To provide an active matrix electronic device capable of performing clear color gray-scale display. The electronic device is characterized in that a plurality of pixels composing a pixel portion is surrounded by a source signal line, a first gate signal line, a second gate signal line, and a power supply line, and that the plurality of pixels have a switching TFT, an EL driving TFT, an eliminating TFT, and an EL element, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic display (electro-optical device) formed by fabricating an EL (electroluminescence) element on a substrate. Particularly, the present invention relates to an EL display using a semiconductor element (an element employing a semiconductor thin film), and furthermore to electronic equipment using the EL display as a display portion.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, remarkable progress has been made in a technique for forming TFTs on a substrate, and developing the application of TFTs to an active matrix display device is proceeding. TFTs using a poly-silicon film, in particular, have a higher electric field effect mobility (also referred to as mobility) than that of conventional TFTs using an amorphous silicon film, and hence a high speed operation may be made. Thus, control of pixels, which in the past has been controlled by a driver circuit external to a substrate, can now be made by driver circuits formed on the same substrate as the pixels.
Various merits such as reduction of manufacturing cost, miniaturization of a display device, and increase of yield and throughput can be obtained from such an active matrix display device by forming various circuits and elements on the same substrate.
A research on active matrix EL displays having an EL element as a self-luminous element is being actively carried out. The EL display is also referred to as an organic EL display (OLED) or an organic light emitting diode (OLED).
Unlike a liquid crystal display, the EL display is a self-luminous type. The El element has a structure composed of a pair of electrodes (anode and cathode) and an EL layer, which is usually a laminate structure, sandwiched therebetween. The laminate structure (hole transporting layer, light-emitting layer, electron transporting layer) proposed by Tang, et al. from Eastman Kodak Company can be cited as a typical laminate structure of the EL layer. This laminate structure has an extremely high luminescence efficiency, and therefore at present, most of the EL displays in which research and development are proceeding adopt this laminate structure of the EL layer.
In addition to the above laminate structure, a structure in which the layers are laminated on the anode in the order of a hole injection layer, a hole transporting layer, a light-emitting layer, and an electron transporting layer or in the order of a hole injection layer, a hole transporting layer, a light-emitting layer, an electron transporting layer, and an electron injection layer may be formed. The light-emitting layer may be doped with a fluorescent pigment or the like.
The EL layer is a generic term in the present specification indicating all the layers formed between the cathode and anode. Therefore, the above-mentioned hole injection layer, the hole transporting layer, the light-emitting layer, the electron transporting layer, the electron injection layer, etc. are all included in the EL layer.
A predetermined voltage from the pair of electrodes is applied to the EL layer having the above structure, whereby a re-coupling of carriers in the light-emitting layer occurs to thereby emit light. It is to be noted that throughout the present specification, the emission of light by the EL element is called a drive by the EL element. In addition, a luminescent element formed of the anode, the EL layer, and the cathode is called the EL element in the present specification.
A driving method of the analog system (analog drive) can be cited as a driving method of the EL display. An explanation regarding the analog drive of the EL display will be made with references to FIGS. 18 and 19.
FIG. 18 is a diagram showing the structure of a pixel portion in the EL display having the analog drive. A gate signal line (plurality of gate signal lines G1 to Gy) for inputting a selecting signal from a gate signal line driver circuit is connected to a gate electrode of a switching TFT 1801 of the respective pixels. As to a source region and a drain region of the switching TFT 1801 of the respective pixels, one is connected to a source signal line (also called a data signal line) S1 to Sx for inputting an analog video signal whereas the other is connected to a gate electrode of an EL driving TFT 1804 and a capacitor 1808 of each of the pixels, respectively.
A source region of the EL driving TFT 1804 of each of the pixels is connected to a power supply line (V1 to Vx), and a drain region thereof is connected to an EL element 1806, respectively. An electric potential of the power supply lines (V1 to Vx) is called a power supply electric potential. Each of the power supply lines (V1 to Vx) is connected to the capacitor 1808 of the respective pixels.
The EL element 1806 is composed of an anode, a cathode, and an EL layer sandwiched therebetween. When the anode of the EL element 1806 is connected to either the source region or the drain region of the EL driving TFT 1804, the anode and the cathode of the EL element 1806 become a pixel electrode and an opposing electrode, respectively. Alternatively, if the cathode of the EL element 1806 is connected to either the source region or the drain region of the EL driving TFT 1804, then the anode of the EL element 1806 becomes the opposing electrode whereas the cathode thereof becomes the pixel electrode.
It is to be noted that in the present specification, an electric potential of the opposing electrode is referred to as an opposing electric potential and a power supply for applying the opposing electric potential to the opposing electrode is referred to as an opposing power supply. An EL driver voltage, which is the electric potential difference between an electric potential of the pixel electrode and an electric potential of the opposing electrode, is applied to the EL layer.
FIG. 19 is a timing chart illustrating the EL display shown in FIG. 18 when it is being driven by the analog system. A period from the selection of one gate signal line to the selection of a next different gate signal line is called a 1 line period (L). In addition, a period from the display of one image to the display of the next image corresponds to a 1 frame period (F). In the case of the EL display of FIG. 18, there are "y" number of the gate signal lines and thus a "y" number of line periods (L1 to Ly) are provided in 1 frame period.
Because the number of line periods in 1 frame period increases as resolution becomes higher, driver circuits must be driven at high frequencies.
First of all, the power supply lines (V1 to Vx) are held at a constant power supply electric potential, and the opposing electric potential that is the electric potential of the opposing electrode is also held at a constant electric potential. There is a difference in electric potential between the opposing electric potential and the power supply electric potential to a degree that the EL element can emit light.
A selecting signal from the gate signal line driver circuit is fed to the gate signal line G1 in the first line period (L1). An analog video signal is then sequentially inputted to source signal lines S1 to Sx. All the switching TFTs connected to the gate signal line G1 are turned ON to thereby feed the analog video signal that is inputted to the source signal lines to the gate electrode of the EL driving TFT through the switching TFT.
The amount of current flowing in a channel forming region of the EL driving TFT is controlled by the level (voltage) of the electric potential of the signal inputted to the gate electrode of the EL driving TFT. Accordingly, the electric potential applied to the pixel electrode of the EL element is determined by the level of the electric potential of the analog video signal that is inputted to the gate electrode of the EL driving TFT. The emission of light by the EL element is thus controlled by the electric potential of the analog video signal.
The above described operation is repeated and the first line period (L1) ends upon the completion of inputting the analog video signal to the source signal lines S1 to Sx. Note that a period until the completion of inputting the analog video signal to the source signal lines S1 to Sx and a horizontal retrace period may be combined as one line period. Next, a selecting signal is fed to the gate signal line G2 in the second line period (L2). Similar to the first line period (L1), an analog video signal is sequentially inputted to the source signal lines S1 to Sx.
When the selecting signals have been inputted to all the gate signal lines (G1 to Gy), all the line periods (L1 to Ly) are completed to thereby complete 1 frame period. Display is performed by all the pixels in the 1 frame period to form one image. Note that all the line periods (L1 to Ly) and a vertical retrace period may be combined as one frame period.
Thus, the amount of light emitted by the EL element is controlled by the analog video signal and gray-scale display is therefore performed by this control of the amount of light emitted. This system is a driving system which is referred to as the so-called analog drive method where gray-scale display is performed by the variations of the electric potential of the analog video signal fed to the source signal lines.
The state in which the amount of current supplied to the EL element is controlled by the gate voltage of the EL driving TFT will be explained in detail using FIGS. 20A and 20B.
FIG. 20A is a graph showing a transistor characteristic of the EL driving TFT. A curve line denoted by the reference numeral 401 is referred to as IDS−VGS characteristic (or IDS−VGS curve) where the IDS is a drain current and the VGS is a gate voltage. The amount of current flow to an arbitrary gate voltage can be perceived from this graph.
A region within the dotted line indicated by the reference numeral 402 in the above IDS−VGS characteristic is normally the range for driving the EL element. An enlarge view of the region 402 within the dotted line is shown in FIG. 20B.
In FIG. 20B, a region marked by slanted lines is called a saturated area. This region actually indicates a gate voltage that is near a threshold voltage (VTH) or less. The drain current makes exponential changes to the changes of the gate voltage in this region, and therefore current control is carried out based on the gate voltage using this region.
The analog video signal inputted to the plurality of pixels becomes the gate voltage of the EL driving TFT when the switching TFT is ON. In accordance with the IDS−VGS characteristic shown in FIG. 20A, the drain current to the gate voltage becomes 1 to 1 at this point. In other words, the electric potential of the drain region (EL driver electric potential is ON) is determined in correspondence with the voltage of the analog video signal fed to the gate electrode of the EL driving TFT. Then a predetermined drain current flows to the EL element, whereby the EL element emits light according to the amount of luminescence which corresponds to the amount of drain current.
The amount of luminescing by the EL element is thus controlled by the video signal, and gray-scale display is performed in accordance with this control of the amount of luminescing.
However, the above-mentioned analog drive has a drawback in that it is extremely weak to the characteristic variation of the TFT. For example, let's assume a case where the IDS−VGS characteristic of the switching TFT is different from the switching TFT of an adjacent pixel displaying the same tone.
In this case, the drain current of the respective switching TFTs differ depending on the level of variation, with the result of having different gate voltages applied to the EL driving TFTs of each of the pixels. That is, different currents flow to each of the EL elements resulting in having different amounts of luminescence, and therefore the same gray-scale display cannot be performed.
In addition, even if equivalent gate voltages are applied to the EL driving TFTs of each of the pixels, if there are variations in the IDS−VGS characteristic of the EL driving TFTs, then equivalent drain currents cannot be outputted. As is apparent from the graph of FIG. 20A, the region where the drain current exponentially changes to the changes of the gate voltage is used, and therefore if there is even a slight shift in the IDS−VGS characteristic, a situation occurs where there is a vast difference in the outputted amount of current regardless of the fact that equivalent gate voltages were applied. When such situation occurs, in spite of inputting signals having the same voltage, the amount of luminescence of the EL element is immensely different from that of the adjacent pixel caused by the slight variation of the IDS−VGS characteristic.
In fact, the variation of IDS−VGS characteristic becomes a multiplier effect of both of the variations of the switching TFT and the EL driving TFT, thereby becoming more conditionally severe. Thus, the analog drive is very susceptible to the characteristic variation of the TFT, a point which had become an obstacle in the gray-scale display of conventional active matrix EL displays.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


In a switching power-supply unit in which a series circuit comprising a primary winding of a switching transformer and a switching device is provided across the terminals of an input power supply, a noise-eliminating bypass capacitor is connected across the ends of the series circuit. The bypass capacitor forms a short circuit path for high frequency noise having a frequency higher than the switching frequency of the switching device, thereby reducing high-frequency radiant noise.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a switching power-supply unit in which radiant noises from high frequency waves are reduced.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional forward switching power-supply unit will be described with reference to FIG. 5. 1 denotes an input power supply in which, for example, a rectifying circuit for rectifying a commercial power-supply voltage has a large capacitance capacitor, such as electrolytic capacitors, connected in parallel. The terminals of the input power supply 1 are connected in series to an input circuit comprising a primary winding 2a for a switching transformer 2, a switching device such as a field effect transistor (hereinafter referred to as an "FET") 3, and a resistor R1 comprising a current-detecting circuit 4. The input-power supply circuit 1 and an interconnection pattern for connecting them form a current-loop circuit a in which a current having a switching frequency flows, as indicated by a broken line, are disposed on a mounting circuit base.
The current-detecting circuit 4 may contain, instead of the resistor R1, a current transformer Tc shown in FIG. 6. FIG. 6 shows part of the switching power-supply unit.
A secondary winding 2b for the switching transformer 2 is connected to a rectifying and smoothing circuit 5. The rectifying and smoothing circuit 5 comprises a rectifying circuit and a smoothing circuit. The rectifying circuit comprises a rectifying diode D1 and a commutating diode D2. The anodes of the rectifying diode D1 and the commutating diode D2 are connected together. The anode of the rectifying diode Dl is connected to the start of the secondary winding 2b, and the anode of the commutating diode D2 is connected to the end of the secondary winding 2b.
The smoothing circuit comprises a choke input inductor L1 and a capacitor C1. One electrode of the inductor L1 is connected to the cathodes of the rectifying diode D1 and the commutating diode D2. The output of the rectifying and smoothing circuit 5 is supplied to a load 7 via the output terminals 6a and 6b of the switching power-supply unit.
An error-detecting circuit 8 is connected across the output terminals 6a and 6b. The error-detecting circuit 8 contains a parallel circuit of a series circuit comprising a photodiode Pd and a shunt regulator Sr, and a series circuit comprising voltage dividing resistors R2 and R3. The reference terminal of the shunt regulator Sr is connected to the point at which the voltage resistors R2 and R3 are connected.
The collector of a phototransistor Pt which is photocoupled to the photodiode Pd is connected to the feedback terminal Fb of a control circuit 9, and the emitter is connected to ground.
The output terminal 9a of the control circuit 9 is connected to the gate of the FET 3, and the current-detecting terminal 9b is connected to the source of the FET 3. The control circuit 9 includes a pulse width modulation (PWM) circuit or pulse frequency modulation (PFM) circuit, and provides for the switching of the FET 3 with a driving signal having a pulse width or pulse-repetition frequency changed in accordance with an error signal fed back from the error-detecting circuit 8. The control circuit 9 includes a breaking circuit for switching off the FET 3.
Next, the operation of the switching power-supply unit shown in FIG. 5 will be described.
While the switching power-supply unit is stable, the FET 3 is switched on and off by driving signal pulses as shown in FIG. 7(c). Accordingly, in the primary winding 2a of the transformer 2, a trapezoid-pulse current i.sub.2a as shown in FIG. 7(a) flows, and in the secondary winding 2b, a trapezoid-pulse current i.sub.2b as shown in FIG. 7(b) flows.
In other words, switching on the FET 3 at time t1 applies a voltage V.sub.in from the input power supply 1 across the ends of the primary winding 2a. Accordingly, the current starts to flow rapidly in the primary winding 2a, and a voltage V.sub.2b is induced across the ends of the secondary winding 2b, which is electromagnetically coupled to the primary winding 2a. The induced voltage V.sub.2b is proportional to the turns ratio (N2b/N2a) of the number of turns N2b of the secondary winding and the number of turns N2a of the primary winding 2a.
In the forward switching power-supply unit, the induced voltage V.sub.2b forward biases the rectifying diode D1. This allows a current to flow in the loop of the secondary winding 2b, the rectifying diode D1, the inductor L1 and the capacitor C1, which charges the capacitor C1. The voltage V.sub.C1 across the electrodes of the capacitor C1 is supplied to the load 7. The voltage VL1 across the electrodes of the inductor L1 is (V.sub.2b-V.sub.C1). Accordingly, when the inductance of the inductor L1 is L, and the conductive period of the FET 3 is t.sub.on (t1-t2), the current i.sub.2b flowing in the secondary winding 2b can be given by the following expression: EQU d(i.sub.2b)={(V.sub.2b -V.sub.C1)/L}.multidot.dt
where 0.ltoreq.t.ltoreq.t.sub.on. During the conductive period t.sub.on, the current i.sub.b2 gradually increases over time.
Switching off the FET 3 at time t2 rapidly increases the current i.sub.2a flowing in the primary 2a. Accordingly, the transmission of power from the primary winding 2a to the secondary winding 2b is lost, so that both currents i.sub.2a and i.sub.2b cannot flow in a non-conductive period t.sub.off (t2-t3) during which the FET 3 is switched off. During the non-conductive period t.sub.off, reverse electromotive force is generated in the inductor L1. As a result, the current flows in the loop of the inductor L1, the capacitor C1 and the commutating diode D2, and the capacitor C1 discharges.
As a result, during the conductive period t.sub.on of the FET 3, the trapezoid-pulse currents i.sub.2a and i.sub.2b flow in the primary winding 2a and the secondary winding 2b.
Next, the case where the voltages of the output terminals 6a and 6b change will be described.
If it is assumed that the input power supply 1 or the load 7 causes the voltage of the output terminal 6a to increase, the voltage of the connection point of the voltage dividing resistors R2 and R3 also increases, and the reference voltage of the shunt regulator Sr also increases, which reduces the internal resistance between the anode and the cathode and which increases the current flowing in the photodiode Pd. This current increase reduces the internal resistance between the collector and emitter of the phototransistor Pt and the potential of the feedback terminal Fb of the control circuit 9.
Accordingly, the control circuit 9 controls the FET 3 by reducing the conductive period percentage or frequency of a control signal. This reduces the power transmitted from the primary winding 2a to the secondary winding 2b, which reduces the output voltage of the rectifying and smoothing circuit 5, namely, the output voltage across the output terminals 6a and 6b, so that the original working condition is restored.
In addition, when the voltage of the output terminal 6a decreases, the error-detecting circuit 8, the control circuit 9 and the current-detecting circuit 4 operate in reverse with respect to the above-described case, and the voltage across the output terminals 6a and 6b increases to restore the original working condition.
When an abnormal condition occurs, such as the short-circuiting of the load 7, in order to prevent damage due to an excess current in the FET 3, the current-detecting circuit 4 detects the current flowing in the FET 3 (via the voltage across the ends of resistor R1 or a voltage induced in the secondary winding of current transformer Tc shown in FIG. 6).
The detected voltage is used such that it is compared with a reference voltage in the control circuit 9, and when it exceeds the reference voltage, the FET 3 is switched off.
Recently, there has been employed a current mode control has been used in which the signal detected by the current-detecting circuit 4 is actively used as a control signal for the FET 3 because the current flowing in the FET 3 is proportional to the voltage of the input power supply 1.
According to conventional switching power-supply units, in general, the FET 3 is switched on and off at a frequency of 100 to 500 kHz. While the FET 3 is in the conductive condition t.sub.on, a rapidly rising and dropping trapezoid-pulse current flows in the current-loop circuit a, indicated by a broken line in both FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, in which a current having a switching frequency flows. A voltage having a frequency higher than the switching period is generated, caused by a leakage inductance from the primary winding 2a of the transformer 2 and the parasitic capacitances of the terminals of the switching device 3, and further by the parasitic capacitance and parasitic inductance of the circuit interconnections. A noise current having a high frequency not less than several MHz is superimposed on the trapezoid pulse currents i.sub.2a and i.sub.2b flowing in the primary winding 2a and the secondary winding 2b, as shown in FIGS. 7(a) and 7(b).
When the trapezoid pulse current i.sub.2a on which the high frequency noise current is superimposed flows in the current-loop circuit a, radiant noise, such as line spectrum envelope Sa, is generated in a high frequency band, as shown in FIG. 2. The radiant noise tends to increase in proportion to the area of the current-loop circuit a on the mounting circuit base. This is because the circuit interconnection in which the switching frequency current having a high frequency lengthens as the area of the current-loop circuit a enlarges and the current-loop circuit a lengthens.
Accordingly, reducing the radiant noise requires an extreme reduction of the area of the current-loop circuit a on the mounting circuit base. Therefore, it is required to reduce the sizes of circuit components included in the current-loop circuit a and areas on which the components are mounted. Concerning the components included in the current-loop circuit a, the size reduction of the switching transformer 2 and the size reduction of the FET 3 are in progress by making the switching current have a high frequency and employing finer device processing, respectively.
Conversely, when the current-detecting circuit 4 is formed using the resistor R1, the size of the resistor R1 is determined by the loss, which makes it difficult to reduce its size. In addition, as shown in FIG. 6, when the current-detecting circuit 4 is formed using the current transformer Tc, the number of turns of its secondary winding cannot be reduced so as to prevent the saturation of the current transformer Tc, which also makes it difficult to reduce its size. As described, among the circuit components included in the current-loop circuit a, size reduction of the current-detecting circuit 4 is difficult, which limits the reduction of the current-loop circuit a.


This portable appliance can be used to clean teeth by liquid (water or solution) containing dissolved ozone, which is a potent oxidizer and germ killer. Preferably, its cleaning action is enhanced by pulsations of the liquid stream. The dissolved ozone can reduce or eliminate gingivitis, gum bleeding, bad breath, teeth stains, and harmful oral bacteria. This appliance can also be used for nasal irrigation for sinusitis treatment and for ear irrigation, eye care, and general cleaning. Additionally, since its output pump is independent of the ozone dissolving system, the ozone dissolving system can be configured as an add on device for an oral irrigator such as a Water Pik™ manufactured by WaterPik Technologies, Inc. In this configuration, the ozonated liquid is delivered by either gravity or pumped flow, to the original reservoir connection with the irrigator serving as the delivery portion of this invention.

By this invention, we have improved upon the portable oral irrigation device. WaterPik™ is a well-known trade name belonging to WaterPik Technologies, Inc. The WaterPik™ is an example of the type of consumer appliance we are improving. By dissolving ozone in the liquid and removing the undissolved gas from the dispensed liquid, we are able to deliver a potent oxidizing liquid to the oral cavity. The benefits of oxidation are known and will be detailed in the summary of the invention. We believe the addition of dissolved ozone to an oral irrigant to be a significant and beneficial improvement to oral irrigators without dissolved ozone. We also believe dissolved ozone to be much more effective at oxidizing oral bacteria than undissolved ozone gas transported to a point of desired disinfection. It also should be noted that an ozone-containing gas potent enough to cause disinfection is known to be offensive to the sense of smell.


A photoresist composition comprising                a resin which has no acid-labile group and which comprises a structural unit represented by formula (I);

As a method for forming a negative photoresist pattern, JP2010-197413A1 mentions a positive type photoresist composition for immersion exposure, which comprises:    a fluorine-containing macromolecular compound (F1) which comprises a structural unit having a base-dissociable group and a structural unit represented by the following general formula (f2-1);
    where R represents a hydrogen atom, a C1-C5 alkyl group, or a C1-C5 halogenated alkyl group, and    W represents a polycyclic hydrocarbon-containing group,    a base component (A) which shows increased solubility in an alkaline developer by action of an acid, and    a compound which generates an acid by exposure.
"Monthly Display", June, 2011, page 31, published by Techno Times Co., Ltd., teaches that development with positive developer gives positive photoresist pattern, and development with negative developer gives negative photoresist pattern, in a process of forming photoresist pattern from photoresist composition by photolithography.

Photoresist composition and method for producing photoresist pattern

Abstract: and a structural unit represented by formula (a4);

Abstract: a resin which has an acid-labile group; and        an acid generator.


A telescoping box includes a lid. The upper section of the box includes lids which are frictionally engagable therewith. The lids include speaker assemblies as part of each lid. The lids are removable and include connection points for audio signal sources such as MP3 players.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a portable box for carrying items. More particularly, the invention relates to a portable box for carrying items such as foldable chairs, which is adjustable in size and includes integrated speakers connectable to sources of audio content such as MP3 players, for allowing playing of such audio content in recreational environments.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Folding chairs have become extremely popular for use in outdoor activities in a number of different forms. More specifically, at weekend family sporting events many families can be seen carrying folding chairs to and from the events, and using the chairs for seating during the events on the sidelines. Similarly, such chairs are also used by campers, in picnic environments and virtually any other outdoor activity in which a user may wish to have a seating surface available.
Current folding chairs designs generally involve chairs which have a foldable frame and multiple fabric or canvas panels making up back, arm and seat surfaces thereof. Such chairs are typically easily transported in sacks which are in many cases made up of a bag body of sufficient volume to have the chair in folded condition inserted therein, as well as other accessories such as an attachable umbrella which attaches to a frame member of the chair, for example, to provide shade on sunny days. Further, such bags or sacks typically also include an attached strap to facilitate carrying of the folding chair on a shoulder.
As a result of an increase in outdoor activities, use of devices such as MP3 players have become quite popular, for example, with outdoor enthusiasts who exercise through jogging, and other like activities. One advantage of such MP3 devices is that they are light and easily carried without hindering activities such as jogging, biking and other physical activities. However, such MP3 devices can generally be used in an outdoor environment by only one person, and the audio content of the devices such as music, cannot be shared with others in a social setting where a multitude of people would be gathered in a relaxed environment using the aforementioned folding chairs, such as in camping.
One prior art attempt to remedy this problem provides a folding chair that comes with a portable stereo system. Such a system offers people a different approach on how a folding chair can be utilized providing entertainment enjoyment in one device in order to reduce traveling difficulties. However, such a device suffers from the disadvantage that as a result of containing a complete portable stereo system, the chair is heavy and difficult to carry and requires a multitude of complex components, such as a mini boom box, battery pack, audio frequency receiver, audio frequency wire and speakers.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a device and system allowing comfortable transport of items such as folding chairs for use in outdoor environments which also allows sharing of content on MP3 players, such as music.


A quantum dot light-emitting device and a display apparatus including the same, the device including a light-emitting device that emits a first light; a quantum dot layer facing the light-emitting device, the quantum dot layer including a plurality of quantum dots, absorbing the first light, and emitting a second light and a third light that have different wavelength ranges compared to the first light; and a band pass filter on the quantum dot layer, the band pass filter cutting off a portion of the second light and a portion of the third light.

1. Field
Embodiments relate to a quantum dot light-emitting device and a display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Flat panel display apparatuses may include, e.g., liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), and organic light-emitting display apparatuses. LCDs may have advantages of excellent visibility, a simple thin film fabrication technology, low power and less heat emission, and may be used in mobile devices, computer monitors, and TVs.
An LCD is a light-receiving type display apparatus that forms an image by receiving light externally, e.g., not through self-emission. Thus, the LCD may include a backlight unit in a lower part of a liquid crystal display panel, and may display an image by using light emitted from the backlight unit.
A light-emitting diode (LED) that has an excellent effect in saving energy and has fast response speeds may be used as a light source of such a backlight unit. A LED backlight unit may enhance the characteristics of the LCD.

Quantum dot light-emitting device and display apparatus


A method, and apparatus, and a software product for implementing a method for interacting with a computer-based management system including authoring and communicating composite data messages, each composite data message comprising both free-text and structured data, such that the structured data represents the intended meaning of the free-text in a form understandable by the computer-based management system. In one version, authoring includes converting free-text to structured data. One version includes communicating the composite message.

For the purpose of the description herein, the term "computer-based management system" is used to refer to a computer-implemented method operating on a processing system. The method is for assisting the management of human collaborative undertakings, and uses at least one of a user interface for a human user (the "user interface"), a collection of behaviors, a data store and/or a collection of one or more interfaces (APIs) for programmatically accessing the computer-based management system.
Today, there exists a wide variety of computer-based management systems for assisting the management of human collaborative undertakings, such undertakings including one-off (i.e., once only) activities, groups of activities, e.g., projects and subprojects, as well as repeating and business-as-usual activities. Typically, such a computer-based management system provides for storing, retrieving and manipulating at least one pre-determined type of data, e.g., a data object type for a task. One example of a computer-based management system is a computer-based project management system.
Some typical applications for computer-based management systems include but are not restricted to:                Planning projects, e.g., planning work breakdown structures and individual activities.        Tracking actual performance and comparing that performance with a plan, e.g., the original plan.        Reporting and highlighting deviation of actual performance from the original plan.        Scheduling the use of human and material resources.        Recording costs and time spent on individual activities and projects.        Creating high-level overviews of current status and progress.
The functions carried out by a computer-based management system are sometimes called behaviors. As used herein, a behavior of a computer-based management system is one of:                Storing, retrieving and/or manipulating data related to at least one human undertaking, e.g., data representing real-world activities, risks and issues.        Displaying such data; generating reports, e.g., for on-screen display and for printing; analyzing data stored by the computer-based management system, e.g., performance assessments for individual employees.        Providing additional support for typical management activities, including, for example, one or more of: project schedule planning, e.g., by providing for automated Gantt chart or other planning chart creation; resource scheduling; budgeting; work breakdown structure creating; workflow automation; progress reporting; automated dashboard views; reporting; monitoring standards compliance, and so forth.
For the purpose of the description herein, by a computer-based management system being able to "handle" data of a data object type is meant that the computer-based management system is able to store, retrieve, and/or manipulate that type of data. Typically, the types of data handled by a given computer-based management system are pre-determined. In some cases, the computer-based management system also is configurable to handle additional data object types. Some examples of data object types handled by computer-based management systems include tasks, projects, subprojects, phases, project portfolios, risks, issues, decisions, resolutions, meeting minutes, notes, timesheet entries, budgets, and so forth.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that computer-based management systems typically store and manipulate data in a structured data format. Such data in structured data format (the "structured data") includes discrete data objects of known type. Each data object has one or more associated data structures that includes at least one discrete data field of known type, each data field able to contain a value. For example, a data object of type "Project" has an associated data structure that includes a name data field that is a fixed-width string, a start date data field, an end date data field, and a description data field that is a free-text data field. Furthermore, some computer-based management systems provide for data objects referencing other data objects. For example, a task data object references a project data object, which may be used to indicate that the referring task belongs to the referenced project.
Therefore, as used herein, "structured data" refers to data that can be input, stored, retrieved, and/or manipulated by a computer-based management system.
As one example, consider a computer-based management system that stores data in a relational database. The handled data in this example computer-based management system is stored as records in tables, and references between data objects are stored as foreign keys. In such an example, a structured data object has at least one record for a table for use in a relational database. One example of providing data for a structured data object is filling in a form, the filling of the form providing one or more fields of the associated data structure(s), e.g., of a record meant for a table.
As another example, a computer-based management system might store data in an XML file, including storing the handled data as XML elements, storing the data fields as element attributes, and storing the references using element nesting.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are many forms possible for storing data handled by computer-based management systems. Furthermore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that in some computer-based management systems data is presented to the user as a single conceptual data object, but is stored as one or more data structures in the data store of the computer-based management system. For the purpose of the description herein, unless explicitly otherwise indicated, the term "data object" or "structured data object" always refers to a conceptual data object, e.g., a task, or an issue, and associated with each such data object are one or more physical data structures that a specific computer-based management system uses to store and manipulate the data of the data object. The one or more physical data structures are collectively called the structured data of the data object. Structured data may refer to more than one data object; such structured data is referred to as the structured data corresponding to the more than one data objects.
In addition to handling data, some computer-based management systems provide other support for management activities, including, for example, project schedule planning, e.g., by providing automated Gantt chart creation, resource scheduling, budgeting, work breakdown structure creating, workflow automation, progress reporting, automated dashboard views, and reporting and monitoring standards of compliance.
Embodiments of such systems range from a simple document template, e.g., a spreadsheet for entering all current risks according to the pre-determined structure of the spreadsheet, to sophisticated, purpose-built programs, e.g., Primavera Project Planner by Primavera Systems, Inc., and Microsoft Project (TM). Those skilled in the art will appreciate that a single organization might operate many such computer-based management systems, each computer-based management system for assisting a different aspect of managing the organization's activities in accordance with the standards and rules of the organization.
Typically, users interact with a computer-based management system by directly accessing a user interface provided by the computer-based management system. A typical user interface might include at least one fillable "form," the form having a pre-determined collection of controls for at least one of: viewing data, editing data, triggering a behavior, and/or navigating to other forms. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that in many cases the data controls of a form are largely determined by the structure of the structured data format (the "schema") used by the data store.
Furthermore, some computer-based management systems permit other software products to interact by means of an application programming interface ("API"), the API providing for programmatic access to at least one of behavior and data included in the computer-based management system. Typically, programmatic access to data requires the use of a structured data format, i.e. a schema, and typically that schema is also based on the schema used by the data store of the computer-based management system.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the use of structured data in computer-based management systems provides several important advantages over simply storing a collection of free-text documents, including simplifying the automated interpretation and understanding of the data, simplifying the code for handling the data, improving the speed and efficiency of data handling, and providing for simpler reporting and summarization of the data.
A typical interaction with such a computer-based management system is shown in simplified conceptual form in FIG. 1. In this embodiment the computer-based management system includes a management program 120 that implements a user interface, the behaviors, and the API of the computer-based management system, and a database 110 for the data store of the computer-based management system.
A user acting as author 150, e.g., a manager creating a new task and allocating that task to an employee, creates a new data object, e.g., the task, by interacting with the user interface provided by the management program 120. The interacting requires the user to navigate to the correct form for entering data field values for the new data object. As an example, the user interface might provide a New Tasks Form.
Once the user enters the data in the appropriate form, the management program 120 stores the information in the database 110.
Consider another user acting as a recipient 160, e.g., as the employee to whom the new task has been allocated. Such a recipient 160 interacts with the user interface of the management program 120 to request information. In this example, the employee requests to see all tasks allocated to him/her.
In many cases, users will at times act as authors and at other times act as recipients. In some cases, the author of a data object is also one of the eventual recipients of information he/she has created, e.g., a manager creates a new task and retrieves that task at a later time.
FIG. 4 illustrates this same typical interaction in Gane-Sarson data flow diagram notation.
As is evident in the above example, typical computer-based management systems force an indirect communication between the author and the intended recipients of that information. Both the author and the eventual recipients of that information feel they are interacting with the computer-based management system rather than interacting directly with each other.
In some cases, possibly in many cases, users will feel that it is better or even necessary to communicate important information directly, even if that information has been entered into a computer-based management system. For example, a manager allocating an important task to an employee might enter the task into the computer-based management system, but also sends an email to the employee in order to communicate the information directly. In this example case, the manager is effectively forced to create the data twice—once entering it into the computer-based management system and again writing it in an email.
To overcome this problem, some computer-based management systems automate the sending of an email to users who are intended recipients of some information in the computer-based management system. For example, Microsoft Project Server™ automates the sending of emails for the purpose of notifying users that changes have been made to the tasks of a project, and for the purpose of alerting users of upcoming and overdue events for which they are responsible.
However, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, automated emails lack the sense of immediacy and direct interpersonal communication of an email sent directly from one user to another.
Furthermore, since automated emails are typically created according to a very limited set of templates, each automated email will look very similar to other automated emails created from the same template. Thus, automated emails tend to be less effective at securing the appropriate level of attention from a recipient than emails created by a human. In some cases, possibly in many cases, users begin to anticipate that the automated emails will fail to have the desired effect on recipients, and will therefore choose to manually author additional emails to achieve the desired level of communication. In such situations, not only are authors of data duplicating their efforts in authoring data, but recipients receive multiple emails in relation to the same information. Users already struggling with managing the contents of growing email inboxes are additionally burdened with having to deal with redundant emails.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that in some cases, possibly in many cases, users limit their use of computer-based management systems over time, and in some cases, users might cease regular use of the computer-based management system altogether.
On the other hand, the free-text format of email permits users to select for each email the most appropriate structure, content, wording, and layout for the purpose of communicating the data to the specific intended recipient(s). However, since prior art computer-based management systems typically require structured data, and emails include free-text, the use of emails as a source of data for use in computer-based management systems is typically limited to treating the entire email as a single data object. For example, Problem Tracker™ by Net Results Corporation, Palo Alto, Calif., treats any received email as a single issue. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that often emails will include data that, when converted to structured data, would actually result in multiple data objects, possibly of varying types, and possibly handled by multiple disjoint computer-based management systems. Thus, treating an email as a single data object is not sufficient in many cases, and places severe constraints on a user's freedom to select the content of the email.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a method of interacting with a computer-based management system, including creating, editing, or deleting structured data in the computer-based management system, the method also including communicating the data to any intended human recipient(s) in the form of a free-text message.
Furthermore, users of a computer-based management system must learn how to interact with that specific computer-based management system prior to effective use. The more feature-rich the computer-based management system, the longer and difficult the learning period is likely to be.
In an organization where multiple computer-based management systems are in use, e.g., where separate project, risk, and issue computer-based management systems are used, it is necessary for users to learn how to use and navigate multiple systems. Often, the method of interacting with a particular computer-based management system might differ significantly from the methods for other computer-based management systems, further lengthening the amount of time required for users to become effective.
Thus there exists a need in the art to standardize the method of interacting with computer-based management systems.
Furthermore, known methods for interacting with computer-based management systems typically require more effort, discipline and planning from users than communicating the same data by email. For example, a manager is writing an email to an employee to inform the employee of a new task allocation. The manager further includes in that email a list of the risks involved with the task, as well as an unrelated issue the employee is to resolve. Creating this type of information in many computer-based management systems would have required the manager to navigate to and use a form for creating tasks, a form for creating risks, a mechanism for linking risks to tasks, and a form for creating issues.
Some methods for interacting with computer-based management systems exist where structured data is created and emailed directly to the intended recipients. For example, Lotus Notes™ allows the creation of Notes Documents that can be emailed to other users as well as stored on a server. Microsoft Outlook™ allows the creation of Tasks and Meeting Invitations that can be emailed to other users.
In such methods the email client program provides the users with forms akin to the forms used in computer-based management systems, and further allows the information created in such forms to be emailed. The forms typically contain at least one data field of known type, where that type may be free-text. As with forms in computer-based management systems, users must create information according to the design of the form. Thus, such methods for interacting place the same restrictions on users with respect to the manner in which information can be created.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the lack of constraints, speed-of-use and ease-of use afforded by free-text methods typically cause users to prefer using those free-text methods, e.g., email, to interact via structured forms with computer-based management systems, and further, that in most organizations the use of email far outweighs the use of computer-based management systems.
Ideally, a new method is needed that exploits the popularity and advantages of email, that avoids necessitating a plurality of learning periods for a plurality of computer-based management systems, and that avoids the problems associated with automated emails generated from templates.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for a method for interacting with a computer-based management system, where the information is authored as free-text and converted to structured data for use by the computer-based management system, and where the free-text is then communicated directly to any intended recipients.
Furthermore, there is a need for the converting of free-text to structured data to be computer assisted, and not to require the user to manually author both the free-text and the equivalent structured data.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that prior art methods for automatically converting free-text to structured data are typically complex to implement. Furthermore, owing to the complexity in correctly interpreting the ambiguities in natural language, in some cases, possibly in many cases, prior art methods for the automatic converting of free-text result in structured data that is not in accordance with the original intention of the author of the free-text.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a method for interacting with a computer-based management system, where information is authored as free-text and converted to structured data for use by the computer-based management system, and where the converting of free-text to structured data is simple to implement and reliably produces a result in accordance with the intentions of the author.

Interacting with a computer-based management system


The present invention provides a leak-proof fluid dispensing system with a pressure sensor and an adjustable dispensing regulator, comprising: a gas cylinder and a pressure dispensing control valve. The dispensing control valve is formed outside the bottle body opening and has an internal channel that communicates with an inlet port, an outlet port, a bottle port, and the joint portion. The internal of the dispensing body includes an inlet valve, an outlet valve, a pressure dispensing regulator, a filter, and a pressure sensor. The pressure at the outlet end of pressure dispensing regulator is lower than or equal to a preset opening pressure value, the fluid is allowed to flow out. With the implementation of the present invention, it may prevent accidental leakage of fluid in the gas cylinder and dynamically monitor the flow gas capacity in the gas cylinder.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a leak-proof fluid dispensing system with pressure sensor and adjustable dispensing regulator, dispensing control valve structure with pressure sensor, and dispensing control valve structure, it is particularly designed for the storage and distribution for the toxic industrial gas such as compressed gas or liquefaction compression by using a storage container and a distributor.
2. Description of Related Art
In various industrial processes and applications, reliable hazardous and non-hazardous processing fluids are often required. For example, in semiconductor manufacturing, ion implantation, manufacturing of flat panel displays, medical interventions and treatment, water treatment, emergency breathing equipment, welding operations, liquid and gas transportation in space bases, etc., all need safe, reliable and efficient processing fluids to supply continuously to complete the relevant production or operation.
Toxic gases and other harmful special gases are often used in many industrial processing, including the manufacture of semiconductor components, because these gases can cause huge harm to humans, animals or the environment so that users of these harmful special gases will worry about the possibility of gas release by accident.
Standard compressed gas cylinder contains super-atmospheric pressure gas. Once the user end is connected to a pressurized gas cylinder and the outlet valve is opened, then the gas in the gas cylinder will be immediately released, even if the user installs the leak-proof outlet cover to meet the requirements for using dangerous gases. However, if the valve is accidentally opened in a closed plant when the outlet cover is removed, then it will cause serious casualties.
Although such incidents are not expected to happen, accidental leakages of harmful gases may still occur in semiconductor processing applications. Once such leakage events occur, some or all of the people must be immediately evacuated from semiconductor processing factory, which will lead to suddenly unplanned shutdown of the production line and a large number of scraps of products and other losses. Moreover, sensitive and expensive equipment used in semiconductor processing plants may also be damaged by exposure to harmful gases.
In order to avoid the occurrence of the above-mentioned harmful gas leakage events, many semiconductor manufacturing processes, such as ion implantation, chemical vapor deposition, reactive ion etching, high-density plasma etching, etc., use harmful sub-atmospheric pressure gas supply system all the time. In such a system, a dispensing regulator is usually installed inside of a gas cylinder, and the pressure output from the gas cylinder is set lower than a preset pressure which is under an atmospheric pressure, thereby avoiding the problem of gas leakage.
However, in the conventional gas supply systems, the valve components are installed inside of gas cylinders, not only the space for gas cylinders will be accommodated, but also causes difficulty for its setting, maintaining, or repairing. The problem is when the gas cylinder is used to store some special gas or liquid, the valve components may also be damaged due to long-term immersion in the special gas or liquid. Furthermore, when the above-mentioned gas cylinder is applied to a production line, once the gas in the cylinder is run out without warning, then the gas supply will be interrupted. At this time, the production line will be forced to stop and must wait until a new gas cylinder set again before the production line can resume operation. This will cause the risk of equipment damage and production line shutdown will also cause loss of production capacity. Therefore, how to dynamically watching the gas volume in gas cylinder is also a problem which needs to overcome at present.
In addition, because the dispensing control valve of gas cylinder is generally known of it spoor safety, then an adsorption material is set in the gas cylinder to increase the stability of the contents in the gas cylinder. Thus, it not only increases costs, also causes a significant reduction in the storage capacity of the gas cylinder.

Leak-proof fluid dispensing system with pressure sensor and adjustable dispensing regulator, dispensing control valve structure with pressure sensor, and dispensing control valve structure


The invention relates to a leaf (1) for a multi-leaf collimator (2) for delimiting a high-energy beam (3, 3′, 3″) of an irradiation device, in particular for conformational radiation therapy. According to the invention, the multi-leaf collimator (2) comprises a plurality of opposing leaves (1), which can be brought into the beam path (3, 3′, 3″) by means of drives (4), in such a way that the contour (5) of said path can be shaped in accordance with the volume to be irradiated. The need for beam-absorbent material (7) is reduced, as the leaf (1) essentially only comprises a beam-absorbent material (7) of an appropriate thickness (8) in a region (6) that is brought into the path (3, 3′, 3″) of the high-energy beam (3) during the course of all possible positional displacements (9). The invention also relates to a corresponding multi-leaf collimator (2), a device (22) for delimiting beams, and an irradiation device.

The invention concerns a leaf for a multi-leaf collimator for delimiting a high-energy beam from an irradiation device, in particular, for conformation irradiation, wherein the multi-leaf collimator comprises a plurality of mutually opposite leaves which can be moved into the beam path via drives, such that the contour of the beam path can be shaped in accordance with the volume to be irradiated.
The invention also concerns a multi-leaf collimator for delimiting a high-energy beam from an irradiation device, in particular, for conformation irradiation, comprising a plurality of mutually opposite leaves which can be moved into the beam path via drives, such that the contour of the beam path can be shaped in accordance with the volume to be irradiated.
The invention also concerns a device for delimiting a high-energy beam from an irradiation device, in particular, for conformation irradiation, comprising a multi-leaf collimator having a plurality of mutually opposite leaves which can be moved into the beam path via drives, such that the contour of the beam can be shaped in accordance with the volume to be irradiated, and with a further shielding for delimiting the path of the high-energy beam.
The invention furthermore concerns an irradiation device, in particular for stereotactic conformation irradiation, with means for delimiting a high-energy beam from the irradiation device using a multi-leaf collimator comprising a plurality of mutually opposite leaves which can be moved into the beam path via drives, such that the contour of the beam can be shaped in accordance with the volume to be irradiated, and with means for delimiting the path of the high-energy beam using further shielding.
A leaf, a multi-leaf collimator, a device for beam delimitation and an irradiation device of this type are known in the art, e.g. from EP 0 193 509 A2.
All beam-absorbing materials, large amounts of which are required for the above-mentioned tasks, have a very large specific weight which complicates handling of the collimators on the irradiation devices, in particular, exchange thereof. A further problem is that tungsten, which is advantageous as a radiation-absorbing material and is therefore most frequently used, is expensive and the price and delivery times are also subject to very large, politically dependent, variations on the world market, since tungsten is also used for the production of weapons.
It is therefore the underlying purpose of the invention to reduce the need for radiation-absorbing material to as great an extent as possible.

Leaf, multi-leaf collimator, device for delimiting beams and irradiation device


A brake/clutch locking system has a brake panel-blocking rod attached to a slidable axial tube in an axial tube to which an anti-lock mechanism is connected. A block in a chamber operatively coupled to a coil spring has a mass that produces more kinetic energy than the coil spring. The block has a shoulder portion with a shape corresponding to a protruding lower edge of a coil spring biased pin that slides into a bored hole provided in the wall of the axial tube and on the slidable axial tube, blocking movement of the slidable axial tube when an external force applied to the block creates a sufficient amount of kinetic energy to move the block from the protruding edge of the pin.

The present invention relates to an anti-lock mechanism for use with a brake/clutch locking device.
Today, many manufacturers are doing research to provide a brake/clutch locking device. However, there are still some limitations in the use of each device. Some devices include many locking mechanisms and thus lead to extremely complicated operation. This is especially true for a brake/clutch locking device in the form of a slidable axial tube used in pulling the lock. Such a device lacks a mechanism that prevents locking due to impact when the device is in the unlocked state. Sometimes, the brake/clutch locking device may unintentionally be locked while being subjected to an external impact, resulting in the driver being unable to step on the brake pedal to stop the vehicle. One of the reasons why the anti-lock mechanism has been developed for use with the brake/clutch locking device according to the present invention is to solve the above problems and provide more safety to consumers.

Brake/clutch locking device having anti-lock mechanism


A vehicle monitoring system provides real time monitoring of vehicles by receiving position and operational conditions from mobile units over a wireless communication link, such as a cellular telephony connection. In one embodiment, the mobile unit is equipped with both a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver and a dead reckoning device, which provides position information when the GPS receiver is unable to receive GPS positions from a GPS satellite (e.g., when the vehicle is in a city area surrounded by tall buildings). A novel position request protocol allows multiple position reports to be included in a single data packet, thereby reducing the air time cost of transmitting data over a cellular telephony link. A novel antenna cable detects and reports tempering of a GPS antenna.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to monitoring a vehicle using an in-vehicle navigation and communication system.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The ability to monitor in real time the location of a vehicle has many applications. For example, a stolen vehicle can be easily recovered if it is equipped with a device that reports its location. As another example, a police squad car or an ambulance can be directed to crime scene or an accident easily without requiring the driver to provide constant updates of his or her position to the dispatcher. The location of a moving vehicle can be obtained based on position information from the global positioning system (GPS) satellites. However, receiving GPS positioning information requires that the receiver is has unobstructed line-of-sight view to a GPS satellite. Such a view may not be available when the vehicle""s view to the satellite is unobstructed by surrounding tall buildings. Accordingly, a system which can overcome this problem to report adequately accurate positioning information is valuable in a vehicle monitoring system operating in a city.
The present invention provides a positioning unit (xe2x80x9cmobile unitxe2x80x9d), which includes a GPS receiver for positioning the moving vehicle. Furthermore, the mobile unit is equipped with a wireless communication capability, including internet access, using a cellular telephony communication protocol, such as GSM, CDPD, and CDMA. Where surrounding buildings obstruct the GPS receiver, the mobile unit uses a xe2x80x9cdead reckoningxe2x80x9d (DR) technique to provide positioning information. In one embodiment, a gyroscope and a digital compass are provided in the mobile unit to provide this DR capability.
The present invention can be used in conjunction with a vehicle monitoring system linked to a wide area network. In one embodiment, a monitoring station in the vehicle monitoring system communicates with the mobile unit over a wireless communication link. Such a vehicle monitoring system can hierarchically structured, so that local monitoring stations (xe2x80x9cbase stationsxe2x80x9d) can be provided to cover different vicinities in the service area of the vehicle monitoring system. These local monitoring stations are coordinated by a central monitoring station.
According to the present invention, a mobile unit which communicates with a control center of a vehicle monitoring system includes: (a) an interface to a GPS receiver for receiving from the GPS receiver a first set of position information; (b) an interface to a dead reckoning device for receiving from the dead reckoning device a second set of position information; (c) a signal processing unit selecting between the first and second sets of position information; (d) a communication interface for communicating with the control center; and (e) a control unit that controls the signal processing unit and the communication interface. In that embodiment, the control unit retrieves from the signal processing unit the selected set of position information and provides the selected set of position information to the control center over the communication interface. The control unit further includes a storage device for accumulating said selected position information. In typical operation, when the GPS receiver has unobstructed access to a GPS satellite, the mobile unit selects the GPS position information over the position information from the dead reckoning device. In one embodiment, the dead reckoning device receives signals from a digital compass.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the GPS receiver interfaced to the mobile unit includes a novel antenna cable that is designed to prevent unauthorized tempering of the GPS receiver. In one embodiment, the antenna cable includes: (a) a first conductor for providing a DC voltage to a first terminal of the antenna; (b) a second conductor for providing a ground reference to a second terminal of the antenna; and (c) a third conductor having a first end coupled to the second conductor to form a ground loop and a second end that can be made available for connection to a continuity sensing circuit. In one implementation, the third conductor has less than 2.5 ohms of impedance as seen from said second end. When the continuity sensing circuit detects an open circuit in the ground loop (e.g., the antenna cable is cut to prevent reception of GPS signals), an alarm signal is raised. The mobile unit can report the alarm condition to the control center, which can then take appropriate measures.
The present invention provides, in a vehicle monitoring system, a method for reporting position data from a mobile unit in a data packet. In that method, the mobile unit first receives from the control center a request to send a specified number of positions over a specified time interval. In response, the mobile unit acquires the number of positions from a positioning device (e.g., GPS) in the mobile unit over the specified interval, while accumulating the acquired positions in a storage device. The mobile station reports the accumulated positions in the data packet whenever the unreported acquired positions would require a report reaching a predetermined data size. Typically, the predetermined data size represents filling up the full length of data packet as much as possible. One embodiment uses an SMS data packet in a GSM/PSC communication system. Under SMS, data packet positions are reported in text mode or data mode. In addition to requesting multiple positions, the control center can also request for a single position, which is reported immediately.
The present invention has applications in transportation administration, in-road entertainment, road guidance, and theft prevention.


Transferring data segments and virtual circuit (VC) information related to the data segments across an Ethernet switch from a first connection terminating at an input port of the switch to a second connection originating at an output port of the switch involves utilizing the VC information at the input port to determine the output port of the data segment, generating tunnel frames that include the identified output port and the VC information as overhead and the data segments as payload, transferring the tunnel frames across the switch from the input port to the output port, generating new headers for the data segments using the VC information that was transferred across the switch in the tunnel frames, and transmitting the data segment, including the new header, on the second connection.

The ATM protocol is designed to carry a variety of media types in fixed-length cells with a high level of quality control. Virtual circuits are established across ATM connections to transfer particular flows from one ATM end station to another ATM end station. A VC is defined by a virtual channel (identified by a virtual channel identifier, VCI) and a virtual path (identified by a virtual path identifier, VPI) that exists between the end stations.
FIG. 1 depicts a virtual circuit (identified by a VPI/VCI combination) that is established over an ATM link that includes three ATM nodes. As shown in FIG. 1, the virtual channel extends from a first ATM enabled router 104 (router 1) through an ATM switch 106 and to a second ATM enabled router 108 (router 2).
In some network topologies, two ATM nodes may be connected by an ATM enabled Ethernet switch. For example, FIG. 2 depicts two ATM enabled routers 204 and 208 that are connected by an Ethernet switch 206 that is equipped with ATM interfaces 210 and 212. In the example, a first ATM connection is established between the first ATM enabled router and the Ethernet switch and a second ATM connection is established between the Ethernet switch and the second ATM enabled router. The ATM interfaces of the Ethernet switch act as end stations of the ATM links and therefore two VCs are needed to transfer ATM cells from the same VC between the two routers. Specifically, the first VC (VC 1) is terminated at the input to the Ethernet switch and the second VC (VC 2) is established at the output of the Ethernet switch. It would be ideal to continuously carry a single VC from the first ATM enabled router (router 1) to the second ATM enabled router (router 2), however because of the differences between ATM and Ethernet, the first ATM connection and VC are terminated at the input to the Ethernet switch and the second ATM connection and VC are established at the output port of the Ethernet switch.
One technique for mapping the second VC at the output port of the Ethernet switch involves mapping each incoming VC to a virtual local area network (VLAN) at the input port of the Ethernet switch, switching the ATM traffic from each VC through the Ethernet switch via a VLAN, and then mapping each VLAN to the proper VC at the output port of the Ethernet switch. Although this technique works well, the field for identifying VLANs in an Ethernet network is limited by the IEEE 802.1Q protocol to 12 bits, or 4,096, unique VLANs. When this technique is used to aggregate a large number of subscriber units, such as DSL modems, the small number of unique VLANs becomes the limiting factor in the scalability of the network. In addition to the scalability problem, mapping each VLAN to its proper VC at the output port of the Ethernet switch requires an additional look-up, which is a slow process that could reduce the performance of the ATM interfaces. There are also limitations on the number of learned MAC addresses that can be stored in memory. Similar problems exist when data segments from protocols, such as Frame Relay, are transferred across an Ethernet switch.
In view of the limitations involved with using VLANs to transfer data segments, such as ATM cells or Frame Relay frames, and VC information related to the data segments across an Ethernet switch, what is needed is a method and system for rapidly transferring non-Ethernet data segments and VC information across an Ethernet switch that does not require additional learning or look-ups and that scales beyond 4,096 unique identifiers.

Method and system for connecting virtual circuits across an ethernet switch


To solve the above problem, a method for manufacturing a top insulator configured to be inserted into a case of a secondary battery, according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: preparing a top insulator fabric by applying a silicone rubber to at least one surface of a glass fiber fabric formed by crossing weft yarns and warp yarns of glass fiber raw yams; and punching the top insulator fabric.

In general, secondary batteries include nickel-cadmium batteries, nickel-hydrogen batteries, lithium ion batteries, and lithium ion polymer batteries. Such a secondary battery is being applied to and used in small-sized products such as digital cameras, P-DVDs, MP3Ps, mobile phones, PDAs, portable game devices, power tools, E-bikes, and the like as well as large-sized products requiring high power such as electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, power storage devices for storing surplus power or renewable energy, and backup power storage devices.
In general, in order to manufacture the lithium secondary battery, first, electrode active material slurry is applied to a positive electrode collector and a negative electrode collector to manufacture a positive electrode and a negative electrode. Then, the electrodes are stacked on both sides of a separator to form an electrode assembly. Also, the electrode assembly is accommodated in a battery case, an electrolyte is injected, and then, sealing is performed.
Such a secondary battery is classified into a pouch type secondary battery and a can type secondary battery according to a material of a case accommodating the electrode assembly. In the pouch type secondary battery, an electrode assembly is accommodated in a pouch made of a flexible polymer material having a variable shape. Also, in the can type secondary battery, an electrode assembly is accommodated in a case made of a metal or plastic material having a predetermined shape.
The can type secondary battery is classified into a prismatic type secondary battery in which the case has a polygonal shape and a cylinder type secondary battery in which the battery case has a cylindrical shape according to the shape of the battery case.
FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional view of a cylindrical secondary battery 2 according to the related art.
In general, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the cylindrical secondary battery 2 includes a cylindrical battery can 12, a jelly-roll type electrode assembly 13 accommodated in the battery can 12, a cap assembly 11 coupled to an upper portion of the battery can 12, a beading part 14 disposed on a front end of the battery can 12 to mount the cap assembly 11, and a crimping part 15 for sealing the battery can 12.
The cap assembly 11 has a structure in which a top cap 111 sealing an opening of the battery can 12 and forming a positive electrode terminal, a PTC element 112 that interrupts current by increasing resistance when an internal temperature of the battery increases, a safety vent 113 that interrupts current when an internal pressure of the battery increases due to abnormal current and exhausts an internal gas, a CID gasket 114 electrically separating the safety vent from a CID filter 115 except for a specific portion, and the CID filter 115 to which a positive electrode lead connected to a positive electrode is connected and which interrupts current when a high pressure is generated in the battery, are sequentially stacked.
Also, the cap assembly 11 is installed on a beading part 14 of the battery can 12 in a state of being mounted on a crimping gasket 116. Thus, under normal operation conditions, a positive electrode of the electrode assembly 13 is electrically connected to the top cap 111 via the positive electrode lead 131, the CID filter 115, the safety vent 113, and the PTC element 112.
An insulator 26 is disposed on each of the upper and lower ends of the electrode assembly 13. Here, a top insulator 26 disposed on the upper end insulates the electrode assembly 13 from the cap assembly 11, and a bottom insulator (not shown) disposed on the lower end insulates the electrode assembly 13 from a bottom part of the battery can 12.
However, in the case of the cylindrical secondary battery 2 according to the related art, the top insulator is made of a thermoplastic resin such as polyethylene or polypropylene, which has insulating property and electrolyte resistance and is excellent in punching processability. However, the thermoplastic resin has a considerably low melting point of 200° C. to 250° C. Also, there is a problem that when an internal temperature of the secondary battery 2 increases sharply to exceed 250° C., the top insulator 26 is melted to cause short circuit. To solve this problem, although a technique of increasing a thickness of the top insulator 26 has been proposed, there is a problem that capacity and efficiency of the battery are reduced due to a decrease in an internal space of the secondary battery 2.
In recent years, a technology has been proposed in which the top insulator 26 is manufactured by applying phenol, which is a thermosetting resin, to a glass fiber fabric. However, a melting point of phenol itself is very low at a temperature of 40° C., and even if it is applied to the glass fiber fabric, there is a problem that a mass decreases by being oxidized into carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide at a temperature of 600° C. Also, when the glass fiber fabric is coated with phenol and then punched in a round disc shape, a large amount of dust is generated. Thus, it is difficult to continuously produce the product, resulting in a decrease in production amount and an increase in manufacturing cost.

Top insulator for secondary battery and method for manufacturing the same


An illuminating optical system of an inspection device selects an arbitrary wavelength region from the light source, and epi-illuminates the sample via the polarizer and the objective lens. A detecting optical system includes an analyzer having a polarization plane intersected with a polarization direction of the polarizer. Then, the detecting optical system detects light from the sample via the objective lens and the analyzer, and acquires a Fourier image of a sample surface based on this light. An imaging section images the Fourier image. An analyzing section performs computation for processing for determining a notable area to be affected by a state of the pattern more than other areas in the Fourier image.

1. Field
The present application relates to an inspection device, an inspection method, and a program for detecting a defect on a sample surface particularly in manufacturing process of a semiconductor element, a liquid crystal display element, and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various devices that detect defects, such as unevenness or flaws, on a sample surface utilizing diffracted light generated from a pattern formed on the surface of a semiconductor wafer or a liquid crystal substrate (generally, referred to as a "sample") have been proposed. Particularly, in recent years, with miniaturization of the semiconductor processes, there is a need for higher accuracy also in the defect control of samples.
As an example, Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-302354 discloses an electronic circuit component inspection device that selects a rejection candidate area of a substrate based on a difference between good reference color data, which is determined in advance, and color data of an inspection surface based on a color image.
Incidentally, in order to accurately observe patterns in the above-described defect inspection, the observation is preferably performed focusing on a portion noticeably exhibiting a pattern characteristic among the analysis results. However, it is complicated to identify the portion noticeably exhibiting a pattern characteristic in the analysis results, and there is still a need for improvement in this point.
The present application is intended to solve the above-described problem in the conventional technique. It is a proposition of the present invention to provide a means for easily identifying a portion noticeably exhibiting a pattern characteristic in the analysis results.

Inspection device, inspection method, and program


The vertical placement of the series and shunt PIN diodes of a microline series-shunt PIN diode switch results in an increased upper frequency limit of the switch.

PIN diode switches, when used in high frequency switching applications, can be configured is many different ways. The most common configuration is a series-shunt switch to achieve a multiple throw, broadband, fast switching and good isolation with moderate insertion loss and moderate power handling capabilities. However, as the upper RF frequency increases above 8 or 10 GHz performance is limited by several factors, including the minimum achievable PIN diode parameters, mainly the junction capacitances. To lessen the effect of the junction capacitance it is standard practice in the prior art to mount the shunt PIN diode as close as possible to each series PIN diode. But no matter how close the shunt and series PIN diodes are to each other, there is still a length of transmission line required to make the connection. As the RF or data signal frequency is increased, this length of transmission line degrades the performance and ultimately creates an upper frequency limit. This limit is classically around 18 or 20 GHz.
It is a principal object of the present invention to minimize losses in efficiency as the frequency of the data signal is increased in order to raise the upper frequency limit.
It is also an object of the present invention to minimize such losses by relatively simple and inexpensive changes in the layout of the PIN diode switch.

Method of increasing the operating frequency in a series-shunt configured PIN diode switch

Continental Microwave & Tool Company, Inc.


An electrical contact for electrically connecting an IC package and a circuit board includes a base portion, a resilient portion which includes a medial portion extending from the base portion and a connecting portion, a mating portion extending from the upper end of the connecting portion and having a mating point in the free end thereof, a tail portion extending from a lower end of the base portion. The connecting portion extends substantially parallel to the medial portion and distant to the medial portion, thus a distance in a horizontal direction between the medial portion and the resilient portion is formed and the elastic property of the electrical contact increases.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to electrical contacts and, more particularly, to electrical contacts used in electrical connectors for connecting circuit boards with integrated circuit (IC) packages.
2. Background of the Invention
Land grid array (LGA) electrical connectors are widely used in the electronic field for connecting an IC package with a circuit board and this technology is disclosed in the "Nonlinear Analysis Helps Design LGA Connectors" (Connector Specifier, February). The conventional LGA connector includes a housing defining a number of passageways arranged in a matrix, and a corresponding number of electrical contacts received in the passageways. Each of the contacts has an upper contact portion and a lower solder portion. The upper contact portion mates with the contact pad of the IC package and the lower solder portion is soldered to the contact pad of the circuit board for making an electrical connection between the IC package and the circuit board.
Following the developed of the electronic technology, the arraying density of the contact pads of the IC package and the circuit board gets larger and larger while the size and height of the contact gets smaller and smaller. In this case, the rigidity of the contact increases while the elastic property of the contact reduces due to the size and the height of the contact gets smaller, which causes the electrically connection between the IC package and the contact to be poor. Hence, it must increase the elastic property of the contact so that a good connection between the IC package and the electrical contact is ensured.
In view of the above, a new electrical contact which enables to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages is desired.

Electrical contacts used in an electrical connector


A web site copyright registration system and method is accomplished via a computer system that examines a web site or other work and produces completed copyright registration forms and associated materials (e.g., a copy of the web site and additional copies of selected individual web site components) to register the web site and selected individual web site components for copyright protection. The computer system, via software, receives copyright information related to the web site from a user and examines the web site to identify individual web site components contained within the web site and to ascertain component information related to each identified web site component. The user is queried by the computer system for each identified web site component to select web site components for inclusion in the web site registration. Further, the user may select identified web site components for individual copyright protection. The computer system stores the copyright and component information and information related to user selection of identified web site components in data structures and/or a database. The stored information is utilized by the computer system to produce the appropriate completed copyright registration forms and associated materials (e.g., copies of the web site components selected by the user for inclusion in the web site registration, and copies of the web site components selected by the user for individual protection) to register the web site and selected individual web site components (i.e., the web site components selected by the user for individual protection) for copyright protection.

1. Technical Field
The present invention pertains to computer systems for assisting owners in registering their works for copyright protection. In particular, the present invention is directed toward a computer system for analyzing an Internet web site and automatically generating completed copyright registration forms and associated materials (e.g., a copy of the web site and additional copies of user selected individual web site components) to register the web site and user selected individual web site components for copyright protection.
2. Discussion of the State of the Art
Briefly, the growth of the World Wide Web (herein referred to as the Web) has been an unprecedented event in the history of computers and telecommunications. Internet traffic has increased from five terabytes (i.e., 10.sup.12 or trillion) a day in the fall of 1994 to 250 terabytes a day in the summer of 1996. Further, personal computer sales will surpass television sales in the United States for the first time in 1996, while data telecommunications traffic will similarly overtake voice traffic. Most of these events can be attributed to the growth of the Internet and the Web.
Although the Web is a wonderful environment to transact business and disseminate information, there are a number of disadvantages that make it unattractive. Specifically, there is typically no provision on the Internet, and the Web in particular, to protect material from being indiscriminately copied and reproduced with impunity. Since the act of transferring files from one computer to another involves substantially exact reproduction of the material, it is difficult to protect that material from unauthorized use. The traditional publishing industry utilizes copyright law to protect printed material, and this same protection can extend to web sites and certain web site components. In order to simplify copyright registration for web site owners desiring copyright protection for their web sites, the present invention converts a web site into the proper format and generates the appropriate completed copyright registration forms and associated materials (e.g., a copy of the web site and additional copies of user selected individual web site components) to register the web site and user selected individual web site components for copyright protection with the appropriate authority (e.g., the Copyright Office).

Web site copyright registration system and method


To accurately detect a resonance frequency of tire even in high speed range by which tire air pressure state of each wheel is known, a calculation processing unit to which detection signals of wheel speed and resonance frequencies of tire are inputted calculates a timewise change amount of a wheel speed deviation that is a difference between wheel speed ratios of front and rear wheels. Then, it makes corrections to remove the influence of timewise change amounts of resonance frequencies of front wheels from timewise change amounts of wheel speed deviations based on a relationship between the resonance frequency and the wheel speed deviation when air pressure of the tire is changed. The unit then converts the corrected timewise change amount of the rotational state into the timewise change amount of the resonance frequencies of the rear wheels based on the above-described relationship and the resonance frequencies of the rear wheels and the timewise change amounts of the resonance frequencies of the rear wheels which have been accurately detected before the vehicle speed exceeds an upper limit value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tire air pressure detecting device for detecting a state of tire air pressure such as puncture or the like in a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
As a device for detecting an air pressure in a vehicular tire, a device for directly detecting air pressure of a tire by monitoring the air pressure state of the tire when running a vehicle and informing a driver of the abnormality of tire such as flat tire or the like is known in the art. Also known in the art is a device for utilizing the resonance frequency of tire by paying attention to a correlation between the air pressure of tire and the resonance frequency of tire as disclosed in tire air pressure detecting device as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-133831. According to this system, a spectrum (refer to FIG. 14) of vibration components of the wheel speed is provided by Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) of the wheel speed by which the resonance frequency of tire is detected and as shown in FIG. 15, when the resonance frequency becomes lower than a predetermined value, it is determined that air leakage such as puncture or the like has occurred in the tire and an alarm is issued.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-305011 disclosed a method of reduced pressure detection in which the tire air pressure state (occurrence of puncture or the like) is detected not by absolute evaluation for detecting the tire air pressure based on the resonance frequency as in the first conventional example, but indirectly. According to the method of detecting a vehicular tire having reduced pressure, angular velocities of four wheels are detected, sums of angular velocities of two sets of wheels disposed on the diagonal lines are respectively calculated and when a difference between the sums is within a predetermined value, the angular velocities of the respective wheels are compared with an average value of the angular velocities of the four wheels, whereby lowering of the air pressure is evaluated.
Further, according to the method of detecting a vehicular tire having reduced pressure described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-305011, attention is paid to the fact that when the air pressure of one of the tires attached to the wheels is lowered and the rotational radius of the wheel is decreased, the wheel speed is increased and the state of the air pressure of tire is indirectly detected by calculating a rotational state value based on angular velocities of front, rear, left and right wheels detected by wheel speed sensors or the like.
The rotational state value is a parameter depending on a deviation between a wheel speed deviation between left and right front wheels and a wheel speed deviation between left and right rear wheels such that the value is changed in accordance with the air pressure of the tire without being influenced by the wheel speed deviation between the left and right wheels when making a turn. The rotational state value shows an increase in the wheel speed of the right side drive wheel or the left side driven wheel or an increase in the wheel speed of the left side drive wheel or the right side driven wheel and specifies the two wheels having lowered tire air pressures.
However, according to the first conventional example, the wheel speed includes the resonance frequency of a tire as well as other resonance frequencies constituting noise and accordingly, whether the S/N ratio is excellent or not influences the detection accuracy of the tire air pressure. The S/N ratio deteriorates at a high speed range with respect to a drive wheel and the practical limit speed of the first conventional example is approximately 60-100 km/h.
According to the second conventional example, although the vehicle speed is not limited as in the first conventional example, only relative determination of one wheel can be performed and which of the diagonal two wheels is abnormal is not known.
Further, according to the technology using the rotational state value, it can be determined that only either ones of two wheels at diagonal positions (left front wheel and right rear wheel, right front wheel and left rear wheel) have lowered air pressure and the one of the wheels having lowered tire air pressure cannot be specified. Further, when the air pressure of tire of a drive wheel is lowered, its detection certainty is not sufficient.