Disclosed is a system that may include a holding tank configured to hold a liquid, a pump configured to receive the liquid from the holding tank, a nozzle configured to emit a fog, and a fan configured to push the fog through a tube. Disclosed also is a method of creating a fog by transferring a liquid from a holding tank to a pump, pumping the liquid to a pressure regulator, moving the liquid from the pressure regulator back to the holding tank when a pressure is above a first value and moving the liquid to a fogger when the pressure is below the first pressure.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to a system configured to emit a fog and a method of producing a fog. In example embodiments the fog may include, but is not required to include, an insecticide, a disinfectant, and/or an antimicrobial agent. Example embodiments also relate to a method of applying a fog to a relatively large area.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ultra low volume (ULV) cold aerosol fog refers to a droplet size that is less than 30 microns. Droplets of this size have been shown to have optimum drift. There are several methods available for creating a ULV fog. First, a low pressure high volume air flow may be forced over itself. Liquid may be injected into a point where the air flow comes together just in front of a nozzle. The turbulence breaks the liquid into an ULV fog. This method requires a gas motor and a blower of some sort. Another method of creating an ULV fog is to use high pressure low volume liquid which is typically found in a paint sprayer. In this latter method, high pressure air blasts come together in front of a liquid injector and the liquid is blasted into a fog. This method requires a gas engine and a compressor. Another method uses a rotary atomizer. This method utilizes pores in a head that spins at about 30,000 rpm. The product is injected into a center of the head, is spun through a nozzle, and is then moved by a fan. A problem with this latter embodiment is that it requires a relatively delicate electrical system which is expensive and which breaks down often.


A block for forming a structure, the block having a top, a bottom, a front wall, a back wall and two side walls, the block having disposed proximate the top at least one projection, the block having disposed proximate the bottom thereof at least one recess, wherein when the structure is formed from a plurality of the blocks, the at least one projection of one block engages with the at least one recess of another block.

Retaining walls are well known. These structures may be built including mortar, or as introduced more recently constructed from mortarless construction. The mortarless construction includes building blocks of predetermined design, which may be stacked course upon course as a wall, including a cap stone. Most blocks provided in the prior art are limited in the number of degrees of freedom that they provide the professional landscaper when constructing retaining walls. This invention obviates this limitation.
Many block constructions provide for only the ability of the contractor to build a set back retaining wall. Within a retaining wall system, it would be beneficial to be able to produce wall structures, which are set back and or set forward in some portions thereof and vertical in other portions thereof. Furthermore, there is a requirement of building walls with smooth curves and corners without use of specific curved blocks. This is heretofore unknown. Furthermore, there is a need to manufacture a standard block, which can be used both as a building stone and a corner stone thus increasing the versatility of these blocks.
It would be advantageous to be able to provide a standard block which may not only be set back, set forward, or a combination thereof when appropriate, but, which also may be stacked vertically when appropriate, such as when creating steps to traverse an incline to thereby not alter the step lengths since this may not always be desirable or esthetically pleasing.
It would also be advantageous to be able to provide a standard block which may be altered in geometrical shape and length to allow for a number of configurations in construction while maintaining an aesthetically pleasing end result.
Further, quite often, cribbing is provided to reinforce or tie back a retaining wall back into the incline around which the retaining wall is being built. Although this is desirable, it is not always cost effective. Therefore, there is a need for a retaining wall, which does not require cribbing structures being assembled. There exists, therefore a need for a simple, easy to use number of components which an installer may install course upon course to prepare a reasonable number of attractive options for the building owner without limiting the number of alternatives for which recommendations may be made by the landscaper.
Examples of prior retaining wall structures and the blocks used to manufacture retaining walls may be found in the following patents. U.S. Pat. No. 1,872,522 teaches manufacturing of artificial stone bricks with splitting grooves which upon splitting creates an irregular surface for "stone like" effect. U.S. Pat. No. 5,598,679 teaches manufacturing of concrete blocks, which can be separated into smaller construction blocks and used for construction of retaining walls.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,615 teaches a substantially rectangular shaped block of cementitious material which has a metal reinforcing member extending there through and embedded therein. The reinforcing member has a height substantially equal to the height of the block and extends past one end of the block, terminating in an elongated T-shaped tongue. Adjacent to the other end of the block, the reinforcing member terminates in an elongated groove, slightly larger than but complementary to the shape of the tongue. In use, adjacent blocks are loosely but securely locked together by the cooperating tongues and grooves of the reinforcing members of the adjoining building blocks
U.S. Pat. No. 3,888,060 teaches interlocking blocks that are assembled in longitudinally staggered rows. The blocks are planar on their bottom side and include webs with interlocking protrusions on their upper side. The protrusions interact with the webs on adjacent rows of blocks to locate and hold the blocks in position.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,534,518 illustrates in FIG. 4 a corner block which may be utilized as seen in FIGS. 3 and 4. This block allows for interfitting with other blocks, including the projections illustrated.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,639,063 illustrates in FIG. 3 another corner block construction for a wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,668,435 illustrates in FIGS. 11 and 12 and the description related thereto a corner block construction.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,178,715 and 6,398,458 teach a standardized block construction having provided therewith the ability to form a retaining wall in whole or in part being substantially vertical, being substantially offset to the vertical, and being substantially set forward to the vertical.
The current invention provides further improvements to the prior art blocks.
It is therefore, a primary object of the invention to provide a standardized block construction which includes the ability to expose a smooth and/or a rough face at both faces of the block.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a standardized block for retaining wall systems, which include the necessary features to allow for in whole or in part setting course upon course in substantially vertical alignment, in set back alignment to the vertical, in set forward alignment to the vertical, positioning of the block at an angle or any combination thereof in a retaining wall system.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a standardized block construction which, in combination with the features of the block improves both lateral and longitudinal stability of the block when it is placed course upon a course to form a structure, such as a retaining wall.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a standardized block which may serve as a corner block, preferably which may be utilized as a left-hand or a right-hand corner block.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a standardized block which may be positioned in parallel, perpendicular or angled positioned relatively to the below positioned block.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a block which may be separated at one of the corners at substantially a 45°.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a retaining wall system, including the standardized block of the present invention, which provides when stacked course upon course with one another, an esthetically pleasing retaining wall system.
Further and other objects of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art when considering the following summary of the invention, and the more detailed description of the preferred embodiments illustrated herein.

Block for use in constructing a retaining wall with improved features


A priority restore agent in a data storage system generates a priority restore data set for a client computer system or device by identifying a set of active data sets and/or a set of key data sets within client system data generated by the client computer system. The priority restore agent looks at or processes file system attributes for the client system data and compares these attributes with predefined restore parameters. The restore parameters may indicate that any file that has been accessed, modified, or created within a particular period of time be included in the priority restore data set. The key data sets may be identified in a set of automated restore rules. A data protection application within the data storage system can restore data in the priority restore data set onto the client computer system after a disaster or system crash.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to data storage and backup solutions for archiving data and recovering data. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to software, hardware, systems, and methods for facilitating automated restores of select data or files based on user-selectable criteria.
2. The Relevant Technology
The need for reliable backup and archiving of information is well known. Businesses are devoting large amounts of time and money toward information system (IS) resources that are devoted to providing backup and archive of information resident in computers and servers within their organizations that produce and rely upon digital information. Generally, backup involves using a data storage application to make a coherent copy of data. Backup has become more important as the amount of data used by enterprises has exploded. Historically, tape has been used as the medium for backing up data, i.e., providing an archival copy of data. Initially tape was a much cheaper medium than disk and other storage media, and although tape remains the medium of choice for backup, disk solutions are becoming more popular for backup due to their higher speed relative to tape. For example, a disk storage device may be used for initial backup and system mirror. Additionally, disk storage devices may be used to store snapshots, at least temporarily, that provide a consistent point-in-time copy of a data set such as a logical volume, and these snapshots may be used to make backups or archival copies that are stored to tape (e.g., stored at a remote location).
When enterprise systems fail and/or data is lost, a recovery process is initiated to restore the enterprise systems and individual machines. In order to restore data, a backup administrator or data storage administrator typically acts to perform a full restore. In a full restore, most companies restore all the files for which backups were created to the destroyed or corrupted system. Such a full restore can be very time consuming and costly, with some restore services involving a mobile vault containing backups exported to tape or disk being transported to an enterprises site or data center. In other cases, the backups are stored in formats unique to the data storage application, and the restore process involves converting the backups or archived data from this archive format to its native format. The restore of all files or data to an enterprise's systems and machines is typically performed even though most files are rarely or never accessed by the system or large portions of the system. In a disaster recovery or multiple system failure scenario, the restoring of files or data that are not important or relevant to the system or portions of the system requires a significant amount of time.
Some efforts have been made to facilitate and simplify restoring data. However, there remains a need for improved techniques of restoring systems quickly and efficiently after a disaster or system failure, and preferably such a system would be useful regardless of which data protection system or application is utilized for creating backups.


A process for producing micro-mechanical structures for sensors or actuators is proposed. Here, local oxidations are placed into the surfaces of at least two wafers with the aid of masking technology, so that level wafer surfaces are generated. The at least two wafers are subsequently connected with each other in such a way that the local oxidations of the at least two wafers are in direct contact. The actual sensor structure, which might possibly be mechanically deformable, is exposed by dissolving the local oxidations out.

Various processes are already known for producing mechanical structures in semiconductor wafers. A differentiation between bulk processes and surface processes is made in this case. A bulk process is described in the German patent disclosure DE-OS 40 00 496, and corresponding WO 91/03074, published 7 Mar. 1991, for example, where recesses are etched into the surfaces of a semiconductor body with the aid of photographic masking technology, and paddles are exposed by undercutting ridges and etching the back. In the bulk process, the largest portion of a wafer is removed by an isotropic etching process in order to obtain the desired mechanical structure. This has the disadvantage that after etching the wafer has structures which are sensitive to breaking and must be treated accordingly. Furthermore, process-related inner stresses in the structures can lead to mechanical deformations which make further processing much more difficult.
A surface treatment process is described in "Surface Micromachining Process for Electrostatic Microactuator Fabrication" by Theresa A. Lober and Roger T. Howe, IEEE 1988, in which structured auxiliary layers are applied to the surface of a silicon wafer and form pedestal-like protrusions on the surface. Polysilicon is deposited on top of these pedestal-like protrusions, so that the polysilicon layer is partially in direct connection with the surface of the silicon wafer. By subsequent removal of the auxiliary layer, overhanging polysilicon cantilevers are created on the surface of the silicon wafer. With this process, the actually mechanically stressed structures cannot be made of mono-crystalline silicon, which has disadvantageous effects on the expected long-term stability.
A process is also known from the Journal of Electrochemical Society, Extended Abstracts, Vol. 86-1, Masaru Shimbo, Kazuyoshi Furukawa, Kyoshi Funkunda, "A Newly Developed Silicon to Silicon Direct Adhesion Method", by means of which silicon wafers can be bonded to each other without requiring an intermediate layer for this.

Process for producing micro-mechanical structures


A new Adjustable Telescopic Window Security System for facilitating increased security for various sizes of conventional windows while allowing the user to simultaneously adjust the position of the window so as to allow ventilation through the conventional window. The inventive device includes a telescopic security tube adjustable to various sizes of windows, at least one window engaging suction cup to retain the present invention to the conventional window, and a pair a pane engaging caps secured to opposite ends of the telescopic security tube engaging the conventional window pane.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Security Devices and more particularly pertains to a new Adjustable Telescopic Window Security System for facilitating increased security for various sizes of conventional windows while allowing the user to simultaneously adjust the position of the window so as to allow ventilation through the conventional window.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of Security Devices is known in the prior art. More specifically, Security Devices heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art Security Devices include U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,501; U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,484; U.S. Design Pat. No. 348,706; U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,096; U.S. Pat. No. 4,413,852 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,351.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not disclose a new Adjustable Telescopic Window Security System. The inventive device includes a telescopic security tube adjustable to various sizes of windows, at least one window engaging suction cup to retain the present invention to the conventional window, and a pair a pane engaging caps secured to opposite ends of the telescopic security tube engaging the conventional window pane.
In these respects, the Adjustable Telescopic Window Security System according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of facilitating increased security for various sizes of conventional windows while allowing the user to simultaneously adjust the position of the window so as to allow ventilation through the conventional window.

Adjustable telescopic window security system


A fire extinguisher unit that can be grasped and operated with a single hand. The unit includes a single-hand fire extinguisher and a holder for releasably supporting the fire extinguisher on a vertical surface. The fire extinguisher has a cylindrical canister housing, a flexible internal pouch containing fire suppressant, means for externally pressurizing the pouch, a valve for regulating the flow of fire suppressant from said pouch, and a spray head connected to the valve for actuating the valve between open and closed positions and for directing the flow of fire suppressant from said pouch. The holder has an elongate base, means for mounting the elongate base to a vertical surface, and a clamp fixed to each end of said elongate base.

Rechargeable fire extinguishers have become very common, and often legally required, in most households across the United States. However, rechargeable household fire extinguishers have several shortcomings that prevent or dissuade many individuals from using them effectively.
Rechargeable household fire extinguishers are large and heavy. For example, even the smallest units may weigh more than 5 pounds and are over 16 inches tall. This weight and size makes operation cumbersome, and limits the location in which the fire extinguisher can be mounted. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a fire extinguisher that is lightweight and compact.
The discharge nozzle on known household fire extinguishers typically requires two steps to operate. First, a safety pin must be removed. Then, a lever actuator must be squeezed. The construction of said discharge nozzle is complicated and intimidating to many individuals. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a fire extinguisher having a discharge nozzle that is very simple to operate and is un-intimidating in appearance.


A process for the inhibition of corrosion caused by naphthenic acid and sulfur compounds during the elevated temperature processing of crude oil by use of a corrosion inhibitor consisting of trialkylphosphate and an alkaline earth metal phosphonate-phenate sulfide.

Corrosion problems in petroleum refining operations associated with naphthenic acid constituents in crude oils have been recognized for many years. Such corrosion is particularly severe in atmospheric and vacuum distillation units at temperatures between 400 degrees F. and 790 degrees F. Other factors that contribute to the corrosivity of crudes containing naphthenic acids include the amount of naphthenic acid present, the concentration of sulfur compounds, the velocity and turbulence of the flow stream in the units, and the location in the unit (e.g., liquid vapor interface).
In the distillation refining of crude oils, the crude oil is passed successively through a furnace, and one or more fractionators such as an atmospheric tower and a vacuum tower. In most operations, naphthenic acid corrosion is not a problem at temperatures below about 400 degrees F. Traditional nitrogen-based filming corrosion inhibitors are not effective at these high temperatures and the other approaches for preventing naphthenic acid/sulfur corrosion such as neutralization present operational problems or are not effective.
It should be observed that the term "naphthenic acid" includes mono and di basic carboxylic acids and generally constitutes about 50 percent by weight of the total acidic components in crude oil. Naphthenic acids may be represented by the following formula: ##STR1## where R is an alkyl or cycloalkyl and n ranges generally from 2 to 10.
Many variations of this structure and molecular weight are possible. Some practitioners include alkyl organic acids within the class of naphthenic acids.
Naphthenic acids are corrosive between the range of about 210 degrees C. (400 degrees F.) to 420 degrees C. (790 degrees F.). At the higher temperatures the naphthenic acids are in the vapor phase and at the lower temperatures the corrosion rate is not serious. The corrosivity of naphthenic acids appears to be exceptionally serious in the Presence of sulfide compounds, such as hydrogen sulfur.
Efforts to minimize or prevent the naphthenic acid/sulfur corrosion have included the following approaches:
(a) blending of higher naphthenic acid content oil with oil low in naphthenic acids; PA0 (b) neutralization and removal of naphthenic acids from the oil; and PA0 (c) use of corrosion inhibitors.
Because these approaches have not been entirely satisfactory, the accepted approach in the industry is to construct the distillation unit, or the portions exposed to naphthenic acid/sulfur corrosion, with resistant metals such as high quality stainless steel or alloys containing higher amounts of chromium and molybdenum. However, in units not so constructed there is a need to provide inhibition treatment against this type of corrosion. The prior art corrosion inhibitors for naphthenic acid environments include nitrogen based filming corrosion inhibitors. However, these corrosion inhibitors are relatively ineffective in the high temperature environment of naphthenic acid oils.


Disclosed is a method for forming copper interconnections of a semiconductor component using an electroless plating system, which enables copper to be grown only in corresponding interconnection regions. In such a method, a wafer is cleaned, the wafer is pretreated with a metal seed solution so as to cause spontaneous catalytic activation and simultaneously the process temperature is varied to grow metal seed particles from the metal seed pretreating solution, the wafer is cleaned to remove the metal seed from the wafer surface, and the wafer is finally plated with an electroless plating bath to grow copper in the metal seed formed regions. This method simplifies the processes and reduces process costs by substituting a wet process for the existing vacuum pretreating process. Also, a wafer planarization process can be omitted by selectively growing copper only in desired interconnections. Compared with the existing ultraviolet radiation photo process, the selective copper growth process of the method has an advantage of being much simpler.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for forming copper interconnections in a semiconductor component using an electroless plating system, and more particularly to such a method, in which a metal seed for growing copper interconnections is subjected to a selective pretreating process, so as to grow copper only in corresponding interconnection regions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Up to the present, aluminum (Al) and tungsten (W) have been used for metal interconnection process in semiconductor components, but copper (Cu) having lower resistance and better metal properties has recently been used as a substitute and many studies on copper interconnection processes are now in progress. A copper deposition process by use of an electrolytic plating system is already employed in some semiconductor components. The copper deposition method includes a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system, a sputtering system, an electrolytic plating system and so forth. The conventional vacuum deposition systems, however, have many difficulties in developing copper metal-organic compounds and the sputtering system has problems including its incapability to form a uniform copper film.
A description will be given here for a conventional copper interconnection process in a semiconductor component.
FIGS. 1A and 1B are schematic sectional views showing the conventional process of forming copper interconnections. Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, interconnections with various shapes are fabricated by growing an interlayer dielectric (ILD) film 2 on a silicon wafer 1 and performing a photo process and an etching process to form via holes and trenches. The interlayer dielectric film 2 is formed using a silicon oxides (SiO2) film or a fluorosilicate glass (FGS) film, i.e., a silicon oxyfluoride (SiOF) film. After a cleaning process, a metal diffusion barrier (Ta, Ti, TaN, TiN) layer 3 with a predetermined thickness is then deposited on the interlayer dielectric film 2 by a sputtering method. At this time, if the via holes have high aspect ratios, a collimated system capable of improving step coverage is used in the sputtering deposition of the layer to be bonded.
After a thin copper seed layer 4 is deposited on the metal diffusion barrier layer 3 by the sputtering method, a copper interconnection layer 5a is filled in the via holes and the trenches and is further deposited over the entire regions to be processed. At this time, the copper interconnection layer 5a may be formed using an electroless plating method, an electrolytic plating method, a sputtering method or a CVD method, among which the electrolytic plating method or the CVD method shows an excellent via hole-fling characteristic. In the case of using the electrolytic plating method, the copper seed layer must be deposited in advance with a thickness of 100 to 1000xc3x85.
Subsequently, the copper interconnection layer 5a, the metal diffusion barrier layer 3 and the copper seed layer 4 over the interlayer dielectric film 2 are removed using a chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) method or a combination of an electrolytic polishing method and the chemical mechanical planarization method in order to proceed with semiconductor component processes on the deposited copper interconnection layer. In this way, the copper 5b comes to be only in the patterned interconnections.
A process for preventing copper atoms within the copper interconnection layer 5b from diffusing into the interlayer dielectric film 2 is also performed by full deposition of a capping layer (not shown), using a silicon nitride film or the like, over the entire structure including the interlayer dielectric film 2 and the copper interconnection layer 5b.
Meanwhile, many studies have been conducted in an effort to achieve spontaneous surface activation in the electroless plating system. In general, these studies were conducted with the intention of producing a seed solution using palladium and depositing palladium particles on the wafer in various ways. Recently, a deposition system has been used, in which the wafer is coated with a palladium seed solution using a spin coating method, palladium particles are deposited in desired regions by exposing the coated wafer to a ultraviolet radiation so as to maintain palladium bonded to exposed portions of the wafer and remove palladium in non-exposed portions of the wafer using a photo process and a cleaning process and then copper is selectively deposited by performing electroless plating. This deposition system involving the photo process, however, is problematic because it is very difficult to produce an efficient palladium seed solution for the photo process.
With regard to conventional electrolytic plating being used for the metal interconnection process, there have been various difficulties including deterioration of electrical properties of the copper film due to rapid copper growth, differences in growth speed of the copper film over the surface of the wafer, formation of the copper seed film indispensable for the electrolytic plating and the like. In particular, although the electrolytic plating itself is a wet process, the preceding processes are vacuum processes, which gives rise to a disadvantage in that the number of overall plating processes is increased.
Accordingly, the present invention has been created in order to solve the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method for forming copper interconnections of a semiconductor component using an electroless plating system, in which a metal seed for growing copper interconnections is subjected to a selective pretreating process, so as to grow copper only in corresponding interconnection regions.
That is to say, the present invention intends to grow a copper film of good quality through a surface cleaning process for a metal diffusion barrier layer and to selectively deposit copper only in a given pattern of a wafer through metal seed (gold, silver, nickel, tin, iron, palladium, etc.) pretreating and posttreating processes. In a metal seed treating process using a pretreating solution containing palladium among various kinds of metal seeds, the present invention also intends to realize selective copper deposition by providing different chemical structures of palladium particles to be adsorbed and deposited on the surface depending upon composition of the solution and a process temperature to vary deposition position and size of the palladium particles according to the surface structure of the wafer and, after this palladium treating process, selectively depositing the palladium particles through wafer cleaning.
To accomplish this object, there is provided a method for forming copper interconnections of a semiconductor component using an electroless plating system in accordance with the present invention, the method comprising: a first step of cleaning a wafer in order to remove contamination sources and allow uniform copper deposition; a second step of pretreating the wafer with a metal seed solution so as to cause copper depositing regions to tend toward spontaneous catalytic activation and simultaneously varying a process temperature to grow metal seed particles from the metal seed pretreating solution, the metal seed particles having different bonding forces and sizes on a wafer surface and in interconnection forming regions; a third step of cleaning the wafer to remove the metal seed from the wafer surface; and a fourth step of plating a product obtained from the third step with an electroless plating bath to grow copper in the metal seed formed regions.
In the above-mentioned method according to the present invention, the first step comprises the sub-steps of removing organics and metallic contaminants formed on the wafer surface by cleaning the wafer using sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide in a weight ratio of 1 to 10:1 for a time of 1 to 10 minutes; and removing oxides formed on the wafer surface by cleaning the wafer using hydrofluoric acid and water in a weight ratio of 1 to 10:100 for a time of 1 to 2 minutes.
Also, the metal seed used as the pretreating solution for selective copper deposition of the second step is any one selected from the group consisting of palladium (Pd), gold (Au), silver (Ag), tin (Sn), nickel (Ni), iron (Fe), copper (Cu) and platinum (Pt), and the metal seed pretreating solution using palladium is composed of a mixture of 0.01 to 0.1 g/l of palladium chloride (PdCl2), 3 to 20 ml of ammonia water (NH4OH), 1 to 20 ml of hydrochloric acid (HCl) and 1 to 10 ml of hydrofluoric acid (HF).
In this case, it is preferable that nitric acid (HNO3), as a surface oxidant, is further added to and polyethyleneglycol (PEG) and Triton, as surfactants for stabilization of the solution, is further added to the metal seed pretreating solution.
In addition, the second step of pretreating the wafer with the metal seed is performed at a process temperature of 50 to 80, thereby causing only Pd metal particles of Pd(NH3)2Cl2 within the solution to be grown on the surface.
In accordance with the pretreating process temperature of the second step, nano size fine particles of several tens of nanometers are deposited at a normal temperature and the size of the nano size particles increases up to a size of a several hundreds of nanometers at the process temperature of 50 to 80xc2x0 C.
On the other hand, a procedure for preparing the electroless plating bath prior to the copper electroless plating of the fourth step comprises the steps of a) adding copper sulfate pentahydrate and EDTA to a water solvent and then stirring the solvent to produce a solution; b) adjusting solution pH to an alkaline state by TMAH prior to putting HCHO into the solution in order to prevent a side reaction by which HCHO is rapidly converted into methanol in an acidic state; c) adding HCHO to a product obtained from step b); d) putting other additives into the solution; and e) adjusting solution pH to a value of 12 to 13 by TMAH and then stirring the solution.
Preferably, the copper electroless plating is conducted at a temperature of 50 to 80xc2x0 C.
Following the electroless plating process of the fourth step, it is preferable to further performing a planarization (CMP) process for posttreating processes.

Method for forming copper interconnections in semiconductor component using electroless plating system


Provided is a method for purifying a biodiesel fuel while completely preventing or greatly reducing generation of waste water. The present invention relates to a method for purifying a biodiesel fuel characterized by applying an electric field to or heating a crude biodiesel fuel and a method for purifying a biodiesel fuel characterized by adding water (preferably containing a demulsifier such as an inorganic calcium salt or a magnesium salt) to a crude biodiesel fuel to form W/O emulsion, and breaking the emulsion by application of an electric field or heating, etc.

Recently, a biodiesel fuel (BDF) such as long-chain fatty acid methyl ester derived from a recyclable lipid has been attracted attention as recyclable clean energy. The most common method presently used for producing a biodiesel fuel is a transesterification method using an alkaline catalyst. However, the alkaline catalyst method has a problem in that the generated ester compound contains unreacted methanol and alkali metals (e.g., potassium or sodium) and a by-product such as free glycerin. To overcome this problem, purification by washing with water (for example, Patent Document 1) is generally performed. However, in this method, high cost and large energy are required for treating wastewater. In the circumstances, it has been desired to develop a method for producing a biodiesel fuel completely preventing or greatly reducing generation of wastewater.    Patent Document 1: JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 10-182518A (1998)


Formulations with antibacterial and biofilm removing actions in which the formulations have at least one plant oil from a plant from the genus Protium, Guatteria, Cyperus in a suitable vehicle.

The antimicrobial properties of plant extracted substances are known due to its empirical use throughout the centuries and are being recently confirmed by science. Many researches, in several countries, including Brazil, owner of one of the world's largest biodiversity, were performed in view of the popular knowledge of the native species. Extracts and essential oils from some species were efficient in fighting microorganisms, such as filamentous fungi, yeast and bacteria. Some plants are described as possessing antimicrobial properties (such as antibacterial and antifungal) such as: olive tree (Olea europaea), sunflower (Helianthus annuus), andiroba (carapa guianensis), garlic (Allium sativum), sessile joyweed (Althernanthera sessilis) and some marine algae. These and other plants can be found in several countries besides Brazil, such as Cuba, India, Mexico and Jordan. Around the world, antimicrobial products are gaining special attention due to the increase in bacteria population resistance to conventional antibiotics; considering that no new class of antibiotics was discovered in the last years (1).
Certain chemical classes found in plants with antimicrobial activity (antibacterial and antifungal) can be cited such as terpenes and fenols (thymol, carvone, carvacrol, menthol and murolene) (2.3). Despite the fact that the mechanism of action of these substances is still unknown, there are clues that suggest that the action is associated with the lipophilic character of the compounds, which builds up in cell membranes, leading to a loss of energy of these cells (4,5)
Plants from several regions from Brazil possess other farmacological properties and have being used as natural medicines by local population, treating several tropical diseases, such as schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, malaria and fungal and bacterial infections (6). Despite the vast biodiversity of Brazil, antimicrobial activity data is available only for 44 plant species from 20 families, including native and exotic species. Practical uses that can be suggested for these plants include phytotherapeutical products for human and animal use, as well as food industry and cleaning products.
The next paragraphs give details of patents and scientific papers related to products containing natural products with antimicrobial action using the plants of the present invention: Protium, Guatteria, Cyperus and Aniba.
The species Protium heptaphyllum March is a plant belonging to genus Protium and to the family Burseraceae, native in Brazilian cerrado. Some genus of this family (Elaphrium, Icica, Canarium and Protium) are producers of oily resins also known as "elemi". Siani et al. (10) describe the essential oils extracted from the leaves and the resins from Protium species as having anti-inflammatory activity, but a product containing said essential oils has not been suggested.
No document in patent literature regarding the use of Protium plants for the purposes herein described was found.
Document US 2007/0166255 describes a formulation containing natural lignans for topical use in the prevention and treatment of sunburns and wounds. These lignans are found as conjugated glycosides in several parts of plants of several genus, being associated to fibers, specially in conifers.
Plants from genus Guatteria belongs to family Annonaceae, dicotyledons from Magnoliales order. This group includes several fruits used as foods such as soursop (Annona muricata), fruta-do-conde (Annona coriaceae) and sugar-apple (Annona squamosa). Guatteria citriodora Ducke, also known as laranjinha or laranjeirinha, is a tree from this family, native from Amazon region of Brazil. Guatteria genus plants have been described in scientific papers containing antileishmanial and antimalarial activity.
The patent literature contains few documents related to Guatteria plants.
In documents WO 04/084801 and WO 05/035783, these plants are cited for treatment of leishmaniasis. It is known that this plant contain aporphinic alkaloids, an alkaloid subclass, described in these documents as useful for both visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis, in both animals and humans.
Document US 2005/0181077 describes the use of this genus and the discover of medicines. In this document, two families used in the present invention, namely Annonaceae and Cyperaceae are suggested; however, only the genus Guatteria is suggested in the present invention. There is no suggestion of the possibility of using plants from Cyperus genus, unlike the present invention. The pharmaceutical formulation proposed is aimed to the treatment of AIDS while the present invention is not.
Documents WO 03/08278 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,590,127 suggest the use of Guatteria gaumeri in the preparation of a pharmaceutical formulation useful in treating hypercholesterolemia.
No document in patent literature regarding the use of Guatteria citriodora for the purposes herein described was found.
Aniba roseodora Ducke, also known as rosewood, is a 30-meter tall tree that can be found in north and western Amazon, specially in the states of Amazônia, Pará and Amapá.
Documents U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,150,888, 7,048,953 and US 2004/0009245 disclose antibacterial activity of Aniba roseodora essential oil. In these documents is suggested the inhalation of essential oil vapors for antibacterial effects in the respiratory tract. In the abovementioned documents there is no suggestion of spray formulations for skin wounds.
Document WO 05/087244 describes a pharmaceutical formulation with antimicrobial activity containing at least two essential oils, derived from several genus of plants, including Aniba, and more specifically Aniba roseodora, also used in the present invention. The antimicrobial activity aimed in this document in antifungal, while the present invention is not.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 7,060,306 described a formulation for treatment and relief of skin disorders such as dermatitis, psoriasis, cutaneous rash. In the formulation disclosed, the essential oil of 11 natural agents, such as karate butter, mango butter, beeswax, chamomile, carrot seed oil, rosemary oil, cedar wood oil, pau-rosa oil, rose fruits oil, grapefruit seed extract and sweet orange oil, are suggested in formulations of lotions or soaps for treatment of skin disorders. The genus used in the present invention, namely Cyperus, Guatteria, Protium or Aniba, have not been cited in this document.
The use of Aniba extract is also suggested in documents EP 1 239 735 and Wo 06/101409, respectively, regarding formulations related to insecticide activity and a cosmetic formulation, including a skin spray formulation. However, document WO 06/101409 does not mention the simultaneous use of Protium and Guatteria species.
No document related to the use of essential oils obtained from Aniba plants in disinfectant formulations was found.
The remaining genus used in the present invention, Cyperus, belongs to Cyperaceae family, which includes about 600 species of aquatic plants, that can be found in tropical and temperate zones of all continents. This genus is known as one of the most invasive weeds known, being allelophatic, i.e. its roots release harmful substances to other plants. It is used in alternative medicine to treat sickness, fever, inflammation and pain.
Several patents disclose Cyperus plants. Document WO 06/117516 discloses a formulation with antibacterial activity for topic use useful for treating infections caused by microorganisms, such as Escherichia coli, in which the species Cyperus esculentus is used. This document still suggests that C. esculentus extracts can be used alone or in combination with other essential oils in aromatherapy. No reference was found regarding the use of Cyperus rotundus Linn.
Document WO 06/096239 describes the use of Cyperus plants as part of a antimicrobial formulation used to provide skin benefits. Like WO 06/117516, this plant's extract is used as a natural oil optionally included to provide fragrance.
Documents U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,569,843 and 4,696,818 reveal a method for treatment of drug abuse comprising oral administration of a herbal formulation, containing Radiz angelica sinensis, Herba pogostemi, Cyperus rotundus and Squama manitis pendactilae. Document U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,684 reveals a production process of a composition for use in insulin-dependent diabetes treatment. The main active is a mixture of terpenes from Cyperus rotundus Linn, being orally administered. Document U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,651 reveals the use of a extract of Cyperus rotundus Linn in the preparation of a cosmetic or pharmaceutical composition for the promotion of skin and hair pigmentation or for treatment of pigmentation disorders. Such documents propose different uses and formulations when compared with the present invention, i.e. the technical problems solved are different, as well as the technical solutions proposed therein.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,825 describes the use of Cyperus plant extracts as part of polymers comprising antimicrobial agents and methods for production of them. This plant is described as a phytochemical that can be added to a product as a biocidal agent (expression used collectively for disinfectants, chemical sterilizers, antiseptic and preservatives). The abovementioned document does not anticipates or overlap with the present invention, since essential oils of Protium and/or Guatteria plants are not used.
The scientific literature listed below, related to the prior art, does neither anticipates nor suggests, directly or indirectly, any of the objects of the present invention.    1 BAQUERO F, BLÁZQUEZ J (1997) Tree 12:482-487    2 SMID E J, KOEKEN J P G, GORRIS L G M (1996) In: Modern Fungicides and Antimicrobial Compounds, Lyr H., Russell P E, Sisler H D Eds., Intercept: Andover, UK, 173-180    3 HELANDER I M, ALAKOMI H L, LATVA-KALA K, MATTILA-SANDHOLM T, POL I, SMID E J, GORRIS L G M, VON WRIGHT, A (1998) J. Agric. Food Chem. 46:3590-3595    4 CONNER D E (1993) In: Antimicrobials and Foods, Davidson P M, Branem A L Eds, Dekker: New York, 441-468    5 SIKKEMA J, D E BONT J A M, POOLMAN B (1995) Microbiology Reviews 59:201-222    6 ALVES, T M A, SILVA A F, BRANDÃO M, GRANDI T S M, SMÂNIA E F, SMÂNIA J Á, ZANI C L (2000) Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz 95:367-373    7 MONTENEGRO H, GUTIERREZ M, ROMERO L I, ORTEGA-BARRIA E, CAPSON T L, CUBILLA RIOS L (2003) Aporphine alkaloids from Guatteria spp. with leishmanicidal activity. Planta medica, 69: 677-679.    8 FISHER D C, DE AMORIM GUALDA N C, BACHIEGA D, CARVALHO C S, LUPO F N, BONOTTO S V, ALVES O, YOGI A, SANTI S M, AVILA P E, KIRCHGATTER K, MORENO PR. Acta Trop. 2004 November-December; 92(3):261-6    9 WENIGER B, ARAGON R, DEHARO E, BASTIDA J, CODINA C, LOBSTEIN A, ANTON R. Pharmazie. 2000 November; 55(11):867-8    10 SIANI, A C; RAMOS, M F S; LIMA, O M; SANTOS, R R; FERREIRA, E F; SOARES, R O A.; ROSAS, E C; SUSUNAGA, G S; GUIMARÃES, A C; ZOGHBI, M G B, HENRIQUES, M G M O J. Ethnopharmacol., 1999, 47; 890-892
In summary, the present invention provides a new combination of natural agents with antimicrobial and biofilm removing properties. This combination, which includes necessarily essential oils from plants belonging to genus Cyperus and/or Guatteria and/or Protium and, at least, the essential oil of plants from other (or the same) genus, being the preferred genus in the present invention the genus Aniba. As described above, formulations containing this combination of essential oils with this type of action are unknown.

Active formulations based on plant extracts; phytocosmetic and/or phytotherapeutic formulations comprising the same method for

Instituto Nacional de Pesquisa da Amazonia—INPA


The present invention is directed towards apparatuses and methods for securing a location. Particularly, the present invention is directed towards methods, apparatuses, and integrated systems for the screening of individual passengers and their corresponding carry-on baggage carts with improved throughput, efficiency, and quality. In addition, the current invention is directed towards a carry-on baggage cart specifically designed for the disclosed integrated carry-on baggage cart and passenger screening system of the present invention.

Locations must often be secured to ensure public safety and welfare. For example, places where there are large concentrations of people, such as airports or entertainment events, places that are of particular governmental importance, such as courthouses and government buildings, and other places where the threat of violence is high, such as prisons, require security measures to thwart dangerous or illegal activities. The primary security objective is to prevent the unauthorized entry of weapons, dangerous materials, illegal items, or other contraband into the location, thereby securing it. This is often achieved by requiring all people and items to enter into the location through defined checkpoints and, in those checkpoints, subjecting those people and items to thorough searches.
Currently, various devices are used to perform such searches. Regardless of the place of use, these detection systems are employed to detect the presence of contraband on the body or luggage of individuals entering the secure area. Contraband is not limited to weapons and arms, but rather it includes explosives (fireworks, ammunition, sparklers, matches, gunpowder, signal flares); weapons (guns, swords, pepper sprays, martial arts weapons, knives); pressurized containers (hair sprays, insect repellant, oxygen/propane tanks); poisons (insecticides, pesticides, arsenic, cyanide); household items (flammable liquids, solvents, bleach); and corrosives (acids, lye, mercury).
Such conventional security systems rely on data individually recorded by each security device to evaluate the performance of the specific device. For example, a metal detector with an embedded counter records and stores the number of people that passed through the metal detector in a given period of time. Similarly, a baggage screening X-ray machine records the number of bags passed through the system and the number of bags that possibly contained contraband.
In addition, screening checkpoints used in current security systems predominately operate using a single input and single output line approach. Each item must be thoroughly and individually scanned in the conventional systems. The complex security protocols being instituted require individuals to have each of their belongings, including laptops, shoes, coats, mobile phones, keys and other items, scanned by an X-ray scanner. It takes a considerable amount of time for individuals to divest themselves of their belongings and to remove laptops from their cases. This divestiture process tends to happen serially with individuals waiting in line until they have access to the machine. Contributing to the lag associated with the divestiture process, current systems employ a single conveyor belt, upon which each of the individual passenger items must be placed in order for the items to pass through the x-ray machine. Once the items are scanned, they accumulate on the opposite side of the scanning machine, thus creating "traffic" on the belt until retrieved by the passenger/owner. The belt must often be stopped by the operator to prevent the backlog of unclaimed baggage from reversing into the x-ray machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,472,984, assigned to Georal International Ltd., discloses a method of restricting access to an area comprising the steps consisting of: a) providing a chamber having one or more first doors and one or more second doors; b) opening said first doors to allow a person entry to the chamber from an infeed area; c) sensing for contraband as the person enters the chamber; d) if no contraband was sensed during entry to the chamber, closing the first door and opening said second door to allow the person access to the protected area, but if contraband was sensed maintaining said second door closed and allowing the first doors to open to provide access from the chamber to the infeed area; and e) detecting the presence of objects remaining in said chamber after the person has vacated the chamber, and inhibiting opening of at least one of said doors if an object is detected in said chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,484,650, assigned to Gerald Stomski, describes a security system for monitoring and protecting personnel in an area including at least one queue of successively arriving individuals, comprising: a plurality of at least three contiguous chambers, including an entry chamber, an exit chamber and at least one intermediate chamber, wherein said chambers are arranged in a matrix of at least two parallel lines of chambers so as to receive at least two parallel queues of successively arriving individuals, said chambers each having bullet-proof transparent walls and bullet-proof doors, said doors including: an entry door to the entry chamber, an exit door from the exit chamber, a common door between each intermediate chamber and a said contiguous chamber, said doors having remotely controlled locks, means for monitoring a selected individual in a selected chamber, and an automated door interlock system arranged and adapted to remotely unlock selected locks to pass individuals successively through said chambers, and to lock selected locks to detain selected individuals during monitoring.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,308,644, assigned to William Diaz, discloses an access control vestibule, comprising; a vestibule frame configured to form said access control vestibule mounted in said vestibule frame; an entrance door and an exit door; an entrance door frame and an exit door frame; a panel mounted in said vestibule frame and forming a side wall section of said vestibule; said entrance door and said exit door being formed by a panel mounted in each of said door frames; locks associated with said entrance door and said exit door; a metal detector located to detect a metal object being disposed between said entrance and exit doors; control means to prevent both doors from being unlocked at the same time, and to prevent said exit door from being unlocked when said metal detector detects a metal object; said entrance door and said exit door both being manually operated; and said entrance door and said exit door each being formed by a single swinging door, and swingable towards the outside of said vestibule.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,357,535, assigned to Scan-Tech Security, L.P., discloses an "apparatus for inspecting an article comprising a longitudinally extending cabinet having top and bottom walls, oppositely disposed side walls, and oppositely disposed end walls; a longitudinally extending slot-like opening in said cabinet adjacent a corresponding edge of said top wall and a side wall; an entrance opening at one portion of said cabinet and an exit opening at another portion of said cabinet, said entrance opening and said exit opening connecting with said longitudinal opening so that a hand-held suspended article can be passed in said cabinet by a person holding said article outside said cabinet; means arranged within said cabinet for generating sensing radiation in a direction transversely to movement of said hand-held article; and means for detecting said radiation after passage through said article and for recording resulting information." More specifically, the '535 patent describes an inspection system for simultaneously inspecting hand carried articles and providing metal detection of the person carrying said articles. Metal detection of the person is accomplished independently by walking through a metal detector arch.
The conventional prior art security baggage and passenger screening systems described above are inefficient in the manner in which they are set up to receive and distribute both passengers and their carry-on baggage. As mentioned above, the security protocols of conventional prior art screening systems require individuals to have each of their belongings, including laptops, shoes, coats, mobile phones, keys and other items, scanned by an X-ray scanner. It takes a considerable amount of time for individuals to divest themselves of these belongings. This divestiture process tends to happen serially with individuals waiting in line until they have access to the machine. Thus, X-ray machine operators spend more time waiting for passengers to divest themselves of their belongings and load them onto the conveyor than scanning bags.
In addition to the lag associated with the divestiture process, current systems employ a single conveyor belt, upon which each of the individual passenger items must be placed in order for the items to pass through the x-ray machine. Once the items are scanned, they accumulate on the opposite side of the scanning machine, thus creating "traffic" on the belt until retrieved by the owner. The resultant scanned baggage belonging to passengers that have been selected for additional hand searching wait at the X-ray system's exit conveyor until those passengers are thoroughly searched. Thus, the bags are left on the conveyor for approximately at least 1.5-2.0 minutes, thereby causing a back-up that forces the X-ray machine operator to have to wait until such back-up is cleared. The belt must often be stopped by the operator to prevent the backlog of unclaimed baggage from reversing into the x-ray machine.
Thus, even when individual passengers have access to the machine, the process is still time-consuming as each individual item to be scanned must be placed on the single conveyor belt and then collected by the owner. This is especially true for Computerized Tomography (CT) scanning systems, which are much slower in operation compared with conventional X-ray scanning systems. CT scanning systems are being used more frequently in airport baggage scanning scenarios. In addition to the time it takes for the machine to operate, it may take some time for a passenger to reclaim and collect his baggage and other personal belongings, further creating a backlog in the scanning system. In addition, such existing systems tend to have many other problems, including for example, several security personnel having excessive downtime and a necessity for a dedicated operator for each detector to direct traffic.
Additionally, passengers lack sufficient information regarding how to most efficiently pass through a baggage checkpoint or screening station. For example, passengers may wait in a screening station or checkpoint lane full of passengers while a second lane remains completely empty, thereby causing unnecessary delay. Thus, the much desired streamlined and efficient function of the scanning operation is hampered. Current systems lack appropriate means for indicating whether lanes, among a plurality of check station lanes, are operational or closed.
Furthermore, passengers lack information regarding what items should be subjected to CT scanning, x-ray scanning, metal detection, or hand searching, such as large buckle belts or shoes. The presence of portable computing devices, such as laptops, further causes more delay. It takes a considerable amount of time for individuals to remove laptops from their cases. Generally, as described above, portable computing devices must be removed from their carrying case and placed into bins or drawers so that they can be scanned singularly. Passengers often fail to efficiently remove such items from their carrying cases and, consequently, do not proceed through the scanning checkpoint efficiently. Individual passengers thus wait in line until they have access to the machine.
Additionally, those areas contained within the scanning checkpoint or check station areas specifically allocated for passengers to divest themselves of their belongings are not set up to facilitate rapid and efficient divestiture of passenger belongings. In conventional systems, such areas consist of tables located in front of or around the conveyor belt scanner, thus causing those slower passengers to block the line from moving at a reasonable and efficient pace. Along the same lines, the problem also presents itself when passengers collect their belongings and reload their items and replace portable computing devices in their cases. Individual passengers also lack proper instruction on where to stand so as not to obstruct the natural flow of the X-ray scanning system line.
Conventional security screening systems lack appropriate means for handling carry-on baggage in its entirety prior to and/or during scanning. Traditional carry-on baggage carts are cumbersome and bulky in dimension, including towable, portable, or mobile carts. These carry-on baggage carts present problems when scanned in conventional scanning systems. For example, the design of the carts does not allow for conventional scanning systems to sufficiently scan due to the inadequate positioning of the carry-on baggage. This, in turn, leads to the capturing, storing, processing and development of incomplete and imprecise X-ray images. In addition, the carry-on luggage carts require a larger X-ray apparatus to be scanned completely. Metal bars of existing cart designs may also hinder the path of the X-ray, thus obscuring some of the items placed on the cart from scanning. This also leads to imprecise capturing, storing, processing and development of x-ray images. In addition, in scanning conventionally designed carry-on baggage carts, it is difficult to contain the x-ray radiation; to scan an existing, conventional carry-on baggage cart, the x-ray machine would need a large opening. Thus, in such systems, costly safeguards would need to be implemented to protect the general public and x-ray operators.
Despite these prior art efforts to improve methods, apparatuses, and systems for scanning carry-on baggage, the above mentioned problems have not been solved. The prior art methods fail to disclose methods and systems that alleviate delay during the divestiture process. In addition, the prior art does not improve the overall efficiency and throughput of the system.
Thus, there is a need for an improved security check station that reduces the waiting time for individuals and has improved throughput and efficiency. Such a system would reduce over-staffing of security personnel, facilitate automation of the metal detector, curtail idle time of machine operators, and significantly increase throughput of the machines due to decreased back-up of the conveyor system. In a scanning system with improved throughput and efficiency, it is possible to reduce the total number of scanning stations required at any one location. In addition, with shorter lines of people waiting for baggage and body scans, less floor space is required.
Additionally, there is a need for methods or systems of integrating data from multiple security devices dynamically and communicating such data to a plurality of users, in order to enable effective security. In particular, there is a need for integrating scan data from individual passenger scans with carry-on cart baggage data from such a screening system to correlate the data.
There is also a need for an intelligently managed security system, where the plurality of information is centrally processed for yielding specific outputs to different users. Also, there is a need to correlate the scanning data of different entities to improve the security level.
In addition, there is a need for methods and systems which employ a Computed Tomography (CT) scanner in an integrated carry-on baggage cart and passenger screening station.
There is also a need for a carry-on baggage cart that is capable of being collapsed, thus allowing the cart and its contents to pass through the CT scanner.
There is also a need for a carry-on luggage cart that is X-ray transmissive to allow for the CT scanner to rotate and scan completely around the cart.
There is also a need for a method and system for increasing the security associated with an integrated carry-on baggage cart and passenger screening station, in which passengers are associated with their corresponding carry-on baggage cart.

Integrated carry-on baggage cart and passenger screening station


A method of, and system for, using a high-level, task-oriented Application Programming Interface (API) to access a legacy system, the method including the steps of: (a) providing the legacy system, including emulation software for accessing the legacy system; (b) operating a low level API over the emulation software; (c) operating the high-level, task-oriented application programming interface over the low level API, and (d) implementing database access protocol emulation over the high-level API.

The present invention relates to a method for providing an Application Programming Interface (API) to existing applications that do not provide this service without modifying their internal operation. Moreover, this API is constructed in such a way that these applications appear to behave as standard Database Management Systems (DBMS). This makes such applications easily controllable from external software, allowing for task automation and also allowing them to participate in cross-application operations such as transactions.
Many modern applications provide programmatic access to the functionality they implement via an Application Programming Interface (API). By allowing this type of access, an API enables automation of common tasks and facilitates integration between disparate applications. Many older, a.k.a. legacy, applications do not provide an API. This deficiency is particularly glaring because these applications often stand to benefit the most from an API. The benefits, which are manifestly evident, include the following:    1. Having withstood the test of time, these are often applications that are at the core of an enterprise's business process.    2. New systems that have been installed since the legacy applications can benefit from integration therewith, and vice versa.    3. Legacy applications often run on legacy hardware, which makes external access to the data difficult.    4. Source code for legacy applications may be in an outdated programming language, or missing altogether. This makes it very difficult to reproduce the business logic that has been encapsulated in the legacy applications.    5. For the same reason, adding new functionality to such applications can also be difficult, impractical, or substantially impossible.
Another type of applications in which an API is generally not exposed at the client side is web applications. These applications run on a central server (web server) and expose their user-interface via a web browser. Such applications can also greatly benefit from an API because:    1. They may be running outside the enterprise, as a service provided by an external provider via the Internet, such as an Application Service Provider (ASP). In this case access to or modification of their source code may be impossible.    2. For the same reason, direct access to the data may also be impossible.    3. Because these applications were generally built to be accessed by a human via the web browser, it may be difficult to integrate them into the business process of an enterprise.
It is possible to graft an API on top of legacy applications without modifying the internal structure of these applications. Such systems are often accessed via specialized hardware (terminals). Over the past several years, this hardware has been replaced by software applications that emulate the behavior of the hardware on modem systems. By building an API into the emulation software, it is possible to achieve most of the same benefits as an API on the original legacy application itself. In the case of web applications, the solution is very similar: creating an application that emulates the browser's behavior and also provides an API.
A useful API must be easily usable from common programming environments/programming languages. In addition, the API should provide a development model that is familiar to users and exposes logical units that match the processes (tasks) that the users wish to perform.
There is therefore a recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, a method for providing high-level application programming interface for legacy systems that is user-friendly, universal, and adaptable to client applications such as web servers. It would be of further advantage if such a method would support most software, hardware and network configurations.

Method of and system for controlling task-oriented systems utilizing an application programming interface


An electronic device mounting box includes a tray to which an electronic device is adapted to be attached. The mounting box includes a box having a front opening through which the tray is adapted to pass, left and right sides, and left and right supports associated with the left and right sides for supporting the tray along left and right sides, respectively, of the tray and permitting the tray to be moved between an access position at least partially outside the front opening to an installed position inside the box.

The present invention relates to electronic device mounting boxes and, more particularly, to electronic device mounting boxes having a tray to which an electronic device is attached wherein the tray is movable relative to the box between an access position and an installed position, or removable.
The use of CB radios is very popular, particularly among truck drivers. In spite of this fact, in many trucks, drivers have to improvise to mount their CB radios in the truck, such as by securing them to dashboards or improved bracket arrangements. International Publication No. WO 2006/110142 is incorporated by reference and discloses a storage unit with an electronic device mounting structure that can be useful for mounting devices such as CB radios in trucks.
Generally, each driver has his or her own CB radio for his or her personal use. However, many trucks are used by different drivers, such as in the case of short-haul trucks where the same truck is used for several shifts during a day. Conventional techniques for mounting devices like CB radios are designed for substantially permanently mounting the CB radios. It is difficult for drivers to substitute one CB radio for another when drivers change.
It is desirable to provide an electronic device mounting box that facilitates removal and installation of electronic devices.
According to an aspect of the present invention, an electronic device mounting box comprises a tray to which an electronic device is adapted to be attached, and a box having a front opening through which the tray is adapted to pass, left and right sides, and left and right supports associated with the left and right sides for supporting the tray along left and right sides, respectively, of the tray and permitting the tray to be moved between an access position at least partially outside the front opening to an installed position inside the box, or removed.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a vehicle comprising the electronic device mounting box is provided.


The invention provides chips of immobilized probes, and methods employing the chips, for comparing a reference polynucleotide sequence of known sequence with a target sequence showing substantial similarity with the reference sequence, but differing in the presence of e.g., mutations.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides arrays of oligonucleotide probes immobilized in microfabricated patterns on chips for analyzing molecular interactions of biological interest. The invention therefore relates to diverse fields impacted by the nature of molecular interaction, including chemistry, biology, medicine, and medical diagnostics.
2. Description of Related Art
Oligonucleotide probes have long been used to detect complementary nucleic acid sequences in a nucleic acid of interest (the "target" nucleic acid). In some assay formats, the oligonucleotide probe is tethered, i.e., by covalent attachment, to a solid support, and arrays of oligonucleotide probes immobilized on solid supports have been used to detect specific nucleic acid sequences in a target nucleic acid. See, e.g., PCT patent publication Nos. WO 89/10977 and 89/11548. Others have proposed the use of large numbers of oligonucleotide probes to provide the complete nucleic acid sequence of a target nucleic acid but failed to provide an enabling method for using arrays of immobilized probes for this purpose. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,202,231 and 5,002,867 and PCT patent publication No. WO 93/17126.
The development of VLSIPS™ technology has provided methods for making very large arrays of oligonucleotide probes in very small areas. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,854 and PCT patent publication Nos. WO 90/15070 and 92/10092, each of which is incorporated herein by reference. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/082,937, filed Jun. 25, 1993, describes methods for making arrays of oligonucleotide probes that can be used to provide the complete sequence of a target nucleic acid and to detect the presence of a nucleic acid containing a specific nucleotide sequence.
Microfabricated arrays of large numbers of oligonucleotide probes, called "DNA chips" offer great promise for a wide variety of applications. New methods and reagents are required to realize this promise, and the present invention helps meet that need.

Arrays of nucleic acid probes on biological chips


A semiconductor device comprises varactor regions Va and transistor regions Tr. An active region for a varactor is formed with a substrate contact impurity diffusion region obtained by doping an N well region with N-type impurity at a relatively high concentration. However, any extension region (or LDD region) as in a varactor of a known semiconductor device is not formed in the active region for a varactor. On the other hand, parts of a P well region located to both sides of the polysilicon gate electrode in the transistor region Tr are formed with high-concentration source/drain regions and extension regions. Therefore, the extendable range of a depletion layer is kept wide to extend the capacitance variable range of the varactor.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a voltage-variable capacitor (varactor) used for a radio frequency (RF) circuit such as a voltage-controlled oscillator, and more particularly relates to a MIS capacitor fabricated using an existing CMOS process.
(2) Description of Related Art
Varactors that are voltage-variable capacitors have conventionally been widely used for many radio frequency (RF) circuits. One of known devices for realizing varactors is a device utilizing the depletion layer capacitance of a PN junction, more specifically a varactor diode.
Tuning ratio (TR) representing the ratio between the capacitance C2 at a reverse bias voltage of zero and the capacitance C1 at a predetermined reverse bias voltage is often used as an index for evaluating performance of varactors. Larger tuning ratio (C2/C1) allows significant change in the varactor capacitance even within the same gate voltage width. Thus, the controllable resonant frequency range of an antenna becomes wider.
FIG. 13 is a graph showing the bias dependence of the capacitance of a PN diode. The increase in reverse bias Vg increases the width of the depletion layer in the PN diode. Thus, the capacitance C1 decreases. The width of the depletion layer depends on the concentration of P-type and N-type impurities. Hence, the width of the depletion layer becomes narrower with increase in doping amount, resulting in the increased capacitance of the PN diode.
In recent years, smaller circuits are being highly demanded, and thus it has been desired to mount a varactor and a CMOS device on one chip. Therefore, existing CMOS process are used to form MIS capacitors serving as varactors.
FIG. 14 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a known semiconductor device in which a CMOS device and a varactor (MIS capacitor) are mounted on a common substrate.
As shown in this figure, the known semiconductor device includes an STI (Shallow Trench Isolation) structure partitioning the surface of a semiconductor substrate 100 that is a Si substrate into a plurality of active regions. The plurality of active regions comprise transistor regions Tr to be formed with MISFETs of the CMOS device and varactor regions Va to be formed with varactors. Although the MISFETs of the CMOS device include an NMISFET and a PMISFET, this figure shows only a region of the semiconductor device to be formed with an NMISFET.
The semiconductor substrate 110 is formed with a P well region 111 doped with a P-type impurity and an N well region 112 obtained by doping a part of the P well region 111 with an N-type impurity. The N well region 112 shown in FIG. 14 is an active region for a varactor. A gate dielectric 116 of a silicon oxide film, a polysilicon gate electrode 118 doped with an N-type impurity, a sidewall 117 of a silicon oxide film are provided on the semiconductor substrate 110 in each of the varactor region Va and the transistor region Tr. Parts of the N well region 112 located to both sides of the polysilicon gate electrode 118 in the varactor region Va are formed with substrate contact impurity diffusion regions 113a doped with an N-type impurity at a relatively high concentration and extension regions 113b doped with an N-type impurity at an intermediate concentration. Parts of the P well region 111 located to both sides of the polysilicon gate electrode 118 in the transistor region Tr are formed with high-concentration source/drain regions 114a doped with an N-type impurity at a relatively high concentration and extension regions 114b doped with an N-type impurity at an intermediate concentration. Each of the varactor region Va and the transistor region Tr is formed with an on-gate silicide layer 115a and on-diffusion-region silicide layers 115b through a salicide process.
Briefly speaking, the structure of the semiconductor device shown in FIG. 14 is formed through the following fabricating process steps. First, an STI structure, a P well region 111 and an N well region 112 are formed in a semiconductor substrate 110. Then, a common gate dielectric 116 and a common polysilicon gate electrode 118 are formed in each of a varactor region Va and a transistor region Tr. Thereafter, N-type impurity ions are implanted into the N well region 112 and the P well region 111 at an intermediate concentration by using the polysilicon gate electrodes 118 as masks to form extension regions 113b and 114b. Next, a silicon oxide film is deposited on the substrate, and thereafter anisotropic etching is performed to form sidewalls 117 covering the sides of the polysilicon gate electrodes 118. Furthermore, impurity ions are implanted into the N well region 112 and the P well region 111 at a relatively high concentration by using the polysilicon gate electrode 118 and the sidewall 117 as masks, thereby forming substrate contact impurity diffusion regions 113a in the varactor region Va and high-concentration source/drain regions 114a in the transistor region Tr. Thereafter, both the varactor region Va and the transistor region Tr are subjected to a salicide process to form an on-gate silicide layer 115a on each polysilicon gate electrode 118 and an on-diffusion-layer silicide layer 115b on each of the substrate contact impurity diffusion regions 113a and the high-concentration source/drain regions 114a.
With the structure of the semiconductor device shown in FIG. 14, each of members in the varactor region Va can be formed by utilizing the existing process for fabricating a CMOS device.

Semiconductor device including a MISFET and a MIS capacitor

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A method of adjusting exposure of an energy beam to a lithographic resist sensitive to the energy beam, which method comprises determining where in a pattern to be exposed the energy level will exceed a critical thermal level, and adjusting the pattern and kind of exposure of the resist where the critical level is exceeded. One technique is to adjust the level exposure of the resist to a lower level equal to or less than the critical level with repeated exposures of the pattern in areas where the critical level is exceeded. The energy level monitored can be a thermal level measured as a temperature of the resist. A second technique is to adjust the exposure level by modifying the pattern and duration of exposure of the resist to a longer duration providing exposures equal to or less than the critical level with the modified pattern of exposures of the pattern in areas where the critical level is exceeded.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an energy beam exposure system for exposing lithographic resist by using a beam which is scanned across the resist, and more particularly it relates to a system for analysis of heating produced by scanning and providing modified scanning patterns for avoiding overheating of the resist.
2. Description of related art.
A system known as the Hontas (EL3) type of E-beam exposure system for writing patterns on resist writes lithographic patterns in the resist with a shaped electron beam exposure system which minimizes the time wasted by workpiece positional requirements. The writing field is pieced together by sequential exposure of an array of rectangular sub-fields written in a raster sequence. An early version of the Hontas system of E-beam exposure is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,900,736 of Michael et al for "Method and Apparatus for Positioning a Beam of Charged Particles" (commonly assigned.) The Hontas system employs a step-and-repeat method of performing the tasks of registration, writing and transporting of the workpiece to expose each field of a multi-field pattern on a workpiece. In the E-beam writing process employed in the Hontas system, the work table is in continuous mechanical motion in the X-Y plane beneath the E-beam. The motion is generally provided along a serpentine, boustrophedontic path, as the oxen plow from one end of a column to the next column along the "Y" axis. Thus, the continuous motion occurs along one axis herein defined as the "Y" axis, whereas the motion at right angles to the X axis, at the end of each column, occurs as a step function at the end of each Y axis excursion in the direct-ion referred to herein as the "X" axis.
An E-beam source produces a beam which is shaped into various spot shapes and blanked by a deflection and aperture apparatus under the control of spot shaping apparatus and blanking apparatus as in Michael et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,900,736 cited above. The positioned and shaped spot is controlled, in part, by spot shaping, and a blanking analog electronics unit under the control of digital electronics in pattern control section. This determines the pattern written in the sub-field under control of the control computer, as in Michael et al above. A pattern control section supplies signals to the spot shaping, blanking analog electronics unit. The shaped beam is vector positioned under the control of vector deflection apparatus. After each sub-field is completed the next sub-field is positioned by the large field deflection apparatus under the control of a large field deflection system. A pattern control section supplies signals to control a deflection system. The large field deflection apparatus may incorporate a Variable Axis Immersion Lens arrangement as described in Lananer et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,544,846. That arrangement permits the beam to be deflected farther from the axis of the electron beam column to provide a large range writing capability. The next sub-field is positioned orthogonally with respect to the direction of motion of the X-Y drive work table which supports the workpiece which usually has been a semiconductor wafer. However, at the edge of the writing field the exception is that the sub-field is positioned normally (or at right angles) with the direction of motion. The result of this sub-field positioning scheme in combination with a continuously moving work table is a continuously moving, boustrophedontic raster scan. The raster scan positioning of the sub-fields is controlled by the large field deflection control system containing electronic circuitry and pattern data from the pattern control section. A motion compensating signal from stage (work table) position measurement system is received by large field deflection system from the laser stage (work table) position measurement system. Measurement system preferably directs a pair of laser beams at two edges of the work table to measure table position as will be understood by those skilled in the art. Electronics in the system provide signals to the deflection apparatus to compensate for X, Y, and angular errors resulting from the continuous motion of the work table while sub-fields are being written.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,818,885 Davis et al for "Electron beam writing method and system using large range deflection in combination with a continuously moving table" shows a modified Hontas system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,544,846 of Langner et al for "Variable Axis Immersion Lens Electron Beam Projection System" (commonly assigned) describes an E-beam system with a variable axis immersion lens (VAIL).
U.S. Pat. No. 3,900,736 of Michael et al for "Method and Apparatus for Positioning a Beam of Charged Particles" (commonly assigned) describes an E-beam exposure system with a computer driven correction system for use with a four corner registration system. The correction system operates dynamically to correct the deflection of an electron beam to minimize the deviation from desired alignment. Such alignment problems are caused by factors including the deviation of the position of the registration marks from their design positions. The Hontas system of E-beam exposure employed by Michael et al has heretofore employed a step-and-repeat method of performing the tasks of registration, writing and transporting of the workpiece to expose each field of a multi-field pattern on a workpiece. Heretofore, the Hontas step-and-repeat system has employed an A cycle, a B cycle and a C cycle. During the A cycle, the workpiece has been registered while the workpiece on the transporting table was at rest. Then the B cycle has followed, during which time the pattern to be exposed has been written by the E-beam, while the workpiece and the table still remained at rest. Finally, only in the C cycle, has the table supporting the workpiece moved along its time consuming trip to the next location for exposing the next field on the workpiece. The MEBES system provides continuous mechanical motion of the worktable supporting the workpiece, but it does not reregister the workpiece with respect to the E-beam during the process of exposing the entire workpiece. This has the advantage of speed since the reregistration steps are eliminated with the risk that the alignment of the workpiece and the E-beam deviates significantly from the desired alignment.
A Hontas electron beam exposure system utilizes a shaped-electron-beam which is vector scanned within a sub-field in combination with an electrical raster scan system for positioning sub-fields over a large rectangular area in combination with a continuously moving mechanical system for writing large patterns with a minimum of interruption. More particularly, it relates to a pattern writing system with a steered electron beam. This invention also provides a registration system using the electron beam to determine the target position accurately relative to the electron beam writing system. The system preferably employs writing of lithographic patterns with a shaped electron beam exposure system which minimizes the time wasted by workpiece positional requirements. Large lithographic patterns are written with subpatterns in sub-fields in a vector writing mode without interruption between successive sub-fields. This is made possible by continuously moving the workpiece in combination with the writing capability of a large rectangular writing field. The writing field contains a rectangular array of electronically positioned sub-fields which are written in a raster sequence. The large width of the writing field provided by the VAIL system reduces the number of mechanical scans required to write the pattern on the workpiece which further reduces the time required by workpiece positioning. The continuous velocity of the continuously moving workpiece during Y axis scans along a column on the wafer is corrected during writing to compensate for pattern density, maintaining an optimum workpiece position relative to the writing field. When patterns are being superimposed over previously written patterns, a means of registration is required since processing can cause workpiece distortions that are not detectable by position measurement systems. Accurate positioning of the overall workpiece relative to positional measurement systems is impractical due to thermal effects and other error sources. This system includes a registration field confined to local a reason the workpiece, which is larger than the writing field, which can be used for registration, without requiring a height-related change in focus and without requiring the mechanical system comprising the X-Y work table to change speed during the registration and reregistration of the various fields on a semiconductor wafer. The registration field can be larger than the writing field, because the quality requirements demanded from the shaped-electron-beam are less for detecting the locations of such registration marks at the various locations on the wafer.
In accordance with this invention, a large lithographic pattern is written as quickly as possible by writing sub-field patterns in a vector scan mode. The sub-fields are positioned with a large field deflection system in combination with a continuously moving workpiece. This rectangular array of sub-fields provides several advantages which reduce the total time required to expose the workpiece (i. e. wafer or mask). The large field deflection capability provides registration capability on sparsely located registration marks by using the beam as a probe to locate the target fields accurately relative to the deflection systems. The advantages over prior art are:
1. A wide strip of sub-fields is written for each pass of the wafer, thus minimizing the number of passes required and the time required for reversing the work table motion and repositioning. PA0 2. The large field deflection system provides the capability of positioning the sub-fields in a rectangular array thus providing a time buffer for dense and sparse patterns in the sub-fields. This capability reduces the velocity change requirements for the continuously moving work table. PA0 3. Registration capability provides a more precise superposition of the written pattern over existing lithography.
As electrons penetrate the substrate, they undergo a scattering process which will diffuse the beam and degrade the image. This is a well known phenomenon which can be dealt with during the conversion of the CAD data to tool data (also known as numerical control or NC data) via proximity correction algorithms.
These algorithms all assume that the resists being exposed have no dependence on temperature. In fact, however, this assumption is not warranted. As resist heats up, it becomes more sensitive (goes from unexposed to exposed at a lower threshold). This will lead to a loss.:of image acuity and possibly to calamitous defects in the pattern being exposed.
In the past when this happens one of the following actions was taken:
Redesign the offending pattern
Slow the exposure system down
Reduce the dose the resist is receiving
Each of these actions has major drawbacks. The first is usually not practical or achievable. The second reduces the throughput of an expensive exposure system, requiring the manufacturing plant to buy more systems. The third will leave other areas of the pattern unexposed.

Method of optimizing exposure of photoresist by patterning as a function of thermal modeling

International Business Machines Corporation


The invention provides a hapten derivatized with a crosslinker at the nitrogen of the 8β-carboxamide of 2-oxo-3-hydroxy LSD. The invention also provides an immunogen comprising the aforementioned hapten coupled to an antigenicity-conferring carrier material; a conjugate comprising the aforementioned hapten coupled to a labelling agent, as well as, antibodies raised against the aforementioned immunogen and capable of binding with at least the 3-hydroxy-2-pyrrolidone structural epitope of 2-oxo-3-hydroxy LSD.

The present invention relates to haptens that are used for the preparation of immunogens, antibodies and conjugates for use in competitive immunoassays for the detection of the major LSD metabolite, 2-oxo-3-hydroxy-LSD.
The present invention also relates to a method and kit for detecting or determining 2-oxo-3-hydroxy-LSD. The method and kit of the present invention are intended not to significantly cross-react with parent LSD itself or with nor LSD.
By "detecting" is meant qualitatively analysing for the presence or absence of a is substance.
By "determining" is meant quantitatively analysing for the amount of a substance.
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) (FIG. 1, 1) is a powerful, psychoactive compound. It is classified as a Schedule I drug. The compound is available in pills, solutions and impregnated sugar cubes, blotting paper or vitamin tablets.
LSD is a very potent hallucinogen, 10–150 times as potent as psilocybin and 4500–9275 times as potent as mescaline. The isomeric compound d-iso-LSD (FIG. 1, 2) is inactive.
With increasing restrictions on administration of LSD to human subjects, current knowledge on the distribution, metabolic profile and extraction of LSD in man is limited. A considerable number of reports are available on the distribution and metabolic profile of LSD in animals where the most common metabolites found are nor-LSD (FIG. 1, 3), 2-oxo-3-hydroxy-LSD (FIG. 1, 4), 2-oxo-LSD, 13-hydroxy-LSD, 14-hydroxy-LSD, N-desethyl-LSD, N-ethyl-N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-LSD (amide N), N-ethyl-N-vinyl-LSD (amide N) and lysergic acid. The major metabolites are nor-LSD 3 and 2-oxo-3-hydroxy LSD 4, the latter of which was only recently detected in human urine submitted for drug testing, its identity having been confirmed by comparing LC-MS characteristics with a reference compound. The average concentration of 2-oxo-3-hydroxy-LSD 4 was 20 times more than that of LSD. In routine analysis of human urine, d-iso-LSD 2 was also detected. This compound is believed to be a by-product from the illicit preparation of LSD.
Due to the very low dose consumed (usually 40 to 120 μg) and due to rapid metabolism with less than 1% excreted unchanged in urine, identification of LSD in biological samples is a major challenge to forensic scientists. Furthermore, the instability of LSD in acid, heat and light has made its identification even more challenging. Because LSD is metabolized to a number of compounds, most known methods are aimed at identifying unchanged (or parent) LSD in biological samples.
Although LSD is most commonly detected in urine by GC-MS, immunoassays, particularly competitive binding immunoassays, would be the simplest and most time-saving screening methods available. Competitive binding immunoassays, as their name implies, measure competition in binding to antibody between a fixed amount of labeled antigen, the 'detection reagent' (or conjugate), and an unknown quantity of unlabelled antigen, the 'sample'.
Commercial immunoassay methods for LSD include radioimmunoassay procedures which are very sensitive, but do require radionuclide tracers, for example 125I and 3H, and, in some cases, a preliminary extraction step. For urine drug testing by radioimmunoassay, samples are identified as positive or negative by comparing the counts with that of a cut-off standard containing 500 pg/ml of LSD.
Nonisotopic homogeneous immunoassays for LSD are also commercially available. The Cloned Enzyme Donor Immunoassay (CEDIA, Boehringer Mannheim) and Enzyme Multiplied Inmunoassay (EMIT, Behring Diagnostics) are based on the principle of enzyme activation. The Online Immunoassay (Roche Diagnostic Systems) is based on kinetic interaction of microparticles in solution. These three assays are specially designed for large-scale analysis or automated analyzers. Microplate Immunoassay (STC Diagnostics) is available for small-scale testing. These nonisotopic LSD immunoassays correlate well with the original LSD radioimmunoassays.
All currently commercially available LSD immunoassay methods are specific for the parent drug, LSD, and generally exhibit low cross-reactivity with LSD metabolites.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,207,396 B1 (Microgenics Corporation) discloses haptens that are derivatives of the LSD parent drug (not 2-oxo-3-hydroxy LSD), through the indole ring N-1 position. The antibodies of U.S. Pat. No. 6,207,396 B1 are specific to d-LSD and do not cross-react well with 2-oxo-3-hydroxy-LSD (1.82%) or with iso-LSD (0.04%) (see Table 1).
Examination of the prior art fails to reveal an antibody specific for 2-oxo-3-hydroxy LSD. EP 1 148 339 A2 (Roche Diagnostics Corporation) discloses haptens derivatised at position N-1, either of the indole ring of 2-oxo-3-hydroxy-LSD or of 2-oxo-LSD. The antibodies obtained in EP 1 148 339 A2 displayed high levels of cross-reactivity, when compared to 2-oxo-3-hydroxy-LSD, to the parent drug LSD (74.9–84.4%) and low cross-reactivity to the second metabolite, nor-LSD (1.8–4.6%) (paragraph 71).
EP 0 816 364 A1 (F. Hoffmann-La-Roche AG) and Bioconjugate Chemistry 1997, 8, pp 896–905 each describe the preparation of haptens either at the N-1 position of the indole ring of LSD itself or from nor LSD. Bioconjugate Chemistry 1997, 8, 896–905 discloses that antibodies generated to immunogen 4 displayed 100% cross-reactivity with d-LSD, 20% cross-reactivity with nor-LSD and 50% cross-reactivity with 2-oxo-3-hydroxy-LSD. Antibodies generated to immunogen 8 displayed 100% cross-reactivity with LSD, 40% cross-reactivity with nor-LSD and <20% cross-reactivity with 2-oxo-3-hydroxy-LSD.
Clin. Chem. 23/2, 169–174 (1977) describes a radioimmunoassay for LSD in serum and urine, employing antisera to two different immunogens, in which LSD itself is derivatised either at the indole nitrogen atom or via the nitrogen of the 8β-carboxamide.
The present inventors are unaware of any haptens derivatised with a crosslinker at the nitrogen of the 8β-carboxamide of 2-oxo-3-hydroxy-LSD.
The present inventors are also unaware of antibodies specific for 2-oxo-3-hydroxy-LSD but lacking significant cross-reactivity to parent LSD itself or to nor LSD.

Haptens, immunogens, antibodies and conjugates to 2-oxo-3-hydroxy-LSD