An object of the present invention is to provide a fabrication method of a liquid crystal display which can reduce the number of masks used in a photolithography process. According to this structure, a gate bus line and a storage capacitor wiring are formed using a first mask, and first metal films are formed on the whole surface including a sidewall insulating film. Then, etching is performed using a second mask until an active semiconductor layer in a TFT forming area on the gate bus line and in an element separation area between pixels exposes. Along with an electroplating of a metal film on the first metal films on a drain electrode, a third metal film thinner than the second metal film is formed on an active semiconductor between the drain electrode and a source electrode and to a pixel electrode except the element separation area between pixels. Finally, using a third metal film as a mask, the third metal film is removed after removing the active semiconductor layer on the element separation area between pixels.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fabrication method of an active matrix type liquid crystal display having a thin film transistor as a switching element.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display has a feature to be light, a thin type and low power consumption, and is applied to a variety of areas such as a portable terminal, a finder of a video camera, a display of a notebook personal computer. Among them, an active matrix type liquid crystal display can display high quality and fine images, thereby being used for large displays for computers and the like. From now on, the more and more increase of the demands for the active matrix type liquid crystal display leads to the establishment of the fabrication method of the liquid crystal display having a high productivity at a low cost.
The conventional liquid crystal display and the fabrication method thereof are described with reference to FIG. 7 through FIG. 10. First, a schematic structure of the active matrix type liquid crystal display fabricated by the fabrication method of the conventional liquid crystal display is described with reference to FIG. 7. FIG. 7 shows a plan view of the substrate viewing an array substrate from the liquid crystal layer side. In FIG. 7, gate bus lines, the drain bus lines, and external connecting terminal areas of the bus lines for storage capacitors are shown along with the illustration of the pixel areas, omitting the intermediate illustration. As shown in FIG. 7, a plurality of drain bus lines 112 extending in the vertical direction in the diagram are formed on the array substrate. Further, on the array substrate, a plurality of gate bus lines 102 extending in the horizontal direction in orthogonal with the drain bus lines 112 in the diagram are formed. Areas decided by these drain bus lines 112 and gate bus lines 102 are pixel areas.
A sandwiching drain type TFT 100 is formed adjacent to the intersection position between the drain bus line 112 and the gate bus line 102 in each pixel area. A drain electrode 107 of the sandwiching drain type TFT 100 is pulled out from the drain bus line 112 and its edge is positioned on one edge side on an active semiconductor layer 104 (not shown in FIG. 7) on the gate bus line 102. At the same time, the end portion is formed crossing on the gate bus line 102 to prevent the signal mixing from the adjacent drain bus line. This drain electrode structure has a structure which sandwiches the area of the gate bus line 102 functioning as a gate electrode of the TFT 100 in the pixel area between the drain bus line 112 and the drain electrode 107. The active semiconductor layer 104 is formed above the gate bus line 102 and along the gate bus line 102 and ordinary is required to be electrically separated from the active semiconductor 104 of the TFT 100 in the other adjacent pixel area. However, according to such a sandwiching drain electrode structure, there is a merit that the patterning of the active semiconductor layer 104 for the TFT element separation between each pixel is not required and the number of the masks can be reduced in the photolithography process.
A source electrode 106 is formed on the other edge side on the active semiconductor layer 104 to oppose to the drain electrode 107. The source electrode 106 is electrically connected with a pixel electrode 114 formed along a shape of the pixel area. In the TFT structure shown in FIG. 7, the gate electrode is not formed by pulled out from the gate bus line 102. Therefore, the gate bus line 102 area arranged just under the active semiconductor layer 104 at the lower layer of source electrode 106 and the drain electrode 107 functions as the gate electrode 102 of the TFT 100. Although the illustration is omitted, a gate insulating film 103 is formed between the gate bus line 102 and the active semiconductor layer 104 thereon.
At the lower layer of the pixel electrode 114, a storage capacitor wiring 150 is formed in parallel with the gate bus line 102 and crosses substantially the center of the pixel electrode 114. A semiconductor layer (herein after referred to the active semiconductor layer 104 for convenience"" sake) is formed simultaneously with the active semiconductor layer 104 at the upper layer of the storage capacitor wiring 150. Therefore, it is required to electrically separate the semiconductor layer from the active semiconductor layer 104 on the storage capacitor wiring 150 in the other adjacent pixel area, and therefore a pixel separation area 162 is formed in an area between the drain bus line 112 and the pixel electrode 114 where the active semiconductor layer 104 is removed.
Further, an external connecting terminal 152 for an electrical connection with an external element is provided at one end portion of the drain bus line 112. Similarly, an external connecting terminal 154 for an electrical connection with an external element is provided at one end portion of the gate bus line 102 and an external connecting terminal 156 is formed at one end portion of the storage capacitor wiring 150. In FIG. 7, a short ring (a common electrode) 158 for an electrical connection between the external connecting terminal 154 of each gate bus line 102 is formed for an electrostatic protection in the fabrication process of the array substrate. Furthermore, a leading electrode 159 for the storage capacitor wirings is formed serving also as a common electrode. Although an illustration is omitted, a short ring electrically connecting each external connecting terminal 152 of the drain bus line 112 is separately formed. The short rings of these drain bus line and gate bus line, for example a short ring 158, are cut at the position of a dashed line 160 in FIG. 7 and separated after the array substrate and the opposing substrate are laminated.
Next, the conventional fabrication method of the liquid crystal display is described with reference to FIG. 8Aa through FIG. 10. FIG. 8Aa through FIG. 9Cc show partial cross sections showing the conventional fabrication process of the liquid crystal display. FIGS. 8Aa, 8Ab, 8Ac, 9Aa, 9Ab and 9Ac show cross sections adjacent to the TFT 100 cut at a line A-Axe2x80x2 in FIG. 7. FIGS. 8Ba, 8Bb, 8Bc, 9Ba, 9Bb and 9Bc show cross sections adjacent to the element separation area cut at a line B-Bxe2x80x2 in FIG. 7. FIGS. 8Ca, 8Cb, 8Cc, 9Ca, 9Cb and 9Cc show cross sections of the external connecting terminal 154 of the gate bus line 102 cut at a line C-Cxe2x80x2 in FIG. 7.
Now, as shown in FIGS. 8Aa, 8Ba and 8Ca, a metal thin film 164 depositing Al film and a Ti film thereon in this order is formed on a transparent insulating substrate (a transparent glass substrate) 110 of, for example, 0.7 mm in thickness as the array substrate by a sputtering method. Next, the gate insulating film 103 is formed by depositing for example a silicon nitride (SiN) film on the whole substrate surface by a plasma CVD method. Next, for example an amorphous silicon (a-Si) layer 166 for forming the active semiconductor layer 104 is deposited on the whole substrate surface by the plasma CVD method. Further, a n+a-Si layer 168 adding for example phosphorus (P) is formed on the whole substrate surface by the plasma CVD method to form a low resistance semiconductor layer 105 to be an ohmic contact layer.
Next, after resist is coated on the whole surface, the resist is patterned in a shape of the gate bus line and a shape of the storage capacitor wiring using a first resist exposure mask. The layers are etched together up to the metal thin film 164 using chlorine type gas by for example a reactive ion etching using the patterned resist layer (not shown) as a first etching mask, thereby as shown in FIGS. 8Ab, 8Bb and 8Cb areas for the gate bus line 102 and the external connecting terminal 154 of the gate bus line 102, and the leading electrode 159 of the storage capacitor wiring 150 and the external connecting terminal 156 (not shown) are formed along with the storage capacitor wiring 150.
Next, as shown in FIGS. 8Ac, 8Bc and 8Cc, after removing the resist layer, a sidewall insulating film 109 of the gate bus line 102 is formed. After coating for example organic polyimide on the whole substrate surface, this sidewall insulating film 109 is formed by performing an ashing treatment and the like until a surface of a low resistance semiconductor layer 168 exposes.
Next, as shown in FIGS. 9Aa, 9Ba and 9Ca, a metal film (not shown) is formed to form the drain electrode 107, the source electrode 106 and the drain bus line 112 by the sputtering method.
Next, a resist layer patterned in a shape of the source and drain electrodes and a shape of the data bus line is formed by coating a photo-resist on the whole substrate surface and by developing after exposing the resist using a second resist exposure mask. Using the patterned resist layer (not shown) as a second etching mask, the etching treatment is performed to the metal thin film, the n+a-Si layer 168 and a amorphous silicon layer 166 in this order. Then, as shown in FIGS. 9Aa, 9Ba and 9Ca, the drain bus line 112, the drain electrode 107, source electrode 106 and the low resistance semiconductor layer to be the ohmic contact layer are formed. In this etching treatment, one part of the upper part of the amorphous silicon layer 166 is also etched and the active semiconductor layer 104 is formed. In this etching, for example a reactive ion etching (RIE) is used and the chlorine type gas is used as an etching gas.
Further, as clear in FIGS. 9Aa, 9Ba and 9Ca, the amorphous silicon layer 166 for forming the gate insulating film 103 and the active semiconductor layer 104 remains at the upper portions of the gate bus line 102 and the external connecting terminal 154 and further at the upper portion of the storage capacity wiring 150 in this stage.
Next, the resist is again coated on the whole substrate surface after removing the resist layer. Then, the resist is developed after an exposure using a third resist exposure mask, thereby a resist layer is patterned in a shape of the element separation area and in a shape of the external connecting terminal. Using the patterned resist layer (not shown) as a third etching mask, the etching treatment is performed to the amorphous silicon layer 166 and the gate insulating film 103. As shown in FIGS. 9Ab, 9Bb and 9Cb, the element separation area 162 cutting the amorphous silicon layer 166 between the elements is formed. Further, the amorphous silicon layer 166 and the gate insulating film 103 on the external connecting terminal 154 are also removed by the etching and terminal surface thereof is exposed.
Next, after depositing a transparent electrode material, for example ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) layer on the whole surface, a photo-resist is coated on the whole substrate surface, developed after exposing the resist using a fourth resist exposure mask, and a resist layer is patterned in a shape of pixel electrode. Using this patterned resist layer (not shown) as a fourth etching mask, the pixel electrode 114 is formed as shown in FIGS. 9Ac, 9Bc and 9Cc by the etching treatment to the ITO layer. After the above processes, the array substrate forming the elements on the glass substrate is completed. A liquid crystal display panel is completed by laminating this array substrate and the opposing substrate after sandwiching liquid crystal.
The schematic fabrication process of the above conventional liquid crystal display is shown in FIG. 10. Steps (a) through (c) in FIG. 10 correspond to FIGS. 8 and steps (d) through (f) in FIG. 10 correspond to FIG. 9. In each process of steps (b), (d), (e) and (f) in FIG. 10, the resist exposure mask is required. In this example, since the TFT 100 has the sandwiching drain type structure, only two mask-processes are required to form the TFT 100. However, in the other processes, totally two masks for the resist exposure are required. One is for forming the etching mask to separate the active semiconductor layer on the storage capacitor wiring for each pixel and the other is for forming the etching mask for the pixel electrode 114. Four masks for the resist exposure are totally required in the whole array process.
Therefore, the depositing process for a predetermined film and the photolithography and etching processes composed of resist coating, resist baking, exposure, developing, etching, resist removing and the like are required for each of this four processes. Generally, such number of lithography processes is expressed by the number of masks and referred as a four-mask process in the above example. In the fabrication method of the liquid crystal display, generally, there is a problem that the more the number of masks used for the photolithography process increases, the more easily the damage due to an attachment of dust and the like occurs, thereby reducing a fabrication yield. Therefore, the number of the photolithography processes are desired to be as less as possible.
With a spread of the recent active matrix type liquid crystal display, more reduction of the fabrication cost is a very important subject to supply a liquid crystal display in the market at a low price and stably. In order to reduce the fabrication cost, first, it is strongly required to improve the fabrication yield of the liquid crystal display. Second, it is also required to increase a throughput in the fabrication of the liquid crystal display. For them, more high degree of depositing processes and the photolithography processes are required than the past along with the simplification of the fabrication processes. However, an introduction of the high performance fabrication equipment may on the contrary lead to an increase in cost. Further, with the current fabrication method, there is a limit to greatly improve the fabrication method and the throughput in front of the requirements for the finer and larger screen liquid crystal display. Further, comparing with the fabrication of the semiconductor equipment, the fabrication cost for masks used in the photolithography processes is higher in the fabrication of the liquid crystal display, thereby resulting in a problem in fabrication cost. However, there is a problem that in front of the requirement of the finer and larger screen of the liquid crystal display, above disadvantage must have been neglected.
An object of the present invention is to provide a fabrication method of a liquid crystal display which can reduce a fabrication cost.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a fabrication method of a liquid crystal display which can reduce the number of masks used in a photolithography process.
Above objects are achieved by a method of fabricating a liquid crystal display comprising which has features in laminating at least a gate forming metal layer, a gate insulating film, and an active semiconductor forming layer in this order on an insulating substrate, forming gate bus lines and storage capacitor wirings by etching the active semiconductor forming layer, the gate insulating film and the gate forming metal layer by using a first mask, forming a sidewall insulating film of each of the gate bus lines, depositing a transparent electrode material layer on the whole surface and then forming a first metal film thereon, forming drain bus lines, drain electrodes and pixel electrodes serving as source electrodes opposing to the drain electrodes by etching the first metal film and the transparent electrode material layer by using a second mask, forming a second metal film on the first metal film on the drain electrodes and forming a third metal film on the active semiconductor forming layer between the drain electrodes and the source electrodes and on the pixel electrodes by performing an electroplating, removing the active semiconductor forming layer on an element separation area between pixels by etching using the second metal film and the third metal film as a mask, and removing the third metal film.
According to the above structure of the present invention, it is possible to fabricate the array substrate of the liquid crystal display with two masks. After laminating the gate formation metal layer, the gate insulating film, the active semiconductor formation layer, and the low resistance semiconductor layer in this order, no mask is required to be used in the photolithography process other than the process for forming the gate electrodes and the storage capacitor wirings by etching together using the first mask and the process using the second mask for forming the source and drain electrodes. Instead, the present invention has a feature that the active semiconductor film is separated between the pixels and the pixel electrodes is formed using for example the plating and the selective etching.

Fabrication method of liquid crystal display


A focus-detecting method and device is provided for detecting when an object is arranged in a focal plane of an object lens. A pattern or a light-source image is formed based on a light-beam on the object through an object blends. The light-beam emitted from the light-beam pattern on the object is reflected from the object to the object lens. Plural images of the light-beam pattern are formed along an optical axis of the object lens based on the light-beam passed through the object lens. A conjugate image point of the pupil of the object lens is formed between the object lens and a final imaging plane based on the light-beam passed through the object lens. The final light-beam pattern is imaged toward the final imaging plane. A photodetecting device is arranged on the final imaging plane. A shielding plate is provided to partially block the light beam from reaching the photodetecting device. The shielding plate is placed substantially at the conjugate image point of the pupil of the object lens.

The present invention relates to a focus-detecting method and device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a focus-detecting method and device used in a microscope having reflected illumination.
A conventional focus-detecting device used in a microscope with reflected illumination normally employs a detecting method in which a slit pattern is projected onto an object and a reflected image therefrom is detected by a photoelectric detecting device. Such a conventional arrangement is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,721,827, which is described hereinafter referring to FIGS. 9 and 10.
FIG. 9 shows an example with a focal objective lens. Illumination light from a light source 1 passes through a condenser 2 and illuminates a slit 3. One-half of the beam emitted from the slit 3 is blocked by an illumination-side shielding plate 4 which blocks the beam from 0 degrees to 180 degrees around the optical axis. The other half of the light is reflected by a half mirror 6 and passes through an objective lens 7 to reach an object 8. The light reflected from the object 8 passes back through the objective lens 7 and is transmitted through the half mirror 6 to reach a photodetecting device 14.
FIG. 10 shows a prior art example with an afocal objective lens. Illumination light from the light source 1 illuminates the slit 3 through the condenser 2. One-half of the beam emitted from the slit 3 is blocked by the illumination-side shielding plate 4. The other half of the light beam passes through a collimating lens 5 to form a parallel beam, is reflected by the half mirror 6, and passes through the objective lens 7' to reach the object 8. The light reflected from the object 8 passes back through the objective lens 7', is transmitted through the half mirror 6, and passes through a second objective lens 9 to reach the photodetecting device 14.
Both conventional examples shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 detect a focusing state by sensing the deviation of the center of gravity of the slit image formed on the photodetecting device 14. Not illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10 are the eyepiece arrangement for viewing the object and the servomotor arrangement for automatically moving the object into the focal plane of the objective lens as a result of the image formed on the photodetecting device. These are conventional as shown in the aforementioned patent and are not illustrated in order to avoid unnecessarily complicating the drawings.
However, the above-mentioned conventional technology has the following problem. When deviations in light intensity and phase distribution of an object 8 are large, as seen in a wafer pattern, both diffracted light and scattered light from the object 8 reach the photodetecting device 14. This results in poor focal accuracy. Generally focal accuracy is excellent when the light intensity and phase distribution of an object 8 are small as seen in an object having a mirror surface. The light shown by the dotted lines in FIGS. 9 and 10 is diffracted light and scattered light.
To solve this problem, JP Kokai H6-3578 discloses a focus-detecting device in which a section for forming parallel rays is provided after forming an intermediate image between the objective lens and the photodetecting device. A detection-side shielding plate is formed asymmetrically around the optical axis and placed therein.
According to the technology disclosed in JP Kokai H6-3578, the diffracted light and scattered light which hinder focus detection are blocked. However, certain positioning of the detection-side shielding plate may block light which is necessary for focus detection. This makes it impossible to properly detect focusing.

Focus-detecting method and device having a light blocking member placed substantially at the conjugate image point of the pupil of the object lens


A device for fitting articles including rivets, buttons and the like, to a fabric, comprising a lower tool serving as an abutment for an article, and a ram executing a riveting stroke. A lower end of the ram joins with an upper tool for impinging upon an upper portion of the article and for urging the article against the lower tool upon execution of the riveting stroke. A rotatably driven cam disc urges an upper end of the ram for controlling travel movement of the ram. A clamp is carried by the bottom end of the ram for movement in synchronism with the ram. For finger protection, the device is operative to stop the clamp in a position spaced from the lower tool during a first lowering movement.

The invention relates to a device for fitting rivets, buttons or the like, which consist of an article lower-portion and an article upper-portion, to a fabric or the like, with a lower tool serving as abutment for the article lower-portion and a ram executing the riveting stroke, the lower end of which ram forms an upper tool impinging upon the article upper-portion and the upper end of which ram cooperates with a rotatingly driven cam disc controlling the travel movement, and with jaws displaceable in the direction of movement of the ram, which jaws, in order to provide a finger protecting function, stop in a position spaced from the lower tool after a first lowering movement, an electrical switch being actuated during this first lowering movement, actuation of the switch stopping the device if the spaced position is not reached, and which switch, after the spaced position is reached, permits the subsequent second lowering movement of the jaws.
A device of the kind in question is known from DE 33 13 351C2, a cam plate and a cam disc being keyed onto the drive shaft of a motor, disposed axially one after the other. The upper end of a ram engages, spring-biased, against the circumferential surface of the cam plate, while a roller of a linkage consisting of an upper rod and a lower rod engages on the face-side track of the cam disc. The lower rod is a carrier for the jaws. A tension spring acts on the upper rod, which spring biases the roller into a position of engagement against the inner surface of the track. A further tension spring acts in the sense of moving the upper rod and lower rod apart from one another. Each rod carries one contact of a switch, which contacts are held in a position of engagement by one of the tension springs. By switching on the motor, both the ram and the jaws are displaced in a downward direction. If the jaws cannot move downwards to their first spaced position, the finger protecting spacing cannot therefore be complied with, the jaws with the lower rod thus stop, while the upper rod, cam-driven, moves further downwards. The contacts of the switch open thereupon and instantaneously stop the drive. If, on the contrary, the finger protecting spacing is complied with, the downward drive is not interrupted.

Device for fitting rivets, buttons or the like


A battery safety monitor system. The system includes at least one battery, at least one zener diode, at least one safety device, a microcontroller, a display device and a power supply. The at least one battery comprises at least one cell string capable of outputting voltage signals. The at least one zener diode is operatively coupled to the at least one battery cell string. The at least one safety device is operatively coupled to the at least one battery cell string. The microcontroller is operatively coupled to the at least one zener diode. The display device is operatively coupled to the microcontroller. The power supply is operatively coupled to the microcontroller and the display device.

The present invention is generally in the field of battery monitors. Battery monitors provide data for at least one battery, which comprises cells or strings of cells.
Typical battery monitors do not incorporate safety devices. In addition, typical battery monitors have relatively high power consumption.
Therefore, a need exists for battery monitors that incorporate safety devices and reduce power consumption.

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of Navy


A sand bunker construction having different porous layers that are built up upon the ground and internal drainage. The first layer is a layer of aggregate. The aggregate is gravel having an aggregate size large enough to avoid displacement from rain and irrigation spray. A porous matrix is placed upon the first layer. The porous matrix is made from gravel aggregate that is coated with a binding agent, such as asphalt, tar, or cement. The binding agent is added in amounts only sufficient to bind the aggregate. The result is a porous matrix having numerous voids between the various pieces of aggregate. A covering of sand is applied over the porous matrix. The sand fills the top voids in the porous matrix and buries the porous matrix. Due to the rough texture and porosity of the porous matrix, the porous matrix holds the sand in place and greatly inhibits erosion.

1. Field of the Invention
In general, the present invention relates to the construction of sand bunkers on golf courses. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods used to reduce the adverse effects of sand erosion and soil contamination caused by water within the confines of a sand bunker.
2. Prior Art Description
Golf has been played since at least the 12th century. During this period of time, the game has evolved in many ways. Not only have the clubs and balls changed, but the actual structure of golf courses has also changed.
It is only in the past one hundred and fifty years that golf courses have been designed to contain artificial hazards. Before this, golf courses were created in parks and other natural settings. The hazards were the trees, hills, ponds, and streams that naturally occurred across the course. In modern golf courses, most every hole is designed with a series of artificial hazards. The hazards include water traps, planted tree lines, hills, and sand bunkers.
Sand bunkers, often called sand traps, are one of the most predominant hazards on a modern golf course. Sand traps are widely used because they are both easy and inexpensive to build. Traditionally, in order to build a sand bunker, a hole is dug into the earth, often on the side of a hill. The hole is then filled with sand. The sand bunkers are placed in strategic positions on a golf course in areas that unskilled golfers are likely to place shots.
Although sand bunkers are easy to build, they have proven to be expensive and hard to maintain. Sand bunkers are exposed to both rain and the spray of irrigation systems. This flow of water tends to wash the sand in a sand bunker to the lowest point in the sand bunker. The groundskeeper of the golf course must therefore periodically respread the sand in every sand bunker, especially after a heavy rain.
If a sand bunker is built without a lining, sand tends to easily wash off of the face of the bunker during rainfall events and wash to the bottom of the bunker. In addition weeds and grass quickly begin to grow through the sand. Furthermore, mud from below and around the sand bunker mixes in with the loose sand to contaminate the bunker sand and reduce the bunker's playing quality. As such, the sand in the sand trap must be periodically removed and replaced following contamination and washout events, or shoveled from the bottom of the bunker and thrown back onto the side slopes. Today, many sand bunkers are lined. In some instances, sand bunkers are lined with a water impermeable barrier or the bottom of the sand bunker is spray-coated with such a barrier. Such a lining system both prevents the growth of weeds and prevents mud from intermixing with the sand. Such liners are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 6,467,991 to Joyce, entitled Process And material For Preventing Contamination And Erosion Of Golf Course Sand Traps.
The problem with nearly all lining methods is they must be adhered to the underlying soil in some fashion. This has proven problematic as historic adhering methods such as sod staples or industrial glues routinely fail and cannot withstand the challenges of manual or mechanical rakes catching the material and pulling them to the surface, freeze thaw conditions pushing them out of the ground, or water backing into drainage pipes and into the bunker floor during heavy rain periods and pushing the liners closer to the sand surface making them easier to get snagged by rakes.
Another problem with water impermeable liners or semi-impermeable liners is that they retain water and/or drain water very slowly. Sand bunkers tend to be depressions. As such, water from rain and sprinklers tend to flow into sand bunkers. If the water puddles within the sand bunker, much of the sand becomes submersed. The sand will then quickly erode to the lowest point of the sand bunker, leaving the side of the sand bunker bear and devoid of sand.
Water impervious liners have also been used in combination with drains to prevent water accumulation. In such systems, the water impervious liners direct water into a subterranean drain. Such a prior art system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,399,145 to Clark, entitled Multi-Layer Liner Assembly For A Sand Trap. However, not all sand bunkers have discernable low points in which drains can be placed. The result is areas in the sand bunker that drain well and other areas that puddle.
A more popular lining system for sand bunkers involves the use of a water permeable fabric liner. The fabric liner allows water drainage at all points. It also hinders weed growth. Liners with fiber napping, much like carpeting, have also been developed to help prevent the sand from eroding. Such prior art liners are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 6,863,477 to Jenkins, entitled, Method And Material For Preventing Erosion And Maintaining Playability Of Golf Course Sand Bunkers.
A problem associated with fabric liners is that they tend to degrade over time. Fabric liners are often pierced and snagged by the rakes used to groom a sand bunker. If a section of a fabric liner gets pulled to the surface of a sand bunker by a rake or a golf club, then that section of the fabric liner must be cut away. This leaves a large hole in the liner. Furthermore, water tends to flow under sheet liners, thereby eroding the earth under the liner and contaminating the sand. Without the support of the underlying earth, fabric liners often rip in the unsupported areas. This thin, fabric layer of material also leaves little distance between the underlying soil and the sand layer, thus soil contamination of the desired sand occurs at an accelerated pace over time. Additionally, fabric liners can be gnawed upon by mice, voles, moles, groundhogs, and a variety of other subterranean animals, thereby causing even more holes in the liner. Consequently, the life of a fabric liner is short, requiring sand traps to undergo expensive restoration every few years.
A need therefore exists for a sand bunker configuration that is water permeable in all areas, inhibits sand erosion, reduces contamination, is low cost, and is much less susceptible to damage from rakes, clubs, heavy rainfall, freeze thaw conditions, or animals. This need is met by the present invention as described and claimed below.

Golf course sand bunker construction and its associated method of production


Provided are techniques for receiving a record, wherein the received record has a space-time feature, selecting candidate entities using the space time feature, performing space time analysis to determine whether the received record should be conjoined with a candidate entity from the candidate entities, and, in response to determining that the received record should be conjoined with the candidate entity, making an entity resolution assertion by conjoining the received record and the candidate entity to form a newly conjoined entity.

1. Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to using space and time for entity resolution.
2. Description of the Related Art
Entity resolution techniques may be used to determine when two or more entities (e.g., people, buildings, cars, things, other objects, etc.) represent the same physical entity despite having been described differently. Sometimes these techniques are called deduplication, match/merge, identity resolution, semantic reconciliation, or have other names. For example, a first record containing CustID #1 [Bob Jones at 123 Main Street with a Date of Birth (DOB) of 6/21/45] is likely to represent the same entity as a second record containing CustID #2 [Bob K Jones at 123 S. Main Street with a DOB of 6/21/1945]. Entity resolution can be used within a single data source to find duplicates, across data sources to determine how disparate transactions relate to one entity, or used both within and across a plurality of data sources at the same time.
Entities have features (values that are collected or observed that can be more or less discriminating). For example, in the area of human entities, features may include one or more of: name, address, phone, DOB, Social Security Number (SSN), Driver's License (D/L), biometric features, gender, hair color, and so on. By way of example, SSN's are generally very discriminating, dates of birth are less discriminating, and gender is not particularly discriminating at all. As another example, entity resolution on objects, such as a car, may include one or more features of: license plate number, Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), make, model, year, color, owner, and so on.
Features may be used to establish confidence (a degree of certainty that two discreetly described entities are the same). For the example of CustID #1 and CustID #2, the confirming features of name, address, and DOB and the lack of conflicting features (e.g., features in disagreement, such as opposing D/L numbers) probably result in a high enough confidence to assert that the first record and the second record represent the same entity (e.g., person), without human review.
Entity resolution systems are described further in: "Entity Resolution Systems vs. Match Merge/Merge Purge/List De-duplication Systems" by Jeff Jonas, published Sep. 25, 2007.
Now imagine if the first record and the second record were for identical twins (two separate people). Also imagine that each twin is presenting the exact same passport document (same name, same number, same DOB, etc.). Furthermore, consider the improbability of a biometric comparison (iris, fingerprint, etc.) evaluating both twins and the biometric scoring as "same" entity—whether the biometric score resulted from fraud, a faulty biometric technique, or some higher miracle. Despite absolute similarity across the traditional feature space (name, DOB, biometrics, etc.) clearly sufficient to cause an entity resolution technique to assert that the first and second records reflect a single entity, the twins are nonetheless two separate entities (i.e., two separate people).
The human process of determining when things are the same or different includes the physics principles that:
1) the same thing cannot be in two different spaces (e.g., places) at the same time; and
2) two different things cannot occupy the same space at the same time.
For example, assume a person, named Bill, is sitting across the table from a person, named Tom, and talking to Tom. Assume also that Bill was suddenly covered with a blanket and then used a device to change the nature of his voice. Obviously, Tom would not be able to observe any specific features from Bill (i.e., Tom can not see Bill's face or clothes, or hear a Bill's familiar voice, etc.). Nonetheless, Tom would still know with certainty that the person covered by a blanket is, in fact, still Bill. Tom saw Bill cover himself with the blanket, and despite the lack of available features, Tom knows it is Bill under the blanket—an assertion based on the fact two different things cannot occupy the same space at the same time.
Conventional entity resolution systems do not take into account space and time coordinates as means to improve entity resolution accuracy. The use of space and time features, is in fact, essential to advance entity resolution systems. Thus, there is a need for using space and time for entity resolution.

International Business Machines Corporation


A visual prosthesis including an enhanced receiving and stimulating portion for electrically stimulating retinal tissue to present an apparent image to a user. The prosthesis includes an extracellular camera which responds to a real image to generate a real image signal. The real image signal is coupled, e.g., RF coupling, from an extracellular primary coil to a secondary coil. The secondary coil is preferably affixed within the vitreous body of the user's eye positioned for good signal coupling to the primary coil and arranged to be in good thermal contact with the vitreous body which acts as a heat sink. A hermetically sealed housing containing signal processing circuitry is also preferably placed in the vitreous body to assure efficient heat transfer away from the housing. The circuitry is electrically connected to the secondary coil and responds to an output signal therefrom to produce an apparent image signal for driving an electrode array. The electrode array is configured to electrically stimulate the eye's retinal tissue to enable a user to perceive an apparent image.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,935,155 describes a visual prosthesis generally comprised of (1) an image acquiring and transmitting portion and (2) a receiving and retina stimulating portion. The acquiring portion includes a camera for generating a visual signal output representative of an acquired image. The stimulating portion includes an electrode array adapted to be operatively attached to the user's retina. The visual signal output is used to modulate a radio frequency (RF) carrier signal which is applied to a primary coil. A secondary coil receives the RF signal which is then demodulated to recover the visual signal output for driving the electrode array to electrically stimulate retinal tissue. In use, the acquiring and transmitting portion is mounted outside of the eye (extracellular) and the receiving and stimulating portion is primarily mounted in the eye (intraocular) The components of the intraocular portion are powered from energy extracted from the transmitted visual signal.
FIG. 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,935,155 comprises a functional block diagram of the visual prosthesis showing its image acquiring and transmitting portion and its receiving and retina stimulating portion. FIGS. 2 and 3 respectively show the organization of functional components of the respective portions of FIG. 1. FIGS. 4, 5, and 6 depict alternative arrangements for deploying the prosthesis physical components. In all of the figures, the primary coil is mounted in alignment with the optic axis in front of the eye, e.g., in an eyeglass lens, frame, or in a soft contact lens. In FIG. 4, the secondary coil is implanted behind the iris and a circuit housing is collocated therewith. In FIG. 5, the secondary coil is implanted behind the iris but the circuit housing is located outside of the sclera wall. In FIG. 6, the secondary coil is placed adjacent the outer sclera surface. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,800,530 and 6,120,538 describe alternative visual prostheses.

Visual prosthesis including enhanced receiving and stimulating portion


A fluidized catalyst contacting apparatus improves the recovery of entrained hydrocarbon gases by providing a de-gassing zone upstream of a conventional stripping zone. The de-gassing zone has a downwardly increasing catalyst density gradient that reduces the void volume of the fluidized catalyst thereby de-gassing hydrocarbon vapors from the catalyst prior to entering a stripping zone. The de-gassing zone is particularly useful in a vented riser arrangement for an FCC reactor where catalyst concentrates along the wall of the reactor vessle as it flows downwardly into the stripping zone. By providing a de-gassing zone to collect the downwardly descending catalyst and remove hydrocarbon vapors, efficiency of a sub-adjacent stripping zone is significantly improved.

Fluidized bed catalytic cracking (commonly referred to as FCC) processes were developed during the 1940's to increase the quantity of naphtha boiling range hydrocarbons which could be obtained from crude oil. Fluidized catalytic cracking processes are now in widespread commercial use in petroleum refineries to produce lighter boiling point hydrocarbons from heavier feedstocks such as atmospheric reduced crudes or vacuum gas oils. Such processes are utilized to reduce the average molecular weight of various petroleum-derived feed streams and thereby produce lighter products, which have a higher monetary value than heavy fractions. Though the feed to an FCC process is usually a petroleum-derived material, liquids derived from tar sands, oil shale or coal liquefaction may be charged to an FCC process. Today, FCC processes are also used for the cracking of heavy oil and reduced crudes. Although these processes are often used as reduced crude conversion, use of the term FCC in this description applies to heavy oil cracking processes as well.
The operation of the FCC process is well known to those acquainted with processes for upgrading hydrocarbon feedstocks. Differing designs of FCC units may be seen in the articles at page 102 of the May 15, 1972 edition and at page 65 of the Oct. 8, 1973 edition of "The Oil & Gas Journal". Other examples of FCC processes can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,364,905 (Fahrig et al); 4,051,013 (Strother); 3,894,932 (Owen); and 4,419,221 (Castagnos, Jr. et al) and the other FCC patent references discussed herein.
A majority of the hydrocarbon vapors that contact the catalyst in the reaction zone are separated from the solid particles by ballistic and/or centrifugal separation methods. However, the catalyst particles employed in an FCC process have a large surface area, which is due to a great multitude of pores located in the particles. As a result, the catalytic materials retain hydrocarbons within their pores and upon the external surface of the catalyst. Although the quantity of hydrocarbon retained on each individual catalyst particle is very small, the large amount of catalyst and the high catalyst circulation rate which is typically used in a modern FCC process results in a significant quantity of hydrocarbons being withdrawn from the reaction zone with the catalyst.
Therefore, it is common practice to remove, or strip, hydrocarbons from spent catalyst prior to passing it into the regeneration zone. It is important to remove retained spent hydrocarbons from the spent catalyst for process and economic reasons. First, hydrocarbons that enter the regenerator increase its carbon-burning load and can result in excessive regenerator temperatures. Stripping hydrocarbons from the catalyst also allows recovery of the hydrocarbons as products. The most common method of stripping the catalyst passes a stripping gas, usually steam, through a flowing stream of catalyst, countercurrent to its direction of flow. Such steam stripping operations, with varying degrees of efficiency, remove the hydrocarbon vapors which are entrained with the catalyst and hydrocarbons which are adsorbed on the catalyst.
The efficiency of catalyst stripping has been increased by using a series of baffles in a stripping apparatus to cascade the catalyst from side to side as it moves down the stripping apparatus. Moving the catalyst horizontally increases contact between it and the stripping medium. Increasing the contact between the stripping medium and catalyst removes more hydrocarbons from the catalyst. As shown by U.S. Pat. No. 2,440,625, the use of angled guides for increasing contact between the stripping medium and catalyst has been known since 1944. In these arrangements, the catalyst is given a labyrinthine path through a series of baffles located at different levels. Catalyst and gas contact is increased by this arrangement that leaves no open vertical path of significant cross-section through the stripping apparatus. Further examples of similar stripping devices for FCC units are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,440,620; 2,612,438; 3,894,932; 4,414,100; and 4,364,905. These references show the typical stripper arrangement having a stripper vessel, a series of baffles in the form of frusto-conical sections that direct the catalyst inward onto a baffle in a series of centrally located conical or frusto conical baffles that divert the catalyst outwardly onto the outer baffles. The stripping medium enters from below the lower baffle in the series and continues rising upward from the bottom of one baffle to the bottom of the next succeeding baffle. Variations in the baffles include the addition of skirts about the trailing edge of the baffle as depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 2,994,659 and the use of multiple linear baffle sections at different baffle levels as demonstrated by FIG. 3 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,423. A variation in introducing the stripping medium is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,541,801 where a quantity of fluidizing gas is admitted at a number of discrete locations.
As previously mentioned for reasons of heat balance and product recovery, improvements in the efficiency of FCC stripping are particularly desirable. One way to improve FCC stripping efficiency is to increase the contact time between the stripping fluid and the FCC catalyst. This can be done by extending the length of the FCC stripping zone. The extended length increases efficiency by increasing the relative partial pressure of the stripping fluid, typically steam, in the lower portion of the stripper from which the catalyst normally exits. Furthermore, higher additions of stripping fluid such as steam can also raise the steam partial pressure within the stripping zone thereby serving to further reduce the carryover of hydrocarbons from the stripping zone into the regenerator. However, increasing the length of the stripping zone, or adding additional stripping steam to the FCC stripper, increases the cost of the operation of the unit as well as burdening downstream recovery facilities by the extra circulation and recovery of water. As a result, methods are sought to improve the recovery of hydrocarbons from FCC catalyst without increasing the length, or adding additional quantities of steam to the stripping zone.

FCC process for de-gassing spent catalyst boundary layer


In a method and apparatus to acquire a measurement data set of a breathing examination subject by magnetic resonance, the measurement data set is acquired in multiple shots each composed of a number of k-space trajectories (views), with the number Nv of views per shot being selected. The number of shots is determined in order to completely fill k-space to be scanned. The views of the shots are associated with sectors in k-space, with approximately the same number of views in each sector, and with all views in a sector have a similar distance from the k-space center. A respective view of each sector is associated with a respective one of the shots, corresponding to the orientation of the respective shot. The views that are associated with the same sector and different shots respectively assume the same time position within the shot.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a method to acquire a measurement data set of a breathing examination subject by means of magnetic resonance technology; a magnetic resonance system; a computer program; and an electronically readable data medium.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Magnetic resonance (MR) is a known technology with which images from the interior of an examination subject can be generated. Expressed simply, the examination subject is placed in a magnetic resonance imaging scanner, in a strong, static, homogenous base magnetic field, also called a B0 field, having a field strength of 0.2 tesla-7 tesla and more, such that the nuclear spins of the subject orient themselves along the base magnetic field. In order to trigger magnetic resonance signals, the examination subject is irradiated with high frequency excitation pulses (RF pulses), the triggered magnetic resonance signals are detected and entered into a memory that represents a mathematical domain known as k-space, and MR images are reconstructed on the basis of the k-space data, or spectroscopy data are determined. For the spatial encoding of the measurement data, rapidly activated magnetic gradient fields are superimposed on the base magnetic field. The recorded measurement data are digitized and stored as complex number values in a k-space matrix. From the k-space matrix populated with data values in this manner, an associated MR image can be reconstructed, for example, by means of a multi-dimensional Fourier transformation.
The respiratory movement of a patient that is to be examined by means of MR can lead to so-called ghosting, to blurring, and/or to intensity losses in the images generated, as well as registration errors between generated images particularly in an examination of the organs of the thorax and the abdomen, i.e. of examination regions affected by respiratory movement. These artifacts can make it difficult for a physician to perform an analysis on the basis of the images, and can lead to lesions being overlooked, for example. Numerous techniques exist in the prior art for reducing artifacts resulting from respiratory movement. One of these techniques is respiratory gating. Respiratory gating is a technique with which, during the MR measurement, the respiration of the patient is recorded and assigned to the acquired measurement data. With respiratory gating, only measurement data are then used for reconstruction for which the associated recorded respiratory movement fulfills certain specifiable criteria.
The breathing of the patient can be detected with external sensors, for example a pneumatic cushion, or with MR signals (known as navigators). A navigator is normally a short sequence that acquires MR signals, for example of the diaphragm or another signal source in the examination subject whose movement is correlated with the breathing of the patient. The breathing movement can be reconstructed via the position of the diaphragm or the other signal source.
In breath gating with navigators, the navigator sequence is (for example) interleaved with the imaging sequence, and a diaphragm position measured with a navigator is subsequently associated with the imaging data acquired immediately following (or before) this.
A distinction is made between retrospective and prospective respiratory gating.
With retrospective respiratory gating the respiratory movement is detected and recorded during the MR measurement, but not evaluated. Instead, the k-space that is to be recorded is measured repeatedly. For the reconstruction, only a portion of the measured data are referenced, preferably that data in which the respiratory signal lies within a specific window for a distinctive respiratory position. If a specific k-space data point that is necessary for the image reconstruction is repeatedly measured within the distinctive window, then the data can be averaged. If, instead, a data point is always measured outside of the window, then that data point deviating the least from the distinctive position can be used for the reconstruction.
With prospective respiratory gating, the physiological respiratory signal measured using a respiratory sensor (e.g. the diaphragm position measured with a navigator sequence) is evaluated during the measurement, and the MR measurement is controlled, based on the recorded physiological signal. In the simplest embodiment, the so-called acceptance/rejection algorithm (ARA), the measurement of an imaging data packet (and if applicable, the associated navigator sequence) is repeated until the physiological signal falls within a previously defined acceptance window.
One example of an acceptance/rejection algorithm of this type and, at the same time, the first description of respiratory gating with navigators, is described in the article by Todd S. Sachs, Craig H. Meyer, Bob S. Hu, Jim Kohli, Dwight G. Nishimura and Albert Macovski: "Real-Time Motion Detection in Spiral MRI Using Navigators," MRM 32: Pages 639-645 (1994). The authors acquired one or more navigators for each excitation of a spiral sequence. The navigators were acquired here following the acquisition of the image data. Different navigators are distinguished by their spatial orientation. From each navigator, a spatial displacement along the axis of the navigator in relation to a reference navigator is calculated using a cross-correlation. The navigator scan acquired following the first imaging scan is used, in each case, as a reference. A specific imaging scan is repeated until the spatial displacement determined with the navigator, in relation to the reference, is less than a threshold value provided by a user. This, therefore, relates to an acceptance/rejection algorithm based on one or more spatial displacements.
Another example of an acceptance/rejection algorithm is described by Wang et al. in "Navigator-Echo-Based Real-Time Respiratory Gating and Triggering for Reduction of Respiratory Effects in Three-Dimensional Coronary MR Angiography," Radiology 198; Pages 55-60 (1996). In this case, the physiological signal is the displacement of the diaphragm position, determined with a navigator, in relation to a reference state. One difference from the work by Sachs et al. is that, in each case, a navigator is acquired before and after the imaging scan, and that the imaging scan is then only accepted if the displacement determined by means of both navigators is less than the threshold value.
In order to determine the acceptance window, a so-called pre-scan is normally carried out for each patient, in which the respiratory movement is recorded, for example, with the navigator sequence, but imaging data are not yet acquired.
Prospective respiratory gating is normally more efficient than retrospective respiratory gating. A prerequisite for prospective respiratory gating is a real-time capability of the normally-provided control software for the MR apparatus. For this purpose, real-time capability means that data measured with the sequence (in this case, the sequence comprises imaging and navigator sequences) can be evaluated during the sequencing, and the further course of the sequencing can be influenced by the results of this evaluation, wherein the time period between recording the data and influencing the further course is short in comparison with the typical time constants of the respiratory movement (in this case, particularly, the respiratory cycle of a human being, which amounts to between 3 and 10 seconds).
The main problem with the acceptance/rejection algorithm is that the respiration of the patient frequently varies during the examination. The variations in the respiratory movement can be such that the respiratory positions within the once specified acceptance window are rarely, or no longer, detected. This leads to extended acquisition periods and can even lead to the measurement not being completed at all in the normal manner.
The most important algorithm, by far, that addresses this problem is "Phase Ordering With Automatic Window Selection" (PAWS), which is described, for example, in the article by P. Jhooti, P. D. Gatehouse, J. Keegan, N. H. Bunce, A. M. Taylor, and D. N. Firmin, "Phase Ordering With Automatic Window Selection (PAWS): A Novel Motion-Resistant Technique for 3D Coronary Imaging," Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 43, Pages 470-480 (2000) and in the US patent, U.S. Pat. No. 7,039,451 B1. PAWS finds a final acceptance window during the runtime, and can thus react in a flexible manner to a changing respiration. A further goal of PAWS is to ensure a certain degree of "phase-encode ordering" (or in short, "phase ordering"). This means that adjacent lines in the k-space are acquired in similar respiration states. In particular, a variation in the respiratory state during acquisitions in the vicinity of the k-space center, which is particularly sensitive to movement, is to be avoided. PAWS was developed for a 3D Cartesian acquisition technique. The ky-kz array system used for this acquires a complete kx-kz plane of the 3-dimensional k-space following each navigator. The modulation of the k-space signal along the kz axis resulting from the transcendental state after interrupting the stationary steady state by the navigator (as well as potential activated preparation pulses, or the waiting for a further physiological signal, such as an EKG trigger) on the kx-kz plane, is therefore smooth. Discontinuations may arise in the ky axis as a result of residual movement, which can be manifested in the image as artifacts and blurring along the first phase encoding axis ky. This does not only apply when the segment border exists in the vicinity of the k-space center. Peristaltic movements, as well, which are not detected by the respiratory sensor, can lead to artifacts in the images.
PAWS exists in different variants, known as "bin" variants. In PAWS, the width of the final acceptance window is established. In contrast to the acceptance/rejection algorithm, the breathing positions that this acceptance window includes are automatically found at run time. The k-space filling takes place in clusters. A cluster (in the original work the term "bin" was used instead of cluster) is characterized by a breathing position range (an acceptance range) and includes all k-space lines that have already been measured after a breathing position has been measured in the breathing position range associated with the cluster. In the n-bin variant of PAWS, a breathing position range whose width is equal to the acceptance window is covered by n successive clusters.
Furthermore, a starting position in the k-space is assigned to each cluster, wherein the number of different starting positions is n. Different starting positions are assigned to clusters with adjacent respiratory positions where n>1. As soon as a respiratory position assigned to a cluster is measured with the navigator, the measurement of a k-space line that has not yet been measured within said cluster is initiated. The decision regarding which k-space lines still to be measured are selected takes into consideration, as a whole, the already acquired k-space lines of adjacent clusters as well. By way of example, a still missing k-space line is selected such that an arbitrary group of n adjacent clusters is complete to the greatest degree possible, wherein the arbitrary group of n adjacent clusters contains the cluster to which the current measured respiratory position is assigned; i.e. the group of n adjacent clusters comprising the largest possible number of different k-space lines. As soon as an arbitrary group of n adjacent clusters comprises all of the k-space lines that are to be measured, the measurement is stopped, because the overall variation in the respiratory position is limited in these measurement data, thereby, to the acceptance window.
The n different starting points and clusters of the n-bin variation of PAWS normally result in n segments in the k-space. For this, each segment consists of adjacent k-space lines. The variations to the respiratory positions within a segment measured with the navigator correspond to the position range assigned to a cluster (in the original work, the term "bin size" is used), and thus one nth of the acquisition window. The variation to the respiratory position is greater over the course of the entire k-space, and has an upper limit as a result of the specified acceptance window. The lines belonging to the same segment are measured during similar respiratory states. Thus, the modulation of the signal changes with the respiration at the segment borders. As a result, position jumps occur at the segment borders. An aim of the different bin-variations of PAWS is to displace the segment borders away from the movement sensitive k-space center. Another aim is to obtain a greater degree of efficiency.
In the previously mentioned article by Jhooti et al., as well as in the follow-up work by P. Jhooti, P. Gatehouse J. Keegan, A. Stemmer, D. Firmin: "Phase ordering with Automatic Window Selection (PAWS) with Half Fourier for Increased Scan Efficiency and Image Quality;" Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 11 (2004); Page 2146, the 1-bin, 2-bin, 3-bin, and 4-bin variations are compared with one another. The result of this comparison shows that the 1-bin and the 2-bin variations of PAWS are the most efficient, i.e. for a given width of the acceptance window, the measurements are completed most quickly. The 1-bin variation is discarded because it does not allow for "phase ordering," the 4-bin variation (and higher) is discarded due to lower efficiency. The 3-bin variation is less efficient than the 2-bin variation. The reason for this is the unidirectional growth direction of the cluster with starting positions at the left and right k-space edges. As soon as the gap between one of these peripheral clusters and the central cluster (with a starting position in the k-space center, and a bidirectional growth direction) is closed, then said clusters continue to grow until the gap between the other peripheral clusters and the central cluster is closed, as soon as a respiratory position is measured that is assigned to the first peripheral cluster. This normally leads to multiple k-space lines acquired at the cluster borders (segment borders). This problem does not exist with the 2-bin variation. In this variation, every second cluster grows in a unidirectional manner from the left-hand k-space edge, through the k-space center, toward the right-hand k-space edge, and the remaining clusters grow in a unidirectional manner from the right-hand k-space edge, through the k-space center, toward the left-hand k-space edge. The measurement is complete as soon as two adjacent clusters (with opposite growth directions) "meet." However, with a symmetrical scanning of the k-space, as is the case with the 2-bin variation, the cluster border frequently lies in the vicinity of the k-space center, which is particularly sensitive to movement, which may lead to strong image artifacts. The probability of cluster borders lying in the vicinity of the k-space center is substantially lower with the use of partial Fourier (i.e. an asymmetric scanning of the k-space).
Of practical relevance, therefore, are the so-called 2-bin and 3-bin versions of PAWS, wherein, with symmetrical scanning, the 3-bin variation is preferred, and with asymmetric scanning, the 2-bin variation is preferred. This analysis is based on a 2-bin variation, in which the starting position alternates between the left-hand and right-hand k-space edges of adjacent clusters. Accordingly, the clusters grow, respectively, from the starting positions assigned thereto, firstly toward the k-space center.
It is noted again that only a single breathing position is associated with a cluster in some jobs. The width of the final acceptance window then amounts to n-times the resolution of the breathing signal. In this alternative formulation, a more flexible selection of the acceptance window is achieved in that the breathing position measured with the sensor is initially coarsened, such that n-adjacent resulting breathing positions cover a breathing range that corresponds to the width of the acceptance window.
Three modifications of the 3-bin PAWS algorithm are known from Nuval et al., "An improved real-time navigator gating algorithm for reducing motion effects in coronary magnetic resonance angiography"; Journal of X-Ray Science and Technology 11 (2003), P. 115-123 and A. Nuval et al., "Refined PAWS Algorithms for 3D Coronary MRA". Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 11 (2003), P. 1625:
a) In the original 3-bin PAWS variant, clusters with start position at the left k-space edge, in the k-space center and at the right k-space edge alternate cyclically. In the modified version, the start position alternates cyclically between left k-space edge, in the k-space center, right k-space edge and k-space center again. A start position in the k-space center is accordingly assigned to every second cluster. Position jumps at the cluster boundaries that are twice as large as the acceptance range assigned to a cluster are avoided with this modification. However, this modification also reduces the number of cluster combinations in which k-space can be completed. The efficiency is thus reduced.
b) The termination criterion is tightened such that the central cluster must have acquired at least 30% of k-space symmetrically around the k-space center. The goal of this modification is to avoid cluster boundaries near the k-space center. This modification also extends the measurement time in general, and therefore reduces the efficiency.
c) A histogram of the occurring breathing positions is created with the aid of a prescan. The breathing position occurring most frequently during the prescan is assigned to a central cluster. This modification also reduces the probability of a segment boundary near the k-space center. However, the efficiency is reduced further by the prescan that is now necessary. Moreover, the information obtained with the aid of a prescan can only be transferred to the actual scan in the case of a regular respiration. The integration of prescan information with the actual PAWS therefore runs contrary to the idea of being robust with regard to changing breathing patterns.
PAWS was originally developed for a ky-kz ordering scheme in which all k-space lines are respectively acquired with a defined value of the second phase coding gradient (in the direction of kz) after acquisition of the breathing signal. The "phase ordering" is accordingly also limited to a Cartesian k-space direction, which can lead to intensified remaining movement artifacts in this direction.
In a recent article, PAWS is combined with a known Radial Phase Encoding (RPE) scheme (Christoph Kolbitsch, Claudia Prieto, Jouke Smink and Tobias Schaeffter: "Highly Efficient Whole-Heart Imaging Using Radial Phase Encoding-Phase Ordering With Automatic Window Selection"; Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 66 (2011); P. 1008-1018). The respective data acquired after a navigator thereby respectively have the same movement sensitivity. A special 2-bin scheme is implemented. In the one bin set, radial spokes in k-space are acquired in the clockwise direction; in the other bin set, they are acquired in the counter-clockwise direction. The goal of this scheme is to be able to repeatedly reconstruct the region of interest (ROI) in different breathing phases.

Magnetic resonance method and apparatus for obtaining a set of measured data relating to a breathing object of interest


A kit of parts for inserting a deformable implant into a cavity in a bone of a patient is described. An inserter instrument comprises a body having a cavity extending along a longitudinal axis from a distal end to a proximal end. An attachment mechanism is provided at the distal end and to which a deformable implant can be releasably attached. A drive mechanism is provided at the proximal end of the body. An insertion stop is mounted on the body and arranged to control the depth of insertion of the inserter instrument into a guide tube. A push rod is freely and slidably arranged within the cavity and has a distal end engageable with a part of the deformable implant and a proximal end abutable by the drive mechanism. The drive mechanism is operable to drive the push rod toward the distal end of the body. The kit also includes an impactor dimensioned for slidable engagement within the cavity.

WO 2010/097636 describes a support structure implant and assembly, including an instrument, for deploying such an implant. The handling, insertion, deployment and subsequent use of deformable implants can require significant care, for example in order to ensure that the implant is correctly inserted and/or positioned within the bone cavity and/or does not move within the bone cavity after implantation and as it is being used, or otherwise interacted with, during subsequent surgical steps in order to complete the surgical procedure for which the implant is intended.
Therefore instrumentation to increase the reliability and/or ease of insertion and/or deployment of deformable implants would be advantageous.


A support mechanism for supporting an optical element includes a first support member for supporting the optical element, a second support member coupled to the first support member via an elastic member, and a forcing member for applying a force to the elastic member to adjust a position and/or an orientation of the optical element.

The present invention relates generally to an exposure apparatus, and more particularly to an exposure apparatus for exposing an object, such as a single crystal substrate for a semiconductor wafer and a glass plate for a liquid crystal display ("LCD").
Recent demands on smaller and thinner profile electronic devices have increasingly required finer semiconductor devices to be mounted on these electronic devices. For example, the mask-pattern design rule requires a formation of an image with a size of a line and space ("L & S") of less than 0.1 μm in an extensive area. A transfer to circuit patterns of less than 80 nm is expected in the near future. L & S denotes an image projected onto a wafer with equal line and space widths in exposure, and serves as an index of exposure resolution.
A projection exposure apparatus as a typical exposure apparatus for manufacturing semiconductor devices includes a projection optical system for exposing a pattern on a mask (reticle) onto a wafer. Effective to higher resolution are shortening of a wavelength of a light source, and increasing of a numerical aperture ("NA") of the projection optical system as well as maintaining aberrations in the projection optical system to be extremely small.
The projection optical system houses, in a lens or mirror barrel ("lens barrel"), an imaging optical system for imaging diffracted light from a reticle. When the imaging optical system has a lens that decenters from the optical axis, the light that should form an image at one point does not converge on one point, causing aberrations, such as a partial defocus, a distortion, and a curvature of field. To correct the aberrations, the projection optical system incorporates an aberration correcting optical system with the lens barrel. The aberration correcting optical system inclines a non-imaging lens that inclines (or has an tilt angle) relative to the optical axis according to the aberrational amount. The aberration correcting optical system determines a position and an orientation (or an tilt angle) of the lens according to the aberrational amount, and is configured to fix the lens as determined.
However, the above incorporation of the above aberration correcting optical system fixes the inclination of the lens to the optical axis, and therefore disadvantageously cannot correct aberrations, such as dynamically variable partial defocuses, distortions and curvatures of field, caused by a deformations (expansions, etc.) of the lenses in the imaging optical system due to environmental variances and exposure heats, such as temperature changes. In addition, the lenses in the imaging optical system are made rotated about or moved along the optical axis so as to correct the astigmatism, aspect ratio, etc. This rotations and/or movements also result in decentering from the optical axis. Insufficient corrections of the aberrations, such as the partial defocuses, distortions and curvatures of field, do not provide desired resolution.
Due to inevitable incorporation errors, it is significantly difficult to incorporate the aberration correcting optical system into the lens barrel while maintaining the lens's inclination determined and fixed by the aberrational amount. Moreover, it is bad operability to change the inclination of the lens in the aberration correcting optical system by taking out the aberration correcting optical system from the lens barrel in the projection optical system, and changing the lens's inclination, followed by reincorporation.

Support mechanism, exposure apparatus having the same, and aberration reducing method


A safety bumper device incorporating a plurality of rotative bearing members that rotate to deflect the oblique forces of impact and absorb some of the head-on forces of impact. Two different rotative bearing members are shown. The bearing members are covered by a breakaway shield that helps to reduce aerodynamic drag. Upon impact, the breakaway shield gives way, exposing the faces of the bearing members so that the rotation of the bearings can deflect the oblique forces of impact.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicle bumpers, and more particularly, to a safety bumper for automobiles that deflects oblique forces of impact and absorbs the head-on forces of impact.
2. Description of Related Art
The related art of interest describe various bumpers useful for protection of a vehicle or for pushing another vehicle. In general, these devices are bulky, heavy and they substantially increase the aerodynamic drag of the vehicle. Such devices substantially deviate from the standard shapes of a modern bumper and hence, they may not be aesthetically pleasing. The weight and increased drag caused by such devices will reduce vehicle performance and fuel economy.
Accordingly, there is a need for a safety bumper device that is incorporated into the basic contours of a modern automobile bumper so that the overall aesthetics of the vehicle are not adversely affected. Another need will be seen for a safety bumper device that will not increase the aerodynamic drag of the vehicle. Yet another need will be seen for a safety bumper device that is lightweight. Overall, such a device should not substantially reduce vehicle performance or fuel economy. In addition, there is a need for a device as described above that is easily and economically produced.
Related bumper devices with claimed safety features are discussed below in the order of perceived relevance to the present invention.
German Patent Application Number 2,321,439 published on Nov. 15, 1973, for Sanchez Calzada et al. describes a roller system that envelopes the entire periphery of a vehicle and extends significantly in front and in the rear. There is no indication of jointed regions to permit entry into the vehicle. Other adaptations are for protecting a corner of a house, a lantern, and a bow of a boat to deflect oblique forces of impact. The uncovered device for a vehicle is bulky, heavy and used only to protect: a parked vehicle. Even if utilized as a permanent installation, the exposed roller assembly is not aesthetically pleasing. The weight and increased drag caused by the device if used during driving, will reduce vehicle performance and fuel economy.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,997,209 issued on Dec. 14, 1976, to John J. Chika describes a collision deflecting front and rear bumper system including side plates and side rollers for fast moving vehicles. The bumper includes an elaborate, extendible and retractable bumper assembly by hydraulic cylinders and operable by either manual or automatic controls with sensors. This device is excessively complex, bulky, heavy, and substantially increases the aerodynamic drag of the vehicle. The weight and increased drag caused by the device for front and rear installation reduces vehicle performance and fuel economy. The collision deflecting system is distinguishable for its different protection systems for the different regions of the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,245,746 issued on Jun. 17, 1941, to Soren H. Bang describes a cowcatcher for automobiles. The device includes rotary rollers arranged vertically to cover only the front grille of the automobile. The rollers consist of a solid steel tube covered with rubber or upholstery. A screen is necessary to direct incoming air up toward the radiator. The apparatus is distinguishable for its limitation to the grille.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,508,836 issued on May 23, 1950, to Elmer L. Morris describes a bumper for automobiles. The V-shaped bumper includes steel ball impact receiving elements. The apex of the bumper includes steel leaf springs. The bumper is mounted on a compensating crossbar with two hydraulic shock absorbers. The bumper is distinguishable for its reliance on leaf springs and hydraulic shock absorbers in addition to the steel balls.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,840,411 issued on Jun. 24, 1958, to Philip E. Mason describes a rollaway bumper for installation on both ends of the vehicle. A V-shaped bumper has a large roller at the apex and smaller rollers at its ends. A channel shaped body portion also supports an exposed endless chain. The bumper is distinguishable for its exposed endless chain which is unattractive and must be exposed to functionally support the bumper action.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,195 issued on Jan. 2, 1973, to Edward Kottsieper describes an impact softening device for the front and rear of automobiles. The device includes resilient wheels rotatably mounted in horizontal positions on vertical axles at the ends of each bumper. This device is distinguishable for being bulky, heavy and limited to the ends of the vehicle bumpers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,068,877 issued on Jan. 17, 1973, to Finn Burleson describes a roller vehicle pushing bumper having a pair of resilient rollers rotatably mounted vertically on a bracket secured to a front bumper of a motor vehicle. The device is distinguishable for its limitation to a pushing bumper.
U.K. Patent Application No. 451,392 published on Sep. 3, 1936, for Harry Panzetta describes a bumper device with paired buffers made of india rubber rotatably fitted at the ends of the bumper in a horizontal position above and below the bumper. The device is distinguishable for being limited to the ends of a bumper.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,124 issued on Dec. 26, 1995, to Bruce Warrington et al. describes a portable rolling bumper for pushing another vehicle. The bumper has a straight leg adapter portion for engaging with the mount receiver, caross-bar portion secured at a right angle to the receiver, and an elongate cylindrical roller held with the cross-bar portion between two laterally extended end arms. The adapter portion includes positioning apertures that all the distance between the roller and the vehicle to be adjusted. The cross-bar portion has similar positioning apertures that allow the height of the roller to be adjusted. The bumper is distinguishable for its single bumper roller and use for pushing another vehicle.
None of the above noted inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.


In a method and a device for mounting an electronic component, a solder paste is printed on lands of a substrate with the use of a mask having a projecting part at a portion facing the substrate and positioned to between neighboring lands, and the projecting part prevents the solder paste on of the neighboring lands from flowing so as to come in contact with a other of the neighboring land to cause a shortcircuit between the neighboring lands.

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for mounting electronic components, each having many leads with a narrow pitch, to a substrate such as a printed board or the like.
Various methods have been proposed heretofore to mount electronic components, each having a plurality of leads projected in parallel in two or four directions, to a substrate on the surface of which lands are formed correspondingly to the leads. One example of the methods will be described with reference to the related drawings hereinbelow. FIGS. 6A and 6B are a plan view and a longitudinal sectional view indicating the general mounting state of an electronic component to a substrate. FIGS. 7A and 7B are longitudinal sectional views of the substrate in a process of printing/applying a solder paste according to the conventional method, and FIGS. 8A and 8B are longitudinal sectional views of the substrate and an electronic component in a mounting and reflow process. In each figure, reference numerals 10-17 respectively represent the electronic component, the substrate, a land, a lead of the electronic component 10, a mask, the solder paste, a squeegee, and solder shortcircuiting the lands 12. In the solder paste printing/applying process first carried out for mounting the electronic component, as shown in FIG. 7A, the mask 14 is positioned and overlapped over the substrate 11, and the squeegee 16 kept in touch with the mask 14 with a suitable printing pressure is moved linearly along a printing direction, so that the solder paste 15 is filled in opening parts 14a of the mask 14. When the mask 14 is subsequently separated from the substrate 11, the solder paste 15 is printed and applied onto the substrate 11 via the mask 14 as shown in FIG. 7B. In the next mounting process, the electronic component 10 is held by suction by a mounting nozzle so that the leads 13 of the electronic component 10 are registered with the corresponding lands 12, as indicated in FIG. 8A. The leads 13 of the electronic component 10 are placed on the solder paste 15 printed/applied on the lands 12, whereby the leads 13 of the electronic component 10 are fixedly held by the adhesion force of the solder paste 15. As a result of this, the electronic component 10 is sent to the next process in the fixed state. In the final reflow process, the leads 13 of the electronic component 10 are heated by hot wind or a heat source, e.g., infrared heater or the like, so that the solder paste 15 printed/applied in the previous process is melted. The leads 13 of the electronic component 10 are thus solder-bonded to the lands 12.
The recent rapid trend of the electronic components such as IC package components and the like becoming more compact and of a thinner structure induces a narrower pitch of the leads 13 of the components, specifically, 0.5 mm to 0.4 mm and even not larger than 0.3 mm. Naturally, the lands 12 on the substrate 11 holding the above thin and compact electronic component 10 consequently are to be formed with a reduced pitch. However, although it is easy to form the lands of not larger than 0.3 mm pitch according to the current technique, there is a performance difference among the substrate manufacturers to form a solder resist between lands which is done generally with a pitch of 0.5 mm or 0.4 mm, in other words, it is not always possible to form the solder resist with such a narrow pitch as referred to above for every substrate.
In this situation, when the electronic component 10 with a narrow pitch of the leads is mounted with the use of the substrate 11 where the solder resist is not formed between the lands 12, the land 12 may be shifted from the opening part 14a when the substrate 11 is positioned and overlapped with the mask 14 as shown in FIG. 7A, and in consequence the solder paste 15 filled in the opening part 14a by the squeegee 16 leaks out from a gap X between the land 12 and the opening part 14a eventually to come in contact with an end part of the adjacent land 12 as is clearly shown in FIG. 7B. If the lead 13 of the electronic component 10 is placed on the corresponding land 12 in the state as shown in FIG. 8A and the reflow treatment is performed, the solder 17 might shortcircuit the lands 12 adjacent to each other as denoted by Y in FIG. 8B.

Method and apparatus for mounting electronic component

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


There is provided a memory control apparatus including: a pre-read processing section reading pre-read data from a data area to be written to before a write process in a predetermined data area of a memory cell array; a conversion determination section which, upon selectively allowing the pre-read data to transition to either a first conversion candidate or a second conversion candidate of the write data to be written in the write process, generates a determination result for selecting either of the candidates based on the larger of two values of which one is the number of bits transitioning from the first value to the second value and of which the other is the number of bits transitioning from the second value to the first value; and a conversion control section selecting either of the candidates in accordance with the determination result.

The present disclosure relates to a memory control apparatus. More particularly, the disclosure relates to a memory control apparatus for a non-volatile memory, a memory apparatus, an information processing system; a processing method for use therewith, and a program for causing a computer to perform the method.
In information processing systems, the DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) or the like is used as a work memory. The DRAM is usually a volatile memory of which the stored content is lost once the supply of power to the memory is removed. Meanwhile, non-volatile memories (NVM) have come to be used in recent years. The non-volatile memories are roughly classified into two categories: flash memories that support access of data in large-size units, and non-volatile random access memories (NVRAM: Non-Volatile RAM) supporting high-speed random access in small-size data units. A representative example of flash memory is the NAND flash memory. Examples of non-volatile random access memory are the ReRAM (Resistance RAM), PCRAM (Phase-Change RAM), and MRAM (Magnetoresistive RAM).
The ReRAM is a non-volatile memory that uses variable resistive elements. Before writing of data to the ReRAM, there is no need to delete data therefrom in blocks. The ReRAM allows only necessary pages to be directly rewritten, as opposed to the NAND flash memory or the like in which threshold values of the charge storage amount in floating gates are stored as data. A variable resistive element can record one-bit information represented by one of a high resistive state (HRS) and a low resistive state (LRS). In non-volatile memories such as the ReRAM, the data to be written to is pre-read for comparison with write data so that only the necessary bits may transition in state. Because the state transitions incur consumption currents, the number of transitioning bits should preferably be minimized. For that purpose, there has been proposed a semiconductor storage system which, if the number of the bits to be rewritten is a majority, inverts the bits of the write data in order to reduce the rewrite bit count (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-230796).

Memory control apparatus, memory apparatus, information processing system, and processing method for use therewith


A battery connection device for connecting to a vehicle battery includes a top member, a bottom member having a side wall and a bottom wall. The side wall, top member, and bottom member form a box-like enclosure. The bottom wall includes a through-hole with a circumferential face, an adapter member arranged inside the box-like enclosure extends at least partially through the through-hole for connection with the battery. A dimension of the adapter member is smaller than a dimension of the through-hole to form a gap between an outer face of the adapter member facing the circumferential face and the circumferential face, and flexible connection member connected to the adapter member and to the bottom member and closing the gap between the outer face and the circumferential face. The flexible connection member includes an electromagnetic shield for shielding electromagnetic radiation and a seal for sealing the gap against dust and/or moisture.

Nowadays, electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and other type hybrid electric vehicles all include some sort of battery. These batteries need to be charged, discharged or—in a more general way—be controlled, depending on the specific task at hand. Usually, batteries are therefore connected to a kind of electronic control box, the electronic control box having all the electronics on board for communicating with and controlling of the battery.
It was found, however, that the physical connection to the battery can be challenging at times. The reason for this is that the battery usually has some kind of predefined mounting ports attached to it. These mountings ports are used to mount the electronic control box to the battery and specified by the supplier of the battery. The position of these mounting ports is, however, subject to tolerances, for example, due to manufacturing reasons. As a result, a position between these mounting ports and the actual electric ports of the battery (this is where the actual conductive connection between the electronic control box and the battery applies) may vary from one battery to another battery, depending on the actual tolerances, the manufacturing of the battery and other factors not known beforehand. As a result, the electric connection ports of the electronic control box may be subject to a high mechanical stress, resulting in a pre-mature failure of the electronic control box which is costly and time consuming to replace.


An impact tool that includes an impact body made from a superhard material bonded to a substrate at a non-planer interface, the impact body having a pointed geometry that includes a substantially frustoconical portion between an apex and a base end, the substantially frustoconical portion including a tapered side wall with at least two different, contiguous slopes that together form an interior included angle which is greater than 135 degrees, and with the thickness of the impact body, as measured from the apex to the non-planar interface, being greater than the thickness of the substrate.

The invention relates to high-impact resistant tools, or impact tools, such as those installed in machinery used in a high impact-type service or operation, such as earth-boring drill bits. These tools are commonly subjected to high impact loads, vibrations, high temperatures and pressures, and other adverse conditions. Frequent replacement of the high-impact resistant tools is undesirable, though often necessary due to spalling, delamination, and abrasive wear. Accordingly, efforts have been made to increase the life of such tools.
Such efforts are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,737 to Bovenkerk, which is herein incorporated by reference for all that it contains. Bovenkerk discloses a rotary drill bit for rock drilling comprising a plurality of cutting elements mounted by interference-fit in recesses in the crown of the drill bit. Each cutting element comprises an elongated pin with a thin layer of polycrystalline diamond bonded to the free end of the pin.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,713 to Dennis, which is herein incorporated by reference for all that is contains, discloses a cutting element which has a metal carbide stud having a conic tip formed with a reduced diameter hemispherical outer tip end portion of the metal carbide stud. A layer of polycrystalline material, resistant to corrosive and abrasive materials, is disposed over the outer end portion of the metal carbide stud to form a cap. An alternate conic form has a flat tip face. A chisel insert has a transecting edge and opposing flat faces. It is also covered with a PDC layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,484,826 to Anderson which is herein incorporated by reference for all that it contains, discloses enhanced inserts are formed having a cylindrical grip and a protrusion extending from the grip. An ultra hard material layer is bonded on top of the protrusion. The inserts are mounted on a rock bit and contact the earth formations off center. The ultra hard material layer is thickest at a critical zone which encompasses a major portion of the region of contact between the insert and the earth formation. Transition layers may also be formed between the ultra hard material layer and the protrusion so as to reduce the residual stresses formed on the interface between the ultra hard material and the protrusion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,657 by Flood et al., which is herein incorporated by reference for all that it contains, discloses domed polycrystalline diamond cutting element wherein a hemispherical diamond layer is bonded to a tungsten carbide substrate, commonly referred to as a tungsten carbide stud. Broadly, the inventive cutting element includes a metal carbide stud having a proximal end adapted to be placed into a drill bit and a distal end portion. A layer of cutting polycrystalline abrasive material is disposed over the distal end portion such that an annulus of metal carbide adjacent and above the drill bit is not covered by the abrasive material layer.

Chamfered pointed enhanced diamond insert


Disclosed herein is a liquid crystal device which includes first and second substrates which face each other and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, and transitions an alignment state of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer from a spray alignment to a bend alignment to perform display or optical modulation, the liquid crystal device including: a protrusion which is provided on at least one of the first substrate and the second substrate at the side of the liquid crystal layer and has a concave portion; and an alignment film which is provided on the surfaces of the first substrate and the second substrate at the side of the liquid crystal layer so as to cover the surface of the protrusion including the concave portion.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal device, a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal device, an electronic apparatus and a projector.
2. Related Art
In a liquid crystal device such as a liquid crystal television set or a liquid crystal projector, improvement of image quality of a still image or a moving image is required. In order to improve the image quality of the moving image, a response speed of the liquid crystal device should be increased. Recently, an optical compensated bend (OCB) mode liquid crystal device having a high response speed has been attracting much attention.
In the OCB mode liquid crystal device, alignment of liquid crystal molecules varies between an initial state and a display operation state. In the initial state, the alignment of the liquid crystal molecules is adjusted such that the molecules are aligned in a spray shape between two substrates (spray alignment). In the display operation state, the alignment of the liquid crystal molecules is adjusted such that the molecules are aligned in a bend shape between the two substrates (bend alignment).
When image display or optical modulation is performed in the OCB mode liquid crystal device, a drive voltage is applied in a bend alignment state. In the bend alignment state, since a time period from a time point when the voltage is applied to a time point when the alignment of liquid crystal molecules is switched is shorter than that of a TN mode or STN mode liquid crystal device, light transmissivity of a liquid crystal layer can be changed in a short time and thus a high-speed response is possible.
In the OCB mode liquid crystal device, when the alignment of the liquid crystal molecules is changed from the spray alignment to the bend alignment, a voltage larger than or equal to a threshold voltage needs to be applied to the liquid crystal layer (initial transition operation). If the initial transition operation is insufficient, the change from the spray alignment to the bend alignment is insufficient. Thus, a display failure occurs or the response speed is decreased. Accordingly, a configuration for generating a bend transition nucleus in order to facilitate the initial transition has been disclosed (see, for example, JP-A-11-7018).
The configuration for generating the bend transition nucleus in order to facilitate the initial transition is efficient. More particularly, a configuration for generating a bend transition nucleus to easily bend-align liquid crystal molecules is required.

OCB liquid crystal device with a protrusion having a concave portion at its tip, method of manufacturing liquid crystal device, electronic apparatus, and projector