An electrodialysis cell (40) suitable for removal of paint solubilizer from electrocoat paint ultrafilter permeate includes a tubular, non-conductive housing (42), a substantially cylindrical, hollow object electrode (48) in the housing, a substantially cylindrical counter electrode (52) situated within the hollow object electrode, and a tubular ion exchange membrane (50) around the counter electrode but spaced from the counter electrode as well as the object electrode. The counter electrode and the tubular membrane together define an annular electrolyte passageway while the object electrode and the tubular membrane together define an annular ultrafilter permeate passageway. The object electrode-to-counter electrode area ratio is at least about 6.

In the process known as electrocoating or electrodeposition painting, paint solids (pigment and resin) are maintained in solution or as a colloidal suspension by a counter-ion that functions as the solubilizer. In most cases, the paint solids are positively charged, or cationic, and the solubilizer counter-ion is an anion (called cathodic electrocoat). However, in some systems the paint solids are anodic and the counter-ion solubilizer is the cation (called anodic electrocoat). The design and principles disclosed here can apply to either. The examples and design specifics are therefore expressed in terms of the "object electrode", which is the item or "ware" to be painted or the electrode opposite in polarity to the bulk of the paint pigment and resin, and the "counter electrode", which is the electrode of polarity opposite to the object electrode.
In the conventional cathodic electrocoat painting process, the ware to be painted is the electrode and is physically submerged in a container, or so-called "bath", of the paint solution along with one or more counter electrodes that in this particular instance serve as anodes. An analogous cell and process for anodic electrocoat paint can be made by reversing cathode and anode positions.
An electrical field is applied between the object electrode, and the counter electrode, by means of a DC power supply. Paint solids are thereby attracted to and deposited on the ware. In most electrocoat painting systems, the counter electrode is part of an electrodialysis cell in which the counter electrode is inside an enclosure and at least a portion of this enclosure is provided by an ion-exchange membrane material. Electrolyte is circulated inside the enclosure between the counter electrode and ion-exchange membrane and the solubilizer counter-ion is drawn through the membrane into the electrolyte by the electrical field. Electrolyte is periodically withdrawn from this circulating loop and disposed of. In this manner, the composition of the paint is maintained in chemical balance. If, by contrast, only the paint solids are removed in the process and the solubilizer is allowed to accumulate in the solution, the solubilizer-to-paint solids ratio will increase and the paint will become unstable.
A second item of process equipment that is essential to the electrocoating process, in addition to the above described electrodialysis cells, is the ultrafilter. The ultrafilter performs two important functions. First, it produces ultrafiltrate, or permeate, which is used to wash entrained paint off of the ware after the ware is removed from the paint bath and return this paint to the paint bath. The recovery of this paint is essential to the economics and environmental acceptability of electrocoating. If the excess paint were washed from the ware with a solution that had not been extracted from the paint bath, this solution could not be returned to the bath because the bath must be maintained as a closed system. In addition to paint recovery, the ultrafilter plays a role in maintaining paint bath chemistry in that the ultrafiltrate can also be purged from the system to remove contaminants that might otherwise accumulate in the paint bath.
Ultrafiltration of electrocoat paint and removal of paint solubilizer by electrodialysis are well-known processes in the prior art. Also established in the prior art is the idea of removing the solubilizer by electrodialysis of the ultrafilter permeate rather than via cells placed directly in the paint bath, for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,111 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,663,405 both to Christenson et al. However, this "external electrodialysis" system has never been commercially successful.
Removal of the solubilizer by electrodialysis of permeate instead of direct electrodialysis in the paint bath is commercially attractive, however, for several reasons:                1. Electrodialysis cells must be periodically inspected, maintained, and occasionally replaced. This is difficult to accomplish with in situ cells because the paint bath is typically inside an enclosure for safety reasons. The paint is also unpleasant to work with because it contains hazardous chemicals and is difficult to remove from skin or clothing. By contrast, external electrodialysis of permeate takes place outside of the paint bath enclosure and the permeate, which is substantially water and trace amounts of solvents and solubilizer, is significantly more pleasant to work with than the paint itself. External cells are also accessible while the paint line is in operation, so that maintenance can be performed at the convenience of the user.        2. Direct, or in situ, electrodialysis is accomplished by the same power source that causes the deposition of the paint and is therefore generally in proportion to the painting rate. At first glance, this would appear to be advantageous; however, it has disadvantages. First, the direct process naturally removes more solubilizer than is required to maintain the bath chemistry. It is therefore necessary to add solubilizer back to the system. The user must therefore purchase and handle this solubilizer and pay for the waste treatment on the excess solubilizer that is removed from the system. On the other hand, it is not unusual for the cells to leak of overflow. This creates an excess of solubilizer in the paint bath which can only be removed as part of the painting process. This means that returning the paint bath to the desired composition after such an excursion may take many days or even weeks. For these reasons, it is often difficult to control precisely the paint bath chemistry with situ or direct electrodialysis. By contrast, since external electrodialysis operates independently of the painting process, more precise control of paint bath chemistry is possible and it is possible to recover from major excursions even during non-production periods.        3. Some electrocoating operations with very low or intermittent production have difficulty removing enough solubilizer by in situ electrodialysis because solubilizer removal is only taking place concurrently with painting. However, since the ultrafilter operates continuously and independent of the painting process, and the permeate is therefore available continuously, with external electrodialysis it is possible to remove as much or as little solubilizer as needed at any given time to maintain paint bath chemistry.        4. Some other electrocoating operations have a very high ware area in comparison to the size of the paint bath (for example, the painting of heat exchangers) and it is physically difficult to place enough electrodialysis cells in the paint bath to accomplish the desired solubilizer removal. Again by contrast, these applications can be easily satisfied by external electrodialysis.
In spite of these obvious advantages and numerous commercial attempts, electrodialysis of the permeate has not been commercially successful, primarily for two reasons. First, with in situ electrodialysis, the ware itself functions as the object electrode. For permeate electrodialysis, a separate, sacrificial object electrode must be provided to serve as the opposing electrode in the cell. Even though the ultrafilter permeate is substantially water, it also contains some paint pigment and low molecular weight resin. This pigment and resin tend to become coated on the sacrificial object electrode and accumulates over time. Eventually this coating increases the electrical resistance of the cell and the object electrode must be cleaned or replaced.
Second, the electrodialysis cells that have been applied to ultrafilter permeate have been of the so-called plate and frame design, or variations thereof, in which the cell consists of alternating flat plate object and counter electrodes with ion exchange membranes and flow channel spacers sandwiched in between as shown in FIG. 1 for plate and frame cell 10. Electrolyte 12 and permeate 14 are circulated in directions indicated by arrows through the respective spacer channels defined by anodes 16 and 18, cathode 20 and ion exchange membranes 22 and 24. Solubilizer ions 26 and 28 pass through respective membranes 22 and 24 while paint particles 30 and 32 attach to cathode 20. This classic cell design has the advantage of minimizing the voltage required to operate the cell. However, it has the disadvantage of being difficult to disassemble for servicing in the event of cathode fouling as described above, or anode dissolution, membrane leaks, etc. In the case of electrodialysis of electrocoat paint ultrafilter permeate, both object electrode fouling and anode dissolution are common. Accordingly, the plate and frame design for electrodialysis cells is not commercially attractive.

Device and process for electrodialysis of ultrafiltration premeate of electrocoat paint


A device for imparting rotational or oscillatory motion to a bait fish in order to entice a game fish to bite the bait fish, which device is primarily connected to the bait fish within the mouth of the bait fish.

Fishing lures utilizing bait fish are well known. It is also well known to utilize a bait fish holder that includes one or more lateral projections that cause a bait fish to rotate or oscillate when pulled through water during trolling. The following patents disclose bait fish holders that include such lateral projections.
Baron, U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,895; Bell, U.S. Pat. No. 2,518,593; Egles, U.S. Pat. No. 3,645,031; Faulkner, U.S. Pat. No. 6,658,785; Holmberg, U.S. Pat. No. 2,791,059; Horton, U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,232; Kress, U.S. Pat. No. 6,708,442; Rolfsness, U.S. Pat. No. 3,197,911; Urbano. U.S. Pat. No. 7,257,923; and Wakeman, U.S. Pat. No. 339,952.
The bait fish holders disclosed in each of these patents are primarily attached to the bait fish by a device that is external to the bait fish, such as a cap, cone, clamp, or cage. Therefore, the rotational force due to movement of the bait fish holder through the water is externally imparted to the fish.
The disadvantage that results from the external attachment of the bait fish holder to the bait fish is that the bait fish is presented to game fish in a manner that is less than ideal because the rotation of the bait fish is not natural and the external device itself obscures the bait fish and gives it an unnatural appearance.
The present invention, disclosed in detail below, provides a solution to the disadvantages of the prior art.


Digital communication schemes using chaotic signals as carriers can be broadly classified into two categories. In the first category, the chaotic signals carrying the information have to be synchronously regenerated at the receiver, which may be applicable to low noise environment. The second category requires no synchronous regeneration of the carrying chaotic signals in the receiver. An example of the second category utilizes a specific bit structure, which may not be able to resist unintended reception because the fabricated bit structure can be relatively easily detected. This invention involves systems and methods for transmitting digital messages modulated as chaotic signals, and the demodulation methods. One individual chaotic signal generator having a specific chaotic characteristic value is responsible for generating a chaotic signal for each possible value of the digital message according to a chaotic algorithm. The chaotic signal is then transmitted to the receiver, which stores all of chaotic characteristic values and a decoding algorithm. The chaotic signal received at the receiver is then demodulated by evaluating it chaotic characteristic value and matching with the stored chaotic characteristic values.

Chaotic signals are random-like signals generated by deterministic processes. The wideband nature of chaotic signals makes them naturally suitable for carrying information in a spread-spectrum communication system environment, and has the advantages of providing an improved capability of anti-jamming, a lowered probability of interception, and an increased resistance to multi-path effects. Furthermore, because of the random-like nature of chaotic signals, their use in communication offers a basic capability of resistance to detection by unintended receivers. Further, chaotic signals offer intrinsic security because of their random-like nature.
Digital communication schemes using chaotic signals as carriers can be broadly classified into two categories. In the first category, the chaotic signals carrying the information have to be synchronously regenerated at the receiver. The recovery of the information thus relies on a process that achieves synchronization of two chaotic signals or systems. There are numerous ways to achieve synchronization, and some specific methods have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,153 to Parker, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,216,093 to Corron, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,212,239 to Hayes, U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,614 to Kim, U.S. Pat. No. 5,930,364 to Kim, U.S. Pat. No. 5,923,760 to Abarbanel, et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,555 to Cuomo, et al. However, methods requiring regeneration of synchronized chaotic signals at the receiver or synchronization of chaotic signals are applicable only in communication systems where the level of additive noise is low, which may not be applicable to a practical environment.
In the second category, no synchronous regeneration of the carrying chaotic signals is required in the receiver. In order to demodulate the received signal, the receiver may rely on a specific structure of each bit which has been configured by the transmitter to facilitate demodulation. A widely known method of this kind is the differential chaos shift keying method, as described in the original paper by Kolumban, et al. in 1996 ("Differential chaos shift keying: a robust coding for chaos communication" published in the Proceedings of 1996 International Workshop on Nonlinear Dynamics of Electronic Systems, pp. 97-92.) However, such a method makes no use of the chaotic properties of the signals and may not be able to resist unintended reception because the fabricated bit structure can be relatively easily detected.
The properties of chaotic signals generated from deterministic processes depend on the types of chaotic signals and the parameters that are used to generate them. Therefore, it is conceptually possible to make use of the built-in properties of chaotic signals for communication. A prior disclosure that exploits built-in properties of chaotic systems is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,165 issued to Corron, et al. However, the method of Corron, et al., as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,165, does not employ any built-in property as a signature for identifying chaotic signals, but makes use of a parameter to achieve synchronization. In this sense, the method by Corron, et al. as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,165 should be considered as a method under the first category.
In brief, current methods relying on synchronizing the generation of chaotic signals between the transmitter and the receiver may not be practicable due to noise addition. However, methods utilizing no synchronization make the transmission vulnerable to interception.

Methods and systems for transmitting digital messages


A method for capturing and analyzing audio, in particular vocalizing animals, which uses the resulting analysis parameters to establish a database of identification characteristics for the vocalizations of known species. This database can then be compared against the parameters of unknown species to identify the species producing that vocalization type. The method uses a unique multi-stage method of analysis that includes first-stage analysis followed by segmentation of a vocalization into its structural components, such as Parts, Elements, and Sections. Further analysis of the individual Parts, Elements, Sections and other song structures produces a wide range of parameters which are then used to assign to a collection of identical, known species a diagnostic set of criteria. Subsequently, the vocalizations of unknown species can be similarly analyzed and the resulting parameters can be used to match the unknown data sample to the database of samples from a plurality of known species.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of audio analysis and the identification of animal species based on their vocalizations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many people want to identify unknown singing birds and other animals. From families with backyard bird feeders to beginning and even experienced bird watchers, knowing the identity of a singing bird is a goal shared by many.
Most animal species have characteristic vocalizations that make identifying the species possible. An example of this is bird songs or frog croaks, which vary much more between species than within a species. If one were able to make a "sonic dictionary" of the typical vocalizations of a number of species, one could build a computer "expert system" to identify species based solely on their vocalizations.
Current technology for bird song identification consists of transliterations in printed field guides with personalized use of vowels and consonants, for example using a phrase like "tseet tseet tseeo" to try and replicate the sound of a particular species so that another person could use these to match the vocalization of an unknown species.
All computer programs and applications for mobile devices designed to help identify a vocalizing animal only present prior recordings of various species, leaving it to the end user to play through potentially many files and attempt to match one file to the unknown vocalization.
Therefore, a system and method which can quickly narrow the search through these recording files to a few or one species, based on a new and unknown vocalization, is desired.

Method and apparatus for analyzing animal vocalizations, extracting identification characteristics, and using databases of these characteristics for identifying the species of vocalizing animals


A timing and talking game toy includes: a board casing have a plurality of baffles and lanes irregularly formed in the casing for running a ball in the lanes as guided or limited by the baffles from a starting point to a finishing point, a plurality of lamps juxtapositionally mounted on the board which are all lit up when starting the running of the ball and are subsequently switched off with respect to a lapse of time counted by a timing circuit of a central processing unit (CPU) and a talking integrated circuit controlled by the CPU for a voice speaking, indicating the status for running the ball to the finishing point corresponding to the number of the lamps being switched off within a pre-determined time period for interesting the game player.

A conventional balancing marbles game as shown in FIG. 1 includes a marble or ball B running on a game board of a casing C, in which the ball B should be well manipulated to run along a path P of the ball to be guided by the guiding baffles G without being trapped into the ball holes H recessed on the board plate of the casing C. Such a conventional marbles game is not provided with any electronic timing or talking functions, thereby lacking of its playing interest.


A semiconductor memory device according to the present invention comprises a plurality of word lines constituted by gate wirings, a memory cell array having memory cells selectively arranged at nodes between the plurality of word lines and a plurality of bit lines, the memory cell array having a plurality of subarrays which are divided in a word line arrangement direction, a main row decoder arranged at least one end of the memory cell array in the word line arrangement direction, a plurality of sub-row decoders arranged at least one end of each of the plurality of subarrays, and a first wiring layer formed on a layer above the gate wirings and extending from the sub-row decoder, and the first wiring layer is wired to a position where the subarray is divided by two in the word line arrangement direction to be brought into contact with the gate wiring.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dynamic semiconductor memory device and, more particularly, to a semiconductor memory device in which a word line arrangement in a memory cell array is improved.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with the development of fine processing technology, 4- or 16-Mbit DRAMs can be manufactured as high-density mass products, and 1-Gbit DRAMs can be manufactured in R & D. However, in submicron generation, due to slow development of lithography technique, processing of wiring or the like is difficult. In particular, processing of a metal wiring or the like formed on an upper layer is difficult due to the underlying step difference or the like.
FIG. 1A shows the arrangement of a cell array section of a conventional DRAM. Memory cells MC1 to MC8 are selectively arranged at the nodes between word lines W1 to W4 and bit lines BL1 and /BL2 and BL2 and /BL2, respectively. Memory cell data of a word line WL selected by the row decoders R/D1 to R/D4 is read through a bit line BL, and amplified by the sense amplifiers S/A1 and S/A2.
When the word line WL is constituted by a gate wiring serving as a wiring for a transistor of a memory cell MC, since the material of the gate wiring has a relatively high resistance, an RC delay of rising/falling in selection is large. For this reason, the following method is known. That is, as shown in FIG. 1B, metal wirings consisting of A1 or the like are parallelly arranged on the gate wiring, a cell array is divided, and the contact between a metal wiring and a gate wiring is established in the middle of each cell array. This contact portion is generally called shunt, snap, or stitch. The contact between a metal wiring and a gate wiring, as shown in FIG. 1C, may be established in such a manner that the metal wiring is connected to the gate wiring through an intermediate wiring.
However, this scheme has the following problem.
As shown in FIG. 1D, the pitch of gate wirings (L1=line, S1=space) must be equal to the pitch of metal wirings (L2=line, S2=space). However, since the upper layer has an underlying step difference, and the metal itself cannot be easily processed, the metal wirings cannot be easily processed.
In recent years, a hierarchy word line scheme which has been used in an SRAM or the like has been tried to be employed in a DRAM. FIG. 2A shows a hierarchy word line scheme in a conventional DRAM. FIG. 2B is a plan block diagram a chip from above.
One main word line (MWL) constituted by metal wirings to which an output from a main row decoder (M.cndot.R/D) is supplied is arranged for sub-word line (SWL) serving as gate wirings and consisting of polysilicon or the like. One memory cell array is divided into a plurality of parts, and sub-row decoders (S.cndot.R/D) are arranged therebetween. That is, one metal wiring is arranged for four gate wirings.
Each sub-row decoder is decoded in response to a main word line signal and an address signal WDRV output from a bit line direction (not shown) to drive a gate wiring. By decoding performed by the address signal from the bit line direction, the pitch of main row decoders and the pitches of main word lines (metal wirings) for outputs of the main row decoders can be made considerably relax, i.e., four times of the pitch of gate wirings as shown in FIG. 2C. Referring to FIG. 2C, L3+S3=4 (L1+S2) is established.
However, this conventional scheme has the following problem.
In the snap scheme, the number of contacts is only decreased. In contrast to this, in the hierarchy wire line scheme, since sub-row decoder circuits are arranged to be dispersed, an area larger than that required in the snap scheme is required. For this reason, unless the number of columns between S.cndot.R/D and S.cndot.R/D is larger than the number of columns between snap and snap, the chip size increases. In contrast to this, when the number of columns between S1.cndot.R/D and S.cndot.R/D in the hierarchy word line scheme is increased, RC delay caused by the resistance of the gate wiring in the subarray increases.
As shown in FIG. 3, in order to obtain a chip size equal to that obtained in the snap scheme, the following equation must be satisfied: EQU 2.times.(number of columns/snap)=number of columns/sub-row decoder
More specifically, the number of columns between S.cndot.R/D and S.cndot.R/D of the hierarchy word lines must be twice or more the number of columns between snap and snap. The area of the snap portion is twice or more of the area of sub-row decoders. In contrast to this, the number of arrays connected to a main decoder can be set to be larger in the hierarchy word line scheme than in the snap scheme. For this reason, the number of arrays in the hierarchy word line scheme is almost twice the number of arrays in the snap scheme, and the area in the hierarchy word line scheme is almost equal to the area in the snap scheme. At this time, a gate wiring delay RC is determined by the value related to twice the number of columns. For this reason, the following equation is established: EQU (2R).times.(2C)=4RC
and the delay increases to be four times. As a result, in order to keep a constant speed, development for making the resistance of a gate wiring lower than that in the snap scheme must be performed, and the cost of development is required.
The conventional hierarchy word line scheme also has the following problem. Although the rule of a metal wiring on a subarray can be relaxed as shown in FIG. 3, the pitches of the main row decoders and the pitch of the metal wirings of the sub-row decoders cannot be relaxed. As a result, the design rule of the metal wirings is limited to the rules of the main row decoders and sub-row decoders.
In the conventional snap scheme shown in FIGS. 1A to 1D, the rules of row decoders is relaxed compared with the rule on the cell array. However, in the hierarchy word line scheme shown in FIGS. 2A to 2C, since the rules on the subarray is considerably relaxed, the metal wirings are limited to the rules of the main row decoders and sub-row decoders.
For example, referring to FIG. 4, when a contact to the well of a main row decoder is to be formed, a second layer metal wiring (not shown) extending in a bit line direction is brought into contact with a first layer metal wiring (metal 1) to be brought into contact with the well. For this reason, as indicated by (A) in FIG. 4, the pitch of the first layer metal wirings reduces by half. The rule of the contact between the first layer metal wiring and the second layer metal wiring is large, the rule of the first layer metal in the portion (A) is smaller than a half of the rule of the subarray. As in a portion (B) in another word line power supply (VSV), or as in a portion (C), when a signal (S1) from another wiring, e.g., a lower circuit, in the main row decoder is connected to a main word line in parallel, the rule becomes more severe. In addition, as in a sub-row decoder section, a portion such as the portion (A) is present. When a sub-word line is formed by the first layer metal wiring as indicated by (D), the rule becomes more severe.
As described above, with respect to a conventional word line arrangement in a memory cell array, in the snap scheme, processing cannot be easily performed because a metal wiring pitch is severe. In the hierarchy word line scheme, although a pitch is relax, a delay increases unless the resistance of a gate wiring is reduced, and a chip size increases.
In the conventional hierarchy word line scheme, the pitch of the metal wirings on a subarray can be considerably relaxed, but the rules of the metal wirings of the main row decoders and sub-row decoders are constant. As a result, the rule of the metal wirings is limited to the rules of the metal wirings of the main row decoders and sub-row decoders.

Semiconductor memory device having improved word line arrangement in a memory cell array


A microscope apparatus includes a stage and a revolver that holds objective lenses. At least one of the stage and the revolver constitutes an electric movable device that is electrically operated. The microscope apparatus further includes an input device for inputting a command for operating the electric movable device, a manual focusing device for adjusting a relative distance between the stage and the objective lenses, an operation control device for controlling operation of the electric movable device, a state determining device for determining whether the electric movable device is in an operable state or not, and a restriction device for restricting an output of a control signal for commanding the operation to the operation control device when the command for operating the electric movable device is input if the electric movable device is in an inoperable state.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a microscope apparatus.
2. Related Art
Microscope apparatuses capable of observing a magnified image of a fine specimen and recording the observation image as a picture or a video image have been used in a wide variety of fields such as biological fields or industrial fields. In the industrial fields, for example, the microscope apparatuses have been used for observing microstructures of a metal or used as an inspection apparatus in a process of manufacturing a semiconductor device or an LCD (liquid crystal display).
Since the microscope apparatus is used for the above-described various fields, in many cases, components thereof are configured as units, so that the microscope apparatus may be used in various uses according to a combination of the units.
Among the units, there are movable units which are electrically operated, such as an electric stage. Beside the electric stage, there are many units comprising the electric movable device. However, there are still a lot of units comprising a manual movable device.
In the microscope apparatus, in some cases, if the movable device is manipulated carelessly, the movable device could come into contact with other devices. Although the electric movable device can be operated by simple manipulation, even in the state where contact may occur if there is no method of preventing the contact, the electric movable device performs the associated operation as it is. Particularly, in an inverted microscope, since the objective lens is inserted into an aperture of the stage, it is difficult for a user to determine the occurrence of contact. If switching of the electric revolver is manipulated carelessly, the objective lens could come into contact with the specimen or the stage, so that the specimen or the objective lens may be damaged.
In order to solve this problem, there is disclosed a technique for a safe observation, which can be performed by rotating an electric revolver after recessing the position of a focusing device or a stage in the case of an objective lens potentially coming into contact with the stage. In this case, the potential contact can be determined by the information of the position of the focusing device and the stage obtained by tracing a rotation trajectory of the objective lens (refer to, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No 2007-286440).

Microscope apparatus having electric and manual movable devices


A stud driver and remover for large diameter studs includes an improved construction that enables the stud driver and remover to quickly remove large diameter studs that previously had to be removed usually by drilling. The improved stud driver and remover for large diameter studs includes five drive rolls, and increased ratio between the cross-sectional areas of the stud and the drive rolls. The stud driver and remover also includes an increased roll length and decreased included angle which allows the roll to penetrate more deeply into the stud. A radius of each of a plurality of cams formed in a core of the tool is dependent on the size of at least one of an inner diameter of the main ring, a diameter of one of the rolls and a radius of the stud to be driven and removed. The cooperation between the cams and the core is modified to accept an increased variance in stud size.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stud driver and remover for large diameter studs and a method of making the stud driver and remover. In particular, the present invention relates to a stud driver and remover for large diameter studs and a method of making the same in which the stud driver and remover has an improved construction over the prior art that enables the inventive stud driver and remover to quickly remove large diameter studs that previously had to be removed by drilling the stud out of the workpiece.
2. Description of Related Art
Stud drivers and removers for small diameter studs are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,069,527 to Kirkland discloses a chuck adapted for stud driving and removing in which three relatively small rolls rotatably grasp the stud. In addition, the assignee of the present application has sold a stud driver and remover under the trademark ROLL-GRIP for small diameter studs, i.e., studs having a diameter between three sixteenths of an inch and three inches. These stud drivers and removers have worked very well for the small diameter studs, but are not readily adaptable simply by increasing their size to accommodate removal or driving of large diameter studs, i.e., studs having a diameter of greater than 3/4 inches, due to the larger stud diameters and increase in torque necessary to remove or drive such large diameter studs.
Large diameter studs are used in many industries, such as chemical plants, electrical generators and nuclear facilities. In these industries, it is often required to remove the studs for periodic inspections and/or maintenance. These industrial sites may have between 100-200 or more studs on site. In the past, there were no tools which readily removed the studs. If a tool was available, the tool would either deform the stud during the removal process, thereby rendering the tool incapable of grasping the stud to complete the removal process; or the tool could not withstand the high torque necessary for large diameter stud removal, thereby resulting in a breakdown of the tool. As a consequence, large diameter studs were often drilled out, which required 2-3 hours per stud.

Stud driver and remover for large diameter studs


When carrying out further color balance adjustment processing on color-balance adjusted image data having been through color balance adjustment processing, processing performance of the further color balance adjustment processing is sufficiently used. In a digital camera, by carrying out processing such as first AWB processing and chroma enhancement processing on original image data obtained by photographing, output image data are obtained. The output image data are then input to a printer. In the printer, processing which is the inverse of processing carried out in processing means of the digital camera and inverse AWB processing which is the inverse of the first AWB processing is carried out on the output image data, and inverse AWB image data which can be regarded as the original image data are obtained. Processed image data are then obtained by carrying out second AWB processing different from the first AWB processing on the inverse AWB image data, and a print is generated by output means based on the processed image data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing method and an image processing apparatus for carrying out color balance adjustment processing on an image obtained by using a digital camera when the image is output from a printer or the like, and also relates to a computer-readable recording medium storing a program to cause a computer to execute the image processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a digital electronic still camera (hereinafter called a digital camera), an image obtained by photographing is recorded as digital image data in a recording medium such as an IC card or a built-in memory installed in the digital camera. Based on the digital image data having been recorded, the photographed image can be reproduced as a hard copy such as a print or a soft copy on a display device. When an image obtained by a digital camera is reproduced as has been described above, the image is expected to have as high a quality as a photograph printed from a negative film.
Meanwhile, human vision has a mechanism called chromatic adaptation for perceiving white paper as white not as bluish or reddish even in daylight or in light from a fluorescent lamp or a tungsten light each having a different spectrum energy distribution from normal daylight. Taking such chromatic adaptation into consideration, a digital camera having a function (an AWB function) has been proposed for carrying out automatic white balance adjustment processing (AWB processing) in accordance with a light source used at the time of photographing on original image data representing a photographed image so as to obtain an image not depending on a color of the light source such as tungsten light, light from a fluorescent lamp, or daylight.
Furthermore, a digital camera for outputting image data after image processing such as chroma enhancing processing on the image data so as to cause a color to become adequate when displayed on a CRT monitor has been known, since image data obtained by a digital camera are frequently displayed on a CRT monitor.
Meanwhile, when image data obtained by a digital camera are output as a hard copy from a printer or the like, the printer carries out AWB processing adequate for printing on the image data and the image data after the processing are printed.
Due to limitation caused by processing speed or hardware, the AWB processing carried out in a digital camera is comparatively simple processing for adjusting a gain of each color by equalizing averages of RGB colors, assuming an average of all pixel values being gray. Meanwhile, a printer can carry out more sophisticated AWB processing than that of a digital camera. For example, as has been described in Japanese Patent Application No. 11(1999)-70186, RGB values of each pixel are converted into chromaticity values to find averages of the chromaticity values. The averages are then converted into physiological primary colors and assumed to be a neutral point of a light source used at the time of photographing. The chromaticity values are converted so as to cause the physiological primary colors to be equal to physiological primary colors of a reference light source for photographing. The converted chromaticity values are then converted into RGB signals.
However, since image data output from a digital camera have been subjected to AWB processing, colors look different from colors in an original image. Therefore, for image data obtained by a digital camera, the function of sophisticated AWB processing carried out by a printer is not fully used. In the case where the digital camera carries out image processing such as chroma enhancing processing as well as the AWB processing, image data obtained by the digital camera have distorted color balance. As a result, regardless of sophisticated AWB processing carried out on the image data, an adequate neutral point cannot be set and a high quality image cannot be obtained.
The present invention has been conceived based on consideration of the above problems. An object of the present invention is therefore to provide an image processing method and an image processing apparatus for carrying out adequate color balance adjustment processing such as AWB processing on image data obtained by a digital camera, and also to provide a computer-readable recording medium storing a program to cause a computer to execute the image processing method.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method, apparatus, and recording medium for processing image data to obtain color-balance adjusted image data based on white-balance adjusted image data


The end faces of a first pin contain bulging curved faces having an egg-like shape, when viewed along a chain width direction. Each bulging curved face includes a first end portion, a second end portion and a maximum width portion with respect to a chain advancing direction. With respect to perpendicular directions, the distance between the center of the maximum width portion and the first end portion is relatively large, whereas the distance between the center of the maximum width portion and the second end portion is relatively short. It is possible to enlarge the surface area of the bulging curved face.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power transmission chain, a method for manufacturing a power transmission member of the power transmission chain, and a power transmission device.
2. Related Art
In an endless power transmission chain to be used in a power transmission device such as a pulley type continuously variable transmission (CVT) of an automobile, links adjoining in a chain advancing direction are connected by pins and inter-pieces (as referred to Pamphlet of International Publication No. WO 2005/045280 A1, for example). The paired end faces of the pins engage with the corresponding taper disks of the pulleys thereby to transmit the power.
The end face of the pin is tapered the more as the pin advances from the intermediate portion of the chain radial direction to the end portion on the outer side, so that the outer side end portion has a smaller area. As a result, when the end faces contacts with the taper disk, only the portion on the inner side of the edge (or edge portion) of the end face cannot retain a sufficient contact area thereby to cause a possible edge abutment, in which even the edge contacts with the taper disk. When the edge abutment occurs, the wear of the end face is undesirably promoted locally.

Power transmission chain, method for manufacturing power transmission member of the power transmission chain, and power transmission device


A powder sieving system that is configured as part of a powder reclamation system is provided. The powder sieving system includes a support structure; and a filter housing movable relative to the support structure, the filter housing defining an inlet and an outlet and comprising a broad frequency filter disposed between the inlet and the outlet, the broad frequency filter including: a first filter fixed relative to the filter housing, the first filter being substantially rigid; and a second filter coupled within the filter housing adjacent to the first filter, the second filter being substantially flexible such that the second filter is movable relative to the first filter within the filter housing when the filter housing moves relative to the support structure, the first filter and the second filter configured to restrict a first portion of a powder larger than a predetermined threshold from reaching the outlet.

Additive manufacturing techniques, processes, or machines refer generally to manufacturing processes wherein successive layers of material(s) are provided on each other to "build-up," layer-by-layer, a three-dimensional component. The successive layers generally fuse together to form a monolithic component which may have a variety of integral sub-components. Some additive manufacturing techniques, processes, or machines involve an energy source that is used to selectively sinter or melt portions of a layer of powder and involve successively depositing layers of additive powder. In such machines, powder removal and collection for additive manufacturing machines may be required after each machine cycle. Powder removal and/or collection may be difficult for these machines due to a variety of factors including, e.g., a size and configuration of a printed object due to the size and weight. An efficient powder recycling and sieving process is thus needed.

Powder sieving system using a broad frequency filter


A multilayer connector is provided, in which at least a first wiring layer is formed, a second wiring layer is formed on the first wiring layer through an interlevel insulator, a contact hole is bored through the interlevel insulator at its portion in which the first and second wiring layers are connected, a coupling conductor is formed within the contact hole and the first and second wiring layers are electrically connected to each other by means of the coupling conductor. A recess portion having an opening is formed on the first wiring layer, the opening of the recess portion being increased in width from a peripheral edge of the contact hole, wherein the coupling conductor formed within the recess portion by a selective chemical vapor deposition process is formed within the contact hole of the interlevel insulator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to multilayer connectors and, more particularly, is directed to a multilayer connector for use in ultra large scale integrated (ULSI) semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a semiconductor integrated circuit such as a ULSI, a plurality of wiring layers must be laminated via an interlevel insulator between adjacent layers in accordance with the increase of integration level and of scale. For example, in the ULSI in which field effect transistors (FETs) constructing a memory cell as a circuit element are arrayed to form a predetermined circuit, a multilayer structure is frequently employed in which the respective electrodes of, for example, the FETs or the wiring layers are formed as an under layer or as a first wiring layer, a second wiring layer of a predetermined pattern is formed on the first wiring layer through an interlevel insulator and the upper second wiring layer is communicated with and coupled to the lower first wiring layer via an opening (contact hole) bored through the interlevel insulator in a predetermined connection relation.
In the case of the above-mentioned structure, in accordance with the increase of integration level and large scale, it is requested that the area of the contact hole bored through the interlevel insulator must be reduced as much as possible.
In the interlevel insulator, it is requested that the thickness of the interlevel insulator is increased to a certain extent in order to improve an insulating property and withstand voltage of the upper and lower wiring layers sandwiching the interlevel insulator, thereby the contact hole formed through the interlevel insulator for contact being increased in depth.
On the other hand, the second wiring layer of the upper layer is generally formed by the sputtering-process of Al (aluminum). In this case, it is difficult to insert the second wiring layer into the above-mentioned deep contact hole of small diameter with excellent coverage so that this second wiring layer is sufficiently brought in contact with the first wiring layer of the under layer electrically and mechanically. As a consequence, mis-contact, mis-coverage occur and a resistance value is increased, which unavoidably degrades the reliability.
For this reason, in the case of employing this kind of the multilayer wiring structure, before forming the second wiring layer of the upper layer, an Si layer is formed on the whole surface of the interlevel insulator involving the contact hole by a CVD (chemical vapor deposition) method. Thereafter, a so-called etch back is carried out to remove the Si layer on the interlevel insulator except the Si layer within the contact hole and then the second wiring layer of the upper layer is formed.
According to the above-mentioned structure, the first and second wiring layers are electrically coupled to each other by means of a coupling conductor formed of an Si layer filled into the contact hole of the interlevel insulator.
In accordance with this structure, however, since the coupling conductor is formed of the Si layer, the resistance value cannot be decreased sufficiently as compared with the metal and the etch back process is needed, which increases the number of working processes. As a result, the multilayer connector cannot be mass-produced efficiently.
Recently, a technology for selectively growing a metal having a high melting point such as tungsten W or the like has been developed. Therefore, it is proposed that metal having high melting point such as tungsten W or the like grown by the above-mentioned selective growing process is employed as the coupled conductor filled into the contact hole of the interlevel insulator.
The high melting point metal such as tungsten W or the like is selectively grown by the reduction of, for example, WF.sub.6 gas. By selecting the growing conditions thereof, the growing speed is allowed to considerably increase on the conductive layer as compared with the insulating layer, thereby the selective growth being realized substantially. By effectively utilizing this selective growth, the tungsten W is selectively grown only on the second wiring layer of the under layer exposed to the outside through the contact hole of the interlevel insulator, thereby the coupled conductor made of tungsten W being formed so as to refill the contact hole.
According to the multilayer connector structure using the coupled conductor made of metal such as tungsten W or the like, the electrical resistance in this coupled portion is reduced, and the etch-back process is not required, which can therefore increase efficiency in working.
However, as shown in FIG. 1, according to this conventional method, if the first wiring layer 21 of the under layer is made of a material such as Al or the like which can be treated by the sputtering-process with ease, there is then the disadvantage such that the multilayer connector will be degraded in reliability.
That is, if a contact hole 2A is bored through an interlevel layer 2 made of material such as SiO.sub.2 or the like, as shown in a longitudinal diagrammatic view of a section forming FIG. 2, the interlevel insulator 2 made of material such as SiO.sub.2 or the like is formed on the whole surface of the first wiring layer 21 made of the Al under layer or the like and formed on a semiconductor substrate 1 having a surface insulating layer, for example. Then, an etching mask layer 3 made of photoresist or the like is formed on the interlevel insulator 2.
Through this etching mask layer 3, a contact hole 3A is formed on the contact hole forming portion by a well-known optical photography technique, i.e., the pattern exposure and development.
Then, as shown in FIG. 2, the mask layer 3 is employed as the mask and the contact hole 2A, which is substantially identical with the contact hole 3A of the mask layer 3, is bored through the interlevel insulator 2 via the contact hole 3A by the reactive ion etching (RIE) process.
In the next process, as shown in FIG. 3, the mask layer 3 is removed and the tungsten W is refilled only on the portion of the first wiring layer 21 of the under layer which portion is exposed to the outside through the contact hole 2A, that is, the tungsten W is refilled only into the contact hole 2A to thereby form a coupling conductor 4 made of tungsten W by the selective W-CVD method using WF.sub.6 gas. A second wiring layer 22 of an upper layer of a predetermined pattern made of an Al layer or the like is formed on the interlevel insulator 2 involving the coupling conductor 4.
In this way, the first and second wiring layers 21 and 22 are electrically connected to each other by means of the coupling conductor 4 refilled into the contact hole 2A bored through the predetermined portion of the interlevel insulator 2.
However, according to the above conventional method, the anisotropy etching process forming the contact hole 2A on the interlevel insulator 2 is carried out by the RIE process having strong ion so that, when the contact hole 2A is bored, then the metal of the first wiring layer 21, e.g., Al is exposed by the sputtering-process. As a result, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, an unstable smudge 5 such as a so-call Al crown, Al particle or the like is deposited on the inner circumferential surface of the contact hole 2A. Under this state, if the coupling conductor 4 is formed within the contact hole 2A by, for example, the selective W-CVD process, then this coupling conductor 4 tends to be peeled off. Also, if the connection resistance between the first and second wiring layers is increased. Thus, the reliability of this conventional multilayer connector will be degraded.


Disclosed are ultrasonic wireless power transmitter and receiver apparatuses, and a method for wireless charging thereof. A method for wireless charging according to the present disclosure includes: transmitting, by an ultrasonic wireless power transmitter apparatus, an wakeup signal to an ultrasonic wireless power receiver apparatus; calculating, by the ultrasonic wireless power transmitter apparatus, a charging time according to a charging status information received from the ultrasonic wireless power receiver apparatus; generating, by the ultrasonic wireless power transmitter apparatus, an ultrasonic signal, amplifying the generated ultrasonic signal to predetermined voltage and thereafter; charging, by the ultrasonic wireless power transmitter apparatus, the ultrasonic wireless power receiver apparatus for the calculated time and thereafter; and determining, by the ultrasonic wireless power transmitter apparatus, whether secondary charging is to be performed according to a charged status information received from the ultrasonic wireless power receiver apparatus.

As a study on a sensor network becomes active, the necessity of a study on an issue of wirelessly supplying power to each sensor node has been gradually increased. Wireless power transmitter technologies using magnetic resonance field or an electromagnetic induction coupling field are not free in human harmfulness. Therefore, as a solution thereto, an ultrasonic power transmission method is relieved as an alternative.
Researches on an ultrasonic wireless power transmission apparatus have been conducted on a basic study level, and studies on a communication scheme or method using an ultrasonic wireless power apparatus have also been conducted only in a very limited application field.
In researches using the ultrasound for data communication underwater, studies on a underwater channel characteristic and underwater ultrasonic communication have been conducted and based thereon, the high power/high-priced ultrasonic communication modem technologies with various modulation/demodulation techniques and signal processing algorithms have been developed.
A first related art is disclosed in US2011/0218594A1 (Ultrasonic Transducer for Bi-directional Wireless Communication, Eyal Doron) specifying a communication system by using an ultrasonic apparatus transmitting power by using an ultrasonic element. An energy power transmission apparatus using ultrasound, which is provided between an internal apparatus incorporated in a human body and an external apparatus, and a bidirectional communication method using the apparatus were proposed.
A second related art is disclosed in US 2011/0134725A1 (Ultrasonic System and Communication Method Thereof, Chung-Yi Su). A burst transmitter method synchronized with a communication method in an ultrasonic transmitter/receiver system is used.

Ultrasonic wireless power transmitter and receiver apparatuses, and method for wireless charging thereof

ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE


A thin film forming apparatus includes: a first electrode having a first discharge surface and a second electrode having a second discharge surface, the first discharge surface facing opposite to the second discharge surface to form a discharge space; a gas supply unit for supplying a gas including a thin film formation gas to the discharge space; a power source for discharging and activating the gas by applying a high frequency electric field across the discharge space; and a film transporting mechanism for transporting a protecting film for preventing at least one of the first electrode and the second electrode from being exposed to the activated gas, wherein a thin film is formed by exposing a substrate to the activated gas and, the protecting film is transported in contact with at least one of the first discharge surface and the second discharge surface and with at least a part of a surface other than the discharge surface which continues to the discharge surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a thin film forming apparatus and a thin film forming method, and more particularly to a thin film forming apparatus and a thin film forming method for forming a thin film on a substrate by the use of atmospheric pressure CVD (chemical vapor deposition)
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a material produced by forming a high-performance thin film on a substrate has been used for various products such as a large scale integrated circuit (LSI), a semiconductor, a display device, a magnetic recording device, a photoelectric conversion device, a solar cell, a Josephson device and a photothermal conversion device. As a method for forming a thin film on a substrate, the following methods can be cited: a wet type film formation method typified by coating; a sputtering method; a vacuum pressure evaporation method; a dry type film formation method typified by a ion plating method; an atmospheric pressure plasma CVD using atmospheric pressure plasma discharge processing; and the like. Recently, the atmospheric pressure plasma CVD which can form a high quality thin film while maintaining a high productivity has been especially desired.
In the atmospheric pressure plasma film formation method, thin film formation gas is supplied to a substrate disposed between opposed electrodes, and an electric field is applied between both of the electrodes. Thereby, discharge plasma is generated, and the substrate is exposed to the discharge plasma. Thereby, a thin film is formed on the substrate. When discharge surfaces of the electrodes are contaminated owing to the generation of the discharge plasma, the thin film cannot be formed to be uniform. As a thin film forming apparatus which can prevent the contamination and can perform efficient thin film formation, for example, a thin film forming apparatus disclosed in JP-Tokukai-2000-212753A can be cited. The thin film forming apparatus includes two opposed electrodes, a high voltage pulsed power supply for applying a pulsed electric field between those electrodes, a film transporting mechanism for transporting a substrate to each discharge surface of the two electrodes with the substrate contacting each discharge surface, and thin film formation gas supply unit for supplying thin film formation gas between the electrodes. After the thin film forming apparatus has supplied the thin film formation gas between the electrodes, the thin film forming apparatus applies the pulsed electric field to the electrodes to generate discharge plasma. Thereby, the thin film forming apparatus forms thin films on the substrates severally contacting the two electrodes. That is, because the discharge surfaces of the two electrodes are always covered by the substrates during the discharge plasma is generated, the contamination of the discharge surfaces can be prevented.
However, a result of research by the inventers of the present invention shows the following problem. That is, even if only the discharge surfaces of the electrodes are covered by the substrates, as shown in FIG. 13, a plasma space h in which discharge plasma is generated projects from the discharge surfaces 101a and 102a of the electrodes 101 and 102. Consequently, substrates 103 and 104 enters the plasma space h before they are contacted with the discharge surfaces 101a and 102a, or in a state of being unsupported, and the substrates 103 and 104 are influenced by the heat of the discharge plasma excessively and rapidly. Thereby, the substrates 103 and 104 contract to produce wrinkles and stretches thereon, and consequently not uniform films are formed.


A system and method for controlling access to digital assets in an online media sharing system based on keywords are provided. In general, each digital asset is tagged with a number of keywords. The owner of the digital assets defines a guest list including a number of guests. For each guest, the owner defines permissions controlling the guest's access to the digital assets based on keywords. Thereafter, when a request to view the digital assets is received from a guest node associated with one of the guests, the digital assets that the guest is permitted to view are identified based on the permissions assigned to the guest and provided to the guest at the guest node.

With the proliferation of digital cameras, numerous online photosharing services have emerged and are becoming widely accepted by photo enthusiasts. The photosharing services are generally based on one of two architectures. The first is a centrally hosted architecture where a central server hosts digital images for a number of users and provides photosharing services by serving the digital images to a web browser of a user or guest. The second is a peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture where a user creates and stores photo albums on the user's computer. The user's computer then operates as a web server to provide the photo albums to the web browser of another user or guest.
One issue with online photosharing services is controlling access to photo albums. Typical online photosharing systems control access on a per image basis or a per album basis. Each image or photo album may be classified as private such that it is not shared or as public such that it is shared with all guests. Some systems allow the owner of the image or photo album to define a list of permitted guests for each digital image or photo album. However, these systems do not take advantage of keywords used by an owner to tag digital assets. Thus, there remains a need for a system and method of controlling access to digital assets in an online media sharing system based on keywords used to tag the digital assets.

System and method for controlling access to assets in a network-based media sharing system using tagging


The present invention relates to a nutritional supplement (10) containing from 5% to 2000% each of the RDA of vitamins (18) A (22), C (26), D (28), E (30) and .beta.-carotene (24), from 5% to 500% of the RDA of the minerals (20) selenium (32), zinc (34), magnesium (36), calcium (38), iodine (40) and potassium (42), from 5 to 100 mg dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) (12), from 0.1 to 10 mg trans-ferulic acid (14), and one or more plant extracts (16) selected from ginseng (46) and garlic (44). These DHEA-containing nutritional supplements are useful in the alleviation of an irregular heartbeat as well as the general symptoms of stress.

1. Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates generally to vitamin and mineral-containing compositions for alleviating an irregular heartbeat and/or the symptoms of stress in humans and more specifically to compositions for alleviating an irregular heartbeat or stress which further contain dehydroxyepiandrosterone (DHEA).
2. Description of the Prior Art
Vitamin-containing compositions are well known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,571,441 (Andon, M. B. et al., 5 Nov. 1996) discloses a vitamin supplement containing 3 to 1000% of the RDA of vitamins, 10 to 4000 mg flavanols, and a bracer equivalent to 10 to 300 mg caffeine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,239 (Benjamin, E. J., 6 Jun. 1989) discloses a cardiotonic composition containing a vitamin and a cardiotonic phospodiesterase inhibitor which is preferably a (2-oxo-1,2,3,5-tetrahydroimidazo2,1-b!quinazoliniyl)-oxyalkylamide derivative.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,039 (Masor, M. L., 30 Jan. 1996) discloses a nutritional infant formula containing vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates and four nucleotide equivalents which are monophosphate esters.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,569,670 (Weischer, C. H., 29 Oct. 1996) discloses a therapeutic composition containing vitamin E and R-.alpha.-lipoic acid.


The present invention relates to the field of tomato plants having an intense phenotype and Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus (TYLCV) resistance.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of plant breeding, in particular tomato breeding. The invention provides for the genetic combination of the recessive gene conferring the "intense" phenotype and the (partially) dominant Ty-1 resistance gene (or Ty-3, or orthologs of Ty-1 or Ty-3), conferring resistance towards Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus (TYLCV). In particular, the combination of the recessive intense allele and the Ty-1 allele (or Ty-3 allele, or orthologs of Ty-1 or Ty-3) on a single chromosome of Solanum lycopersicum (chromosome 6 of tomato) in cis configuration is provided, as are tomato plants comprising such a recombinant chromosome in their genome. Also provided are seeds from which such plants can be grown, plant parts, cells, tissues or organs of such plants and breeding methods for transferring the recombinant chromosome 6 comprising intense and Ty-1 (or intense and Ty-3, or intense and orthologs of Ty-1 or Ty-3) in cis configuration to other cultivated tomato plants or plant cells.

Tomato plants with intense phenotype and TYLCV resistance


A fitness equipment spring counterweights balancer, comprising hand wheel, lead screw, upper and lower frame beams, upper and lower pulley blocks, spring guiding pillar, upper and lower spring seats, at least one spring, vortex track, big wheel, steel wire rope connecting the pulley block and the vortex track, steel wire rope which connects both the big wheel and fitness equipment. The springs are arranged between upper and lower spring seats. After the spring guiding pillar passes through the springs and the upper and lower spring seats, the both ends of the spring guiding pillar are connected with the upper and lower frame beams. One end of the steel wire rope connecting the pulley block and the vortex track is mounted on one side of the lower pulley block. One end of the steel wire rope connecting the big wheel and fitness equipment is mounted on the big wheel.

Most of existing counterweights devices are using counterweights as the load. Due to the configuration of counterweights being affected by the space, the direction, the cost and many other factors, and thus there are disadvantages of a huge volume, a high cost, and a high transportation cost, which is unfavorable for the widespread popularity. For example, counterweights portion of the traditional fitness equipment is usually made up of multiple counterweights. The design can only be carried out by way of laminating, and the gravity is adjusted by increasing or decreasing the number of the counterweights. Thus, the height and the adjustment precision of the gravity of the fitness equipment are limited, easily leading to a problem, i.e., it is heavier with one more counterweight while it is lighter with one less counterweight. It is not easy for some types of the fitness equipment to switch the different gravities when multiple people are using at the same time.
Chinese patent CN201643528U discloses an automatic counterweighting mechanism for a strength-type fitness equipment, which is controlled by the micro-chips to select the counterweights automatically. It includes two parallel guide shafts, and the counterweights passing though the guide shafts from top to bottom are arranged in sequence to form a counterweights unit. A counterweight lead screw nut is embedded at the center of each counterweight. The top first counterweight of the counterweights unit is equipped with a counterweights automatic selecting mechanism. The counterweights automatic selecting mechanism includes a motor, a gearbox and a lead screw. The lead screw is vertically arranged, and the lead screw is engaged with the counterweight lead screw nut at the center of the counterweights.

Fitness equipment spring counterweights balancer


A method for eliminating voicemail notifications on a wireless device for a voicemail message that a user has previously been notified of, comprising the steps of: storing information on the wireless device about the voicemail message; comparing incoming information of a new voicemail notification received by the wireless device against the information stored in the storing step; and notifying the user of the voicemail message only if the incoming information differs from the information stored in the storing step.

In a wireless network, a user is notified that a voicemail message is waiting when the user receives a voicemail. This notification involves the current mobile switch that the wireless device is connected to sending a message to the wireless device indicating how many voicemail messages are waiting to be checked.
Currently, when a wireless device receives a Message Waiting or Voice Mail Notification message, it immediately sends an acknowledgement message to the network as an indication that the message was received by the wireless device and then notifies the user of the receipt of a voice mail message. It is up to the user to make a call to the Voice Mail System and listen to the pending voice mail.
In addition, it is the responsibility of the network to send a message to explicitly indicate the number of remaining pending messages, if any, if the user has listened to some or all the pending voice mails.
A problem frequently occurs with current voicemail notification when a mobile user moves from one network boundary to another (e.g. one mobile switch, system, network or registration zone to a second mobile switch system, network or registration zone). In such boundary crossings, the wireless device is usually required by the network to register with it and a notification message is sent that a voicemail message is waiting. In such instances of mobility where the wireless device is required to register with different networks, the wireless device can receive the same voicemail message notification repeatedly. In a data device, the same notification message appears multiple times in its incoming message folder. The problem gets worse at network boundaries where the user may go back and forth between two networks and each transition is accompanied by the same voicemail notification message.
Voicemail notifications can be either sent as a signaling message or as a short message service over the common paging channel or dedicated traffic channel, but regardless of the method used to convey the voicemail notification to the wireless device, repeated notifications of the same voicemail message are annoying to the user and can lead to a negative impression by the user of the wireless service.

Method for eliminating multiple notifications for the same voicemail message


An apparatus for bending/tempering glass sheets raised to their softening point with a view to their bending and tempering includes an upper plate mold and a lower annular mold on which the glass sheets are deformed, and with respect to which the edge of glass sheets move as a result of their deformation, particularly by horizontal pressing between the upper bending mold and the lower mold. The bent sheets are thermally tempered in air on the same annular mold in a tempering station. This annular mold is designed in such a way that its contact surface with the glass sheets at the start of their deformation on the mold, being located on the outer periphery of the mold, is appropriate for the mark-free displacement of the glass on the mold and in particular for pressing, and so that at the end of displacement, and in particular at the end of pressing, the contact surface located on the inner periphery of said mold is appropriate for tempering.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to glass sheet bending/tempering procedures and more particularly to the covering of annular molds used in such procedures.
2. Description of the Related Art
Horizontal bending/tempering procedures generally involve a first bending phase, where the glass sheet previously heated in a furnace to beyond its softening point is, e.g., applied by pneumatic means at least once to an upper member constituted by a refractory ceramic or sheet metal plate. In certain cases, this member is only a carrying means. In other cases it constitutes a shaping or preshaping means for the glass sheet and has a principal curvature which can be more or less close to that which it is wished to give to the glass sheet. However, no matter what its shape and function, hereinafter it will be designated by the term plate bending mold.
Thus, the sheet can be sucked, as is described in EP-A-3,391 and/or raised by an upward, hot gaseous flow, against the bending mold in the manner described in FR-A-2,567,508. It can also be raised by mechanical means such as lugs or a lower mold able to have different configurations, as is described in FR-A-2,009,278.
The more or less preshaped glass sheet can then be deposited in a well known manner on a mold having a curved profile open in its center and which is known as an annular bending bold, before being discharged while on the latter towards the thermal tempering zone. This tempering operation consists of supplying, from two plenums positioned above and below the glass sheet on the annular mold, also called a tempering frame, cooling gas jets which are approximately perpendicular to the two faces of said sheet.
The tempering frame is provided with a coating or covering specifically adapted to this type of tempering and to the stress which is imposes. Thus, the covering, apart from being able to withstand temperatures between 650.degree. and 800.degree. C. and without marking the glass, must be permeable to air so as not to disturb the circulation of the pressurized cooling air from either side of the glass sheet. Thus, the air projected from the lower tempering plenum with respect to the annular plenum supporting the sheet must be able to also flow tangentially along the contact surface between the mold and the sheet, so that the periphery of the sheet is also correctly tempered, which requires a relatively permeable mold covering in order to permit said flow. Various such coverings provided for the tempering frames are known in the art.
It is standard practice to use a refractory fiber or thread gauze with relatively wide meshes of approximately at least 1 mm side length and optionally in the manner disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,906,271, while fixing the meshes by knots at the intersection points, so as to render uniform the distribution of the intersection points which constitute the essential contact points between the mold covering and the glass sheet.
It is also known to complete the shaping of the glass sheet by pressing the sheet between the plate mold above it and an annular bending mold below it. To the extent that pressing involves considerable and relatively sudden mechanical forces imposed on the glass sheet at its periphery supported by the annular mold, the annular mold covering must have very specific characteristics different from those required for the covering of a tempering mold.
Thus, it must have a certain softness so as to permit a gentle contact with the glass sheet and cancel out any slight imperfections of the shape of the mold. It must also be relatively deformable and extensible, so that it can be easily fixed while stretching it over the mold, e.g., using clips or hooks. It must be able to absorb the dust which might be located at the mold/sheet interface and have a certain porosity, so that the dust cannot mark the surface of the softened glass. It must also not mark the glass by its own surface texture.
The covering must therefore have a relatively dense and compact texture, such as is encountered with metallic knitted products with compact meshes, as disclosed in FR-A-2,644,156 and which makes it possible to obtain a contact surface with the glass sheet which is as smooth and level as possible. Thus, during the relative sliding between the glass sheet and the annular mold, there is no risk of marking or scratching the glass sheet. During the actual pressing between the plate mold and the annular mold, such risks are obviated by ensuring a gentle, shock-free contact between the glass and the annular mold.
However, this type of dense texture covering is incompatible with a use as a covering for a tempering mold because, as has been stated hereinbefore, it would not permit an effective tempering of the periphery of the glass sheet, by opposing the tangential flow of the cooling air. It has therefore been necessary to use for tempering and for pressing two annular molds having coverings of different types. However, this involves a supplementary mold exchange stage with all the problems of synchronization and increases in the cycle time which result therefrom.
It is possible to envisage carrying out the glass sheet pressing operation with the frame designed and covered for the thermal tempering operation, but this remains a compromise which is not acceptable from the standpoint of the optical quality of the glazings obtained except when the relative sliding between the glass and the annular mold which leads to the production of marks is very limited, i.e., when only a modest bending has to be given to the glass sheet.
A "bifunctional" annular mold which is suitable for relatively pronounced bending operations without marking the sheets is described in EP-A-373,992. It is an annular mold having a part fixed with respect to the mold support frame and a rail articulated with respect to said fixed part which, on bending back during the pressing against the upper plate mold, makes it possible to obtain glass sheets which are locally highly bent. The fixed part is covered with a gauze having relatively wide meshes allowing tempering to take place, whereas the articulated rail is covered with a dense felt suitable for pressing. During tempering, the same annular mold is used, but then the rail is in the opened out position, so as not to disturb the tempering operation at the highly bent edge of the sheet. This consequently means that the marginal area is left without any support during tempering. This situation is liable to produce parasitic deformations following pressing and account must be taken thereof, e.g., with respect to the curvature of the annular mold and/or the extent of the pressing by the articulated rail, so as to obtain an end product with the desired curvature.
By its very design, this mold is only usable if the desired highly bent area is not very extensive and is limited to a single side of the glass sheet. It is necessary that the glass sheet be supported during tempering by a relatively large fixed part so as to prevent any sagging thereof, said fixed part also being slightly curved and covered with a tempering fabric, pressing essentially taking place via the articulated rail. Consequently this mold is unsuitable for glazings having a complex shape, e.g., those having curvatures in different directions close to two opposite or adjacent edges.

Apparatus including mold having covering for annular bending/tempering molds


A dynamic pulse width modulation (PWM) selection device automatically switches between discontinuous PWM (DPWM) control methods. The PWM selection device comprises a PWM control module. The PWM control module determines a desired pulse width of a switching control signal according to a desired output signal. The PWM control module controls an actual pulse width of the switching control signal according to the desired pulse width and a first PWM control method. A selection module determines whether the desired pulse width exceeds a pulse width threshold. The selection module selects a second PWM control method when the desired pulse width exceeds the pulse width threshold.

A voltage source inverter (VSI) is used to generate an AC output voltage with controllable magnitude and frequency. The VSI converts a DC voltage to the AC voltage in order to drive a three phase AC motor. Pulse width modulation (PWM) methods are used to control the operation of the VSI. A PWM control module provides high-frequency voltage pulses that control a duty cycle of one or more switches in the VSI.
Referring now to FIG. 1, an exemplary three-phase VSI 10 that drives an AC motor 12 is shown. The VSI 10 includes one or more DC voltage sources 14 and 16 and switches 18-1, 18-2, 20-1, 20-2, 22-1, and 22-2, referred to collectively as switches 24. The switches 24 are any suitable semiconductor switches as are known in the art, such as transistors including an antiparallel diode. Typically, each switch pair is operated in a complementary manner. For example, when the switch 18-1 is ON, the switch 18-2 is OFF. Conversely, when the switch 18-2 is OFF, the switch 18-1 is ON. The other switch pairs are operated in an analogous manner. The AC motor 12 is a three phase AC motor. In other words, the AC motor 12 operates according to current flow through inductor coils 26, 28, and 30. Current flows through the inductor coils 26, 28, and 30 according to the voltage sources 14 and 16 and ON and/or OFF statuses of the switches 24.
A PWM control module 32 generates one or more switching control signals 34 that control switching behavior of the switches 24. The PWM control module 32 implements a known PWM control method that operates the switches 24 to achieve desired performance characteristics of the AC motor 12. For example, PWM control methods may be continuous or discontinuous. Continuous PWM control methods, such as Sinusoidal or Space Vector modulation, cause each switch in a phase leg to cycle (i.e. turn ON and OFF) once per cycle of a carrier signal. Discontinuous PWM (DPWM) control methods cause one switch in a phase leg to remain ON or OFF continuously for a portion of a cycle of a voltage fundamental signal. A modulation signal (e.g. a switching control signal) determines a duration that the switch is ON or OFF. Typically, DPWM control methods result in lower inverter losses than continuous PWM control methods.
Three conventional DPWM methods are DPWM0, DPWM1, and DPWM2 as shown in FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C, respectively. Referring now to FIG. 2A, a DPWM0 waveform illustration 40 includes a voltage fundamental signal 42, a modulation signal 44, and a current signal 46 during a phase a of AC motor control. An amplitude of the modulation signal 44 is representative of a commanded duty cycle of one or more of the switches 24. In other words, the modulation signal 44 controls the duty cycle of the switches 24. Typically, the DPWM0 control method is loss optimized for lagging power factor loads. For example, the DPWM0 control method may be preferred for AC motors operating in a regeneration mode.
Referring now to FIG. 2B, a DPWM1 waveform illustration 50 includes a voltage fundamental signal 52, a modulation signal 54, and a current signal 56 during a phase a of AC motor control. The DPWM1 control method is loss optimized for unity power factor loads. For example, the DPWM1 control method may be preferred for motors operating at low speeds or with light loads.
Referring now to FIG. 2C, a DPWM2 waveform illustration 60 includes a voltage fundamental signal 62, a modulation signal 64, and a current signal 66 during a phase a of AC motor control. The DPWM2 control method is loss optimized for lagging power factor loads. For example, the DPWM2 control method may be preferred for motors in motoring action.

Loss minimized PWM for voltage source inverters taking into account inverter non-linearity


A two-piece, die cast transmission housing for a rototiller. The housing comprises two sections that are bolted together along their peripheral edges. A preformed gasket is seated within a recess in one section to form a tight seal between the two peripheral edges when the sections are secured together. The two-section design allows for easier maintenance, repair and replacement of transmission components without damaging bearings or seals. The two-section design also eliminates the need for alignment holes, potential sources of leaks, because the alignment can occur before the primary components are enclosed inside the housing. The housing sections include plural intersecting ribs which reinforce the housing and effectively dissipate heat.

This invention relates generally to rototillers and cultivators for gardening, and more particularly to the transmission housing for such devices.
Rototiller devices are commercially available for home gardening applications. Such devices dig up and turn over top soil by the use of mechanically driven disks containing teeth on the disks' periphery. These rotating disks, known as tines, dig into the earth and turn over soil at that location in order to prepare the soil for planting. Although rototiller design may vary, usually the rototiller rests upon the tines. Because these tines are driven to rotate, in order to dig and tear up the soil, the rototiller tends to crawl in the direction of the spinning tines when the tines engage the ground.
Power for such prior art rototillers usually is provided by an engine, be it gasoline powered or electric powered. In either case, the engine operates through a transmission to rotate the tined axle.
The rototiller is guided in its action by the operator through the use of a pair of handle bars that may or may not support a clutch control means to engage the engine and tined shaft. As with any transmission, a lubricating system is required to minimize wear of the intermeshing gear parts. Lubricating material (e.g., grease or oil) must be retained and/or replaced periodically to maintain transmission operation. However, alignment holes and lubrication injection ports within the housing increase the likelihood of lubrication material leakage through these apertures. Moreover, the tined axle itself is a source of leakage since the axle must be free to rotate even though it is directly coupled to the transmission.
The following constitute examples of various types of prior art rototillers' or cultivators' transmissions suitable for home garden tilling/cultivating applications found in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 2,679,200 (Johnson); 2,755,718 (Arndt); 2,847,924 (Quick); 2,864,293 (Edrich et al.); 2,908,337 (Surprise); 3,202,004 (Field); 3,123,149 (White); 3,442,335 (Silbereis et al.); 3,452,823 (Shapland, Jr.); 4,250,968 (Fox) and 4,421,176 (Tuggle et al.).
The clutch mechanisms used with the rototiller transmissions vary. For example, some utilize belt/pulley tension clutches, while others use centrifugal clutches or spring loaded clutches to engage or disengage or even reverse tined axle motion. Such designs can increase the size of the transmission housing or adjacent housing in order to accommodate the clutch.
One particularly effective rototiller for home gardening applications is sold by the Mantis Manufacturing Company of Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania under the trademark MANTIS TILLER/CULTIVATOR. This rototiller utilizes a gasoline powered engine to drive a worm gear transmission to rotate plural tined blades mounted on a common axle. The worm gear transmission is housed in a unitized compartment such that the primary components (e.g., a drive shaft, worm shaft and worm gear) are mounted and permanently enclosed within this compartment at the factory. This unitized design requires that openings in the housing be provided so that the primary components can be assembled inside the housing. This is accomplished by inserting the drive shaft through the top opening of the housing, while the worm shaft is inserted through an aperture in the bottom. The worm gear is inserted through the main housing opening and then the tined axle is inserted through the tined axle aperture and screwed into the worm gear center threading.
While the transmission housing is generally suitable for its intended purposes, it nevertheless leaves something to be desired from the standpoints of ease of assembly, ease of adjustment or maintenance of the transmission components, and long term resistance to lubrication leakage or loss. For example, with regard to initial assembly, there is no direct access to the worm shaft, worm gear or drive shaft. Thus, alignment of these components can only be monitored through the various openings through which these components were placed into the housing. Moreover, adjustments or corrections can only be accomplished by releasing the tined axle to free up primary component movement.
With regard to maintenance, any primary component needing repair or replacement requires removal of the tined axle. This latter step cannot be accomplished without damaging the tined axle bearings and seals. If, in the process of releasing the tined axle, the housing is scored or damaged the usual result is that any new seals or bearings installed will not seal as tightly as before the maintenance work was conducted.
With regard to the transmission housing, the main housing cover acts as a potential source of lubrication leakage. Since the worm gear must be introduced through this opening, alignment checked through this opening and customer maintenance (including adding lubrication) is accomplished through this opening, all of these increase the chance that this opening may leak.
Another commercially available rototiller for home gardening applications is that sold under the trademark "LI'L HOE" by Hoffco, Inc., of Richmond Indiana. This rototiller includes a die cast transmission housing formed of two components or sections which are screwed together to form an interior chamber in which the transmission components are located. The axle for the rototiller's blades extends through bushing mounted in the housing sections. Plural strengthening fins extend outward radially from the openings in the housing sections in which the axle bearings are located. In order to prevent the leakage of the internal lubrication a bead of a sealant or caulk is provided on the engaging surfaces of the two housing sections. Each housing section also includes a horizontal recess therein for receipt of the lower portion of a respective one of the rototiller's handle bars. Each recess includes a stop surface to ensure that the handle bar is mounted in the desired direction on the housing.

Die cast transmission housing for rototiller


A navigation system for use on an automobile, for example, has a GPS positioning device for determining a present position thereof from radio waves transmitted from GPS satellites, and a stand alone type positioning device including an direction sensor and a speed sensor, for determining a present position thereof from direction data from the direction sensor and speed data from the speed sensor. A data processor selects data from the GPS positioning device or data from the stand alone type positioning device. The data processor selects the data from the GPS positioning device, and/or corrects a distance corrective coefficient for the speed sensor if a PODP value is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, if speed data from the GPS positioning device is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, and if the difference between the speed data from the GPS positioning device and the speed data from the stand alone type positioning device is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, and additionally if the data from the GPS positioning device has been obtained consecutively three times at time intervals each equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, and if the consecutive three data from the GPS positioning device are equal to or smaller than a predetermined value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a navigation system for use with a mobile object, and more particularly to a navigation system including a data processor for producing data to estimate the position of a reception point highly accurately.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are known stand alone type positioning devices for navigating various mobile objects such as automobiles, airplanes, ships, or the like in a global geometrical region. A stand alone type navigation system on a mobile object has an direction sensor and a speed sensor. The stand alone type navigation system determines a two-dimensional displacement (vector quantity) of the mobile object based on direction data from the direction sensor and speed data from speed sensor, and finds the present position of the mobile object by adding the determined two-dimensional displacement to the positional data of a reference position. For example, the stand alone type positioning system on an automobile produces a predetermined number of pulses per revolution of the drive shaft of the automobile, and calculates the distance that the automobile has traveled by multiplying a distance calculated from the total number of pulses produced while the automobile has moved from the reference position to the present position, by a distance corrective coefficient. Since, however, the two-dimensional displacement contains accumulated errors of the direction and speed sensors, the stand alone type positioning system requires some means for eliminating the accumulated errors. More specifically, because of the accumulated errors of the sensors, if a distance corrective coefficient that has once been established for the speed sensor remained unchanged, then the calculated distance would include an error. Distances calculated for automobiles by stand alone type positioning systems are also subjected to errors depending on the number of passengers on board and the conditions of roads on which the automobiles run. Consequently, when an automobile with a stand alone type positioning system makes a turn at an intersection, it has heretofore been necessary for the user of the navigation system to manually correct the distance corrective coefficient if the user finds the navigation system either overrunning or underrunning.
Such accumulated errors cause no problem with global positioning systems (GPS) for determining the position of a mobile object in a global geometrical region based on radio waves transmitted from three or more GPS satellites. The global positioning system determines the position of a reception point where its radio-wave receiver has received the radio waves, based on quasi-distance data between the GPS satellites and the reception point, including a time offset of the receiver, and positional data of the GPS satellites
The global positioning systems produce direction data by measuring the rate of change of the quasi-distance data based on Doppler shifts observed in the radio waves from the GPS satellites. Consequently, when the reception point moves slowly, the direction data produced by the global positioning system is of low accuracy. Furthermore, when the reception point is at rest, the speed data obtained by the global positioning systems becomes larger than the actual speed due to the multipath effect of the radio waves, and the global positioning systems generate wrong direction data.

Navigation system with navigational data processing


A method for the production of organic solar cells or photodetectors, particularly based on organic polymers, comprising the following steps:—a first organic n- or p-conductive semiconductor layer is applied to an electrode, to the solid first organic semiconductor layer is applied a second organic semiconductor layer of the respective other conductivity whose solvent partially dissolves the first organic semiconductor layer, such that the first semiconductor layer mixes with the second mixed layer;—a second electrode is applied opposite the first.

The typical cell structure of a solar cell is comprised of a layer structure that includes a positive electrode, a mixture of organic semiconductors and a negative electrode. The material used for the positive electrode can, for example, be ITO/PEDOT:PSS. The semiconductor mixture is composed of an organic material, for example a polymer. The semiconductor mixture includes both n-conductive and p-conductive semiconductor molecules. This mixed semiconductor layer is known as a bulk heterojunction layer. Additional materials that are used concern the negative electrode, for example, which can be made of Ca/Ag or LiF/Al. The above-listed substances do not, however, exclusively constitute the elements concerned, but rather, other material combinations are also feasible. The donor present in the bulk mixed layer can for example be a conjugated polymer, and the acceptor can for example be a soluble methanofullerene.
A major difficulty in the production of bulk heterojunction solar cells is to create a desirable phase morphology with respect to the n-semiconductor and the p-semiconductor. This problem is due, among other things, to the different solubility of the individual components in the common solvent.
Attempts have heretofore been made to obtain the desired morphology using only one solvent, which dissolves the organic semiconductors used in a way that permits the fabrication of suitably thick and homogeneous, well-blended semiconductor films.
The choice of solvents is very limited, owing to the particularly high requirements imposed on them. For example, it is desirable for the formation of a concentration gradient in the distribution of the semiconductors in the so-called bulk to be accompanied by a suitable morphology for the semiconductor mixture in the applied film. The choice of solvent is also particularly limited, for example, by phase separation within the range of the exciton diffusion length [1].
Alternatively, geometries created by the successive application of the individual semiconductor layers have heretofore been investigated. Such attempts have included the use of a so-called bilayer with a sharp interface between the two semiconductors [2]. A "stratified multilayer" has also been developed [3]. This involves the formation of interdiffusion layers in which the upper layer is able to penetrate slightly into the lower layer. This leads to partial interleaving or mixing by diffusion.

Method for producing organic solar cells or photo detectors