The step of forming an electrode for external connection applies a conductive resin (10) to one end portion of each of a plurality of ink chambers (26) within each of the ink chambers (26) and to the top surface of each of a plurality of protrusions over a piezoelectric substrate (60) in one line perpendicular to the direction in which the ink chambers (26) extend. Subsequently, the conductive resin (10) located on the top surface of each of the plurality of ink chamber partitions is removed by polishing or grinding. As a result, the conductive resin (10) filling a space within each ink chamber (26) constitutes an electrode for external connection. This allows the capacitance due to the piezoelectric substrate to be decreased. Further, the driving frequency of the ink jet head can be increased. Thus, an ink jet head and its manufacturing method can be provided with a reduced power consumption, with an increased productivity and reliability and that allows a high speed printing.

In a conventional ink jet head, an external extension electrode extends from an ink chamber electrode, which is provided within an ink chamber, to the outside of the ink chamber. The external extension electrode is connected to an external circuit. The ink chamber electrode is thus electrically connected with the external circuit.
A method of providing an ink chamber electrode of a conventional ink jet head extending to the outside of the ink chamber is described below with reference to FIG. 14.
First, one of the main surfaces of a piezoelectric element that has been polarized in the direction of its depth is laminated with a dry film resist. The piezoelectric element is then halfway-diced using the dicing blade of a dicer. This forms an ink chamber 250 in the halfway-diced portion. Moreover, removal of the dicing blade from the halfway-diced piezoelectric element leaves an arc portion 251 at the rear end of the ink chamber. Halfway-dicing is further repeated for a plurality of times, producing a plurality of ink chambers 250 extending parallel to each other.
This provides an ink chamber array 400 having a plurality of ink chambers 250. Subsequently, a metal that is to be an electrode material, such as Al or Cu, is deposited in an oblique manner in a direction that is perpendicular to the direction in which the plurality of ink chambers 250 extend and that is oblique with respect to a main surface of ink chamber array 400. This operation is made in two oblique directions with respect to the direction of ink chambers 250. In this way, ink chamber electrodes, each formed of a metal film 350, are formed on a surface of ink chamber partition 300. At this stage, the dry film resist and ink chamber partitions 300 between ink chambers 250 exhibit a "masking effect". This provides a metal film 350 on an inner side of ink chamber 250 with a height of less than about half that of the inner side of ink chamber 250.
Metal film 350 is also formed in the portion of the rear end of ink chamber 250 with a curved surface (arc portion) 251 and in the portion of opening of the dry film resist in a flat portion 260. Subsequently, only the dry film resist on flat portion 310 atop each ink chamber partition 300 separating ink chambers 250 is removed, thereby establishing, in arc portion 251, an electrical connection between those metal films 350 that are opposed to each other within ink chamber 250.
Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 15, a cover 210 with an ink supply through hole 209 is bonded to ink chamber array 400. In addition, a nozzle plate 211 with nozzles 212 is bonded to ink chamber array 400. Thus, actuator 200 is obtained.
Actuator 200 provides for the Shear mode drive, where voltages in opposite phase are applied to the two respective ink chamber electrodes, each formed of one of opposing metal films 350 which is provided on the respective one of both inner sides of ink chamber partition 300 separating ink chambers 250. This causes ink chamber partition 300 to be bent angularly on the border between the region having the ink chamber electrode and the region without it, causing a change in the volume of ink chamber 250. This in turn causes a change in the pressure of ink within ink chamber 250. As a result, ink drops are ejected from very small nozzle 212 disposed at the tip end of ink chamber 250.
In the conventional structure of an ink jet head described above, active area 252 that contributes to the ejection of ink is only located between ink supply through hole 209 and the tip end. In other words, the region between ink supply through hole 209 and the rear end does not contribute to ink ejection. Further, metal film 350 in arc portion 251 and flat portion 260 electrically connects those two ink chamber electrodes that oppose each other in ink chamber 250. This provides an electrical connection between an electrode that is conductive with a driving IC 115 and metal film 350.
The above arrangement for ink jet heads suffers from the high material cost due to an excessively large portion that is not included in active area 252 which contributes to ink injection.
Moreover, the above ink jet head requires metal film 350 to extend from within ink chamber 250 to flat portion 260 on the piezoelectric substrate of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) having a high dielectric constant. This causes a large capacitance due to the piezoelectric substrate. This in turn disturbs the driving voltages applied to the actuator for driving it. Consequently, the frequency of the driving voltages must be reduced in the conventional ink jet head, which causes difficulty in driving and printing at a high speed.
Disturbance in the waveform of the applied driving voltages may be overcome by increasing the voltages applied to the actuator. Increasing the applied voltages, however, causes increase in the heat generated in driving the actuator to raise the temperature of the actuator itself. Thus, the conventional ink jet head suffers from a changing ink viscosity which makes a stable, precise printing impossible, an increased cost of the driving IC with high applied voltages, and the difficulty of reducing power consumption.
Accordingly, a conventional method of manufacturing ink jet heads preforms an Si—N film with a low dielectric constant between the piezoelectric substrate and the ink chamber electrode in the portion that is other than active area 252 of the ink chamber electrode within ink chamber 250 of the actuator. This achieves a negligible level of capacitance in the portion other than active area 250 using the conventional method. However, PZT has a low Curie point of about 200° C., requiring an electronic cyclotron resonance-chemical vapor deposition (ECR-CVD) device, which is very expensive, in order to form an Si—N film with a low dielectric constant on PZT using a process with a low temperature. As a result, the manufacturing cost is increased in the conventional method such that inexpensive ink jet heads cannot be produced.
A technique for coping with the above problems is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 9-94954, which provides an ink jet head where, as shown in FIG. 16, the portion other than active area 252 is not located on an extension line of the ink chamber in the piezoelectric substrate.
In the described technique, an ink supply through hole 110 is provided at the rear end of the active area of the piezoelectric substrate to supply ink. Each electrode 111 in the ink chamber extends externally on the ink supply side of the substrate or extends to the area of the ink ejection side of the substrate on its inner surface. This provides an electrical connection of electrode 111 in the ink chamber with electrode 112 which is conductive with a driving IC 115. In this case, no portion other than the active area for the actuator is provided on the piezoelectric substrate, decreasing the material cost for the piezoelectric substrate. However, an electrode 111 in the ink chamber extending externally on the ink supply side of the substrate or extending to the area of the ink ejection side of the substrate on its inner surface still suffers from the problem that the capacitance due to the piezoelectric substrate in the extending portion of ink chamber electrode 111 cannot be reduced.
Moreover, in the above method, electrode 111 in the ink chamber extends to be bent at 90° at a corner of the piezoelectric substrate forming the actuator.
The extension of an electrode to a side of an actuator requires a metal film to be provided on the side of the actuator such that the piezoelectric substrate is divided into small individual actuators and an extension electrode is then put into continuity with the respective pair of ink chamber electrodes. Further, a separation of the extending electrodes requires the steps of forming a uniform layer of conductor with a resist pre-patterning and then separating it into electrodes by dicing or using yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) laser. Consequently, the process is extremely complicated and thus productivity is low, reducing the yield and increasing the production cost. Moreover, it is highly possible that an extending electrode is broken up at a bended portion of the electrode which extends from within the ink chamber to a side of the actuator, during subsequent steps or transportation of the actuator, thereby decreasing the yield and the reliability in terms of the environment.
The extension electrodes may also be formed using plating. However, the plating technique requires, similar to deposition techniques, the steps of patterning or dividing a material into electrodes. This may complicate the process.
Also, the above extension electrode as in FIG. 16 can be broken up at a bended portion of the electrode extending from within the ink chamber to a surface of the actuator because of a botched handling during subsequent steps. Consequently, the conventional ink jet head has the problems of decreased yield and less reliability in terms of the environment.

Method for manufacturing an ink jet head


According to one embodiment, a content reproducing device is provided with connection unit and reproducing unit. The connection unit connects a license server and removable medium to each other in such a manner that mutual authentication can be carried out between the license server and removable medium, and rights information can be downloaded from the license server to the removable medium. The reproducing unit carries out mutual authentication between itself and the removable medium and, when the authentication is successful, acquires rights information recorded on the removable medium to thereby decrypt the encrypted content item delivered by the content server on the basis of the rights information, and subject the decrypted content item to streaming reproduction.

As is well known, in a system in which a rights server configured to deliver rights information associated with content items, and removable medium provided with a copyright protection function for recorded content items can directly carry out mutual authentication through a reproducing device capable of carrying out recording/reproduction for the removable medium, rights information and encrypted content items are directly downloaded from the rights server to the removable medium, thereafter the reproducing device carries out mutual authentication between itself and the removable medium to thereby acquire rights information, and the reproducing device decrypts an encrypted content item while reading an encrypted content item from the removable medium, thereby reproducing the content items.
It should be noted that, in the system described above, it is necessary to download encrypted content items to the removable medium. In this case, if the content items are to be preserved as archives, it is rational to download the encrypted content items to the removable medium to record the content items thereon. However, recording content items on a removable medium in order to watch the content items only once or twice, and deleting the content items after watching leads to deterioration of flash memory elements constituting the removable medium, and makes no sense.
As shown in Document "Introducing Next-generation Secure Memory Technology" http://nextgenerationsecurememory.com/index.php/download— file/view/3/1/, in a next-generation secure memory (NSM) medium, the NSM medium carries out mutual authentication directly between itself and the server by an electronic sell-through (EST) use case to thereby download and record rights information (including a title key) and encrypted content items. Thereafter, a reproducing device configured to carry out recording/reproduction of the NSM medium carries out mutual authentication between itself and the NSM medium by using confidential information owned by itself, and acquires a title key to thereby decrypt and reproduce the encrypted content items stored in the NSM medium. However, the encrypted content items are recorded on the NSM medium, and hence flash memory elements constituting the NSM medium are deteriorated.

Content reproducing device, content reproducing method, and content reproducing system


An electron-beam exposure system includes: density-per-area map generating means configured to divide a certain area on which an electron beam is irradiated into meshes, to figure out a ratio of an area of patterns to be irradiated on each divided region to an area of the divided region, thus to generate a density-per-area map; and proximity-effect correcting means configured to correct exposure of the electron beam by referring to the density-per-area map. The proximity-effect correcting means includes: product-sum arithmetic means which is configured to perform product-sum arithmetic on two-dimensional array data, and addition means which is configured to perform addition arithmetic on the two-dimensional array data; stores, in a first memory, two-dimensional array data on the density per area of the patterns; performs the product-sum arithmetic and the addition a predetermined number of times, and thus calculates the two-dimensional array data on the density per area by a linear conversion; and uses the resultant data as two-dimensional array data on exposure to be used for correcting a proximity effect.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electron-beam exposure system which corrects a proximity effect in electron-beam exposure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In these years, electron-beam exposure systems have been increasingly used for forming fine patterns in a lithographic process in manufacturing semiconductor devices and the like.
With regard to electron-beam exposure systems, it is known that a phenomenon in which the line width and the like of a pattern transferred onto a resist is different from its design value stems from influence of what is termed as the proximity effect, in which incident electrons are scattered in the resist.
FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing the proximity effect stemming from forward scattering and back scattering of electron beams. In a case where rectangular patterns P1 and P2 which are parallel with each other as shown in FIG. 1A are intended to be exposed, if an electron-beam exposure is performed on the patterns P1 and P2 in accordance with a design pattern indicating a desired pattern, their post-exposure patterns take on patterns P1a and P2a, respectively, as shown in FIG. 1B. In other words, the widths of the patterns become larger than the design values in the middle portions respectively of the patterns which face each other. This is because the back scattering of the electron beam from every part of each pattern is greatly influential.
Against the background of such a proximity effect, consideration has been made for various methods of correcting the proximity effect for the purpose of obtaining patterns formed exactly on design values by predicting condition in which an electron-beam is scattered, and by thus changing the exposure.
FIG. 1C shows a method of correcting a proximity effect by changing the intensity of electron-beam irradiation. In a case where patterns are intended to be exposed, if the entire area of each pattern is exposed with a single intensity of electron-beam irradiation, this causes a proximity effect as shown in FIG. 1B. Taking this into consideration, the proximity effect is corrected by reducing the intensity of an electron-beam irradiated on parts (parts denoted by P3 and P4 in FIG. 1C) of the Pattern P1 and P2, the parts being proximate to other patterns.
With regard to a technique concerned with this, for example, Japanese Patent Official Gazette No. 3340387 has disclosed an electron-beam writing system capable of making a precise exposure map without making a shot size finer.
In addition, Japanese Patent Application Official Gazette No. 2003-218014 has disclosed a charged-particle-beam exposure system for making patterns which are highly precise in dimensions by exposing the patterns for extracting parameters in accordance with pattern data for extracting the parameters of a distribution function of exposure intensity on which a proximity-effect correcting process has been performed.
For the purpose of optimizing exposure respectively for patterns to be exposed so that the patterns to be exposed can obtain the same level of energy to be absorbed against the proximity effect, the proximity-effect correcting process for calculating the exposure for each pattern to be exposed on the basis of a distribution function of exposure intensity and a distribution function of accumulated energy, as described above. The distribution function of accumulated energy is expressed by use of the distribution function of exposure intensity and a convolution integral. For example, an equation expressing influence of back scattering by a Gaussian distribution function as shown in Equation (1) is used for the distribution function of accumulated energy.
                              2                                E                                      (              x              )                                      =                              D                                      (              x              )                                +                                                    2                                η                            π                                                  ∫                                                exp                                                        (                                          -                                                                                (                                                          x                              -                                                              x                                ′                                                                                )                                                    2                                                                          β                          2                                                                                )                                                                                D                                                        (                                          x                      ′                                        )                                                                                p                                                        (                                          x                      ′                                        )                                                                                ⅆ                                      x                    ′                                                                                Equation                                                            (          1          )                    where p denotes a density of patterns with respect to an area (average coverage factor in a mesh), D denotes a distribution of exposure imparted, E denotes an accumulated energy, and η denotes a coefficient indicating a ratio of back scattering. In addition, β denotes the length of the back scattering, and indicates an amount having a length dimension equivalent, for example, to approximately 8 μm. These parameters vary depending on a material of the substrate and an acceleration voltage of the electron beam.
In the light-hand side of Equation (1), the first and the second terms are referred to as a term expressing the forward scattering and a term expressing the back scattering, respectively. The forward scattering has a larger influence on a narrower range, and the back scattering has a smaller influence on a wider range. In this equation, the effect of the forward scattering is ignored, and it is assumed that the distribution of the imparted exposure is the distribution of energy contributing to sensitizing as it is. In the case where, for example, a voltage of accelerating the electron beam is approximately 50 kV, the length of the forward scattering is not larger than 0.05 μm. As a result, the effect of the forward scattering can be ignored when the calculation is performed for correcting the proximity effect.
If the equation (1) is solved to figure out D, this makes it possible to obtain an appropriate exposure. Such an equation includes a large number of divisions. Arithmetic has been heretofore performed on the equation by use of a CPU. This brings about a problem that the process rate is small. In addition, the correcting of the proximity effect by use of a CPU hinders the CPU from being used efficiently, and accordingly this affects the degree of utilization of the capacity of the exposure system.
Against this background, consideration has been made for increasing the processing rate by dividing a CPU into clusters. However, it takes time to transfer data among the clusters. For this reason, this clusterization has not offered an effective means for solving the problem yet.
Furthermore, a method of figuring out an appropriate exposure by performing a method of successive substitution on D is adopted while solving Equation (1). However, it is difficult to determine whether or not the solution is converged. For this reason, it has been a conventional practice that the calculation is performed to some extent, but that the calculation is terminated after that. As a result, there has been no guarantee that a precise value can be figured out.


An image processing system and method for performing optical signal processing including target recognition and filtering. The system is particularly useful in remote or mobile imaging processing systems where the data gathering capabilities exceed the ability of the system to transmit this data over conventional data links. The system includes a spectrometer which receives portions of an image and produces a plurality of spectra of individual pixels in the image. A light-sensitive detector receives the spectra and converts the spectra into electrical signals. A memory unit stores a predetermined matrix of coefficients, each coefficient corresponding to one wavelength of said spectral signal. A multiply and accumulate unit received one spectral signal and a corresponding matrix coefficient and adds the products to generate a spectral measure for each pixel in the image. By changing the matrix in the memory unit, it is possible to synthesize a wide variety of desired optical processing functions such as target recognition, correlation and filtering.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to optical signal processors, and more particularly to a programmable system and method for analyzing optical spectral data from an image.
2. Discussion
Image gathering systems are capable of sensing and storing high-quality images of objects with extremely high resolution. When such systems are located at remote locations (particularly in mobile systems), the data gathered thereby must often be transmitted to a base receiver. However, often the data gathering capabilities of the imaging system usually exceeds its ability to transfer this data over conventional data links. Because of this, serious compromises must be made in deciding what data to transmit and what to discard.
This is a serious limitation in many areas such as earth monitoring satellites (eg. LANDSAT) which are capable of acquiring much more data than they can feasibly transmit to the ground. To deal with this problem, imaging instruments in the satellite typically will send down the spectral intensity of an image integrated over a small number of bands of wavelength in order to ease the burden on the downlink. For example, the imaging instrument may integrate over a region of the spectrum and transmit a single number that indicates the average radiance over that region. The entire spectrum may be reduced to five data points representing the radiance in five wavelength bands. This results in a serious loss of information present at wavelengths not included in the bands selected, as well as loss of information other than the average intensity of the spectral signature inside the bands. This degraded information may then be transmitted to the ground and used to identify areas in the scene by their spectral signatures. Of course, this identification is limited by the incompleteness of the information.
Moreover, the particular wavelength bands chosen must be fixed on the ground before the satellite is launched and cannot be changed thereafter. As a result, the wavelength bands chosen often represent a compromise between the competing demands and desires of a number of groups desiring to use the spectral information. For example, these groups may include oceanographers, arctic ice mappers, mineralogical exploration teams, groups performing agricultural mapping, and organizations mapping oil spills. Each of these groups would like to have the data transmitted in spectral bands tailored to their particular applications. The bands actually chosen generally represent a compromise which is not ideal for any of these applications. Since the small number of spectral bands (which typically may be six) are incorporated into the system by means of physical optical filters, they cannot be changed after the satellite is deployed and the users must simply make the best of the compromise bands.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide an image processing system which permits changes to be made in the spectral analysis of an image without altering the physical hardware. Also, it would be desirable to provide such a system in which the nature of the optical spectral analysis is programmable, so that it can be altered from a remote location.
In addition, it would be desirable to provide an image processing system which permits the utilization of all available information to perform target recognition. Further, it would be desirable to provide such a system which can significantly compress the gathered image data without sacrificing useful information when performing target recognition. Also, it would be desirable to provide a system with the above features which is relatively light, inexpensive and suitable for use in systems such as satellites.

System and method for analyzing optical spectral data of a terrain image


A position detector for counting rotational and/or translatory movements in at least one direction has at least one exciter magnet (2), a single ferromagnetic element (6) and at least one induction coil (7). Relative movements between the exciter magnet and the ferromagnetic element represent the movements to be counted. The energy which is taken from the movement of those two elements during the approach as therebetween and which is accumulated by means of the ferromagnetic element is liberated in the form of a voltage pulse produced in the induction coil when a given relative position is reached. A rectifier circuit (24) rectifies the voltage pulses and charges a capacitor (28). Upon the occurrence of a voltage pulse to be counted at least one comparator circuit (22) produces a pulse recognition signal which a non-volatile counting and memory circuit (32) counts and stores, the charge in the capacitor serving for power supply purposes. A data read circuit (34, 34′) takes over further processing and output of the data of the counting and memory circuit to a user and a control circuit (30, 30′) prevents mutual interference as between the counting and memory circuit and the data read circuit.

For that purpose a position detector can comprise a sensor portion including at least one permanent magnet which serves as an exciter magnet and which moves with the body whose movements are to be counted, that is to say for example with a rotating shaft or a reciprocating machine carriage, in which respect it is generally fixed directly to that body or is coupled thereto in such a way that it reflects the movement thereof.
In addition the sensor portion of the position detector has a 'ferromagnetic element' which is referred to in that fashion herein and which comprises a combination of hard-magnetic and/or soft-magnetic components which, upon the application of an external magnetic field of given magnitude, by virtue of an abrupt change in its consistency (for example switching and/or alignment of a large number of the Weiss domains present therein) and/or geometry (change in position of ferromagnetic components in space), result in an abrupt change in the magnetic flux and thus in a corresponding voltage pulse of given power in a coil surrounding same. The abrupt change in the ferromagnetic element is therefore described by an abrupt switching of the Weiss domains or by an abrupt change in reluctance.
A particular configuration of the first-mentioned group are pulse and Wiegand wires which do not make use of any macroscopic mechanical effect in production of the above-mentioned voltage pulses.
A representative of the second group in which mechanical macroscopic effects—here storage of the subsequently produced electrical energy in a spring—are used are magnetic reed contacts, as are set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 6,628,741. Major disadvantages precisely of that specific structure are mechanical fatigue and uncontrolled bouncing of the contacts as well as the slight measuring effect. A minimal solution which is optimum in terms of cost is scarcely to be achieved in that respect.
EP 0 658 745 A2 discloses a position sensor in which the ferromagnetic element comprises a rotatably mounted permanent magnet and an iron core, to which the rotatably mounted permanent magnet 'holds on' until the magnetic repulsion force which the approaching exciter magnet exerts thereon becomes so great that it overcomes the holding force between the iron core and the rotatably mounted permanent magnet and the latter abruptly rotates about its axis. That causes an abrupt change in the position of the Weiss domains and therewith the magnetic flux which passes through an induction coil wound on the iron core (large dΦ/dt), and a usable voltage pulse is induced in that coil.
What is common to all those solutions is that the respectively induced voltage pulse not only serves as a signal pulse to be counted, but it can also be used for the power supply for at least a part of the electronic system arranged downstream of the sensor portion, so that the system is capable, without an external supply of electrical energy, of executing the counting and storage operations required for detecting the movement to be monitored, that is to say for example for counting the revolutions of a shaft or the reciprocating movements of a carriage and storing the count value obtained in that situation so that such value is available for an external user.


A semiconductor module according to one embodiment includes a semiconductor chip, a wiring substrate, a mounting plate provided with the wiring substrate thereon, a frame body defining a case for the wiring substrate, together with the mounting plate, a bus bar extending from the case and being inserted into a side wall of the frame. The side wall has a projection. The bus bar includes a first region in the side wall, a second region extending from a first end of the first region outward from the frame, a third region extending from a second end of the first region into the frame. The third region is bent based on the shape being close to the wiring substrate of the projection. The mounting plate with the wiring substrate is attached to the frame such that the third region is in press-contact with the wiring pattern.

1. Field
The present invention relates to semiconductor modules and a method for manufacturing the semiconductor modules.
2. Related Background
A semiconductor module typically includes a semiconductor chip, a wiring substrate, a bus bar, and a case. The semiconductor chip is mounted on the wiring substrate. The wiring substrate has a wiring pattern formed thereon. The wiring substrate with the semiconductor chip mounted thereon is accommodated in the case. The bus bar function as extending electrodes from the wiring substrate or the semiconductor chip accommodated in the case. Such semiconductor modules are known in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-251514 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-344841. The bus bar of the semiconductor module described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-251514 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-344841 is provided separately from the case, and one end of bus bar is soldered to the wiring pattern.

Semiconductor module and method for manufacturing the same


A device for measuring fluid flow rates over a wide range of flow rates (<1 nL/min to >10 μL/min) and at pressures at least as great as 2,000 psi. The invention is particularly adapted for use in microfluidic systems. The device operates by producing compositional variations in the fluid, or pulses, that are subsequently detected downstream from the point of creation to derive a flow rate. Each pulse, comprising a small fluid volume, whose composition is different from the mean composition of the fluid, can be created by electrochemical means, such as by electrolysis of a solvent, electrolysis of a dissolved species, or electrodialysis of a dissolved ionic species. Measurements of the conductivity of the fluid can be used to detect the arrival time of the pulses, from which the fluid flow rate can be determined. A pair of spaced apart electrodes can be used to produce the electrochemical pulse. In those instances where it is desired to measure a wide range of fluid flow rates a three electrode configuration in which the electrodes are spaced at unequal distances has been found to be desirable.

Numerous types of mass flow meters are generally available. Some are based on viscous drag, others employ the Venturi effect to measure a pressure drop, still others use positive displacement either rotary or linear. For low flow rates, local heating of a passing fluid and a variation in the resistance of a resistive element or the current/voltage required to maintain a constant temperature/current in the resistive element is conventionally used to determine fluid flow rate, wherein the fluid can be either a liquid or a gas. Rudent et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,354,150 "Sensor for a Capillary Tube of a Mass Flow Meter", issued Mar. 12, 2002, describe a mass flow rate sensor based on the time-of-flight of a thermal pulse. The time-of-flight of a small volume of liquid is measured from an upstream position where the temperature is modified to a downstream detector. However, the thermal sensor requires specially insulated components to avoid thermal transients, which can be a disadvantage.
Wu and Sansen (Wu, J. and Sansen, W. Electrochemical time of flight flow sensor, Sensors and Actuators, 97, 68–74, Apr. 1, 2002) describe a time of flight flow sensor for measuring the flow rates of aqueous fluids in the range of 1–15 μL/min. The device uses an in situ electrochemically produced tracer to determine fluid flow rate and is comprised of two electrochemical cells integrated in the flow channel. An upstream electrochemical cell functions as an oxygen producer and a downstream electrochemical cell functions as an amperometric oxygen detector. Oxygen produced at the upstream cell by an electrochemical pulse is detected at the downstream amperometric cell and the flow rate is determined by the time difference between the two pulses. However, this device suffers from the limitation that it is unable to measure fluid flow rates less than about 1 μL/min (1000 nL/min) due to limitations of the oxygen sensor (ibid., p. 71).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Composition pulse time-of-flight mass flow sensor


An injection molded article with which a sheet-like material, such as a decorative sheet, is integrated is manufactured without causing damage to the sheet-like material. A molten resin injected into a mold cavity, passes smoothly a peripheral edge of the mold cavity, and flows into a groove portion without accumulating in the vicinity of the peripheral edge. When cooling the molten resin, the temperature of the molten resin in the groove decreases more quickly than the temperature of the molten resin in the mold cavity, because the volume of the groove portion is smaller. As a result, the viscosity of the molten resin in the groove portion and in the vicinity of the peripheral edge of the mold cavity is increased rapidly, preventing a further volume of the molten resin from flowing into the groove portion. The sheet-like material in the vicinity of the peripheral edge is covered by the resinous material of diminished fluidity and protected against exposure to heat and/or pressure of the molten resin.

As disclosed in Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 2004-017508, Japanese Patent Publication No. S50-19132 and Japanese Patent Publication No. S43-27488, it has been proposed to perform a method of injection molding in order to unify a sheet-like material, such as a decorative or ornamental sheet, on a surface of a molded article during a molding process and add new value or optional function to the molded article due to the properties of the sheet-like material, such as color, pattern, quality of material and the like. A conventional method of injection molding of this kind exemplifies the following steps of: installing a decorative sheet in an injection mold, injecting a molten resin to fill the mold cavity with the molten resin; and solidifying the resin in the cavity to form an injection molded body simultaneously with integrating the decorative sheet onto a surface of the injection molded body.
In this method, the sheet-like material such as a decorative sheet is pre-shaped, as required, by an appropriate forming process such as vacuum forming to be adapted to the shape of the mold cavity while installed in the mold or before installed in the mold. When installed in the mold, the sheet-like material such as a decorative sheet covers the whole or part of the mold cavity, and the area of the mold cavity that is covered with the sheet-like material corresponds to the surface of the injection molded body onto which the sheet-like material should be integrated. At this time, the remaining portion of the sheet-like material which protrudes outside the mold cavity is clamped between the parting surfaces or dividing surfaces or abutting surfaces of the first and second mold sections, for example, a cavity mold and a core mold forming opposite sides of the mold cavity, so that the sheet-like material should not be displaced by injection pressure.
To take a pair of a cavity mold and a core mold as an example, the sheet-like material installed on the cavity mold extends continuously from a mold cavity on to a parting surface of the cavity mold, via the peripheral edge of the mold cavity of the cavity mold. Then the core mold is closed against the cavity mold and the sheet-like material is clamped between the parting surfaces of the core mold and the cavity mold while the sheet-like material extends in the mold cavity. The sheet-like material extending in the mold cavity is defined by the peripheral edge of the mold cavity. When molten resign is injected into the mold cavity from an injection gate of the core mold, the molten resin flows along a surface of the sheet-like material to the peripheral edge of the mold cavity. Thereby, the mold cavity is filled with the molten resign and the sheet-like material defined by the peripheral edge of the mold cavity.
The sheet-like material installed in the mold cavity is affected by the temperature of the molten resin injected into the mold cavity and also affected by the injection pressure of the molten resin produced to fill the mold cavity up with the molten resin. The injected molted resin tends to apply a large pressure to the sheet-like material, in particular, in the vicinity of the peripheral edge of the mold cavity. Depending on conditions of injection molding, the sheet-like material may deform around the peripheral edge of the mold cavity. Especially when the sheet-like material extends along an elongated peripheral edge of the mold cavity, there is an increased risk of serious damage to the sheet-like material because of uneven dispersion of the molten resin. In the event that the sheet-like material is damaged, the molten resin leaks out of the mold cavity from the peripheral edge thereof and produce a flash between the parting surfaces of the mold sections. In addition, the molten resin may penetrate through the sheet-like material and damage the outer surface of an injection molded article to be produced. When the sheet-like material is made of an olefin-based thermoplastic elastomer (TPO) with soft texture or the like, the above-mentioned disadvantages may cause serious damage to an injection molded article.


A display device and a control method thereof are provided. The display device includes a display panel divided into n regions along a horizontal viewing direction, wherein n is a positive integer and n≥2, a detection unit configured to detect a viewing angle corresponding to each of the n regions, the viewing angle being an angle between a sight line of a human eye and the display panel, and a control unit configured to adjust, based on the viewing angle, one or both of a grayscale voltage value of the region of the display panel corresponding to the viewing angle, and brightness of a part of a backlight of the display panel corresponding to the region corresponding to the viewing angle.

The present disclosure generally relates to the field of display technologies, and more particularly, to a display device and a control method thereof.
With the rapid development of display technologies, various types of display devices have emerged, among which liquid crystal display (LCD) devices and organic light emitting diode (OLED) display devices are most widely used.
However, whether it is a liquid crystal display device or an OLED display device, there are problems of uneven image display quality when they are viewed from the side (especially for large-sized flat display devices) or when they are bent (especially for small-sized curved display devices, for example, wearable display devices).

Display device and control method thereof

HEFEI BOE OPTELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


The application provides peptides that interact with the inhibitory domains of the myelin proteins Nogo, TNR, and MAG. These may be used in the treatment of CNS damage, and for the development of further treatments. Also provided are methods and materials for immunizing subjects against the inhibitory domains of the myelin proteins, for the treatment of CNS damage.

Most tissues in the body, such as skin, liver and peripheral nerve, have a remarkable ability to repair themselves after injury. By contrast, the central nervous system (CNS)—including the brain and the spinal cord—has little innate capacity for repair. When axonal connections are damaged in the adult brain or spinal cord, they show an extremely limited ability to regenerate, even though axons can grow and regenerate efficiently in the embryonic CNS and in the adult peripheral nervous system. Factors that account for the inability of CNS axons to regenerate can be grouped in two categories: intrinsic properties of CNS neurons that may make them incapable of regeneration; and extrinsic factors in the CNS environment that are inhibitory to axonal elongation.
The idea that factors in the CNS environment can prevent regeneration dates back to the early 20th century. Ramon y Cajal observed that the inability of adult CNS neurons to extend axonal processes could be overcome by giving them the permissive environment of a peripheral nerve. Then, about 20 years ago, David and Aguayo showed that retinal neurons could form long projections in peripheral nerve grafts. Later, Schwab discovered that dorsal root ganglion neurons in culture extend their axons across Schwann cells but avoid oligodendrocytes and the fatty myelin sheath (Schwab et al 1993).
These results show that failure to regenerate is not purely an intrinsic deficit of CNS neurons, and inhibitory factors in the CNS environment also play an important role. These inhibitory factors are mainly located in the glial scar that forms at the region of injury and by the myelin that ensheaths axons in the white matter tracks.
Following CNS injury, the central area of necrosis is infiltrated by glia and other non-neuronal cells, and a fibrous scar forms. Axons do not extend through the scar and their growth appears to be inhibited by it. Molecular components that may contribute to this inhibitory activity include the extracellular matrix glycoprotein tenascin-R (TN-R) and the myelin-associated neurite outgrowth inhibitors myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG) and Nogo.
TN-R
TN-R has been implicated in a variety of cell-matrix interactions involved in the molecular control of axon guidance and neural cell migration during development and regeneration of CNS (reviewed by Erickson, 1993; Chiquet-Ehrismann et al., 1994; Pesheva et al., 2000; 2001). TN-R is the smallest member of the tenascin family and is composed of four structural motifs: a cysteine-rich segment at the N-terminus is followed by 4.5 EGF-like repeats. This region is followed by 9 consecutive fibronectin type III-like domains and at the C-terminus TN-R is related to the beta- and- gamma-chains of fibrinogen.
TN-R is expressed predominantly by oligodendrocytes during the onset and early phases of myelin formation, and remains expressed by some oligodendrocytes in the adult. TN-R is also expressed in some neurons and interneurons in the spinal cord, retina, cerebellum, and hippocampus (Fuss et al., 1991; 1993). TN-R co-localizes with other glial-derived molecules (i.e. myelin-associated glycoprotein and a phosphacan-related molecule) at high density in the nodes of Ranvier of CNS myelinated axons (Xiao et al., 1997: Yang et al, 1999).
TN-R can inhibit or promote neurite outgrowth, depending on the neuronal cell type and the environment in which it is presented. When TN-R was offered, acting as a sharp substrate boundary, dorsal root ganglion (DRG), cerebellum and retinal ganglion neuron growth cones avoided growing on these molecules, but were not induced to collapse. On the other hand, when TN-R was offered in a mixture with laminin (which strongly promotes growth of embryonic and adult axons) as a uniform substrate, DRG growth cones displayed a collapsed morphology and were able to advance at a faster rate than on laminin alone.
Using several monoclonal antibodies binding to distinct epitopes on the tenascin molecule, epidermal growth factor-like (EGF-L) repeats and fibronectin type III homologous repeats 4-5 were identified to be responsible for growth cone repulsion.
In vitro, outgrowth of embryonic and adult retinal ganglion cell axons from mouse retinal explants is significantly reduced on homogeneous substrates of tenascin-R or a bacterially expressed tenascin-R fragment comprising the EGF-L domain. When both molecules are presented, acting as a sharp substrate boundary, regrowing adult axons do not cross into the territory containing tenascin-R or EGF-L. All in vitro experiments were done in the presence of laminin, suggesting that tenascin-R and EGF-L actively inhibit axonal growth. Neurites and growth cones were repelled from areas coated with fragments containing the EGF-L (the amino-terminal cysteine-rich domain plus the EGF-like repeats), FN (fibronectin) 1-2, FN3-5 and FG (fibrinogen) domains of TN-R, and EGF-L prevents neurite outgrowth of hippocampal neurons.
TN-R also induces axonal defasciculation in vitro through the EGF-L domain (Taylor et al., 1993; Xiao et al., 1996, 1997, 1998; Becker et al, 1999; Becker et al, 2000).
After 3-acetylpyridine-induced lesion of the olivocerebellar system of the adult rat, the density of cells containing TN-R transcripts increased significantly in the inferior olivary nucleus and in the white matter of the cerebellar cortex. Immunohistochemical investigations confirmed these observations at the protein level.
After a spinal cord mechanical lesion of rat, TN-R mRNA was also upregulated (Wintergerst at al, 1997; Deckner et al, 2000).
These findings suggested that the continued overexpression of TN-R in the injured CNS may contribute to the failure of adult axonal regeneration in vivo.
Tenascin-R is a member of the tenascin family, which play important roles in cell interactions in the developing nervous system, such as neuronal migration, neuritogenesis, and neuronal regeneration. Tenascin-R is expressed predominantly by oligodendrocytes during the onset and early phases of myelin formation, and remain expressed by some oligodendrocytes in the adult (Pesheva et. al., 1989; Fuss et al., 1991,1993; Wintergerst et. al., 1993; Ajemian A. et. al., 1994). TN-R is a multi-functional molecule (Lochter and Schachner, 1993; Pesheva et. al., 1993; Taylor et. al., 1993; Xiao et. al., 1996, 1997,1998), and it has indicated that it is an inhibitory component of myelin extraction. Xiao have found that, the EGF-L domain of TN-R can inhibit the neurite outgrowth.
MAG
MAG is a transmembrane protein of the immunoglobulin superfamily expressed by myelinating glial cells of the central and peripheral nervous systems, where MAG represents 1 and 0.1% of the total myelin proteins, respectively (Heape at al, 1999). MAG is a potent inhibitor of axonal regeneration and also, depending on the age and type of neuron, can promote axonal growth. MAG inhibits neurite outgrowth of retinal, superior cervical ganglion, spinal, and hippocampal and dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons of all postnatal ages, but can enhance neurite outgrowth of embryonic spinal cord neurons and newborn DRG neurons (DeBellard at al, 1996; Turnley et al, 1998; Shen et al, 1998; Yang et al, 1999).
MAG can also induce growth cone collapse. 60% of axonal growth cones of postnatal day 1 hippocampal neurons collapsed when they encountered coated recombinant MAG (rMAG). Such collapse was not observed with denatured rMAG (Li et al, 1996). Soluble dMAG (a proteolytic fragment of the extracellular domain of MAG, which is released in abundance from myelin and found in vivo) and chimeric MAG-Fc can potently inhibit neurite outgrowth from P6 DRG neurons. This inhibition was blocked when a MAG monoclonal antibody was included.
These results indicate that soluble dMAG detected in vivo could contribute to the lack of regeneration in the mammalian CNS after injury (Tang et al, 1997; 2001).
MAG has two recognition sites for neurons, the sialic acid binding site at R118 and a distinct inhibition site which is absent from the first three Ig domains (Tang et al, 1997).
MAG is a well characterized member of the immunoglobulin gene superfamily, and it exerts a robust inhibitory effect on neurite outgrowth from young cerebellar neurons and adult dorsal ganglion (DRG) neurons (Mukhopadhyay et al., 1994). MAG is a membrane protein with 626 amino acids. It has been reported that soluble MAG, which consists of the extracellular domain, has an inhibitory effect on neurite outgrowth (Mckerracher et. al., 1994). The extracellular domain of MAG consists of five Ig-like domains, and it is demonstrated that the first two Ig-like domains are important for the interaction between MAG and neuronal membrane, while the other three Ig-like domains might be involved in the inhibitory effects (Collins et al., 1997).
Nogo
Nogo is a high molecular weight integral membrane protein that localizes to CNS myelin, but not PNS myelin. Nogo has three isoforms, named Nogo-A, -B and -C, which are generated by alternative splicing. NI-250 and NI-35 were first identified and named as the 2 isoforms of Nogo; it has now been established that NI-250 is Nogo-A and NI-35 is Nogo-B. Nogo is expressed by oligodendrocytes in white matter of the CNS and is found in the inner and outer leaflets of myelin and in the endoplasmic reticulum.
In vitro characterization of Nogo has demonstrated its function as a potent inhibitor of axon elongation. In vivo neutralization of Nogo activity results in enhanced axonal regeneration and functional recovery following CNS injury as well as increased plasticity in uninjured CNS fibers. The monoclonal antibody mAb IN-1 was shown to promote long-distance regeneration and functional recovery in vivo when applied to spinal cord-injured adult rat (Chen et al, 2000; GrandPre et al; Merkler et al).
These findings suggest that Nogo may be a major contributor to the nonpermissive nature of the CNS environment. Two distinct inhibitory domains of Nogo have been identified: an intracellular amino-terminal domain (NogoN) of Nogo A and a short 66 residue region (Nogo-66) located between two hydrophobic domains of the three isoforms, Nogo-A, Nogo-B and Nogo-C (Chen et al, 2000; GrandPre et al, 2000; Fournier et al , 2001; Filbin, 2003). These domains are illustrated in Science, Vol 297 (5584), 16 Aug. 2002, p. 1132-1134.
Nogo-A is expressed by oligodendrocytes but not by Schwann cells. It can inhibit axonal extension and collapses dorsal root ganglion growth cones (GrandPre et. al., 2000). The neurite outgrowth inhibitory activity of Nogo can be neutralized by monoclonal antibody IN-1, which allows axonal regeneration and functional recovery after spinal cord injury (Chen et. al., 2000). Nogo is a membrane protein with 1163 amino acids. The C-terminal tail contains two hydrophobic transmembrane domains separated by a 66-residue hydrophilic extracellular domain. This 66-residue extracellular domain can inhibit axon outgrowth (Fournier et. al., 2001).
Huang et al. (1999) discloses a therapeutic vaccine approach to stimulate axonal regeneration in the adult spinal cord.
It is an object of the invention to provide materials and methods useful in the treatment of, or in the development of treatments for, CNS damage, e.g. spinal cord injury, by overcoming the inhibitory effects of myelin on axonal regeneration.

Peptides, antibodies thereto, and their use in treatment of central nervous system, damage


An integrated system for providing the motive power for trucks working in a hazardous environment including an explosion-proof enclosure having a body receiving the battery system and a separate fuse box compartment to which the battery system is connected, and the truck electrical system is connected to the battery system through the fuse box compartment.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to motive-powered vehicles and, more particularly, to vehicles such as fork lift trucks which operate in a hazardous environment and to cells and batteries serving as the motive power source for such trucks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Lead-acid cells and batteries have been used in a variety of motive power applications in which an array of cells or batteries provides the motive power for vehicles ranging from Class 1 to Class 3 trucks, various automated guided vehicles, mining vehicles, and also railroad locomotives.
A variety of design circumstances for motive power applications serves to complicate the situation. In Class 1 and 2 trucks, i.e., electric rider trucks and electric narrow aisle trucks, respectively, the array of cells or batteries utilized have weight limits that must be met so as to provide the necessary counterbalance for the vehicle. Also, the physical space available for the motive power source in trucks is often limited.
The performance requirements for motive power vehicles are quite stringent. Motive power applications thus require relatively deep depths of discharge of the motive power source to be achieved on a continuing cycling basis over a period of time. Indeed, a common requirement for such trucks is that, in an 8-hour shift, the cell or battery assembly must be capable of delivering an 80% depth of discharge and that performance is required for about 300 cycles per year with a useful service life under these conditions of at least 4, and more typically 5, years.
Even further, many industries typically run three 8-hour shifts each day. The typical battery ratings are such that each battery is designed to be utilized for just one shift (typically being in service for about 6 hours or so). Because of the time involved in recharging lead-acid batteries, fork trucks which are used on a three-shift basis require three separate batteries. One battery is in service in the truck while two batteries are on charge.
The inventory burden involved becomes more significant for fork truck designed to work in a hazardous environment. Such environments require the use of a specially designed battery. Trucks and batteries operating in such hazardous environments have been termed xe2x80x9cEXxe2x80x9d trucks or batteries. To be suitable for such environments, EX batteries must comply with the appropriate safety standards, i.e., UL583. These standards require that the batteries have fully protected ventilation openings to limit access to the cell terminals from an outside source. Further, the current-carrying parts of the battery must be insulated or protected against possible contact with foreign objects when in use. Still further, the electrical connection in service (i.e., the running plug) must be interlocked with a switch so that the plugs can neither be inserted nor withdrawn while the receptacle contacts are live, or the plug must be locked in the receptacle to deter removal by unauthorized persons.
Accordingly, assembling EX batteries to meet such safety requirements involves providing the battery with an explosion-proof fuse box, switch, receptacle and a fully enclosed tray with a receptacle locking arm. These features require significant costs. These expenses become substantial when the service life of these specially designed batteries are compared with the typical 20-year service life of such electric trucks. Thus, over the 20-year service life of a fork truck, the user must purchase at least 12 specially-designed EX batteries. For service fleets having a relatively large number of trucks, the costs involved are multiplied, and even more substantial.
There is thus a need for a system which will satisfy the requirements for batteries used in hazardous environments in a reliable, yet more cost-effective, manner. It would accordingly be highly desirable to provide a system that would not require specially designed batteries.
It is accordingly a principal object of the present invention to provide a motive power system for trucks used in hazardous environments which allows the use of cells and batteries that do not have to be specially designed for such applications.
A further object of the present invention provides an explosion-proof enclosure designed for motive-powered trucks used in hazardous environments.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a system for satisfying the safety requirements for motive-powered trucks working in a hazardous environment while utilizing cells and batteries of conventional configurations.
These objects and advantages of the present invention are apparent from the following description and drawings.
In its broadest aspects, the present invention provides an integrated system for providing the motive power for trucks working in a hazardous environment without requiring the use of expensive, specially designed batteries that individually satisfy the various safety requirements. The present invention thus provides an explosion-proof enclosure designed to accept a conventional battery as an interchangeable part. The enclosure has all of the required safety features and is configured to accept a standard battery.

Battery enclosure system for motive power in hazardous service environments


Weight head assembly for dumbbells that eliminates a weak point on the handle bar, so as to increase the durability of a handle bar on dumbbells. Under present invention, the ‘stub’ portion, where the handlebar is inserted into the weight heads on the two ends of the bar, need not be machined down in size at the junction point between handle bar and weight head, and can thus withstand more wear and tear for regular usage in fitness training. The cost of manufacturing the handle bar, and as a result of the increase durability, will help the fitness industry greatly when making new dumbbells.

The present invention relates generally to design and construction of dumbbell weight heads assembly used on fitness training equipment. Specifically, the problem of a weak point on the handle bar, as located at the junction point between handle bar and the weight heads, will be eliminated by the construction pursuant to present invention.
Traditional dumbbells have a handle bar with two ends attaching to the bells, called weight heads.
To prevent the two dumbbells from sliding towards the center of the handle bar, two collars are commonly used for this purpose. The load-bearing portion (called 'stub') on the two ends of the handle bar is usually machined down to reduce the diameter so that the collars would properly be 'pinched' in place and serve to prevent the dumbbells from sliding towards the center of the handle bar. See FIG. 1, showing prior art industry usage.
The problems with the common industry usage include, at least, first, tremendous pressure exerted to the junction point between the stub portion (which has reduced diameter, thus reduced strength) and the central handle bar, and second, the high cost for the need to machine down the diameter of the stub to provide the hold pattern for the collars as well as the load-bearing portion that takes the weight head.

Apparatus for weight heads assembly used on dumbbells


An aromatic carbonate ester is continuously and efficiently prepared by the transesterification of an aromatic carboxylate with an aliphatic carbonate ester and/or aromatic.aliphatic carbonate ester. A raw material including an aromatic carboxylate, aliphatic carbonate ester and/or aromatic.aliphatic carbonate ester, and a catalyst are continuously fed to a first stage of a reactive distillation column (1) through a raw material feeding pipe (5). Meanwhile, an aliphatic carbonate ester (a) whose boiling point is lower than that of a reactant liquid that is present in a second stage lower than the first stage is continuously fed to the second stage through an aliphatic carbonate ester (a) feeding pipe (6). The second stage is preferably a column bottom section of the reactive distillation column (1). The amount of aliphatic carbonate ester (a) fed is preferably 0.001 to 5 times, by weight, more than the amount of the raw material fed.

As a process for preparing an aromatic carbonate ester by, for example, transesterification of an aliphatic carbonate ester with an aromatic hydroxy compound or aromatic carboxylate has been known. In particular, as a process for preparing diphenyl carbonate as a kind of aromatic carbonate esters, many methods have been proposed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,533,504 discloses a process for preparing diphenyl carbonate by reacting dimethyl carbonate as a kind of aliphatic carbonate esters with phenyl acetate as a kind of aromatic carboxylates.
Moreover, Japanese Patent Publication (Tokukaihei) No. 3-291257 discloses a process for preparing a diphenyl carbonate as a target product using a continuous multistage distillation column (reactive distillation equipment) in which a reaction of dimethyl carbonate with phenol as a kind of aromatic hydroxy compounds is carried out to generate methyl phenyl carbonate, and then methyl phenyl carbonate is disproportionated to produce diphenyl carbonate.
In the method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,533,504, the conversion of dimethyl carbonate is as high as 70 mole percent or more. However, since this method is a batch system, high productivity cannot be achieved. Therefore, diphenyl carbonate can not be prepared efficiently by this method.
The method disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication (Tokukaihei) No. 3-291257 also suffers from low productivity because the conversion of dimethyl carbonate is around 1.6 mole percent to 24 mole percent. Additionally, in this method, since diphenyl carbonate is obtained by disproportionation of methyl phenyl carbonate, many processing steps need to be carried out to prepare the diphenyl carbonate. Thus, the diphenyl carbonate cannot be prepared efficiently by this method.
Therefore, there is a great demand for a process that ensures efficient preparation of diphenyl carbonate, i.e., aromatic carbonate ester. Namely, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems associated with the conventional methods, it is an object of the present invention to provide a process for continuously and efficiently preparing aromatic carbonate esters.

Process for preparing aromatic carbonic ester


Floating-point processors capable of performing multiply-add (Madd) operations and incorporating improved intermediate result handling capability. The floating-point processor includes a multiplier unit coupled to an adder unit. In a specific operating mode, the intermediate result from the multiplier unit is processed (i.e., rounded but not normalized or denormalized) into representations that are more accurate and easily managed in the adder unit. By processing the intermediate result in such manner, accuracy is improved, circuit complexity is reduced, operating speed may be increased.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to floating-point processors, and more particularly to floating-point processors having improved accuracy for multiply-add (Madd) operations.
2. Background Art
In digital processing systems, numerical data is typically expressed using integer or floating-point representation. Floating-point representation is preferred in many applications because of its ability to express a wide range of values and its ease of manipulation for some specified operations. A floating-point representation typically includes three components: a sign bit (sign), a mantissa (mant) that is sometimes referred to as a significand, and an exponent (exp). The represented floating-point number can be expressed as (−1)sign·mant·2exp. Floating-point representations are also defined by "IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic," which is referred to herein as the IEEE-754 standard (or simply the IEEE standard) and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
Many operations can be performed on floating-point numbers, including arithmetic operations such as addition, subtraction, and multiplication. For arithmetic operations, the IEEE standard provides guidelines to be followed to generate a unique answer for each floating-point operation. In particular, the IEEE standard describes the processing to be performed on the result from a particular operation (e.g., multiply, add), the precision of the resultant output, and the data format to be used. For example, the IEEE standard defines several rounding modes available for the results from add and multiply operations, and the bit position at which the rounding is to be performed. The requirements ensure identical results from different implementations of IEEE-compliant floating-point processors.
Many applications perform multiplication on two operands and addition (or subtraction) of the resultant product with a third operand. This multiply-add (or Madd) operation is common, for example, in digital signal processing where it is often used for computing filter functions, convolution, correlation, matrix transformations, and other functions. The Madd operation is also commonly used in geometric computation for (3-D) graphics applications.
Conventionally, a Madd operation can be achieved by sequentially performing a multiply (MUL) operation followed by an add (ADD) operation. Performing the operations sequentially results in long processing delay. Improved performance can often be obtained by performing the Madd operation using a specially designed unit that also supports conventional floating-point multiplication and addition.
For Madd operations, post-processing is typically performed on the intermediate result from the multiply portion. To obtain a final Madd output that fulfills IEEE rounding requirement, the post-processing includes possible denormalization and rounding of the intermediate result in accordance with one of the rounding modes defined by the IEEE standard. Denormalization is performed on a denormalized number (i.e., a non-zero number between the smallest positive representable normalized number, +amin, and the smallest negative representable normalized number, −amin) to place the denormalized number in a proper format such that rounding can be performed at the bit location specified by the IEEE standard. The post-processing (or more specifically, the denormalization and rounding) to generate an IEEE-compliant Madd result typically lead to reduced accuracy (since some bits may be discarded during the denormalization and rounding), increased hardware complexity, and increased processing time. To reduce hardware complexity and improve processing time, some Madd architectures provide an additional operating mode in which numbers (e.g., intermediate results) smaller than the smallest representable normalized number are set or flushed to zero, or some other values such as amin. However, the flush-to-zero mode suffers from a higher loss in accuracy since the mantissa is replace with zero or some other predefined minimum value.
Accordingly, for Madd operations, techniques that increase the accuracy of the output result, simplify the post-processing of the intermediate result, and reduce the overall processing time are highly desirable.

Processor with improved accuracy for multiply-add operations


A repeatable and uniform low doped layer is formed using modulation doping by forming alternating sub-layers of doped and undoped nitride semiconductor material atop another layer. A Schottky diode is formed of such a low doped nitride semiconductor layer disposed atop a much more highly doped nitride semiconductor layer. The resulting device has both a low on-resistance when the device is forward biased and a high breakdown voltage when the device is reverse biased.

The present invention is directed to semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to nitride-based semiconductor devices, such as Schottky diodes, and to processes for making the same.
Nitride-based semiconductors, such as gallium nitride and gallium nitride-based semiconductors, are widely regarded as desirable wide bandgap compound semiconductors. These materials have been adopted in optoelectronic devices, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), laser diodes and photodiodes, and have also been employed in non-optical electronic devices, such as field effect transistors (FETs) and field emitters. In optoelectronic devices, the wide bandgap of the material allows for emission or absorption of light in the visible-to-ultraviolet range. In electronic devices, gallium nitride and its related materials provide high electron mobility and allow for operation at very high signal frequencies.
The properties of nitride-based semiconductors also make such materials desirable for use in Schottky diodes. Schottky diodes are desired for applications where energy losses while switching from forward bias to reverse bias and back can significantly impact the efficiency of a system and where high current conduction is desired under forward bias and little or no conduction is desired under reverse bias, such as when used as an output rectifier in a switching power supply. The Schottky diodes have lower turn-on voltages because of the lower barrier height of the rectifying metal-to-semiconductor junction and have faster switching speeds because they are primarily majority carrier devices. Nitride-based semiconductors are thus highly desirable as Schottky diodes because of their high electron mobility which reduces the device on-resistance when the Schottky diode is forward biased and because of their ability to withstand high breakdown fields when reverse biased. Additionally, gallium nitride and gallium nitride-based semiconductors have the further advantage that the barrier height at the metal-to-semiconductor junction, and thus the forward voltage drop, varies depending upon the type of metal used in the junction.
The lowered metal-to-semiconductor barrier height, however, can increase the reverse leakage current when the metal-to-semiconductor junction is reverse biased. Therefore, a lower doped semiconductor layer is desired for the metal-to-semiconductor junction. The lower doped layer, however, results in a higher on-resistance when the device is forward biased. It is thus further desirable to incorporate a more highly doped layer that serves as the major part of the conduction path and to minimize the thickness of the lower doped layer, thereby reducing the resistance when the device is forward biased. A tradeoff therefore exists when attempting to reduce the forward resistance of a device as well as reduce the reverse breakdown voltage. When the Schottky diode is optimized for higher reverse-bias breakdown voltages, such as by increasing the resistivity and thickness of the lower doped layer, the on-resistance increases. By contrast, when the device is optimized for low on-resistance, such as by providing a more highly doped and thicker low resistance layer, the breakdown voltage decreases.
To optimize the Schottky diode for both high reverse-bias breakdown voltage as well as for low forward bias on-resistance, a thin, very low doped layer is desired to serve as the metal-to-semiconductor contact. Such low doping levels, however, are very difficult to attain in a repeatable manner that is uniform across the layer.
It is therefore desirable to provide a Schottky diode that has a very low doped layer that can be formed repeatably with uniform doping.

Low doped layer for nitride-based semiconductor device


An ink-jet head includes a passage unit, an actuator unit, a flexible cable, conductors, and spacers. The actuator unit has individual electrodes corresponding to respective pressure chambers of the passage unit. The flexible cable has wirings corresponding to the respective individual electrodes and is spaced apart from the actuator unit. The conductors are disposed between the actuator unit and the flexible cable so as to electrically connect the individual electrodes to the wirings, respectively. The spacers, which are not electrically connected to the individual electrodes and the wirings, are disposed between the actuator unit and the flexible cable so that each of the spacers is positioned in a region surrounded by three or more of the conductors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet head that ejects ink to a record medium to conduct recordings.
2. Description of Related Art
An ink-jet head having an actuator unit that extends over many pressure chambers is known (see Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2004-114342). This actuator unit includes piezoelectric sheets that extend over many pressure chambers, and individual electrodes that are formed on an upper face of an uppermost one of the piezoelectric sheets so as to correspond to the respective pressure chambers. A passage unit, which has pressure chambers formed in its upper face and many nozzles formed in its lower face, has this actuator unit bonded to its upper face so that the pressure chambers are covered with the actuator unit. Each individual electrode is electrically connected to a contact of a flexible flat cable such as an FPC (flexible printed circuit), a COF (chip on film), etc.
Driving of the actuator unit causes the piezoelectric sheets to exhibit unimorph deformation by a transversal piezoelectric effect. In order to promote efficiency of deformation of the actuator unit, the flexible cable must be kept out of contact with a region on the piezoelectric sheet corresponding to each pressure chamber. From such a standpoint, in the aforementioned head, a conductive member called a "land" which is thicker than the individual electrode is provided in a region of the piezoelectric sheet corresponding to no pressure chamber such that the land is in contact with the individual electrode. Thus, the individual electrode and the contact of the flexible cable are electrically connected via the land. The piezoelectric sheet has a trapezoidal shape in a plan view, and many dummy electrodes are formed along upper and lower sides of the trapezoidal shape. Each dummy electrode is bonded to a contact of the flexible cable.


Methods and apparatus for operating a laundry treating appliance to indicate an amount of laundry in a treating chamber are disclosed. An example method includes as laundry is being placed in the treating chamber, illuminating the treating chamber with light, and as the laundry is being placed in the treating chamber, repeatedly adjusting at least one or a color and/or an intensity of the light based on an amount of laundry in the treating chamber.

Laundry treating appliances, such as a washing machine in which a drum defines a treating chamber for receiving and treating a laundry load, may implement cycles of operation that may vary according to the size of the laundry load in the drum. The size of the laundry load may be manually input by a user through a user interface or may be automatically determined by the washing machine during a cycle of operation. With manual input, the user may overestimate or underestimate the load size, leading to a treating performance that may be less than optimal.
Known washing machines may be programmed to perform one of several methods to automatically determine load size during a cycle of operation, such as by correlating an output of the motor that drives the drum. In such a case, a load size indicated by the washing machine may be treated by a user as inaccurate based upon the user's observations of the load in the drum. In response, the user may adjust a treating cycle to reflect the user's conclusion that the load size is other than the size indicated by the washing machine. This also may lead to a treating performance that may be less than optimal.

Method for real-time indication of load size during loading of a laundry treating appliance


A mass position adjustment apparatus for use in a seismic sensor having axis mechanics including a pivotable boom with a defined null point is described. The apparatus comprising: (a) adjustment means for positioning the boom at the null point; (b) actuator means for moving the adjustment assembly; and (c) interface means having hard mineral members for interfacing the actuator means with the adjustment means for reducing occurrences of micro-mechanical movement when the mass position adjustment apparatus is not being operated.

Seismometers frequently experience spontaneous internal transient disturbances. This tends to occur most frequently with new instruments and to lesser degree when an instrument is first installed, moved or otherwise disturbed. These disturbances can appear as spikes in a time domain signal data. Spikes having amplitudes sufficiently larger than the concurrent seismic signal can be distinguished from natural events by their shape. However, even extremely low amplitude disturbances too small to be distinguished from low level seismic background activity in the time domain, can become apparent in the frequency domain, obscuring the power spectral density of the real seismic signal in the frequency range where it is quietest.
The disturbances occur when mechanical stresses in the components of the seismometer are spontaneously relieved; causing a mechanical shock that is interpreted as seismic signal. The frequency of occurrence of disturbances (often called pings and pops) may decline over time (months to years) as stresses inherent in the assembly are permanently relieved. Stresses induced by environmental changes or moving parts can build and be spontaneously relieved repetitively through the operational life of the seismometer. Conventional approaches to minimize pings or pops include minimizing static mechanical stresses, aging of components, temperature cycling of components and assemblies to relieve internal stresses, and careful assembly to both minimize stresses and the likelihood that stresses would be relieved.
A broadband seismometer typically uses an adjustable mass positioning mechanism operated by an electrical motor or a manually adjusted screw to position an inertial mass to a measurement null point to compensate for the inertial mass moving from the null point due to environmental changes or mis-calibration. This mechanism has moving parts that can be a source of pings and pops.
There is a need to provide mass positioning mechanisms that are less susceptible to spontaneous micro-mechanical movement that can be realized relatively economically inside the seismic sensor without significantly increasing the volume of the sensor enclosure.

Mass positioning adjustment mechanism for a seismic sensor


An austenitic alloy for high temperature use, particularly for use in resistance heating elements. The alloy includes primarily the elements Fe, Ni, and Cr, and it has the following main composition, given in weight %, Ni 38-48, Cr 18-24, Si 1.0-1.9, C<0.1, and the balance Fe. The alloy provides good hot form stability, good oxidation resistance, and a relatively high electrical resistance coupled with a low change in resistance as a function of temperature.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an austenitic Fe—Cr—Ni alloy for use at high temperatures.
2. Description of the Related Art
Austenitic Ni-base alloys containing Cr up to 30 wt %, Si up to 3 wt %, varying amounts of Fe and sometimes additions of R.E.-elements (Rare Earth) have long been used for a variety of high temperature parts up to 1100° C. service temperature. Regarding electric resistance alloys used for heating in industrial furnaces and in appliances, several alloys with varying amount of Ni are standardized in ASTM B 344-83 and in DIN 17470. These standards are not fully compatible as seen from Table 1. There are several commercial resistance alloys using variations on the theme, such as the 37-21 alloy, comprising 37% Ni, 20 to 21% Cr, 2% Si, and the balance Fe, and minor additions of rare earth elements including Yttrium (designated R.E.).
It is an object of the present invention to provide alloy compositions that combine the lower cost of a Ni content in the range, if possible, close to NiCr 30/20, i.e., 30 wt % Ni and 20 wt % Cr, with
i) a good hot form stability; and
ii) an oxidation resistance; and
iii) a relatively high electrical resistance and low change of resistance (Ct); of a higher Ni content alloy such as NiCr 60/15.
TABLE 1Summary of ASTM and DIN Standards for resistance eCr(Fe) alloysDIN *) 1774- W. .Cr Ni+C Fe Al Si Mn C Oth Note p CtNr. o er (pQm) 900° C . NiCr 2.4 19- >75 <1,0 <0, 0,5- <1, <0, R.E 1,12( 1, 14 80 869 21 3 2,0 0 15 .1,08) 20NiCr 2.4 ...30 >60 <5,0 <0, 0,5- <1, <0, R.E 1,19( 1,27 ) - 70 658. .3 2,0 0 10 .1,16) 30 .~NiCr 2.4 14- >59 19,0 <0, 0,5- >2, <0, R.E 1,13( 1,23 -) 60 867 19 -3 2,0 0 15 .1,11) 15 ...25,0 .NiCr 1.4 20,028.,0 ba1 2,00 <1, <0, Only 1,04 1,28 30 860..- --5 20 17470 20 22,031,0 3,00NiCr 1.422,0 19,0 bal 1,5- <2, <0, Only 0,95 1,24 25 843 --2,5 00 20 17470 20 25,022,0ASTM B 344-8380Ni 19- bal. <1,0 0,75 <2, <0, S<O,O 1,081 ″ , 21 -5 15 1 :) 20Cr 1,7560Ni 14- >57 0,75 <1, <0, S<O,O 1,122 , 18 -0 15 1 16Cr 1,75 .. 35Ni 18- 34- bal 1,0- <1, <0, R.E S<O,O 1,014. , 21 37 3,0 0 15 .1 20Cr* Maximum 1% Co
In general, the maximum operating temperature and lifetime of an alloy increases with increased Ni-content, but several other elements have great impact on these properties as well. All of these alloys form a protective oxide layer composed of mainly Cr2O3, and in case of Si additions also SiO2 to some extent. Smaller additions like rare earth elements have been used to further enhance the properties of the oxide layer, and several patents advise additions to provide a material with good oxidation life, see, e.g., EP 0 531 775 and EP 0 386 730.
In addition to good oxidation there is also a demand for good hot strength. In case of electric elements, the cost for hangers and support systems can be reduced if the material is strong enough to support its own weight, and therefore to maintain its shape at operating temperature.
For use as electric elements, the relatively high resistivity and low Ct=Rhot/Rcold ratio of resistance change from room temperature to working temperature is an important parameter. In general, the higher the Ni, the higher the resistivity and the lower the Ct factor.
Addition of elements such as Mo and W up to levels of several wt % are known to enhance the mechanical properties at high temperatures, but they are expensive and are therefore not desirable additions in applications where cost is important.
In a wide range of open coil electric resistance heating elements, NiCr 60/15 and NiCr 30/20 type (DIN) or 60 Ni, 16 Cr and 35 Ni, 20 Cr (ASTM) alloys are used. From a cost point of view, the NiCr 30/20 or 35Ni, 20Cr type is preferred due to their lower content of expensive Ni. In applications where the watt density and therefore the element temperature are high, the oxidation life of alloys with this level of Ni has up to now been insufficient. At the same time, the mechanical properties at working temperatures have to be within acceptable limits.

Austenitic FE-CR-NI alloy for high temperature use


Disclosed is a system configured to process content to enable tracing of at least one of a multitude of subsequent uses of content by at least one user. The system provides for: making markable content from content, iteratively marking the markable content with information such as use information; and later extracting at least one of the iteratively applied marks.

The present invention relates to the field of copyright enforcement tools. More specifically, the present invention provides a mechanism for tracing usage of content.
Large amounts of copyrighted content are currently available in digital form. Such content includes movies, audio, and data files. There is great concern over the loss of control of this content. The cost of producing program material, such as entertainment movies, is considerable, whereas, the cost to the copyist is relatively low. Hence, movie piracy has become a substantial source of loss of revenue for the movie industry. Indeed, more than 3 billion dollars are lost to copyists annually, mainly in the form of bootleg video cassettes, peer-to-peer sharing of content and DVD discs.
Distribution of content subject to agreements regulating use is common. When these agreements are broken, content owners and distributors may loose money due to uncollected royalties and outright piracy. Content distribution and presentation industries have had a hard time providing an effective system for enforcing content use agreements after the content has been distributed. Enforcement has largely been done by hand audits of content presenters at great expense to both distributors and presenters.
Two approaches to thwarting piracy have been implemented by legitimate producers of movies and other types of material having commercial value, such as software: (1) injecting, into a protected medium, a signal that distorts the material in some manner when played, and (2) watermarking, by injecting a visible or invisible static symbol or mark that identifies the source of the original material.
Watermarking commonly is performed on a medium at the point of authoring of protected material. An example is at a post house or other facility at which the information-bearing medium is produced. However, once recorded, the watermark is fixed. Although the watermark may identify the source of authoring of the material, it will provide no information on the identity of an unauthorized copyist. It would be useful if the identity of the copyist was obtained from information gathered at the point of playback and copying. This may include such information as identification of the equipment used by the copyist and time of copying. Circuitry to provide this information at the playback unit, however, will increase the cost of the unit, a considerable disadvantage in this competitive industry. An objective of this invention is to produce a tracing signal at multiple points of use, that varies in dependence of, and is unique to, the copyist of a protected medium. Another objective is to do so without adding significant cost to the playback unit.
The protective signal furthermore should preferably be capable of being unpredictable, as predictability will enable a copyist either to filter out the signal, or alter it so as to provide a false designation of source. The protective system should also be robust, as any source of copying message injected into the signal stream should be recoverable in an environment having heavy transmission noise, and unintentional or intentional distortion. Furthermore, the sending message should be difficult to detect, modify or remove. The message content should be protected and difficult to decode, even if the transmitted bits identifying source are available.
Finally, the output stream must be legal to enable proper decoding in the appropriate domain. An additional objective of this invention is to produce use information, injected into the signal stream that is difficult for a copyist to detect or alter. The use information furthermore should preferably be able to be injected into any type of protected content, including audio and software, in addition to video.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,774 to Schumann et al. (herein after referred to as the '774 patent) and entitled "System and methodology for tracing to a source of unauthorized copying of prerecorded proprietary material, such as movies" discloses a system which addresses this issue. This patent enables the source of an unauthorized copy of an information-bearing medium, such as a video DVD, to be traced. As disclosed in the patent, the content stored on the medium is altered to include "running marks." Running marks comprise holes in the content that may be encoded with a message designating where and when a single copy of the content was made. This patent is hereby included by reference for its' teaching of running marks. Typically, the message is spread throughout the content.
One problem with the '774 patent is that it does not address the situation where content is used multiple times, possibly on different pieces of equipment, possibly at different locations. For example, in the movie industry, content typically changes hands several times through daily shootings, the pre-release production process, mastering, replication, initial distribution, post distribution traffic. To solve this problem, a system that can allow a content owner to track multiple subsequent uses of content is needed.

Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation


A M×N wavelength selective optical switch (WSS) for switching K wavelength channels is disclosed. The WSS has two MEMS micromirror arrays, a M×K array and a 1×N array, for switching any wavelength channel from any input port to any output port, provided that any output port receives optical signals from only one input port. The WSS can be used to build fully reconfigurable, colorless and directionless node of an agile optical network.

In an optical communication network, optical signals having a plurality of optical channels at individual wavelengths, called "wavelength channels", are transmitted from one location to another, typically through a length of an optical fiber. An optical cross-connect module allows switching of optical signals from one optical fiber to another. A wavelength-selective optical cross-connect, or wavelength selective switch (WSS) module, allows reconfigurable wavelength-dependent switching, that is, it allows certain wavelength channels to be switched from a first optical fiber to a second optical fiber while letting the other wavelength channels propagate in the first optical fiber, or it allows certain wavelength channels to be switched to a third optical fiber. An optical network architecture based on wavelength-selective optical switching, which is sometimes called an "agile" optical network architecture, has many attractive features due to its ability to automatically create or re-route optical paths of individual wavelength channels. It accelerates service deployment, accelerates rerouting around points of failure of an optical network, reduces capital and operating expenses for a service provider, as well as creates a future-proof topology of the network.
Most WSS modules of the present state of the art are constructed to switch wavelength channels between one input optical fiber and a few, for example four or eight, output optical fibers. In particular, a folded symmetrical 4-f configuration taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,498,872 by Bouevitch et al., with an optional field-flattening optical wedge taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,760,501 by Iyer et al., both assigned to JDS Uniphase Corporation and incorporated herein by reference, allow construction of WSS modules for performing the abovementioned wavelength channel switching function. Multiport WSS modules are taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,707,959 by Ducellier et al. and 6,810,169 by Bouevitch, both assigned to JDS Uniphase Corporation and incorporated herein by reference; and a multi-module unit is taught in US Patent application publication 20070242953 by Keyworth et al., which is incorporated herein by reference.
The abovementioned 1×N WSS modules, although beneficial for agile optical networks as mentioned above, have their limitations that are related to having only one input port, or only one output port when a 1×N WSS module is used in a reverse direction. One such limitation is related to having wavelength channels at the same wavelength in the same network. Since the wavelengths of all wavelength channels have to be different at any single port to avoid undesired interference, having one input or one output port in a WSS device results in the entire device being incapable of handling more than one "instance" of a wavelength channel. Another limitation is related to reliability and redundancy requirements. Having all the traffic propagating in a single optical fiber connected to the single input or output port of a 1×N WSS lowers the reliability of an optical network, because a damage to that single fiber may result in a catastrophic failure of the entire network. Therefore, M×N WSS modules are highly useful in agile optical networks.
Prior-art implementations of a M× N WSS include connecting M×1 and 1×N WSS modules in series or in parallel. Referring to FIG. 1A, a compound M×N WSS module 100A is shown having a M×1 WSS module 101 and 1×N WSS module 102. The modules 101 and 102 are connected serially with a common optical fiber 103. The combined module 100 has M input ports 104 and N output ports 105. Detrimentally, the WSS 100A is "wavelength-blocking", meaning that it does not allow routing of wavelength channels at the same wavelength, appearing at different input ports 104. Referring now to FIG. 1B, a compound N×N WSS module 100B is shown having 2N 1×N WSS modules 106 interconnected with N fiber bundles 107. The WSS module 100B is "non-blocking", however this is achieved at a very high cost of having to use many 1×N WSS modules 106. Furthermore, both modules 100A and 100B have high insertion loss, since an optical signal has to pass through two modules.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,316 by Ducellier, assigned to JDS Uniphase Corporation and incorporated herein by reference, discloses a N×N wavelength cross-connect having two N×K arrays of beam deflectors, wherein K is the number of wavelengths. Detrimentally, the WSS of Ducellier is bulky, essentially having two WSS modules connected back-to-back, and not readily expandable for large number of ports, for example, at N=40 ports and K=80 wavelengths, it requires two arrays of 40×80 beam deflectors.
It is therefore a goal of the present invention to provide a single M×N WSS module having improved cost and performance characteristics as compared to two individual M×1 and 1×N WSS modules, while being non-blocking, that is, allowing to switch wavelength channels at the same wavelengths between M input ports and N output ports. Unexpectedly and advantageously, the construction of the WSS module of the present invention automatically prevents wavelength channels at the same wavelength from appearing at the same output port.