995)). A number of these PHAs contain functionalized pendant groups such as esters, double bonds, alkoxy, aromatic, halogens, and hydroxy groups. Transgenic systems for producing PHAs in both microorganism and plants, as well as enzymatic methods for PHA synthesis, are reviewed by Williams and Peoples, CHEMTECH, 26:38-44 (1996).
Two PHAs belonging to the first group, polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and polyhydroxybutyrate-co-valerate (PHBV), have been extensively studied. PHBV is a copolymer of R-3HB units with 5-24% R-3-hydroxyvaleric acid (R-3HV), and is known commercially as Biopol(trademark) (supplied by ICI/Zeneca). These polymers are natural thermoplastics which can be processed using conventional polymer technology and which have industrially useful properties, such as biodegradability in soil and marine environments and good barrier properties. They are characterized by melting points which range from 130 to 180xc2x0 C., and extensions-to-break of 8 to 42% (see Zeneca Promotional Literature, Billingham, UK 1993).
So far, more than 130 different hydroxyalkanoic acids have been described as constituents of PHAs, comprising 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-hydroxyalkanoic acids of various chain length. The pendant alkyl side chain can in addition contain various constituents (for review see Steinbxc3xcchel and Valentin, 1995). Whereas the large variety of PHA constituents refers almost exclusively to the modified side chains in the xcex2-position of the hydroxyalkanoic acids, PHAs with modified backbones are rare. Examples are 2-methyl-3-hydroxybutyric acid and 3-hydroxypivalic acid, which have been identified as PHA constituents resulting in polymer chains with one or two methyl groups, respectively, in the backbone (Satho et al., (1992) Wat. Sci. Technol. 26, 933-942; Fxc3xcchtenbusch et al., (1998) FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 159, 85-92).
Bacteria synthesize PHAs from coenzyme A thioesters of the respective hydroxyalkanoic acid and are able to produce a wide range of different PHAs due to the rather unspecific PHA synthases that catalyze the polymerization reaction. In 1974, 3-hydroxyvaleric acid and 3-hydroxyhexanoic acid were identified as additional constituents of these bacterial polyesters (Wallen and Rohwedder, 1974). Only a few polyesters can be obtained from simple and abundantly available carbon sources, e.g. glucose. The large variety of PHAs comprises 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-hydroxyalkanoic acids of varying chain length, possibly containing additional methyl or other alkyl groups, double bonds, or different substituents at various positions of the hydroxyalkanoic acid and is often based on the feeding of suitable precursor substrates, which exhibit chemical structures related to the PHA constituents (Steinbxc3xcchel and Valentin, 1995).
It is an object of the present invention to provide a class of polyhydroxyalkanoates which include a thioester bond in the polymer backbone or a thioether bond in the polymer side chains.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a means for producing polyhydroxyalkanoates which include a thioester bond or thioether bond.
Biopolymers including sulfur in the form of a thioester in the polymer backbone or a thioether in the polymer side chains have been developed. These are preferably produced by fermentation of bacteria with appropriate sulfur containing substrates, which are incorporated by a broad spectrum PHA polymerase.
As demonstrated by example 1, a hitherto unknown copolymer that contains sulfur in the backbone linking 3-mercaptopropionic acid and 3-hydroxybutyric acid by thioester linkages was synthesized by R. eutropha. Besides proteins and some complex polysaccharides, this is the first demonstration of the biosynthesis of a polymer containing sulfur. The copolymer contributed up to 19% of the cellular dry weight and consisted of up to 43 mol% of 3-mercaptopropionic acid.
As demonstrated by example 2, a hitherto unknown copolymer that contains sulfur in the backbone linking 3-hydroxybutyrate and 3-mercaptobutyrate by thioester linkages was synthesized by the polyhydroxyalkanoate- (PHA) accumulating bacterium R. eutropha, when 3-mercaptobutyric acid was fed as carbon source in addition to gluconate. The chemical structure of this polymer was confirmed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, infrared spectroscopy, 1H- and 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and elemental sulfur analysis.
As demonstrated by example 3, in the presence of PTO in the medium, R. eutropha PHB-4 pBBR1 : phaC 1 synthesized a hitherto unknown polyester including exclusively 3-hydroxypropylthiobutyrate, 3-hydroxypropylthiohexanoate, and 3-hydroxypropylthiooctanoate as polymer constituents, poly(3HPTB-co-3HPTHx-co-3HPTO). Larger amounts of poly(3HPTB-co-3HPTHx-co-3HPTO) can also be produced via biological engineering.
The sulfur-containing PHAs allow various applications and uses in industry. Representative embodiments of the applications of the sulfur-containing PHAs include their uses in the packaging industry, medicine, pharmacy, agriculture or food industry, as active agents or as coatings, packaging, or carriers.
In one preferred embodiment, the sulfur-containing PHAs can be used as an anti-bacterial agent, an anti-viral agent, or an anti-fungal agent. In one most preferred embodiment, the sulfur-containing PHAs can be used as anti-bacterial coatings.
In another preferred embodiment, the sulfur-containing PHAs are used as electrolytes.

Sulfur containing polyhydroxyalkanoate compositions and method of production


The use of an N,N-dimethyl alkylamide or an N-alkanoyl morpholine provides a stable emulsifiable concentrate composition that hinders de-esterification and transesterification of mixtures of a carboxylic acid herbicide and an ester of a different carboxylic acid herbicide. The N,N-dimethyl alkylamide or N-alkanoyl morpholine additionally stabilizes emulsifiable concentrates containing a triazolopyrimidine herbicide having at least one methoxy group on the triazolopyrimidine ring.

To design an agricultural formulation product, the most important question to be answered is its stability. Failure to meet a set of stability requirements which usually depends on the specific market, application and regulations will certainly lead to failure of its commercialization. There are many causes of formulation instabilities, such as a) chemical instabilities due to reactions between ingredients (actives and/or inerts, etc.), photo-degradations, and oxidations, etc., b) physical instabilities due to phase separations (Ostwald ripening, crystallization, sedimentation or creaming etc.) and c) environmental factors (temperature, humidity/moisture, etc.). In today's agrichemical market, it becomes increasingly common to design formulations to contain multiple active ingredients and their required solvents, safeners, and/or adjuvants, etc., in order to achieve the optimal spectrum, efficacy, and delivery efficiency, which consequently makes formulation stability more and more challenging. Therefore, technologies that can effectively isolate, hinder, or eliminate, adverse reactions or interactions between incompatible ingredients are often critical for a successful product.
The emulsifiable concentrate (EC) is one of the most common formulation types for many agricultural products, where mixtures of oil soluble active ingredients and emulsifying agents (surfactants) are dissolved in an organic solvent. The emulsifying agent enables the EC to disperse easily in water, thereby forming a "milky" and homogenous emulsion. Emulsifiable concentrates are generally easy to mix and do not settle out quickly when agitation is stopped, are relatively easy to handle, transport and store, are not abrasive to spray equipment and do not clog spray screens and nozzles and are easy to manufacture. However, many challenges may exist, particularly when a carboxylic acid herbicide is mixed with an ester of a different carboxylic acid herbicide. For example, a composition containing fluoroxypyr meptyl ester and clopyralid free acid has been found to be extremely useful because of the complimentary spectrum of weed control of the individual components. However, in typical emulsifiable concentrate formulations, transesterification to clopyralid meptyl ester and fluoroxypyr free acid can occur. This is problematic from a regulatory perspective because both the free acid and particular ester of both the active herbicidal ingredients may not be registered. Thus it would be desirable to retard such transesterification within the formulation.
In addition, when a triazolopyrimidine herbicide having at least one methoxy group on the triazolopyrimidine ring like florasulam, N-(2,6-difluorophenyl)-8-fluoro-5-methoxy[1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-c]pyrimidine-2-sulfonamide, is incorporated into an emulsifiable concentrate, particularly in admixture with a carboxylic acid herbicide and/or an ester of a carboxylic acid herbicide, it often is degraded to the herbicidally inactive hydroxy analog. Similarly, it would be desirable to prevent such degradation within the formulation.

Stable emulsifiable concentrate formulation


A supporting bracket for windows which can be used on any side of a window and which can be mounted using existing central mount installation tooling is disclosed. The supporting bracket uses dual sided containment of the vent bar end for preventing sash play and uses camming surfaces to allow for immediate sash pull in which prevents weather-strip problems and prevents the supporting bracket from binding during an opening operation. In some embodiments, an end cap engages opposite sides of a symmetric vent bar end. In another embodiment, a pin attached to the vent bar is engaged on opposite sides by a track formed within the main track of the supporting bracket. In all embodiments, the vent bar and the link pivotally connecting the vent bar to the track are prevented from moving in a direction opposite the direction of opening during an opening operation. The arms of the supporting bracket may have fully rounded edges for preventing binding between adjacent arms during load. Also, the vent bar end and corresponding structure for dual sided containment in each embodiment are symmetrically shaped so that the supporting bracket may be utilized on any side of a window.

Supporting brackets of the type disclosed in the present invention are adapted to be employed for the support of casement type windows or projection type windows, that is, for the support of windows to permit their pivotal movement about a vertical axis or a horizontal axis, and are also adapted to be connected between a conventional window frame and window sash, whether these structures be formed of metal, wood, PVC, or other structural material. The brackets are typically arranged to cause the pivotal axis of the window to move to and from the window frame so that when the window is open, both surfaces are accessible from the inner side of the window.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,345,777 to Anderberg et al discloses a supporting bracket which can be used on either the left or right hand side of a window. In actual practice, however, the axes of the various pivot pins are purposely misaligned so that the vent bar is intended to occupy a position parallel to, but laterally offset from, the median line of the track, as is more clearly shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,784,459, also to Anderberg et al. The supporting bracket is disclosed as capable of occupying either one of two such offset positions. This enables the supporting bracket to be mounted at either end of a window frame and sash without requiring the manufacture of "right" and "left" pairs. By disposing the vent bar in a laterally offset position, the various pivotal axes are offset sufficiently that the bar moves freely and easily from its offset superposed position to its various angular positions.
Although the supporting bracket of Anderberg et al may be used on either side of a window, it must be mounted with special notice taken as to the proper misalignment of the vent bar with respect to the track. A supplier of such supporting brackets must provide a manufacturer of window frames with detailed offsetting specifications for locating a bracket with respect to a frame. Specially fabricated frames must then be accordingly drilled to locate the bracket in the left or right position depending on which side of the window the bracket is located. Thus, a two step process is required in which frames must be specially fabricated which can only be used with this specific supporting bracket. If the bracket is mounted such that the vent bar is not offset from the median line of the track, in other words is "in line" with the track, then movement of the hinge at angles to the track becomes difficult, if not impossible. As shown in FIG. 1, the tip of the vent bar tends to bind at the cap member if the vent bar is attempted to be moved in the direction A, caused in part by the vent bar crossing over the centerline of the track member. If movement is at all possible, it must use the compression of the weather-strip rather than the geometry of the cap to allow the window to open. In addition, the ability to laterally offset the vent bar results in insufficient containment of the end of the vent bar in the cap in its home position. The insufficient containment can result in "play" in the home position which can translate into air and water leakage from the weather-strip.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,689,852 and 4,718,144 to Buckley disclose an attempt at solving some of the above-described problems. Buckley discloses the use of a friction supported stay having a cap member and nose member sharing a corresponding asymmetrical shape designed to prevent the displacement of the nose from the cap member typical with heavy windows. Although a stay of this design can utilize window tooling for center mount installation, the stay is what is termed "handed", that is, there must be separately designed stays for the left hand side and the right hand side of a window (or top side and bottom side). This inevitably increases the complexity of installation. In addition, the stay of Buckley requires that the nose member be made of a plastics material and be riveted onto the bar. The cap member is also made of a plastics material and riveted onto the track. The application of a separate nose member increases the time to manufacture the stay, and thus increases the cost per stay. In addition, it has been found by some installers that the separately riveted nose member may on occasion become snagged on the cap member if the window is not closed properly.
Thus, there is a need for a supporting bracket or stay which can be used on either side of a window. There is further a need for a supporting bracket or stay which can utilize center mount installation on both sides of a window. There is further a need for a supporting bracket or stay which opens and closes smoothly without binding at the cap member or between the arms of the supporting bracket. There is further a need for a supporting bracket or stay which prevents any sash play. There is further a need for supporting bracket or stay which utilizes the geometry of the hinge to open and close the window rather than depending on the compression of the weather-strip which could create weather strip problems such as rolling over.

Non-handed in-line window supporting bracket


Operations as a variable resistor are favorably realized even when a drain-source voltage of a variable MOS resistor and that of a reference MOS resistor are not the same. A gate voltage of the variable MOS resistor is controlled with reference to a gate voltage which is controlled such that a voltage generated in the reference MOS resistor is controlled to be the same as a reference voltage. A resistor is connected in parallel with the reference MOS resistor between the drain and source thereof, the resistor including a pair of resistors having the same resistance connected in series. Half of a drain-source voltage of the reference MOS resistor is detected at an intermediate point of the pair of resistors. The gate voltage of the variable resistor is obtained by subtracting one-half of the drain-source voltage from the gate voltage of the reference MOS resistor.

The present invention relates to a resistor circuit for controlling the resistance to be desirable, and more particularly to a resistor circuit for variably controlling a MOS resistor by controlling the gate voltage of a MOS transistor.
In more detail, the present invention relates to a resistor circuit in which a reference resistor circuit employing a MOS resistor is disposed, which controls the gate voltage of a MOS such that a voltage generated in the reference resistor circuit is controlled to be the same as a reference voltage (that is, a resistance of the reference resistor circuit is controlled to be constant), and controls the gate voltage of a MOS in a variable resistor circuit including a MOS resistor with reference to the gate voltage of the MOS in the reference resistor circuit in order to follow the resistance of the MOS resistor in the reference resistor circuit. In particular, the present invention relates to a resistor circuit for realizing operations for allowing a variable MOS resistor to follow a reference MOS resistor in terms of the resistance even in the case where the drain-source voltage of the variable MOS resistor and that of the reference MOS resistor are not the same.
A large number of transistor elements having functions including switching, oscillating, amplifying, and the like are implemented in a semiconductor integrated circuit (IC). A transistor with a MOS structure which has three layers including a metal layer, a silicon oxide film layer, and a silicon semiconductor layer may be indicated as a representative example of field-effect transistors (FETs). A MOSFET employing an n-type semiconductor substrate is called a PMOS. A MOSFET employing a p-type semiconductor substrate is called an nMOS.
A field-effect transistor has three electrodes including the source, the drain, and the gate. A MOS transistor has current-voltage characteristics in which a channel is generated on a substrate surface between the source region and the drain region, and a drain current Id flows if a gate voltage Vgs is increased to be greater than or equal to a threshold voltage Vth in a state where the source electrode and a substrate electrode are grounded and a constant voltage Vds is applied to the drain electrode. The MOS transistor can be treated as a resistor unit having a MOS resistor R=Vds/Id by utilizing such characteristics.
Here, the drain current Id and the drain-source voltage Vds at a triode region of the MOS are expressed by Eq. (1) given below (for example, see Non-Patent Document 1).
                              I          d                =                  μ                                                                          C            OX                                                        W              L                                                  [                                                                    (                                                                  V                        gs                                            -                                              V                        th                                                              )                                                                          V                    ds                                                  -                                                      1                    2                                                                          V                    ds                    2                                                              ]                                                          (        1        )
Here, if the drain-source voltage Vds is sufficiently small and Vds<<2(Vgs−Vth) is assumed, the drain current Id can be approximated by using Expression (2) given below.
                              I          d                ≈                  μ                                                                          C            OX                                          W            L                                          (                                          V                gs                            -                              V                th                                      )                                          V            ds                                              (        2        )
Therefore, the MOS resistor R=Vds/Id at the triode region is expressed by Eq. (3) given below with the use of the approximate expression. The MOS resistor R in this case does not depend on the drain-source voltage Vds, and the resistance can be controlled by the gate voltage Vgs.
                    R        =                                            V              ds                                      I              d                                =                      1                          μ                                                                                C                OX                                                          W                L                                                          (                                                      V                    gs                                    -                                      V                    th                                                  )                                                                        (        3        )
In contrast, if the condition Vds<<2(Vgs−Vth) is not satisfied, the MOS resistor R depends on the drain-source voltage Vds, and thereby the MOS resistor R is expressed by Eq. (4) given below. In this case, only the gate voltage Vgs can no longer control the MOS resistor.
                    R        =                                            V              ds                                      I              d                                =                      1                          μ                                                                                C                OX                                                          W                L                                                          (                                                      V                    gs                                    -                                      V                    th                                    -                                                            1                      2                                                                                V                      ds                                                                      )                                                                        (        4        )
Here, it is necessary that the drain-source voltage Vds decrease or the gate voltage Vgs increase in order to satisfy the approximate condition Vds<<2(Vgs−Vth) for MOS resistors. It is necessary that the resistance decrease or a current of the resistor circuit decrease in order to decrease the drain-source voltage Vds; however, disadvantages occur in terms of resistance-precision. Moreover, if the gate voltage Vgs is maintained large, it is difficult to realize a variable resistance which can be varied over a wide range since the gate voltage Vgs cannot be changed by a large amount. Therefore, the use of MOS resistors according to the approximate expression given by Eq. (3) has technical problems.
In addition, MOS resistors have other technical problems of element-to-element variation and sensitiveness to temperature. Thus, the following design method is widely employed. The method includes disposing a reference resistor circuit which employs a MOS resistor, controlling the gate voltage of a MOS such that a voltage generated in the reference resistor circuit is controlled to be the same as a reference voltage, that is, the resistance of the reference resistor circuit is controlled to be constant, and controlling the gate voltage of a MOS in a variable resistor circuit including a MOS resistor with reference to the gate voltage of the MOS in the reference resistor circuit.
For example, a variable resistor circuit described in Patent Document 1 is configured such that each of the MOS resistors is controlled to have the same resistance by providing the gate voltage of a transistor M1 serving as a variable MOS resistor to a transistor M2 serving as a reference MOS resistor. In the variable resistor circuit, the drain-source voltage generated in the transistor 2 serving as the reference MOS resistor is input to a positive terminal of an OP amplifier 7, and the voltage applied to a resistor Re is input to a negative terminal thereof. The gate voltage of the transistor M2 is controlled such that no potential difference between these voltages exists, and thereby the resistance of the reference MOS resistor is controlled to be the same as Re (for example, see FIG. 1 of Patent Document 1).
In the variable resistor circuit including such a reference MOS resistor and a variable MOS resistor, it is necessary to detect the potential Vds between the drain and source of the reference MOS resistor by causing a drain-source current Id to flow since it is necessary to control the resistance of the reference MOS resistor.
However, if Vds becomes large due to supply of the drain-source current Id, the approximate expression such as Expression (2) no longer holds. Therefore, Eq. (3) cannot be satisfied. In this case, MOS resistors become affected by the drain-source voltage Vds; however, the same drain-source voltage is not generated at the reference MOS resistor and the variable MOS resistor on every occasion. Thus, the variable MOS resistor is not guaranteed to have the same resistance as that of the reference MOS resistor even if the same gate voltage as that of the reference MOS resistor is applied to the variable MOS resistor. That is, desired operational characteristics cannot be obtained for the variable resistor circuit.
In addition, it is necessary that the drain-source voltage Vds of both of the MOS resistors be the same in order to improve resistance-following capability for the variable MOS resistor against the reference MOS resistor. In this case, it is necessary to cause a current to flow through the variable MOS resistor; however, there are disadvantages in terms of distortion, power consumption, and an output voltage in a low-voltage operation. Moreover, in the case where, for example, the resistor is employed as a load of a differential amplifier, it is often desired that no potential for the drain-source voltage Vds exist in the variable MOS resistor.
[Patent document 1]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-204247, FIG. 1.
[Non-Patent Document 1]
Behzad Razavi, "Analog CMOS Shuseki-kairo no Sekkei Kiso-hen".


An airbag system for elevating the fuselage of an aircraft off a landing surface a sufficient degree to allow for emergency egress of passengers and crew through ventral emergency exit doors. An airbag assembly made up of a plurality of independent airbags is disposed within the aircraft. When activated, the airbag system deploys the airbags external of the aircraft that elevate the fuselage of the aircraft a sufficient degree to allow for utilizing the ventral emergency exit doors on the fuselage to enable evacuating the passengers and crew. An activation mechanism is connected to the inflation.devices associated with each of the airbags. The activation mechanism generates an electrical signal which activates the inflation devices, which in turn fill the airbags with a compressed fluid, thus expanding the airbags and lifting the fuselage. A crew member initiates the activation of the airbag system through one or more switches.

The present invention relates generally to airbags used for lifting vehicles and more particularly to an airbag adopted for elevating of the body of an aircraft in order to facilitate an emergency egress of passengers from the aircraft.
It is essential on any transport aircraft that, in the event of a ground emergency, the crew and passengers are able to exit the aircraft in a very short period of time. The Federal Aviation Administration (FM) requires the complete evacuation of a commercial transport within specific time limits. The problem of emergency egress of an aircraft is compounded when, due to a malfunction of the landing gear, or the aircraft fuselage coming to rest in an abnormal position after an emergency landing, certain emergency exit doors cannot be effectively utilized because of the proximity of the fuselage to the ground. This potential problem is specifically relevant to aircraft utilizing a rear ventral emergency exit, such as aircraft with a blended wing-body design.
In a blended wing-body aircraft, emergency exit doors on the rear underside of the aircraft fuselage are designed to allow emergency egress of passengers and crew when the aircraft is supported above the ground by the landing gear. If the landing gear does not deploy fully or is damaged or is otherwise ineffective in elevating the aircraft fuselage, the ventral exit doors may be unusable because of the insufficient ground clearance of the fuselage relative to the ground. This is especially significant if the ventral exit doors open outward and are blocked from opening due to the proximity of the ground. However, even if opening the ventral exit doors is not an issue, clearance is needed to permit deployment of emergency exit devices such as slides or simply allow for the physical movement of persons through the ventral exit doorways. This situation can be resolved if a system can be provided to raise the aircraft to a level above the ground where the exit doors can be effectively utilized to allow expedient egress of passengers and crew.
Therefore, there is a need for a system that will temporarily elevate a fuselage of an aircraft off the landing surface to permit rapid evacuation of crew and passengers through the emergency exit doors of the aircraft in the event of a ground emergency.
A specific object of the invention is to provide a system that can provide clearance for effectively utilizing rear ventral exit doors by elevating the fuselage of the aircraft to allow adequate ground clearance to open and exit the rear ventral exit doors in the event of an emergency landing situation where the landing gear has not adequately deployed to elevate the fuselage of the aircraft.
For blended wing-body aircraft, it is another object of the invention to provide a system for allowing access to emergency exits and allowing passengers egress through exit doors in an expeditious manner after an emergency landing. It is yet another object of the invention to provide a system for blended wing-body aircraft that will allow for the installation of emergency exits near or along the lower surface and aft of the aircraft, without the risk of such exits being unusable due to a landing gear malfunction, damage or other ineffectiveness in elevating the aircraft upon landing.
The present invention is directed to an emergency airbag system for use with an aircraft. The system provides an airbag disposed within the aircraft that when activated deploys the airbag external to the fuselage of the aircraft for the purpose of elevating the fuselage of the aircraft. This ensures that emergency exit doors on the underside of fuselage have sufficient clearance to be utilized, despite the failure of the landing gear of the aircraft adequately elevate the aircraft, creating a situation where there would otherwise be insufficient clearance to use the emergency exit doors. The airbag is advantageously stowed within the aircraft to reduce aerodynamic drag caused by other systems designed to elevate the aft fuselage of an aircraft.
The invention makes use of an activation system which is connected to the airbag for the purpose of deploying the airbag. The activation system, in one preferred embodiment, includes a chemical cartridge that burns or rapidly changes form from a solid to a gas when ignited by an electrical signal. In an alternative embodiment, the activation system includes a fluid reservoir for storing a pressurized fluid that can be released into the airbag causing it to expand.
The activation system includes a switching system to prevent the deployment of the airbag in certain situations such as when the aircraft is in flight or when the landing gear is adequately extended. The switching system controls the application of power from an electrical power source that is also connected to the gas generating charge intended for deploying the airbag.
In operation, a flight attendant or crew member of the aircraft determines the necessity of deployment of the airbag system. Once the decision is made to deploy the system, the system is deployed by initiating the activation mechanism that inflates the airbags. Once the airbags are inflated, it provides clearance at the rear (i.e., aft) area of the aircraft by lifting the aft end of the fuselage a sufficient height off of the ground to allow the utilization of an emergency exit door for egress of passengers and crew members.
The aircraft emergency airbag system of the present invention may also be deployed in a manner to prevent the sinking of an aircraft in an emergency water landing (ditching) incident. Inflation of one or more of the airbags after such an incident would significantly improve the survivability of the crew and passengers by keeping the cabin above the water level and preventing the aircraft from sinking.
Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

Airbag system and method for facilitating emergency egress from an aircraft


A single step electrical/mechanical connection process utilizes an adhesive layer (3 or 26) that is patterned on a substrate (1 or 21) to mechanically connect adjacent substrates in a multilayered structure (28) or to connect a pin (2) assembly to a device (5). In a preferred embodiment, the adhesive layer (3 or 26) and substrate (1 or 21) are made from materials which will undergo transesterification under heat and pressure to create a very strong bond therebetween. The adhesive layer (3 or 26) is positioned around and does not cover the solder (4) in the pin connector assembly or the alignment holes (24) in the molding/sheet (21), thereby allowing bonding metallurgy to make positive electrical connections between pins (2) and pads (6) and adjacent spheres (22) in a multilayered structure (28).

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is generally related to a process used in the fabrication of electrical components wherein electrical connections and mechanical connections are formed in the components in a single step.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For the past several years, efforts have been made to miniaturize electrical components such as circuit boards, semiconductor substrates and chips, ceramic packages, etc. A popular technique has been to create multilayered devices where each layer can contain circuit patterns and circuit devices. The circuit patterns and circuit devices on individual layers are interconnected by electrically conducting vias which pass through the individual layers. As miniaturization has progressed, fabricating the multilayered structures has become more complex, and circuitry and circuit devices have become increasingly more dense. A practical problem in creating multilayered devices which function properly is to assure that the layers remain connected together mechanically and that the circuitry and electrical components in the various layers remain connected electrically. Furthermore, connecting pins and other mechanical connectors to the connection pads on the multilayered devices has proved difficult because of the close spacing between the pads which results from dense circuitry.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,648,179 to Bhattacharyya et al. discloses a process for making a multilayered structure with interconnected electronic circuitry. Specifically, Bhattacharyya et al. disclose the fabrication of decal-like interconnection structures which include a central polymeric film, a circuit pattern formed on one surface of the polymeric film, metal filled vias created through the polymeric film connected to selected components of the circuit pattern, and a partially cured polymeric film located on the opposite surface of the polymeric film from the circuit pattern. The partially cured polymeric film is selectively removed from via areas to expose bonding metallurgy. The decal-like interconnection structures are then placed adjacent a substrate, such as a chip or the like, or adjacent other decal-like interconnection structures, with the exposed bonding metallurgy of the metal filled vias aligned with pads or circuitry of the adjacent substrate or decal-like interconnection structure. The entire package is then subjected to heat and compression to simultaneously form metal-to-metal, film-to-film, and film-to-substrate bonds. The polymeric films of the decal-like layers are directly bonded together by curing of the partially cured adhesive layer under temperature and pressure conditions in the press, and the finished structure resembles a thick polymeric film with circuitry positioned at varying levels within the film.
Japanese Application J6 0072-663-A discloses the use of solder balls to interconnect two printed circuit boards (PCBs). A protective sheet with a plurality of holes is positioned on a first PCB and solder balls with diameters larger than the holes are deposited in the holes in the protective sheet. A second PCB is then aligned with solder balls and electrically connected to the first PCB by applying heat to the combined structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,308 to Yamashita et al. discloses methods of manufacturing multilayered PCBs. In a particular method, individual layers are formed which include an overcoating of a partially cured polymer resin and solder bumps protruding through the overcoating. The solder bumps are formed on circuitry underneath the overcoating. The individual layers are subsequently compressed together and, through heat and pressure, the solder bumps and overcoatings on adjacent layers fuse together to create a polymer interlayer between adjacent layers with metal filled vias formed from the solder balls passing through the interlayer. Yamashita et al. also shows that the vias in the interlayer can be created from solder bumps that do not protrude through the overcoating on the individual layers which are used initially.

Single step electrical/mechanical connection process for connecting I/O pins and creating multilayer structures

International Business Machines Corporation


A method of manufacturing a cold plate includes forming a fluid circuit on a build surface in a layer-by-layer fashion from a build material. The fluid circuit includes a plurality of peripheral walls, each of the plurality of peripheral walls at least partially defining a primary channel, a longitudinally one of the peripheral walls being formed to include apertures configured to permit excess build material to pass therethrough. A central wall of the fluid circuit at least partially defines the primary channel and a plurality of secondary channels fluidly connected to the primary channel. The method further includes removing excess build material through the apertures.

The present disclosure relates generally to cold plates, and more particularly, to methods of designing and manufacturing a cold plate fluid circuit with branching channels.
Many thermal management systems use cold plates to cool heat-generating electronics. Most cold plates are designed to pass a single fluid across the plate to absorb waste heat from associated electronics. Various standard designs include u-turns or other circuitous internal fluid channels that may also include fins. Current design processes and manufacturing methods limit the complexity of cold plate designs, thus limiting thermal transfer capabilities. New design methods are desirable for improving thermal transfer and flow performance across the cold plate.

Cold plate design features amenable for additive manufacturing powder removal


Systems, methods, and apparatus for reducing antenna multipath and Rayleigh fading are disclosed. In one or more embodiments, a disclosed method for reducing multipath and Rayleigh fading for an antenna comprises receiving, by a structure, at least one undesired electromagnetic (EM) signal. In one or more embodiments, the structure is mounted proximate the antenna. In at least one embodiment, the structure comprises absorber material and/or reflective material. In one or more embodiments, the antenna is mounted on top of the structure. In at least one embodiment, the structure further comprises a core, where the core is covered by the absorber material and/or the reflective material. In at least one embodiment, the core is in the shape of a sphere, a hemisphere, at least a portion of a sphere, an ellipsoid, a torus, a pyramid, a cube, a cuboid, a cylinder, a cone, a polyhedron, or a freeform shape.

Receive antennas, both terrestrial and in space, commonly experience multipath and Rayleigh fading. Multipath is a propagation phenomenon that results from undesired signals reaching a receive antenna by two or more paths. Causes of multipath include, but are not limited to, atmospheric ducting, ionospheric reflection and refraction, and reflection from bodies of water and objects, such as buildings, mountains, structures, and the ground. Multipath causes multipath interference (including constructive and destructive interference) and phase shifting of the desired signal. Destructive interference, in particular, causes signal fading, where magnitudes of the undesired signals have a distribution known as a Rayleigh distribution, which is commonly referred to as Rayleigh fading.
Currently, to combat multipath and Rayleigh fading, expensive and complicated solutions are implemented, such as diversity techniques, channel coding, and equalization techniques. There is therefore a need for an improved technique for reducing antenna multipath and Rayleigh fading that is cost effective and easy to implement.

Reducing antenna multipath and Rayleigh fading


The invention relates to a distributed amplifier for wide band hyperfrequency signals of the type comprising:. a plurality of basic amplifying cells (C.sub.1 to C.sub.n) mounted in series, with at least one common drain line (Ld) and at least one common grid line (Lg), each cell comprising at least one field effect transistor (T.sub.1) which is common-source mounted and filtering elements, PA1 first biasing means for applying a first biasing voltage (Vd) to the common drain line, and PA1 second biasing means for applying a second biasing voltage to the common grid line. According to the main feature of the invention, the first biasing means comprise a plurality of auxiliary field effect transistors (T'.sub.1 to T'.sub.n) functioning in saturable load mode and whose respective sources (S'.sub.1 to S'.sub.n) are distributively connected up to the common drain line (Ld) and whose respective drains (D'.sub.1 to D'.sub.n) receive in series the first biasing voltage (Vd).

Generally, a distributed amplifier comprises a plurality of basic amplifying cells, mounted in series with at least one common drain line and one common grid line. Each basic amplifying cell comprises at least one field effect transistor which is common-source mounted and connected to the common drain line by its drain and to the common grid line by its grid.
The correct functioning of a field effect transistor requires the application of a first d.c. biasing voltage to its drain, on the one hand, and the application of a second d.c. biasing voltage to its grid on the other hand. In a distributed amplifier, the common drain line receives the first biasing voltage whilst the common grid line receives the second biasing voltage.
Sometimes, layouts use basic amplifying cells mounted in series with two common grid lines and one common drain line, each comprising several field effect transistors.
The basic requirements for the correct functioning of a distributed amplifier for wide band hyperfrequency signals relate to the filtering of the biasing circuits. These biasing circuits must in fact allow the d.c. biasing currents or voltages to pass but isolate the hyperfrequency power.
Most often, this filtering is carried out through the terminal resistors of the common grid and drain lines which can be coupled in series with a decoupling capacitor.
The filtering of the biasing of the common grid lines through their terminal resistor coupled in series with a decoupling capacitor is satisfactory insofar as the d.c. grid current is low and no voltage drop appears in the terminal grid resistors.
On the other hand, the filtering of the biasing of the common drain lines through their terminal resistor coupled in series with a decoupling capacitor is not suitable insofar as the d.c. drain current is high (for example 500 milliamperes for a distributed power amplifier of the order of 1 watt), which results in biasing voltage drops of the order of 25 volts for terminal drain resistors of value of the order of 50 ohms, and in consequence in a rise in the biasing voltage up to values not usually used in the field of integrated circuits.
The other disadvantages of the filtering of the biasing circuits through terminal grid or drain resistors are the large energy losses which occur around the said terminal resistors and the use of wide conductors occupying a lot of space on the semiconducting disc and which are necessary to bear the totality of the d.c. drain biasing current crossing the section of the common drain line which is connected up to the terminal drain resistor.
The filtering of the biasing circuits may also be carried out through reactive elements possibly coupled in parallel through a capacitor connected to earth. This type of filtering is satisfactory in the case of hybrid integrated circuits or discretely mounted field effect transistors.
On the other hand, in microwave monolithic integrated circuit technology, reactive elements are not suitable either when they are constructed in in-chip integrated form, or when they are constructed outside the said chip.
In fact, the filtering of the biasing circuits through reactive elements has the disadvantage of downgrading the performance levels of the distributed amplifier, in particular its impedance matching insofar as the reactive filtering elements may exhibit a disturbing natural resonance phenomenon, more particularly when a wide band distributed amplifier having a band of the order of 40 gigahertz is concerned. Moreover, these elements should, in the case of a power amplifier, bear a biasing current which is often incompatible with the size of the conducting wires.
When the reactive elements are mounted in external fashion on the integrated circuit, their dimensions lead, at least in their current construction, to a large spatial requirement which is very awkward in the construction of a microwave monolithic integrated circuit. Furthermore, their layout on the integrated circuit requires additional external connections as well as soldered joints whose implementation is difficult and sometimes awkward on a monolithic integrated circuit.
In known circuits other than power amplifiers, the filtering of the biasing circuits of the field effect transistors is ensured by an additional field effect transistor working in saturated mode. Nevertheless, the application of this type of filtering to the biasing circuits of a power amplifier is not possible.

Distributed amplifier for wide band hyperfrequency signals


Preshave compositions and methods of using such compositions are disclosed. The present preshave compositions include at least about 50% by weight of a polyalkylene glycol component, preferably including at least two portions of different molecular weights, and an additional component in an amount effective to benefit the area of the body to be shaved. The present compositions are advantageously substantially clear and are substantially anhydrous and generate heat when contacted with water.

The present invention relates to pre-shave compositions and methods of making and using such products. More particularly, the invention relates to warming preshave compositions and methods of using such compositions.
Personal lubricants, for example, in the form of pourable liquids, pourable low viscosity thixotropic gels, jellies and the like, are known and are useful for providing lubricity to various parts of the human body, for example, to mucous membranes, such as the oral, rectal, vaginal and the like mucosa. For example, see Ahmad et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,885,591, the disclosure of which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference. Certain such lubricants have been proposed which generate heat or warming when placed in contact with the human body.
Preshave compositions for facilitating the shaving of hair, such as facial hair, leg hair and underarm hair, are well known. Typically, such compositions have been applied as liquids to the skin and hair shortly before shaving. To aid in shaving, some of these compositions have lubricated the skin, removed oils and moisture from the hair and skin, and/or caused the hair to rise and protrude temporarily from the skin. For example, see Scodari U.S. Pat. No. 4,457,912, as well as U.S. Pat. No. 6,861,556 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,008,628, the disclosure of each of which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference.
There continues to be a need for new preshave compositions, including warming preshave compositions, and methods of using such compositions.

Pre-shave compositions and methods of using same


The present invention relates to a method for lowering activity with respect to maltose in glucose measurement comprising a step of reacting modified pyrroloquinoline quinone dependent glucose dehydrogenase subjected to amino acid sequence modification, wherein pyrroloquinoline quinone dependent glucose dehydrogenase is reacted in the presence of at least one type of substance selected from the group comprising succinic acid, malonic acid, glutaric acid, malic acid, phthalic acid, 2-ketoglutaric acid, 3,3-dimethylglutaric acid, pimeric acid, suberic acid, adipic acid, maleic acid, potassium chloride, ammonium chloride, diammonium hydrogen citrate, L-lysine, taurine, calcium glycerate, amino-n-butyric acid, sodium glycolate, sodium α-ketoglutarate, fumaric acid, glycine, glutamic acid, serine and citric acid.

PQQGDH is glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) using pyrroloquinoline quinone as a coenzyme, and can be used for assay of blood glucose because it catalyzes a reaction in which glucose is oxidized to produce gluconolactone. A glucose concentration in blood is a very important indicator as an important marker for diabetes in clinical diagnosis. Although measurement of blood glucose concentration is currently mainly performed by methods using a biosensor that uses glucose oxidase, since the reaction is affected by dissolved oxygen concentration, there was the possibility of the occurrence of error in the measured values. PQQ dependent glucose dehydrogenase has attracted attention as a new alternative enzyme to glucose oxidase.
Our group found that Acinetobacter baumannii strain NCIMB11517 produces PQQGDH, and constructed a gene cloning and high expression system (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H11-243949). However, this wild type of PQQGDH had problems with activity with respect to sugar other than glucose (i.e., substrate specificity), and with respect to maltose in particular, as compared with glucose oxidase.

Composition for measuring glucose having improved substrate specificity


A method is provided for constructing a histogram to represent the root-mean-squared phase differences for a signal received at pairs of elements in an array. A pair-wise element phase difference (“PEP”) between a signal received at an angle of arrival θ1 and a signal received at an angle of arrival θ2 are determined. The difference ΔΨ between the differential phase measurements at θ1 and θ2 is computed. The process is repeated for all unique pairs of angles (θ1, θ2) from 0 to 359 degrees and the results are summed over all PEPs to calculate the root mean squared phase difference √{square root over (ΔΨ2(θ1,θ2))} between two different angles of arrival θ1 and θ2. A two-dimensional histogram is created by pairing the measurements √{square root over (ΔΨ2)} and Δθ, where Δθ=θ2−θ1. The histogram can be used to determine whether a particular array is ambiguous to facilitate design of an array that can resolve and/or minimize ambiguities and so provide more accurate information regarding the source of a received signal.

Radio-frequency transmissions received by an antenna array are increasingly important aspects of life in both the military and civilian worlds, and in many cases it can be crucial to determine the direction from which the transmissions originate. The military, particularly the Navy, needs cost-effective precision radio-frequency emitter direction-finding systems for applications including enhanced situational awareness, radar system cueing, and radar to electronic sensors tracking correlation. In the civilian realm, locating the direction from which received radio-frequency transmissions originate can aid in determining location information for cell phone calls to 911 emergency numbers, determining gunshot locations, or resolving ambiguities for commercial sonar arrays.
In general, direction-finding (DF) techniques can be classified as either amplitude comparison or phase comparison technologies. Amplitude comparison DF technologies are moderately priced, but provide only relatively low DF accuracy. Phase comparison technologies can provide better DF accuracy, but involve certain ambiguities that can make them prohibitively expensive.
For example, one phase comparison technique uses a linear interferometer comprising two or more antenna elements at a distance d apart. Using such an array to determine an angle of arrival (AoA) of a received radio-frequency wave involves measuring a difference, known as a pair-wise element phase difference (PEP) between a phase of the wave received at one element and a phase of the wave received at another element. However, such phase comparison techniques also involve ambiguities in determining a direction of an incoming signal because more than one incoming angle can often result in the same measured phase difference.
Interferometer DF accuracy is a function of aperture size, with a larger array providing better performance. A conventional high-performance linear interferometer array typically has four to six antenna channels and provides a field of view of greater than 90 degrees, and so in order to provide a full 360-degree field of view, four such arrays would be needed. However, as the array gets larger, additional phase ambiguities are introduced. In order to control the ambiguity, more antenna/receiver channels are typically added, but such additional channels can make the array too large, heavy, and costly to be a fully viable system, particularly for use on board a ship or in the growing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) field.
To address this problem, alternate interferometer designs are being sought. The history of antenna array geometry design has been formulated as an optimization problem, for example, a problem involving relatively prime integer optimization. Radio astronomers looking for an optimal design have used interferometry principles and have studied array redundancy. See e.g., "Hoctor, R. T. et al., "Array Redundancy for Active Line Arrays," IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Vol. 5, No. 7, pp. 1179-1183 (July 1996). More recently, sensitivity analysis of the array manifold and its differential geometry have been explored for use as criteria for array geometry evaluation. See Manikas, A. et al., "Manifold Studies of Nonlinear Antenna Array Geometries," IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 497-506 (March 2001). However, use of such differential geometry has limited application due to its difficult and purely mathematical nature.
Sparse linear interferometers comprise one alternative interferometer design. Sparse linear interferometers are based on non-periodic antenna element placement and are set to provide maximum phase ambiguity resolution with a minimum number of channels. Due to the nature of the design of a sparse interferometer, although doubling the DF accuracy requires a doubling of the length of the array, it does not require a doubling of the number of channels, and therefore sparse linear interferometers scale very efficiently. See, e.g., Austeng, A. et al., "1D and 2D Algorithmically Optimized Sparse Arrays," 1997 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium 1683-1686.
These and other efforts at antenna array design are described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,330,840, "Method and Apparatus for Genetic Fuzzy Design," issued to Sverre Nils Straatveit, one of the inventors of the present invention, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. Other antenna array design considerations are described in the United States patent application entitled "Sparse Interferometric Array for Radio Frequency Azimuth Direction Finding," Navy Case No. 98332-US1, by Sverre Nils Straatveit which was filed concurrently with the present application and the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

Histogram for ambiguity visualization and evaluation (HAVE)

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


A lead acid electric storage battery uses conventional lead-acid secondary battery chemistry. The battery may be a sealed battery, an unsealed battery or a conventional multi-cellbattery. It has 12 to 25 cells in a single case. The case is less than 12 inches long and may be less than 6 inches long. The battery has a set of positive battery grids (plates) which are constructed with a core of thin titanium expanded metal having a thickness preferably, for start batteries etc. in the range 0.1 mm to 0.7 mm and most preferably 0.2 mm to 0.4 mm. The grid cores are of a titanium alloy containing a platinum group metal. The cores are coated with hot melt dip lead and are not lead electroplated. The grid cores expand and contract, with temperature changes, much less than conventional lead grids.

The need for improvements in lead-acid storage batteries is widely recognized.
Hundreds of articles, patents and research projects have been directed toward improving such batteries. Some of the important characteristics that still need improvement are mechanical ruggedness, long life and multiple cycles (charge-discharge).
It is generally believed that automobile batteries have a lifetime of 3, or at most 6, years and that to have longer life they should have thicker lead positive grids. In contrast, the present invention intends to provide a 10 year lifetime battery using thinner grids.
ADAC 2008 for the year 2007 states "The battery remains a weak link . . . breakdowns on 1.95 million vehicles six years or less are as follows: 52% battery . . . breakdown due to the battery remains the number one cause."
According to "Wikipedia" "Because of vibration, shock, heat, cold, and sulfation of their lead plates, few automotive batteries last beyond six years of regular use. Automotive starting batteries have many thin plates to provide as much current as possible in a reasonably small package. In general, the thicker the plates, the longer the life of the battery. Positive grid corrosion ranks among the top 3 reasons for battery failure. According to Solarnavigation "Plate thickness (of the positive (+) plate) matters . . . so the thickest plates will last the longest"
It has been suggested that the power or lifetime of lead acid batteries may be increased by substituting lead plates (grids) with other materials. However, it is believed that almost all commercially available lead acid batteries use lead plates. There are now a number of projects that have been reported to use non-metal battery plates. Firefly Energy has announced it is developing carbon foam plates, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,979,513 and 7,033,703. Also, Jung et al have filed patent applications on carbon battery plates, see U.S. application Ser. Nos. 11/048,104 and 11/279,103 (both now abandoned).
One suggestion is to use lead electroplating on a core of another metal, such as aluminum, copper, steel or titanium. Some of the prior patents and articles about lead-plated cores, or otherwise relevant, are set forth below. All of these patents and articles, and all others cited in this patent application, are included herein by reference. A series of patents to Rubin uses expanded titanium or titanium alloy positive grids without a lead coating. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,486,940 Rubin discloses a titanium nitride core with a gold covering layer; in U.S. Pat. No. 3,615,831 he discloses a similar gold covering layer over a titanium-molybdenum-zirconium alloy core and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,608 he discloses a steel or titanium core with a graphite protective coating. See also Rubin U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,798,070 and 3,870,563 and Will U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,017.
Lead is plated on copper in Senoo U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,354; Senoo U.S. Pat. No. 5,093,970; Nann U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,001 and Kiessling U.S. Pat. No. 4,554,228 and Re: 33,133. U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,648 to Yeh shows a titanium core electroplated with lead. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,379,502; 5,339,873; 5,544,681 and 5,411,821 disclose copper or steel or other materials as cores with titanium and lead layers. U.S. Pat. No. 6,316,148 to Bhardwaj discloses a battery using aluminum foil which is coated with lead. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,739,997 and 2,713,079 to Carrick disclose aluminum plates electroplated with lead in an aqueous plating bath.
The following articles may be considered relevant: Dai et al. "Lead-plated titanium grids etc." 41 Power Sources Conference, Jun. 14-17 (2004); Dai et al. "Corrosion of Lead Plate Titanium etc" (ref. Google); Kurisawa "Development of Positive Electrodes with Tin Oxide Coating by Applying a Sputtering Technique for Lead Acid Batteries." Journal Power Sources 1995 (2001) 1-5, 1-9.

Long life lead acid battery having titanium core grids and method of their production


The present inventors have surprisingly discovered that phytic acid tenaciously precipitates with soluble metals in food or fuel ethanol-processing fluid, producing insoluble organometallic salt deposit or scale on the processing equipment that must be removed in order to facilitate further ethanol processing. The present invention relates to converting phytic acid salts or phytates to inorganic phosphates to improve metal solubility and reduce deposition within processing equipment.

Fermentation of sugars and polysaccharides into alcohol is a rapidly developing technology for producing liquid fuel, such as gasohol or E85, which are the most common examples in the United States and contain varying amounts of ethanol and gasoline. Billions of gallons of fuel ethanol are produced every year through the fermentation of grains, plants and feedstock, primarily corn. Other types of feedstock such as sugar care and cellulose are also increasing in importance.
Ethanol producers have found scale deposits on processing equipment at several stages of ethanol processing. These scale deposits are known to impede heat transfer and flow, and interfere with the proper operation of mechanical devices used in ethanol processing. The deposits tend to be most severe or tenacious on hot surfaces, and where the pH of the processing liquid is highest (about 4.5), but deposits may also form at lower pH values and on cooler surfaces. There remains a need for methods and compositions for reducing this scale formation.

Reducing insoluble deposit formation in ethanol production


A failure protection method of a network connecting between nodes by multiple working paths and a protection path is disclosed. An allocation bandwidth is determined to allocate to a detected path where a failure is detected in multiple paths being set to the multiple working paths, depending on the detected path. The detected path is switched from one of the multiple working paths to the protection path. Data to be transmitted by the detected path is transmitted by using the allocation bandwidth determined within an entire bandwidth of the protection path.

In a network field, as to an optical transport technology of a next generation which is expected to expand applied fields in the future, an OTN (Optical Transport Network), which integrates TDM (Time-Division Multiplexing) data such as Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET)/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) and packet data such as Ethernet, is recommended by the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication standardization sector (ITU-T).
Regarding the OTN, there is a specification of an Optical channel Data Unit flex (ODUflex) capable of providing a variable bandwidth in response to demand in order to effectively transmit the packet data which is the current primary traffic.
Up until now, there has been discussed a problem of protecting a transmission path with high priority in a case of switching a fault transmission line which can not be switched to a protection transmission path to a normal working transmission path which has lower priority than the fault transmission line.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 59-175224

Failure protection method and node apparatus


A custom marketing document system and method, including custom map information, is provided herein.

Conventional printed marketing materials that are sent to customers generally contain static marketing information and possibly some customized text information. For example, printed marketing information may take the form of letters, cards and/or brochures that include a customer's name, address or other textual information about a customer. Similarly some forms of online advertising allow for customers to request dynamic information once they have received online marketing materials. For example, if a user receives an electronic invitation from "Evite" from IAC/InterActiveCorp of New York, N.Y., there may be a link to obtain a map from a specified online mapping provider to an event associated with the Evite. Generally the maps that are available online from online mapping providers such as MapQuest of Denver, Colo., do not provide a high enough quality map for printed materials.
Additionally, communication networks are well known in the computer communications field. By definition, a network is a group of computers and associated devices that are connected by communications facilities or links. Network communications can be of a permanent nature, such as via cables, or can be of a temporary nature, such as connections made through telephone or wireless links. Networks may vary in size, from a local area network ("LAN"), consisting of a few computers or workstations and related devices, to a wide area network ("WAN"), which interconnects computers and LANs that are geographically dispersed, to a remote access service, which interconnects remote computers via temporary communication links. An inter-network, in turn, is the joining of multiple computer networks, both similar and dissimilar, by means of gateways or routers that facilitate data transfer and conversion from various networks. A well-known abbreviation for the term inter-network is "internet." As currently understood, the capitalized term "Internet" refers to the collection of networks and routers that use the Internet Protocol ("IP"), along with higher-level protocols, such as the Transmission Control Protocol ("TCP") or the Uniform Datagram Packet ("UDP") protocol, to communicate with one another.
Existing marketing methods are not as effective as they could be regarding customized marketing to local individuals. It is common to get direct marketing materials with a cursory level of personalization, such as an ad with one's name printed onto an otherwise generic document. It is also not uncommon to receive marketing materials that include a map showing the location or locations of a business in a city or region. However existing methods do now allow for locally targeted personalized marketing materials that not only indicate the location or locations of the branches of a business that are closest to each targeted prospective customer, but that may also indicate a custom travel route between each individual prospective customer and a nearby branch (or branches).

Custom document generation system and method


A method is provided for producing a microstructure. The method includes the first step of forming a supporting layer on a base substrate including a silicon substrate provided with recessed sections at a first surface thereof and a metal structure filling the recessed sections so as to come in contact with the metal structure at the first surface, the second step of forming a structure including the metal structure and the supporting layer by selectively etching the silicon substrate to expose at least the surface of the metal structure opposite the surface in contact with the supporting layer from the silicon substrate, and the third step of selectively etching the supporting layer of the metal structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to a method for producing a microstructure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Grids having periodic structures are used as spectrometer elements in various types of apparatus. In particular, a shield grating made of a metal having a high X-ray absorptance is used for nondestructive inspection, medical practice and the like.
The shield grating used in an X-ray Talbot interferometer is one of the exemplary shield gratings.
The X-ray Talbot interferometry is one of the imaging methods using X-ray phase contrast (X-ray phase imaging methods).
The X-ray Talbot interferometry will be simply described below.
In an X-ray Talbot interferometer, spatially coherent X-rays pass through a test object and a diffraction grating capable of diffracting X-rays to form an interference pattern.
A shield grating adapted to periodically block X-rays is located at the position where the interference pattern is formed, thus forming a moire pattern. This moire pattern is detected with a detector, and the information of the test object is collected from the detection result. In Talbot-Lau interferometer, which is a type of the Talbot interferometer, an X-ray shield grating is used to form a virtual state in which very small X-ray sources are arranged, thereby enhancing the X-ray spatial coherence of X-rays.
A typical shield grating used for the Talbot interferometry has a structure in which X-ray transmitting portions and X-ray shielding portions are periodically arranged.
The shielding portions are often defined by a metal structure including main portions having a high aspect ratio, made of a metal having a high X-ray absorptance, such as gold, wherein the aspect ratio refers to the ratio (h/w) of the height or depth of a structure to the width thereof. For forming a shield grating including shielding portions defined by such a metal structure, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-185728 discloses a method including the operation of filling a mold with a metal by plating. In this patent document, the mold is prepared by forming a groove in a silicon body by reactive etching. The shield grating is formed by depositing a metal in the groove by plating.
In this method, however, the X-ray transmitting portions of the shield grating are formed of silicon.
Silicon has a lower X-ray absorptance than X-ray absorbing metals such as gold. It is however not 0 and silicon absorbs X-rays.
Consequently, the contrast between the amount of X-rays transmitted through the shielding portions and the amount of X-rays transmitted through the transmitting portions (hereinafter may be referred to as X-ray blocking contrast) can be reduced, or the amount of X-rays reaching the detector can be reduced.