A method is provided for transmitting or storing, over an interference affected channel, digital audio signals that have been subjected to data reduction, resulting in a reduced data, digital audio signal that is present in at least one of the time domain and spectral domain, depending on source coding. An interfered-with signal section is detected in the reduced data, digital audio signal at a receiving end. The interfered-with reduced data, digital audio signal section is masked by one of (a) muting only interfered-with spectral values or subbands, or groups of spectral values or subbands in the signal section and (b) replacing only interfered-with spectral values or subbands, or groups of spectral values or subbands in the signal section with a signal component from the same channel or an adjacent channel including at least one of time domain sampled values, spectral domain sampled values, scale factors, and control information, depending on the source coding of the reduced data, digital audio signal.

The invention relates to a method of transmitting or storing, over an interference affected channel, digital audio signals, wherein transmission errors are detected at the receiving end and corrected if necessary or masked, with the masking being effected in that the interfered-with signal section is muted or replaced by a signal section preceding the interfered-with signal section in the same channel or by a synchronous, not interfered-with signal section of an adjacent channel. Such a method is disclosed in German Patent DE 3,638,922.C2.
In digital audio signal transmissions and storage, the received and read-out audio signals, if they contain bit errors, may either be not decodable at all or not decodable in part after all error detection and error correction methods have been exhausted. In that case, it is the custom to switch to a decoder for muting over a broad band in such a way that for a certain time period the entire signal is set at 0. In the case of digital audio signals transmitted by radio, this case occurs relatively frequently at the fringes of the reception area which is extremely annoying particularly in connection with mobile reception. The same applies for audio signal storage if the tape material or audio heads are worn to a degree that exceeds a tolerance value.
To reduce the annoying effect of missing signals in radio transmissions, German Patent DE 3,638,922.C2 discloses a mutual offset in time between the left and right stereo channels and, if there is an uncorrectable signal interference, placing the complementary stereo information transmitted at an earlier or later point in time instead of the interfered-with original information. Although the complementary stereo information is not identical with the associated, interfered-with original information, but is connected with it only by way of left-right correlation, such a substitution is acceptable in any case for a short period of time since direction and distance perception as well as the perception of spatial relationships are subject to a certain inertia in the human ear. However, if such a masking technique is employed for a longer period of time, the stereophonic impression is lost, since the masking always covers the full bandwidth of the interfered-with signal and therefore also replaces spectral signal components that did not suffer interference.

Method of transmitting and storing digitized audio signals over interference affected channels


A testing device is provided that may be attachable and detachable from a smoke detector. The testing device may have a rod that pushes a testing button on the smoke detector. The testing device may have a light detector which will actuate the rod to push the testing button if the light from an appropriate remote control or other light source is directed onto it, in order to verify that the smoke detector is operating properly without manually pushing the testing button. The testing device may store a unique identifier (ID) and generate and transmit data pertaining to results of the testing of the smoke detector.

A smoke detector is a device that detects smoke and issues an alarm to alert nearby people that there is a potential fire. Because smoke rises, most smoke detectors are mounted on the ceiling or on a wall near the ceiling. Virtually all modern smoke detectors come equipped with a test button that activates a test function. The purpose of the test function is to provide a means to test the power supply and/or the associated detection circuitry prior to actual smoke having been detected. Such testing is may be used to verify that the smoke detector is working properly. Such detection circuitry usually includes a manually operable push button switch for the purpose of initiating the detector test function.
Some smoke detectors include an integrated photosensor. A control beam of incident electromagnetic energy can be provided from a remotely located portable source such as a flashlight. Directing the beam of radiant energy from the flashlight against the smoke detector's photosensor causes the smoke detector to initiate a test sequence.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

United Services Automobile Association (USAA)


An apparatus for cleaning a fabric or other sheet-like porous material. The apparatus comprises a manually driven pump for pumping a cleaning substance through a local area of the material. The pump further comprises an elastic member with a force acting oppositely to the direction of the manual pumping action.

In order to remove stains on clothes or other fabrics, it is common practice to apply efficient cleaning agents with a certain risk for discolorations of the fabric. Usually, the treatment implies that a region on the fabric is treated that is much larger than the size of the stain, which is unwanted.
From U.S. Pat. No. 656,802 by Batz, a grease spot remover is disclosed comprising a pump having a reservoir chamber communicating with the pump-chamber and means for clamping the two chambers together. A cleaning agent may be pumped back and forth between the two chambers in order to clean the area of interest. The disclosed clamping means are wires that are needle pointed through the fabric and connected to the two chambers. This results in holes through the fabric, which in many cases are unwanted, especially in clothes of fine quality. The grease spot remover also is generally not very handy as the manual pumping action has to be performed under the fabric to be cleaned such that a simple resting against an underlying surface is not possible. Also, the pumping needs a pulling action and a pushing action, which makes the use of it tedious as at the same time the upper chamber has to be held vertically in order not to spill the liquid. Furthermore, the drawn embodiments are of a format, which does not make them suitable to transport in a hand bag or during travel. Therefore, needs exist for improvements.

Apparatus for cleaning a local area of a fabric


An amplifier failure detection apparatus for a radio transmitter that has a function for compensating for amplifier distortion of the radio transmitter and a function for determining amplifier failure has occurred by detecting that the gain of an amplifier has dropped a set level or more, in which: a gain-detection unit detects the gain of the amplifier; an alarm-detection-level-generation unit, which has a table for storing alarm-detection levels that correspond to input-amplitude levels, generates an alarm-detection level that corresponds to an input-amplitude level; and a comparison unit compares the gain detected by the gain-detection unit with the alarm-detection level, and generates an alarm based on the comparison results.

This invention relates to an amplifier failure detection apparatus, and more particularly to an amplifier failure detection apparatus of a radio transmitter that comprises a function for correcting distortion of the amplifier of the radio transmitter, and detects the gain of the amplifier drops a set level or more in order to determine that amplifier failure has occurred.
Recently, high-performance transmission through digitization is often used in radio transmission. When multi value phase modulation is used in radio transmission, techniques for linearizing the amplification characteristics of a power amplifier, suppressing non-linear distortion, and reducing the power leakage to adjacent channels is particularly important; also when using an amplifier having poor linearity to improve power efficiency, it is essential that a technique be used to compensate for the resulting distortion.
FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing an example of a transmission apparatus in a conventional radio transmitter, where a transmission-signal-generation device 1 transmits a serial digital data sequence, and a serial-to-parallel converter (S/P converter) alternately divides the digital data sequence one bit at a time into two sequences, an In-phase component signal (I signal) and a Quadradture component signal (Q signal). A digital-to-analog converter 3 converts both the I signal and Q signal to analog baseband signals, and inputs them to a quadrature modulator 4. The quadrature modulator 4 multiplies the input I signal and Q signal (transmission baseband signals) by a reference carrier signal and a signal whose phase is shifted 90° from the reference carrier signal, respectively, and by adding the multiplication results, performs quadrature modulation and outputs the result. A frequency converter 5 performs frequency conversion by mixing the quadrature-modulated signal and a local oscillation signal, and a power amplifier (PA) 6 amplifies the power of the carrier signal that is output from the frequency converter 5 and that signal is then radiated into air from an aerial wire (antenna) 7.
In mobile communication such as W-CDMA, the transmission power of the transmission apparatus is a large 10 W to several 10 W, and the input/output characteristics (distortion function f(p)) of the power amplifier 6 becomes non-linear as shown by the dotted line in (a) of FIG. 10. Non-linear distortion occurs due to this non-linear characteristic, and in the frequency spectrum near the transmission frequency f0, a side robe emerges as shown by the solid line in (b) of FIG. 10, thus power leaks to the adjacent channels causing adjacent interference. In other words, due to the non-linear distortion, the power of the transmission wave that leaks into the adjacent frequency channels becomes large as shown in (b) of FIG. 10. This power leakage becomes noise in other channels, which causes the quality of communication in those channels to become poor. Therefore, this is strictly regulated.
For example, the power leakage is small in the linear range of the power amplifier (see (a) of FIG. 10) and becomes large in the non-linear range. Therefore, so as to make the power amplifier a high-output amplifier, it is necessary that the linear range be increased. However, in order to increase the linear range, an amplifier having performance which is greater than that actually required becomes necessary, and thus there is a problem in that cost and size of the apparatus become a disadvantage. Therefore, a transmission apparatus having a distortion-compensation function that compensates for the distortion that causes the non-linearity of the power amplifier is used.
FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a transmission apparatus having a digital-non-linear-distortion-compensation function that uses a Digital Signal Processor (DSP). A digital data group (transmission signal) that is transmitted from a transmission-signal-generation device 1 is converted to two sequences, an I signal and Q signal, by a S/P converter 2, and then input to a distortion-compensation unit 8 that comprises a DSP. The distortion-compensation unit 8 comprises: a distortion-compensation-coefficient-memory unit 8a that stores a distortion-compensation coefficient h(pi) that correspond to the power level pi (i=0 to 1023) of the transmission signal x(t); a predistortion unit 8b that performs distortion-compensation processing (predistortion) on the transmission signal; and a distortion-compensation-coefficient-calculation unit 8c that compares the transmission signal x(t) with the demodulated signal (feedback signal) that is demodulated by a quadrature demodulator that will be described later, then calculates and updates the distortion coefficient h(pi).
The distortion-compensation unit 8 performs predistortion processing on the transmission signal, after which it inputs the transmission signal to a DA converter 3. The DA converter 3 converts the input I signal and Q signal to analog baseband signals and inputs the results to a quadrature modulator 4. The quadrature modulator 4 performs quadrature modulation by multiplying the input I signal and Q signal by a reference carrier wave and a signal whose phase is shifted 90° from that reference carrier wave, respectively, then adding the multiplication results and outputting the results. A frequency converter 5 mixes the quadrature-modulated signal and a local oscillation signal and performs frequency conversion, after which a power amplifier 6 amplifies the power of the carrier-wave signal that is output from the frequency converter 5, and radiates that signal from an aerial wire (antenna) 7.
Part of the transmission signal is input to a frequency converter 10 via a directional coupler 9, where the frequency converter 10 down-converts the frequency and then inputs the signal to a quadrature-demodulator 11. The quadrature demodulator multiplies the input signal by both a reference-carrier wave and a signal whose phase is shifted 90° from that carrier wave, and performs quadrature demodulation to restore the I and Q baseband signals of the transmission side, and inputs the results to an AD converter 12. The AD converter 12 converts the input I and Q signals to digital signals and inputs them to a distortion-compensation unit 8. The distortion-compensation unit 8 performs adaptive signal processing that uses a LMS (Least Mean Square) algorithm to compare the transmission signal before distortion compensation with a feedback signal that was demodulated by the quadrature demodulator 11, and calculates and updates the distortion-compensation coefficient h(pi) so that the difference between the two signals becomes zero. After that, by repeating the operation described above, the non-linear distortion of the power amplifier 6 is suppressed, and the power leakage to adjacent channels is reduced.
FIG. 12 is a drawing showing the distortion-compensation process by adaptive LMS, and omits the modulation/demodulation unit, frequency conversion unit, etc. In FIG. 12, 15a is a multiplier (corresponds to the predistortion unit 8b in FIG. 11) that multiplies the transmission signal x(t) by a distortion-compensation coefficient hn(p), 15b is a DA converter that converts the distortion compensated signal to an analog signal, 6 is a power amplifier (PA) that has distortion characteristics represented by a distortion function f(p), 15d is a feedback system that feeds back the output signal y(t) from the power amplifier, 15e is an AD converter that converts the feedback signal to a digital signal, 15f is a power-calculation unit that calculates the power p(=|x(t)|2) of the transmission signal x(t) and outputs that power p as the read address of the distortion-compensation-coefficient-memory unit, 15g is a distortion-compensation-coefficient-memory unit (corresponds to the distortion-compensation-coefficient-memory unit 8a in FIG. 11) that stores a distortion-compensation coefficient that corresponds to the power of the transmission signal x(t), and together with outputting a distortion-compensation coefficient hn(p) that corresponds to the power p of the transmission signal x(t), updates the old distortion-compensation coefficient hn(p) with the distort ion-compensation coefficient hn+1(p) that is set according to the LMS algorithm.
Also, in FIG. 12, 15h is a distortion-compensation-coefficient-calculation unit that calculates a distortion-compensation coefficient hn+1(p) according to a LMS algorithm, 15i is a delay circuit for generating an address in the distortion-compensation-coefficient-memory unit 15g for writing the distortion-compensation coefficient hn+1(p), and this delay circuit 15i and the power-calculation unit 15f constitute an address-generation unit 15j. Moreover, 15k and 15m are delay circuits that adjust the timing of the transmission signal x(t) and feedback signal y(t), and control the delay time of each signal so that both the transmission signal x(t) and feedback signal y(t) are input simultaneously to the distortion-compensation-coefficient-calculation unit 21.
In the distortion-compensation-coefficient-calculation unit 15h, 21 is a subtractor that outputs the difference e(t) between the transmission signal x(t) before distortion compensation and the feedback signal y(t), 22 is an operational circuit that comprises: a multiplier 22a that multiplies the error e(t) by a step-size parameter μ; a complex-conjugate-signal-output unit 22b that outputs a complex-conjugate signal y‡(t); a delay circuit 22c that adjusts the timing that the distortion-compensation coefficient hn(p) is output; a multiplier 22d that multiplies hn(p) and y‡(t); a multiplier 22e that multiplies μe(t) and u‡(t); and an adder 22f that adds the distortion-compensation coefficient hn(p) and μe(t) u‡(t). With the construction described above, the calculation shown below is performed.hn+1(p)=hn(p)+μe(t)u‡(t)e(t)=x(t)−y(t)y(t)=hn(p)x(t)f(p)u(t)=x(t)f(p)=hn(p)‡y(t)p=|x(t)|2
Here, x, y, f, h, u and e are complex numbers, and ‡ is the complex conjugate. By performing the calculation above, the distortion-compensation coefficient h(p) is updated so that the difference signal e(t) between the transmission signal x(t) and feedback signal y(t) becomes a minimum, and finally, this converges to the optimum value of the distortion-compensation coefficient, and the distortion of the power amplifier 6 is compensated.
A radio transmitter having the distortion-compensation function described above is used in a base station apparatus in a mobile radio system. When a base station apparatus breaks down, it has a large effect on the users, so it is necessary that communication continues with no breaks, and in order to do this, countermeasures such as redundant construction of the power amplifier are being taken. In order to cope with that construction, it is necessary that amplifier failure be accurately and quickly detected, and then the amplifier be switched, or if necessary, to quickly notify the administrator of amplifier failure. In order to do this, the radio transmitter comprises a function for detecting that the gain of the power amplifier drops a set level or more, and thereby determining that failure of that power amplifier has occurred.
FIG. 13 is a drawing showing the construction of a transmission apparatus in a radio transmitter having an amplifier failure detection unit, where the same reference numbers are given to parts that are the same as those in FIG. 11 and FIG. 12. The quadrature modulator 4 and frequency converter 5 in FIG. 11 are shown as a modulator/frequency converter (MDFU) 31, and the frequency converter 10 and quadrature demodulator 11 in FIG. 11 are shown as a demodulator/frequency converter (DMFD) 32.
An amplifier failure detection unit 33 detects the gain of the power amplifier 6, and it comprises: a gain-detection unit 33a that outputs a voltage signal (gain-monitor voltage) Vout that corresponds to the gain; an alarm-threshold-value-generation unit 33b that generates a fixed alarm threshold level VAL, and a comparator 33c that compares the gain that is detected by the gain-detection unit 33a and the alarm-threshold level, and generates an alarm based on the comparison results. The gain-detection unit 33a is built inside the power amplifier 6, however, in the drawing it is shown on the outside of the power amplifier 6.
FIG. 14 is a drawing showing the construction of the power amplifier 6 having a gain-detection function, and comprising: an amplifier 6a; a directional coupler 6b that extracts part of the input signal from the input side of the amplifier 6a; a directional coupler 6c that extracts part of the output signal from the output side of the amplifier 6a; an attenuator 6d; and a gain detector 33a that is created with a gain-detection IC circuit.
The gain-detection unit 33a comprises two log-amp detectors 33a-1, 33a-2 and a computation unit 33a-3, where the log-amp detectors 33a-1 and 33a-2 generate analog-voltage signals Va(Volt) and Vb(Volt) that correspond to the amplifier output signal and amplifier input signal, respectively, and inputs them to the computation unit 33a-3. The Va and Vb is represented by the following equations.Va=10Pa/20 Vb=10Pb/20  (1)Here, Pa and Pb are the powers (dB notation) that are input to the log-amp detectors 33a-1 and 33a-2.
The computation unit 33a-3 calculates the gain-detection voltage Vout(V) from the equation below.
                                                        Vout              =                                                1.2                  ×                                      log                                                              (                                              Va                        /                        Vb                                            )                                                                      +                0.9                                                                                =                                                1.2                  ×                                      log                                                              (                                                                        10                                                      Pa                            /                            20                                                                          /                                                  10                                                      Pb                            /                            20                                                                                )                                                                      +                0.9                                                                                =                                                1.2                  ×                                      {                                                                  log                                                                          (                                                      10                                                          Pa                              /                              20                                                                                )                                                                    -                                              log                                                                          (                                                      10                                                          Pb                              /                              20                                                                                )                                                                                }                                                  +                0.9                                                                                =                                                1.2                  ×                                      (                                                                  Pa                        /                        20                                            -                                              Pb                        /                        20                                                              )                                                  +                0.9                                                                                =                                                0.06                  ×                                      (                                          Pa                      -                      Pb                                        )                                                  +                0.9                                                                        (        2        )            From Equation (2), the power difference between the two, or in other words, the gain-monitor voltage Vout(V) that corresponds to the gain is output as shown in FIG. 15 with a slope of 0.06 V/dB, and becomes 0.9 V when the power difference is 0 dB. The attenuator 6d that is located between the directional coupler 6c and the gain-detection unit 33a on the output side is for making the input levels that are input to the two log-amp detectors 33a-1, 33a-2 the same at the rated output.
Assuming that there is power amplifier failure when the gain drops a set dB level or more (for example, 3 dB), the alarm-threshold-value-generation unit 33b outputs a voltage (=0.9−0.06×3=0.72 V) that corresponds to the gain at the point when the gain has dropped more than that set dB level as a fixed alarm threshold voltage VAL (see FIG. 15). Also, during operation, the alarm-threshold-value-generation unit 33b compares the gain-monitor voltage Vout that is calculated from Equation (2) with the alarm-threshold voltage VAL, and when the gain-monitor voltage becomes less than the alarm-threshold voltage, it determines that the power amplifier 6 has failed and outputs a gain-fluctuation alarm.
FIG. 16 shows the input amplitude level vs. gain characteristics (AM-AM characteristics) 101 and the gain-monitor voltage characteristics 102 of the power amplifier as described above, and also shows the alarm-threshold voltage VAL. As can be clearly seen from the input amplitude level vs. gain characteristics 101, the gain of the power amplifier 6 becomes a constant 50 dB for a reference input (−10 dBm) or less, and the gain-monitor voltage Vout is adjusted so that it becomes a constant 0.9 V. In the operating range, when the alarm-threshold voltage VAL is set at 0.72 V so that an alarm will be output when the gain drops from the normal gain (=50 dB) by 3 dB or more.
As described above, in FIG. 16 the gain is nearly constant in the operating range even though the input-amplitude level may vary, and the gain-monitor voltage Vout is also constant. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 17, in recent power amplifiers 6 there is a trend for the gain to change according to the input-amplitude level in order that the amount of power consumption may be lowered. In other words, as the input-amplitude level becomes lower, there is a tendency for the gain of the power amplifier to become lower. When the gain changes in this way according to the input-amplitude level, the gain-monitor voltage Vout also changes as shown by the gain-monitor voltage characteristics 102.
Conventionally, since the gain was constant, there was no problem even though the threshold value of the gain-fluctuation alarm was set to a constant value, however, in the case of a power amplifier whose gain is not constant, even though the amplifier may be operating properly, there is a problem in that the gain-monitor voltage Vout drops as shown in FIG. 17 and becomes lower than the threshold value VAL of the gain-fluctuation alarm, and thus an alarm is output by mistake. In the example shown in FIG. 17, as the input level becomes low, the gain-monitor voltage Vout approaches the alarm-threshold voltage VAL, and when the input-amplitude level is near −35 dBm, an alarm will be generated by mistake.
Furthermore, in a power amplifier whose gain is not constant the gain-monitor voltage fluctuates according to the following two cases. In other words the gain-monitor voltage fluctuates:
(1) when the input-amplitude level vs. gain characteristics differ for each individual power amplifier, for example when there are variations in the gain slope SL (see FIG. 17); and
(2) when the gain changes due to changes in the operating environment such as temperature or power supply.
Therefore, in these cases, when the alarm-threshold voltage VAL that follows the fluctuation in the gain-monitor voltage is not set, there is a problem in that it is not possible to correctly detect amplifier failure.
There is prior art (JP2003-8360A) that detects an error state in a feedback loop based on changes of the distortion-compensation coefficient of the power amplifier per unit time, and controls the output power of the power amplifier according to an alarm signal when an error is detected. However, this prior art does not detect failure of the power amplifier. When there are changes in the gain characteristics with respect to the input-amplitude level, there is no prior art that accurately detects failure of a power amplifier.


The present invention relates to the methods for preparing compounds of the formula I:

The P2X7 purinergic receptor (previously known as P2Z receptor), which is a ligand-gated ion channel, is present on a variety of cell types, largely those known to be involved in inflammatory/immune process, specifically, macrophages, mast cells and lymphocytes (T and B). Activation of the P2X7 receptor by extracellular nucleotides, in particular adenosine triphosphate, leads to the release of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and giant cell formation (macrophages/microglial cells), degranulation (mast cells) and proliferation (T cells), apoptosis, and L-selectin shedding (lymphocytes). P2X7 receptors are also located on antigen-presenting cells (APC), keratinocytes, salivary acinar cells (parotid cells), hepatocytes and mesangial cells.
P2X7 antagonists are known in the art, such as those described in International Patent Publications WO 01/46200, WO 01/42194, WO 01/44213, WO99/29660, WO 00/61569, WO 99/29661, WO 99/29686, WO 00/71529, and WO 01/44170, as well as in WO2003042191.
Benzamides, heteroarylamides and reverse amides for uses other than inhibition of the P2X7 receptor are described in various publications, such as International Patent Publications WO 97/22600, EP 138,527, WO 00/71509, WO 98/28269, WO 99/17777 and WO 01/58883.
Antagonists of the P2X7 receptor are being identified for the treatment of human disease (see e.g., Alcaraz et al. (2003) Bioorg Med Chem Lett. 13(22):4043-4046; Baxter et al. (2003) Bioorg Med Chem Lett. 13(22):4047-4050). There is a need for additional compounds, compositions, and methods of preparing compounds that can inhibit the P2X7 receptor for use as pharmaceutical agents.

Abstract: or the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, wherein R1, R2, R4, R10, and R11 have any of the values defined in the specification. The compounds of the present invention are useful in the treatment of diseases, including inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.


A lock body in a locked state is inserted radially inward of an outer surface. A stopper body in a contact state holds the lock body in an unlocked state. The stopper body in a non-contact state is retracted from the lock body. A pressing body is switchable between a standby state and a retracted state. The pressing body in the standby state selectively contacts a central shaft when an insertion portion is inserted in a support cylinder. The pressing body in the retracted state is retracted from the stopper body. An urging member urges the pressing body into the standby state, and urges the stopper body into the contact state. The urging member detachably engages the pressing body to the stopper body. Thus, the structure of the cutter holder is simple.

The present invention relates to a holder on which various cutters such as a hole cutter are mounted. The cutter holder supports, for example, a shank of the hole cutter.
Japanese Patent No. 2558054 discloses a cutter holder, which includes locking balls (7) for locking a cutter (6) on a support cylinder (1), a stopper body (2), and a valve body (11) of an oil valve. Numerals in parentheses are reference numerals in the above publication. A first spring (3) urges the stopper body (2) to support the locking balls (7) in an unlocked state. A second spring (13) urges the valve body (11) to prevent cutting oil from flowing out when the cutter (6) is not being used.
As described above, the cutter holder of the above publication includes the first spring (3) for supporting the locking balls (7) in the unlocked state and the second spring (13) for closing the oil valve separately. Thus, the structure of the cutter holder is complicated.


An apparatus and method directed to a solid-state capacitance sensor for measuring a strain force on a dielectric including at least one pair of electrostriction sensors each sensor having at least two electrodes and each having a central axis. The central axes are disposed in a common plane and are oriented substantially mutually perpendicularly to one another. Preferably, at least two pairs of sensors, forming a rosette, are provided to facilitate multi-component analysis of a sample having dielectric properties under stress/strain.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to strain sensors, and more particularly, a solid-state sensor that detects deformation based on the dielectrostrictive response of the corresponding sample under test.
2. Description of Related Art
Strain gauges or sensors have been employed in a wide variety of applications. Conventional strain sensors are typically used for measuring the expansion and/or contraction of an object under stress. A common type of strain sensor comprises a resistive transducer. Other types of strain sensors include air-gap capacitive sensors (including capacitors that simulate adjacent parallel capacitors), piezo resistors (including silicon strain gauges and conductive elastomer resistive strain gauges), piezoelectric devices such as lead zirconium-titanate (PZT), as well as others.
Resistive strain sensors generate the resistance change that is proportional to the amount the object being measured is deformed under strain. In one type of resistive of the object it is mounted on in a predetermined direction. Such a sensor requires either a DC or an AC excitation voltage to generate an electric output signal proportional to the strain. In addition, auxiliary equipment (for example, connecting the sensor in a differential arrangement such as in a wheatstone bridge circuit), typically must be provided to accurately determine the amount of strain.
Capacitance strain gauges, such as those shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, depend on geometric features of the gauge to measure strain. In FIG. 1A, a capacitance strain sensor 10 includes opposed parallel plates 12, 14 separated by a pair of spacers 16, 18, which collectively define an air gap 20. Or, as shown in FIG. 1B, a capacitance strain sensor may include a single spacer 16 to separate the opposed plates 12, 14, which may be preferred depending on the type of forces being sensed or required mounting configuration. As a compressive load is applied to the sensor, as shown, the separation between the opposed plates changes (e.g., narrows as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B when subjected to a compressive load), thus causing a change in capacitance. In particular, capacitance, C, of a parallel plate capacitor can be characterized as being proportional to A×K/h where A is the plate area, K is the dielectric constant of the dielectric material; between two plates and "h" is the separation between the plates. As a result, the capacitance can be varied by changing the plate area, A, or the gap, h. The electrical properties of the materials used to form the sensor are generally unimportant, so the capacitance strain gauge materials can be chosen to meet the mechanical requirements of the particular application. Therefore, such sensors are useful in those instances where a more rugged sensor is needed, providing a significant advantage over resistance strain gauges. However, as discussed below, such sensors have drawbacks of their own.
Although useful for certain applications, the above-described sensors have inherent drawbacks. Resistive strain sensors require relatively complex measurement equipment (e.g., a wheatstone bridge), and can have less than ideal robustness. Moreover, resistive strain gauges dissipate a significant amount of heat, thus making their implementation impractical for many applications contemplated by the present invention including, for example, when the sensor is embedded with the object being sensed. Conventional capacitance strain gauges, although more robust than resistance strain gauges, are limited by the range of forces they can sense. For instance, measuring shear forces with a conventional capacitance sensor is difficult. Also, conventional air-gap capacitance strain sensors are not sufficiently sensitive for the applications contemplated by the present invention and, in any event, are vulnerable to overload in the presence of large forces, thus further limiting their application.
Moreover, in a common capacitance strain sensor, capacitance is given byC=∈0∈A/h  Equation 1where ∈0 is the dielectric constant of free space, ∈ is the dielectric constant of the material between the electrodes, A is the electrode area, and h is thickness of the layer. Deformation changes the gap, h, the area, A, and affects the dielectric constant, ∈. The relative variation in the capacitance can be expressed as
                                          Δ                                                                          C                    C                =                              -                                          Δ                                                                                h                            h                                +                                    Δ                                                                                A                        A                    +                                                    Δ                                                                                ɛ                            ɛ                        .                                              Equation                                                  2
The first two terms in Equation 2 represent the contribution of electrode geometry which is well-addressed in the prior art. The last term represents the contribution due to the dielectrostriction effect which is largely overlooked in the sensor art. However, available theoretical and experimental results predict the dielectrostriction effect typically dominates the geometric variations.
Unfortunately, constraints at the interface between the electrodes and the dielectric layer strongly influence the strain-dielectric response, Δ∈/∈, for a parallel-plate configuration. This can be illustrated by considering variations of dielectric properties with deformations. For example, according to Equation 1 uniaxial compression changes both the thickness, Δh/h≈u33, and the volume, ΔV/V≈ull=u11+u22+u33, of the layer. If the dielectric layer is allowed to freely slip between the electrodes, the resulting lateral expansions of the material try to preserve its volume, u11=u22=−vu33, and thus ΔV/V=(1−2v)u33. If the dielectric layer is constrained so no lateral expansions are allowed, it can be compressed only in the z-direction, and thus u33(=Δh/h) and u11=u22=0, which results in Δh/h=ΔV/V=u33. Therefore, the measured variations of the dielectric constant range from Δ∈33=[α1+(1−2v)α2]u33 to Δ∈33=(α1+α2)u33 for various boundary constraints. A vital drawback is that the correct type of the constraints for a given thin-dielectric-layer setup is typically unknown.
In any event, with each of the above-noted sensors, the sensors are external or separate from the object experiencing stress/strain. It follows that direct sensing of stresses or strains through physical response of a material composing the structure itself would be more attractive. Elimination of embedding, attaching, and interfacing external devices reduces cost, power consumption and increases reliability of the system.
One approach to achieving such direct sensing is to embed or laminate a material having an intrinsically self-sensing capability into the load-bearing structure. For example, piezoresistive response of graphite fibers in a polymeric matrix is linked to deformation of the composite. Similarly, a surface-bonded or embedded piezoelectric material or glass-optical fibers can be also utilized for monitoring the deformations. However, introducing self-sensing materials into the load-bearing structure has many shortcomings.
For instance, embedded material increases cost, affects mechanical response and reliability of the structure. Also, stiffness mismatch of the matrix and the embedded elements may result in poor strain transfer and be an additional source of system degradation. In addition, wiring or interfacing embedded sensors increases risks of operational failure of the system, and only few materials possess the piezoelectric, piezoresistive or optical responses required for implementation of the traditional approaches discussed above.
In response to these challenges, the sensor disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,910,385 ("the '385 patent") to the present assignee was developed. The '385 patent, which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein, discloses a solid-state capacitance strain sensor that operates based on variation of dielectric properties with deformation, also known as electrostriction or dielectrostriction. The sensor may be configured as a two-sided device according to the design of a conventional capacitor, or alternatively may be configured as a one-sided device as a line capacitor sensor. Moreover, the dielectric material employed in the sensor may be micro-tailored according to particular applications to increase sensitivity to, for example, shear or normal deformation.
In one preferred embodiment of the '385 patent, the dielectric is the object being sensed while appropriately placed electrodes that interface directly with the object under test measure capacitance changes in response to deformation of the object in response to incident forces. Such capacitance changes are caused by a change in the dielectric constant of the object being sensed as deformation due to forces, for example, shear and/or compressive, are exerted thereon. More particularly, the solid-state capacitance includes at least one pair of electrodes disposed so as to interface with the dielectric. Electrodes can be attached to the dielectric and move following the deformation. The sensor system includes a measuring circuit coupled to the electrodes to measure a change in the dielectric constant in response to the deformation. In operation, the change in the dielectric constant is caused by an electrostrictive response of the dielectric to the strain. The response is quantified by computing a change in the dielectric constant based on a measured change in capacitance.
Though useful, the disclosed embodiments of the '385 patent do not provide an elegant solution to providing a cost-effective sensor for multi-component (three-axis) strain/stress detection. Moreover, with mechanical contact to the monitored part, movement of the electrodes can corrupt the acquired data, while the stand-alone nature of the sensor is susceptible to electrical noise, thermal effects and related signal corruption. Overall, a robust solution was needed for a range of applications including in-line monitoring of various load-bearing structures, stand-alone sensing devices and arrays for stress/strain mapping (for example, tactile sensing), process monitoring of toughened (tempered) glasses, residual stresses in plastic parts, to name a few.

Dielectrostrictive sensor for measuring deformation


The invention relates to apparatus, systems, and related methods for slowing the speed of components in transport systems. The apparatus includes a component track extending between input and output ends and sized for receiving the components, a speed control device mounted adjacent the component track and comprising a projection configured to move within the component track, a sensor positioned upstream of the input end of the component track to detect the speed of the components approaching the component track, and a controller in communication with the sensor and configured to adjust the speed of the projection within the component track based on the speed of the components approaching the component track, to decelerate the components within the component track.

Component transport systems are used to transport components from one location to another within large machine systems. Such systems can include pneumatic and gravity fed systems.
Pneumatic transport systems are used to transport components, such as razor cartridges, from one location to another typically remote location within large machine systems, e.g., from a magazine to a rotary table along a feed conduit. These systems typically can include a device to impart an air pressure differential along the system, e.g., a blower or vacuum pump, an injection nozzle, a narrow diameter tube that leads from a first point to a second point, and a mechanical control system that properly aligns the tubing over the appropriate first point, e.g., a specific position in a magazine. These transport systems often include no braking mechanism or can include a counter-flowing air stream to slow the components, e.g., once they reach the end of the tube at a delivery location.
In these systems, either the injection nozzle or the magazine moves to sequentially center the tubing over a specific point to receive a component or a stack of components. Once centered, the nozzle fires a blast of air that lifts and moves a stack of components out of the magazine and through a tube to a feed conduit. The components can move at very high velocities, and absent a braking system, impact a stop device once they reach the delivery location. Such impact can damage or misalign the components in the feed conduit.
Some pneumatic transport systems include a braking mechanism that includes one or more nozzles or openings upstream of the feed conduit. These nozzles or openings are supplied with high pressure air to produce one or more streams that flow in a direction opposite to the direction of the components. The high pressure air streams are set to slow the components approaching the delivery location. Although useful to slow the velocity of the approaching components, this braking mechanism requires careful calibration of the volume and speed of the counter-flowing air streams. Such systems are generally not configured to compensate for variations in approaching component velocities, conditions which are typical in pneumatic transfer operations. Nor can these systems compensate for variations in air pressure or flow rate through needle valves which are typical in production environments.

Component control device, systems, and methods


Methods and kits for decomposing organophosphorus compounds in non-aqueous media at ambient conditions are described. Insecticides, pesticides, and chemical warfare agents can be quickly decomposed to non-toxic products. The method comprises combining the organophosphorus compound with a non-aqueous solution, preferably an alcohol, comprising metal ions and at least a trace amount of alkoxide ions. In a first preferred embodiment, the metal ion is a lanthanum ion. In a second preferred embodiment, the metal ion is a transition metal.

The Chemical Weapons Convention was adopted by the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on Sep. 3, 1992, entered into force on Apr. 29, 1997, and calls for a prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons and for their destruction under universally applied international control. Eliminating the hazard of chemical warfare agents is desirable both in storage sites and on the battlefield. Decontamination of battlefields requires speed and ease of application of decontaminant. Surfaces involved pose a challenge for decontamination techniques since some surfaces absorb such agents, making decontamination difficult. Examples of surfaces that could be involved include those of tanks, ships, aircraft, weapons, electronic devices, ground, protective clothing and human skin. The decontaminants should not be corrosive, so that surfaces are not damaged during/following decontamination. An optimum solvent of a decontaminating method should provide ease of application, solubility of the chemical warfare agent, non-corrosiveness, and minimal environmental contamination. Since the establishment of the Convention, considerable effort has been directed toward methods of facilitating the controlled decomposition of organophosphorus compounds.
Aqueous decontamination systems, such as hydrolysis systems, have been used in the past, most notably for nerve agents, particularly for the G-agents tabun (GA), sarin (GB), soman (GD) and GF. However, hydrolysis reactions are not suitable for all chemical warfare nerve agents such as V-agents VX (S-2-(diisopropylamino)ethyl O-ethyl methylphosphonothiolate) and Russian-VX (S-2-(diethylamino)ethyl O-isobutyl methylphosphonothiolate), whose decontamination chemistries are very similar to one another (Yang, 1999). The V-agents are about 1000-fold less reactive with hydroxide than the G-agents (due to their poor solubility in water under basic conditions), and they produce product mixtures containing the hydrolytically stable, but toxic, thioic acid byproduct.

Although some chemical warfare agents are water soluble, they may be applied in combination with a polymer so that, being thickened, they adhere well to surfaces. These "thickened" agents are only minimally soluble in water. In the case of decomposition using a hydrolysis reaction, products in which a phosphorus-sulfur bond is preserved are common; these are toxic in their own right and are relatively resistant to further reaction. Another disadvantage of an aqueous decontamination system is that hydrolysis reactions are not catalytic, and therefore require stoichiometric amounts of reagents. Furthermore, commonly used aqueous methods, due to their alkaline pH, are not suitable for decontamination of human skin. Yet another disadvantage of aqueous decontamination methods is the caustic wastewater produced as an end product, which poses a challenge for disposal.
Historically, decontamination of chemical warfare agents has been effected using hydrolysis or oxidation using bleach or alkali salts. Bleach is corrosive to skin, rubber, and metal surfaces and is ineffective in cold weather conditions. Alkali salts require excess hydroxide ion in order for the reaction to go to completion rapidly, thus resulting in a caustic product. Non-catalytic methanolysis of V-agents has been studied, wherein the reaction of VX with alkoxide leads primarily to a displacement of the SR− group (Yang et al., 1997).
Transition metal ions and lanthanide series ions and certain mono- and dinuclear complexes thereof are known to promote hydrolysis of neutral phosphate and/or phosphonate esters. However, the available literature on the hydrolysis of phosphothiolate (P═S) esters and phosphothiolates is quite sparse with only the softer ions such as Cu2+, Hg2+ and Pd2+ showing significant catalysis. The lack of examples may be due to reduced activity of P═S esters, their poor aqueous solubility and the fact that anionic hydrolytic products bind to the metal ions thereby inhibiting further catalysis.
There is a need for a viable catalytic decontamination method which is inexpensive, has high catalyst turnover, and occurs at relatively neutral pH and ambient temperature, and most importantly, proceeds rapidly, e.g. t1/2<1 min.

Method of decomposing organophosphorus compounds


A method of processing a wafer, and particularly a cap wafer configured for mating with a device wafer in the production of a die package. Masking layers are deposited on oxide layers present on opposite surfaces of the wafer, after which the masking layers are etched to expose regions of the underlying oxide layers. Thereafter, an oxide mask is formed on the exposed regions of the oxide layers, but is prevented from forming on other regions of the oxide layers masked by the masking layers. The masking layers are then removed and the underlying regions of the oxide layers and the wafer are etched to simultaneously produce through-holes and recesses in the wafer. The oxide mask is then removed to allow mating of the cap wafer with a device wafer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to processes for fabricating semiconductor devices. More particularly, this invention relates to a process of producing encapsulation die through a process that simultaneously forms cavities and through-holes in a semiconductor wafer and provides both quality and cost improvements over current techniques.
2. Description of the Related Art
Within the semiconductor industry, there are numerous applications that require encapsulating the surface of a semiconductor die. As an example, a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device formed in or on a semi-conductor die (referred to herein as a device die) is often capped by a semiconductor or glass die (referred to herein as a cap die), forming a package that defines a cavity within which the MEMS device, such as a suspended diaphragm or mass, is enclosed and protected. Examples of MEMS devices protected in this manner include accelerometers, rate sensors, actuators, pressure sensors, etc.
For mass production, numerous MEMS devices are simultaneously fabricated in a device wafer that is bonded to an encapsulation (cap) wafer, after which the resulting wafer stack undergoes a dicing operation to singulate individual die packages from the wafers. The cavities are usually defined by recesses formed in the cap wafer by photolithographic/etch techniques. By the very nature of their operation, MEMS devices must be free to move to some degree, necessitating that the size and shape of the cavity within each package be adequate and consistently defined. However, current methods for processing cap wafers for MEMS devices are often plagued with yield loss and quality defects.
The difficulty in processing cap wafers revolves around the need to etch holes all the way through the cap wafer in order to provide access to bond pads on the device wafer. Existing processes utilize photolithographic/etch techniques to form the through-holes and recesses required by cap wafers. As is well known in the art, photolithography involves the use of light to effect the transfer of a pattern from a mask to a wafer, and using the pattern as a mask during etching of the wafer to define structural features, such as the holes and recesses in the cap wafer. Creating these through-holes using photolithographic/etch techniques requires processing both sides of the wafer and maintaining alignment of features on both sides. Inherently, photolithographical patterning of the wafers requires individual handling of the wafers through several steps to create the pattern on the wafer. If both surfaces of the cap wafer are being patterned, the patterned side of the wafer must be placed against wafer handling fixtures in order to process the opposite surface of the wafer, which further aggravates the quality control problem. As each wafer is subjected to additional processing steps requiring individual handling of the wafer, the chances of creating a defect increase. For example, photolithographical masking defects or scratches during the processing of the cap wafer are translated into the cap wafer during the through wafer etch, resulting in defects that can lead to the loss of individual die and even the entire wafer. Because processing of a wafer with an undesired through-hole typically cannot continue due to the adverse effect on equipment further along in the process, masking defects that result in the etching of such holes will result in the loss of the entire wafer, incurring a significant cost burden in the form of lost wafers, processing costs, and production time. Even small masking defects that do not create undesirable through-holes in the cap wafer can cause the loss of individual die. Because wafers are inspected by an automated system, the inspection process is likely to catch only those defects that are trained into the system, raising the potential that a defective die will pass the visual inspection.
In view of the above, any improvements in cap wafer processes over existing photolithographical techniques have the potential for providing quality, yield, and cost advantages.


Small tissue property change detection is provided for magnetic resonance (MR) guided intervention. T1 changes from before and after treatment are compared. The comparison identifies locations of possible change. The comparison is performed for different times, one before and one after a zero-crossing of a signal intensity time curve. Due to the characteristics of the T1 mapping, common locations from the different times will have reversed contrast. Clustering and this reversal are used to distinguish the treatment region from noise.

The present embodiments relate to small tissue property change detection in magnetic resonance (MR) guided intervention.
MR imaging is used to detect change due to ablation. For example, liver, heart, muscle or kidney is thermally ablated, such as occurs in radio frequency, ultrasound, microwave, or cryogenic ablation therapy. The ablation may cause a change or difference in tissue properties resulting in MR T1 or T2 changes. If sufficiently large, the treated area appears differently in a T1 or T2 weighted image than surrounding, non-treated tissue. However, smaller treated areas may be more difficult to visually detect from a T1 or T2 weighted image. Moving and/or thin tissue structures may make detection of smaller treated areas more difficult. For example, T2-weighted MR sequences have relatively poor signal-to-noise ratio and are sensitive to motion.
For detection of RF ablation treatment areas in the heart, a T1-shortening contrast agent may be used. Using late-enhancement, areas in which residual contrast exists after a waiting period indicate damaged tissue. However, the wait period may be many minutes, making repeatability during an interventional procedure difficult. This difficulty is compounded by the effects of repeated administration of the contrast agents, which may not even be usable for patients with poor renal function.

Small tissue property change detection in magnetic resonance guided intervention


The purpose of the present invention is to provide an injectable sol into a body, suited for delivery through a catheter, and usable for tissue perforation closure, ulcer protection, or vascular embolization. Provided are a sol for tissue perforation closure, a sol for ulcer protection, and a sol for vascular embolization, each containing from 0.6 mass % to 3 mass % of a collagen, water, from 200 mM to 330 mM sodium chloride, and a buffer and having a pH from 6.0 to 9.0.

Minimally invasive treatments such as endoscopic treatment and IVR (interventional radiology) treatment (treatment by inserting a catheter into the living body while using an image diagnostic apparatus with X ray, CT or the like) have been spreading rapidly. These minimally invasive treatments are sometimes required to use an injectable gel into a body for closing a through-hole which has appeared in the tissue, protecting an ulcer, or embolizing a blood vessel. Delivery of a medicinal solution or material through a catheter is important for the minimally invasive treatments, but delivery of a solid material through a catheter is not so easy.
As clinically used preparations having gelation ability, there are preparations making use of a reaction between a crosslinking agent and a polymer and preparations making use of a polymerization reaction of a monomer, each called "bio-adhesive" (also called bio-sealant or tissue adhesive) (Patent Document 1, etc.). They have a function of forming gel and binding to the tissue in a short time, but are unsuited when used for the delivery through a long thin tube such as catheter, because they start gelation immediately after their components are mixed. They have therefore difficulty in use for tissue perforation closure, ulcer protection, and vascular embolization which are often performed endoscopically.
There is also a report on an injectable gel into a body which causes sol-gel transfer by the self-organization (hydrophobic interaction, electrostatic interaction, or the like) of a polymer without using a crosslinking agent (Patent Documents 2 to 4, etc.). It has an advantage such as easy delivery, for example, through a catheter because gelation occurs in response to the body temperature. It is however weak, instable and inferior in fixation to the tissue, making it difficult to use it for tissue perforation closure, ulcer protection, and vascular embolization.
Further, as a preparation used generally as a biosealant or hemostat, there is a fibrin glue making use of a fibrinogen-thrombin crosslinking reaction which is one of bioreactions. Although it can be delivered through a catheter due to a long gelation time after mixing of a medicinal solution and has a hemostatic effect, it has difficulty in locally forming a gel with good reproducibility because gelation of it does not occur in response to the body temperature. Even if a gel is locally formed, it does not have sufficient strength so that an ulcer cannot be shielded stably therewith without combined use of a protective sheet such as polyglycolic acid sheet (Non-Patent Document 1). Due to markedly low adhesion to the tissue (Patent Document 5), the gel lacks stability as a material for closure, embolization/occlusion, or protection. Further, it is one of the blood preparations and as can be seen from a report on infection with hepatitis C or the like, using it may be risky from the viewpoint of safety.
On the other hand, the present inventors have already found that a specific aqueous collagen/genipin mixed solution has gelation properties in which conversion of a collagen into collagen fibrils at a temperature near the body temperature is followed by introduction of genipin crosslinking (Patent Document 6). The present inventors have also found that adjustment of the concentration of an inorganic salt can increase the gelation rate of a specific aqueous collagen solution (Patent Document 7 and Non-Patent Document 2). Effectiveness of these aqueous solutions to a particular medical use has however not yet been known.

Sol for tissue perforation closure, ulcer protection, and vascular embolization

Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Technology Research Institute

National University Corporation Gunma University


A recording medium has first and second transparent electrodes, a photoconductive layer member and a photomodulation member. The recordingmedium also has a first lamination member having a first substrate on which the first transparent electrode and the photoconductive layer member are laminated in order, a second lamination member having a second transparent substrate on which the second transparent electrode and the photomodulation layer member are laminated in order and coupling members for unifying the first and second lamination members together with a gap of specific width in such a manner that the photoconductive and photomodulation layer members face each other.

The present invention relates to recording media and recording/reproduction apparatus thereof.
The use of image signals that have been generated to correspond to an optical image of an object facilitates the performance of edit, trimming and ocher image processing in the status of electrical signals, and also facilitates the recording and reproduction through the use of a recording material for which the recorded signals can be erased. In an image pickup apparatus, an optical image of an object and that has been formed on a photoelectric conversion portion of an image sensor by an image pickup lens, is converted into electrical image information. Then, this electrical image information is outputted as linear image signals on a time axis. Various types of image pickup tubes and solid state image sensors have been conventionally used as the image sensor described above.
When the image sensor for the generation of image signals for a high-quality and high resolution reproduced image, is an image pickup tube, there is a limit to the degree of fineness of the electron beam diameter in the image pickup tube and so the target capacity of the image pickup tube must be increased so as to correspond to the target area and thus it is not possible to obtain a high resolution. In addition, for example, in case of a color image pickup apparatus for moving picture, there is a problem of the signal-to-noise ratio because the frequency bandwidth of the image signals accompanying high resolution becomes greater than several tens of MHz to several hundreds of MHz. For these reasons, when an image pickup tube in a color image pickup apparatus is used, there are difficulties in generating such image to signals that it is possible to reproduce high-quality and high-resolution reproduced images.
In addition, in a conventional image sensor, after the electrical signals that have been generated by the optical-electrical conversion of the optical information that is the object of recording, have been sent as image signals, image signals corresponding to a new optical image of the object are generated. There is no function for the storage of electrical signals produced in accordance with successive images of object in the image sensor itself. Therefore, image signals that have been generated by the image sensor are for example, stored in a magnetic recording apparatus.
A recording apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is provided with a write head WH, a recording medium RM, an image pickup lens L and a power source Vb. In the write head WH, a transparent electrode Etw and a photoconductive layer member PCL are laminated onto a transparent substrate BPw. In the recording medium RM, a transparent electrode Err and a photomodulation layer member PML are laminated onto a substrate BPr.
Spacers S, S are inserted between the photoconductive layer member PCL in the write head WH and the photomodulation layer member PML in the recording medium RM, and the write head WH and the recording medium RM are maintained by a specific gap. The recording medium RM can move in the direction indicated by an arrow Y. A voltage generated by the power source Vb in the figure, is impressed across the transparent electrode Err tn the recording medium RM and the transparent electrode Etw in the write head WH at the time of recording operation.
The following is a description of the recording operation of the recording apparatus shown in FIG. 1. First, the voltage from the power source Vb is supplied across the transparent electrode Etw and the transparent electrode Err. When the optical image of an object O is formed on the photoconductive layer member PCL of the write head WH by the image pickup lens L, the impedance of the photoconductive layer member PCL changes in accordance with the light intensity of the optical image of the object O. This causes the aerial discharge exhibiting the intensity distribution corresponding to the optical intensity of the optical image of the object O, in the gap between the photomodulation layer member PML and the photoconductive layer member PCL. As a result, the electrical charge pattern corresponding to the optical image is formed on the surface of the photomodulation layer PML. An electrical field corresponding to the electrical charge pattern is then generated and impressed to the photomodulation layer member PML, and recording of the optical image of the object O is performed with respect to the photomodulation layer member PML.
FIG. 1 shows the case where the recording medium RM is formed in a card form, for example. When a recording operation is completed to one portion of the recording medium RM, the recording medium RM moves in the direction indicated by the arrow Y so that another portion faces the write head WH which performs successive recording of information.
In a recording apparatus shown in FIG. 2, in a recording medium RMa, a transparent electrode Et1, photoconductive layer member PCL, photomodulation layer member PML, transparent electrode Et2 and a substrate BP2 are laminated onto a transparent substrate BP1. A voltage generated by a power source Vb in the figure, is impressed to across the transparent electrode Et1 and the transparent electrode Et2 at the time of recording operation.
The following is a description of the recording operation of the recording apparatus shown in PIG. 2. First, a voltage generated by the power source Vb is supplied across the transparent electrode Et1 and the transparent electrode Et2. When the optical image of the object O is formed on the photoconductive layer member PCL of the recording medium RMa by an image pickup lens L, the impedance of the photoconductive layer member PCL changes in accordance with the optical intensity of the optical image of the object O. This causes, an electrical charge pattern corresponding to the optical image of the object O to be is formed at the boundary of the photoconductive layer member PCL and the photomodulation layer member PML. An electrical field corresponding to the electrical charge pattern is generated and impressed to the photomodulation layer member PML, and recording of the optical image of the object I is performed with respect to the photomodulation layer member PML.
The reproduction of the image recorded in the manner described above is performed by the irradiation of light for reproduction to the photomodulation layer member PML. Then, the reproduction light is photomodulated in accordance with the recorded image and it is possible to obtain a reproduced image as a result.
In the recording apparatus shown in FIG. 1, when the recording medium RM moves in the direction indicated by the arrow Y in the figure, the gap between the photomodulation layer member PML in the recording medium RM and the photoconductive layer member PCL in the write head WH is apt to change and so it is difficult to perform favorable recording.
In addition, with the recording medium RMa used in the recording apparatus shown in FIG. 2, it has the laminated configuration member described above and so when an organic type of photosensitive material such as an azo-pigment or the like is used as the photoconductive layer member PCL and a plymer dispersed liquid crystal film is used as the photomodulation layer member PML, the organic photosensitive substance is dissolved by the liquid crystal.

Recording medium and recording/reproduction apparatus thereof


An image forming apparatus (1) includes a main body (10), a recording medium accommodating section (20), a paper feed section (30), an upstream conveyance section (60), an image forming section (40), a downstream conveyance section (70), a reverse conveyance section (P2), a covering member (80), and a movable guide section (90). The downstream conveyance section (70) includes an ejection section (50) and a reversing section (73). The covering member (80) moves between a closed position where the upstream conveyance section (60) is composed and an open position where the upstream conveyance section (60) is exposed. The movable guide section (90) moves between a first position where the downstream conveyance section (70) is composed and a second position where the downstream conveyance section is exposed. The movable guide section (90) moves in conjunction with the covering member (80), is located at the first position to guide a recording medium reversed by the reversing section (73) from a first reverse path (Pr1) to a second reverse path (Pr2) when the covering member (80) is located at the closed position, and is located at the second position when the covering member (80) is located at the open position.

In image forming apparatuses such as copiers, a recording medium such as copy paper may be clogged (hereinafter also referred to as a "jam"). Upon occurrence of a jam, a user removes a recording medium clogged at a part where the jam occurs while referring to a message displayed on a display section.
In order to facilitate jam removal, a structure with a movable reverse conveyance section has been proposed for an image forming apparatus capable of forming an image on both sides of a recording medium. In the image forming apparatus, the reverse conveyance section is turnable between a closed position where the reverse conveyance section is attached to the apparatus body and an open position where the reverse conveyance section protrudes from a side surface of the apparatus body (see Patent Literature 1).
When the reverse conveyance section is located at the closed position, an ejection section from which a recording medium having undergone image formation is ejected is concealed. When the reverse conveyance section is located at the open position, an end part of the ejection section is exposed. Upon occurrence of a jam at the ejection section, a user moves the reverse conveyance section to the open position and inserts a hand into the ejection section to remove the jammed recording medium.

Image forming apparatus including movable guide section movably supported by apparatus main body


Two-component polyurethane coating formulations comprising an aqueous dispersion of a polyisocyanate and a neutralized, water-dispersible resin are disclosed. The neutralized, water-dispersible resin incorporates recurring units of an allylic alcohol or an alkoxylated allylic alcohol. These low-VOC formulations use commercial polyisocyanates and ordinary mixing techniques. The uniquely uniform distribution of hydroxyl groups in the resin contributes to an excellent overall balance of coating properties from the 2K system, including high gloss, hardness, impact resistance, flexibility, weatherability, and chemical resistance.

The coatings industry is under continuing regulatory pressure to develop formulations that reduce the levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) contained in paints and other coatings. Traditional coating formulations, including polyurethanes, are solvent-based and often cannot meet the newer restrictions on solvent use. Coating formulations in which water partially or completely replaces organic solvents continue to evolve.
Initially, aqueous polyurethane dispersions (PUDs), which are one-component coating systems, appeared in response to higher solvent prices and the increased demand for low-VOC coatings. These are usually made by reacting mixtures of polyols and dimethylolpropionic acid with a polyisocyanate to give a complete polyurethane or an isocyanate-terminated prepolymer. This product is then dispersed in water (which may contain other isocyanate-reactive compounds) by neutralizing the acid groups with a base, typically a tertiary amine. While aqueous PUDs provide a low-VOC alternative to traditional two-component, solvent-based coating formulations, they have some disadvantages. Because they are only lightly crosslinked, coatings from aqueous PUDs often lack adequate solvent resistance, water resistance, gloss, hardness, and weathering properties. In addition, a cosolvent is usually needed for good coalescence, so solvents are not easy to eliminate from the formulations. Preferably, low-VOC coatings could be made without sacrificing important physical properties.
In the early 1990s, two-component aqueous polyurethane coatings arrived on the scene (see generally: P. Jacobs et al., "Two-Component Waterborne Polyurethane Coatings: Now and Into the Next Century" and cited references). Bayer scientists discovered that it is possible to use water as a carrier for reactive 2K systems and still get coatings with good appearance and physical properties. Two-component aqueous polyurethane coating formulations are dispersions of separate polyol and polyisocyanate moieties. A coating film forms after water evaporates and the components react to give a crosslinked polymer network. While 2K aqueous polyurethane coatings should, in theory, match the properties available from solvent-based 2K systems, the coatings have, in practice, lacked adequate water resistance, gloss, weatherability, and hardness.
The success of aqueous 2K systems has, until now, relied on some important and often unwieldy formulation twists. For example, the polyol required, which needs both hydroxyl functionality for the polyurethane-forming reaction and acid groups for water dispersibility, is usually not commercially available. In one approach (illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,370), an acrylate polymer with acid and hydroxyl functionalities is made by copolymerizing (in a free-radical polymerization) an acrylic acid monomer and a hydroxyalkyl acrylate monomer (e.g., hydroxyethyl acrylate or hydroxyethyl methacrylate). Unfortunately, hydroxyalkyl acrylates are rather expensive. In addition, it is difficult to make hydroxyalkyl acrylate polymers that have both high hydroxyl functionality and molecular weights low enough to have value for low-VOC, crosslinkable coating systems. The result is a lower level of coating physical properties than would otherwise be desirable. Recently developed hydroxy-functional acrylate polymers based on allylic alcohols and alkoxylated allylic alcohols (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,525,693) overcome some of the limitations of using hydroxyalkyl acrylate monomers. However, the value of these resins has, until now, been demonstrated primarily for solvent-based polyurethane coatings (see Examples 9-11 of the '693 patent) or with high-styrene (>50 wt. %) resins (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,225), and not for aqueous polyurethane coatings.
A second common way to tweak the 2K aqueous polyurethane coating formulation is to modify the polyisocyanate. Most of the work to date has used a polyisocyanate modifed by partially reacting it with a hydrophilic polyether (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,200,489, 5,194,487, 5,389,718, and 5,563,207). Making the polyisocyanate hydrophilic provides an emulsifiable crosslinker having improved compatibility with the co-reactants. This approach also has disadvantages, however. First, the hydrophilic polyisocyanate must be synthesized. Second, more of the expensive hydrophilic polyisocyanate must be used (compared with the unmodified polyisocyanates) to get the same NCO functionality contribution. Third, the hydrophilicity of the polyisocyanate is incorporated into the coating, often making its water sensitivity unacceptably high.
A third approach modifies the processing while keeping a commercial polyisocyanate in the formulation. The key concern is how adequately to disperse the polyisocyanate in water because emulsions made from commercial polyisocyanates tend to aggregate and settle. In one method, the particle size of the polyisocyanate is reduced by high-shear mixing (see the Jacobs article cited above). Unfortunately, high-shear mixing is energy-intensive, time-consuming, and requires special equipment. Adding cosolvents and emulsifiers can help, but this at least partially defeats the purpose of using an aqueous system.
Improved aqueous polyurethane coating compositions are needed. Preferably, the compositions would allow formulators to significantly reduce the levels of VOCs and HAPs present in paints and coatings. Preferably, the compositions are two-component systems without the physical property disadvantages of coatings based on aqueous PUDs. An ideal two-component system would use commercial polyisocyanates and yet would not require high-shear mixing. In addition, the ideal formulation would eliminate any need to make polyol components from expensive hydroxyalkyl acryate monomers. Finally, the industry would benefit from aqueous 2K polyurethane formulations that give coatings with an excellent balance of physical properties, including high gloss, hardness, impact resistance, flexibility, weatherability, and chemical resistance.

Two-component aqueous polyurethane coatings


A mixed waveform configuration for wireless communications including a first portion that is modulated according to a single-carrier modulation scheme and a second portion that is modulated according to a multi-carrier modulation scheme. The waveform is specified so that a channel impulse response (CIR) estimate obtainable from the first portion is reusable for acquisition of the second portion. The first portion includes a preamble and header and the second portion typically incorporates the payload.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) 802.11 standard is a family of standards for wireless local area networks (WLAN) in the unlicensed 2.4 and 5 Gigahertz (GHz) bands. The current 802.11b standard defines various data rates in the 2.4 GHz band, including data rates of 1, 2, 5.5 and 11 Megabits per second (Mbps). The 802.11b standard uses direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) with a chip rate of 11 Megahertz (MHz), which is a serial modulation technique. The 802.11a standard defines different and higher data rates of 6, 12, 18, 24, 36 and 54 Mbps in the 5 GHz band. It is noted that systems implemented according to the 802.11a and 802.11b standards are incompatible and will not work together.
A new standard is being proposed, referred to as 802.11g (the "802.11g proposal"), which is a high data rate extension of the 802.11b standard at 2.4 GHz. It is noted that, at the present time, the 802.11g proposal is only a proposal and is not yet a completely defined standard. Several significant technical challenges are presented for the new 802.11g proposal. It is desired that the 802.11g devices be able to communicate at data rates higher than the standard 802.11b rates in the 2.4 GHz band. In some configurations, it is desired that the 802.11b and 802.11g devices be able to coexist in the same WLAN environment or area without significant interference or interruption from each other, regardless of whether the 802.11b and 802.11g devices are able to communicate with each other. It may further be desired that the 802.11g and 802.11b devices be able to communicate with each other, such as at any of the standard 802.11b rates.
A dual packet configuration for wireless communications has been previously disclosed in U.S. patent application entitled, "A Dual Packet Configuration for Wireless Communications", Ser. No. 09/586,571 filed on Jun. 2, 2000, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. This previous system allowed a single-carrier portion and an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) portion to be loosely coupled. Loosely coupled meant that strict control of the transition was not made to make implementations simple by allowing both an existing single-carrier modem and an OFDM modem together with a simple switch between them with a minor conveyance of information between them (e.g., data rate and packet length). In particular, it was not necessary to maintain strict phase, frequency, timing, spectrum (frequency response) and power continuity at the point of transition (although the power step would be reasonably bounded). Consequently, the OFDM system needed to perform an acquisition of its own, separate from the single-carrier acquisition, including re-acquisition of phase, frequency, timing, spectrum (including multi-path) and power (Automatic Gain Control [AGC]). A short OFDM preamble following the single carrier was used in one embodiment to provide reacquisition.
An impairment to wireless communications, including WLANs, is multi-path distortion where multiple echoes (reflections) of a signal arrive at the receiver. Both the single-carrier systems and OFDM systems must include equalizers that are designed to combat this distortion. The single-carrier system designs the equalizer on its preamble and header. In the dual packet configuration, this equalizer information was not reused by the OFDM receiver. Thus, the OFDM portion employed a preamble or header so that the OFDM receiver could reacquire the signal. In particular, the OFDM receiver had to reacquire the power (AGC), carrier frequency, carrier phase, equalizer and timing parameters of the signal.
Interference is a serious problem with WLANs. Many different signal types are starting to proliferate. Systems implemented according to the Bluetooth standard present a major source of interference for 802.11-based systems. The Bluetooth standard defines a low-cost, short-range, frequency-hopping WLAN. Preambles are important for good receiver acquisition. Hence, losing all information when transitioning from single-carrier to multi-carrier is not desirable in the presence of interference.
There are several potential problems with the signal transition, particularly with legacy equipment. The transmitter may experience analog transients (e.g., power, phase, filter delta), power amplifier back-off (e.g. power delta) and power amplifier power feedback change. The receiver may experience AGC perturbation due to power change, AGC perturbation due to spectral change, AGC perturbation due to multi-path effects, loss of channel impulse response (CIR) (multi-path) estimate, loss of carrier phase, loss of carrier frequency, and loss of timing alignment.

Mixed waveform configuration for wireless communications


A microcomputer including a CPU, a plurality of protection information storages configured to store memory protection information specifying an access permission state or access prohibited state to a memory space by a program executed by the CPU, a memory access control apparatus configured to determine whether or not to allow a memory access request from the CPU according to the memory protection information, and a reset apparatus configured to output a reset signal to the plurality of protection information storages according to a reset request output from the CPU according to a switching of programs executed by the CPU. Each of the plurality of protection information storages is set to a second memory protection state according to the reset signal from a first memory protection state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microcomputer having a memory access control mechanism for determining whether to allow a memory access for a CPU.
2. Description of Related Art
Microcomputers mounted to transport machineries including automobiles and aircrafts and communication devices including and cellular phones and telephone switches to control these machineries and devices are referred to as embedded systems. An embedded system generally has a multi-programming environment in order to improve the processing time, secure real-time and improve the productivity by software componentization of a program. The multi-programming environment is an environment to show as if several application programs are executed in parallel by periodically switching several application programs to execute or switching the application programs in response to a generation of an event. Such multi-programming environment is realized by a CPU and system program handling to schedule the application programs executed by the CPU. A program unit executed in parallel in a multi-programming environment is hereinafter referred to as a task.
Conventionally in the embedded system, a memory protection function for restricting a memory space that is accessible to each task has not been considered as important. However in recent years, there are embedded systems capable of executing programs with uncertified reliability. For example, a cellular phone capable of downloading and executing Java (trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.) programs is commercialized. In such system, it is necessary to protect a system program and other application programs from programs with uncertified reliability. Further, there are demands for facilitating to debug in a software development process by separating the memory space by each application program of software component constituting the application program. With such background, an importance of the memory protection function in the microcomputer is increasing.
Memory protection, a control of memory access in a microcomputer, is performed by setting an area in the memory space to allow or to prohibit an access as memory protection information and then verifying a memory access request from CPU with the memory protection information. Specifically, if a memory address included in a memory access request is contained in an access permission area, the memory access is permitted. If the memory address is contained in an access prohibited area, the memory access is prohibited. Further, if the memory area used when executing a program is divided by each application program or task, it is necessary to change the memory area to allow an access in accordance with the switching of the programs to be executed. Accordingly the memory protection information is rewritten when the program is switched. A microcomputer having such memory protection function is disclosed in "ARM1156T2F-S Technical Reference Manual Rev.R0p0", ARM Ltd., 25 Oct. 2005, <www.arm.com/pdfs/DDI0290C_arm1156t2fs_r0p0_trm.pdf>, Chapter 3 pp. 61-69 and Chapters p. 7, and "TriCore.1 32-Bit Unified Processor Core Volume 1: V1.3 Core Architecture", Infineon Technologies, October 2005, <www infineon.com/upload/Document/TriCore—1_um_vol1_Core_Architecture.pdf>, Chapter 8 pp. 4-10 and Chapter 8 p. 13.
The microcomputer disclosed by ARM Ltd. includes a memory protection unit. The memory protection unit further includes 16 protection setting registers for determining, an area to allow memory accesses. A base address of the area to allow an access, the size of the access permission area and a valid bit for indicating whether the setting by the protection setting register is valid or invalid are stored in each protection setting register. The memory protection unit compares the memory address of the memory area that is requested by the CPU with the access permission area defined by the protection setting register having a valid bit set to valid. The memory protection unit determines whether to allow a memory access or not depending on whether the memory address that the CPU has issued an access request is included in the access permission area defined by the protection setting register having a valid bit set to valid.
On the other hand, the microcomputer disclosed by Infineon Technologies includes a plurality of protection setting registers capable of determining 4 ways of access permission areas for each of a data and an instruction area. A lower bound address and an upper bound address for the access permission area and a protection mode of the setting in the protection setting register are set to each of the protection setting registers. The protection mode is information indicating to allow/prohibit a write access, a read access and an execution that corresponds to the valid bit in the microcomputer disclosed by ARM Ltd.
The microcomputers disclosed by ARM Ltd. And Infineon Technologies sequentially updates the content of the protection setting registers according to the switching of the programs carried out by the CPU so as to set memory protection information for a program to be newly executed. Specifically, by sequentially performing processes to set a valid bit of a protection setting register to invalid, to set a permission area in the protection setting register and set a valid bit of the protection setting register having a determined permission area to valid state to all the protection setting registers, an access permission area for a newly executed program can be set.
As described in the foregoing, the microcomputers disclosed by ARM Ltd. and Infineon Technologies sequentially rewrites the protection setting registers when the program to be executed is switched. Therefore, it has now been discovered that the protection setting registers are likely to be failed being rewritten.

Microcomputer and method for controlling memory access