In a security and alarm service environment, a method and system for verifying the continuity of a telephone line 317 connected to a subscriber terminal unit (STU) 310 at a customer's premises. The STU 310 is connected by telephone line 317 to a network interface 315 which is connected to a line unit 320 by a twisted pair 325. Line unit 320 is located in remote terminal 330 which is connected to switch 335 by digital loop 340. Switch 335 is connected to scanner 345 by trunk group 350 and SMDI link 355. A low tone generator in STU 310 generates a low frequency tone that is transmitted to line unit 320. If telephone line 317 is cut, if STU 310 malfunctions, or if an alarm condition at the customer's premises is detected by STU 310, then the low tone is not received by line unit 320. Remote terminal 330 encodes a signaling bit that is transmitted over digital loop 340 to switch 335. The encoded signaling bit indicates whether or not the low tone was received by line unit 320. Switch 335 reads the encoded signaling bit and, if the encoded signaling bit indicates that the low tone was not received, sends a directory number to the scanner 345. The switch 335 connects the scanner 345 to the telephone line 317 so that the alarm service provider can query the STU 310 to determine the problem.

Burglar alarms, fire alarms and other security monitoring alarms have become commonplace in modern society. The competition for customers, or subscribers, has become fierce among alarm service providers. Alarm service providers who can provide fast and effective alarm service at a low price have the best chance of surviving in this competitive environment. Thus, alarm service providers are searching for ways to provide cheaper, faster and more effective service to their customers.
A typical alarm system includes a subscriber terminal unit, or STU, located at the customer's premises. The STU can be connected to a number of different alarm sensors located throughout the customer's premises. The STU is connected to the alarm service provider by a telephone line. When necessary, the STU performs various tasks by sending signals to the alarm service provider and receiving signals from the alarm service provider over the telephone line. Alarm service is not possible if the telephone line malfunctions or is cut, because signals can not be sent back and forth between the alarm service provider and the STU. Therefore, most alarm service providers verify the continuity of the telephone line connected to the STU, i.e., monitor that the telephone line is operating properly, because the telephone line is critical for effective alarm service.
Systems are known for verifying the continuity of a telephone line connected to a STU. In one known system, designed for use with a twisted copper pair transmission medium, the subscriber terminal unit (STU) transmits a constant low frequency tone, or low tone (LT), over the twisted copper pair to a central office. When the LT is no longer detected at the central office, such as when the telephone line is cut, either: (1) the alarm service provider is notified that there is a problem, or (2) the central office sends a signal back to the STU to determine the problem with the STU.
Although the system described above for transmitting and monitoring a low tone works when the transmission medium is strictly a twisted copper pair, many new transmission links are digital. Problems are encountered when the transmission medium includes a digital transmission link because the low tone is filtered out. Thus, alternative systems for verifying the continuity of a customer's telephone line have been developed for use with digital loop carriers (DLCs), such as the system shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a known system 100 for verifying the continuity of a telephone line for use with a non-integrated digital loop system. A non-integrated digital loop system includes a digital transmission link, but the digital transmission link is terminated in a main distribution frame before reaching a switch. System 100 includes a telephone handset 105 and a subscriber terminal unit (STU) 110, each of which are connected to network interface 115 by a telephone line 117. Both telephone handset 105 and STU 110 are located at a customer's premises. Network interface 115 is connected to remote terminal 120 by twisted pair 125.
Twisted pair 125 terminates in a first line unit 130 of remote terminal 120. Remote terminal 120 is connected to central office terminal 135 by digital loop 140. A second line unit 145, located at central office terminal 135, is connected to a main distribution frame (MDF) 150 by twisted pair 155. The main distribution frame 150 is connected to a scanner 160 and a switch 165 by twisted pairs 170 and 175, respectively. Although only one scanner is shown in FIG. 1, there may be numerous scanners, associated with a number of different alarm service providers, connected to MDF 150.
As described above, when the transmission medium is strictly a twisted copper pair, a STU transmits a constant low tone (LT) over the twisted copper pair to a central office. However, when the transmission medium includes a digital transmission link, such as digital loop 140 in FIG. 1, the low tone, because of its low frequency, is filtered out at the remote terminal 120. Therefore, to overcome this problem, the system 100, shown in FIG. 1, was developed.
The system 100 shown in FIG. 1 functions as follows. STU 110 includes a low tone generator (not shown) that transmits a low frequency tone, or low tone (LT), over telephone line 117 and twisted pair 125. The first line unit 130 (LU) monitors for the low tone on twisted pair 125. Remote terminal 120 encodes a signaling bit carried between the remote terminal 120 and the central office terminal (COT) 135 over digital loop 140. The signaling bit is encoded to indicate whether the LT was or was not received by the first line unit 130.
The COT 135 monitors the signaling bit and instructs a low tone generator (not shown) in the second LU 145 either to transmit a LT or not to transmit a LT. If the signaling bit indicates that the LT was received by the first LU 130, then the low tone generator in the second LU 145 is instructed to transmit the LT. The second LU 145 transmits the LT over twisted pair 155 and twisted pair 170 to scanner 160. The scanner 160, monitored by the alarm service provider, detects the LT to verify the continuity of telephone line 117.
However, if the signaling bit indicates that the LT was not received by the first LU 130, then the low tone generator in the second LU 145 does not transmit the LT. The scanner 160 then detects that the LT is not being generated and that the telephone line 117 has been cut or is otherwise malfunctioning. The alarm service provider then initiates a telephone call to the STU 110 in an attempt to determine the nature of the malfunction.
The system 100 described above in reference to FIG. 1 functions with non-integrated digital loop carriers. However, for integrated digital loop carriers, the system 100 does not function properly because there is no central office terminal between the remote terminal and the switch to recognize the signaling bit. In addition, the switch is unable to recognize the signaling bit that indicates whether the low tone was received.
Thus, a system 200, shown in FIG. 2, was developed to monitor for line continuity when the transmission medium includes an integrated digital loop carrier. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a known system 200 for verifying the continuity of a telephone line when the transmission medium includes an integrated digital loop carrier. Telephone handset 205 and subscriber terminal unit (STU) 210 are connected to network interface 215 by telephone line 217. Network interface 215 is connected to remote terminal 220 by twisted pair 225. Twisted pair 225 terminates in a first line unit 230 of remote terminal 220. Remote terminal 220 is connected to digital cross-connect system (DACS) 235 by digital loop 237.
DACS 235 is connected to dedicated central office terminal 240 by digital loop 242. DACS 235 is also connected to switch 245 by digital loop 247. A second line unit (LU) 249, at dedicated central office terminal 240, is connected to a main distribution frame 250 by twisted pair 252. MDF 250 is connected to a scanner 255 by twisted pair 257.
In system 200, STU 210 generates a low tone (LT) that is transmitted over telephone line 217 and twisted pair 225 to first line unit (LU) 230. Remote terminal 220 encodes one of the signaling bits that is transmitted over digital loop 237 to DACS 235. The encoded signaling bit indicates whether the low tone was or was not received by the first LU 230. At DACS 235, the channels of digital loop 237 that are associated with an alarm service provider are extracted and sent over digital loop 242 to dedicated central office terminal 240.
The dedicated central office terminal 240 monitors the encoded signaling bit. If, based upon the encoded signaling bit, it is determined that the low tone was received by the first LU 230, then a low tone generator in the second LU 249 generates a low tone that is sent to MDF 250 and to scanner 255. However, if it is determined that the low tone was not received by the first LU 230, then the low tone generator in the second LU 249 is deactivated and the low tone is not transmitted to scanner 255. The scanner 255 then detects the loss of low tone and the alarm service provider connects to STU 210 via a telephone call.
The cost of system 200 is great because of the expense of equipment such as DACS 235, dedicated COT 240 and MDF 250. In addition, the systems 100 and 200 described above suffer from a lack of speed in recognizing the loss of the low tone signal. In emergency situations, a matter of seconds can be critical. Sometimes, the seconds that are lost while the scanner receives the loss of LT, recognizes it, and determines the problem can be detrimental to the effective handling of the emergency. One reason that seconds are lost is that it often takes several seconds before the loss of LT is received by the scanner because of the number of components in these systems. The scanner also requires several seconds to recognize the loss of LT. In addition, it can take several seconds for the alarm service provider to connect to the STU to query the STU and determine the problem with the STU.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a system for verifying the continuity of a telephone line that is quicker, more efficient and less expensive than prior systems.
There is a need in the art for an improved system for verifying the continuity of a telephone line for use with an integrated digital loop transmission medium.
There is a further need in the art for a system for verifying the continuity of a telephone line that does not require a dedicated central office terminal.
There is a further need in the art for a system for verifying the continuity of a telephone line that does not require a main distribution frame.

Switch-based line continuity verification method and system


Each nonvolatile transistor comprises a floating gate electrode, an ONO film and a control gate electrode. An upper surface of a silicon oxide film is positioned at a height between upper and lower surfaces of the floating gate electrode. The control gate electrode continuously extends on the floating gate electrode and the silicon oxide film in a prescribed arrangement direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device and a method of fabricating the same, and more particularly, it relates to an electrically erasable and programmable read only memory (EEPROM), i.e., the so-called flash memory, and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Background Art
In general, an EEPROM capable of freely programming data and electrically writing and erasing information is known as one of nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices. However, a selection transistor and a memory cell transistor are required for each memory cell, and hence it is disadvantageously difficult to implement this EEPROM which can advantageously electrically write and erase information with higher density of integration. To this end, there has been proposed a flash EEPROM which has memory cells each formed by a single transistor and is capable of electrically batch-erasing written information charges.
FIG. 43 is a block diagram showing a general structure of such a flash memory. Referring to FIG. 43, the flash memory includes a memory cell matrix 1100, an X address decoder 1200, a Y gate 1300, a Y address decoder 1400, an address buffer 1500, a write circuit 1600, a sense amplifier 1700, an input/output buffer 1800, and a control logic element 1900.
The memory cell matrix 1100 is provided in its interior with a plurality of memory cell transistors which are arranged in rows and columns. The X address decoder 1200 and the Y gate 1300 are connected to the memory cell matrix 1100. The X address decoder 1200 and the Y gate 1300 are adapted to select the rows and columns of the memory cell matrix 1100 respectively. The Y address decoder 1400 is connected to the Y gate 1300. The Y address decoder 1400 is adapted to supply column selecting information. The address buffer 1500 is connected to the X address decoder 1200 and the Y address decoder 1400. The address buffer 1500 is adapted to temporarily store address information.
The write circuit 1600 and the sense amplifier 1700 are connected to the Y gate 1300. The write circuit 1600 is adapted to perform a write operation in data inputting/outputting. The sense amplifier 1700 is adapted to determine "0" or "1" from the value of a current flowing in data outputting. The input/output buffer 1800 is connected to the write circuit 1600 and the sense amplifier 1700. The input/output buffer 1800 is adapted to temporarily store input/output data.
The control logic element 1900 is connected to the address buffer 1500 and the input/output buffer 1800. The control logic element 1900 is adapted to control operations of the flash memory. The control logic element 1900 performs control on the basis of a chip enable signal/CE, an out chip enable signal/OE and a program signal. Symbol "/" for the signals/CE and/OE indicates inversion.
FIG. 44 is an equivalent circuit diagram illustrating a schematic structure of the memory cell matrix 1100 shown in FIG. 43. Referring to FIG. 44, a plurality of word lines WL.sub.1, WL.sub.2, . . . , WL.sub.i and a plurality of bit lines BL.sub.1, BL.sub.2, . . . , BL.sub.j are arranged in the memory cell matrix 1100 to intersect with each other, for forming a matrix. The plurality of word lines WL.sub.1, WL.sub.2, . . . , WL.sub.i are connected to the X address decoder 1200 and arranged along the rows. On the other hand, the plurality of bit lines BL.sub.1, BL.sub.2, . . . , BL.sub.j are connected to the Y gate 1300 and arranged along the columns.
Memory transistors Q11, Q12, . . . , Qij are arranged on the intersections between the word lines WL.sub.1, WL.sub.2, . . . , WL.sub.i and the bit lines BL.sub.1, BL.sub.2, . . . , BL.sub.j respectively. Drains of the memory transistors Q11, Q12, . . . , Qij are connected to the bit lines BL.sub.1, BL.sub.2, . . . , BL.sub.j respectively. Control gates of the memory transistors Q11, Q12, . . . , Qij are connected to the word lines WL.sub.1, WL.sub.2, . . . , WL.sub.i respectively. Sources of the memory transistors Q11, Q12, . . . , Qij are connected to source lines S.sub.1, S.sub.2, . . . , S.sub.i respectively. The sources of the memory cell transistors belonging to the same rows are connected with each other.
The structures of the memory transistors forming the conventional flash memory are now described.
FIG. 45 is a partial plan view showing a schematic structure of the memory cell matrix 1100 of the conventional flash memory. FIG. 46 is a sectional view taken along the line D-D' in FIG. 45.
Mainly referring to FIG. 46, drain diffusion regions 1013 and source diffusion regions 1012 are formed on a major surface of a p-type silicon substrate 1001 to hold channel regions 1002 therebetween at prescribed intervals. Floating gate electrodes 1004 are formed on the channel regions 1002 through thin oxide films 1003 of about 100 .ANG. in thickness. Control gate electrodes 1006 are formed on the floating gate electrodes 1004 through interlayer insulating films 1005. The floating gate electrodes 1004 and the control gate electrodes 1006 are made of polycrystalline silicon (hereinafter referred to as doped polysilicon) into which impurities are introduced. A thermal oxide film 1051 is formed to cover the p-type silicon substrate 1001, the floating gate electrodes 1004 and the control gate electrodes 1006. Further, a smooth coating film 1008 consisting of an oxide film or the like is formed to cover the floating gate electrodes 1004 and the control gate electrodes 1006.
The smooth coating film 1008 is provided with contact holes 1009 reaching partial surfaces of the source diffusion regions 1012. Bit lines 1052 are extendedly formed on the smooth coating film 1008, to be electrically connected with the source diffusion regions 1012 through the contact holes 1009.
Mainly referring to FIG. 45, a plurality of word lines 1006 and a plurality of bit lines 1052 are arranged to intersect with each other. The word lines 1006 are integrated with a plurality of control gate electrodes 1006. In the intersections between the word lines 1006 and the bit lines 1052, the floating gate electrodes 1004 are formed under the control gate electrodes 1006. A LOCOS (local oxidation of silicon) oxide film 1053 is formed on each pair of floating gate electrodes 1004 belonging to each adjacent columns.
With reference to FIG. 47, a write operation of the flash EEPROM utilizing channel hot electrons is now described. Voltages V.sub.D1 and V.sub.G1 of about 4 to 6 V and about 10 to 15 V are applied to the drain diffusion region 1013 and the control gate electrode 1006 respectively. Due to the application of the voltages V.sub.D1 and V.sub.G1, a number of high energy electrons are generated in the vicinity of the drain diffusion region 1013 and the oxide film 1003. Parts of the electrons are injected into the floating gate electrode 1004. When the electrons are thus stored in the floating gate electrode 1004, a threshold voltage V.sub.TH of each memory transistor is increased. Such a state that the threshold value V.sub.TH exceeds a prescribed value is a written state called a state of "0".
Referring to FIG. 48, an erasing operation utilizing an F-N (Fowler-Nordheim) tunnel phenomenon is now described. A voltage V.sub.S of about 10 to 12 V is applied to the source diffusion region 1012, the control gate electrode 1006 is brought to a ground potential, and the drain diffusion region 1013 is maintained in a floating state. Due to an electric field by the voltage V.sub.S applied to the source diffusion region 1012, electrons stored in the floating gate electrode 1004 pass through the thin oxide film 1003 by the F-N tunnel phenomenon. Due to such extraction of the electrons from the floating gate electrode 1004, the threshold value V.sub.TH of the memory transistor is reduced. Such a state that the threshold voltage V.sub.TH is reduced below a prescribed value is an erased state called a state of "1".
In a read operation, voltages V.sub.G2 and V.sub.D2 of about 5 V and about 1 to 2 V are applied to the control gate electrode 1006 and the drain diffusion region 1013 respectively in FIG. 46. At this time, the aforementioned state of "1" or "0" is determined on the basis of whether or not a current flows to the channel region 1002 of the memory transistor, i.e., whether the memory transistor is in an ON state or an OFF state. Thus, information is read. This flash memory requires the aforementioned high voltages in operation. Thus, LOCOS oxide films are employed for isolating the elements from each other in both of a memory cell part provided with the memory transistors and a peripheral circuit part. These oxide films, which are formed in the same step, are necessarily identical in thickness to each other in the memory cell part and the peripheral circuit part.
Following recent refinement of semiconductor memory devices, it is necessary to reduce LOCOS oxide films in size, i.e., to reduce the thicknesses thereof. In a flash memory, the thickness of such LOCOS oxide films may be reduced so that impurity regions serving as channel stoppers are formed under these oxide films, since high voltage resistance is required in a peripheral circuit and memory cells. When the channel stopper regions are formed under the LOCOS oxide films, however, these channel stopper regions form p-n junctions with impurity regions around the surface of the semiconductor substrate, to disadvantageously reduce the voltage resistance. When the elements are isolated from each other in both of the memory cell part and the peripheral circuit part by LOCOS oxide films, therefore, the density of integration is limited to a constant level.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2-239671 (1990) discloses a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprising a trench-isolated memory cell part and a peripheral circuit part isolated by a LOCOS oxide film for solving the aforementioned a problem. FIGS. 49 to 53 are sectional views showing the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device described in the aforementioned gazette and a method of fabricating the same. In the method described in this gazette, first element isolation insulating films 2002 of 6000 .ANG. in thickness are formed on a silicon semiconductor substrate 2001 by selective oxidation, as shown in FIG. 49. Further, gate insulating films 2003 of 200 .ANG. in thickness are formed in active regions by thermal oxidation. Then, polycrystalline silicon doped with an n-type impurity is deposited in a thickness of 2000 .ANG., for forming a first semiconductor material film 2004. Then, the first semiconductor material film 2004 is oxidized at a temperature 1150.degree. C. for forming a semiconductor material insulating film 2005 of 300 .ANG. in thickness on its surface, and polycrystalline silicon doped with an n-type impurity is further deposited thereon in a thickness of 1500 .ANG. for forming a second semiconductor material film 2006. Then, a photoresist material is patterned for forming a mask 2007a.
Referring to FIG. 50, anisotropic etching such as RIE (reactive ion etching) is performed to reach the interior of the substrate 2001 for forming grooves 2008 of 0.8 .mu.m in depth, the mask 2007a is removed, and thereafter SiO.sub.2 or the like is deposited on the overall surface by CVD (chemical vapor deposition) for forming a second element isolation insulating film 2009.
Referring to FIG. 51, the deposited second element isolation insulating film 2009 is etched back, for exposing a surface of the patterned second semiconductor material film 2006 and leaving the second element isolation insulating film 2009 only in the grooves 2008. Thereafter a mask 2007b is formed to cover a memory transistor region through a photoresist material.
Referring to FIG. 52, parts of the patterned second semiconductor material film 2006 and the semiconductor material insulating film 2005 are successively selectively removed from a peripheral transistor region, a surface of the patterned first semiconductor material film 2004 is exposed, and the mask 2007b is removed. At this point of time, the surfaces of the first and second semiconductor material films 2004 and 2006 are exposed in the peripheral transistor region and the memory transistor region respectively. Thereafter a conductive material film 2010 which can be in ohmic contact with the first and second semiconductor material films 2004 and 2006 is formed. Consequently, electrode material films for defining a control gate electrode and a peripheral transistor gate electrode later are brought into double structures.
Referring to FIG. 53, the first and second semiconductor material films 2004 and 2006 and the conductive material film 2010 are patterned by a well-known technique for forming a peripheral transistor gate electrode 2011, a control gate electrode 2012 and a floating gate electrode 2013. Then, impurity diffusion layers 2014 for defining source and drain regions are formed, and an interlayer insulating film 2015 is deposited on the overall surface. Contact holes 2016 are provided in the interlayer insulating film 2015, and thereafter aluminum is deposited and patterned for forming metal wires 2017. The nonvolatile semiconductor memory device is completed through the aforementioned series of steps.
In recent years, however, a higher operating speed is required for the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device. In the aforementioned conventional structure, an electric field between the silicon substrate and the floating gate electrode cannot be strengthened and it is difficult to simultaneously inject a large quantity of electrons into the floating gate electrode in writing unless a voltage applied to the control voltage is increased. Thus, it is impossible to increase the operating speed while keeping the voltage applied to the control gate electrode.
In the conventional nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, further, the grooves for isolation are so deep that the widths thereof must be increased for completely filling up the same with the insulating film. Thus, further refinement cannot be attained.

Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device and method of fabricating the same


A jettable non-curable support material composition useful for three-dimensional ink jet printing comprising at least one fatty alcohol and at least one abietic rosin ester alcohol, wherein the support material has a melting point between about 50° C. to about 65° C. and a freezing point between about 45° C. to about 55° C.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to selected ultra-violet light (UV) curable hot melt (or phase change) compositions and non-curable support material that can be used in a solid object printer to produce strong and desirable three-dimensional parts from CAD designs. In particular, this invention relates to non-curable phase change support compositions which are comprised of at least one fatty alcohol and an abietic rosin ester tackifier.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Commercially available hot melt printers such as the three-dimensional ThermoJet solid object printer available from 3D Systems of Valencia, Calif., use a phase change material or ink that is jetted through a print head as a liquid to form wax-like thermopolymer parts. These parts contain mixtures of various waxes and polymers and are solid at ambient temperatures, but convert to a liquid phase at elevated jetting temperatures. Accordingly, phase change materials used in such printers are required to have a melting point of at least 65° C. and a viscosity of about 13 cPs at about 130° C. to about 140° C. (jetting temperature). Suitable waxes useful in these jettable phase change materials have included paraffin, microcrystalline waxes, polyethylene waxes, ester waxes and fatty amide waxes. Suitable polymers useful for these phase change materials have included polyurethane resins, tall oil rosin and rosin ester polymers.
Existing phase change materials have some problems associated either with their physical characteristics (e.g. they are weak and brittle and subject to cracking after being jetted) or have processing limitations (e.g. they must be jetted at relatively high temperatures (130-140° C.)) because of the high viscosities of the individual components of such materials. Additionally there is a need for support material that is easily jetted, but is also easily and quickly removed from the three-dimensional part. Accordingly, there is a need for better materials that overcome these problems. The present invention is believed to solve these problems.
This patent application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 09/924,608 filed Aug. 6, 2001, which is a continuation of prior U.S. application Ser. No. 09/252,512, filed Feb. 18,1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,270,335, which is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/722,335, filed Sep. 27, 1996, now abandoned, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/534,813, filed Sep. 27, 1995, now abandoned. This application also relates to U.S. Pat. No. 6,193,923 (Ser. No. 09/252,512) which issued on Feb. 27, 2001 and is a divisional of Ser. No. 08/722,335. All of these related applications are incorporated by reference in their entirety herein.

Phase change support material composition


The present invention relates to a technique for preparing an anhydrosugar alcohol using hydrogenated sugar as a raw material and, more specifically, to a technique for preparing a high-purity anhydrosugar alcohol by adding an acid to hydrogenated sugar (for example, hexitol) to convert same to an anhydrosugar alcohol, then distilling the converted liquid, and crystallizing the distilled liquid in a solvent, the technique removing a crystallization solvent from a crystallization mother liquor generated during a crystallization step and then introducing the resultant product together with the distilled liquid and the converted liquid into a distillation step, thereby being capable of improving the total distillation yield of the anhydrosugar alcohol, improving distillation efficiency by improving the mobility of a distillate, and further reducing the amount of generated waste and treatment costs and thus highly efficiently preparing the high-purity anhydrosugar alcohol at reduced costs.

Hydrogenated sugar (also referred to as "sugar alcohol") means a compound obtained by adding hydrogen to the reductive end group in sugar, and generally has a chemical formula of HOCH2(CHOH)nCH2OH wherein n is an integer of 2 to 5. According to the carbon number, hydrogenated sugar is classified into tetritol, pentitol, hexitol and heptitol (4, 5, 6 and 7 carbons, respectively). Among them, hexitol having 6 carbons includes sorbitol, mannitol, iditol, galactitol, etc. and in particular, sorbitol and mannitol are very useful materials.
Anhydrosugar alcohol has a diol form with two hydroxyl groups in the molecule, and can be produced by using hexitol derived from starch (for example, Korean Patent No. 10-1079518 and Korean Laid-open Patent Publication No. 10-2012-0066904). Because anhydrosugar alcohol is an environmentally friendly material derived from recyclable natural resources, it has received much interest for a long time and researches on its production continue to proceed. Among such anhydrosugar alcohols, isosorbide produced from sorbitol has the widest industrial applicability at present.
Anhydrosugar alcohol can be used in various fields including treatment of heart and blood vessel diseases, medicaments such as patch adhesive, mouthwash, etc., solvents for compositions in the cosmetics industry, emulsifiers in the food industry, etc. In addition, it can increase the glass transition temperature of polymer materials like polyester, PET, polycarbonate, polyurethane, epoxy resin, etc., and improve the strength of such materials. Furthermore, because anhydrosugar alcohol is an environmentally friendly material derived from natural resources, it is very useful in the plastics industry such as bioplastics and the like. It is also known that anhydrosugar alcohol can be used as an adhesive, environmentally friendly plasticizer, biodegradable polymer, and environmentally friendly solvent for water-soluble lacquer.
As such, anhydrosugar alcohol is receiving much interest because of its wide applicability, and the level of practical industrial application thereof is increasing. However, the conventional methods of producing anhydrosugar alcohol have limitations of high cost for the catalyst used in the dehydration reaction, low conversion rate, and low yields of distillation and purification, etc. In addition, in case of crystallization using solvent for anhydrosugar alcohol purification, there is a serious loss of the target product and a large amount of waste is generated, resulting in problems in terms of environment as well as economy.

Method for preparing high-purity anhydrosugar alcohol having improved yield by using waste from crystallization step


System for separating particles from an environment, the system including a perforated screen and an ionisation electrode in the environment for creating an electrostatic potential between the electrode and the screen to attract the particles to the screen.

It is known to use air ionisers in order to remove small particles from an environment. Typically after treatment, the particles are falling to the floor by gravity instead of continuously swirling around in the air causing respiratory problems. Such ionisers are commercially available and also known for use in special applications such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,019, where a screen arrangement contains negative ion emitters in order to remove particles from an enclosed zone, for example around a dust producing machine. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,019, the screens are dust proof in order to prevent the dust particles to leave the enclosed zone.
When particles are precipitated on the floor in such a zone, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,019, movements in the zone may nevertheless lead to a swirling around of the particles. The particles are not removed from the environment. Furthermore, such a system is not suitable in a sleeping room, because falling allergenic particles such as pollen may be inhaled by an allergic person lying in a bed. Even further, even though air may penetrate the screens, the fine mesh of the screens for prevention of transport of dust across the screen allows a relatively small exchange of air between the inside and the outside of the enclosed environment.
There are on the other hand systems that remove particles by filtration. However, these systems are typically expensive and require a substantial amount of power due to an air fan for transportation of air through the system.
There is therefore a need for improvement, especially there is a need for a system which removes particles such as dust from the environment but which is simple, and cheap to produce.

System with canopy and electrode for air cleaning


An electromagnetic wave propagation structure, suitable for the transmission of an electromagnetic wave and the formation of resonators within filters, is constructed of both high and low dielectric-constant materials wherein the high dielectric-constant is in excess of approximately 80 and the low dielectric-constant is less than approximately 2. A boundary between the high and the low dielectric-constant materials serves as an electric wall to waves propagating in the low dielectric-constant material and as a magnetic wall to waves propagating in the high dielectric-constant material. This permits substitution of the high dielectric-constant material for metal elements, such as resonators and feed structures in filters. Furthermore, the use of a cladding of dielectric material of one of the foregoing dielectric ranges about a core of material of the other of the foregoing dielectric ranges enables construction of waveguides having rectangular and circular cross-sections. Microstrip and stripline structures with substitution of the high dielectric-constant material for the harmonic elements may also be constructed.

This invention relates to the construction of electromagnetic transmission line elements including resonating, coupling and wave-guiding elements, and more particularly, to the construction of such elements by use of a boundary between two dielectric materials of high and low dielectric constants, the low dielectric constant being in the range of approximately 1-2 and the high dielectric constant being in the range of 80-100 or higher.
One well known form of transmission line structure employs a region of metallic material separated from a second region of metallic material by a region of electrically insulating material. Such a transmission line structure includes microstrip wherein an electrically conductive strip is separated from a parallel conducting plate by a layer of insulating material. As a further example of transmission line, a coplanar waveguide comprises a pair of parallel conductive strips spaced apart by an insulator. The latter structure, in combination with an insulated back metallic plate or ground plane as in stripline or microstrip, can also serve as a coupler of microwave signals between two microstrip circuits, upon a reduction in the spacing between the conductive strips. In similar fashion, two or more electrically insulated conductive strips, patches or resonators may be disposed in a coplanar array spaced apart from a ground plane to serve as a filter, or may be stacked, one above the other and insulated from each other to form a filter. In the latter configuration of stacked resonators, it is the practice to enclose, at least partially, each of the resonators in a metallic cavity type of structure with provision for electromagnetic coupling between the resonators.
In each of the foregoing structures, the physical size of the structure, for provision of a desired electromagnetic characteristic, is determined by the electromagnetic wavelength in air, vacuum, or dielectric environment in which the metallic elements are situate. However, there are situations such as in communication via satellite, wherein it is desirable to reduce the physical size and weight of the microwave components and the circuitry composed of such components. Microwave components of unduly large size and weight create a packaging problem for satellite borne electronic equipment.
The foregoing problem may be demonstrated by the following example concerning microwave filters. Filters of electromagnetic signals, such as microwave signals, typically provide a bandpass function characterized by a multiple-pole transmission band. A typical construction employs a plurality of metallic resonators of planar form which are stacked one above the other to provide for plural modes of electromagnetic vibration within a single filter. The resonators are spaced apart and supported by dielectric, electrically-insulating material. Metallic plates with irises may be disposed between the resonators for coupling electromagnetic power among the resonators. In the case of cavity-resonator filters, each cavity is physically large, particularly at lower frequencies, the physical size militating against the use of the cavity filters. Thus, in situations wherein there is limited space available for electronic circuits, such as in satellites which serve as part of a communication system, there is a need to reduce the size of filters, as well as to decrease the weight of filters employed in the signal processing circuitry.
The filters are employed in numerous circuits for signal processing, communication, and other functions. Of particular interest herein are circuits, such as those which may be constructed on a printed circuit board, and are operable at microwave frequencies, such as frequencies in the gigahertz region. Such signals may be processed by transistors and other solid state devices, and may employ analog filters in the form of a series of cavity resonators, or resonators configured in microstrip form. By way of example, to provide a band-pass filter having an elliptic function or a Chebyshev response, and wherein a mathematical representation of the response is characterized by numerous poles, the filter has many sections. Each section has a single resonator, in the microstrip form of circuit, for each pole which is to be produced in the filter transfer function.
In order to reduce the physical size of such a filter, the filter may be constructed of a series of dielectric resonators enclosed within metallic cavities, as is disclosed in Fiedziuszko, U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,293, this patent describing the construction and tuning of a multiple, dielectric-loaded, cavity filter. Such a dielectric resonator filter is employed in situations requiring reduced physical size and weight of the filter, as is desirable in a satellite communication system wherein such a filter is to be carried on board the satellite as a part of microwave circuitry. The reduction in size of such a filter arises because the wavelength of an electromagnetic signal within a dielectric resonator is substantially smaller than the wavelength of the same electromagnetic signal in vacuum or in air. coupling of electromagnetic power between contiguous cavities may be accomplished by means of slotted irises or other electromagnetic coupling structures.
The foregoing attempts to reduce the size of microwave components, such as the foregoing filters, by use of dielectric materials have been successful to a limited extent, the limitation devolving from the fact that, in the case of the foregoing filters, the inner space of a cavity is filled partially with air and partially with the dielectric resonator. Furthermore, as noted above for satellite communications, it is important also to reduce the weight of the microwave components, and such weight reduction is limited in the foregoing construction of filter due to the fact that the cavity walls and iris plates are constructed of metal rather than than a lighter material. Thus, there is a need to treat further the foregoing problem of excess size and weight.

Electromagnetic transmission line elements having a boundary between materials of high and low dielectric constants


An article of footwear with heel webbing is disclosed. The article of footwear includes an elastic member along a heel portion. The elastic member is associated with a heel protector. The heel protector is attached to the outsole of the article of footwear at one end and to a portion of the elastic member at another end.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to articles of footwear and in particular to articles of footwear with heel webbing.
2. Description of Related Art
Woven articles of footwear have been previously proposed. Aveni (U.S. patent number 2005/0284002), the entirety of which is incorporated by reference, discloses an article of footwear and a method of making it where a woven region is integrated with a lacing system. In particular, Aveni teaches an upper with one or more woven regions. A first woven region may be located in the vamp region while a second woven region may be located in the heel region.
Aveni teaches woven regions that are formed from a single elongated strand element. In some cases, the weaving material may be made from a material with elastic properties. In some cases, a rubberized membrane may be used instead. Also disclosed, are leather strands, nylon webbing or other synthetic webbing.
Articles of footwear with lacing systems closing at the have also been disclosed. Paul (U.S. Pat. No. 1,184,123) discloses an adjustable slipper. This slipper includes lacing holes along the rear of the slipper, the rear of the slipper being divided or cut open. Additionally a lacing string is attached to the rear of the slipper and disposed through the lacing holes. The slipper also includes a tongue along the heel.
Ferry (U.S. patent number) also discloses an article of footwear with a portion of a lacing system disposed along the heel portion. In particular, the article of footwear disclosed is a boot having lacing that extends over an opening along the upper front and using a plurality of metallic rings extending in vertical lines adjacent to the back ankle section to provide additional support to the rear of the wearer's boot.
While the prior art teaches articles of footwear with heel webbing and lacing systems disposed along the heel of the footwear, related designs have many shortcomings. The heel webbing disclosed by Aveni is not intended to be the primary system for tightening the footwear to a user's foot. Instead Aveni's design requires an additional lacing system disposed along the front of the upper. Furthermore, Aveni does not include a tab disposed between the heel and a user's foot. The remaining art teaches a traditional lacing system dispose along the rear of the footwear, but does not teach a webbing system of any kind. Additionally, while Paul does teach a tongue, the tongue taught by Paul does not connect directly to the lacing system disclosed.
There is a need in the art for an article of footwear including heel webbing configured to secure an article of footwear to the user's foot without the necessity of an additional lacing system along the front. Furthermore, there is a need for an article of footwear with a heel protector that is connected to a tightening system disposed along the heel of the footwear.

Article of footwear with expandable heel portion


Technologies are generally described for alleviating solar power congestion in a distribution grid via smart metering communications. According to some examples, a power network system supervised by utility operators may monitor and control grid-tied power generation modules associated with consumers to ensure the distribution grid is stable in terms of network capacity limit. A communications infrastructure including home area networks (HANs) and neighborhood area networks (NANs) between smart meters and utility control centers may facilitate power congestion management. Utility control centers (UCCs) in cooperation with smart meters or energy management units (EMUs) may selectively disconnect consumer power generation units to maintain the system reliability.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Traditional power grids, where energy is distributed from one or more sources (electricity generators) to numerous destinations (consumers of electricity), are increasingly being replaced or modified to include new forms of power generation. One of the new sources of power for power grids includes power generated by the consumers of electricity (e.g., through solar or wind power conversion) that can be provided to the grid when the consumers have a power surplus. For example, smart meters may be used at households with power generating capability and provide surplus power back to the grid for a pre-arranged price or credit toward consumed power.
Rising power consumption and generation may provoke frequent power congestion in the electric power system, however. Congestion-prone locations may often be discovered in urban regions, where peak-loads may occur because of insufficient transmission lines, transfer capability, and/or transmission capacity. The increasing deployment of distributed power resources close to end-use sectors may incur local congestion and deterioration in the distribution grid as well (e.g., electric equipment damages and power outages), when power control and management is not properly engineered.

Alleviating solar energy congestion in the distribution grid via smart metering communications


A method for forming a magnetic transducer structure. There is first provided a substrate. There is then formed over the substrate a lower magnetic pole layer. There is then formed upon the lower magnetic pole layer a gap filling dielectric layer. There is then formed at least in part upon the gap filling dielectric layer a patterned positive photoresist layer employed in defining through a plating method an upper magnetic pole layer formed at least in part upon the gap filling dielectric layer. The patterned photoresist layer has a first region defining a pole tip of the upper magnetic pole layer and a second region defining a magnetic coil region of the upper magnetic pole layer. The first region of the patterned positive photoresist layer is photoexposed either before or after forming through the plating method the upper magnetic pole layer defined by the patterned positive photoresist layer. The first region of the patterned positive photoresist layer is developed after forming through the plating method the upper magnetic pole layer. Finally, there is then anisotropically etched the upper magnetic pole layer, the gap filling dielectric layer and the lower magnetic pole layer at the location of the first region of the patterned photoresist layer to form an etched upper magnetic pole layer, an etched gap filling dielectric layer and an etched lower magnetic pole layer while employing an anisotropic etch method having a first etch selectivity of the gap filling dielectric layer with respect to the upper magnetic pole layer of at least about 2:1 and a second etch selectivity of the lower magnetic pole layer with respect to the upper magnetic pole layer of at least about 1:1.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods for fabricating magnetic transducer structures. More particularly, the present invention relates to a pole trimming method for fabricating inductive magnetic write head structures.
2. Description of the Related Art
The recent and continuing advances in computer and information technology have been made possible not only by the correlating advances in the functionality, reliability and speed of semiconductor integrated circuits, but also by the correlating advances in the storage density and reliability of direct access storage devices (DASDs) employed in digitally encoded magnetic data storage and retrieval.
Storage density of direct access storage devices (DASDs) is typically measured as areal storage density of a magnetic data storage medium formed upon a rotating magnetic data storage disk within a direct access storage device (DASD) magnetic data storage enclosure. The areal storage density of the magnetic data storage medium is defined largely by the track width, the track spacing and the linear magnetic transition density within the magnetic data storage medium. The track width, the track spacing and the linear magnetic transition density within the magnetic data storage medium are in turn determined by several principal factors, including but not limited to: (1) the magnetic read-write characteristics of a magnetic read-write head employed in reading and writing digitally encoded magnetic data from and into the magnetic data storage medium; (2) the magnetic domain characteristics of the magnetic data storage medium; and (3) the separation distance of the magnetic read-write head from the magnetic data storage medium.
With regard to the magnetic read-write characteristics of a magnetic read-write head employed in reading and writing digitally encoded magnetic data from and into a magnetic data storage medium, it is known in the art of magnetic read-write head fabrication that increased track spacings of magnetic data tracks within magnetic data storage media are required when employing inductive magnetic write heads which exhibit increased write fringe fields bridging their magnetic transducer pole layers. Increased write fringe field widths within inductive magnetic write heads typically result from non-symmetric magnetic pole layers within those inductive magnetic write heads. A schematic cross-sectional diagram of a typical inductive magnetic write head formed with non-symmetric magnetic pole layers is illustrated in FIG. 1.
Shown in FIG. 1 is a substrate 10 having formed thereupon a lower magnetic pole layer 12 separated from an upper magnetic pole tip 16a within a patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16 by a gap filling dielectric layer 14. Also shown in FIG. 1 bridging from the lower magnetic pole layer 12 to the patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16 is a pair of write fringe fields 15a and 15b.
It is also known in the art of magnetic read-write head fabrication that write fringe fields, such as the write fringe fields 15a and 15b as illustrated in FIG. 1, formed incident to non-symmetric magnetic pole layer alignment within inductive magnetic write heads, may be significantly reduced by partially etching the wider of the two non-symmetric magnetic pole layers while employing the narrower of the two non-symmetric magnetic pole layers as a mask to form within the wider of the two non-symmetric magnetic pole layers a pole tip self-aligned with the pole tip within the narrower of the two non-symmetric magnetic pole layers. A schematic cross-sectional diagram illustrating the results of such partial etching practiced upon the lower magnetic pole layer 12 as illustrated in FIG. 1 is shown in FIG. 2.
Shown in FIG. 2 is a partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12' having formed therein a lower magnetic pole tip 12a separated from the upper magnetic pole tip 16a within a partially etched patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16' by a patterned gap filling dielectric layer 14'. There is also shown in FIG. 2 bridging from the partially etched patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16' to the partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12' a pair of significantly reduced write fringe fields 15a' and 15b'.
While the inductive magnetic write transducer structure as illustrated in FIG. 2 typically exhibits significantly reduced write fringe fields in comparison with the inductive magnetic write transducer structure as illustrated in FIG. 1, the inductive magnetic write transducer structure as illustrated in FIG. 2 is typically not formed entirely without difficulties. One of the difficulties typically encountered when forming the inductive magnetic write transducer structure as illustrated in FIG. 2 is that a substantial portion of the patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16' under circumstances where: (1) the lower magnetic pole layer 12 and the patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16 are both formed of a permalloy (ie: nickel-iron, 80:20 w/w) magnetic material, as is common in the art of magnetic read-write head fabrication, (2) the gap filling dielectric layer 14 is simultaneously formed of an aluminum oxide dielectric material, as is similarly common in the art of magnetic read-write head fabrication; and (3) the magnetic write transducer structure whose schematic cross-sectional diagram is illustrated in FIG. 2 is etched from the magnetic write transducer structure whose schematic cross-sectional diagram is illustrated in FIG. 1 through an ion beam etch (IBE) method employing argon ions, as is similarly also common in the art of magnetic read-write head fabrication. The substantial portion of the patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16 is typically eroded due to an ion beam etch (IBE) selectivity of the ion beam etch (IBE) method for the patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16 with respect to the gap filling dielectric layer 14. Typically, the ion beam etch selectivity of the patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16, when formed of a permalloy magnetic material, with respect to the gap filling dielectric layer 14, when formed of an aluminum oxide dielectric material, is from about 1:0.3 to about 1:0.6.
Erosion of upper magnetic pole layers, such as the patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16, has been noted in the art of inductive magnetic read-write head fabrication, and it is typical in the art of inductive magnetic read-write head fabrication to compensate for the erosion by forming an upper magnetic pole layer with a substantial additional thicknesses beyond the thickness ultimately desired for a partially etched upper magnetic pole layer formed from the upper magnetic pole layer. See, for example, Krounbi et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,747 (col. 11, line 68 to col. 12, line 5). Unfortunately, patterned upper magnetic pole layers, such as the patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16, formed with substantial additional thicknesses and thus significant aspect ratios, are often difficult to reproducibility form within magnetic transducer structures.
Although not specifically illustrated in FIG. 2, when fabricating a merged inductive write-magnetoresistive (MR) read magnetic head from the magnetic transducer structure whose schematic cross-sectional diagram is illustrated in FIG. 2, the partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12' also serves as a top shield layer for a magnetoresistive (MR) sensor layer formed beneath the partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12' within the merged inductive write-magnetoresistive (MR) read magnetic head. Under such circumstances, it is important that the partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12' have sufficient remaining thicknesses at locations other than the location of the lower magnetic pole tip 12a in order to serve adequately as a top shield layer within the merged inductive write-magnetoresistive (MR) read magnetic head. While it is theoretically possible to assure adequate thicknesses of various portions of the partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12' by increasing the thickness of the lower magnetic pole layer 12 from which is formed the partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12', unfortunately, the thickness to which the lower magnetic pole layer 12 may be formed is itself often limited by design considerations when fabricating an inductive write-magnetoresistive (MR) read magnetic head.
A related consideration pertinent to providing the partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12' with sufficient thicknesses at locations other than the location of the lower magnetic pole tip 12a to serve adequately as a top shield layer for a magnetoresistive (MR) sensor layer fabricated beneath the partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12' is that the etch rate of the partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12' near the upper magnetic pole tip 16a within the partially etched patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16' is, as is illustrated in FIG. 2, reduced. The etch rate is reduced due to a shadowing effect inherent in the ion beam etch (IBE) method through which is conventionally formed the partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12'. Due to the shadowing when the partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12' is formed through the ion beam etch (IBE) method, there is formed as illustrated in FIG. 2 the lower magnetic pole tip 12a with a projection T.sub.2 with respect to immediately surrounding portions of the partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12', while portions of the partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12' further removed from the lower magnetic pole tip 12a are etched to remove a thickness T.sub.1 with respect to the lower magnetic pole layer 12, as illustrated in FIG. 2. In that regard, it is desirable within merged inductive write-magnetoresistive (MR) read magnetic head fabrication to provide partially etched lower magnetic pole layers, such as the partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12', formed through etch methods which provide minimal shadowing, thus yielding partially etched lower magnetic pole layers where values of parameters which correspond with T.sub.1 and T.sub.2 are most closely approximate.
By way of example, if it is assumed that: (1) the etch rate of the material from which is formed the gap filling dielectric layer 14 as shown in FIG. 1 is equal to R.sub.gap ; (2) the etch rate of the material from which is formed the lower magnetic pole layer 12 as shown in FIG. 1 is equal to R.sub.ip ; (3) the gap thickness is equal to G as shown in FIG. 2; (4) the etch time is equal to t; and, (5) the convention ion beam etch (IBE) method shadowing effect provides an etch rate of the portion of the partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12' most closely adjoining the partially etched patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16' one half the etch rate of the patterned lower magnetic pole layer 12' further removed from the partially etched patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16', as illustrated in FIG. 2, then the thicknesses T.sub.1 as illustrated in FIG. 2 is determined in accord with equation 1 and the thickness T.sub.2 as illustrated in FIG. 2 is determined in accord with equation 2. EQU T.sub.1 =(t-G/R.sub.gap)R.sub.ip ( 1) EQU T.sub.2 =(t-2G/R.sub.gap)R.sub.ip /2=nG (2)
Within equation 2, n typically varies from about 0.5 to about 3. Equation 3, equation 4 and equation 5 then follow from equation 1 and equation 2 EQU t=2nG/R.sub.ip +2G/R.sub.gap ( 3) EQU T.sub.1 =(2nG/R.sub.ip +G/R.sub.gap)R.sub.ip ( 4) EQU T.sub.1 /T.sub.2 =T.sub.1 /nG=2+R.sub.ip /nR.sub.gap ( 5)
Thus, it is seen from equation 5 that by selectively etching the material from which is formed the gap filling dielectric layer 14 with respect to the material from which is formed the lower magnetic inductor pole layer 12 within FIG. 1 there will be minimized the magnitude of T.sub.1 with respect to T.sub.2 as illustrated in FIG. 2.
A related difficulty encountered when forming from the patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16 whose schematic cross-sectional diagram is illustrated in FIG. 1 the partially etched patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16' whose schematic cross-sectional diagram is illustrated in FIG. 2 is illustrated by the schematic plan-view diagram of FIG. 3 and the schematic cross-sectional diagram of FIG. 4. The schematic plan-view diagram of FIG. 3 corresponds with the schematic cross-sectional diagram of FIG. 1. Shown in FIG. 3 is the gap filling dielectric layer 14 having formed thereupon the patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16, which in turn in part has formed thereupon a patterned photoresist layer 18 as is commonly employed to protect the coil region R2 of the patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16 when etching the pole tip region R1 of the patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16 to form the partially etched patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16'. Shown in FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional diagram illustrating the results of etching the patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16 whose schematic plan-sectional diagram is illustrated in FIG. 3 to form the partially etched patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16'. The schematic cross-sectional diagram of FIG. 4 is obtained through the cross-sectional plan perpendicular to the cross-sectional plane employed in obtaining the schematic cross-sectional diagram of FIG. 2.
Shown in FIG. 4 is the partially etched lower magnetic pole layer 12' having formed thereupon the patterned gap filling dielectric layer 14' which in turn has formed thereupon or thereover: (1) a magnetic coil isolation dielectric layer 20 having formed therein a series of magnetic coils 22; (2) the partially etched patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16'; (3) and the patterned photoresist layer 18. As is illustrated in FIG. 4, the partially etched patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16' has a step 24 formed therein at the location of the patterned photoresist layer 18. The step 24 contributes to a significant step height H1 between the pole tip region R1 of the partially etched patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16' and the coil region R2 of the partially etched patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16'. Significant step heights within magnetic pole layers such as the partially etched patterned upper magnetic pole layer 16' are undesirable within the art of inductive magnetic read-write head fabrication since it is often difficult to accurately and reproducibly form upon those magnetic pole layers subsequent layers within the inductive magnetic read-write heads within which are formed those magnetic pole layers.
Various additional features of magnetic pole layer fabrication for use within inductive magnetic write heads have been disclosed by Krounbi et at. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,747, the teachings of which are incorporated herein fully by reference.
It is thus desirable to form within magnetic transducer structures which may be employed within inductive magnetic write heads self-aligned partially etched lower magnetic pole layers of permalloy alloy magnetic materials separated by patterned gap filling dielectric layers of aluminum oxide dielectric materials from partially etched patterned upper magnetic pole layers of permalloy alloy magnetic materials with minimal consumption of the partially etched patterned upper magnetic pole layers. It is also desirable to form within magnetic transducer structures which may be employed within inductive magnetic read-write heads partially etched patterned upper magnetic pole layers of enhanced flatness. Most desirable in the art are magnetic transducer structures which simultaneously possess the foregoing two characteristics. It is towards the foregoing goals the present invention is more specifically directed.

Pole trimming method for fabricating a magnetic transducer structure


A radial power combiner/divider capable of a higher order (for example, N=24) of power combining/dividing and a 15% bandwidth (31 to 36 GHz). The radial power combiner/divider generally comprises an axially-oriented mode transducer coupled to a radial base. The mode transducer transduces circular TE01 waveguide into rectangular TE10 waveguide, and the unique radial base combines/divides a plurality of peripheral rectangular waveguide ports into a single circular TE01 waveguide end of the transducer. The radial base incorporates full-height waveguides that are stepped down to reduced-height waveguides to form a stepped-impedance configuration, thereby reducing the height of the waveguides inside the base and increasing the order N of combining/dividing. The reduced-height waveguides in the base converge radially to a matching post at the bottom center of the radial base which matches the reduced height rectangular waveguides into the circular waveguide that feeds the mode transducer.

a. Field of invention
The invention relates to radial power divider/combiners and, in particular, to radial power divider/combiners that are suitable for use in solid-state power-amplifier (SSPA) devices.
b. Background of the invention
Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPAs) are used in a variety of applications ranging from satellites, radar, and other RF applications requiring high output power. Typical SSPAs can achieve signal output levels of more than 10 watts using solid-state amplifiers such as Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs), or individual tube amplifiers.
A fundamental problem with conventional SSPA technology is that individual MMICs produce less power and operate at lower efficiency compared to the individual tube devices. At Ka-band, for example, currently available MMIC chips have output power capability that is approximately an order of magnitude less compared to the Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier (TWTA). The efficiency is approximately half.
Although a single MMIC amplifier chip cannot achieve the requisite level of output power without excessive size and power consumption issues, MMIC technology is far more practical than tubes in space and other applications. MMIC technology offers a reduction in supply voltage, potential reduction in cost, improvement in linearity and reliability.
Consequently, efforts have been made to combine the outputs of several individual MMIC amplifiers to achieve the desired total transmitter output, and it has been found that a combination of a large number of MMICs is attractive for applications where these advantages outweigh the lost efficiency. Consequently, existing SSPA designs using MMIC chips typically use a radial splitting and combining architecture in which a signal is divided into a number of individual components. Each individual signal component is amplified by a respective amplifier, and the outputs of the amplifiers are combined into a single output that achieves the desired overall signal amplification.
However, to meet the output power requirements of space telecommunication systems, it is necessary to power combine a large number of individual MMICs in the SSPA, and yet this must be done in a highly efficient manner.
Existing power-combiners such as the in-phase Wilkinson combiner or the 90-degree branch-line hybrid combine a number of binary combiners in a cascaded manner, but this architecture becomes very lossy and cumbersome when the number of combined amplifiers becomes large. For example, to combine eight amplifiers using a conventional, binary microstrip branch-line hybrid at Ka-band (about 26.5 GHz), the combiner microstrip trace tends to be about six inches long and its loss tends to exceed 3 dB. A 3 dB insertion loss infers that half of the RF power output is lost, and this is unacceptable for most applications.
To overcome these loss and size problems, other approaches including the stripline radial combiner, oversized coaxial waveguide combiner, and quasi-optical combiner, have been investigated. The stripline radial combiner, using multi-section impedance transformers and isolation resistors, still suffers excessive loss at Ka-band, mainly because of the extremely thin substrate (<10 mil) required at Ka-band. The coaxial waveguide approach uses oversized coaxial cable, which introduces moding problems and, consequently, is useful only at low frequencies. The quasi-optical combiner uses hard waveguide feed horns at both the input and output to split and combine the power, and these are very large and cumbersome.
United States Patent Application 20050174194 by Wu, You-Sun et al. published Aug. 11, 2005 shows an N-Way Radial Power Divider/Combiner in which an input signal is provided to a transmission antenna that propagates into a divider. Within the divider, the input signal is divided into a plurality N of individual signals by waveguides disposed in a radial configuration around the transmitting antenna such that at least a portion of the input signal radiated by the antenna enters an input end of each waveguide. The individual signals are received by receiving antennas and provided to respective amplifiers. The amplifiers amplify the respective individual signals by a desired amplification factor. The amplified individual signals are provided to a plurality of transmitting antennas within the combiner. Inside the combiner, the amplified individual signals are combined to form an output signal that is received by a receiving antenna in the combiner. Though a ten-way divider/combiner is shown, N is said to be in the range of two to 100. The overall insertion loss of the 10-way power divider-combiner was measured using input signals from 20 to 30 GHz, and at 26.5 GHz, the loss for the combiner alone is 0.71 dB at 26.5 GHz.
It would be desirable to adapt a radial power-combiner architecture similar to the foregoing for a higher frequency bandwidth to power combine a larger number of amplifiers with better efficiency, using a smaller combining circuit that has minimum power loss. This is herein achieved by increasing the number of combining ports using reduced height waveguides in the radial base. The radial base has reduced-height waveguides with rectangular waveguide inputs leading a circular waveguide output, defining properly spaced and properly chosen waveguide steps having incremental height changes. The reflections from the walls of the reduced height waveguides are matched by a matching post coupled to a "Marie" mode transducer. The present invention provides a low-loss, compact radial power divider/combiner for use in high-frequency SSPAs that offers an unparalleled size, weight, and power combination, thereby offering a replacement for tube-based flight and ground amplifiers used in earth-orbiting defense missions and radar applications, as well as satellite secure communications systems requiring large bandwidths (secure satellite uplinks, downlinks, and cross-links), etc.

Wideband radial power combiner/divider fed by a mode transducer

The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration


The bichromal element spinner apparatus provides the forming of substantially spherical bichromal elements from pigmented molten, but hardenable material compounds which are delivered centrally to a spinning webbed disk through opposite ends of hollow shaft that also spins with the disk. The molten materials are injected into cavities formed between the shaft and the web portions of the disk such that the molten materials are spun outwardly on the opposite surfaces of the disk towards the tip of the disk, where the hardenable materials adhere to each other without mixing, thereby spinning off to bichromal elements. Shrouds attached to the shaft and having no intervening support members over the spinning disk provide quiescent air mass between the disk and the shrouds so as to yield bichromal elements with substantial hemispherical integrity.

All references cited in this specification, and their references, are incorporated by reference herein where appropriate for teachings of additional or alternative details, features and/or technical background.
Disclosed is an apparatus for forming bichromal elements and methods of use of the same in the manufacture of "electric papers".
Bichromal elements and apparatus for making the same are known. However, it is desirable to modify some of the existing apparatus in order to improve the process of making and the product itself, as described later in this disclosure.
Electric papers employing bichromal elements and known as gyricon displays have the attributes of ordinary paper documents. The paper, that is, the display sheet comprises an elastomeric host layer a few mils thick and is heavily loaded with hemispherically bichromal balls, each in the range of 5 to 200 microns in diameter. Each bichromal ball has hemispheres of contrasting colors, such as a white half and a black half, and is contained in its own spherical cavity filled with a dielectric fluid. Upon application of an electrical field, derived from an original image, between electrodes located on opposite surfaces of the host layer, the balls rotate to present one or the other hemisphere to an observer, depending on the polarity of the field, and hence a replica of the over-all corresponding image.
Gyricon sheet material is known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,854, titled "Twisting Ball Panel Display", by Sheridon, issued on Nov. 21, 1978, and incorporated by reference herein above describes how to make and use gyricon sheet material containing bichromal spherical elements.
Apparatus and methods for fabricating bichromal elements, or beads are known and varied. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,098 Crowley, et al., describe an apparatus for fabricating hemispherically bichromal balls, comprising a separator member having opposing first and second surfaces located and an edge region in contact with both surfaces, and delivery means for flowing first and second colored hardenable fluid material over the first and second surfaces, respectively, so that the fluid materials arrive at the edge at substantially the same flow rate and form a reservoir outboard of the edge region. The reservoir comprises side-by-side regions of different colors which do not intermix. Further means is provided for propelling the first and second fluid materials away from the separator member and out of the reservoir into a fluid medium as a plurality of side-by-side bichromal streams whose forward ends become unstable and break up into droplets which form into spherical balls, each of the balls comprising hemispheres of differently colored hardenable fluid, and means for collecting the bichromal balls.
More specifically, FIG. 1a shows an apparatus for making small, pigmented (or dyed) balls 10 that have hemispheres 13 and 15 of two different colors. Two fine planar streams 20 and 25 of a hardenable fluid material are pumped through elongated nozzles 30 and 35 whose ends direct the two fine streams onto opposite planar surfaces 40 and 45 of separator member 50. The fluids flow to the ends of the planar surfaces and over the edge 55 where they form an outboard reservoir 60 of fluid material. By controlling the dispensing rate of each stream relative to the surface distance over which each must flow, it is possible to equalize the flow rate at which each stream reaches the edge, thus enabling the reservoir 60 to include equal amounts of each fluid. It will be noted that the fluids do not intermix, so that the reservoir includes side-by-side portions 63 and 65 thereof, as shown in FIG. 1b. When the rate of flow of the fluids away from the separator edge 55, into the host fluid (air is shown), is great enough, free jets 67 are formed. Each jet comprises a ligament 69 of fluid fed by the reservoir 60 at its originating end and breaking up into side-by-side bichromal balls 10 at its distal end. As the balls continue in their flight, they harden and drop under the influence of gravity, and are finally collected. Usually, the fluids comprise molen carnauba wax and molten polyethylene, both of which flow freely when sufficiently heated and freeze to a hardened form. The black and white pigmented carnauba wax of streams 40 and 45 form black and while hemispheres, as shown in the enlarged view of bichromal ball 10 in FIG. 1a.
A spinning disk apparatus 70 for making bichromal balls is shown in FIG. 2. The white pigmented and black pigmented hardenable fluids are introduced, via suitable dispensing nozzles 80 and 85, to the upper and lower surfaces of disc 90 mounted upon a rotatable spindle 75. The fluids are moved to the periphery thereof, on their respective sides, under the influence of centrifugal force. At the edge of the disc they flow together (but not mix) to form a peripheral side-by-side bichromal reservoir 60 from which ligaments 69 extend, whose distal ends dispense balls 10. It is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,098 that a 3 inch diameter disc about 20 mils thick, rotated at about 2600 to 3000 rpm produces balls about 4 mils in diameter. At too high rotational speeds, the fluids come off their respective surfaces at the square edge without flowing together, resulting in smaller black and white monochrome balls.
Fluid flowing over the edge of the spinning disc 90 tends to form an outboard reservoir 60 in the form of a ring of non-uniform diameter. This ring moves at the same speed as the disc and has circumferential protrusions (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,098), known as "Taylor instabilities", caused by the centrifugal force acting against surface tension. As more material is fed into the reservoir, each protrusion starts to peak and release a large droplet of the fluid which is attached to the protrusion by ligament 69. The large drop breaks away followed by smaller droplets. A relatively stable steady state condition then exists, with fluid being fed into the reservoir and into the ligaments, and substantially uniform droplets 10 being ejected into the host fluid from the distal ends of the ligaments 97. The inertial structure of spinning ligaments 97 trailing the disc 90 is held together by surface tension, which also causes their distal ends to be unstable and to break up into droplets 10 as shown in FIG. 2.
In another U.S. Pat. No. 6,485,280, Richley discloses an apparatus for fabricating bichromal elements comprising a separator member having a central rotating point, the separator member having first and second spaced apart, opposed surfaces with an edge region in contact with both of the opposed surfaces. The spacing between the opposed surfaces varies with the distance outwardly from the central rotating point such that the spacing is the largest at the central rotating point and the spacing decreases outwards from the central rotating point and the spacing is a minimum at the edge region. Further each of the opposed surfaces has a substantially annular cup spaced apart from and substantially surrounding the central rotating point. The apparatus for fabricating bichromal elements also includes apparatus for dispensing first and second differently colored hardenable fluids in the cups of the first and second surfaces, respectively, and an apparatus for substantially uniformly spreading the fluid material in the annular cups located in the first and second surfaces and for substantially uniformly spreading the fluid material from the cups over the first and second surfaces toward the edge region to form a reservoir of fluid material outboard of the edge region, and for forming ligaments from the reservoir.
As the shape and size of the bichromal spherical elements in the form of beads or balls are important in the functional performance of electric papers or Gyricon displays, the various parameters that go into making the balls need be controlled properly. One problem is the imperfectly formed hemispherical portions of the balls, usually caused by the flexing and unwanted vibrations of the spinner disk. Another is the premature collision of the balls before they solidify, and also the premature solidification before they assume their spherical shape. These problems and others are addressed by modifying the spinner of the apparatus for making bichromal elements, as further disclosed below.


A window covering hanger is provided including a mounting bracket having a horizontally oriented top face and a vertically oriented rear face coupled to a rear edge of the top face and depending downwardly therefrom. A front face is coupled to a front edge of the top face and depends downwardly therefrom. The top face of the mounting bracket rests on a top ledge of a window frame and the rear face is situated between the window frame and an adjacent wall. A securement mechanism is mounted on the mounting bracket for securing to an end of a rod of a window covering.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to curtain hangers and more particularly pertains to a new curtain and mini blind hanger for conveniently hanging a curtain or mini blind.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of curtain hangers is known in the prior art. More specifically, curtain hangers heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art curtain hangers include U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,296; U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,050; U.S. Pat. No. 5,230,494; U.S. Pat. Des. 384,604; U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,718; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,046.
In these respects, the curtain and mini blind hanger according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of conveniently hanging a curtain or mini blind.


A discharge tap (10) for liquid containers, in particular for connecting to the outlet neck or the outlet opening of a transportation and storage container for liquids, having a tap housing (11) in which a valve body being pivotable around a valve axle by means of a handle (12) for opening and closing a flow cross section of an outlet tube (13) is arranged, said handle being provided with a handle stop and a housing dome of the tap housing being provided with a housing stop, said handle stop and said housing stop being able to be locked relatively to each other via a securing device (16) for securing the locking position, the securing device (16) comprising a stop bolt (17) being able to be displaceable between a bolting position and an unbolting position in a translatory manner in direction of the valve axle.

A discharge tap formed as a butterfly valve having a valve flap as a valve body is known from Document EP 1 106 565 A1, said discharge tap comprising a seal for forming a securing device for securing the relative arrangement between a handle stop formed at the handle and a housing stop formed at the tap housing, said seal simultaneously serving as a tamper-proof seal.
It is proposed in Document EP 1 547 967 A1 to provide a securing device for securing the handle from being unintentionally or maliciously displaced, said securing device being able to be formed as a seal or a mechanical lock, a tear-proof securing ring in particular being provided.


A liquid crystal panel includes an array substrate and a color filter substrate that is arranged opposite to the array substrate and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the array substrate and the color filter substrate, and an enclosure resin frame surrounding the liquid crystal layer. A support is arranged in the liquid crystal layer of the liquid crystal panel and the support supports between the array substrate and the color filter substrate. The support includes a first support layer and a second support layer connected to the first support layer. The first support layer is made of a thermally deformable material. The second support layer is made of a flexible material of elastic restorability. A liquid crystal displaying device is also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of liquid crystal displaying, and in particular to a liquid crystal panel, a manufacturing method, and a liquid crystal displaying device.
2. The Related Arts
Currently, liquid crystal display devices, serving as display components of electronic devices, have been widely used in various electronic products for liquid crystal displaying. A liquid crystal panel comprises an array substrate and a color filter substrate that are opposite to each other and liquid crystal interposed between the array substrate and the color filter substrate. A resin frame is formed between the color filter substrate and the array substrate to enclose and seal the liquid crystal. Supports are provided between the color filter substrate and the array substrate. As such, the liquid crystal panel comprises a displaying zone, a transition zone surrounding the displaying zone, and the resin frame surrounding the transition zone. During the manufacture, one situation is that metal wiring is arranged on a top or bottom of the resin frame that is in engagement with the panel and non-uniformity of the wiring may cause non-uniformity of the entire size of the resin frame. Another situation is that the density of the supports in the transition zone is small so as to cause excessively large or excessively small compression. Both situations will lead to expansion or reduction of the gap between the array substrate and the color filter substrate in the transition zone. In other words, the glass layer of the array substrate or the color filter substrate that faces the liquid crystal layer may gets deformed, leading to color difference occurring at a perimeter of the displaying zone so as to severely affect the displaying quality of the displaying zone.

Liquid crystal panel and liquid crystal displaying device

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd