In a liquid-cooled electric generator, in particular a three-phase generator for motor vehicles and the like, having a rotor, a stator and a housing which accommodates the latter two and forms the bearing for the rotor shaft, as well as a device for liquid cooling (oil or water cooling) having a cooling jacket for a cooling liquid, the cooling jacket, on the one hand, is bounded by the closed external surface of the generator housing and, on the other hand, by a part, which has an accommodating cavity, of an engine block or gear block or similar unit to which the generator is attached and in which it is inserted.

The invention relates to a liquid-cooled electric generator for a motor vehicle, especially for a motor cycle, bus, train or the like.
An electric generator of this type is known, comprising a rotor with a rotor shaft, a stator, a housing which has bearings for the rotor shaft and in which the stator and the rotor are mounted and a liquid cooling device and having a cooling jacket for cooling liquid.
The liquid cooling of electric, to be precise highly loaded, generators, in particular in the field of motor vehicles. Various types of cooling are used in these electric generators including manifold cooling, so-called jacket cooling, spray-oil cooling or in the form of direct conductor cooling. A list of possible types of ventilation for electric machines can be found in the book "Elektrische Maschinen" [Electric Machines], vol 1, Richter, Birkhauser-Verlag, 1967, pages 295-307. It is also known in an oil-cooled generator (German Patent 3,038,444) to mount the field winding on the internal pole of the generator with the aid of a winding support and to construct the winding support on its bore surrounding the internal pole with ribs in order to form ducts guiding a cooling oil flow between the winding support and the internal pole.
In a further known liquid-cooled heating generator (German Offenlegungsschrift 3,129,817), the stator of a heating generator operating according to the induction principle, in particular for heavy goods vehicles, has a plurality of armature bars which are arranged distributed in the circumferential direction, are connected by short-circuiting rings on both sides of the stator lamination, and through which a liquid heat carrier flows.
It is also known to use the dissipated power of a motor vehicle generator for heating purposes (German Offenlegungsschrift 3,128,081), there being provided in the region of the stator and the bearing brackets cooling ducts for a liquid, which form a cooling jacket and are connected to the coolant circuit of the motor vehicle driving the generator. In this case, an additional heating generator can also be driven by the same shaft of the motor vehicle generator.
A similar solution is described in German Offenlegungsschrift 3,207,605. In this apparatus a cooling air circulation which sweeps over the winding and the rotor is maintained in the housing of the generator and a part of the housing forms heat-exchanging elements around which the cooling air circulation flows. The heat exchanging elements have an inlet and an outlet for a cooling liquid circuit located outside the bearing housing.
Finally, it is known (German Offenlegungsschrift 3,135,901), in a three-phase generator to connect lubricating oil ducts to the two antifriction bearings of the rotor shaft, the rotor shaft containing a central longitudinal bore which in the vicinity of the drive-side antifriction bearing merges into at least one radial bore which opens into an annular space suitable for receiving lubricating oil. In this case, means are provided to simplify such an oil lubrication by connection to the lubricating oil circuit of an internal combustion engine, the oil discharge taking place via the drive-side bearing cover of the three-phase generator.


A compact temperature compensating gas spring including a gas filled hollow cylinder and a piston assembly slidably received in the gas filled hollow cylinder. The piston assembly includes a piston head and a piston rod. The piston rod includes a temperature compensation chamber. The piston head includes an aperture formed therein in communication with the temperature compensation chamber. A temperature activated valve is operably connected to the aperture to control gas flow between the cylinder and the temperature compensation chamber.

Gas springs are employed in a variety of applications. Gas springs are used to assist in the opening and holding open of various hinged items such as trunk lids, engine hoods, lift gates, vehicle doors, cabinet doors, and windows. The force exerted by gas springs varies with the temperature of the gas in the spring. Higher temperatures increase gas pressures in the spring requiring higher closing forces while lower temperatures decrease gas pressures and reduce lifting and hold open forces.
Solutions exist in the art that employ secondary gas volumes separated from the primary gas volume by a temperature sensitive check valve. These secondary gas volumes, although effective in compensating for temperature variations of the gas within the gas spring, either increase the diameter or length of the gas spring. Increases in package diameter or length prevent the use of these temperature compensated gas springs, in many applications. A gas spring is needed that provides temperature compensation while maintaining a compact package profile.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of one embodiment of a temperature compensating gas spring 100, in accordance with the prior art. A hollow cylinder 110 is separated into a front chamber 112 and a rear chamber 114 by a temperature compensation module (TCM) 116. A piston assembly 120 includes a solid piston 122 connected to a solid piston rod 124. Hollow cylinder 110 is charged with a pressurized gas 118, such as nitrogen, which pressurizes the front chamber 112 and the rear chamber 114.
TCM 116 operates in response to temperature. At temperatures above a design temperature of the TCM 116, the temperature compensating gas spring 100 operates as if the rear chamber 114 does not exist. When the temperature falls below the design temperature of the TCM 116, a valve 134 on the TCM 116 opens and the operating volume of the gas spring 100 is increased.
Other temperature compensation schemes exist involving various types of valves that control the flow of the gas from one area of the gas spring to another at varying rates. Still others use pumps to regulate the pressure in the gas spring. These solutions require additional components that increase their size, weight and cost. Still other temperature compensation schemes involve multiple gas types within the gas spring increasing the complexity of manufacture and requiring strict separation of the different gases.
It is therefore desirable to provide a temperature compensating gas spring that overcomes the limitations, challenges, and obstacles described above.

Compact temperature compensating gas spring


Provided is a method for producing a double-wall tube with braided wires at its interface in which the braided wires are interposed between an outer-wall and inner-wall blank tubes and then a drawing process is applied so as for the braided wires to be brought into close contact with the inner surface of the outer-wall tube and the outer surface of the inner-wall tube, the method comprising: polishing the inner surface of the outer-wall blank tube and the outer surface of the inner-wall blank tube so that a surface roughness thereof satisfies Ra<1.0 μm, followed by interposing the braided wires between the outer-wall and inner-wall blank tubes; performing a sinking drawing process so that the difference of the outer diameter of the resulting double-wall tube relative to a die bore diameter is 0.1 mm to 0.3 mm; and subsequently performing heat treatment. The double-wall tube produced is suitable as a heat-transfer tube.

In a fast reactor plant, elevated-temperature liquid metal sodium which has been used to cool the inside of a nuclear reactor is introduced to a steam generator where heat is exchanged with that of water to generate steam. In this case, a tube material of double-wall structure (double-wall tube) in which an outer-wall tube and an inner-wall tube are mechanically brought into close contact with each other is used as a heat-transfer tube constituting the above-mentioned steam generator. It is for the following two reasons that the double-wall tube is used as the heat-transfer tube constituting the steam generator.
One reason is that the double-wall tube is excellent in cracking resistance. Within the steam generator, water is passed through the inside of the heat-transfer tube, while liquid metal sodium travels around the outside thereof. At that time, if a crack penetrated through in thickness direction occurs in the heat-transfer tube, the liquid metal sodium should contact with the water to cause an extremely dangerous explosive reaction.
In a solid tube material of a single wall structure, a surface defect generated on either the inner surface or outer surface thereof is apt to propagate to the other surface, causing a crack penetrated through in a thickness direction. On the other hand, in the double-wall tube in which the inner-wall tube and the outer-wall tube are only mechanically joined to each other, there is no risk that a crack generated on a wall surface is immediately propagated to the other wall surface to form a crack penetrated through both the thicknesses of the inner- and outer-wall tubes. Therefore, the double-wall tube excellent in cracking resistance is used as the heat-transfer tube constituting the steam generator.
The other reason is that the failure of the double-wall tube can be detected at an early stage. In the use of the double-wall tube as the heat-transfer tube constituting the steam generator, if a crack occurs in either the inner-wall tube or the outer-wall tube, a leaked fluid due to the crack is oozed to a tube end through a small gap between the outer-wall tube and the inner-wall tube. This leaked fluid to the tube end is detected, whereby the failure of the double-wall tube can be detected at an early stage.
However, in a double-wall tube simply composed of a smooth-surface outer-wall tube and a likewise inner-wall tube in which a gap between the two tubes is as narrow as a few microns, the detection of the crack is delayed since it takes long time until the leaked fluid is oozed to the tube end after the occurrence of the crack. On the other hand, the use of the double-wall tube as the heat-transfer tube requires excellent heat conductivity without a gap between the outer-wall tube and the inner-wall tube.
Therefore, a large number of proposals are made with respect to a double-wall tube configured to secure a flow passage for a leaked fluid between an inner-wall tube and an outer-wall tube by interposing a porous layer between the two tubes and to enhance the degree of contacting of the porous layer or secure excellent heat conductivity by sufficiently bringing the porous layer into close contact with the inner surface of the outer-wall tube and the outer surface of the inner-wall tube, and a method for producing the same.
For example, a method for producing a double-wall tube for a fast-breeder reactor is proposed in Patent Literature 1, wherein a porous metal layer interposed between an inner-wall tube and an outer-wall tube is surely brought into close contact with one or both of the inner-wall and outer-wall tubes by heat-treating a double-wall tube obtained by interposing an insert material between the mating surfaces of the porous metal layer and the inner-wall and outer-wall blank tubes, followed by diameter reduction after air-tightly sealing the mutually mating surfaces of the inner-wall and outer-wall tubes at both ends of the tube.
In Patent Literature 2, a double-wall heat-transfer tube for a steam generator is disclosed, in which the filling rate of a porous metal to a gap portion between an outer-wall and an inner-wall blank tubes is set in a range of 70% to 95%, a surface roughness of at least either the inner surface of the outer-wall blank tube or the outer surface of the inner-wall blank tube before double-wall-tube processing is set in a range of 0.5 μm to 1.6 μm and, further, the porous metal is constituted by braiding a plurality of thin wires differed in wire diameter. For obtaining this double-wall heat-transfer tube, a method for producing a double-wall heat-transfer tube is also disclosed therein, in which an outer-wall blank tube and an inner-wall blank tube are solid-phase diffusion bonded to a porous metal respectively by performing heat treatment while holding a gap portion, surrounded by the outer-wall tube, the inner-wall tube with an interposed porous metal, under vacuum.
In Patent Literature 3, a heat-transfer tube for a steam generator which is excellent in both crack detecting performance and heat transfer performance is disclosed, in which the heat-transfer tube includes an inner-wall tube and an outer-wall tube composed of iron-based alloy, and a porous body excellent in heat conductivity and having a porosity of 3%≧, which is interposed between the two tubes, and the porous body is bonded to the inner-wall tube and the outer-wall tube through metal coating layers formed respectively on the outer surface of the inner-wall tube and the inner surface of the outer-wall tube. As a method for producing this heat transfer tube, a method for producing a heat-transfer tube for a steam generator is also disclosed therein, in which the porosity of a porous body to be inserted between an inner-wall blank tube and an outer-wall blank tube is set to 30% or more, the reduction rate of drawing is set to 70% or less, or metal coating layers are preliminarily formed respectively on the outer circumferential surface of the inner-wall blank tube and the inner circumferential surface of the outer-wall blank tube by means of electroplating or the like.
In Patent Literature 4, a method for producing a double-wall heat-transfer tube is disclosed, the method comprising the steps of; inserting, into an outer-wall blank tube, an inner-wall blank tube with a ceramic coating layer formed on the outer surface, the inner-wall blank tube being enhanced in heat conductivity by reducing the thickness of the coating layer; and generating, in the ceramic coating layer, a crack that forms a leak detection flow path for fluid to be heated while plastically deforming the inner-wall blank tube by a tube expanding process.
However, the producing of each of these conventional double-wall tubes with a porous body interposed between an inner-wall tube and an outer-wall tube requires respective specific producing processes for maintaining the porosity for securing the flow path for a leaked fluid and for maintaining satisfactory heat conductivity.
Namely, the method described in Patent Literature 1 requires the steps of interposing the insert material between the mating surfaces of the porous metal layer and each of the inner-wall and outer-wall blank tubes and performing diameter reduction by use of a plug. The method described in Patent Literature 2 requires the specification of the filling rate of the porous metal to the gap portion between the outer-wall and the inner-wall blank tubes and the surface roughness of the inner surface of the outer-wall blank tube and the outer surface of the inner-wall blank tube prior to a double-wall tube processing, and further the treatment in vacuum for the solid-phase diffusion bonding. The method described in Patent Literature 3 requires the specification of the porosity of the porous body and the reduction rate of drawing, or the preliminary formation of the metal coating layers on the outer circumferential surface of the inner-wall blank tube and the inner circumferential surface of the outer-wall blank tube by electroplating or the like. The method described in Patent Literature 4 requires processes for the formation of the ceramic coating layer on the inner-wall blank tube surface by PVD or CVD, and the formation of the crack in the coating layer by the tube expanding process of the inner-wall blank tube.

Method for producing double-wall tube with braided wires at its interface

NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORPORATION


Only by replacing a conventional fuse element used for a redundant repair of a memory with a CMOS device, since physical processing is not required, there is an advantage on a circuit area in which the upper interconnection can be utilized. However, on a design of a semiconductor device, since the CMOS device requires application of a high voltage for rewriting, there is a problem of being subjected constraint of an arrangement of an interconnection or a semiconductor circuit. For that reason, by arranging the nonvolatile semiconductor memory circuit provided with the nonvolatile memory device which is constituted of a CMOS device between the IO blocks arranged at the periphery of the chip, physical processing due to replacing the conventional fuse element with the CMOS device will not be needed, so that while keeping an advantage on a circuit area that the upper interconnection can be utilized, the problem of the arrangement in consideration of high voltage application can be resolved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a field of a semiconductor integrated circuit device in recent years, high integration owing to progress of a microfabrication technology has been increasingly accelerated in conjunction with a competition between semiconductor makers. At the same time, cost reduction is also an imperative for these semiconductor makers, and not only in a field of a general-purpose memory, such as general-purpose DRAM and synchronous DRAM, but also in a field of a system LSI where a microprocessor, ASIC, custom logic or the like and a memory are built into one chip, in order to satisfy above imperative, a method of improving a yield by employing a redundant repair technology using a fuse in which a faulty memory cell generated in a manufacturing step is replaced with a spare memory cell has become important. Meanwhile, as an application technology, it is employed to adjust variation in electrical characteristics in manufacturing steps of a device which is represented by a supply voltage conversion circuit by means of applying a redundant repair technology in which above fuse or the like is utilized. Further, like a field of the present invention, it is also proposed a technology in which above fuse element is replaced with a nonvolatile memory device constituted of a CMOS device which does not require physical processing and is electrically readable and writable (2001 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference P380, 381, 467, 468).
By replacing the conventional fuse element with the CMOS device, physical processing will not be required, so that there is achieved an advantage on a circuit area that a layer on the fuse element may be utilized as an interconnection area.
However, since the CMOS device has required application of a high voltage for rewriting, it has been necessary to lay out a power supply interconnection so that the high voltage has been applied thereto from an external source outside the semiconductor device, and it has therefore been necessary to lay out the semiconductor devices so that interconnections other than that and semiconductor circuits adjacent to that interconnection path have not been influenced by the high voltage, that has resulted in constraints on the layout.

Semiconductor device with a nonvolatile semiconductor memory circuit and a plurality of IO blocks

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium stores therein a program for causing an information processing apparatus to execute a process including analyzing a source program with respect to the information processing apparatus that starts hardware prefetching upon detecting an access to a consecutive area on a main storage device and stops the hardware prefetching upon detecting an end of the access to the consecutive area, specifying an array structure in a loop process as a hardware prefetching target, and generating, from the source program, a machine language program in which the array structure is changed so that a second access occurring next to a first access to the array structure refers to an area being consecutive from the area being referred to by the first access.

A computer is configured to decrease a period of waiting time for referring to a main memory by disposing a cache memory being higher in speed than the main memory between a processor and the main memory, and retaining data read from the main memory on the cache memory.
However, a numerical calculation process and other equivalent processes using a large-scale data encounter frequent occurrence of cache misses due to low locality of data reference, and are disabled from sufficiently reducing the waiting time for referring to the main memory as the case may be. A known technique for coping with the cache misses described above is a prefetching technique to fetch the data to the cache memory from the main memory in advance of using the data.
The prefetching technique is roughly classified into two types, i.e., software prefetching and hardware prefetching. The software prefetching is a method of preparing a prefetching command for a processor and inserting the prefetching command into a program. On the other hand, the hardware prefetching is a method by which a hardware component dynamically detects a data access pattern, then predicts data to be accessed next, and dynamically prefetches the predicted data.
A known hardware prefetching related technique is a technique of determining a prefetching target data area by automatically detecting a data transfer having continuity in address. Another known technique is a stride prefetching technique of detecting a data access at a fixed interval (which will hereinafter be also termed a stride width).
[Patent document 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-112901
[Patent document 2] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 08-212081

Computer-readable recording medium storing information processing program, information processing apparatus, and information processing method


A vehicle roof device includes a guide rail provided along a side edge of an opening portion formed at a vehicle roof, a frame provided at a rear portion of the opening portion so as to extend in a vehicle width direction, and the frame comprised layers of plural plates and fixed to the guide rail in a manner where one of the plates positioned at the top of the layers is fastened to the guide rail by caulking.

A known vehicle roof device disclosed in such as JP2000-185554 A is illustrated in FIG. 4. A basic configuration of the known vehicle roof device will be explained in accordance with FIG. 4. The known vehicle roof device includes guide rails 2, brackets 3, bolts 4, a frame 5 and caulking portions 6. Each of the guide rails 2 is provided at a vehicle roof 1 along a side of the opening portion and fixed to the bracket 3, which is provided at the side of the vehicle, by means of the bolt 4. The frame 5 made of a steel plate and extending in a vehicle width direction is provide at the rear portion of the opening portion in a manner where each end portion of the frame 5 is fixed to each guide rail 2 by means of the caulking portion 6. The frame 5 may be fixed to the guide rail 2 by means of welding or screwing.
In this configuration, because the frame 5 connects two guide rails 2 provided at the opening portion, chances that the roof deforms when an excessive load is applied to the vehicle, especially near the pillar, upon, for example a vehicle collision, have been reduced. Thus, the frame 5 is made of a steel plate having an appropriate thickness in order to reduce the chances of a deformation. The guide rail 2 is made of aluminum base alloy and formed by way of extrusion molding so as to include a groove 7 and a side groove 8. A shoe connected to a sunroof rid is provided within a groove 7 so as to be slidable in a front-rear direction of the vehicle, and a side edge of a sunshade is housed within the side groove 8.
As described above, the frame made of the steel plate is joined to the guide rail made of aluminum basic alloy by means of caulking, welding or a bolt. However, because the thickness of the frame needs to be set at an appropriate value in order to avoid its deformation, it has been considered that caulking is not an appropriate method for joining the frame to the guide rail. A need thus exist to provided the vehicle roof device whose frame can join to the guide rail by caulking.


A method, apparatus, non-transitory computer readable medium, and system for selecting program voltages for a memory device are described. Embodiments of the method, apparatus, non-transitory computer readable medium, and system may map a set of information bits to voltage levels of one or more memory cells based on a plurality of embedding parameters, program the set of information bits into the one or more memory cells based on the mapping, detect the voltage levels of the one or more memory cells to generate one or more detected voltage levels, and identify a set of predicted information bits based on the one or more detected voltage levels using a neural network comprising a plurality of network parameters, wherein the network parameters are trained together with the embedding parameters.

The following relates generally to memory devices, and more specifically to selecting program voltages for a memory device.
Memory devices are commonly used electronic components for storing data. NAND flash memory devices allow several bits of data to be stored in each memory cell, providing improvements in manufacturing costs and performance. A memory cell in which multiple bits of data are stored may be referred to as a multi-level memory cell. A multi-level memory cell partitions a threshold voltage range of a memory cell into several voltage states, and data values written to the memory cell are extracted using the memory cell voltage levels.
The voltage levels used to program the memory cells may be determined manually based on theoretical considerations. However, manual selection of voltage levels does not provide optimal voltage levels for minimizing read errors. Therefore, there is a need in the art for improved systems for determining voltage levels for programming data to memory cells.

Automatic program voltage selection network


A moon chair is configured to collapse in a single movement in which a seat frame is folded while the legs approximate each other. Contemplated moon chairs particularly include those that can be collapsed without separating the seat portion form the leg portion.

Numerous folding chairs are relatively popular, in part because they can be stored with considerably reduced space requirements when compared to non-folding chairs. Nevertheless, folding chairs still require relatively large space, since the dimension of the folding chair is generally reduced only along one space coordinate (e.g., reduced length). To further reduce the space requirement, collapsible chairs have been developed, in which further size reduction is achieved by folding the chair along at least two space coordinates (e.g., length and width). Various collapsing chairs are known in the art.
For example, Cook et al. describes in U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,621 a collapsible chair with a foldable backrest, in which the chair has four legs that support the corners of a flexible, square seat. The legs are movably attached to each other at about their respective midpoints, and the seat is collapsed in width and depth by turning the legs around the midpoint. While Cooks chair is relatively easy to unfold and collapse, Cook's chair provides relatively little stability and is prone to tipping over. Improved stability can be achieved by including slidable cross bars between the legs as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,813 to Chen and U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,406 to Lee. Still further improved chairs with tensioned seats, solid armrests, and/or other advantages over previously known collapsible chairs are described by Zheng in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,637,811, 6,607,240, and 6,302,479.
However, where the chair has an inverted calotte-shaped seat (a.k.a., moon chair or, Papason chair), collapsing of such a often chair becomes problematic. Therefore, most of such chairs are not collapsible at all, or can only be disassembled into the seat portion and one or more legs as, for example, described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,511,503 to Volpe or U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,790 to Bergeron. More recently, moon chairs have been commercially available (MAC Sports, Medium Moon Chair) in which the seat portion has a ring-shaped frame that is detachably coupled to a foldable leg portion, wherein both the ring-shaped frame and the leg portion are foldable when separated from each other. However, while such folding chairs generally provide a significant improvement in terms of reduced space requirement when not in use, several problems nevertheless remain. Most notably, the folding operation is often cumbersome as partial disassembly is required prior to folding the chair.
Therefore, while there are numerous moon chairs known in the art, all or almost all of them suffer from one or more disadvantages. Consequently, there is still a need to provide improved configurations and methods for collapsible moon chairs.


Provided is a solid-state imaging device which is able to achieve reductions in size and in thickness of the device, while being also able to have an auxiliary function of imaging lenses, an infrared cut filter, an antireflection function, a dust preventing function for downsizing of packaging, and an infrared light imaging function for capturing images at night. The solid-state imaging device includes: a light-collecting element which collects incident light; and a transparent thin film formed above the light-collecting element, and an air gap is formed between the light-collecting element and the transparent thin film. On the transparent thin film, the auxiliary function of imaging lenses, the infrared cut filter, the antireflection function, the dust preventing function for downsizing of packaging, and the infrared light imaging function for capturing images at night are integrated.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid-state imaging device which is used in a digital still camera and the like.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Rapid spread of digital still cameras and mobile phones having a built-in camera has permitted a remarkable expansion of the market size of solid-state imaging devices (see FIG. 1). Further, there are increasing demands for reductions in size and in thickness and for an increased number of functions of such digital still cameras and mobile phones having a built-in camera. For example, the reduction in thickness of digital still cameras or mobile phones having a built-in camera requires a reduction in thickness of camera modules of the cameras or mobile phones. The reduction in thickness of the camera modules in turn requires a reduction in the number of imaging lenses, a reduction of infrared cut filters, a reduction of antireflection filters, a reduction in size of packaging, and the like. At the same time, the solid-state imaging devices which are used in various imaging apparatuses used to perform monitoring or to be installed on vehicles, for example, are required to have multi-functions for capturing images at any time of day or night.
Patent Reference 1, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-32886, is an prior art which discloses a solid-state imaging device in which an infrared cut filter and an antireflection filter are integrated on a cover glass of the solid-state imaging device for downsizing its packaging.
However, mere reductions of the number of imaging lenses, the infrared cut filters, or the antireflection filters lead to a degradation of characteristics of the camera module, and thus cannot be achieved easily. Furthermore, since an imaging device which can capture images at night has a different structure, it is extremely difficult to achieve capturing of images day and night with the same device. Moreover, even the technology described in the above mentioned Patent Reference 1 does not achieve a sufficient downsizing of the solid-state imaging device.


A method of manufacturing a transistor capable of obtaining a BICMOS while making the difference in the number of manufacturing processes from a CMOS smaller, includes the steps of: separating an element region in a semiconductor substrate; forming a emitter opening for deciding upon an emitter layer in an insulating film on the semiconductor substrate, forming a polysilicon film on the insulating film and in the emitter opening; implanting selectively impurity ions into the semiconductor substrate through the polysilicon film and the insulating film to form: a collector layer and a base layer; and performing heat treatment for activating impurities in the base layer and the collector layer and diffusing impurities into the semiconductor substrate from the polysilicon film to form an emitter diffused layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device and, more particularly, to a method of manufacturing a bipolar (BIP) transistor capable of being incorporated with complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) transistors on a single semiconductor substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
A semiconductor device having a BIP transistor and CMOS transistors is called a BiCMOS device and presents excellent device characteristics by utilizing an advantage of low power consumption and high integration density of the CMOS transistors and a low noise and a high driving capacity of the BIP transistor. However, a device structure of the BiCMOS device and a manufacturing method of the same are relatively complicated, thereby requiring a relatively large chip area and deteriorating device characteristics.
This will be discussed in detail below with reference to FIG. 2 illustrating a method of manufacturing a BiCMOS device according to the prior art as disclosed in, for example, "Subjects related to Process Integration for Submicron BICMOS Technique" (solid state technology/Japanese edition August 1992).
As shown in FIG. 2A, such a P-type silicon substrate 1 is prepared that has an nMOS section (a), a pMOS section (b), an isolation region section (c) and an BIP section (d). N.sup.+ buried layers 2 are formed in the pMOS, section (b) and the BIP section (d), and P.sup.+ buried layers 3 are formed in the nMOS section (a) and an isolation region section (c).
As shown in FIG. 2B, thereafter, an intrinsic epitaxial layer 4 is grown on the whole surfaces of the silicon substrate 1, followed by selectively forming P-well regions 5 and N-well regions 6 in the layer 4. The respective well regions 5 and 6 are formed in contact with corresponding ones of the burried regions 2 and 3.
Selectively formed in the layer 4 are, as shown in FIG. 2(C), field oxide films 7 in order to separate element regions by a selective thermal oxidation known as LOCOS (local oxidation of silicon) method. A P-type base layer 8 is then selectively formed in the well region 6 serving as a collector region. An N.sup.+ type collector contact region layer 9 is thereafter formed so as to reach the N buried layer 2. Thereafter, a gate oxide film 10 is formed over an entire surface.
The gate oxide film 10 is covered with a polysilicon film 11 as shown in FIG. 2D, followed by an emitter opening 13 is selectively formed to expose a part of the base region 8.
Another polysilicon film 12 is then deposited on the whole surface and N-type impurities are ion-implanted into the film 12, followed by being patterned. As a result, as shown FIG. 2F, gate electrodes 14A for nMOS and pMOS transistors and an emitter electrode 14B for the BIP transistor are formed. Each of the electrodes 14 is composed of two polysilicon films 11 and 12. Side walls 15 of silicon oxide film are thereafter formed on the respective sides of the gate electrodes 14A and emitter electrode 14B, and the oxide layer 10 is then selectively remove by using the electrodes 14 and the side walls 15 as a mask.
Thereafter, N-type impurities and P-type impurities are ion-implanted by using resist layers (not shown) as a mask, and heat treatment is performed to activate the implanted impurity ions. Consequently, N-type source and drain regions 16, P-type source and drain region 17 and a graft base region 18 are formed, as shown in FIG. 2F. At this time, the impurities contained in the polysilicon electrode 14B are also diffused into the base layer 8 to form an N.sup.+ -type emitter layer 19. Silicide layers 20 are then formed on the respective surfaces of the regions 16, 17 and 18 and the surfaces of the respective electrodes 14A and 14B to reduce electrical resistance.
Although not shown, interlayer insulating layers and wiring layer are thereafter formed to complete the device.
Thus, the BiCMOS device according to the prior art employs the buried regions 2 and 3 and the epitaxial layer 4. Each of the buried regions 2 and 3 is formed at a high impurity concentration. Accordingly, each of the buried regions 2 and 3 expands in not only vertical direction but also horizontal direction, so that it reaches and contacts with the adjacent buried region. For this reason, large parasitic capacity is produced to thereby lower an operating speed. If the buried regions 2 and 3 would be formed separately from each other in order to eliminate the parasite capacity, the chip area would be inevitably increased and the integration density would be lowered.
During the epitaxial growth, moreover, the so-called out-diffusion occurs in which some of impurities contained each of the buried regions 2 and 3 are diffused outside and the controllability of the out-diffusion is very difficult, as well known in the art. For this reason, the impurity concentration of the epitaxial layer. 4 is largely fractuated from the designed value to thereby change the threshold voltage control of each MOS transistor.
Further, in the prior art, a base layer is formed before a gate oxide film is formed, because contamination from a resist that is a mask for ion implanation to form a base layer exerts a bad influence upon the gate oxide film when the resist is applied directly to the gate oxide film. When oxidation is performed after ion implantation of the base, however, redistribution of a profile and suction of boron into an oxide film are produced, thus a shallow and sharp profile cannot be realized as a result. Since the performance of a BIP depends largely on the base profile, it is difficult to obtain high frequency characteristics by this method.
Against this problem, there is a method of performing base layer formation for a BIP, emitter opening, emitter polysilicon film formation, impurity ion implantation and patterning of emitter electrode after CMOS production process, in short, after patterning of gate electrode. However, there is such a drawback that the production process is further elongated when this technique is adopted. It has been +4 mask against a CMOS in the prior art, but +5 mask in this case.

Method of manufacturing a bipolar transistor by using only two mask layers


A vane control system (2) for a guided missile (1) with at least two vanes (3) has two toothed rings (7, 8), which are arranged in parallel to one another on both sides of the vane axes (18), are driven by pinions (15, 16) which are driven by electric motors and rotate continuously. Two drive gears (11, 17), which engage one of the toothed rings (7, 8) and rotate together with them such that they have opposite directions of rotation, are arranged on each vane axis (18). A clutch disk (19), which can be connected to one of the drive gears (11, 17), as a result of which the vanes (3) can be rotated in the desired direction, is arranged between the drive gears (11, 17). A brake (22) for fixing the vane axis (18) and an incremental transducer (23) for indicating the actual position of the vane are arranged on each vane axis (18).

Such a vane control system has been known from DE 38 27 590 C2. The toothed rings are mounted there in a rotor ring, which continuously performs a rotary movement around the longitudinal axis of the missile relative to the missile. The rotatable rotor ring is located in the front part of the missile between the tip of the missile and the engine part. There are difficulties in this arrangement for the mounting of the rotatable rotor ring and for the static strength of the missile. The arrangement of the vanes in the front area of the missile is also unfavorable for the flight stability.
Accommodating the vane control systems in the tail part is difficult in the case of missiles with an air-breathing solid rocket and two air inlet channels on the underside, because the contraction at the engine at the tail part is small due to the shape of the engine. The space between the cruise engine and the launching engine, which space is usually present and which could be used for the vane control systems, is eliminated. In addition, the space available at the intended fuselage station of the carrier airplane is very limited for a vane, so that a conventional vane control system cannot be considered at this point.

Vane control system for a guided missile


An electronic building automation system, comprising:    (I) one or more electronic building automation devices, comprising            a processor circuit configured to                    monitor the building automation device,            determine a need for servicing of the building automation device, and                            (II) a servicing device for locating a building automation device in need of servicing,wherein one of a building automation device and the servicing device comprises:            a servicing beacon, the servicing beacon is arranged to transmit a localizing beacon signal,and wherein the other of the building automation device and the servicing device comprises:        a beacon receiver arranged to receive a localizing beacon signal transmitted from a servicing beacon, the building automation device and servicing device being arranged for the building automation device to be locatable when in need of servicing.

In modern lighting systems the number of devices is growing. This is because of the wish for fine grained lighting but also because LED based lamps can be made efficient even in ever smaller form factors and small lumen packets. At the same time, the reliability of LED installations is increasing. Because of this, servicing of such installations is hard: In modern buildings there will be many lamps that rarely fail. For this reason, it is unattractive to service such lighting systems by hand. Service personnel would have to verify numerous lamps to find relatively few failures.
With an increasing number of smaller lamps just locating a failed device becomes hard. Due to reorganizations, the room organization present when a network was implemented need not be the same as the present organization. In fact, modern buildings are often optimized for easy reorganizations, e.g., changing offices into open plans, or vice versa. Lighting plans may simply be incorrect.
Even the network used in a connected lighting system does not always give accurate clues as to the location of a lighting asset. Even if the lighting system is wired, e.g., using power over Ethernet technology, the routing of the network does not always give a good indication of the light network asset's location. Two elements that are close in the network, need not be close in physical distance. Even if two lamps are connected to the same switch, they do not need to be near to each other. The latter happens in practice because switches are relatively expensive elements in a connected lighting system, so that they tend to be used to capacity.
The inventors have found that in practice finding failed devices is a problem that needs to be addressed. The same problem occurs not only in connected lighting systems, but more generally in the field of building automation. In building automation, multiple devices are connected through a digital network to a control computer. The control computer manages the building automation system. Building automation includes heat, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC), lighting, security, etc.

Building automation system with servicing beacon


A database, in which information an NC apparatus needs in machining products is accumulated for each product, is set in a hard disk connected to the NC apparatus. In this database, products are represented by numbers assigned to them. When an operator specifies a product number, information required for machining of the product corresponding to that number is retrieved and extracted from the database to be automatically transferred to a predetermined memory of the NC apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for managing and setting operating information, such as machining information, for a machine, such as a machine tool, controlled by a numerical control apparatus (hereinafter referred to as an NC apparatus).
2. Description of the Related Art
With a conventional NC apparatus, information necessary for operating a machine consisting of, for example, NC programs, such as a main program and sub-programs, to be called from the main program already prepared for machining of a product and tool information of tools to be used and offset data on those tools has had to be stored by an operator individually in a storage medium, such as a floppy disk. When the same product is to be manufactured by machining again, the NC programs and tool information necessary for the machining have had to be re-entered in a memory of the NC apparatus. Also, it has been necessary for optimal parameters regulating characteristics and movements of the machine to be set by a programmer or a system engineer in advance according to the content of the machining before the machining operation is carried out. Furthermore, sequence programs for controlling the movements of the machine have been made universal so that as many tasks as possible can be carried out by the machine, without necessitating changes.
When the same product has to be machined again, it has been necessary not only to pick out the floppy disk or other storage medium on which the main program and sub-programs necessary for the machining are stored, but also to enter them into the NC apparatus and set tool data and parameters to be used in the machining through a CRT/MDI unit or the like. This has been a cumbersome and time-consuming process. Additionally when there is an error in the entering or setting of this machining information, the machine may not operate correctly and incorrect machining may be carried out.

Operating information setting and management method and apparatus of numerical control apparatus


Provided are nucleic acid structures suitable for reproducible Raman spectroscopy, methods of preparing the same, and methods of detecting a target material using the nucleic acid structures, whereby various target materials may be analyzed by using reproducible Raman spectroscopy.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to nucleic acid structure complexes suitable for Raman spectroscopy, methods of preparing the same, and methods of detecting target materials by using the nucleic acid structure complexes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Raman scattering is the inelastic scattering of photons wherein the energy of incident light is changed, and denotes a phenomenon where, when light is incident on a predetermined molecular sieve, light having a wavelength slightly different from that of the incident light is generated due to a unique vibrational transition of the molecular sieve. However, despite the fact that Raman spectroscopy has many possible applications, Raman spectroscopy devices have not been commercialized to date because Raman spectroscopy has weak signal intensity and low reproducibility.
A method of overcoming such limitations may be surface enhanced Raman scattering or surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), which involves repeated oxidation-reduction of a silver electrode and adsorbtion of pyridine molecules thereon in an aqueous solution. An increase in signal intensity of about 106 times has been observed by SERS. However, SERS may be pose difficulties with regard to synthesis and control of a nanomaterial accurately and structurally defined. Since there are many limitations in terms of reproducibility and reliability, research into applying SERS has been conducted.

Nucleic acid structure complex including nucleic acids, Raman-active molecules, and metal particles, method of preparing the same, and method of detecting target material by using the nucleic acid structure complex


A cylinder of pressurized fluid, including a valve assembly housing a fluid circuit including at least one shut-off valve, the cylinder being equipped with a bonnet for protecting the valve assembly including a rigid structure delimiting a protective volume around the valve assembly, including a pressure indicating device including at least one piston sensitive to the pressure in the cylinder and mobile relative to the body of the valve assembly according to the level of pressure in the cylinder between at least a retracted first position and a deployed second position, the pressure indicating device including at least one mobile information support configured to collaborate mechanically with the piston, the information support being able to move between at least two distinct positions or states to symbolize respectively at least two levels of pressure according to the position of the piston.

The present invention relates to a cylinder of pressurized fluid.
The invention relates more particularly to a cylinder of pressurized fluid, notably pressurized gas, comprising a valve assembly housing a fluid circuit comprising at least one shut-off valve, the cylinder being equipped with a bonnet for protecting the valve assembly comprising a rigid structure delimiting a protective volume around the valve assembly, the cylinder comprising a pressure indicating device comprising at least one piston sensitive to the pressure in the cylinder and mobile relative to the body of the valve assembly according to the level of pressure in the cylinder between at least a retracted first position and a deployed second position, the pressure indicating device comprising at least one mobile information support intended to collaborate mechanically with the piston, the information support being able to move between at least two distinct positions or states to symbolize respectively at least two levels of pressure according to the position of the piston.
In order to indicate to the user of a cylinder of pressurized fluid how much autonomy remains, it is known practice to provide a pressure gauge on the valve assembly of the cylinder. This pressure gauge is generally mounted on a valve assembly and protected, with the valve assembly, by a protective bonnet. In order to be visible to the user, the pressure gauge is generally accessible via an opening in the protective bonnet.
Another known solution is to provide a piston which projects from the body of a valve assembly to a greater or lesser degree according to the pressure to which it is subjected.
However, in certain situations it is desirable to be able to have a member for displaying information indicative of the quantity of fluid remaining in the cylinder which is more reliable and/or more visible to the user, even from a distance of several meters away from the cylinder.

L'Air Liquide, Société Anonyme pour l'Etude et l'Exploitation des Procédés Georges Claude


A method for detecting and correcting noise occurring by internal or external factors in a PPM signal waveform analyzing device such as a multifunctional remote control transmitter includes the steps of determining the existence of a carrier in a received PPM signal, detecting and correcting for a noise signal included in each signal when the carrier is present, requesting retransmission of the signal for unrestorable noise signals, and detecting and correcting for noise caused when the weakening of the PPM signal results in gaps in the received signal.

The present invention relates to a method for detecting and correcting pulse noise in a multifunctional remote control transmitter, and particularly to a method for detecting and correcting noise caused by internal factors such as the intensity of the infrared signal or such external factors as an incandescent or fluorescent lamp, in a waveform analyzing device for pulse-phase modulated (PPM) signals, e.g., a multifunctional remote control transmitter or similar device.
FIG. 1 illustrates the construction of a conventional PPM waveform analyzing device. Referring to FIG. 1, a light receiver 1 receives a PPM signal from an outside source, and in turn provides the input to a waveform amplifier 2 which amplifies and then transmits the PPM signal to an input terminal LOAD of a counter 3, a carrier count terminal A and a first interrupt terminal INT1 of a microprocessor 5. The PPM signal input to the LOAD terminal of counter 3 is counted in accordance with the clock signal applied to the clock terminal of counter 3 from a clock generator 4, and is transmitted to a second interrupt terminal INT2 of microprocessor 5 via an output terminal Qn of counter 3. The PPM signal entering light receiver 1 is either a type of signal that does not include a carrier as shown in FIG. 2Aa, or includes a carrier as shown in FIG. 3Aa. However, in practical applications, the signal which enters light receiver 1 and passes through waveform amplifier 2 will include noise as in FIGS. 2Ab and 3Ab showing noisy PPM signals (with and without the carrier respectively) caused by the internal or external factors. Accordingly, the signal fed to the first interrupt terminal INT1 of microprocessor 5 includes the above noise as shown in FIGS. 2Ab and 3Ab. Microprocessor 5 receives the waveform shown in either FIGS. 2Ab or FIG. 3Ab via carrier count terminal A, and counts the number of carrier pulses in a waveform as shown in FIG. 3Ab if the carrier is present.
FIGS. 2Ac and 3Ac illustrate the waveforms of the signal which is transmitted from output terminal Qn of counter 3 to second interrupt terminal INT2 of microprocessor 5 and includes noise. As described above, the external environment or such internal factors as the intensity of the infrared remote control signal from the external source, causes noise to occur and accordingly an inaccurate remote control signal to be input to light receiver 1, creating malfunctions.
A reconfigurable remote control transmitter which inputs a multiple of remote control signals to a single transmitter, and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,887, provides for at least two inputs and comparisons of the remote control signal, in order to assist in the detection and correction of the noise included in the received signals. However, it is unable to completely eliminate the noise.

Method for detecting and correcting pulse noise in multifunctional remote control transmitter


A control system for a work vehicle includes a controller configured to determine a position of a conveyor outlet relative to a storage compartment, and to select a target unloading area from a set of candidate target unloading areas. The set of candidate target unloading areas includes a target circle having a center at an unloading point and a radius corresponding to a threshold range from the unloading point, a bounding shape within the storage compartment, and a selected zone of a set of non-overlapping zones within the bounding shape. In addition, the controller is configured to engage product flow from the conveyor outlet to the storage compartment while the position of the conveyor outlet is within the target unloading area, and to terminate product flow from the conveyor outlet to the storage compartment while the position of the conveyor outlet is outside of the target unloading area.

The present disclosure relates generally to a system and method for calibrating alignment of work vehicles.
A harvester may be used to harvest agricultural crops, such as cotton, wheat, flax, or other crops. Generally, components (e.g., drums, spindles, blades, etc.) of the harvester remove portions of the agricultural crop from the ground. The harvester then conveys the removed portions of the agricultural crop (e.g., agricultural products) to an internal storage compartment, either directly or via a processing device configured to remove undesirable portions of the agricultural products.
As the harvester traverses a field, the volume of agricultural product stored within the internal storage compartment increases. Accordingly, the internal storage compartment is typically unloaded multiple times during the harvesting process. One method of unloading the internal storage compartment, generally known as unloading on-the-go, involves periodically transferring the agricultural product to a mobile storage compartment while the harvester is in motion. The mobile storage compartment is towed by a haul vehicle to a position proximate to the harvester to facilitate unloading. For example, certain haul vehicles include a control system configured to automatically direct the haul vehicle to a position that aligns the storage compartment with a conveyor outlet of the harvester. Once aligned, the agricultural product may be transferred from the harvester to the mobile storage compartment via the conveyor outlet, thereby unloading the internal storage compartment of the harvester.
To facilitate automatic control of the haul vehicle, a calibration process may be performed to calibrate alignment of the conveyor outlet with the storage compartment. For example, the storage compartment may be manually moved to a position that aligns the storage compartment with the conveyor outlet, and the position of the storage compartment relative to the harvester may be stored. The stored position may be used during automatic control of the haul vehicle to facilitate alignment of the storage compartment with the conveyor outlet. Unfortunately, such a calibration process may cause agricultural product to be unevenly distributed throughout the storage compartment during the unloading process and/or may increase the possibility of agricultural product being lost due to misalignment between the storage compartment and the conveyor outlet.

System and method for calibrating alignment of work vehicles


A multilayer coating system is disclosed. The first layer is a thermally curable layer comprising one or more thermally curable groups and one or more radiation curable groups. The second layer comprises a radiation curable resin.

There are many industries and applications for which multilayer coatings are desired. "Color-plus-clear" coating systems involving the application of a colored or pigmented base coat to a substrate followed by application of a transparent or clear topcoat over the basecoat have become increasingly popular as original finishes for a number of consumer products including color, for example, cars, appliances and floor coverings such as ceramic tiles and wood flooring. The color-plus-clear coating systems have outstanding appearance properties, including gloss and distinctness of image, due in large part to the clearcoat. In other applications, coatings having different properties may be utilized in a multicoat system. For example, one of the coats used in a multilayer coating system may be more durable, or provide better weatherability than another of the coats. It is desirable in all of these applications to have good adhesion between the various layers.


Hydrogel jacketed stents provide the ability to fill in the stent frame in vivo to at least partially cover the interior of the surface of the stent following deployment while having the convenience of attaching the jacket to the exterior of the stent. The hydrogel can be pleated and/or folder over the exterior of the stent to provide for extension of the stent without damaging the hydrogel. The hydrogel sheet can be secured at one or more points along the circumference to associate the sheet of hydrogel with the exterior surface of the stent frame. The stent can be conveniently delivered using similar technology as conventional stents if desired. The hydrogel can provide for drug delivery if desired.

Stents have found significant utility for facilitating the opening of clogged or narrowed vessels, such that the flow of blood or other biological fluid is restricted. In addition to blood vessels, stents have found utility for use in bile ducts, ducts of the reproductive system, and other similar vessels in the body. Of particular medical importance are coronary stents, which are placed in a coronary artery or other arteries to treat atheroscerosis. Stents used to open vessels generally have an elongate cylindrical structure with stent walls having an open construction that provides for tissue in growth around the stent frame. The stents are delivered in a low profile configuration and are extended out to the vessel within the patient either simultaneously or subsequently to a procedure to correspondingly expand the diameter of the vessel lumen. However, stents can be prone to restenosis, due to an inflammatory response induced by the foreign object in the body. In other words, in some cases thrombus formation or the like can take place at the site of the stent.
To reduce restenosis, polymer coatings have been used to coat stents, and the coatings generally are drug eluting. The coatings generally comprise a hydrophilic polymer that is coated over the frame elements. The coated stents maintain an open structure of the frame. Coated stents have met with considerable success commercially. However, studies have suggested cracking of the polymer coating that has been linked in studies with deleterious effects to the patient.


A process for the production of an olefin from a hydrocarbon by autothermal cracking, which process comprises: partially combusting the hydrocarbon and an oxygen-containing gas in the presence of a catalyst, wherein the stoichiometric ratio of hydrocarbon to oxygen is 5 to 16 times the stoichiometric ratio of hydrocarbon to oxygen required for complete combustion of the hydrocarbon to carbon dioxide and water, characterised in that the catalyst comprises palladium and at least one further metal being a Group IIIA, Group IVA, VA, a transition metal or a lanthanide.

The present invention relates to a process for the production of olefins.
Olefins such as ethylene and propylene may be produced by a variety of processes, including the steam cracking of hydrocarbons or by the dehydrogenation of paraffinic feedstocks. More recently, olefins have been produced by a process known as auto-thermal cracking. In such a process, a hydrocarbon feed is mixed with an oxygen-containing gas and contacted with a catalyst. The hydrocarbon feed is partially combusted, and the heat produced is used to drive the dehydrogenation reaction.
An example of an auto-thermal cracking process is described in EP 0 332 289. The patent describes platinum group metals as being capable of supporting combustion beyond the fuel rich limit of flammability. Preferred catalysts are supported platinum catalysts such as platinum/gamma alumina spheres, and platinum/monoliths such as platinum/cordierite or mullite monoliths.


A method for detecting pores on cell membrane using an atomic force microscope, comprising the steps of: providing cells; fixing the cells in place; and observing the cells by means of an atomic force microscope. The pores are present in the cell membrane or pass through the cell membrane. By means of the present method, the presence of pores in the cell membrane can be accurately observed, and the size and depth of the pores can be accurately determined.

Cell death begins with the formation of pores on cell membrane, and then the cells are killed. The formation of pores on cell membrane plays an important role in immune surveillance, pathogen clearance, and inflammatory diseases.
Currently, several types of molecules have been identified which are capable of punching pores on cell membrane, for example, perforins released by T cells or NK cells, and GSDMD/GSDME activated by inflammasome. However, to date, there is not any report showing the pores on cell membrane. There is a report showing the pores on artificially synthetic lipid membrane (The EMBO Journal. 2016; 35: 1766-1778), however, the artificially synthetic lipid membrane is not a real cell membrane.
Cells can be non-invasively scanned with atomic force microscope (AFM) and topographic image of cells with at least nanometer resolution can ultimately be obtained by sensing and amplifying the interaction force between the tip probe on the cantilever and the cell to be tested with microcantilever.
Atomic force microscopy involves the following principle: an atomic force microscope includes two key portions: probe and scanner. When the probe approaches to a sample to certain extent, if there is a physical quantity P=P(z), which is sufficiently sensitive and can be functionally varied with the distance between the probe and the sample, then the physical quantity can be used as a feedback system (FS). The distance between the probe and the sample can be controlled by moving the scanner, thereby to plot the surface features of the material.
In an example of topographic imaging, in order to obtain surface topographic information, under the control of the scanner, the tip of the probe is moving within a range close enough to the surface of the sample, so as to detect the interaction between the probe and the sample surface; within the scope of interaction, a signal generated by the probe indicates the magnitude of the interaction that varies with the probe-to-sample distance. This signal is referred to as Detector Signal.
In order to correlate the detector signal with the actual interaction, it is necessary to pre-determine a reference threshold (Setpoint). When the probe enters into the imaging area by moving the scanner, a detector signal is detected and compared to the threshold by the system. When they are equal, the scanning process is started.
Under the control of the scanner, the probe moves precisely above the surface of the sample along a predetermined track. When the probe encounters a change in surface topography, the detector signal will change due to the changes in the interaction between the probe and the sample. Therefore, the difference from the threshold, referred to as Error Signal, will be generated. Z-direction feedback is applied in the atomic force microscopy to ensure that the probe accurately tracks the ups and downs of surface topography. The Z-direction feedback loop continuously compares the detection signal to the threshold. If the two are different, a voltage will be applied onto the scanner to increase or decrease the distance between the probe and the sample, so that the error signal is returned back to zero. At the same time, an atomic force microscope image will be generated from the applied voltage signal by using a software system.
At present, atomic force microscopy has been reported to be used to detect the rigidity of cervical exfoliated cells (CN104655879); CN105527462A discloses a method for measuring the action potential and pulse power of single living cardiomyocyte with atomic force microscope.
CN106199078A discloses a method for rapidly and accurately characterizing the surface morphology of living cells by atomic force microscopy. Ma Yamin et al. (Chinese Journal of Laboratory Diagnosis, 2005, 9(04): 514-518; Master's thesis "AFM Observation of Eight Kinds of Solutions and Human Erythrocytes Disposed by These Solution", 2004) observed the microstructure on the surface of human erythrocytes in various solutions with atomic force microscopy. They observed that the erythrocytes displayed biconcave-disk shape, the microstructure of the surface of the cell membrane was clear, and pores and protrusions were visible on the surface of the cell membrane.
However, one cannot observe the microstructure of the cell surface (for example, tiny pores formed at the early stage of cell death) with the above methods. According to the method described by Ma Yamin et al. 2005, the "pores" on the surface of erythrocytes were observed, however the term "pores" as used therein precisely should be interpreted as concave formed by folding of the erythrocyte membrane, and the integrity of cellular bilayer has not been destroyed. Further, the smaller pores (for example, tiny pores formed at the early stage of cell death) cannot be observed with the detection parameters used therein. In addition, erythrocytes do not have nucleus, and the surface force thereof during AFM detection are different from that of living cells with nucleus. The positions of cells with nucleus have higher rigidity, while cells without nucleus are relatively soft, thereby the parameters used in AFM detection are rather different.
In view of the above reason, there is still a need in the art for a method with higher resolution to detect living cell surface pores.

Method for detecting cell surface holes using atomic force microscope

Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences


Disclosed is a frame for supporting a tent in folded and unfolded states comprising groups of supporting frames and resembling the letter “W” in the unfolded state. Sub-frames within the supporting frames comprise upright rods pivotally connected at their respective bottoms, the sub-frames resembling the letter “V” in the unfolded state. The frame of the utility model is simple in structure, large in supporting space, flexible in structure, and convenient to use.

Tents have various forms including large and small sizes, and square, circular and hexagonal shapes. The tent primarily consists of a tent cloth and a tent frame for supporting the tent cloth. The common tent frame generally consists of several groups of supporting rods for connecting top rods, and the top rods form a top support structure. However, well-known tents suffer from a general drawback in that they usually are relatively complicated in structure. Several groups of rods are required to support the tent cloth. It is difficult and time-consuming to put up a support structure, and the production cost is also increased. Meanwhile, the tent frame is generally designed to have a fixed structure, and the unfolded form is also fixed, leading to a small unfolded space. Moreover, the available space of the unfolded tent is limited, and cannot be further expanded by modifying the tent.


A method of forming a chip package includes providing a chip with a plurality of first copper post bumps having a first height of copper post. The method also includes providing a substrate with a plurality of second copper post bumps having a second height of copper post. The method further includes bonding the plurality of first copper post bumps to the plurality of second copper post bumps by reflowing solder layers on the plurality of first copper post bumps and the plurality of second copper post bumps together to form a first copper post bump structure of the chip package. The first copper post bump structure has a standoff, wherein a ratio of a sum of the first height of copper post and the second height of copper post to the standoff is equal to or greater than about 0.6 and less than 1.

The fabrication of modern circuits typically involves many processing operations. Integrated circuits are first fabricated on a semiconductor wafer, which contains multiple duplicated semiconductor chips, each comprising integrated circuits. The semiconductor chips are then sawed from the wafer and packaged. The packaging processes have two main purposes: to protect delicate semiconductor chips, and to connect interior integrated circuits to exterior connections.
In packaging integrated circuit (IC) chips, solder joining is one method for bonding IC chips to package substrates, which may or may not include integrated circuits and/or other passive components. The package substrates may also include through silicon vias (TSVs). The solder joining process may involve application of flux on solder, solder reflowing, and flux removal. There are many challenges in chip packaging.

Bump structural designs to minimize package defects

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.


Each of the nodes included in an ad-hoc network determines whether an identifier indicative of high-priority data is included in data received from another node. When the identifier is included in the received data, each of the nodes determines whether the subject node is a device that relays the received data to a destination. When determining that the subject node is a device that relays the received data to the destination, each of the nodes transmits the received data to the destination. When determining that the subject node is not a device that relays the received data to the destination, each of the nodes suppresses data transmission to the nodes included in the ad-hoc network.

Conventionally, there is a known ad-hoc network using a proactive-type routing protocol that creates a path for each of nodes to autonomously conduct data communications, prior to data communications within the network.
Each of the nodes forming the ad-hoc network regularly exchanges with adjacent nodes messages including node information such as path information and link quality information. In addition, each of the nodes calculates communication quality of each path and, based on results of the calculation, creates a plurality of paths to the final destination and determines the optimum path. As described above, the ad-hoc network holds a plurality of paths for one destination, and thus even if the highest-quality path becomes disconnected, data can be delivered to the final destination by switching to another path to execute data transmission.
In the ad-hoc network, in the event of congestion, the frequency of occurrence of collisions becomes higher to increase the frequency of re-transmission. Accordingly, an increased amount of time is taken for data transmission/reception between nodes existing on the path from the transmission source node to the final destination, which causes a phenomenon that the data does not reach the final destination within an expected time. In the event of such a phenomenon, even emergency data with higher priority than normal data is not transmitted/received.
In recent years, there has been known a method for avoiding occurrence of congestion by specifying at the data transmission source a timing for data transmission at the opposed side to prevent collision of data transmitted from nodes. In addition, an upper limit is placed for each node on data transmission bandwidth capable of being occupied by a connection during data transmission, and when data is to be transmitted with a data transmission bandwidth beyond the upper limit, a priority connection capable of occupying the data transmission bandwidth is established for data transmission. In addition, there has been known a control technique for, while a priority connection is established, data transmission by other connections is temporarily interrupted, whereas emergency data with a higher priority can be transmitted by other connections.
Patent Literature 1: International Publication Pamphlet No. WO 2011/013165
Patent Literature 2: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-180131
Patent Literature 3: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-130859
However, even with the use of the conventional technique, there is a problem that emergency data with a higher priority is delayed or does not reach during congestion.
For example, the method for specifying a timing for data transmission is a technique for preventing occurrence of congestion, and thus in the event of congestion, not only emergency data but also normal data may be delayed or not reach the destination. In addition, according to the technique for transmitting emergency data even while a priority connection is established, the priority connection occupies the data transmission bandwidth to narrow the bandwidth for transmission of the emergency data. As a result, the emergency data may be delayed or not reach the destination, depending on the volume of the emergency data and the like.


The disclosed computer-implemented method for optimizing data loss prevention (DLP) systems may include (1) monitoring data distributed via at least one data-distribution channel, (2) detecting, by analyzing the distributed data, a plurality of partial violations of a set of DLP policies, (3) determining, based on a correlation between the plurality of partial violations, that the plurality of partial violations suggest a previously undetected DLP threat, and (4) formulating an adjustment to apply to the set of DLP policies to enable the set of DLP policies to detect the DLP threat in the future. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Individuals and entities increasingly share, access, and disseminate high volumes of electronic information. In addition, the ubiquity of high-speed Internet access, mobile devices, and portable storage has led to an increasingly mobile workforce. As a consequence, it has become more difficult than ever for organizations to prevent sensitive information from being lost and/or compromised.
For example, users may maliciously or unintentionally leak confidential data to unauthorized third parties via a variety of communication channels. In order to prevent these security breaches, conventional data loss prevention (DLP) systems typically monitor the flow of information over data-distribution channels. For example, many traditional DLP systems analyze distributed data by searching for particular combinations of attributes that indicate DLP threats.
Unfortunately, conventional DLP systems may have a limited number and/or a predefined set of policies and therefore may only check distributed data for a limited number of attribute combinations. In addition, these DLP policies may be broad, rather than tailored to specific DLP threats within individual organizations. These deficiencies may be enhanced as organizations grow and their communication channels diversify. Similarly, the data distribution patterns of an organization may evolve over time as the communication needs of the organization change and/or as malicious users learn to evade existing DLP policies. Conventional DLP systems, however, may be static and unable to adapt to new DLP threats. As such, the current disclosure identifies and addresses a need for more efficient and effective systems and methods for optimizing DLP systems.

Systems and methods for optimizing data loss prevention systems


A request to resolve a name of a domain of an identifier of web content is received. It is automatically determined that the name of the domain is to be resolved using a blockchain. A request is sent to a smart contract of the blockchain to obtain one or more resolution records for the domain. The one or more resolution records of the domain are received. The received one or more resolution records are utilized to resolve the name of the domain.

Domain name system (DNS) is a naming system for computer resources connected to a network. It allows a user to refer to the resource using a human-friendly identifier that is easy to understand and remember rather than requiring the user to use a native functional identifier that is often unintuitive and difficult to remember. For example, the domain name system allows a user to reference a website by its human-friendly hostname/URL (Uniform Resource Locator) rather than using its IP (Internet Protocol) address. Typically a domain name registrar acts as a centralized entity that manages registration, record updating, transfer, and hosting of a domain name system. However, this centralized management and execution of the domain name system concentrates power and innovation in a central entity that may not be able to fulfill its duty in the best interest of the community. For example, the central entity may become a central point of failure, stifle innovation, or unjustly institute policies that prevent flow of information. Often users utilize a web browser to access web resources identified using a domain name. If a new mechanism to resolve domains is to be implemented, there exists a need for a way to enable the web browser to resolve these domains using the new mechanism.


A nitride crystal is characterized in that, in connection with plane spacing of arbitrary specific parallel crystal lattice planes of the nitride crystal obtained from X-ray diffraction measurement performed with variation of X-ray penetration depth from a surface of the crystal while X-ray diffraction conditions of the specific parallel crystal lattice planes are satisfied, a uniform distortion at a surface layer of the crystal represented by a value of |d1−d2|/d2 obtained from the plane spacing d1 at the X-ray penetration depth of 0.3 μm and the plane spacing d2 at the X-ray penetration depth of 5 μm is equal to or lower than 2.1×10−3. The above configuration provides the nitride crystal having a crystal surface layer that is evaluated directly and reliably without breaking the crystal so that it can be used in a preferred fashion as a substrate for a semiconductor device as well as the nitride crystal substrate, an epilayer-containing nitride crystal substrate, a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nitride crystal, a nitride crystal substrate, an epilayer-containing nitride crystal substrate, a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same, and particularly to a nitride crystal that can be preferably used as a substrate for growing an epitaxial crystal when producing a semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Background Art
As is well known, various devices using nitride semiconductor crystals have been produced in recent years, and nitride semiconductor light emitting devices have been produced as a typical example of such semiconductor devices.
Generally, in a process of manufacturing a nitride semiconductor device, a plurality of nitride semiconductor layers are epitaxially grown on a substrate. Crystal quality of the epitaxially grown nitride semiconductor layer is affected by a state of a surface layer of the substrate used for the epitaxial growth, and this quality affects performance of the semiconductor device including the nitride semiconductor layer. Therefore, in the case where the nitride semiconductor crystal is used as the above kind of substrate, it is desired that at least a main surface of the substrate providing a base of epitaxial growth has a smooth form without a distortion.
More specifically, the main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate used for the epitaxial growth is generally subjected to smoothing processing and distortion removal processing. Among various compound semiconductors, gallium-nitride-based semiconductors are relatively hard so that the surface smoothing processing thereof is not easy, and the distortion removal processing after the smoothing processing is not easy.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-311575 has disclosed a polishing method that uses soft grains and hard grains as polishing compounds for polishing a surface of a nitride gallium substrate. U.S. Pat. No. 6,596,079 has disclosed a method of forming a substrate surface in the case where the substrate is produced from an (AlGaIn)N bulk crystal grown by vapor phase epitaxy on an (AlGaIn)N seed crystal, and more specifically a method of forming a substrate surface that has a RMS (Root Mean Square) surface roughness of 1 nm or lower, and does not have a surface damage owing to effecting CMP (Chemical-Mechanical Polishing) or etching on the substrate surface subjected to mechanical polishing. U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,767 has disclosed an AlxGayInzN (0<y≦1, x+y+z=1) substrate having an RMS surface roughness of 0.15 nm attained by the CMP processing. A processing agent for this CMP contains Al2O3 grains, SiO2 grains, pH controlling agent and oxidizer. According to Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-322899, a work-affected layer is removed by dry etching to finish the substrate surface after polishing the GaN substrate.
In the prior art, as described above, the CMP processing or dry etching is effected after mechanically polishing the GaN crystal so that the work-affected layer formed by the mechanical polishing is removed, and the GaN substrate having the finished substrate surface is formed. However, the processing rate of the CMP processing is low, and causes problems in cost and productivity. Further, the dry etching causes a problem in surface roughness.
The finishing method of the Si substrate using the CMP as well as the polishing agent for the method are not suitable for the hard nitride semiconductor substrate, and lower the removal speed of the surface layer. In particular, GaN is chemically suitable, and is relatively resistant to the wet etching so that the CMP processing is not easy. Although the dry etching can remove the nitride semiconductor surface, it does not have an effect of flattening the surface in a horizontal direction so that the surface smoothing effect cannot be achieved.
For epitaxially growing the compound semiconductor layer of good crystal quality on the substrate surface, it is necessary to use the substrate surface having good crystal quality as well as less work damage and less distortion as described above. However, the crystal quality of the surface layer that is required at the substrate surface is not clear.
In the prior art, distortions at the surface layer of the crystal are evaluated by cleaving the crystal, and observing the cleavage plane with a TEM (Transmission Electron Microscope) as disclosed, e.g., in S. S. Park et al, "Free-Standing GaN Substrate by Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy", Jpn, J. Appl. Phys., The Japan Society of Applied Physics, Vol. 39, November 2000, pp. L1141-L1142 and Yutaka TAKAHASHI et al, "Transmission Electron Microscopy of Surface Damages Resulting from Wet Polishing in a Polycrystalline Aluminum Nitride Substrate", The Academic Journal of the Ceramic Society of Japan, The Ceramic Society of Japan, 99, [7], (1991), pp. 613-619. Thus, the distortions at the surface layer of the crystal have conventionally been evaluated by a breaking test that breaks the crystal, and therefore such problems occur that correction cannot be performed after the evaluation even when the result of evaluation was insufficient, and that the evaluation cannot be effected on the product in itself. Under the present circumstances, there is no index for nondestructively evaluating the crystallinity of the surface layer at the finished substrate surface, and it is difficult to define quantitatively the crystal quality of the surface layer.

Nitride crystal, nitride crystal substrate, epilayer-containing nitride crystal substrate, semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same


Apparatus for providing natural gas from an external gas source to multiple engines disposed upon multiple carries includes a gas supply conduit mounted upon each carrier. Each gas supply conduit has a connector conduit engaged at one end therewith and being releasably engageable at the other end with the gas supply conduit of another carrier or the gas source.

Bi-fuel engines have been developed that can be powered by a combination or mixture of different types of fuels. For example, some bi-fuel engines can be powered by a mixture of diesel fuel and natural gas (or other methane-based fuels). As used herein and in the appended claims, the terms "natural gas" and variations thereof mean natural gas and any other methane-based fuels. When utilizing different types of fuels, one challenge lies in connecting the engine to the multiple fuel sources. This challenge can be particularly significant in scenarios involving multiple engines that each need to be provided with multiple types of fuel.
For example, in the hydrocarbon exploration and production industries, various operations involve the use of multiple engines, such as hydraulic fracture stimulation with the use of multiple fracturing fluid pumping units. Oftentimes, a series of fracturing fluid pumping units are used concurrently at a single well. Since time is of the essence in the hydrocarbon exploration and production industries due to high equipment leasing, manpower and other costs, it is greatly advantageous to simplify operations and save time and manpower. In this instance, it would be beneficial to be able to quickly, easily and/or efficiently connect multiple engines to the natural gas source(s).
It should be understood that the above-described examples, features and potential limitations are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope or subject matter of this disclosure or any related patent application or patent. Thus, none of the appended claims or claims of any related patent application or patent should be limited by the above examples, features and limitations or required to address, include or exclude the above-cited examples, features and/or potential limitations merely because of their mention above.
Accordingly, there exists a need for improved systems, apparatus and methods useful in connection with providing natural gas to multiple engines having one or more of the features, attributes or capabilities described or shown in, or as may be apparent from, the other portions of this patent.

Apparatus and methods for providing natural gas to multiple engines disposed upon multiple carriers


The subject invention pertains to materials and methods for processing tissue to produce a natural, acellular replacement tissue that is immunocompatible with a recipient. According to the subject invention, harvested tissue is subjected to wash solutions wherein only amphoteric detergent(s) are used (e.g., anionic detergents are excluded). Following extraction by amphoteric detergent(s), the tissue is washed with a buffer system to facilitate the clearance of cellular components and detergent. In one embodiment, the subject invention pertains to a replacement tissue that is a nerve graft that supports axonal regeneration, guides axons toward the distal nerve end and/or is immunologically tolerated. Preferably, the nerve graft retains essential extracellular matrix scaffolding as well as biological components that promote nerve regeneration through the nerve graft.

Biomedical engineering faces many challenges in the development of tissue that can be used to facilitate healing. For example, a "replacement" tissue should promote tissue regeneration. In doing so, the new tissue must be compatible with the recipient tissue so that neighboring cells accept the replacement. Importantly, the replacement tissue should overcome (or avoid) the immunologic responses typically elicited by the addition of a "foreign body" to a biological system.
Furthermore, the replacement tissue should exhibit the properties and function of the tissue that it is replacing. For example, the replacement tissue should exhibit similar mechanical and structural properties of the original tissue or, at a minimum, not interfere with the native environment. The replacement tissue may act as a scaffold and/or retain biological properties to promote cellular regeneration. Finally, the replacement tissue should not stimulate scar formation that limits tissue regeneration or inhibits the natural function of the underlying tissue.
One particularly challenging embodiment of tissue engineering is the production of nerve grafts that can be used to help regeneration of severed nerves. In direct nerve repair, when the ends of a severed nerve are reconnected (without an interpositional graft), axons will attempt to regrow from the proximal nerve into the distal nerve. In this context, following nerve injury, the distal nerve undergoes a process known as Wallerian degeneration, which involves the breakdown and clearance of nerve elements including the nonfunctional distal axons and their myelin sheaths. In part because of this process, axonal and myelin debris have long been believed to have growth-inhibitory effects that curtail nerve regeneration and may be a mechanical barrier to axonal growth.
Extensive evidence indicates that nerve regeneration is slower when the process of Wallerian degeneration is delayed. Accordingly, it has been widely accepted that the clearance of nerve elements improves axonal growth in the distal nerve. This premise has been extrapolated to nerve grafting and has fostered the belief that cellular debris must also be removed from nerve grafts in order to promote axonal growth. Removal of residual cellular material has also been thought to be necessary to minimize pathogens in the tissue and eliminate immunogenic material that might lead to graft immunorejection. Consequently, processing methods used for nerve grafts have routinely involved rigorous decellularization techniques, even at the expense of disrupting extracellular matrix (ECM) structures and nerve graft integrity that support the regenerative process.
Nerve damage often results in the loss of clean ends for direct repair or a gap created by nerve tissue damage. In this case nerve repair requires the an interpositional graft to bridge the deficit and restore nerve continuity.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 7,402,319 (which is incorporated herein in its entirety) describes an acellular nerve allograft that can reinstate nerve continuity and, under the right circumstances, can lead to nerve regeneration. This type of nerve graft is obtained by soaking nerve tissue in several series of solutions with sulfobetaines and anionic surface-active detergents (e.g., Triton X-200), which are used to decellularize the nerve tissue.
Hudson et al. applied a decellularization technique containing Triton X-200™, sulfobetaine-16, and sulfobetaine-10 on rat nerves and reported very high levels of extraction. (Hudson T W, Liu S Y, Schmidt C E. Tissue Eng. 10: 1346-58, 2004). Rodent nerves, however, contain a single nerve bundle (fascicle) and the outer nerve sheaths of rodent nerves have little resemblance to the nerves of larger animals. Most nerves of larger animals (e.g., rabbit, human) have multiple nerve bundles embedded in a collagenous inner epineurium (connective tissue surrounding the nerve bundles). The sheath and intrafascicular structures of human nerves are expansive and have a profound influence on nerve integrity and permeability, including properties that impact tissue extraction. Therefore, knowledge about decellularization and extraction of rodent nerve is at best suggestive of the extraction expected when applied to the nerves from larger animals.
In summary, there remains a need to improve tissue replacements, particularly in the context of nerve tissue. The improved tissue replacement should maintain native structural and bioactive characteristics of the tissue it is replacing, including, for example, laminin activity, and be able to incorporate bioactive compounds or molecules where necessary to promote rapid regeneration, and stimulate tissue repair and regeneration without scarring that can reduce tissue mobility and integrity.

Method for decellularization of tissue grafts

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