Test signals are sequentially generated. A laser beam inclusive of the generated test signals is applied to a preset test recording area in a disc-shaped recording medium to record the generated test signals thereon. A recording power of the applied laser beam is changed stepwise from a lowest level to a highest level through different intermediate levels. The lowest level, the highest level, and the intermediate levels the recording power of the applied laser beam takes are assigned to the test signals respectively. The recorded test signals are reproduced from the preset test recording area in the disc-shaped recording medium. An optimum value of a laser-beam recording power is decided on the basis of the reproduced test signals and at least one of the lowest level, the highest level, and the intermediate levels.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a method and an apparatus for controlling a recording laser power. This invention specifically relates to a method and an apparatus for controlling the recording power of a laser beam applied to a disc-shaped recording medium or an optical disc such as a DVD-R, a DVD-RW, a DVD+RW, or a DVR-Blue.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical discs contain a CD (compact disc) and a DVD (digital versatile disc). A CD-RW, a DVD-R, a DVD-RW, a DVD+RW, and a DVR-Blue are disc-shaped recording mediums of an organic dye type or a phase change type which each have a continuous recording track and address information intermittently formed along a side of the track at intervals corresponding to a prescribed recording unit.
There is a drive apparatus for optically recording and reproducing an information signal on and from such a disc-shaped recording medium while applying a laser beam thereto. During the recording of the information signal on the disc-shaped recording medium, the drive apparatus modulates the laser beam in accordance with the information signal. The drive apparatus includes an optical pickup for emitting the laser beam toward the disc-shaped recording medium and receiving a laser beam returned therefrom. The quality of the recording of the information signal on the disc-shaped recording medium depends on various factors such as the physical and optical characteristics of the disc-shaped recording medium, the performance of the optical pickup, and the wavelength of the laser beam. Thus, the optimum power of the laser beam for recording the information signal varies from medium to medium, and also varies from pickup to pickup.
Accordingly, it is desirable to determine the optimum value of the recording power of a laser beam when a disc-shaped recording medium is placed in a drive apparatus. Furthermore, it is desirable to control the recording power of the laser beam at the determined optimum value during the actual recording of an information signal on the disc-shaped recording medium. An example of the control of the recording laser beam power is of a feedback type including a step of detecting the actual value of the recording laser beam power, a step of comparing the detected actual power value with the optimum power value, and a step of adjusting the actual power value in response to the result of the comparison.
There are various methods of determining the optimum value of the recording power of a laser beam for a disc-shaped recording medium of an organic dye type or a phase change type.
Some recordable optical discs are designed to be scanned by a laser beam at a constant linear velocity (CLV). Typical examples of such recordable optical discs are a CD-R and a CD-RW. It is known that a recordable optical disc is driven while being scanned by a laser beam at a constant linear velocity higher than the standard value.
Japanese patent application publication number P2001-331940A discloses an optical disc having a program area and a test area extending outward of the program area. In Japanese patent application P2001-331940A, test recording and reproduction are implemented before main-data recording. During the test recording and reproduction, the optical disc remains scanned by a laser beam at a prescribed linear velocity higher than the standard value, and a test signal is recorded plural times on the test area of the optical disc as the recording power of the laser beam is changed in turn among different values on a decreasing stepwise basis. Consequently, there are recorded test signals on the test area of the optical disc which correspond to the different values of the recording power of the laser beam, respectively. The recorded test signals are reproduced from the test area of the optical disc. An optimum recording power value of the laser beam for the prescribed linear velocity of the scanning of the optical disc is decided on the basis of the reproduced test signals. During the main-data recording which follows the test recording and reproduction, the recording power of the laser beam is controlled at the decided optimum value.
There is an optical disc having a data area and a test area extending inward of the data area. In some cases, such an optical disc is subjected to test recording and reproduction while being scanned by a laser beam at a constant linear velocity higher than the standard value. Specifically, during the test recording and reproduction, a test signal is recorded plural times on the test area of the optical disc as the recording power of the laser beam is decreased stepwise. Consequently, there are recorded test signals on the test area of the optical disc which correspond to the different values of the recording power of the laser beam, respectively. The recorded test signals are reproduced from the test area of the optical disc. An optimum recording power value of the laser beam is decided on the basis of the reproduced test signals.
In the case of CLV-based drive of an optical disc, the rotational speed of the optical disc is increased as a portion of the optical disc which is currently scanned by a laser beam radially moves from the outermost position of the optical disc to the innermost position thereof. For example, in the case of CLV-based drive of a DVD-R at a 8-fold linear velocity which means a linear velocity equal to 8 times the standard value, the rotational speed of the optical disc is increased to about 12,000 rpm when the innermost portion of the optical disc is scanned by a laser beam. Spontaneous vibration of an optical disc is greater as the rotational speed thereof is higher. Thus, in the case where a test area of the DVD-R extends inward of a data area thereof, the rotational speed of the DVD-R is relatively high and the spontaneous vibration thereof is relatively great during test recording and reproduction for which the test area of the DVD-R is scanned by a laser beam. The great spontaneous vibration of the DVD-R causes the formation of pits therein to be unstable. The unstable formation of pits means the unstable test recording and reproduction.
In Japanese patent application P2001-331940A, the test area of an optical disc extends outward of the program area thereof. Thus, the rotational speed of the optical disc is relatively low and the spontaneous vibration thereof is relatively small during the test recording and reproduction. Consequently, the test recording and reproduction is prevented from going unstable.
Japanese patent application P2001-331940A also discloses an optical disc having a program area, an inner test area extending inward of the program area, and an outer test area extending outward of the program area. The sizes of the inner and outer test areas of such an optical disc are finite. Therefore, under some recording conditions, one of the inner and outer test areas has been fully used for test recording and reproduction, and can not be used any more. Especially, in the case of high-speed drive of the optical disc, the strategy (the recording laser beam waveform) is complicated and the margin for jitter is small so that a wide area is used for test recording and reproduction. Thus, in this case, it is usual that one of the inner and outer test areas of the optical disc has been fully used for test recording and reproduction and only the other can be used for further test recording and reproduction.
There is an optical disc which can be driven at a constant linear velocity changeable among a 1-fold value (the standard value), a 2-fold value, a 4-fold value, a 6-fold value, and an 8-fold value. An 8-fold-speed optical-disc recorder drives such an optical disc at the 8-fold value. In this case, a required rotational speed of the optical disc is excessively high when an innermost portion of the optical disc is scanned by a laser beam. Accordingly, it is undesirable to implement test recording and reproduction using an inner test area of the optical disc. Thus, in this case, it is desirable to carry out only test recording and reproduction using an outer test area of the optical disc. On the other hand, a 2-fold-speed optical-disc recorder drives the optical disc at the 2-fold value. In this case, a required rotational speed of the optical disc remains acceptable even when an innermost portion of the optical disc is scanned by a laser beam. Thus, in this case, it is acceptable to carry out test recording and reproduction using both the inner and outer test areas of the optical disc. As understood from the above explanation, the speed performance of an optical-disc recorder decides whether or not the inner test area of the optical disc should be used for test recording and reproduction.
Generally, it is difficult to equalize the recording characteristics of the inner and outer test areas of an optical disc such as a DVD-R. In the case where an organic dye film is formed by spin coat during the fabrication of a DVD-R, a recording film in the outer test area is thicker than that in the inner test area. In the case where a resin layer of a polycarbonate substrate for a DVD-R is formed by injection molding from an inner side gate, it is difficult to make uniform the birefringence characteristics throughout a disc surface. Surface vibration and tilt in the outer test area of a DVD-R are greater than those in the inner test area thereof. The outer test area of a DVD-R tends to scratch and be given fingerprints. Therefore, the physical characteristics of the inner test area of a DVD-R differ from those of the outer test area thereof. Thus, it is difficult to obtain exactly equal results of test recording and reproduction using the inner test area of a DVD-R and test recording and reproduction using the outer test area thereof.
A DVD-R or a DVD-RW has a spiral track defined by a continuous groove in a recording disc surface. There are land portions between neighboring groove portions spaced in a radial direction of the disc. The land portions are previously formed with pits called land pre-pits (LPP) representing an address signal indicating the on-disc position of every unit segment of the track. The LPP address signal can be reproduced from the disc while the disc is scanned by a laser beam. The reproduced LPP address signal represents the currently-accessed on-disc position, the information of which can be used for essential purposes. During the recording of a signal on the disc, a laser beam modulated in accordance with the signal to be recorded forms recording marks in the groove of the disc. As the recording power of the laser beam applied to the disc is raised, the size of recording marks formed in the groove increases. When the recording power of the laser beam is raised above a particular value, some of formed recording marks reach land pre-pits (LPP). It is difficult to correctly reproduce the LPP address signal from a disc in such a condition since land pre-pits (LPP) are hardly discriminated from recording marks. During test recording and reproduction, the recording power of the laser beam is set to a maximum level and is then decreased stepwise from the maximum level. Thus, the recording power of the laser beam may exceed the particular value in a former stage of the test recording and reproduction. In this case, there occurs the problem that the LPP address signal can not be correctly reproduced from the disc.

Method and apparatus for controlling recording laser power


A sprayed coating for a sliding member of the present invention includes a ferrous alloy containing chromium (Cr).

Aluminum or aluminum alloy cylinder blocks for an internal combustion engine are provided with a cast iron liner on an inner circumferential surface of the cylinder bore, whereby functions, such as strength, wear resistance, and sliding characteristics, are improved.
However, the cast iron liner requires a thickness of a certain degree due to the production method of the cylinder block using the cast iron liner, and thus the weight of the entire cylinder block is increased. In addition, a gap is often generated on a surface joined to the cylinder block and thermal conductivity is often decreased.
In view of this, instead of using the cast iron liner, a thermal sprayed coating is formed on an inner circumferential surface of a cylinder bore, whereby weight of a cylinder block is reduced.
Patent Document 1 discloses a thermal spray wire to be used in thermal spraying on an inner surface of a cylinder bore.
A stainless steel-based thermal sprayed coating that contains chromium (Cr) is prevented from being corroded by low-quality fuel that contains a large amount of sulfur, but the thermal sprayed coating is reduced in peeling resistance due to lowering of bonding strength between thermal sprayed droplets that form the thermal sprayed coating. However, according to Patent Document 1, the decrease in bonding strength between thermal sprayed droplets can be prevented by adding a predetermined amount of manganese (Mn).

Thermally sprayed coating for sliding member and sliding device provided with said thermally sprayed coating for sliding member

Abstract: The sprayed coating for the sliding member has the content rate of the chromium of 8 mass % or more, includes a structure that comprises crystal grains contained in the sprayed coating and having an average grain size of 3 μm or less, has a Vickers hardness of 300 Hv or more, and then is excellent at abrasion resistance.


The present invention defines a HTTP or CoAP request message that combines one or more HTTP or CoAP requests along with timing information (432-1). The message is sent by a control device (132) to a network proxy (i.e. a network router (112)) via a control network (120). The network proxy decodes the message and subsequently controls destination devices, in particular luminaires (L1, L2, L3, L4), in a timed manner using the HTTP or CoAP requests. The network proxy is application-independent and also enables control of third party HTTP-or CoAP-based devices that are not aware of timed requests. Improved timing performance is obtained by choosing the network proxy location “close by”, in terms of network hops and/or latency, to the destination devices to be controlled.

US 2002/0050799 A1 describes a lighting apparatus for controlling lighting loads. The apparatus is connected to a network via a network interface and receives commands from the network that are to be forwarded to the lighting loads, when the apparatus is in an automatic mode. In a manual mode, the apparatus receives direct user instructions not from the network but from a remote control and forwards corresponding commands to the lighting loads. The network interface further comprises a protocol processing part and a memory for storing time information. Said time information means absolute time, such as date and time, or relative time, such as hours after a zero time point, or count information, such as a pulse at a specific time point after counting a number of pulses from a reference time point in a clock oscillator or in a commercial electric power frequency. The time information is received via the network. The apparatus controls the lighting loads based on the timing information. It is described that, during enjoying a movie, light intensity and color of lighting are changed by linking up an audiovisual unit, such as a television set, to the lighting apparatus to improve a so-called stage effect.


An indicator light apparatus of a marine vessel is provided. The indicator light apparatus includes a sensor for detecting a value related to a traveling speed of the marine vessel, an indicator light provided in the marine vessel, and a control device configured to change an illuminating pattern of the indicator light based on the value related to the traveling speed detected by the sensor.

A marine vessel typically is equipped with an indicator light for nighttime use and, thus, an operational state, such as an orientation, a traveling direction, and a speed of the marine vessel can be visually ascertained by others to a certain degree. However in some cases, even surrounding objects may not be visible at night, and a mere indicator light is not sufficient to display a dynamic operational state, such as the traveling direction and speed of the marine vessel.

Indicator light apparatus of marine vessel


A computer-implemented transmission scheme is provided to control client-server interchanges within a distributed communications network, such as a real time opinion research system. Interchanges include transmitting media streams between one or more clients to a server over a computer network, including the global Internet. A polling management unit sets and manages the transmission mode that includes event-driven and periodic interchanges. Periodic interchanges can be simultaneously or staggeredly transmitted to a sampling pool of active clients. A transmission mode unit implements the transmission scheme set by the polling management unit. A parameter selector establishes the transmission interval and transmission period which are used to trigger each communication interchange. A client assignor creates one or more sampling classes from the sampling pool by applying a sampling quotient that is generated by the parameter selector. A schedule editor produces a transmission schedule for the active clients. If more than one sampling class has been created, each sampling class would receive a separate transmission schedule for providing staggered transmissions at designated transmission intervals. The transmission schedule can include other data preparation and formatting instructions for compression, aggregation and packetization.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to internetworking. More specifically, the present invention pertains to controlling multimedia communications over data networks.
2. Related Art
Global computer networks, such as the Internet, provide a myriad of opportunities for the opinion research industry. Opinion gathering tools, such as dial polls and surveys, can be developed to reach millions of individuals to extract their positions and predispositions toward a variety of topics and issues. Online polls and surveys enable respondents to furnish input and view the reactions of other respondents instantly. An example of an opinion research system that provides real time opinion gathering is described in the '624 application. The opinion research system of the '624 application enables a plurality of online respondents to view an event and participate in an opinion poll. The respondents receive real time feedback on their client displays that indicate each respondent's opinion value as well as the composite opinion value for the entire panel.
A challenge to Internet-based opinion research systems is the ability to effectively manage online sessions having very large panel sizes while maintaining continuous data interchanges between the server and clients and supplying the most current and accurate opinion values. Although the standard Internet Protocol (IP) (defined in Internet Standard (STD) 5, Request for Comments (RFC) 791 (Internet Architecture Board)), has been developed to govern communications over public and private Internet backbones, the protocol does not guarantee quality of service (QoS). Bandwidth availability, latency, and data loss can impede the effectiveness of opinion gathering and substantially hinder a respondent's ability to receive and comprehend the data in a real time environment.
Typically, IP networks lack sufficient infrastructure to permit a computer application to reserve the requisite bandwidth to communicate over a computer network. The amount of available bandwidth depends on numerous factors, such as the time of day and locality of the client or server. The packet size for the data that is being transmitted is another limiting factor. A significant amount of efficiency can be lost due to packet overhead that contains substantial header information. If the client or server is not able to reserve sufficient bandwidth, client-server communications can suffer from substantial data delay or loss. Therefore, an opinion research server's ability to effectively interact with a respondent's computer and provide real time updates can be adversely affected by bandwidth availability.
As intimated, packet overhead manifests larger bandwidth requirements. One possible solution to reducing packet overhead is to buffer and aggregate the frames into a single data packet (e.g., IP datagram or protocol data unit (PDU)). However, buffering the frames can also produce data delay or latency. Generally, latency increases proportionally to the number of frames being buffered. Data transmissions for electronic mail (email) or facsimile messages generally can tolerate delays in receiving the data packets without sacrificing QoS. However, during real time communications, delays in receiving data packets can significantly impair the accuracy and completeness of the transmitted data. In real time opinion research systems, such delays can also substantially impair the respondent's ability to view and comprehend the opinion data.
The integrity and accuracy of online opinion research systems can also be adversely affected by data packets being lost during the transmission. Generally speaking, IP and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) environments cannot guarantee network reliability. Data packets can be lost or delayed for a variety of reasons, such as bandwidth congestion, unavailable routes, defective Internet engines, and the like. If a data packet is lost, the only way to retrieve it is to request the originator to retransmit the data packet. This, of course, would add additional delays to receiving the opinion data, thus degrading the quality of the network and providing an unsuitable medium for real time communications.
What is needed is a system and method for internetworking real time opinion research data that overcomes the above problems.

Method of modulating the transmission frequency in a real time opinion research network


A radiation generating tube 1 includes: an electron emitting source 3; a target 9 spaced from the electron emitting source 3, for generating radiation 11 responsive to irradiation with an electron beam from the electron emitting source 3; and a tubular shielding member 10 having an electron passing hole 8, wherein the electron passing hole 8 has an electron incident aperture at one end thereof and has a target supporting surface 9b supporting the target 9 at the other end thereof, wherein the target supporting surface 9b is connected through a brazing filler 14 to a periphery of a surface of the target at a side on which the electron is incident, and an opening size of the other end of the electron passing hole 8 is larger than an opening size of the electron incident aperture at the one end thereof.

A radiation generating tube, which is used as a radiation source, generates radiation by emitting electrons from an electron source within the radiation generating tube (radiation emitting source) in which a vacuum is maintained, and making the electrons collide with the target, which is formed from a metal material such as tungsten having a large atomic number.
Incidentally, in order to efficiently generate electrons from an electron source and to extend the life of the radiation generating tube, it is necessary to keep the inside of the radiation generating tube at a vacuum for a long period of time. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-306533 discloses a technique for keeping the inside of the radiation generating tube at a vacuum by brazing the perimeter of the target to a target holding ring of the radiation generating tube (X-ray tube), in a radiation generating tube that uses a transmitting type target.
In addition, in the radiation generating tube, the radiation generated in the target is emitted in all directions, and accordingly, it is general to shield the unwanted radiation, that is, radiation other than that required for photography, by providing a radiation shielding member. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007- 265981 discloses a structure in which the radiation shielding member is arranged at the electron incident side and the radiation extraction side of the transmitting type target.

Radiation generating tube and radiation imaging apparatus using the same


A clipboard is defined by a planar support having a back surface that retains at least one magnet, thereby permitting releasable attachment of the clipboard to a metallic supporting surface. A dry-erasable steel surface is secured to the front of the support and a hinge clip attached enables at least one paper to be secured to the front side of the clipboard as well as at least one magnet.

Clipboards are extremely useful accessories that have been widely used and adapted for a number of different business, industrial and institutional applications in which a portable writing surface is desired. Version of clipboards are presently known that enable a plurality of papers and similar materials to be retained and supported using a spring-loaded clip, which is typically found at the upper end of a front surface of the clipboard. Some clipboard versions are relatively complex and elaborate, including features such as drawers or other storage receptacles that enable the clipboard to be used in a manner akin to that of a miniature desk.
There may be occasions in which a conventional clipboard cannot be used, for example, when a supply of paper is not readily available. There may be other opportunities in which a clipboard could additionally be used as a display, for example, on an industrial plant floor. In addition and in at least some applications, there is a general need to provide a reliable means for supporting the clipboard but still permitting releasable attachment of same, as needed, such as for industrialized and/or business applications.

Magnetically supported clipboard having dry-erasable writing surface


A heating apparatus for heating a target object W is provided with a plurality of heating light sources, including LED elements for applying heating light having a wavelength within a range from 360 to 520 nm to the object. Thus, a temperature of only the shallow surface of the object, such as a semiconductor wafer, is increased/reduced at a high speed in uniform temperature distribution, irrespective of the film type.

In the manufacture of semiconductor devices, it is typical that various kinds of heat treatments, such as film forming, pattern etching, oxidation/diffusion, reforming and annealing, are repeatedly performed to a semiconductor wafer to thereby manufacture desired devices. However, as the semiconductor devices become highly dense, multilayered and highly integrated, heat treatment methods grow more and more stringent year by year. In particular, there is a need to enhance wafer in-plane uniformity and improve a film quality therein during these heat treatments. In this regard, description will be given by taking as an example the treatment of channel layers or the like of a transistor, which is one of semiconductor devices. After ion-implanting impurity atoms into the channel layers or the like, annealing is usually carried out to stabilize the atomic structure thereof.
With reference to FIG. 13, a channel layer of a gate structure will be described as a representative example of a typical transistor structure. In FIG. 13, a source 2 and a drain 4, i.e., p+ concentration regions, formed by doping p-type impurities are respectively configured on the surface of a semiconductor wafer W, e.g., an n-type silicon substrate formed by doping n-type impurities. Further, on the surfaces of the source 2 and the drain 4, there are formed p++ regions 6 and 8 whose impurity concentration is greater than that of the p+ regions. A gate electrode 12 made of, e.g., a polysilicon layer, is formed between the source 2 and the drain 4 through a gate insulating film 10 such as a silicon oxide film or the like.
Insulating layers 14 made of, e.g., SiN, are formed on the sidewalls of the gate electrode 12 and the gate insulating film 10. Such micro-transistor configured as described above is formed on a wafer surface in multiple numbers and other essential micro-elements are also configured on the wafer surface in multiple numbers. This transistor structure is merely an example and various kinds of films for different purposes are available depending on the intended uses. Further, annealing is performed as noted above, in order to stabilize the atomic structure of the regions in which impurities are doped.
In this case, if the annealing is performed for a prolonged period of time, the atomic structure becomes stable but impurity atoms are diffused deep into the film in a thickness direction thereof, eventually going downwards through the film. Accordingly, there is a need to perform the annealing as short as possible. That is to say, in order to stabilize the atomic structure while maintaining the thickness of the channel layer or the like thin and preventing the impurity atoms from going through the film, it is necessary to rapidly heat up the semiconductor wafer to an annealing temperature and, after annealing, to speedily cool down the wafer to a temperature that no diffusion occurs.
In order to accomplish such annealing, lamp annealing using a heating lamp has been generally employed in a conventional treatment apparatus (see, Patent Reference 1). For example, a halogen lamp or a flash lamp may be used as the heating lamp.
Another conventional treatment apparatus is disclosed in, e.g., Patent Reference 2, in which apparatus a Peltier element is provided on a wafer stage and is used to raise or lower a wafer temperature when etching a wafer at a temperature of 100 to 250° C.
Recently, an LED element or a laser developed to have a relatively high output power is used as a heat source or a light source (see, Patent References 3 to 5). The LED element or the laser generates far less heat in itself than does a heating lamp and has a significantly longer life and a lower heat capacity than those of the heating lamp. Therefore, the LED element or the laser is more likely used.
As an example, Patent Reference 3 discloses a lamp fabricated by combining a heat pipe and an LED element. Patent Reference 4 shows that resist is heated by an LED element or a laser. Patent Reference 5 teaches the use of an LED element array for CVD process.
[Patent Reference 1]
U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,614
[Patent Reference 2]
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2001-85408
[Patent Reference 3]
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2004-296245
[Patent Reference 4]
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2004-134674
[Patent Reference 5]
U.S. Pat. No. 6,818,864
As described above, when a heat treatment is performed, it is necessary not only to heat a wafer so that a temperature distribution on a wafer surface becomes uniform but also to raise and lower a wafer temperature within a short period of time.
Moreover, in order to meet the demands for high speed and ultrafine semiconductor devices, it is required that impurities be implanted shallowly into impurity implanted regions, such as the source 2 and the drain 4, at an increased concentration. When annealing the impurity implanted regions, therefore, it is required to perform temperature elevation and temperature reduction at an increased rate so that diffusion of the impurities in a substrate thickness direction can be suppressed as much as possible.
In case of an annealing treatment using a halogen lamp as a heating source, the halogen lamp emits long-wavelength heating light having a central wavelength of, e.g., 1 to 3 μm, and a broad wavelength band of 3 to 5 μm. This poses a problem in that, despite an intention to heat only a shallow portion under a wafer surface, the heating light reaches a deep position of the wafer and heats up a deep portion thereof, consequently allowing impurities to be diffused into the deep portion under the wafer surface.
Furthermore, since the light emitted from the halogen lamp has the long wavelength as noted above and unnecessarily heats up the deep portion under the wafer surface, heating efficiency is reduced and thus it is necessary to use high output power, thereby causing reduction in energy efficiency.
In case of an annealing treatment using a flash lamp as a heating source, the flash lamp projects light having a wavelength quite shorter than that of the halogen lamp. However, as can be seen from a wavelength band of the flash lamp shown in FIG. 14, the light of the flash lamp has a central wavelength of about 500 nm and a comparatively broad wavelength band of about 1 μm. Therefore, just like the halogen lamp set forth above, there is a problem in that the flash lamp heats up a deep portion of a wafer.
Applying a laser or an LED (Light Emitting Diode) element as a heating source makes it possible to avoid the above-noted problems and to heat, e.g., only a surface portion of a wafer in an efficient manner. However, in case of an ArF laser (an excimer laser having a central wavelength of 193 nm) and a KrF laser (an excimer laser having a central wavelength of 248 nm), both of which are representative lasers, the light irradiated from these lasers has a wavelength band width less than 1 μm which is too narrow, contrary to the foregoing cases. As a consequence, there is a problem in that a temperature difference which may cause lateral stresses in minute regions is generated or a wafer is locally melted, depending on the kinds of films or the wavelength of the light. Furthermore, since the cross-sectional area through which laser light passes is small, the laser light needs to be scanned by means of a scanning mechanism in order to heat the entire wafer surface. This entails a problem in that the structure thereof becomes complicated.
In case of the LED element, the wavelength of the emitted light has a band width of about 100 nm within a range from, e.g., 300 to 950 nm, although the band width depends on the kinds of LED elements employed. This means that the band width of the light emitted from the LED is wider than that of the laser but narrower than that of the flash lamp or the halogen lamp. Therefore, the LED element can reduce film-quality-dependent selectivity of a heating temperature and, consequently, has a feature of rather uniformly heating the surface portion of a wafer.
However, the mere use of the LED element does not guarantee optimization of the wavelength of the emitted light and, therefore, it is difficult to selectively and uniformly heat only the surface portion of a wafer in such a way that the depth of impurity diffusion regions is kept small and the concentration of impurities is kept high enough to meet the recent design rule requirement.

Heating apparatus, heat treatment apparatus, computer program and storage medium


A display processing apparatus includes a receiving unit configured to receive display information indicating whether gloss-control plane image data is displayed and whether clear plane image data is displayed. The gloss-control plane image data specifies a type of a surface effect applied to a recording medium and a glossy area to which the surface effect is to be applied, and indicates a color of the glossy area when being displayed. The clear plane image data specifies a transparent image formed on the recording medium and indicates a color of the transparent image when being displayed. The apparatus also includes a generating unit configured to synthesize color plane image data indicating a color image and one of the gloss-control plane image data and the clear plane image data that is specified to be displayed thus to generate a synthetic image.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display processing apparatus, an image forming system, and a computer-readable storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there have been developed image forming apparatuses that print an image using a transparent developer besides four color toners of CMYK. Using a transparent developer makes it possible to provide a visual effect and a tactual effect (referred to as a surface effect) on a surface of a recording medium. Furthermore, forming an image with a transparent developer makes it possible to form a transparent image used for prevention of falsification and forgery, for example. For such image forming apparatuses, there has been developed a technology for displaying an image obtained by estimating a printing result before printing, that is, a technology for performing so-called preview display. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-145784, for example, discloses a technology for displaying an image portion to be printed with transparent toner as a preview.
In the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-145784, however, the whole area to which the transparent toner is to be applied is collectively switched between being displayed or hidden. As a result, if an area to which a surface effect is to be applied using the transparent toner and a transparent image to be printed using the transparent toner both exist, the area to which the surface effect is to be applied and the transparent image cannot be switched to be displayed as a preview.
Therefore, there is a need for a display processing apparatus, an image forming system, and a computer-readable storage medium that can switch between an area to which a surface effect is to be applied and a transparent image as preview display.

Display processing apparatus, image forming system, and computer-readable storage medium


The present invention is directed to a double-side polishing method including interposing a wafer held by a carrier between upper and lower turn tables to which respective polishing pads are attached, and rotating and revolving the carrier while supplying a polishing agent to polish both surfaces of the wafer at the same time, the method including the steps of: first polishing at a high polishing rate; second polishing at a low polishing rate; measuring flatness of the polished wafer; and determining polishing conditions of the second polishing in a next polishing batch on a basis of the measured flatness. The method can stably improve the flatness of a wafer without being affected by variations in carrier thickness over time.

As the line width of semiconductor circuits is shrunk, stricter requirements for flatness of semiconductor wafers used as substrates of the circuits have been imposed. In such situations, large-diameter wafers are polished by a double-side polishing method, which ensures a higher polishing precision, instead of a conventional single-side polishing method.
Examples of the double-side polishing apparatus include a planetary gear type of double-side polishing apparatus, as depicted in FIG. 6, and a swinging type of double-side polishing apparatus, as depicted in FIG. 7. The planetary gear type of double-side polishing apparatus has a lower turn table and an upper turn table movable upward and downward, and is capable of pressing the upper turn table against the lower turn table to apply load to wafers interposed between the upper and lower turn tables. As depicted in FIG. 6, the double-side polishing apparatus 101 has a sun gear 107 provided inside the lower turntable and an internal gear 108 provided outside the lower turn table.
Furthermore, between the upper and lower turn tables, carriers 105 for holding wafers are provided, and each of the carriers 105 engages at its periphery the sun gear and the internal gear and thereby can rotate. The carrier rotates about its own axis and revolves with respect to the axis between the upper and lower turn tables according to the rotational speed of the sun gear and the internal gear. Wafers being polished are inserted and held in the respective holding holes 106 provided in the carrier are polished without flying out of the double-side polishing apparatus.
On the other hand, as depicted in FIG. 7, the swinging type of double-side polishing apparatus 111 has a carrier 105 for holding wafers provided between rotating upper and lower turn tables, and imparts a circular movement to the carrier 105, without rotating the carrier, to polish the wafers.
The planetary gear type of double-side polishing apparatus can rotate and revolve the carrier at a higher rotational speed and at a higher revolution speed than the swinging type of double-side polishing apparatus, and promote rotational movement of the wafers during polishing, thereby enabling the wafers to be polished with flatness higher than the swinging type of double-side polishing apparatus. The planetary gear type accordingly becomes recent mainstream of the double-side polishing apparatus.
Here, it has been known that, for the planetary gear type double-side polishing apparatus, the flatness of the polished wafer varies depending on the relationship between the thickness of a carrier and the thickness of the wafer at the end of polishing, that is, a finishing thickness of the wafer (See Patent Document 1, for example). For a finishing thickness thicker than the thickness of the carrier, for example, a wafer sinks into a polishing pad due to a polishing load so that pressure on the outer circumference portion of the wafer becomes higher than that on the central portion of the wafer. As a result, the higher pressure promotes polishing of the outer circumference portion, creating an outer circumference portion thinner than the central portion, that is, a so-called outer circumference sag, which tends to make the entire shape of the wafer convex.
Conversely, for a finishing thickness thinner than the thickness of the carrier, sinking a wafer into a polishing pad is mitigated (i.e., a retainer effect) so that pressure on the outer circumference portion becomes lower than that on the central portion. As a result, the outer circumference portion becomes thicker than the central portion, that is, a so-called outer circumference rise is created, which tends to make the entire shape of the wafer concave.
Accordingly, the flatness is conventionally adjusted by adjusting the finishing thickness of a wafer with respect to the thickness of a carrier. In general, a polishing process includes a first polishing in which rough polishing is performed at a high polishing rate and a second polishing in which fine polishing is performed at a low polishing rate, and the finishing thickness is adjusted by changing a polishing time of the first polishing. Polishing a wafer into a highly flat wafer needs an optimum finishing thickness with respect to the thickness of a carrier.
The finishing thickness of and the flatness of a polished wafer are measured with a flatness measuring device provided separately from a double-side polishing apparatus after the polished wafer is taken of the apparatus by an operator. After the measurement, the wafer is put back into the double-side polishing apparatus. The finishing thickness in a next polishing batch is determined to set the polishing time on the basis of the measurement result of the flatness. Since such measurement, involving taking out a wafer after every polishing batch, leads to reduction of apparatus's productivity and of operator's productivity, the measurement is performed every multiple polishing batches.


A clock frequency divider circuit and method of dividing a clock frequency are provided. The clock frequency divider circuit includes a first flip-flop circuit, a second flip-flop circuit, a third flip-flop circuit, a first logic control unit and a second logic control unit, wherein the first flip-flop circuit has two clock input terminals connected to the second and third flip-flop circuits respectively and two control signal input terminals connected to the first and second logic control units respectively. The second and third flip-flop circuits count rising edges and falling edges of an input frequency under control of the first and second flip-flop circuits and accordingly, symmetric output signals are output from the first flip-flop circuit.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a clock frequency divider circuit and method of dividing a clock frequency. More particularly, the present invention relates to a clock frequency divider circuit and method of dividing a clock frequency for outputting symmetric output signals.
2. Description of Related Art
Clock frequency divider circuits, already widely applied in Integrated Circuits (IC), divide a frequency of an input clock signal to generate output clock signals having divided frequency. In one of the conventional clock frequency divider circuits, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,866,741, positive output terminals and negative output terminals of two D flip-flop circuits are connected to an AND gate circuit and a OR gate circuit respectively to divide external clock signals for outputting clock signals with divided frequencies. However, the output clock signals from this conventional clock frequency divider circuit is not symmetric, which means the duty cycle thereof is not always 50%, and accordingly, the rising edges and falling edges of the output clock signals are not ideal for the next circuit stages. Further, if the duty cycle of the higher (or divided) frequencies of the output clock signals is not always 50%, then the positive or negative cycles of the output clock signals is too short and not preferred.
In another conventional clock frequency divider circuit, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,348,640, outputting signals from two JK flip-flop circuits are operated by several logic gate circuits for controlling a D flip-flop circuit and external clock signals that are functioned as control signals for the two JK flip-flop circuits. Then, an output signal from the D flip-flop circuit has a duty cycle of 50%. However, this conventional clock frequency divider circuit is only capable of dividing the input clock signals by three and not by four, five . . . etc, which means it is not programmable and flexible.
Therefore, a programmable clock frequency divider circuit for outputting symmetric output clock signals is required.

Clock frequency divider circuit and method of dividing clock frequency

Elite Semiconductor Memory Technology Inc.


A system and method for minimizing latency for direct group communications, such as push-to-talk (PTT) calls, among a group of wireless telecommunication devices on a wireless telecommunication network. The wireless telecommunication device selectively requests and then receives an open dedicated broadcast channel for an outgoing communication, which can include a group communication stream to a communication server that receives and creates a group communication to all wireless telecommunication devices of the designated group. The wireless telecommunication device selectively receives a broadcast channel based upon a predetermined probability, and assigns a greater probability of receiving an open broadcast channel for requests to transmit group communication streams than for requests to open a broadcast channel that are not for a group communication.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to wireless telecommunication networks. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for providing an open broadcast channel to a group communication, such as Push-to-Talk group communications, in a wireless telecommunication network by increasing the probability that the request to send a group communication will initially receive an open dedicated traffic channel.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a wireless network, the users of wireless communication devices communicate over an air-interface to a central computer. This may be done directly, as in the case of a wireless LAN in an office environment, or it may be done through cellular infrastructure equipment, as in the case of a wireless telephone application. One type of personal communication system is a push-to-talk (PTT) system between mobile wireless communication devices. A PTT communication connection is typically initiated by a single button-push on the wireless device that activates a half-duplex link between the speaker and each member device of the group and once the button is released, the device can receive incoming PTT transmissions once the button is released. In some arrangements, the PTT speaker will have the "floor" where no other group member can speak while the speaker is speaking. Once the speaker releases the PTT button, any other individual member of the group can engage their PTT button and they will have the floor. A specific PTT group of recipient devices for the communicating wireless device is commonly set up by the carrier and the wireless devices themselves do not allow the modification of the group, i.e. to include or drop individuals from the group, or to purposely direct a communication to be received by any fewer members than the entire group.
The typical PTT call involves two users who are rarely located within the same telecommunication sector such that communication and replication of the communication is propagated easily over the existing telecommunication infrastructure. However, a small but very important fraction of push-to-talk calls involve a larger number of call participants, many of whom may also be located within the same sector; public-safety disaster scenarios are one example. In such scenario, the maintenance of the PTT communications within the group all located on the same telecommunication resource is difficult and inefficient. These systems will use "trunks" of the telephone network and standard channel allocation that devote individual circuits for each call participant, thus limiting system scalability.
One problem arises in that a wireless telecommunication device may have a predetermined probability to seize a dedicated communication channel upon request of the user. This delay can minimize the probability of a request collision at the base station. Moreover, in a PTT system, if a large number of receiving wireless devices are in the same sector, there is a high probability that there will be immediate response requests from the group devices, and thus, and increased likelihood of collision. Thus, some internal delay mechanism is desirable to avoid collision, but yet not delay a priority PTT communication. It is thus to such a system and method of reducing latency for the setup of a PTT or direct group communication that the present invention is primarily directed.

Wireless communication system utilizing a persistence value for group communication requests to reduce latency


A drawer slide locating system includes an outer rail having a bracket at its front end, an inner rail, and a bearing carrier disposed between the inner rail and the outer rail. The bracket contains a locking piece toward the bearing carrier. Two wings extend from both sides of the locking piece to define a leverage axis. A slot is disposed on the outer rail. The locking piece having one lower end adapted with a hooking portion and another end being held against by the bearing carrier. The hooking portion raises to hold against the bottom of the bearing carrier and secure the bearing carrier in place.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drawer slide locating system, and more particularly, to one capable of controlling extended status of an inner rail, and locating the inner rail when pulled out and disengaged from the system by means of a locking hook to secure a bearing carrier that holds against the inner rail; and to automatically lead away the bearing carrier when the inner rail is inserted into the system once again to facilitate guiding the retraction of the inner rail.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
A slide used for a drawer or similar object is usually comprised of two or three sections of sliding rails to slide on those rails by means of one set or two sets of bearing mounted among those rails. A bearing carrier is provided to contain rollers to roll on the rails for the bearing carrier to movably connect to the sliding rails. Whereas it is necessarily in most cases to remove the drawer or similar object mounted on the slide by the furniture manufacturer or the consumer, the slide is provided with the function of disengaging the drawer or similar object from the slide, either in the configuration of two or three sections, essentially by pulling out the rails connected to the drawer or similar object. To consider the necessity of restoring the drawer or similar object to the slide and maintain the normal mechanism of the product, the bearing carrier providing the connection by sliding must be located at the front end of a fixed rail upon pulling out the rails so to facilitate the rails to be once again inserted into the bearing carrier and further guided into the linear tract of the roller.
The prior art to locate the bearing carrier at the front end of the rails has been taught in Taiwanese Publication Nos. 252316 (please refer to the Background of U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,821), 491054 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,372), 491055, 498730 (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,722,750 and 6,220,683), M248319 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,945), M268985, and Invention Early Publication No. 200412881 in Taiwan; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,801,166, 4,252,382, 5,466,060, 5,577,821, 5,722,750, 6,145,945, 6,220,683 B1, 6,254,210 B1, 6,296,338 B1, 6,390,575 B1, 6,655,763 B2, 6,715,851 B1, 6,820,954 B2, 6,851,773 B2, and 6,860,574 B2; US Patent Early Publication Nos. US 2002/0089273 A1, US 2005/0017613 A1, and US 2005/0062379 A1; and Japanese Patent Nos. 5-15790 and 2562231 is the prior art that the applicant of the present invention is familiar with.
Furthermore, in the means of the art to control the retraction and separation of the slide, an inner rail of the prior art generally referred in the trade (usually connected to a drawer or similar object) is disposed with a limiting piece while an outer rail (connected to a cabinet or a frame for installation) is provided at its front end a bracket to hold against the limiting piece; or alternatively, a middle rail is connected to the outer rail first before being connected to the inner rail to constitute a three-section slide. In such case, a bracket is disposed at the front end of the middle rail. The pattern featuring the limiting piece and the bracket to hold against each other prevents the inner rail from being disengaged or controls to cause the limiting piece to clear off the bracket to permit retraction and separation of the inner rail. As taught in the prior arts including Taiwan Patent Nos. 252316 (please refer to the Background of U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,821), 278338, 310560, 450055 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,683), 491054 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,372), 502587 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,386,660), 521603 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,402,275), and 556521(U.S. Pat. No. 6,715,851).
Whereas the bearing carrier of the prior art as described above is located at the end of the rail and is achieved by being "temporarily" held and locked by elasticity, the elastic structure to execute such holding and locking is vulnerable to be worn by friction and winds up soonest failure or poor function as far as the operation mode of the bearing carrier is concerned.
Furthermore, in the prior art of having the limiting piece and the bracket to hold against each other, once the inner rail is pulled out, there is the absence of a buffer between the limiting piece and the bracket to compromise the silence and operating hand touch of the slide. The possible friction between the middle rail and the outer rail also presents a problem.


Provided is a method for flattening a laser-based image of a curved book page, which is applicable to a scanning platform and an image acquisition device and a laser generation device fixed above the scanning platform. The flattening method includes the following steps of: opening a book on a horizontally arranged scanning platform, and emitting a laser beam to a curved book page to be scanned, the laser beam forming a plurality of laser lines parallel on the curved book page; acquiring a horizontal image of the curved book page having the parallel laser lines, and acquiring a 2D planar coordinate (x, y) of each pixel on the laser line in the horizontal image; calculating, according a y-coordinate in the 2D planar coordinate, a y-coordinate of an intersection line of the laser beam and the scanning platform, and an intersection angle of the laser beam and the scanning platform, and by means of a tangent function, a height of each pixel on the laser line, i.e., an actual spatial height; calculating actual spatial heights of all pixels on each laser line, i.e., z-coordinates, to acquire a 3D spatial curve of the laser line; constructing, using the curve, an actual 3D curved surface of the photographed book page; and flattening the 3D curved surface after pixel value transfer to complete flattening of the curved book page.

With the development of video collection and processing technology, a scanner has been upgraded from traditional light-sensitive scanner to a new generation of image collection scanner based primarily on video image collection. This new type of scanner collects a photo of a page through a camera located above the scanned object so that the scanning can be completed, which eliminates the heavy workload caused by the traditional scanning method of manually pressing a presswork to be scanned on a scanning surface, so as to have the great advantage of fast scanning speed.
However, when such image acquisition scanner scans a scanned object having a certain thickness, such as a dictionary or a textbook with a large thickness, a scanning image scanned in the page in the middle of the book may have a large curvature, which seriously affects the reading quality, and the curvature may have a serious impact on subsequent OCR text recognition.
The published patent also discloses the technical solution capable of solving the above technical problems to a certain extent, but the algorithm principle is complex, requiring intensive computation and a specific dual-camera application setting.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for flattening laser-based image of curved book page


A semiconductor chip may include a semiconductor substrate that may have a semiconductor device pattern. A passivation layer may be provided on a surface of the semiconductor substrate. At least one elastic protecting layer may be provided on the passivation layer. The elastic protecting layer may have a pattern composed of grooves formed on a surface.

1. Field
Example non-limiting embodiments relate to a semiconductor device and a method of fabricating the same, for example, to a semiconductor chip and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with the production of compact-sized semiconductor products, efforts have been continuously made to reduce the thickness of a semiconductor package. One of the methods of reducing the thickness of a semiconductor package is to perform a back-side polishing process on a semiconductor substrate. Through the back-side polishing process, unnecessary electric junction of a semiconductor substrate body interfering with back contact conduction may be removed, and the heat releasing performance of the semiconductor package may be improved.
For example, a thickness of the semiconductor substrate passing through the back-side polishing process may be reduced from about 850 μm to 50 μm. After the back-side polishing process, the semiconductor substrate may pass through a dicing process, and may be made into semiconductor chips. The resultant semiconductor chip may be connected to another semiconductor chip or a packaging die, for example, a lead frame or printed circuit board.
FIG. 1A is a schematic view of a conventional semiconductor substrate provided with an elastic protecting layer.
Referring to FIG. 1A, a semiconductor device pattern 20 may be formed on a semiconductor substrate 10. The semiconductor device pattern 20 may include a plurality of hetero-materials having different thermal expansion coefficients, for example, an insulating layer composed of oxide or nitride and a metal layer composed of tungsten (W) or aluminum (Al). A passivation layer 30 may be stacked to protect the semiconductor device pattern 20 on the semiconductor substrate.
The semiconductor device pattern 20 and the passivation layer 30 may be composed of materials that are easily breakable, and they may be damaged due to a contact with a package die (not shown) that may envelop them or an external impact. Generally, an elastic protecting layer 40 with sufficient mechanical intensity and elasticity may be provided on the passivation layer 30 in order to protect the semiconductor device pattern 20 and the passivation layer 30. For example, the elastic protecting layer 40 may provide thermal conductivity for heat releasing, thermal resistance, and/or electric insulation.
FIG. 1B is a schematic view of a warpage phenomenon of a semiconductor substrate passing through a back-side polishing process.
Referring to FIG. 1B, a plurality of hetero-materials 20, 30, and 40 having different thermal expansion coefficients may be stacked on a semiconductor substrate 10a. A compressive stress may be generated about a central direction of the semiconductor substrate 10a. For example, the elastic protecting layer 40 may be formed as a thick layer compared to other stacked materials 20 and 30, and it may be a source of a compressive stress. The semiconductor substrate 10a may pass through the back-side polishing process. The semiconductor substrate 10a may be so thin that it may not have a sufficient stiffness to withstand the compressive stress. Thus, the semiconductor substrate 10a may be warped. The warpage may be from the bottom of the semiconductor substrate 10a toward the surface provided with the elastic protecting layer 40, and the corner of the semiconductor substrate 10a may be deformed to a height L.
A warped semiconductor substrate may induce performance defects in a semiconductor device. Further, the semiconductor substrate may be broken while being handled during a subsequent dicing process that may be used to form semiconductor chips. Packaging failure may also occur because sufficient contact area may not be available for the packaging die during the packaging process of the semiconductor chips.

Semiconductor chip and method of fabricating the same


One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that communicates between a first semiconductor die and a second semiconductor die through optical signaling. During operation, the system converts an electrical signal into an optical signal using an electrical-to-optical transducer located on a face of the first semiconductor die, wherein the first semiconductor die and the second semiconductor die are oriented face-to-face so that the optical signal generated on the first semiconductor die shines on the second semiconductor die. Upon receiving the optical signal on a face of the second semiconductor die, the system converts the optical signal into a corresponding electrical signal using an optical-to-electrical transducer located on the face of the second semiconductor die.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques for communicating between integrated circuit chips. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for communicating between integrated circuit chips that are arranged face-to-face through optical signaling.
2. Related Art
Advances in semiconductor technology presently make it possible to integrate large-scale systems, including tens of millions of transistors, into a single semiconductor chip. Integrating such large-scale systems onto a single semiconductor chip increases the speed at which such systems can operate, because signals between system components do not have to cross chip boundaries, and are not subject to lengthy chip-to-chip propagation delays. Moreover, integrating large-scale systems onto a single semiconductor chip significantly reduces production costs, because fewer semiconductor chips are required to perform a given computational task.
Unfortunately, these advances in semiconductor technology have not been matched by corresponding advances in inter-chip communication technology. Semiconductor chips are typically integrated onto a printed circuit board that contains multiple layers of signal lines for inter-chip communication. However, signal lines on a semiconductor chip are about 100 times more densely packed than signal lines on a printed circuit board. Consequently, only a tiny fraction of the signal lines on a semiconductor chip can be routed across the printed circuit board to other chips. This problem creates a bottleneck that continues to grow as semiconductor integration densities continue to increase.
Researchers have begun to investigate alternative techniques for communicating between semiconductor chips. One promising technique involves integrating arrays of capacitive transmitter plates and receiver plates onto semiconductor chips to facilitate inter-chip communication. If a first chip is situated face-to-face with a second chip so that transmitter plates on the first chip are capacitively coupled with receiver plates on the second chip, it becomes possible to transmit signals directly from the first chip to the second chip without having to route the signal through intervening signal lines within a printed circuit board. It is also possible to communicate in a similar manner through inductive coupling by using wire loops to couple magnetic fields between chips.
Unfortunately, both capacitive and inductive coupling mechanisms decrease in strength by approximately the inverse of the distance between the chips. The decreased strength of the received signal reduces robustness of the communication mechanism and increases the complexity, power, and area of the receiver and transmitter circuits. Additionally, capacitive and inductive coupling mechanisms suffer from cross-talk, or destructive coupling, from adjacent channels that increases with the distance between chips. It may consequently be difficult to assemble chips into a system with sufficient precision to allow capacitive and inductive coupling mechanisms to operate effectively.
Hence, what is needed is a method and an apparatus for communicating between semiconductor chips without the above-described problems.

Optical communication between face-to-face semiconductor chips


The disclosure relates to a method for separation and purification of N-acetyl-glucosamine, and belongs to the technical field of biological engineering. In the disclosure, a raw material solution containing N-acetyl-glucosamine is obtained by microbial fermentation or by hydrolyzing the chitin. The raw material solution is subjected to flocculation pretreatment, and continuous centrifugation or pressure filtration is performed to remove suspended solids such as microorganisms, proteins and polysaccharides to obtain clear liquid. Double-stage ion exchange chromatography is performed to remove impurities such as charged organic molecules and inorganic salts. Membrane concentration is performed to efficiently remove water to improve the concentration of the target product. Spray drying or further evaporation concentration and crystallization are performed. Finally drying is performed to obtain an N-acetyl-glucosamine crystal of which the purity is more than 99%.

N-acetyl-glucosamine (GlcNAc) is a glucose derivative, white powder. The solubility of the GlcNAc in 0° C. water is 140 g/L, and the GlcNAc is insoluble in organic solvents such as ethanol and propanol. The GlcNAc has stable physical and chemical properties, and the melting point of the GlcNAc is about 200° C. The GlcNAc is one of basic composition units of chitin. The GlcNAc widely exists in human bodies, animals, plants and microorganisms, and it plays important physiological and structural roles in various organisms. In human bodies, the GlcNAc is also an important precursor for the synthesis of glycosaminoglycans and bifidogenic factors. Clinically, the GlcNAc is a drug for the treatment of rheumatism and rheumatoid arthritis, and is also a precursor substance for the synthesis of N-acetylneuraminic acid. The GlcNAc can be used as a food antioxidant and a sweetener for diabetic patients. Therefore, the GlcNAc is widely used in food, medicine and cosmetic industries. At present, the synthesis of the GlcNAc is mainly based on chemical methods. Glucosamine hydrochloride is mainly obtained by acidic hydrolysis of chitin, and then, acetylation is performed with acetic anhydride to prepare the GlcNAc. Because the GlcNAc is widely used and has broad market prospects, it has aroused the interest of more and more researchers and market investors.
The GlcNAc exists in the cell walls of most yeasts and filamentous fungi and some bacteria. The GlcNAc is also an important precursor substance in glucosamine metabolic pathways of aforementioned microorganisms, and plays a crucial role in the cell growth and metabolism of microorganisms. The GlcNAc and glucosamine (GlcN) have important functions in repairing and maintaining human cartilage tissue health. The ability of the human body to synthesize and metabolize the GlcNAc and GlcN decreases with aging. Therefore, supplementation of the GlcNAc and GlcN can effectively prevent the human cartilage injury, and help to repair the injured cartilage and maintain the cartilage health.
At present, methods for producing GlcNAc are mainly divided into three categories: chemical methods, enzymatic methods and microbial methods. For natural raw materials such as shrimp and crab shells and fungal cell walls, impurities such as proteins, lipids and calcium carbonate in the raw materials need to be removed to obtain chitin, and then, the chitin is subjected to acidic hydrolysis or enzymatic hydrolysis to obtain a GlcNAc monomer. Raw materials such as shrimp and crab shells are limited by seasons and geographical conditions. When the chemical method is used for producing the GlcNAc, a large amount of inorganic acid needs to be consumed, which has the disadvantages of large energy consumption and serious environmental pollution. Furthermore, due to the presence of allergens in biological raw materials such as shrimps and crabs, it may cause allergic reactions in some people. Fungal cell walls also contain a relatively small amount of chitin which is closely combined with other components of the cell walls, such as proteins, other polysaccharides and lipids, and the separation and extraction processes are complicated. These problems limit the production of the GlcNAc by the chemical method.
The enzymatic method is mainly to obtain GlcNAc through the specific hydrolysis of chitin by chitinase, and the enzymes involved mainly include endochitinase, exochitinase and β-N-acetylhexosaminidase. The enzymatic method has the characteristics of less environmental pollution and low energy consumption. However, the hydrolysis reaction process involves the synergistic action of multiple enzymes, so the process is complicated and difficult to control. The high cost of enzymes production also limits the large-scale application of the enzymatic method in production of the GlcNAc.
With the rapid development of genetic engineering, metabolic engineering and synthetic biology, the technology for producing GlcNAc by recombinant microorganisms has been rapidly developed. By use of microorganisms such as recombinant Escherichia coli and recombinant Bacillus subtilis, the GlcNAc can be directly biosynthesized from glucose, and the product concentration can even exceed 100 g/L, which lays a good foundation for large-scale industrialization of the GlcNAc. The method for producing the GlcNAc by fermentation has the following advantages: (1) the conversion ratio of raw materials to products is high, and the cost of the raw materials is low; (2) the concentration of the fermented product is high, and the material consumption and energy consumption in the production process are relatively low; (3) the fermentation process is not affected by seasons, and the production cycle is short, thereby being suitable for large-scale production; and (4) chemical hydrolysis or enzymatic hydrolysis is not needed, the environmental pollution is small, and the cost can be greatly reduced. Therefore, this production path has received more and more attention.
Since the types, compositions and contents of target components and impurities in different raw materials are different, corresponding GlcNAc extraction processes need to be developed individually for different GlcNAc extraction raw materials. At present, for the extraction of GlcNAc, whether using microbial fermentation broth or shrimp and crab shells as raw materials, the reaction solution has the characteristics of complex components. Existing extraction methods often have the defects including low separation efficiency, high energy consumption and serious environmental pollution.
For example, "a method for deacetylated coupling adsorption and separation of D-glucosamine hydrochloride" in the Chinese patent ZL2016112278411 discloses an extraction process of deacetylated glucosamine. It adopts the process of removing microbial cells by microfiltration with ceramic membrane, decolorizing with activated carbon, removing impurities by cation and anion columns and performing concentration finally. However, the method has the defects of long extraction period, dilution of the target product during the removal of microorganisms by the microfiltration, large volume of the solid residue and wastewater, easy blockage of membrane modules, and high device investment and maintenance costs.
For another example, "a method for preparing GlcNAc based on microbial fermentation" in the patent application with an application number of CN2016100641584 discloses a process of pretreating fermentation broth through membrane filtration, activated carbon decolorization and chitosan flocculation, and then performing ion exchange, concentration and alcohol extraction, so as to obtain the GlcNAc. However, the method has the defects including complicated process route, large organic solvent consumption, high energy consumption, explosive solvent risk.
For yet another example, "a method for preparing high-purity GlcNAc" in the patent application with an application number of CN2018103088811 discloses an extraction method capable of removing impurities by a ceramic ultrafiltration membrane and performing activated carbon decolorization, electrodialysis desalination, evaporation concentration and crystallization, and vacuum drying. The raw material used in the method is the crude extract which comes from the extraction process of GlcNAc, and the product purity in the raw material is relatively high. The extraction process has the defects including large volume of the solid residue and wastewater, easy blocking of membrane components, and high device investment and maintenance costs.

Method for separation and purification of n-acetylglucosamine


A multiple weighing apparatus with dual acting hopper gates mechanism comprises a feeding device conveying articles to be weighed and packed to a weighing section of the apparatus. The articles which are transferred into the weighing section are weighed and a portion of which having a desired weight is then allowed to move into a packing section to be packed therein. Each pack of the articles will have a desired weight. The weighing section comprises a plurality of pool hoppers and weighing hoppers controlled by a central controller. Each of the hoppers comprises a body having therein a space for receiving the articles and a discharge port closable by two gates. A Stephenson III type six-bar mechanism is adapted to operate the gates with the gates being the output links thereof. A pushing rod which is controlled by the central controller is used to move the input link of the six-bar mechanism to open the gates. A returning spring is provided in ,such a way that when the gates are opened, potential energy is stored therein and when the pushing rod is retracted back, the potential energy of the spring is released to move the gates back to the closed position.

Many industries require packing bulk materials into packages of different sizes to enhance storage, transportation and sales. A typical example of such industries is the food industry which usually sells products, such as candies, frozen foods in pack. In these industries, weighing machines are adapted to provide a weight measurement for packing articles. The weighing machines now in use are automatic apparatus in order to save labor and time consumed in measurement.
One of the common weighing machines now in use comprises a plurality of weighing units (so that it is referred to as multiple weighing apparatus) which measure the weights of separate batches of articles supplied from a supply source. A control device which may be operated by a micro-processor or similar electronic device computes the combination of weight values obtained from the weighing units and selects a best combination therefrom which is equal to or very close to a pre-set reference weight value to discharge the articles contained in the weighing units which together provide the best combination. The discharged articles which have in total a weight very close to a desired value are then packed.
In such an automatic weighing machine, each of the weighing units comprises a weighing hopper for accommodating therein a batch of articles, the weight of which is sensed by the weighing unit and a pool hopper for quickly supplying articles to the weighing hopper. Each of the hoppers is equipped with a gate to be operated by a four-bar linkage which is in turn controlled by the control device to open or close the gate and thus allowing the articles therein to pass therethrough.
An example of the above type automatic weighing machines is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,446, issued to Rihei Kokabu on Oct. 8, 1985. The automatic weighing machine disclosed in this patent, however, possesses several disadvantages. For example, since there is only a single gate controlled by a four-bar linkage, a strong impact occurs between the gate and the hopper body when the gate is closed to the end. Vibration is also easy to induce in such a four-bar design.
It is therefore the purpose of the present invention to provide an automatic multiple weighing machine of such a type, each weighing unit of which has a dual-acting hopper gates controlled by a six-bar linkage, especially a Stephenson III type linkage, so as to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art automatic multiple weighing machines.

Multiple weighing apparatus for mass materials with dual-acting hopper gates mechanism

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A liquid storage and dispensing device includes a bottle and a fluid flow control device which is mounted to the neck of the bottle. The bottle includes a planar surface upon which the bottle may rest in an inclined orientation, with the neck of the bottle pointed down. The planar surface is formed at an angle with respect to the rest of the bottle geometry so that the center of gravity of the bottle, when full of liquid and in the inclined orientation, is above the planar surface. Thus, the full bottle is able to be safely stored in the inclined orientation with any level of liquid contained in the bottle, without concern that the bottle will topple over, and the liquid contents may be dispensed through the fluid flow control device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to liquid containers, and more particularly to rigid bottles including a dispensing valve for dispensing liquid contents from a bottle.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Liquid vessels have been used in the past to store and dispense their liquid contents using a variety of mechanisms. For example, it is known to use a flexible polymer bag equipped with a valve, housed within a paperboard box with the valve extended through the box wall, to store and dispense liquids, e.g., wine. These prior devices typically allow access via the valve to the liquid contents of the bag while the "bag-in-box" is located on a shelf. Other prior devices for storing and dispensing liquids include polymer bottles mounted on a stand, such as a water cooler, and glass and polymer bottles which do not include a valve which controls the flow of liquid from the bottle.
These prior devices suffer from numerous deficiencies. Since the bag-in-box unit requires that the bag collapse in order to dispense its liquid contents, the bag must be formed of a flexible material, which is typically a polymer material. To protect the bag, it must be housed in a cardboard box. These polymer materials from which the bags are made can effect the taste of the liquid contents to an end user, and may not be entirely impermeable to air. Thus, liquids stored in and dispensed from bag-in-box type devices must be used relatively quickly, before their palate is affected by the aforementioned influences. Furthermore, because the bags themselves are relatively flaccid, they cannot support themselves on a shelf, and are therefore required to be housed in a box.
Small glass or polymer bottles are relatively easy for a consumer to use, but large, jug-type bottles are heavy. When placed in the refrigerator, the jug must be lifted out of the refrigerator to pour a small quantity for drinking. The jug must then be returned to the refrigerator shelf. The awkward handling of the heavy jug by the consumer may discourage a consumer from buying the liquid product in this economical size container.


A method for compressing a neural network model includes: obtaining a first trained teacher model and a second trained teacher model based on N training samples, N being a positive integer greater than 1; for each of the N training samples, determining a first guide component of the first teacher model and a second guide component of the second teacher model respectively, determining a sub optimization target corresponding to the training sample and configured to optimize a student model according to the first guide component and the second guide component, and determining a joint optimization target based on each of the N training samples and a sub optimization target corresponding to the training sample; and training the student model based on the joint optimization target.

High performance of neural-network-based deep learning has been achieved in multiple machine learning tasks such as image classification, machine translation and voice recognition, and neural network model-based machine translation has become a present mainstream machine translation method and has high academic and market value.
At present, compressing a complex neural network model efficiently to reduce a model storage overhead, increase a model-based reasoning speed and simultaneously reduce damage caused by compression to translation quality becomes a key technology for application of a neural network model for machine translation to a mobile terminal and is also a hot spot of academic and industrial researches.
In related art, compressing a neural network model for machine translation by use of a knowledge distillation method may not only reduce model complexity but also alleviate the problem of prediction precision reduction caused by model compression, and becomes a present mainstream method for compressing a neural network model. Compressing a neural network model in a knowledge distillation manner may be understood as guiding training of a small model by use of a high-accuracy large model, the large model may also be referred to as a teacher model, and the small model may also be referred to as a student model. Multiple student models may be trained by use of a teacher model.
However, a conventional knowledge distillation method for compressing a neural network model is relatively low in information migration accuracy, further resulting in relatively low translation quality of a student model, relatively poor translation effect of neural network model-based machine translation in a mobile terminal and influence on user experience.

Method and device for compressing a neural network model for machine translation and storage medium

Beijing Xiaomi Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.


Method and apparatus for reducing effect of jitter is described. More particularly, one or more taps of a delay line are selected for a reference clock signal. These selected taps each have an associated index, which is stored, and stored indices are statistically processed to select a tap of another delay line.

Use of one or more clock signals to synchronize events of digital systems is well known. However, due to clock buffer delays, compacitively loaded clock signal lines, and another signal propagation delays, a time difference may be introduced between a rising or falling edge in one part of a system as compared with a corresponding rising or falling edge, respectively, in another part of the same system. This difference is known as clock skew. In order to address the problem of clock skew, others have proposed using a delay-lock loop. For example, a delay-lock loop is used in U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,068 B1 by Hassoun, et al., in order to deskew a clock signal. In Hassoun, et al., a tap of a delay line is selected in order to mitigate against clock skew. However, accurate tap selection is dependent on a phase detector.
Jitter or phase noise is a well-studied phenomenon in circuit implementation. Accordingly, if an input signal, such as a reference clock signal, is provided to a delay-lock loop ("DLL"), jitter associated with such an input signal can introduce uncertainty with respect to such clockage. More particularly, jitter can cause a phase detector to incorrectly detect whether a signal is leading or lagging. This incorrect detection can lead to the selection of an incorrect tap of a delay line for deskewing a clock.
Accordingly, an inaccurate clock deskew may preclude adjusting a clock signal to one period of a desired frequency. Thus, selection of taps may need to be made to provide a clock period which is longer than that desired or latency may be introduced. Moreover, a jitter can cause dither of selection of such taps, thus further destabilizing a digital system. Additionally, jitter caused by a source external to a unit under test, such as a microchip, can cause a passing part to erroneously fail.
Accordingly, it would be both desirable and useful to provide method and apparatus for reducing effect of jitter in order to reduce dither, as well as to enhance accuracy of a DLL.


The display device with integrated touch screen includes a panel configured to time-division operate during first and second display durations and first and second touch durations at every frame, a touch IC configured to apply a touch scan signal to a plurality of electrodes to allow the panel to perform touch driving during the first and second touch durations, and a display driver IC configured to, when the first touch duration of an n+1st frame is started, transfer display information about the second display duration of an nth frame and display information about the first display duration of the n+1st frame to the touch IC, and when the second touch duration of the n+1st frame is started, transfer display information about the first display duration of the n+1st frame and display information about the second display duration of the n+1st frame to the touch IC.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device, and more particularly, to a display device with integrated touch screen and a method of driving the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Touch screens are a type of input device that is included in image display devices such as liquid crystal display (LCD) devices, field emission displays (FEDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), electroluminescent displays (ELDs), and electrophoretic displays (EPDs), and allows a user to input predetermined information by applying a pressure (i.e., pressing or touching) to a touch sensor of a touch screen while looking at the image display device.
Particularly, the demand of display devices with integrated in-cell type touch screen, which include a plurality of built-in elements configuring the touch screen for slimming portable terminals such as smart phones and tablet personal computers (PCs), is recently increasing.
Hereinafter, driving of a general display device with integrated touch screen will be described with reference to FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 is a diagram for describing a display-to-touch crosstalk (DTX) compensation method of the general display device with integrated touch screen.
The general display device with integrated touch screen shortens a display driving time and performs touch driving for the remaining time, in one frame (60 Hz). In other words, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the general display device temporally divides a time of 16.7 ms, and performs display driving and touch driving. For example, the display driving time is limited to 10 ms, and the remaining time of 6.7 ms is used as a touch driving time in one frame.
In such a driving scheme, if a display frame rate is 60 Hz, a touch report rate is also 60 Hz similarly. In other words, the general display device with integrated touch screen transmits touch data to a system once for each sync signal defining one frame period.
For reference, a frequency at which new data are respectively transmitted to all pixels of a panel is referred to as a display frame rate, and a frequency at which touch data obtained in a touch screen are respectively transmitted to the system is referred to as a touch report rate.
However, in the general display device with integrated touch screen, when a display pattern is changed, touch raw data are changed, and due to the change of the touch raw data, DTX that causes the change of the display pattern to be inaccurately detected as a touch input occurs.
In particular, when a black pattern (0 gray scale) is changed to a white pattern (255 gray scale), a liquid crystal capacitance difference between the black pattern and the white pattern is large, easily causing DTX.
In order to remove DTX, the general display device with integrated touch screen compensates for the touch raw data by using a compensation value, which is stored in a lookup table (LUT), on the basis of data transferred from a display driver integrated chip (IC) to a touch IC.
In other words, as illustrated in FIG. 1, display information (which is displayed during one frame) of an nth frame is transferred from the display driver IC to the touch IC, and when performing touch driving of the nth frame, the touch raw data are compensated for by using the compensation value stored in the lookup table (LUT).
However, the above-described compensation method cannot obtain the touch report rate equal to or higher than the display frame rate. Also, the touch report rate higher than a frequency of 60 Hz is needed for increasing a performance of the touch screen, but a general driving scheme cannot secure the touch report rate equal to or higher than the display frame rate, and has a limitation in increasing a touch performance.

Display device with integrated touch screen and method of driving the same


A step stool includes a step frame and a handrail movable relative to the step frame between lowered and raised positions. The handrail includes a handle and left and right handle support arms coupled to the handle to allow sliding movement of the handle relative to the left and right handle support arms as the handrail is moved relative to the step frame between raised and lowered positions. A tray is mounted for pivotable movement on a handle located between the left and right handle support arms about a pivot axis established by the handle.

The present disclosure relates to a step stool, and particularly to a foldable step stool. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a foldable step stool including steps mounted on a frame and a handrail mounted for movement relative to the frame.
Step stools have a step frame and one or more steps that people use for elevation when reaching for objects, painting walls, or any everyday task where extra elevation would be helpful. Step frames are often foldable for ease of storage when the step stool is not being used.
According to the present disclosure, a step stool includes a step frame and a handrail movable relative to the step frame between lowered and raised positions. The handrail includes a handle and splayed left and right handle support arms coupled to the handle to allow sliding movement of the handle relative to the left and right handle supports as the handrail is moved relative to the step frame between the lowered and raised positions.
In illustrative embodiments of the present disclosure, a left end of the handle extends into a passageway formed in the left handle support arm for sliding movement therein. A right end of the handle extends into a passageway formed in the right handle support arm for sliding movement therein. An exposed portion of the handle is "visible" between distal ends of the left and right handle support arms.
During movement of the handrail, an effective length of the exposed portion of the handle is maximized upon "downward" movement of the splayed left and right handle support arms relative to the step frame toward the lowered position. Further, the effective length of the exposed portion of the handle is minimized upon "upward" movement of the splayed left and right handle support arms relative to the step frame toward the raised position.
A tray is mounted for pivotable movement on the exposed portion of the handle about an axis established by the handle. Such pivotable movement is allowed regardless of the location of the handrail relative to the step frame. The tray can be pivoted from a storage position arranged to lie in a "plane" established by the movable handrail to a horizontal, use position arranged to lie at an angle to the plane established by the movable handrail.
Additional features of the disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the disclosure as presently perceived.


An ultrasonic level sensor includes: a housing; an ultrasonic transducer having a face surface for emitting an ultrasonic signal; a reflector with a flat surface positioned at an angle with respect to the face surface of the ultrasonic transducer for reflecting and directing the ultrasonic signal to a surface of a material in a container; and a scattering structure to reflect unwanted scattered ultrasonic signals away from the surface of the liquid, wherein the ultrasonic signal is reflected from the surface of the material and from the flat surface of the reflector and received by the ultrasonic transducer.

Ultrasonic level sensors monitor and detect liquid levels in containers by using ultrasonic signals. Such ultrasonic level sensors measure the time that it takes for the ultrasonic signal to travel from the transducer to a liquid surface and back to the sensor and then determine the level of the fluid based on the known speed of sound and time. That is, the ultrasonic waves are reflected from the surface of the liquid and the time for the reflected (echo) ultrasonic waves detected back at the transducer is determined. Since the speed of the ultrasonic wave is known, the measured travel time of the wave provides a measure of the distance to the surface of the liquid. Knowing the geometry (e.g., height of the tank and the position the sensor is mounted), an indication of liquid level can then be determined by a controller (e.g., a processor or computer) coupled to or within the transducer. Typical ultrasonic transducers, such as piezoelectric transducers, generate sound waves, at frequencies greater than about 20 kHz which is above the threshold for human hearing.
Some conventional transducers include several mirrors, however, these mirrored transducers suffer from two main factors. First, the mirror is not flat which distorts the length of travel of the ultrasonic signal and second, the structure creates an undesirable surface where the ultrasonic signal is reflected and therefore causing false echoes


A display button worn for adjustably changing human facial expressions from "happy", to "confused", to "sad", to "skeptical", to "scheming to get even", and to "mad". The invention employs a housing having a shell on which are rotatably mounted a pair of rectangular members and an arcuate member, to simulate the eyebrows and mouth of the face, respectively. The facial expression is thereby changed manually by the wearer. Magnets may be used to control the position of the members.

As is well known and understood, most people resent having to stand an inordinate amount of time on line. As is also well known and understood, many other occasions arise where people resent being mistreated and/or taken for granted. For example, people waiting in line at banks, restaurants, theaters, sporting events, etc. oftentimes become disgruntled wondering why it takes so long to be served, to then only reach the front of the line and being told that there will be a further wait or--much worse--that equipment has broken down, and the line is being closed. Similarly, at Town Hall Meetings, PTA Meetings--and public gatherings, in general, it is not unusual to find those in attendance becoming frustrated and angry at positions taken by the speakers for statements being made. In such latter situations, it is not unusual to find law-enforcement authorities on the scene to remove those members of the audience who voice their objections from the floor (without first being recognized to speak), or who just verbally make their feelings known to the speakers.