A computer implemented method and a personal communication system (PCS) for generating and delivering an electronically signed personalized communication are provided. The PCS receives a sender composed personal signature and media content from a sender device. The PCS configures one or more parameters of the received personal signature based on sender preferences, while maintaining integrity and originality of the received personal signature. The PCS positions the personal signature with the configured parameters in a predefined section of the received media content. The PCS generates the personalized communication including the received media content with the positioned personal signature and delivers the generated personalized communication to one or more recipients via one or more delivery modes.

With the advent of high speed communication technology that facilitates communication between people via social networking; platforms, text messages, electronic mails (emails), etc., the practice of communicating via digital messages has almost become the norm. However, these digital messages generally lack personalization, for example, by a personal mark made by a pen, a finger, etc., a personal signature of a sender of the digital message, etc. Conventional communication systems do not support meaningful and personally signed communication in the form of exchange of messages for business and personal uses. Personalized messages are typically aimed at conveying a person's emotions such as thoughts, sympathies, love, gratitude, etc. Adding an original, personal signature to such personalized messages and delivering the personalized messages together with the added personal signature enhances the level of intimacy associated with the communication. There is a need for personal communication via personal signature bundled personalized messages to provide recipients of these personalized messages an experience comparable to receiving a personally signed letter. Also, adding a personal signature to business correspondence is typically customary and therefore needed in exchanging business messages.
Personalizing, for example, modifying line style, line color, etc., of the signature based on a theme of the communication or based on preferences of a sender increases an overall, appeal of the communication. Conventional communication systems do not allow dynamic personalization of a personal signature while maintaining the integrity and originality of the personal signature. Also, such conventional communication systems do not authenticate digitally received personal signatures. A recipient of the communication would typically want to be assured that the source of a personalized message is authentic, that is, the communication has originated from a genuine source, that is, a genuine sender, a sender with whom the recipient is acquainted, or a sender with whom the recipient has previously communicated. Therefore, the recipient would like to receive a confirmation of an authentic personal signature, for example, a verified autograph of a sender along with the personalized message.
Hence, there is a long felt but unresolved need for a computer implemented method and system that generates and delivers an electronically signed and authenticated personalized communication such as a personalized message. Moreover, there is a need for a computer implemented method and system that dynamically configures a personal signature based on a theme of the personalized communication and/or sender preferences, while maintaining the integrity and originality of the personal signature. Furthermore, there is a need for a computer implemented method and system that authenticates a personal signature as an autograph of a sender of the personalized communication.

Electronic personal signature generation and distribution for personal communication


A Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser capable of being easily and inexpensively manufactured and stabilizing the polarization direction of laser light in one direction is provided. The VCSEL includes a semiconductor lamination structure including a first multilayer film reflector, an active layer having a light emitting region, and a second multilayer film reflectors, in this order over a substrate from the substrate side. The semiconductor lamination structure has a pair of grooves provided with a region opposed to the light emitting region in between, and one or a plurality of first oxidation layers including a first non-oxidation region provided at least in a region opposed to the light emitting region and a first oxidation region provided on each side face of the pair of grooves.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) that emits a laser light from the top face and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A VCSEL emits light in the direction orthogonal to a substrate differently from the existing edge-emitting laser diodes. In the VCSEL, many devices can be arranged in a state of a two-dimensional array on the same substrate. Therefore, the VCSEL has recently attracted attention as a light source for a digital copy machine or a printer.
In the past, in the foregoing type of VCSEL, a pair of multilayer film reflectors was formed over the semiconductor substrate, and an active layer becoming a light emitting region was provided between the pair of multilayer film reflectors. Between one of the multilayer film reflectors and the active layer, to improve efficiency of current injection into the active layer and lower the threshold value current, a current confinement layer having a structure in which a current injection region was confined is provided. Further, a lower electrode was provided on the bottom face side, and an upper electrode was provided on the top face side. The upper electrode was provided with an aperture to emit laser light. In the VCSEL, a current was confined by the current confinement layer injected into the active layer where light is emitted. While the emitted light repeated the reflection between the pair of multilayer film reflectors, the light was emitted as laser light from the aperture of the upper electrode.
In general, the foregoing VCSEL has issues, such as nonuniformity in which the polarization direction varies due to the variation of devices and instability in which the polarization direction is changed depending on the output and the ambient temperature. Therefore, in the case where such a VCSEL is applied to an optical device with polarization dependence, such as a mirror and a beam splitter, for example, if the VCSEL is used as a light source for a digital copy machine and a printer, there is an issue that the variation in the polarization direction causes a difference in the image location of an image and the output, leading to blur and irregular color.
Therefore, to solve the foregoing issue, a plurality of techniques for providing a polarization control function inside the VCSEL to stabilize the polarization direction in one direction has been reported.
For example, as one of such techniques, there is a technique using a high-angle inclined substrate with a normal line of (311) plane (GaAs inclined substrate). A VCSEL device structured by using such a high-angle inclined substrate has gain property for [−233] direction, and thus the polarization direction of laser light is able to be controlled in this direction. Further, in this case, the polarization ratio of laser light is very high, and therefore this technique is effective for stabilizing the polarization direction of the VCSEL device in one direction.
Further, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2891133 discloses a technique for narrowing the width of one plane in one in-plane direction of a mesa to the degree that light is subject to a diffraction loss on the side face of the mesa, thereby obtaining polarization parallel to the side face.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-525995 discloses a technique for forming a discontinuous section in part of the metal contact layer that does not affect the characteristics of laser light emitted from a light emitting aperture, and obtaining polarization parallel to the boundary of the discontinuous section.

Vertical cavity surface emitting laser and method for manufacturing the same


An image recording apparatus including: upper and lower unit cases; a stand member having first and second end portions, the first end portion attached to one of the upper unit case and the lower unit case; a guide member attached to the other of the upper unit case and the lower unit case in a manner that the guide member is positioned at a first position during a closing motion and is positioned at a second position during an opening motion, the guide member guiding the second end portion of the stand member; and a constraint portion disposed on the other of the upper unit case and the lower unit case, the constraint portion providing a frictional resistance on at least one of the guide member and the second end portion of the stand member when the guide member is at the first position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus, such as a printer, a facsimile or a copier. The invention particularly relates to an image recording apparatus in which an upper unit case having an original reading portion is attached to be rotationally openable or closable to a lower unit case having a sheet feed portion and a recording portion, and in which the upper unit case can be slowly closed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various mechanisms have been proposed in which one side of the upper unit case is attached to be rotationally openable or closable via a hinge to a lower unit case, whereby the upper unit case is kept widely opened when conducting maintenance or paper jam handling.
For instance, Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3093658 (see FIGS. 1 and 2) discloses a mechanism in which a stand member rotatably secured to a lower face of an upper unit case is faced within a receiving opening formed in an upper face of a lower unit case. Engaging claws provided on the bottom of the stand member are engaged at an edge of the receiving opening, so that the upper unit case is kept in an attitude at a constant opening angle. An elastic member provided on the lower side of the stand member is resiliently pressed around the edge of the receiving opening, whereby the rotation of the upper unit case is braked in an area where the upper unit case begins to be closed or ends to be opened.
With this configuration, the brake (braking) is not applied in a closing end area where the upper unit case approaches the lower unit case, so that the upper unit case may be rapidly closed to undergo a great impact.
In order to solve this problem, JP-UM-B-1-29815 (see FIGS. 3 and 6) discloses a mechanism in which an arcuate guide member (guiding member) projecting downwards on a side face of an upper unit case (cover) is formed with an arcuate guide groove. A shaft of a bolt at one side of a lower unit case (housing) is inserted through the guide groove, and the upper unit case is held in position at any rotation angle by clamping the guide member between a head of the bolt and a spring member. The upper unit case is urged upwards by a torsion spring disposed in the lower unit case at a closed position where the upper unit case is closed on the lower unit case.

Image recording apparatus and opening and closing mechanism


A ballast circuit for a fluorescent lamp for starting the fluorescent lamp and a compact fluorescent lamp is provided. The ballast circuit adopts a bypass capacitor which bypasses a high frequency and high harmonics to a smoothing portion for compensating a recovery characteristic of a rectification diode which causes a problem by feeding back high frequency currents (most of them are I.sub.L) which flow during the ignition of a lamp to a power source input, and including a high frequency component much included in a rectifying and smoothing operation. Thus, a power factor increases 95% or more.

The present invention relates to a ballast circuit for a fluorescent lamp, and more particularly, to a ballast circuit for starting either a fluorescent lamp (FL) or a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL).
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a ballast circuit for a fluorescent lamp recited in U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,817. In FIG. 1, the lamp shown is 15W CFL. The operating frequency applied to the lamp of the ballast circuit is 45 KHz. A 220V, 50 Hz or 110V 60 Hz power supply is connected to terminals 2 and 3 to power the lamp 1. The input voltage U.sub.N is connected to a filter 4. Then, the filtered alternating voltage is provided to a rectifier 5 for rectification. The rectified voltage is smoothed by a capacitor 6. The filtered and smoothed voltage is applied to an inverter INV which comprises two transistors 7 and 8 having emitter resistors 9 and 10, respectively, and an inverter controlling circuit 11. The inverter INV is the essential element in this operating device.
The controlling voltage for the inverter is obtained from a transformer 12 having a primary coil 13 of only several windings. The primary coil winding 13 is connected to an operating circuit of the lamp 1.
The inverter INV basically generates a rectangular wave voltage, which is applied to the lamp 1 through an inductor 14 and a blocking capacitor 15 in the operating circuit. The blocking capacitor 15 blocks direct current (DC) from the lamp and forms a resonance circuit portion with the inductor 14. For operation at 45 KHz, the inductor 14 has an inductance of about 3 mH and the blocking capacitor 15 has a capacitance of about 47 nF.
The ignition and starting circuit ST is connected in parallel to the lamp 1 and serially with the electrodes 16 and 17 thereof, which comprises a parallel circuit of a limiting capacitor 19 and a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) resistor 20 and a starting capacitor 18. In the above circuit, the capacitance of the starting capacitor 18 is about 3.3 nF. A series circuit of the capacitors 18 and 19 form a coupled resonance capacitor C.sub.R. A resistor, C890, manufactured by Siemens is used as the PCT resistor 20.
FIG. 2 is a ballast circuit for a fluorescent lamp recited in U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,767. In FIG. 2, a pair of terminals 21 and 22 of an EMI filter 25 comprising a first capacitor 9 and a first inductor 26, are supplied with a low frequency AC power source, i.e., 120V, 60 Hz. The output of the EMI filter 25 is connected to terminals 23 and 24 of a voltage multiplier circuit 28 through a second inductor 27 and a second capacitor 10. The first and second inductors 26 and 27 are connected in series between the AC input terminal 22 and an input terminal 24 of the voltage multiplier circuit 28. The first capacitor 9 is combined to both ends of the input terminals 21 and 22 and the second capacitor 10 is connected between the terminal 1 and a node of the inductors 26 and 27. The voltage multiplier circuit 28 having a pair of diodes 31 and 32 are connected in series to both ends of DC input terminals 33 and 34 of a high frequency DC/AC half bridge inverter 35. Buffer capacitors 36 and 37 connected in series are combined parallel to the diodes connected in series. A pair of switching transistors 38 and 39 are connected in series and arc combined to the DC power source terminals 33 and 14. Third and fourth diodes 57 and 58 arc combined to the far ends of the transistors 38 and 39, respectively. One end of a discharge lamp 40 (for example, the fluorescent lamp) is combined to a connection point 23 between the diodes 31 and 32 through a capacitor 41 and the other end of the discharge lamp 40 is connected to a connection point 42 between the switching transistors 38 and 39 through an inductor 43. This connection is indicated as a dashed line in the drawing. However, according to the present invention, in the circuit constituted of the first arid second inductors 44 and 45 instead of the single inductor 43, the common node between the first and second inductors 44 and 45 is connected to the DC input terminal 34 through a capacitor 46.
Electrodes of the discharge lamp 47 and 48 are connected parallel to a PTC resistor 49 and a capacitor 50 which are connected in series. The PTC resistor 49 provides a path through which a pre-heating current for heating the electrodes of the lamp flows before igniting the lamp. A buffer capacitor 52 operates so as to connect the node 42 to a node 53 to reduce loss of power in the switching transistors 38 and 39.
A conventional control circuit 54 operates the switching transistors 38 and 39 in an alternating ON/OFF manner in which when one transistor is turned on, the other transistor is turned off. The control circuit, driven by an IC, however, can be constituted by a transformer having first and second windings, respectively combined to the windings connected in series such as the inductors 44 and 45, the base and the emitter of the switching transistor, as a load circuit connected between the node 42 and the node 53. A magnetic oscillation high frequency DC/AC converter can be obtained since the second winding can be connected in series to the base of the transistor in this way in the respective resistors. Since the exact driving method of the switching transistor is not limited to this method and various driving methods can be used, a desirable operation of the circuit is performed.
The lamp 40, the capacitor 51, the inductors 44 and 45, and the capacitor 46 in essence constitute a resonant circuit which makes the half bridge inverter perform oscillation at high frequency.
A starting circuit 55 is provided to start the operation of a high frequency inverter 35.
The input current from the AC power source provides a high frequency path for supplying resonance power to a capacitor 41 and the lamp circuit and returns the same to the electrolytic buffer capacitors 36 and 37. Therefore, the capacitor 30 and the inductor 27 which make the voltages of the respective ends of the two capacitors higher than the voltage between the lines of the AC power source terminals 21 and 22 are part of the multiplier voltage circuit 28. The energy which returns from the resonance circuit through the capacitor 41 brings about the voltage generation of both ends of the inductor 27. This voltage is added to the voltage between the AC lines and generates a voltage which is higher than the buffer capacitor voltage, however, is clamped to the buffer capacitor voltage by the respective diodes 31 and 32. Therefore, power returns to the buffer capacitor through the diodes 31 and 32. The additional voltage boosting operation of the buffer capacitors 36 and 31 is provided by an LC resonant circuit comprised of the inductor 45 arid the capacitor 46. By using the LC resonant circuit instead of a single inductor such as the inductor 43, the feedback voltage supplied to the capacitors 36 and 37, namely, a partial voltage derived from the capacitor 41 and another partial voltage derived from the LC resonant circuits 44, 45, and 46, is effectively divided.
The diodes 57 and 58 provide a path through which power is returned to the buffer capacitor. In the case that the transformer is used in driving the transistors 38 and 39, the diodes 57 and 58 can be removed since the second winding and the collector-base connection of the transistors provide a low impedance path for returning the energy to the capacitor.
The collector-base connection of the transistor provides the function of the diodes. Furthermore, the boosting operation is provided by the inductor 27 which operates as a voltage source which moves electrical currents to the capacitors 36 and 37 through the classification diodes 31 and 32.
In another embodiment of the circuit, a capacitor 56 can be connected between the node 53 and the input terminal 54. The half bridge inverter circuit will operate like the high frequency boosting converter which boosts the respective voltages of the buffer capacitors 36 and 37 to more than a peak line voltage by an appropriate selection of the capacitors 41 and 56, thereby providing the circuit with a high power factor and low harmonic line current. Thus, the circuit draws much less current due to the improved power factor.
As described above, since the input ripple currents to the capacitors 36 and 37 are not totally derived from the AC power source of low frequency (60 Hz) and are partially derived from the half bridge circuit of high frequency, lower capacitors can be used, and moreover, can maintain a low ripple voltage.
However, in the ballast circuit of FIG. 1, the waveform the capacitors 36 and 37 are not totally derived from the AC power source of low frequency (60 Hz) and are partially derived from the half bridge circuit of high frequency, smaller capacitors can be used, and moreover, can maintain a low ripple voltage.
However, in the ballast circuit of FIG. 1, the waveform of the power source voltage output from the circuit, as shown in FIG. 3(c) compared to the power source voltage, shown in FIG. 3(a) is distorted by the current flows shown in FIG. 3(b). That is, the total harmonic distortion (THD) is about 140.about.370%, thereby generating a current wave form having a high current harmonic noise and generating much distortion in the waveform of the output voltage. This causes the change in a reference power source voltage. Also, the power factor is low, i.e., approximately 50.about.60%.
Also, the ballast circuit for the fluorescent lamp shown in FIG. 2 can be used with a power source of about AC 110V by adopting a voltage multiplier to the input power source. However, in the case that a power source voltage of AC 220V.about.230V is input, since 220V.times.2.sqroot.2(=616V) is output when performing double voltage amplification, the circuit device cost gets higher, namely, an electrolytic capacitor and a power transistor which can withstand high voltages or FET must be used. Also, the power factor is deteriorated by the inductor 27 which is used for boosting.


A pluggable module is provided which is configured to be connected into a pluggable port of a radio base station. The pluggable module is associated with at least one sensor for collecting external sensor data. The pluggable module comprises at least one communication interface, a processor, and a memory for storing software comprising computer program code which, when run in the processor, causes the pluggable module to collect pre-specified external sensor data from at least one sensor associated with the pluggable module and communicate the collected external sensor data to a centralized server via the at least one communication interface.

The article "Transforming Earthquake Detection?" published in SCIENCE, Volume 335, Jan. 20, 2012 describes the use of today's communication infrastructure, i.e. the Internet to collect external data such as earth movements. Earth movement data may be used for earthquake detection. One way to detect the earth movements may be to make use of the accelerometers that are provided in today's consumer electronic devices, such as laptop computers and smart phones. There are today applications, i.e. so called apps, for smart phones that record seismic waveforms and transmits them to a central server when it detects an earthquake. There are also similar examples of data collection made by laptop computers, which are provided with accelerometers. One problem with collecting such data is that accelerometers provided in laptop computers and smart phones are orders of magnitude less sensitive than the instruments in traditional networks, and earthquake signals must also be separated from everyday movements. Another problem with this solution is that there is not always reliable location data available for the laptop computer or the smart phone. Without a reliable location the earth movement data is not as useful as if an exact location can be associated with it.
It is also known to integrate sensors in a Universal Serial Bus, USB stick. One example of such a sensor is an accelerometer. These USB-based accelerometers may be plugged into laptop computers in order to build a large distributed network of seismometers in earthquake-prone regions. In such a case software will have to be installed in each laptop computer, which will act as a host for the USB stick and collect the sensor data. The laptop computer also needs to be connected to the Internet in some way in order to make use of all the collected data in the distributed network. Thus, the USB stick is not useable in a straightforward manner since it needs to be installed in a host, the location of which is not always known as mentioned above.


A transmitter, receiver and communication technique. The transmitter is adapted to interleave a first pseudo-noise sequence with a second pseudo-noise sequence to provide a third pseudo-noise sequence. The third sequence is transmitted and then received by the inventive receiver. The first and second sequences are chosen so that an XOR of the two sequences produces a third, known-valid pseudo-noise sequence. The receiver includes an arrangement for receiving and correlating the third pseudo-noise sequence to provide a measure of a frequency of the transmitted signal. The receiver further includes an arrangement for downconverting and filtering the received signal to provide a filtered complex signal. A complex multiplier is included for effecting a complex multiplication of the filtered complex signal with a delayed version of the filtered complex signal to provide a product. A correlator is included for correlating the product to provide the measure of frequency.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communication systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to phase shift keyed communication systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Spread spectrum is a technique for secure digital communications that is now being exploited for commercial and industrial applications. Spread-spectrum radio communications has long been a favorite technology of the military because of its resistance to jamming and the fact that it is hard for an enemy to intercept. The reason: spread-spectrum signals, which are distributed over a wide range of frequencies and then collected onto their original frequency at the receiver, are relatively inconspicuous. As they are unlikely to be intercepted by a military opponent, these signals are also unlikely to interfere with other signals intended for business and consumer users—including those transmitted on the same frequencies. This opens up a crowded frequency spectra for expanded use. See "Spread Spectrum Goes Commercial", published in IEEE Spectrum by D. L. Schilling, R. L. Pickholtz and L. B. Milstein (August, 1990). Applications for spread spectrum range from "wireless" LAN's, to integrated bar code scanner/palmtop computer/radio modem devices for warehousing, to digital dispatch, to digital cellular telephone communications, to "information society" city/area/state or country wide networks for passing faxes, computer data, email, or multimedia data. (See http://www.sss-mag.com/ss.html#tutorial.)
Spread-spectrum techniques are methods in which energy generated at a single frequency is deliberately spread over a wide band of frequencies. This approach is used for a variety of reasons, including increasing resistance to natural interference or jamming and to prevent hostile detection. This is a technique in which a signaling (telecommunication) signal is transmitted on a bandwidth considerably larger than the frequency content of the original information.
Spread-spectrum telecommunication is a signal structuring technique that employs direct sequence, frequency hopping or a hybrid of these, which can be used for multiple access and/or multiple functions. This technique decreases the potential interference to other receivers while achieving privacy. Spread spectrum generally makes use of a sequential noise-like signal structure, called a Pseudo-Noise (PN) sequence, to spread the normally narrowband information signal over a relatively wideband (radio) band of frequencies. The receiver correlates the received signals to retrieve the original information signalling (telecommunication) signal. (See Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_spectrum as of Oct. 8, 2006.)
Phase Shift Keyed (PSK) waveforms are the basis of Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) systems used in a variety of wireless communications systems worldwide (Cellular, WiFi, etc.) Phase-shift keying (PSK) is a digital modulation scheme that conveys data by changing, or modulating, the phase of a reference signal (the carrier wave). (See Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-shift_keying as of Oct. 8, 2006.) DSSS represents a symbol by using a Pseudo-Noise sequence as described above. Specifically in a DSSS system the PN sequence is created through the use of many short bits of information called chips to avoid confusion with the bits of the message itself. DSSS transmissions are ideally preceded by a uniquely spread preamble. This preamble should be longer, in duration, than a bit to ensure a higher probability of detection. The downside of this is that a greater degree of frequency alignment between transmitter and receiver must be achieved in order to detect this longer preamble.
Significant frequency error must be handled by the preamble detection methods employed in a receiver. Significant frequency error is defined in this document as an error of +/−1/(4T) where T is the preamble period. This value results from the assumption of the use of Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK). Higher order PSK systems will typically be even more sensitive to frequency errors using existing techniques. For simplicity the BPSK based assumption is used, but its use should not be taken as an indication that SCSDC are only applicable to BPSK systems. SCSDC are generally applicable to PSK systems regardless of their order. Common methods to provide for adequate preamble detection in the presence of significant frequency error include the following approaches. The first and simplest involves a construction of a preamble from many shorter symbols. Shorter symbols are less susceptible to frequency errors, but also contain less energy and so are more likely to be missed or decoded improperly. The use of a preamble composed of many shorter symbols would help to partially counteract this problem. The probability of missing any one symbol is high, but the probability of missing all the symbols is low. The preamble must then be long enough so that at least one symbol is guaranteed to be detected at a rate in agreement with the system requirements. These smaller preamble symbols are detected and decoded individually with the overall pattern resulting from this symbol-by-symbol decoding being used to identify an incoming message.
Unfortunately, this approach can yield long preambles, which will result in an overhead hit on total channel throughput. In addition the reliance on short preamble symbols does not take advantage of the overall preamble length to optimize the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) aspects of DSSS systems.
A second method is to use a separate modulation scheme for the preamble that is not susceptible to frequency errors. Often these modulations schemes are implemented via a Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) such as Minimum Shift Keying (MSK) or Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GSMK). While these schemes are less susceptible to frequency error, they are not as well suited to Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) implementations. These schemes also complicate the receiver by requiring another method of signal detection/demodulation to be implemented along with the detection/demodulation circuitry required for processing the data portion of the signal.
The third method is the most straightforward. In this case a long preamble symbol is used and correlated for directly. The shortcoming here is the aforementioned increase in sensitivity to frequency error as the preamble symbol gets longer in duration.
Hence, a need exists in the art for a simple and easy to implement system or method for defining a preamble for a direct sequence spread spectrum system that preserves the direct sequence capability while providing increased tolerance for frequency error.


An apparatus for sealing a panel opening includes a plug body including an interior portion and an exterior portion. The exterior portion of the plug body includes a pair of opposed sealing surfaces forming an annular ring. The apparatus also includes a locking blade extending from the interior portion of the plug body across the exterior portion of the plug body. The locking blade is configured to rest in a first position disposed within the annular ring and a second position extending beyond the annular ring.

Automotive body panels, such as underbody panels, door panels, engine box panels, etc. are designed to include many shapes and sizes of openings, both to reduce the weight of the panels and to allow access to operators for tools and various fasteners to assemble the vehicle. After assembly of the vehicle, some of these openings can end up in positions, for example along the underbody, such that the openings allow noise, debris, or both noise and debris to pass through the body panel and increase the noise within the interior cabin of the vehicle or cause corrosion of other vehicle parts exposed to the debris.
Known measures to seal openings from debris and noise within body panels, for example, using the prior art plug 100 shown in FIG. 1, are not sufficient when forces on the prior art plug 100 caused by, for example, road debris or excess pressure, push the prior art plug 100 out of the opening, allowing the noise and debris to enter the opening. This condition is shown in prior art FIG. 2. Prior art FIG. 2 shows an opening 200 disposed in a body panel 202. In this example, the body panel 202 is an underbody panel. FIG. 2 also shows the prior art plug 100 of FIG. 1 in a pushed-out or unseated position. This unseated position of the prior art plug 100, which was previously seated, can be caused by excess pressure or debris forcing the prior art plug 100 from the seated position within the opening 200 of the body panel 202 to the unseated or pushed-out position.
The prior art plug 100 of FIGS. 1 and 2 can include an interior portion having a recessed trough 102 designed for use by an operator for insertion of the prior art plug 100. The prior art plug 100 can also include an exterior portion having an annular ring 104, the annular ring 104 formed of two opposed sealing surfaces 106, 108. The first (e.g. top) sealing surface 106 of the annular ring 104 is configured to lie against the front face of the body panel 202 when the prior art plug 100 is seated within the opening 200 and the second (e.g. bottom) sealing surface 108 of the annular ring 104 is configured to lie against the back face of the body panel 202 when the prior art plug 100 is seated within the opening 200.

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.


Armature start and finish wires are trimmed after connection to their associated commutator tang by use of a knife edge carried by an otherwise conventional lead guide mechanism. The lead guide mechanism moves the knife edge into position against the coil lead, and the coil lead is drawn across the knife edge by pivotal movement of a wire gripper holding the lead. The knife edge preferably comprise a blade removably secured to a portion of the lead guide mechanism, but the knife edge may alternatively be formed, by machining for example, on a part of the lead guide mechanism itself.

The present invention is intended for use in the manufacture of armatures of the type having an armature core and a commutator mounted in spaced relation on an armature shaft and wherein the commutator is provided with coil lead-receiving hooks or tangs. As used herein, the term "start wires" refers to the wire segments (also called "coil leads") leading to the first coils wound by the fliers. The term "finish wires" refers to the wire segments or coil leads extending from the last coils wound. In double flier armature winding machines having two fliers, there are two start and two finish wires.
Flier-type armature winding machines commonly have a commutator shield assembly including an inner shield and an outer shield. The inner shield is notched to expose a pair of commutator tangs to enable lead wires to be connected to them. When coils are being wound by the fliers, the outer shield covers the commutator tangs exposed through the inner shield notches to prevent the wire segments extending from the fliers from engaging the aforementioned commutator tangs. The outer shield is retracted from the path of the wire segments when the lead wire connections between the coil leads and the commutator tangs are to be made, as by reverse and forward movements of the fliers. Thus, coil lead connections to the tangs can be made by manipulation of the outer shield and the fliers.
In a typical process for winding an armature, the end of a wire segment extending from a flier is held by a wire gripper or clamp and the wire segment is looped around a commutator tang, after which the short strand of wire between the tang and the wire gripper is severed as close to the tang as possible. Coil lead connections between subsequently wound coils are made between the finish of the winding of one coil and the start of the winding of the next coil. A finish wire extending from the last coil to be wound by each flier is looped about the appropriate tang, the wire segment extending from that tang to the flier is clamped by the wire gripper or clamp, and the wire severed as closely as possible to the same tang. In a double flier armature winder, the foregoing process is carried out simultaneously by both fliers using duplicate sets of wire grippers and duplicate sets of wire cutters.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,812,577, granted to Jerry L. Compton and David R. Seitz on May 28, 1974, discloses an approach to the severing of the coil lead wires from an armature while it is located in a winding machine wherein either one or both of the start and finish wires are severed by relative movement of the wire clamps gripping the wires and the armature. As a result of such relative movement, the wires are stressed at the tangs and severed at or quite near the edges of the tangs. Accordingly, there is little excess wire left extending from the tangs and further trimming operations are unnecessary.
The approach disclosed in said Compton et al. '577 patent is frequently used, especially for relatively fine wire applications wherein there is a relatively high probability that the wire will break at the edge of the tang. There are circumstances in which start wires connected to tangs in accordance with the teachings of said Compton et al. '577 patent may be pulled off the tangs when the fliers commence rotation to wind the first coils. This problem may be cured in many cases by looping each start wire two times around its associated tang in the manner described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,208, granted to James N. Doyle on Jan. 30, 1973. However, it is not always desirable to employ the methods of said Doyle '308 patent due to the geometry of the commutator tangs. For example, a tang may be so configured that the additional start wire loop has an adverse effect upon the connection of the finish wire or upon the subsequent processing of the armature, such as the usual hot-staking or fusing of the tangs and the wire loops. Occasionally, wires severed from tangs in accordance with said Compton et al. '577 patent break at locations between the tangs and the wire clamps in which event the excess wire lengths must be manually trimmed. This can present a costly and difficult manufacturing problem when using modern high speed production equipment. In other cases, especially with relatively heavy wire, tangs may be bent when the clamps are moved to sever the wires.
A method and apparatus proposed to address the problems discussed above is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,633,577, issued to Alvin C. Banner on Jan. 6, 1987. With the mechanism shown in the Banner '577 patent, a pair of wire trimming members having sharp edges that may be located close to a pair of diametrically opposed tangs are provided, each of which is supported by an arm pivotally mounted on a part fixed in relation to the inner shield. A driving connection in the form of a pin and a cam slot is provided between each arm and the outer shield whereby each arm is caused to pivot in response to movements of the outer shield. Wire clamps that grip the wires are moved away from the trimming members whereupon the wires are pulled against and severed at the trimming edges because of the high stress concentration experienced by the wires at that point. The concept of breaking lead wires across the edges of trimming members is employed by the apparatus of this invention, and the Banner U.S. Pat. No. 4,633,577 is incorporated by reference herein.
The mechanism shown in the Banner '577 patent has not proved to be satisfactory because it is difficult to adjust and maintain in adjustment in addition to being relatively complex and space-consuming. Moreover, there is a tendency for the wires to be scraped or torn by the trimming edges rather to be cleanly broken.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,379,511, issued to Nathan A. Corey, Carl L. Clark, and Patrick A. Dolgas on Jan. 10, 1995, discloses a method and an apparatus that overcomes the deficiencies noted above with regard to the Banner '577 patent. The Corey et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,379,511 which is incorporated by reference herein, discloses severing a start or finish wire closely adjacent its associated commutator tang by positioning a wire trimming blade closely adjacent to the outer periphery of the inner shield and substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of an armature in the winding station. The trimming blade is mounted on a mounting bracket for pivotal or rocking movement about a pivot axis extending transversely through the blade and intermediate its ends. At its forward end, the trimming blade has a sharp end edge termed a "trimming edge".
When the outer shield is retracted to expose a pair of tangs, the trimming blade shown in the Corey et al. '511 patent is pivoted, by engagement therewith of a cam bearing member on the outer shield, into a position in which its forward end extends through a blade-receiving notch in the forward end of the inner shield and its wire trimming edge is located in a wire-severing position at or closely adjacent to a commutator tang and closer to the armature shaft than the outermost surfaces of the tangs. This locates the trimming blade so that a start or finish wire can be pulled over a portion of a trimming edge and severed closely adjacent the tang about which the start or finish wire is looped or hooked. The actual severing of a wire lead is accomplished by pulling the wire segment leading to the wire clamp or gripper against the sharp trimming edge by moving the wire gripper away from the armature core.
Severing coil leads in accordance with the Corey et al. '511 patent as well as severing coil leads in accordance with the other aforementioned methods and apparatus severs the wire sufficiently close to the tang for many applications. However, other applications require still closer start and finish wire trimming to produce acceptable parts.


A digital-to-analog converter generates a monotonic sequence of reference voltages and selects an arbitrary pair of reference voltages, adjacent in the monotonic sequence, according to digital input. A switching network charges a capacitor according to the difference between the two selected reference voltages, then connects another capacitor to the first capacitor to generate a voltage intermediate between the two selected reference voltages by redistributing charge between the capacitors. The switching network also selects one of the selected reference voltages or the intermediate voltage as the analog output voltage. This conversion scheme saves space with little or no increase in current consumption.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital-to-analog converter useful in, for example, a circuit that drives a liquid crystal display.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the recent increase in the size of liquid crystal display devices, various needs have arisen for improved performance in their driving circuits. One need is for a gradation scale with more gradation levels, especially for the display of more vivid colors. The current state of the art is a liquid crystal display device that can reproduce over one billion different colors by using ten bits of data (1024 gradation levels) for each of the three primaries (red, green, blue). The increased number of gradation levels demands improved performance from the digital-to-analog (D/A) converters that convert digital signals received from an outside source to analog signals. D/A converters of the resistor string type are often employed.
The simplest resistor string D/A converters have the structure shown in FIG. 8, which converts two-bit digital data (bits 1D and 2D and their complementary values 1DB and 2DB), and FIG. 9, which converts three-bit digital data (bits 1D–3D and their complementary values 1DB–3DB). An output decoder comprising transistor switches selects one of the voltage levels (V0, V1, V2, . . . ) generated by the resistor string (R1, R2, . . . ) for output (Vout). With this circuit configuration, each time the number of bits increases by one, the number of resistors and transistors substantially doubles, doubling the circuit area.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-183747 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,373,419) describes an alternative circuit configuration with fewer resistors and transistors, but the output decoder requires an averaging voltage-follower amplifier with two parallel differential input stages, an arrangement that consumes an undesirably large amount of current.

Digital-to-analog converter with switched capacitor network


An apparatus for mounting bus bars having at least one bus bar holder which can be attached to a loadbearing structure and which has at least one foot receptacle for introducing a foot section of a bus bar and fixing the latter by a holding piece. Simple, stable mounting of bus bars can be achieved if the holding piece is configured as a separate part which can be attached releasably or which is attached releasably to a base part of the bus bar holder and which has a connecting section for attachment to an adapted holding piece receptacle of the base part and a head part which engages over the former for fixing the foot section.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a bus bar mounting device having at least one bus bar holder, which can be applied to a support structure and that has at least one base receptacle for inserting a base section of a bus bar and fixing the base section in place by a holding element.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A bus bar mounting device is shown on pages 546, 552 and 553 of the RITTAL Handbook 29 (printed September 1997). With this known bus bar mounting device, bus bars with flat base sections, which laterally project in cross section, are received in matched base receptacles of bus bar holders. The base receptacles are shaped to correspond to the cross section of the base sections and are undercut on both sides. An intermediate section of the bus bars projects out of the bus bar holder through a center longitudinal opening of the base receptacles and, on its end facing away from the bus bar holder, makes a transition into a flat contacting section angled off toward one side. During mounting, a relative longitudinal displacement between the bus bar and the bus bar holder is required for relatively long bus bars of this type.


An apparatus and method for transmitting and receiving signals using multi-antennas are disclosed. The signal transmitting apparatus for transmitting signals to a plurality of receiving apparatuses, using multi-antennas, includes: a V generator which generates a beamforming matrix V for a predetermined channel; a water filling unit which does not perform water filling for a training signal that is pre-known by the receiving apparatuses, and performs water filling for a user signal to be transmitted by using the V matrix and predetermined control values; a V operation unit, which multiplies a signal output from the water filling unit by the V matrix and transmits the multiplied result through the multi-antennas; and a control value detector, which extracts the control values from signals received from the receiving apparatuses through the multi-antennas, and outputs a maximum value among the extracted values to the water filling unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for transmitting and receiving signals using multi-antennas.
2. Description of the Related Art
Methods for transmitting and receiving signals using multi-antennas have a higher channel-use efficiency than conventional methods using a single antenna. Such methods using multi-antennas include a method that obtains transmission diversity by using multi-antennas on a transmitting side, and a method that obtains receipt diversity by using multi-antennas on a receiving side. In addition, there have been provided a method that obtains transmission and receipt diversities by using multi-antennas on both a transmitting side and a receiving side, and a method that forms parallel channels to transmit and receive signals after optimizing a transmitting side through beamforming.
The method that uses multi-antennas on both the transmitting side and receiving side performs beamforming using these multi-antennas, and then performs water filling, and optimization of the transmitting side provides a higher transmission speed or a higher capacity under the same channel environments. In a system using frequency division duplex FDD, however, in which separate channels (bandwidths) are used for transmitting and receiving, the receiving channel information differs from the transmitting channel information. Therefore, the receiving side should estimate channel information and send the estimated information to the transmitting side, so that the transmitting side can "learn" the transmitting channel information. Consequently, the number of antennas increases, and twice as much channel information as the number of antennas is required. If the channel environment changes continuously, the transmission period of channel information to the transmitting side becomes faster, resulting in deterioration of channel-use-efficiency.
To solve these problems, in a general cellular communication system including one base station and a plurality of user communication terminals within one cell, the base station presumes a certain transmitting channel. The base station then performs beamforming to optimize itself to the presumed transmitting channel. Each communication terminal measures the effective signal-to-noise-ratio (ESNR) of a received signal, and sends the measured ESNR to the base station. Then, the base station compares the ESNR values received from the respective communication terminals, and transmits signals to a communication terminal having the best channel state, during a predetermined time period. Then, during a next predetermined time period, the base station again searches for a communication terminal having the best channel state, and transmits signals to the communication terminal having the best state. This is called a multi-user transmission method. However, it is difficult to optimize the base station in a multi-user transmission method because the base station performs beamforming and transmits the beams.

Apparatus and method for transmitting and receiving signals using multi-antennas


A portable hand-held optical reader having an optical reader for scanning a plurality of optical indicia on a generally horizontally oriented target surface. The reader has a tablet configuration with a display device on an upper side thereof and an optical window on the bottom side thereof for directing a scanning beam, laser or otherwise, downwardly, either vertically or obliquely. The reader may be configured to automatically utilize laser scanning for certain ranges between the reader and the target surface and to utilize non-laser scanning for other ranges between the reader and target surface. The reader is configured to read two-dimensional information, spaced either adjacently or separately, and to generate corresponding images of the two-dimensional information on the display device. The reader is configured to operatively correct for distortion caused by oblique scanning of the coded information. If certain of the images of the two-dimensional information are determined to be decodable by the reader, those certain images are so designated on the display, which has a touch sensitive screen. If desired, an operator of the unit may accept selected ones of the certain images for further processing by the unit by touching the corresponding screen areas with a stylus.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to code readers and particularly to readers which sense optically discernible symbol combinations or codes, such as bar codes and two-dimensional codes.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Hand-held optical character reading equipment that has been available in the past has not always performed well. The reader must be positioned and/or displaced accurately relative to the label for a valid read to occur. Operators usually "scrub" the label with the reader rather than carefully aligning the reader with the label, and often give up and manually key the information into the terminal.
The primary reason that accurate alignment is required is that the reader uses either a linear matrix of sensing elements, say sixty-four, or a rectangular matrix of sensing elements, say fourteen by forty. The recognition algorithms typically used in some of these systems assume that the sensor is oriented accurately over or across the character to be read with a misalignment of less than a relatively small angle. It is not surprising that few operators use the readers in this way, and that poor read rates and dissatisfaction with the criticality of the reader alignment during scanning have been serious problems.
Although some progress has been made in the development of an optical character reader ("OCR") product that has the capability of being operated portably, power consumption and circuit complexity remain as factors that have hindered development in this area.
Another complication with existing readers is the inability of users thereof to have a clear, unobstructed view of the target surface during the scanning process. Some progress has been made in this area but at the expense of providing substantially more complex and costly components which, in turn, place great demands on available power, which is of primary importance for portable equipment.
What is needed is a reliable hand-held optical reader that allows accurate oblique scanning of coded information and displays images of information scanned by the optical reader such that interference by the optical reader with an operator's view of the target area containing the coded information during the scanning process does not hinder the operator's use of the optical reader.

Tablet style indicia reader with system for handling multiple indicia


A screw feeder adapter includes a housing having a first connecting portion for connection to a screw feeder, a second connecting portion, and a retaining portion connected between the first connecting portion and the second connecting portion, a coupling member connectable to a power screwdriver and coupled to the second connecting portion of the housing through a rotary motion, and two locking units respectively pivoted to the retaining portion of the housing at two sides and forced by a respective spring member to engage into a respective retaining hole at the housing and a respective retaining groove at the coupling member to lock the coupling member to the housing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to power hand tools and more particularly, to a screw feeder adapter for detachably connecting a screw feeder to a power screwdriver.
2. Description of the Related Art
When proceeding with a screw fastening or unfastening task, a manual screwdriver or a power screwdriver may be used. Further, when performing a task that requires installation of a big amount of screws, a screw feeder or screw magazine may be used with a power screwdriver so that screws can be automatically fed into the power screwdriver and quickly driven into the workpiece with the power screwdriver. According to a conventional design, the connection between a screw feeder and a power screwdriver is done through a lock nut. However, it takes much time to connect the screw feeder to the power screwdriver with the lock nut and to rotate the lock nut to the locking position. When wishing to detach the screw feeder from the power screwdriver, it also takes much time to rotate the lock nut from the locking position to the unlocking position and then to disconnect the screw feeder and the lock nut from the power screwdriver.

Screw feeder adapter for a power screwdriver


This invention provides a starch derived from a single plant source, comprising less than 10%, optionally less than 5%, amylopectin. The starch additionally comprises at least 75% amylose, optionally at least 85% amylose, measured by butanol fractionation/exclusion chromatography measurement. In another aspect of this invention, the starch is extracted in substantially pure form from a starch bearing plant having a recessive amylose extender genotype that is associated with amylose extender modifying genes. The starch bearing plant from which the starch is extracted is preferably a maize plant.

This invention relates to a low amylopectin starch having unique molecular and functional characteristics. The starch may be obtained from a number of sources, including a novel corn breeding population comprising germplasm selections which are homozygous for the recessive amylose extender (ae) gene and into which ae modifier genes have been accumulated by recurrent selection.
High amylose starches have been known for many years. Such starches are derived from unique breeding sources, such as high amylose corn inbreds and their hybrids, wrinkled pea cultivars, high amylose barley cultivars, and the like. Starches obtained from these sources have been exploited commercially for their unique functional properties, such as superior film-forming ability, higher cooking temperature, higher gel strength, improved water resistance, and other properties attributed to the higher amylose content, relative to the amylopectin content, of these starches. Amylose is a linear polymer; amylopectin a larger, branched polymer of glucose.
The amylose content of starches obtained from nature varies widely, but remains less than one-third of the total starch content for the majority of starches derived from agricultural crops. The balance of the starch is generally described as amylopectin.
To date, commercially available high amylose starches have been marketed as either 50% amylose or 70% amylose starch. A range of about 40-75% amylose has been reported for commercial products. The existence of high amylose corn starches containing up to 88% amylose has been disclosed in scientific publications. However, it is generally accepted by persons skilled in the art that early methods used to isolate and analyze high amylose starches for amylose content were flawed, and early reports of amylose content in excess of 70% are viewed with skepticism. Amylose content has been described as "apparent amylose" because branched molecules having long outer chains yield an over-estimation of amylose content by potentiometric iodine analysis. See, Shannon, J. C. and Garwood, D. L., Chapter 3 in Starch: Chemistry and Technology, 2nd Ed., Whistler, R. L., BeMiller, J. N., and Paschall, E. F., Eds., Academic Press, Orlando, Fla. (1984) pp. 54-59. This publication also suggests that the presence of low molecular weight amylose may result in an underestimation of amylose content. In addition to experimental error, the location of the kernel on the ear, growing conditions, growing location and other plant variables are known to affect amylose content. Adverse growing conditions (e.g., drought) are known to reduce amylose content by as much as 7.7% in starch extracted from the grain of high amylose corn plants. See, e.g., V. L. Fergason, et al., Crop Sci, 5:169 (1965).
As more reliable means of analysis have been developed, the commercial high amylose starches derived from corn hybrids have been shown to contain at least 25% amylopectin, and, typically, no more than 75% amylose determined by potentiometric and colorimetric iodine analysis.
In the 1960's and early 1970's, C. T. Greenwood, G. K. Atkins, W. Banks and others, collaborated on a study of the chemical structure of the starches obtained from high amylose plant sources. The work included fractionation of the high amylose corn starch into various molecular components and physical, enzymatic and chemical analyses of the fine structure of the starch. No exclusion chromatography or other, similar, molecular weight analyses of amylopectin content were reported. The collaborators used commercially available starches having an "apparent amylose" content of about 50-75%. Their work is reported in the following publications:
Greenwood, C. T., and J. Thomson: Chem. Ind. (1960), 1110; PA1 Greenwood, C. T., and J. Thomson: Biochem. J. 82 (1962), 156; PA1 G. K. Adkins and C. T. Greenwood, Starke, 18 (1966) 171; PA1 Greenwood, C. T., and S. MacKenzie: Carbohydrate Res. 3 (1966), 7; PA1 Adkins, G. K., and C. T. Greenwood: Starke 18 (1966), 237; PA1 Adkins, G. K., and C. T. Greenwood: Starke 18 (1966), 240; PA1 Adkins, G. K., and C. T. Greenwood: Carbohydrate Res. 3 (1966), 81; PA1 Adkins, G. K., and C. T. Greenwood: Carbohydrate Res. 3 (1966), 152; PA1 Banks, W., and C. T. Greenwood: Carbohydrate Res. 6 (1968), 241; PA1 Adkins, G. K., and C. T. Greenwood: Carbohydrate Res. 11 (1969), 217; PA1 Adkins, G. K., C. T. Greenwood and D. J. Hourston: Cereal Chem. 47 (1970), 13; PA1 Banks, W., C. T. Greenwood and D. D. Muir: Starke 23 (1971), 199; PA1 Greenwood, C. T. and D. J. Hourston: Starke 23 (1971), 344; and PA1 Banks, W., C. T. Greenwood and D. D. Muir: Starke 26 (1974), 289 (a review of the work in this area).
In their publications, the collaborators identified the presence of a lower molecular weight starch constituent in addition to the normal amylose and amylopectin constituents. The collaborators reported that although the composition of this lower molecular weight fraction was not completely understood or characterized, the fraction appeared to be a low molecular weight, linear, amylose-like component. This fraction formed a complex with iodine that was typical of amylose (and atypical of amylopectin). The collaborators were uncertain as to whether the low molecular weight fraction contained branched molecules. Amylose ("normal amylose") content did not exceed 65%, even in a sample with an "apparent amylose" content of 75%. The collaborators disclosed difficulty in fully solubilizing the high amylose starches. They suggested that the amylose content of the starches reported in the literature had been overstated and noted that the error inherent in iodine affinity measurements of amylose content results in an inability to confirm iodine binding results using measurements by other techniques, such as butanol complexing and fractionation, or enzymatic characterization. However, they concluded from butanol fractionation, iodine binding and enzyme studies that an amylopectin content as low as 4% of the total starch had been observed in a "75% apparent amylose" (65% "normal amylose") starch.
Similar difficulties in measuring amylose content (both in ordinary and high amylose starches) have been reported elsewhere. See, e.g., A. H. Young, Chapter 8 in Starch: Chemistry and Technology, supra, pp. 249-265, 274-277 and 282.
It has now been discovered, by using more reliable measuring techniques, (e.g., full starch dispersion followed by butanol fractionation and exclusion chromatography) that a starch containing in excess of 75%, optionally in excess of 85%, amylose (normal amylose), together with about 8 to 25% low molecular weight amylose-like materials and less than 10%, optionally less than 5%, amylopectin may be extracted from a novel corn breeding population having a recessive amylose extender gene. The corn population is a genetic composite comprising germplasm selections which are homozygous for the ae gene and into which ae modifier genes have been accumulated by recurrent selection. The "ae modifier genes" are minor genes which interact epistatically with the ae gene to produce high amylose seed starch. It has been discovered that this "ae starch" has unique functional properties when compared to high amylose starch having 50 or 70% amylose, as well as when compared to ordinary corn starch, or waxy maize (100% amylopectin) starch.
It has further been discovered that if a starch blend is prepared from non-ae starch fractions so as to minic the molecular composition of the ae starch derived from the corn breeding population, then such a starch blend exhibits similar functional benefits in various applications.
Finally, it has been discovered that a starch having in excess of 75% amylose and less than 10% amylopectin has unique functional properties which can be exploited in many commercial applications, where starches and other polysaccharides and polyhydric alcohols traditionally have been used.

National Starch and Chemical Investment Holding Corporation


A non-volatile memory device includes a plurality of MOS transistors 34 and 36 connected to respective word lines 16 and 18 to allow individual pages of memory stored in the memory cells 8a, 10a and 8b, 10b on the respective word lines 16 and 18 to be erased and erase verified. A method of erasing a page of memory cells includes the steps of applying an erase voltage to one of the MOS transistors 16 and 18 to erase the page of memory cells along the respective word line, and applying an initial erase-inhibit floating voltage to other MOS transistors which are connected to the word lines unselected for page erase. In an erase verify mode, an erase verify voltage is applied to the word line which was selected for page erase in the erase mode, and an erase verify unselect voltage is applied to the word lines which was not selected for page erase.

Non-volatile memory devices have been developed by the semiconductor integrated circuit industry for various applications such as computers and digital communications. Examples of non-volatile memory devices include conventional electronically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs) and flash memories. A conventional EEPROM typically includes a plurality of dual-gate NAND memory gates arranged in an array on a semiconductor chip.
In a conventional NAND non-volatile memory array, the NAND memory gates are arranged in a plurality of rows and columns, with each row of the NAND gates connected to a respective word line and each column of the NAND gates connected to a respective bit line. Each NAND gate typically has a dual-gate structure which includes a floating gate, a control gate, and an interpolysilicon dielectric layer between the floating gate and the control gate. When the NAND flash memory circuit is implemented on a silicon-based semiconductor chip, the floating gates are formed by a patterned first polysilicon (POLY-1) layer, and the control gates are formed by a patterned second polysilicon (POLY-2) layer on top of the interpolysilicon layer and the POLY-1 layer. The bit lines are implemented on the semiconductor chip as metal layer strips which are connected across the respective columns of the NAND memory gates, whereas the word lines are implemented as POLY-2 layer strips which are connected across the control gates of the respective rows of the NAND memory gates.
In a conventional NAND flash memory array, the NAND gates on each word line are capable of storing a binary word consisting of a plurality of bits. The conventional NAND flash memory device has five modes of operation, including a program mode, a program verify mode, a read mode, an erase mode, and an erase verify mode. A page is defined as one word of memory storage on a single word line. A sector is defined as a plurality of pages, for example, sixteen pages of memory storage. During the operation of a conventional NAND flash memory array in the erase mode, a whole sector of memory cells is erased at a time. When the conventional NAND flash memory array is in the erase verify mode after the erase operation, the whole sector of memory cells is erase verified at a time.
A disadvantage of having to erase a whole sector of multiple pages of memory cells at a time is that an application may require the erasure of some of the words while retaining others in the same sector of memory cells. Because of the inconvenience of having to erase a whole sector of memory cells at a time, if some of the words in a sector are desired to be retained, the conventional NAND flash memory device would require rewriting the words which are to be retained after the erasure of the whole sector of memory cells. Therefore, there is a need for a NAND flash memory device and a method of erasing portions of a sector of memory cells without having to erase the whole sector.

Scheme for page erase and erase verify in a non-volatile memory array


An image decoding method includes: arithmetic decoding steps for performing arithmetic decoding processes on decoding target signals according to contexts determined based on the types of the decoding target signals and the symbol occurrence probabilities determined based on the contexts; and a context update step for executing a group of context update processes on the decoding target signals in each of processing units each obtained as a segment having a certain size, according to the decoded signals resulting from the arithmetic decoding processes.

Recent years have seen an increase in the number of applications for services of, for example, video on demand type services. Examples of such services include video-conferencing through the Internet, digital video broadcasting, and streaming of video contents. These applications rely on transmission of video information. When video data is transmitted or recorded, a considerable amount of data is transmitted through a conventional transmission path having a limited bandwidth or is stored in a conventional recording medium having a limited data storage capacity. In order to transmit the video information through the conventional transmission channel or store the video information onto the storage medium, it is essential to compress or reduce the amount of digital data.
For the purpose of compressing video data, many video coding standards have been developed. Such video coding standards are, for instance, the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) standards denoted as H.26× and the ISO/IEC standards denoted as MPEG-x. The most advanced video coding standards are currently the standards denoted as H.264/AVC or MPEG-4/AVC (see Non-patent Literature 1 and Non-patent Literature 2).
The data compression processes in the H.264/AVC Standard is roughly divided into prediction, transform, quantization, and entropy coding. The entropy coding is intended to reduce redundant information in information to be used for the prediction and quantized information. Representatives of entropy coding include variable-length coding, adaptive coding, and fixed-length coding. Representatives of variable-length coding include Huffman coding, run-length coding, and arithmetic coding. Among these, arithmetic coding is known as a scheme which is intended to determine output codes by calculating symbol occurrence probabilities and which provides a high coding efficiency by determining codes according to the features of image data, compared to Huffman coding which uses a fixed coding table.
With reference to FIGS. 22 to 24, a conventional arithmetic decoding method is described.
First, a flow of arithmetic decoding is described below with reference to FIGS. 22 to 24.
FIG. 22 is a block diagram of a structure of an arithmetic decoder which performs conventional H.264/AVC arithmetic decoding processes. As shown in FIG. 22, the arithmetic decoder 90 includes a context selection (Context Selection) unit 91, a context load (Context Load) unit 92, a binary arithmetic decoder (Bin Decoder) 93, a de-binarizer (De-Binarizer) 94, a context update (Context Update) unit 95, and context memory (Context Memory) 96.
FIG. 23 is a flowchart of the arithmetic decoding processes.
First, the context selection unit 91 performs a process for selecting a context for each of decoding target signals (Step S01). In the context selection, for example, an already decoded decoding symbol or an already decoded signal of a de-binarized neighboring block is obtained. According to a predetermined method, the context is determined and the determined context number is notified to the context load unit 92.
The context load unit 92 loads a symbol occurrence probability corresponding to the context specified by the context memory 96 according to the context number (Step S02). Based on the loaded symbol occurrence probability, the binary arithmetic decoder 93 performs an arithmetic decoding process (Step S03).
The context update unit 95 performs an update process on the context used for decoding from the decoding symbol resulting from the arithmetic decoding (Step S04). In the context update process, the symbol occurrence probability corresponding to the context is updated, and the updated symbol occurrence probability is stored in the context memory 96. On the other hand, the decoded symbols resulting from the arithmetic decoding are subjected to a de-binarization process (Step S05), and decoded signals obtained from the decoding target signals are output.
FIG. 24 is a schematic diagram of processing timings for parallel processes implemented to perform faster arithmetic decoding processes.
FIG. 24 illustrates, along a time axis, a context selection process (CS), a context load process (CL), a binary arithmetic decoding process (BAD), and a context update (CU) operation in a processing circuit for a process 1 (Proc1). For simplicity, the time periods required for the respective processes and operation are equal in FIG. 24. This example also shows a process 2 (Proc2), a process 3 (Proc3), and a process 4 (Proc4).
Each of parts associated by a corresponding one of the arrows in the diagram has a dependency that they need to be processed in the sequence shown by the arrow. In the binary arithmetic decoding process, a current internal state in binary arithmetic decoding is updated for each decoding. This is why the binary arithmetic decoding process involves such a dependency. In addition, in the case where the same context is used (as in the case shown in the diagram), a result of updating the context is further used for reference, and thus there is a dependency between the context update (CU) and the context load (CL) for next decoding.

Image coding method and image decoding method

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION OF AMERICA


A robot hand apparatus (1) includes a base (2); a motor (M); a first-link (10) supported by the base (2) while allowing the rotation around a first axis (S1), which is in parallel to an actuation axis (G) of the motor (M) and is positioned apart from the actuation axis (G), the first-link (10) has a first guide path (11b) movably supporting a control axis (42); a second link (20) which connects with the actuation axis (G) and supports the control axis (42), and moves the control axis (42) within the first guide path (11b) in accordance with the rotation of the actuation axis (G); and a finger link (F1) supported by the first link (10) while allowing the rotation around a second axis; and the finger link (F1) directly or indirectly links with the control axis (42) and is rotated by the actuation of the control axis (42).

Conventionally, a research and development of a robot hand apparatus mimicking a hand of a human has been made to make the robot to do various kinds of tasks.
For representing the function of a thumb among five fingers of a human, for example, two crossing axes are required, if it is assumed a palm is facing upside (see Japanese unexamined patent publication JP No. 2003-117873). Here, one of two crossing axes is an axis for rotating a thumb in a height direction, and the other of two crossing axes is an axis for rotating the thumb in a left-and-right direction.
In the conventional robot hand apparatus, however, a total of two sets, each consisting of a motor, a reduction unit, and a motor driver, are required for each axis, for actuating the finger around two crossing axes. In this case, since the number of the parts and the weight of the robot hand apparatus are increased, this becomes the defect for a humanoid-type robot restricted in a volume and an output.
Therefore, the robot hand apparatus which can actuate a finger around two crossing axes with simple mechanism has been required.


This invention not only separates printing and barcode checking as independent processes but also simplifies printer processing to allow to print a large number of barcodes at high speed and to satisfactorily check barcodes. For this purpose, when a print control circuit unit (501) receives print information including a barcode, information associated with barcode checking is transmitted to a barcode checker unit (601) prior to printing. Upon actually printing an image including a barcode, when the printed barcode is conveyed to the position of a reader (603) in the barcode checker unit (601), an RD.sub.-- TRG signal is output to check the printed barcode. Upon reception of this signal, the barcode checker unit (601) reads the printed barcode a plurality of number of times at different positions, and when the normal reading ratio is low, it outputs an error signal to the print control circuit unit (501).

The present invention relates to a barcode printing system and its control method and, more particularly, to a barcode printing system for printing and checking barcodes, and a control method of the system.
Ink-jet printers form ejected inks by various schemes and attach them onto printing media such as recording paper sheets. Among such printers, ink-jet printers that use heat as energy for forming ejected inks have excellent features. That is, a plurality of ejection orifices can be arranged at high density, and such high-density arrangement allows to obtain a high-resolution, high-quality image at high speed and also to easily form a color image.
Of such ink-jet printers, the printers described in Japanese Patent Application Nos. 05-196196 and 06-110097 have a plurality of full-line type ink-jet print heads each having a width equal to that of the printing medium, and are applied to label printers and barcode printers that can obtain high-quality color images at high speed.
Since such printer produces a bubble in ink by heat energy in each ejection orifice, and directly ejects the ink from the ejection orifice of a print head by the pressure of the bubble, it is required to always maintain a stable ejection state of the ink.
However, ejection becomes unstable due to the influences of a bubble present in the ink, dried ink at the ejection orifice, attachment of paper dust onto the surface of the print head, and the like, resulting in non-ejection, mislanding of inks, and the like. In order to suppress non-ejection and mislanding of inks, such apparatus performs ink recovery at predetermined time intervals or exploits an improved recovery means, recovery sequence, and the like.
However, it is impossible to completely prevent non-ejection and mislanding of inks, and the printed image may often deteriorate due to non-ejection or mislanding of inks that occur suddenly.
In particular, when the printed image includes a barcode, print deterioration that does not pose any problem in a normal image may disturb reading of the image using a user's barcode reader.
In order to prevent the above-mentioned problem that the printed barcode cannot be read by the barcode reader, for example, the barcode reader is directly set at the downstream side of the printer convey path to read the printed bar code, after the printed barcode is read, the read barcode data is compared with printed barcode data to check if the barcode is OK/NG, and error processing is done if necessary.
However, in the method of comparing the printed barcode data and the read barcode data using the barcode reader, data transfer, data comparison, and the like between a control circuit of the printer and the barcode reader require much time. For this reason, during checking the barcode, printing must be interrupted or the print speed must be decreased, thus hampering high-speed printing. In order to realize high-speed data communications, a dedicated high-speed IF and the like must be inserted between the barcode reader and the control circuit, and the control circuit itself must use a high-speed CPU, resulting in high cost.

Barcode printing system and its control method


A lithographic projection apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus includes an illumination system for providing a beam of radiation used to irradiate a patterning device, and a first support that supports the patterning device. The patterning device capable of patterning the beam of radiation. The apparatus also includes a second support that supports a substrate, a projection system for projecting the patterned beam of radiation onto a target portion of the substrate, and a projection system positioning module that controls at least one of a position and an orientation of the projection system based on at least one of a velocity and an acceleration of the projection system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of lithography. More specifically, the present invention relates to the mounting of a projection system of a lithographic projection apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
The term "patterning device" as here employed should be broadly interpreted as referring to devices that can be used to endow an incoming radiation beam with a patterned cross-section, corresponding to a pattern that is to be created in a target portion of the substrate; the term "light valve" can also be used in this context. Generally, the said pattern will correspond to a particular functional layer in a device being created in the target portion, such as an integrated circuit or other device (see below). Examples of such patterning devices include:                A mask. The concept of a mask is well known in lithography, and it includes mask types such as binary, alternating phase-shift, and attenuated phase-shift, as well as various hybrid mask types. Placement of such a mask in the radiation beam causes selective transmission (in the case of a transmissive mask) or reflection (in the case of a reflective mask) of the radiation impinging on the mask, according to the pattern on the mask. When using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation, only reflective masks are suitable, for reasons well known to a person skilled in the art. In the case of a mask, the support structure will generally be a mask table, which ensures that the mask can be held at a desired position in the incoming radiation beam, and that it can be moved relative to the beam if so desired;        A programmable mirror array. One example of such a device is a matrix-addressable surface having a viscoelastic control layer and a reflective surface. The basic principle behind such an apparatus is that (for example) addressed areas of the reflective surface reflect incident light as diffracted light, whereas unaddressed areas reflect incident light as undiffracted light. Using an appropriate filter, the said undiffracted light can be filtered out of the reflected beam, leaving only the diffracted light behind; in this manner, the beam becomes patterned according to the addressing pattern of the matrix-addressable surface. An alternative embodiment of a programmable mirror array employs a matrix arrangement of tiny mirrors, each of which can be individually tilted about an axis by applying a suitable localized electric field, or by employing piezoelectric actuation means. Once again, the mirrors are matrix-addressable, such that addressed mirrors will reflect an incoming radiation beam in a different direction to unaddressed mirrors; in this manner, the reflected beam is patterned according to the addressing pattern of the matrix-addressable mirrors. The required matrix addressing can be performed using suitable electronic devices. In both of the situations described here above, the patterning devices can comprise one or more programmable mirror arrays. More information on mirror arrays as here referred to can be gleaned, for example, from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,296,891 and 5,523,193, and PCT patent applications WO 98/38597 and WO 98/33096, which are incorporated herein by reference. In the case of a programmable mirror array, the said support structure may be embodied as a frame or table, for example, which may be fixed or movable as required; and        A programmable LCD array. An example of such a construction is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,229,872, which is incorporated herein by reference. As above, the support structure in this case may be embodied as a frame or table, for example, which may be fixed or movable as required.For purposes of simplicity, the rest of this text may, at certain locations, specifically direct itself to examples involving a mask and mask table; however, the general principles discussed in such instances should be seen in the broader context of the patterning devices as here above set forth.
Lithographic projection apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In such a case, the patterning devices may generate a circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the IC, and this pattern can be imaged onto a target portion (e.g. comprising one or more dies) on a substrate (silicon wafer) that has been coated with a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). In general, a single wafer will contain a whole network of adjacent target portions that are successively irradiated via the projection system, one at a time. In current apparatus, employing patterning by a mask on a mask table, a distinction can be made between two different types of machine. In one type of lithographic projection apparatus, each target portion is irradiated by exposing the entire mask pattern onto the target portion in one go; such an apparatus is commonly referred to as a wafer stepper or step and repeat apparatus. In an alternative apparatus—commonly referred to as a step and scan apparatus—each target portion is irradiated by progressively scanning the mask pattern under the projection beam in a given reference direction (the "scanning" direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate table parallel or anti parallel to this direction; since, in general, the projection system will have a magnification factor M (generally<1), the speed V at which the substrate table is scanned will be a factor M times that at which the mask table is scanned. More information with regard to lithographic devices as here described can be gleaned, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,792, incorporated herein by reference.
In a manufacturing process using a lithographic projection apparatus, a pattern (e.g. in a mask) is imaged onto a substrate that is at least partially covered by a layer of radiation sensitive material (resist). Prior to this imaging step, the substrate may undergo various procedures, such as priming, resist coating and a soft bake. After exposure, the substrate may be subjected to other procedures, such as a post exposure bake (PEB), development, a hard bake and measurement/inspection of the imaged features. This array of procedures is used as a basis to pattern an individual layer of a device, e.g. an IC. Such a patterned layer may then undergo various processes such as etching, ion implantation (doping), metallization, oxidation, chemo mechanical polishing, etc., all intended to finish off an individual layer. If several layers are required, then the whole procedure or a variant thereof, will have to be repeated for each new layer. Eventually, an array of devices will be present on the substrate (wafer). These devices are, then separated from one another by a technique such as dicing or sawing, whence the individual devices can be mounted on a carrier, connected to pins, etc. Further information regarding such processes can be obtained, for example, from the book "Microchip Fabrication: A Practical Guide to Semiconductor Processing", Third Edition, by Peter van Zant, McGraw Hill Publishing Co., 1997, ISBN 0 07 067250 4, incorporated herein by reference.
For the sake of simplicity, the projection system may hereinafter be referred to as the "lens"; however, this term should be broadly interpreted as encompassing various types of projection system, including refractive optics, reflective optics, and catadioptric systems, for example. The radiation system may also include components operating according to any of these design types for directing, shaping or controlling the projection beam of radiation, and such components may also be referred to below, collectively or singularly, as a "lens". Further, the lithographic apparatus may be of a type having two or more substrate tables (and/or two or more mask tables). In such "multiple stage" devices the additional tables may be used in parallel, or preparatory steps may be carried out on one or more tables while one or more other tables are being used for exposures. Dual stage lithographic apparatus are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,441 and WO 98/40791, both incorporated herein by reference.
The projection system as described above usually comprises one or more, for instance six, optical elements, such as lenses and/or mirrors. The optical elements direct the projection beam through the projection system and project it onto the target portion. In case the radiation system supplies a projection beam of EUV-radiation, mirrors should be used instead of lenses, in order to direct the projection beam, since lenses are not translucent to EUV-radiation.
When an extreme ultraviolet projection beam is used for projecting relatively small patterns, the demands for the projection system concerning the accuracy are rather high. For instance, a mirror, which is positioned with a tilting error of 1 nm, can result in a projection error of approximately 4 nm on the wafer.
A projection system for projecting an extreme ultraviolet projection beam comprises, for instance, 6 mirrors. Usually, one of the mirrors has a fixed spatial orientation, while the other five are mounted on e.g. Lorentz-force actuated mounts. These mounts can preferably adjust the orientation of the mirrors in 6 degrees of freedom (6-DoF-mounts) using 6 Lorentz-force motors per mirror. The projection system further comprises sensors for measuring the spatial orientation of the mirrors.
The projection system is mounted on a reference, or metrology frame, by means of, for example, compliant mounting devices. These mounting devices present low-pass characteristics, having a cut-off or Eigen frequency of, for example, about 30 Hz. This is done to stabilize the projection beam and isolate it from vibrations and disturbances coming from the environment, such as adjacent systems. The reference frame is, in turn, mounted on a so-called base frame through a very soft mount, in conventional lithographic apparatus called an 'air mount'. These mounts have low-pass characteristics and may have an Eigen frequency of approximately 0.5 Hz. Onto the reference frame, amongst others, an interferometer wafer stage position measurement system is mounted. The mirrors in the projection system need to be positioned very accurately with respect to each other, whereas the wafer stage and reticle stage need to be positioned very accurately with respect to this set of mirrors again.
Currently, positioning the mirrors relative to each other is being done by attaching one rigidly to a frame of the projection system, hereinafter called the projection optics box or POB. The other mirrors are actively positioned relative to the POB. Positioning accuracy depends, amongst other things, on the level of disturbance of the POB. Currently, the level of disturbance of the POB is too high to rigidly attach the POB to the reference frame. Possible causes for disturbance are:                Base frame motion; the reference frame is mounted on this base frame through springs which are very soft but still finite in stiffness. So, vibration of the base frame causes some force disturbance being introduced into the reference frame. This base frame, in turn, just stands on the floor, thus being subject to floor vibrations. Also, stage acceleration forces, left over after balancing, are being exerted onto this base frame, again causing vibration;        Air mount noise. They cause noise-like force disturbance exerted onto the reference frame;        Noise from water-cooling. It is expected that cooling of the reference frame is required or desired. This will be done by water-cooling. The flow of water through the pipes and tubes also causes force noise to be exerted onto the reference frame; and        Internal dynamical modes of the reference frame or of other modules attached to the reference frame.Because current positioning systems use passive elements, like soft mounts, for suppressing vibrations in the projection system, vibrations coming from a reference, or metrology frame still affect the projection system, mounted thereon.

Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method