The combined cooling system uses a single heat exchanger to cool both engine air for use in an engine system and aircraft air for use in an aircraft system. More particularly, a bleed air path leads from the compressor stage to the heat exchanger where it is placed in thermal exchange contact with a flow of cooling air coming from a cooling path. From an outlet end of the heat exchanger, the bleed air splits into two paths: an aircraft air path leading to at least one aircraft system such as an Environmental control system (ECS), a wind de-icing system or the like, and an engine air path leading to at least one engine system such as a buffer air system for pressurizing the bearing cavities.

Some aircraft systems, such as environmental control systems (ECS) and wing de-icing systems for instance, require pressurized air from the engine within pre-established pressure and/or temperature specifications. In the case of ECS, for instance, it was known to use pressurized air from a compressor stage of the gas turbine engine via a bleed air conduit, and to cool this pressurized air in a dedicated heat exchanger, referred to as the ECS pre-cooler, provided as part of the aircraft.
Engine systems, such as bearing cavities for the rotary components of gas turbine engines, also require pressurized air (referred to as buffer air) within pre-established pressure and/or temperature specifications. The engine systems requirements can significantly differ from the pressure and/or temperature specification of aircraft systems. The engine (buffer) air cooling system thus used a dedicated heat exchanger provided as part of the gas turbine engine.
There remained room for improvement in the way the cooling of engine air and/or aircraft air was handled.

Cooling system for engine and aircraft air


The current-limiting resistor has two connection electrodes (1, 2) which are arranged parallel to one another, a resistance body (3) which has PTC behavior and with which large-area contact is made by the connection electrodes (1, 2) and at least one varistor (4) which is in electrically conductive contact with the resistance body (3). The varistor (4) is of pillar-shaped design and has at least two first portions (4a) routed predominantly perpendicularly to the varistor axis and, arranged between said portions, a second portion (4b) having a reduced cross section compared with each of the first portions (4a). The material of the resistance body (3) fills an interspace (6), which is formed by the at least two first portions (4a) and the second portion (4b), and encloses the outwardly pointing edges (4c) of the at least two portions.. This resistor can be operated at high voltages, for example 5 or 10 kV, and advantageously has a single resistance body 3 and a single varistor. This obviates metal electrodes serving to make electrical contact with subelements.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is based on an electrical resistor according to the preamble of patent claim 1. A resistor of this type can advantageously be used to limit a short-circuit current or overcurrent flowing in a load circuit. A switch arranged in series with the resistor in the load circuit then interrupts the limited current. This switch can therefore be designed for a small breaking power compared with the short-circuit power.
2. Discussion of Background
A current-limiting resistor of the aforementioned type is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,184 A. Such a resistor contains two connection electrodes between which, connected in parallel with one another, a resistance body having PTC behavior and a varistor are arranged. The resistance body and the varistor make contact with one another via the entire insulation clearance between the two connection electrodes. This avoids local overvoltages in the resistance body and hence impermissibly high local thermal loading of the resistance body.
In order to increase the dielectric strength of this resistor, a plurality of resistors can be connected in series. Such an arrangement is relatively complicated since metal electrodes are arranged both between the individual resistance bodies and between the individual varistors. In the normal operating state of the resistor, the current is conducted through a series circuit of a plurality of resistance bodies having PTC behavior, between each of which bodies a metal electrode is arranged. The contact resistance between a metal electrode and the material of the resistance body is generally relatively high and, in the case of a typical resistor for current-limiting tasks, having a total resistance of approximately 50 m.OMEGA., contributes just as much as the material of the resistance body to the total resistance. Furthermore, metal electrodes and the polymers which are usually used as material for the resistance body and are filled with a filler have different electrical conductivities and different thermal expansion coefficients. As a result, mechanical stresses may be produced in the interior of the resistor, which stresses may possibly impair the mechanical and electrical properties of said resistor.

Current-limiting resistor having PTC behavior


Repairing a model comprising a plurality of interrelated parameters defining a dynamic behavior of a simulated interactive object in an interactive computer simulation when inputs are provided on tangible instrument(s) of an interactive computer simulation station. An expected frequency response function is obtained between each of the parameters of the model and each of instruments. Discrepancy measurement(s) are identified between the expected frequency response function and an actual frequency response function obtained from a frequency sweep of the model. At least one target parameter is identified as a potential cause of the discrepancy measurement(s). Until a subsequent frequency response function matches the expected frequency response function, or until each of the target parameter(s) has been fully varied throughout a corresponding range, the target parameter(s) are dynamically and iteratively varied within their corresponding ranges and a subsequent frequency sweep providing the subsequent frequency response is thereafter performed.

In an interactive computer simulation such as a flight simulator, the quality of the user's experience is related, among other things, to the plausibility of the user's interactions in the simulator and to the predictability of the results of such interactions. For instance, the behavior of an airplane needs to be plausible and sufficiently predictable in relation to simulated conditions and in relation to commands from the user in the simulator. When a new model or revised model for an airplane or airplane configuration is determined to be defective, it is difficult to properly update the model with a proper model.
The present invention addresses this concern.

Repairing a model associated to a simulated interactive object


A rotary machine, such as a compressor, includes a casing having an annular cavity. The cavity is stepped to include a first circumferential surface of a first size and a second circumferential surface of a second size, less than the first size. At least one roller member is retractably mounted in the casing and is adjustable between a first position and a second position. In the first position, the roller member is retracted from the cavity and is substantially aligned with first circumferential surface. In the second position, the roller is extended into the cavity and substantially aligned with the second circumferential surface. When extended, the roller member can support a reduced diameter portion of a compressor bundle substantially in alignment with the second circumferential surface of the cavity during insertion of the compressor bundle into, or removal of the compressor bundle from the cavity in the compressor casing.

The disclosures herein relate generally to compressors and more particularly to roller devices for assisting in the insertion and removal of a compressor bundle relative to a compressor casing.
The insertion of the centrifugal flow compressor bundle into the compressor casing, and the removal of the bundle from the casing is a difficult task due to the massive size and weight of these devices. For example, the compressor bundle may vary in weight from about 5,000 pounds to about 70,000 pounds. The bundle is an annular member which inserts into an annular cavity formed in the casing. There is a close tolerance between the outer annular surface of the bundle and the mating inner annular surface of the cavity. In addition, the mating annular surfaces of these devices are stepped, i.e. they have stepped diameter portions. Thus, the task of inserting the bundle into the casing and removing the bundle from the casing, is difficult to achieve with the precision needed to accomplish the task and avoid damage to the mating members.
The assembly difficulty is greatest when the step is large between the non pressurized portion of the case and the pressure containing section. Normal lifting, by slings and hoists cannot be accomplished due to the center of gravity of the bundle being inside the case before the bundle can be inserted into the pressure containing portion of the case. Since the normal methods of insertion cannot provide a support on both sides of the center of gravity, the bundle will tip and not be able to be inserted into the stepped section. There is no known support system built into the non-pressure containing portion of the case to provide the support and guidance of the stepped bundle to mate with the stepped portion of the case.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,363, a roller bearing is located at one end of a support shaft and a flange is located at the other end along with insertable shims of different thicknesses which can be used to adjust the length of the support shaft. This arrangement provides support to the inner casing of a turbine or compressor during assembly or disassembly, and permits removal of the casing without removal of the turbine or compressor rotator. The inner casing can be rolled around the turbine circumference with the aid of large chain hoists.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,493,212, a roller bearing is at one end of a support shaft and a flange at the other end, but uses jackscrews instead of insertable shims to allow the adjustment of its length.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,326,222, the shaft of a turbine is supported while it is running, and is connected to the turbine shaft bearing casing by means of a pin joint. The device is adjustable and is built into the casing of the turbine but is not assist in the assembly or disassembly of the turbine.
Therefore, what is needed is a system for supporting a centrifugal flow compressor bundle during its removal from and insertion into the compressor casing, which is capable of supporting the massive compressor bundle for precise movement relative to the casing.

Adjustable compressor bundle insertion and removal system


A buckle safety device formed for use with a seat belt assembly. The seat belt assembly includes a tongue and a buckle. The buckle safety device includes a housing having a cutout and a buckle receiving opening. The cutout and the buckle receiving opening communicate with a cavity inside the housing. The cutout is configured for receiving an elongated object for releasing the tongue from the buckle when the tongue is mated therewith. A base receiving member extends from the housing. The base receiving member is arranged proximate the buckle receiving opening and has a base receiving slot extending therethrough.

For safety purposes, children are often restrained in a vehicle seat, child safety seat, etc. with a conventional seat belt assembly. The seat belt assembly may include, for example, a base with a tongue and a buckle. The tongue is inserted into the buckle and latched therein to lock the seat belt assembly. To unlock the seat belt assembly, a release button on the buckle is manually pushed to unlatch the tongue from the buckle. Because the release button is in open view and is easily accessible, children are capable of intentionally or inadvertently pressing the release button and unlocking the seat belt assembly. This can be extremely dangerous in that the child can endure harm if not properly restrained, especially if an adult supervising the child is unaware that the child has become unrestrained.
It is therefore desirable to develop a buckle safety device that can be used with any seat belt assembly, including those provided on child safety seats, wherein the buckle safety device prevents a child from unlocking the seat belt assembly and ensures that the child remains safely restrained. It is further desirable to develop a buckle safety device that can remain attached to the seat belt assembly between uses such that use of the buckle safety device is simplified and misplacement of the buckle safety device can be prevented.


Feedback devices to keep a person being filmed, photographed, or otherwise recorded automatically by a recording system or automated camera pointing or similar system informed about the recording and manual remote control devices which allow the person being filmed, photographed, or otherwise recorded to take control of the recording camera or automated pointing system or similar system.

Recording a person participating in an activity is an important task. A surfer may wish to capture his surfing experience for later enjoyment or to improve his or her surfing technique. A father may wish to record his son's winning touchdown in a football game. A mother may wish to capture her daughter's record-breaking gymnastics performance. In each of these examples, the camera is far away from the participant. To record the participant, a second person is needed to control and position the camera. Because humans are imperfect, the quality of the recorded video may not be ideal. For example, the camera operator or cameraman may have an unsteady hand making the recorded video too shaky and unbearable to watch. Additionally, the cameraman may become tired and may not keep the participant in the view field of the camera. In this situation, the cameraman may fail to capture an exciting or interesting moment. Further, some participant may not have a second person lined up to help filming. In this case, the individual loses the chance to record him or herself.

Feedback and manual remote control system and method for automatic video recording


A water purification apparatus utilizing a reverse osmosis cartridge which supplies a measured amount of potable water to substantially fill an open top pitcher of known desired size. This free-standing apparatus includes an electric pump which withdraws water from an overhead reservoir and pumps it through prefilters and the reverse osmosis cartridge, from which a brine stream returns to the reservoir and a product water stream discharges from an overhead outlet above the pitcher. Control means monitors the level and quality of water in the reservoir and halts the operation of the pump as soon as the water level falls below a lower predetermined level which is set so that the desired measured quantity will have been delivered to the pitcher from a full reservoir. The control means also halts operation when the total dissolved solids content in the reservoir reaches a preset upper limit. The quality of the product water is also monitored and compared with the quality of the water being pumped to the reverse osmosis cartridge; a "service" indicator light is illuminated when the desired percentage of total dissolved solids is not being removed by the reverse osmosis cartridge.

Reverse osmosis has proved to be a particularly effective separation process for efficiently and effectively providing good-tasting, potable water for drinking, cooking and the like. A variety of different apparatus have been developed for utilizing cartridges of spirally-wound reverse osmosis membranes to provide such potable water. U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,175 to Donald T. Bray is an example of such a water purifier that is designed to mount to the spout or spigot of a kitchen faucet and that delivers product water to a receptacle located on or near the sink-top. U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,723 to Donald T. Bray is an example of a water-purification apparatus which is designed to stand on the sink-top or counter-top and to operate whenever it receives water under pressure from a sink faucet or diverter or from some other supply of tap water.
Although the foregoing apparatus have proved very effective for supplying domestic households and the like with potable water, improved and more convenient apparatus are continually being sought to satisfy consumer needs and preferences.


A detection system includes a first sensor coupled to a pipe associated with a pump and generates temperature data associated with a temperature of the pipe. The system includes a second sensor positioned within an acoustic sensing distance from the pump and that generates sound data associated with a sound of the pump. The system includes a processing device configured to execute data instructions to store a baseline temperature signature and a baseline acoustic signature, and receive the temperature data from the first sensor and the sound data from the second sensor. The processing device is configured to, based on (1) a determination that flow through the pipe is reduced by comparing temperature data to the baseline temperature signature, and (2) a determination that the pump remains operational based on comparing the acoustic data to the baseline acoustic signature, generate an indication that the pipe is blocked.

Typical oilfields are connected to thousands of miles of distribution pipelines that collect crude oil extracted from wellhead pumpjacks, gather the oil for measurement and accounting, and ultimately send it to refineries. A system of pumps is responsible for transporting oil from the wellhead through the complex pipeline system. The above-ground pipelines travel thousands of miles, oftentimes cross several countries and states, and therefore collectively undergo a variety of environmental conditions.
In cold weather, oil thickens because oil viscosity has an inverse relation with its temperature. That is, the viscosity of oil increases as its temperature decreases. As a result of oilfield environments having low ambient temperatures, pipelines can become blocked due to the high viscosity of oil. Such cold-oil pipeline blockage occurs gradually over time. Oil may also interact with sand or other contaminants in the fluid and with pipe sags or narrow fittings, blockages may result.
Typically, oil wells operate intermittently with on/off cycles of approximately 5-15 minutes, and when the pump is not operational, oil, in cold ambient temperatures, transitions from flowing slowly to fully blocking a pipe. Without having an indication of a pipeline block, the pump will continue to operate, thereby causing equipment damage and pump damage.
Accordingly, cold-oil blockage is a significant problem that occurs in complex oil pipeline distribution networks. Although some oilfields contain thousands of wells where production lines are vulnerable to blockage, manual inspection is the most commonly used technique today.
Further, although the oil industry has explored several stand-alone sensors, current approaches are either unreliable or too expensive to install and maintain. Other blockage sensing systems have attempted to locate blockages along an oil line by measuring the travel time of pressure decompression waves that bounce back from the blockage point. Other systems attempt to localize the blockage in subsea flow pipes by comparing inlet and outlet pressures. Such systems are invasive and expensive means for detecting blockages in pipes that do not address the blockage until after the blockage has occurred.

Reducing false alarms with multi-modal sensing for pipeline blockage


In a metallization system of a complex semiconductor device, metal pillars, such as copper pillars, may be formed in a nail-like configuration in order to reduce the maximum mechanical stress acting on the metallization system while providing a required contact surface for connecting to the package substrate. The nail-like configuration may be obtained on the basis of appropriately configured resist masks.

1. Field of the Invention
Generally, the present disclosure relates to integrated circuits having metallization systems including metal pillars, and, more particularly, to the techniques for reducing chip-package interactions caused by thermal mismatch between the chip and the package.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor devices are typically formed on substantially disc-shaped substrates made of any appropriate material. The majority of semiconductor devices including highly complex electronic circuits are currently, and in the foreseeable future will be, manufactured on the basis of silicon, thereby rendering silicon substrates and silicon-containing substrates, such as silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates, viable base materials for forming semiconductor devices, such as microprocessors, SRAMs, ASICs (application specific ICs), systems on chip (SoC) and the like. The individual integrated circuits are arranged in an array on the wafer, wherein most of the manufacturing steps, which may involve several hundred and more individual process steps in sophisticated integrated circuits, are performed simultaneously for all chip areas on the substrate, except for photolithography processes, metrology processes and packaging of the individual devices after dicing the substrate. Thus, economical constraints drive semiconductor manufacturers to steadily increase the substrate dimensions, thereby also increasing the area available for producing actual semiconductor devices and thus increasing production yield.
In addition to increasing the substrate area, it is also important to optimize the utilization of the substrate area for a given substrate size so as to actually use as much substrate area as possible for semiconductor devices and/or test structures that may be used for process control. In an attempt to maximize the useful surface area for a given substrate size, the feature sizes of circuit elements are steadily scaled down. Due to this ongoing demand for shrinking the feature sizes of highly sophisticated semiconductor devices, copper, in combination with a low-k dielectric material, has become a frequently used alternative in the formation of so-called interconnect structures comprising metal line layers and intermediate via layers that include metal lines as intra-layer connections and vias as inter-layer connections, which commonly connect individual circuit elements to provide the required functionality of the integrated circuit. Typically, a plurality of metal line layers and via layers stacked on top of each other is necessary to realize the connections between all internal circuit elements and I/O (input/output), power and ground pads of the circuit design under consideration.
For extremely scaled integrated circuits, the signal propagation delay is no longer limited by the circuit elements, such as field effect transistors and the like, but is limited, owing to the increased density of circuit elements requiring an even more increased number of electrical connections, by the close proximity of the metal lines, since the line-to-line capacitance is increased in combination with a reduced conductivity of the lines due to a reduced cross-sectional area. For this reason, traditional dielectrics, such as silicon dioxide (k>4) and silicon nitride (k>7), are replaced by dielectric materials having a lower permittivity, which are, therefore, also referred to as low-k dielectrics having a relative permittivity of 3 or less. However, the density and mechanical stability or strength of the low-k materials may be significantly less compared to the well-approved dielectrics silicon dioxide and silicon nitride. As a consequence, during the formation of the metallization system and any subsequent manufacturing processes of integrated circuits, production yield may depend on the mechanical characteristics of sensitive dielectric materials, such as low-k dielectric layers, and their adhesion to other materials.
In addition to the problems of reduced mechanical stabilities of advanced dielectric materials having a dielectric constant of 3.0 and significantly less, device reliability may be affected by these materials during operation of sophisticated semiconductor devices, due to an interaction between the chip and the package caused by a thermal mismatch of the corresponding thermal expansion of the different materials. For instance, in the fabrication of complex integrated circuits, increasingly, a contact technology may be used in connecting the package carrier to the chip, which is known as flip chip packaging technique. Contrary to the well-established wire bonding techniques in which appropriate contact pads may be positioned at the periphery of the very last metal layer of the chip that may be connected to corresponding terminals of the package by a wire, in the flip chip technology, a respective bump structure may be formed on the last metallization layer, for instance comprised of a solder material, which may be brought into contact with respective contact pads of the package. Thus, after reflowing the bump material, a reliable electrical and mechanical connection may be established between the last metallization layer and the contact pads of the package carrier. In this manner, a very large number of electrical connections may be provided across the entire chip area of the last metallization layer with reduced contact resistance and parasitic capacitance, thereby providing the IO (input/output) capabilities, which may be required for complex integrated circuits, such as CPUs, storage memories and the like. During the corresponding process sequence for connecting the bump structure with a package carrier, a certain degree of pressure and/or heat may be applied to the composite device to establish a reliable connection between each of the bumps formed on the chip and the bumps or pads that may be provided on the package substrate. The thermally or mechanically induced stress may, however, also act on the lower lying metallization layers, which may typically include low-k dielectrics or even ultra low-k (ULK) dielectric materials, thereby significantly increasing the probability of creating defects by delamination of these sensitive materials due to reduced mechanical stability and adhesion to other materials.
Moreover, during operation of the finished semiconductor device attached to a corresponding package substrate, significant mechanical stress may occur due to a significant mismatch in the thermal expansion behavior of the silicon-based semiconductor chip and the package substrate, since, in volume production of sophisticated integrated circuits, economic constraints typically require the usage of specified substrate materials for the package, such as organic materials, which typically may exhibit a different thermal conductivity and a different coefficient of thermal expansion compared to the silicon chip.
In recent developments, the thermal and electrical performance of a "bump structure" is increased by providing copper pillars instead of or in addition to solder bumps or balls, thereby reducing the required floor space for individual contact elements and also enhancing thermal and electrical conductivity due to the superior characteristics of copper compared to typically used solder material. These copper pillars may, however, contribute to an even more severe interaction between the package and the metallization system of the chip, since, typically, the copper pillars are significantly less deformable compared to the bump structures, which may be advantageous in view of electrical and thermal behavior, which, however, may result in even increased mechanical stress components in a locally very restricted manner, as will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 1a-1b.
FIG. 1a schematically illustrates a cross-sectional view of an integrated circuit 150 comprising a semiconductor die or chip 100 connected to a package substrate 180 that is substantially comprised of an organic material, such as appropriate polymer materials and the like, wherein the connection between the chip 100 and the package substrate 180 may be accomplished by means of a pillar structure 170. The semiconductor chip 100 may typically comprise a substrate 101, for instance a silicon substrate or an SOI substrate, depending on the overall configuration of the circuit layout and the performance of the integrated circuit 150. Moreover, a silicon-based semiconductor layer 102 may typically be provided "above" the substrate 101, wherein the semiconductor layer 102 may comprise a very large number of circuit elements, such as transistors, capacitors, resistors and the like, as are required for the desired functional behavior of the integrated circuit 150. As previously discussed, the ongoing shrinkage of critical dimensions of circuit elements may result in critical dimensions of transistors on the order of magnitude of 50 nm and significantly less in presently available sophisticated semiconductor devices produced by volume production techniques. The semiconductor chip 100 comprises a metallization system 110, which, in advanced devices, includes a plurality of metallization layers, i.e., of device levels, in which metal lines and vias are embedded in an appropriate dielectric material. As discussed above, at least a portion of the corresponding dielectric materials used in the various metallization layers is usually comprised of materials of reduced mechanical stability in order to reduce the parasitic capacitance of adjacent metal lines.
As previously explained, the pillar structure 170 may be provided as a part of the metallization system 110, wherein the corresponding copper pillars are formed in the very last metallization layer of the system 110. On the other hand, the package substrate 180 comprises appropriately positioned and dimensioned contact pads (not shown) which may be brought into contact with corresponding pillars or any solder material formed thereon, in order to establish respective mechanical and electrical connections upon application of heat and/or mechanical pressure. Furthermore, the package substrate 180 usually comprises appropriate conductive lines in order to connect the upper pillar portions of the pillar structure 170 with corresponding terminals, which then establish an electrical interface to other peripheral components, such as a printed wiring board and the like. For convenience, any such conductive lines are not shown.
During operation of the integrated circuit 150, heat is generated within the semiconductor chip 100, for instance caused by the circuit elements formed in and above the semiconductor layer 102. This waste heat is dissipated, for instance, by the metallization system 110 and the pillar structure 170 in a highly efficient manner and/or via the substrate 101, depending on the overall thermal conductivity of the substrate 101. For example, the heat dissipation capability of SOI substrates is significantly less compared to pure silicon substrates due to the reduced thermal conductivity of the buried insulating oxide layer, which separates the semiconductor layer 102 from the remaining substrate material. Thus, a major heat dissipation path is provided by the pillar structure 170 and the package substrate 180. Consequently, a moderately high average temperature is created in the semiconductor chip 100 and also in the package substrate 180 wherein, as previously discussed, a mismatch in the coefficient of thermal expansion between these two components may cause a significant mechanical stress. As is, for instance, indicated by arrows 103 and 183, the package substrate 180 may have an increased thermal expansion compared to the semiconductor chip 100, wherein a corresponding mismatch, therefore, results in a significant degree of thermal stress, in particular at the "interface" between the semiconductor chip 100 and the package substrate 180, that is, in particular, the pillar structure 170 and the metallization system 110 may experience significant shear forces caused by the thermal mismatch during the operation of the integrated circuit 150. Due to the reduced mechanical stability and the reduced adhesion of sophisticated dielectric materials, corresponding defects may occur, which may affect the overall reliability of the integrated circuit 150. In particular, the stiffness of the individual pillars of the pillar structure 170 may result in locally high shear forces, which are transferred into the metallization system, however, in a locally very restricted area, resulting in delamination defects and the like.
FIG. 1b schematically illustrates a portion of the integrated circuit 150 in order to illustrate the situation during the occurrence of a significant thermal mismatch between the package substrate 180 and the semiconductor chip 100. As illustrated, a portion of the metallization system 110 may be illustrated in which a last metallization layer 140 may comprise a dielectric material 142, in which is embedded a contact pad 141, which may comprise copper material in sophisticated applications. Furthermore a passivation layer 160, which may also be referred to as a final passivation layer, is provided on the last metallization layer 140 and exposes a portion of the contact pad 141. Moreover, a metal pillar 171, such as a copper pillar, may extend from the final passivation layer 160 to the package substrate 180, i.e., a corresponding contact pad 181 formed therein. Moreover, typically, a solder material 173 may be formed on the metal pillar 171 and may connect to the contact pad 181. Moreover, as illustrated by the dashed lines, usually, the opening formed in the final passivation layer 160 may be less than a width 171W of the metal pillar 171, thereby forming a contact region 172 that connects the metal pillar 171 with the contact pad 141. Consequently, during operation, the shear forces 183, 103 may result in a certain torque, in particular generated at corresponding portions 165, at which the bottom of the metal pillar 171 is in contact with the final passivation layer 160. Consequently, in this area, a maximum mechanical stress may be exerted in a locally selective manner to the metallization system 110, thereby forcing corresponding defects that may primarily originate from the areas 165.
Consequently, although advanced contact regimes between a chip and a package substrate based on copper pillars may provide significant advantages with respect to heat dissipation capabilities and electrical conductivity at a reduced required floor space, thereby enhancing density of contact elements and/or dummy elements for heat dissipation, the increased mechanical stress created in the metallization system 110 may not be compatible with the reliability requirements of sophisticated semiconductor devices. For this reason, frequently, the height of the copper pillars is reduced which, however, may be associated with a corresponding reduction of the spacing between the package substrate and the chip, which in turn may cause non-reliable filling in of any underfill material. Thus, corresponding voids in the underfill material may also contribute to a high degree of non-reliability, for instance caused by non-uniformities in heat conductivity and the like. In other conventional approaches, the metallization systems may be formed on the basis of less sensitive low-k dielectric materials or ultra low-k materials in order to enhance the mechanical stability of the metallization system, which, however, is associated with a significant reduction in electrical performance due to increased parasitic capacitances, resulting in an increased signal propagation delay.
The present disclosure is directed to various methods and devices that may avoid, or at least reduce, the effects of one or more of the problems identified above.

Metallization system of a semiconductor device including metal pillars having a reduced diameter at the bottom


A frame structure for an in line roller skate, including a sole plate for holding a boot at the top and a row of rollers at the bottom, and two side wings detachably fastened to two opposite lateral sides of the sole plate by screws for performing stunt skating.

The present invention relates to a frame structure for an in line roller skate, and more particularly to such a frame structure which includes two detachable side wings adapted for performing stunt skating.
Conventional roller skates are commonly comprised of a sole plate equipped with two pairs of wheels for skating. Nowadays, in line roller skates have become more and more popularly accepted for the advantage of being practical for performing stunt skating to jump over obstacles, to skate on stairs, a round rod or wall edge, etc. A regular in line roller skate is generally comprised of a sole plate, a boot mounted on the sole plate at the top, and a row of rollers mounted on the sole plate at the bottom. Because the contact area between the sole plate and the boot is narrow, it is difficult to perform stunt skating. Furthermore, because the boot is made from plastic, it tends to be damaged when rubbed against an object during stunt skating. If the boot is damaged or the sole plate wears, the roller skate becomes useless.

Frame structure for an in line roller skate

Tsto Ti Wei, Shen-Keng Hsiang, Taipei Hsien


An information processing device, including a main processor and a coprocessor for processing data according to instructions stored in memory, which is composed of an instruction bus for transmitting instructions from memory to the main processor and coprocessor; a first bus used for transmitting data from the main processor to the coprocessor; a second bus used for transmitting data from the coprocessor to the main processor; instruction detecting means for detecting coprocessor calculation instructions out of the instructions received from memory; operand identifying means for identifying source registers and destination registers specified by operands in a detected instruction; data supplying means for supplying data from the identified source registers to the coprocessor via the first bus; data storing means for storing coprocessor calculation results in the identified destination registers; coprocessor instruction detecting means for detecting coprocessor calculation instructions out of all of the instructions received from the memory; and coprocessor instruction executing means for executing the coprocessor calculation instructions detected by the coprocessor instruction detecting means using data supplied by the first bus and for supplying the calculation result on the second bus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing device which is made up of a main data processing device (main processor) and a sub expansion processing device (coprocessor) for processing data according to instructions stored in a memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, great improvements have been made in processing power by equipping data processing devices (hereinafter, "processors") with expansion computational devices (hereinafter, "coprocessors") which, according to necessity, execute special calculations at high speed.
The main conventional methods for providing such coprocessors consist of the installation of the coprocessor inside the main processor and of the connection of a coprocessor to the main processor according to necessity. Of these, the former installation method has the drawbacks of increases in cost and in power consumption when the coprocessor is not being used, so that a method for connecting a coprocessor which is equal in performance to an installed coprocessor is desired.
Conventional information processing devices which include a coprocessor connected to the main processor operate so that coprocessor calculations are performed by the processor decoding instructions for the coprocessor and then informing the coprocessor of the decoded commands. This method has a drawback in that the transfer of commands from the processor generates considerable overheads which makes the processing time taken by the coprocessor too long.
In response to this problem, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 1-240932 discloses an information processing device which, by having a coprocessor take and decode a same instruction at the same time as a processor which executes pipeline processing, can achieve a reduction in the time needed for command transfer and decoding.
However, when coprocessors in such conventional information processing devices execute processing using the data held in the general registers of the main processor, or when data processed by the coprocessor is stored in the general registers in the main processor, the data first has to be temporarily stored in the memory, with this transfer of data to the memory increasing execution time and thereby reducing the performance of the system.
Similarly, when coprocessors in such conventional information processing devices execute processing using the flag information held in the flag storage registers in the main processor or when flag information processed by the coprocessor is stored in the flag storage registers in the main processor, the flag information first has to be temporarily stored in the memory, with this transfer of flag information to the memory increasing execution time and thereby reducing the performance of the system.
Also, when data processed by the coprocessor and flag information processed by the coprocessor is stored in the flag storage registers and general registers in the main processor, it is necessary for the main processor to lock pipeline processing until the storage of the data and flag information in the general registers or flag storage registers is complete, which increases execution time and thereby reduces the performance of the system.
Similarly, when an interruption process arises during the processing of the coprocessor, since the data currently being processed cannot be stored, it becomes necessary for the coprocessor to reexecute the processing of the data after the interruption process has been completed. This increases execution time and thereby reduces the performance of the system.
Finally, when an task switching process arises during the processing of the coprocessor, since the data currently being processed cannot be stored, it becomes necessary for the coprocessor to reexecute the processing of the task process executed before task switching. This increases execution time and thereby reduces the performance of the system.

Microprocessor system which efficiently shares register data between a main processor and a coprocessor

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


An optical scanning system including an aiming system which is particularly suitable for handheld scanners where the outgoing light is scanned over a desired angle in a scan plane. The aiming system includes a light source generating an optical beam along an outgoing optical path toward an object to be scanned; a detector for detecting light reflected off the object; an oscillating scan mirror in the outgoing optical path directing light toward the object along a scan plane; and a diffractive optical module positioned in the outgoing optical path adjacent the scan mirror, the diffractive optical module having a pair of diffractive optical elements separated by an aperture, the diffractive optical elements positioned on either side of an aperture along the scan plane, each diffractive optical element de-scanning the portion of the optical beam passing therethrough to form an aiming light beam.

The field of the present invention relates to optical scanning systems and particularly to an aiming system for use with an optical scanning system. The invention is especially suitable for use in a laser scanner for reading bar codes such as those found on consumer products, most frequently the UPC bar code. The invention is particularly suitable for handheld scanners.
Bar code scanners, as any optical system, require an outgoing scan beam to be properly drawn over the intended target such as the bar code. A problem arises where laser scanners, in particular handheld scanners, are used to scan bar code labels located a great distance from the laser scanner. Over distances of several feet, scan lines become so diffuse that they are not readily visible on a target, making it difficult for the operator to properly aim the scanner at the target or effectively manipulate the target to be read. This difficulty arises because the path of the beam across the surface carrying the bar code label may not be readily visible to the operator of the scanner due to the high speed of movement of the beam tracing the scan line or due to low intensity of the visible scan line. Thus, for example, it has been found that targeting and reading a bar code 3 inches by 1 inch in size at a distance of five feet becomes problematic.
In response to this problem, laser scanners have been developed having a two-position trigger which causes the laser scanner to generate either a scan line or a fixed pointer beam for aiming the laser scanner. For example U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,248 discloses a portable laser diode scanner equipped with a trigger-actuated aiming light for visually locating and tracking the symbol. The pointer beam or aiming light is visible over a greater distance, because the light energy is concentrated in a spot. However, trigger-actuated aiming lights and two-position scanners have the disadvantage of requiring manual switching of the scanner between operating modes and, once switched from the pointing mode back to the scanning mode, they again leave the operator "blind" to the direction in which the scanner is pointed while scanning.
Accordingly, improved performance and targeting capability are desired to satisfy the continuing need for high performance scanners for use in a wide range of applications.

Aiming beam system for optical data reading device


A monolith-holding element adapted to be used in an exhaust system of internal combustion engines, a process for producing the monolith-holding element, a catalytic converter and a process for producing the catalytic converter are disclosed, in which the specific monolith-holding element is produced by uniformly dispersing an organic binder in a compressed alumina fiber mat, exhibits a thickness-restoring property when the organic binder is thermally decomposed by the contact with a high-temperature exhaust gases, and supports a monolith by exerting a surface pressure on an outer peripheral surface of the monolith and an inner peripheral surface of the metal casing. The monolith-holding element has an excellent durability and gas-sealing properties and the catalytic converter can withstand severe vibration and impact for a long period of time.

In exhaust systems of internal combustion engines, various catalytic converters containing heavy metals or noble metals as a catalyst have been used as an apparatus for cleaning exhaust gases in order to treat and remove harmful components in the exhaust gases, such as carbon monoxide or various hydrocarbons. These catalytic converters are classified into the following two types according to the configuration of catalysts used therein:
(1) Catalytic converter comprising a pellet-like catalyst prepared by supporting a metal catalyst on a granular carrier made of ceramics or the like, and a metal casing for accommodating the pellet-like catalyst; and PA1 (2) Catalyst converter comprising a so-called integrated catalyst prepared by supporting a metal catalyst on a tubular monolith carrier (hereinafter referred to merely as "monolith") inside of which a plurality of flow paths for passing exhaust gases are provided, and a metal casing accommodating the integrated catalyst and connected with exhaust pipes.
The catalytic converters (2) have been more predominately utilized as compared with those of the catalytic converters (1) because the catalytic converters (2) do not show abrasion due to collision between pellets as observed in the catalytic converters (1) and have relatively miniaturized the apparatus. In the catalytic converters (2), in order to securely mount a monolith member within a metal casing, a monolith-holding element is wound around a monolith.
In many cases, the monoliths made of ceramics or metals have been used in order to impart a heat resistance thereto. Further, in order to reduce a flow resistance during passing of exhaust gases and enhance an efficiency of the catalyst, there have been predominately utilized monoliths having a honeycomb structure, whereby more larger surface area can be assured in flow paths of exhaust gases.
As an appropriate structure of the metal casings, there has been adopted a two-piece clamshell structure in which the monolith member is sandwiched between shell halves of the metal casing and the mating portions of the shell halves are welded together, or a stuffing box structure in which the monolith member is inserted into the metal casing.
In either the clamshell or stuffing box structure, it is required that the thickness of the monolith-holding element is identical with or slightly larger than a clearance between an outer peripheral surface of the monolith and an inner peripheral surface of the metal casing in order to securely fix the monolith within the metal casing. This is because the decrease in retaining force of the monolith-holding element against the monolith causes inconveniences such as separation or displacement of the monolith within the metal casing, leakage of exhaust gases from the outer peripheral surface of the monolith, or the like, during operation. Occurrence of such inconveniences is highly detrimental to the catalytic converters.
Especially, in the case where a ceramic monolith is used in the catalytic converter, the clearance between the outer peripheral surface of the monolith and the inner peripheral surface of the metal casing becomes large during operation because the monolith itself exhibits a small thermal expansion while the metal casing exhibits a large thermal expansion. As a result, there has been a tendency that the retaining force of the monolith-holding element becomes decreased. In addition, in the production of the catalytic converter, in the case where such a monolith having an extremely size and showing a relatively large dispersion in its outer dimension is used, a retaining force required for securely holding the monolith cannot be often obtained upon assembling.
Accordingly, in order to obtain a desired retaining force of the monolith-holding element over a wide temperature range from a normal temperature to a high temperature during operation, it is required that the monolith-holding element can follow the difference in size of the clearance caused by fluctuated outer dimensions of the individual monoliths, or the change in the clearance due to difference in thermal expansion between the monolith and the metal casing.
In recent years, intense studies have been made on a method for fixing the monolith within the metal casing. As a result, as monolith-holding elements adapted to be fitted into a clearance between the outer peripheral surface of the monolith and the inner peripheral surface of the metal casing, there have been proposed monolith-holding elements prepared by forming an inorganic fiber material into various configurations. The techniques previously proposed for monolith-holding elements and problems caused thereby are described below.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open (Kokai) No. 1-240715 (1989) discloses an elastic mat (monolith-holding element) composed of non-shot ceramic fiber which is sewed up and compressed in the thickness direction. However, such an elastic mat is compressed so as to reduce its thickness only when sewed up at a small sewing pitch. In the case where the small sewing pitch is used, there arise problems that the elastic mat is damaged, thereby resulting in lack of elasticity thereof, or that it becomes difficult to conduct delicate processing such as formation of labyrinth structures at opposite joining ends of the elastic mat. Further, there arise problems concerning the fraying, cutting or the like of threads at the sewed end portions of the elastic mat.
British Patent No. 2171180A discloses a mat-like product (monolith-holding element) prepared by vacuum-packing an inorganic fiber in a plastic bag. However, the plastic bag used in such a mat-like product does not have a flexibility. Further, since it is difficult to wind the mat-like product around the monolith in a close contact manner and provide labyrinth structures at opposite joining ends of the plastic bag, there arises a problem concerning sealing properties. Furthermore, there is such a inconvenience that the plastic bag film is likely to be broken upon transportation or assembling.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,338 discloses a monolith-holding element which comprises, in combination, a blanket prepared by highly compressing a ceramic fiber together with a small amount of a binder, and knitting yarns made of a !4j ceramic fiber. However, such a monolith-holding element requires complicated mounting procedures and assembling steps, and therefore, is unsatisfactory.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open (Kokai) Publication No. 53-2753 (1978) discloses a heat-insulating element (monolith-holding element) prepared by compression-molding a fiber-based heat-insulating material such as ceramic fiber, silica fiber, glass fiber or the like together with an organic binder at a compression ratio higher than that in actual use. However, such a monolith-holding element is deteriorated in elasticity and shows accelerated thermal degradation such as softening or shrinkage in a high-temperature range, though it exhibits a thickness-restoring property in association with thermal decomposition of the organic binder. In addition, since the thickness of the monolith-holding element is thinner than the clearance, the monolith is caused to move within the casing before the thermal decomposition of the organic binder, thereby resulting in damage to the monolith.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open (Kokai) No. 7-77036 (1995) discloses a catalytic converter having a heat-resistant and non-thermally-expansive ceramic fiber, which comprises a metal casing, a ceramic honeycomb catalyst (monolith) accommodated within the metal casing, and a ceramic fiber mat as a monolith-holding element fitted in an compressed state between an outer surface of the honeycomb catalyst and an inner surface of the metal casing. The catalytic converter disclosed therein includes the ceramic fiber mat having such a compression property which is not largely increased or decreased within a practically used temperature range. However, since no binder is contained in the afore-mentioned ceramic fiber mat, it is required to highly compress the ceramic fiber mat upon assembling. This causes deterioration in working properties and other problems such as breaking of the fiber due to lack of a mechanical strength thereof, scattering of the fiber or the like.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open (Kokai) No. 57-56615 (1982) discloses an apparatus for cleaning exhaust gases, which comprises a metal casing, a ceramic monolith and a sealing element as a monolith-holding element fitted into a clearance between an inner circumferential surface of the metal casing and an outer circumferential surface of the monolith. The sealing element disclosed therein is composed of a ceramic fiber having a fiber diameter of 6 to 30 .mu.m, and has a bulk density of 0.1 to 0.35 g/cm.sup.3. Further, the sealing element is compressed such that the ratio between thicknesses before and after installation thereof is within the range of 2.7 to 8.7. However, since the sealing element has such a small bulk density and such a large compression ratio, there arises a problem concerning working properties upon assembling.
On the other hand, in the consideration of a heat resistance and cushioning properties of the ceramic fiber, as the monolith-holding element there have been proposed sheet elements prepared by blending the ceramic fiber with a thermally-expansive material such as vermiculite or the like for compensating a retaining force thereof.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open (Kokai) No. 7-127443 (1995) discloses a ceramic honeycomb catalytic converter comprising a metal casing, a ceramic honeycomb catalyst (monolith), a gripping element (monolith-holding element) composed of a ceramic fiber mat disposed in an compressed state so as to retain the ceramic honeycomb catalyst by its restoring force, and a fixing member for securing the gripping element at the flowing direction of exhaust gases, the fixing member being possessed in the metal casing. However, the gripping elements made of a ceramic fiber mat is maintained in a non-compressed condition and therefore, must be highly compressed upon mounting, whereby there arise problems such as the deterioration of working properties and the breaking of the ceramic fiber itself. Further, there is a tendency that the honeycomb catalyst is damaged by a tightening force of the fixing member which is adapted to prevent a floating movement of the honeycomb catalyst.
In addition, Japanese Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. 58-17335 (1983) discloses a process for producing an integrated catalyst component (catalytic converter) comprising an integrated catalyst (monolith), a ceramic fiber molded-element which is separated in a circumferential direction of the integrated catalyst and wound around an outer circumferential surface of the integrated catalyst, and a casing securely receiving the integrated catalyst therein, which process comprises the steps of tightening the ceramic fiber molded-elements by means of compression rings having a separated structure from its outer peripheral side, covering end portions of the compression rings together with end faces of the ceramic fiber molded-elements by retaining rings, and accommodating the integrated catalyst within the casing. In such a catalytic converter produced according to the afore-mentioned technique, the ceramic fiber molded-elements are prevented from being damaged upon assembling and the end portions thereof is also protected from exhaust gases. However, since the clearance between the integrated catalyst and the casing, i.e., the clearance between the outer peripheral surface of the monolith and the inner peripheral surface of the metal casing is considerably fluctuated depending upon the difference in coefficient of thermal expansion therebetween, it cannot be expected that the ceramic fiber molded-elements exhibits sufficient supporting effects.
Meanwhile, ceramic monoliths composed mainly of cordierite have been most widely utilized because they are relatively less expensive and excellent in thermal dimensional stability. In accordance with the strengthening of regulations of exhaust gases, efforts have been made to enhance an efficiency of the catalyst by increasing temperature characteristics thereof, and to increase a catalytic surface area and decrease a heat capacity by reducing a wall thickness of the honeycomb catalyst. However, the reduction in wall thickness of the ceramic monolith is limited by the production conditions or the mechanical strength of the structure. In consequence, it has been recognized that metal monoliths are preferable as compared with the ceramic monoliths.
In general, the metal monoliths are composed of aluminum-containing ferrite-based stainless steel foils having a thickness of 50 to 100 .mu.m. Since among of the stainless steel foils other than the ferrite-based foils, for example austenite-based stainless steel foils show a large thermal expansion or martensite-based stainless steel foils are difficult to undergo bending, these are not put into practical use.
The ferrite-based stainless steel foils monoliths are prepared by winding a laminate composed of a flat foil and a corrugated foil into a form of roll and then bonding the opposite ends of the roll together by brazing to form a cylindrical material. Such metal monoliths have a reduced wall thickness which is 1/2 to 1/3 or less of the wall thickness of the ceramic monoliths. Therefore, nevertheless the metal monolith has the same size as that of the ceramic monolith, the metal monolith can show considerably larger opening rate and surface area, and considerably smaller heat capacity as compared with those of the ceramic monolith, resulting in achieving a high cleaning efficiency for exhaust gases. Further, the metal monoliths are excellent in dimensional accuracy upon the production and shows advantages such as a resistance to rupture or fracture. As a result, the metal monoliths are considered to be stably predominately utilized in future.
In catalytic converters using the afore-mentioned metal monoliths, a structure capable of integrally bonding the monolith to the surrounding metal casing is adopted in order to ensure bonding of the metal monolith by brazing. However, the afore-mentioned structure using the metal monolith can show various above-mentioned advantages required for a catalyst carrier as compared with the structure using the ceramic monoliths. Since a heat generated in the monolith is directly transferred to the surrounding metal casing, there arises a problem that the metal monolith is rapidly cooled during the idling operation.
As techniques concerning catalytic converters using metal monoliths, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open (Kokai) No. 1-80620 discloses a carrier for a catalyst for cleaning exhaust gases, which comprises a sheathed pipe, a metal monolith and a thermally-expansive sheet material interposed between the sheathed pipe and the metal monolith. However, when the metal monolith is exposed to exhaust gases having a temperature as high as not less than 800.degree. C., the heat resistance thereof is extremely deteriorated. In the case of the metal monolith disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Utility Model KOKAI, there arises such a problem that the honeycomb monolith is readily buckled by a pressure generated due to the thermal expansion of the thermally-expansive sheet material wound around an outer peripheral surface of the monolith.
In addition, in order to solve the afore-mentioned problems, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open (Kokai) No. 6-126191 discloses a catalytic converter using a metal monolith, in which the metal monolith is fixed in the catalytic converter in the same manner as used for fixing the ceramic monolith by the monolith-holding element. The catalytic converter disclosed in the Japanese Patent KOKAI comprises a monolith having a honeycomb structure prepared by winding a flat plate and a corrugated plate both made of metal foil into a form of roll, a metal ring having a short axial length and bonded to an outer peripheral surface of the monolith, a casing accommodating the monolith and a thermally-expansive sealing element fitted into a clearance between the ring and the casing.
In the catalytic converter disclosed in the Japanese Patent KOKAI, since the thermal expansion of the monolith becomes larger than that of the metal ring or the like as a monolith-holding element with temperature rise, a high tightening force is temporarily exerted on the monolith by the metal ring or the like as a monolith-holding element. Besides, since the thermally-expansive sealing element made of a ceramic wool further compresses the monolith by means of the metal ring, the monolith is likely to be buckled. As a result, there arises such a problem that the monolith is apt to cause a floating movement within the metal casing during operation.
Furthermore, WO 94/24425 discloses a mat comprising an integrated composite sheet composed of a ceramic fiber and a binder, wherein the ceramic fiber contains substantially no shot and has an average fiber length of about 1 cm to about 10 cm, and the mat has an integral flexible structure and generates a substantially constant pressure over a temperature range of about 20 to about 1,200.degree. C., when the mat is fitted into the clearance. However, such a mat has a problem that it requires complicated drying processes, and further a ratio of the compression required upon mounting is considerably large, resulting in deterioration of working properties. In addition, since it is disclosed that from the consideration of the specific characteristic, i.e., the substantially "constant" pressure is generated when mounted into the clearance, it is suggested that the content of the organic binder resin in the mat is small, so that there is a tendency that the fiber in the mat is damaged by the frictional contact with the casing upon mounting. Accordingly, it is expected that deterioration in retaining force of the mat against the monolith, leakage of exhaust gases from the outer peripheral surface of the monolith are caused.
The present invention has been accomplished in order to solve the afore-mentioned problems. An object of the present invention is to provide a monolith-holding element and a process for producing the monolith-holding element, in which the monolith-holding element is preliminarily kept in a compressed state upon assembling of the catalytic converter, and therefore, has a small thickness so as to be readily mounted thereto; the monolith-holding element can exhibit a thickness-restoring property when heated and a required surface pressure between an outer peripheral surface of the monolith and an inner peripheral surface of a metal casing, and does not show any deterioration in properties after used for a long period of time; and the monolith-holding element is not corroded even when exposed to exhaust gases having a high-flow rate, and therefore, can maintain sufficient sealing properties.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a catalytic converter and a process for producing the catalytic converter, in which the afore-mentioned monolith-holding element is fitted into a clearance between the outer peripheral surface of the monolith and the inner peripheral surface of the metal casing; and the catalytic converter can withstand the high-temperature of exhaust gases and can stably support the monolith even when exposed to severe vibration and impact, so that there is no leakage of exhaust gases from the monolith-holding element.

Monolith-holding element, process for producing the same, catalytic converter using a monolith member and process for producing the same


An asphalt paver may include a tractor and a screed configured for towing behind the tractor. The screed may include a tow arm secured to the tractor at an adjustable tow point. The paver may also include a monitoring system configured for monitoring and displaying the position of the adjustable tow point. The monitoring system may include a sensor arranged at or near the tow point for sensing the position of the tow point and a computing system in communication with the sensor for displaying the position of the adjustable tow point. A method of paving involving adjusting paving parameters to avoid or compensate for movement in the tow point is also provided.

Asphalt paving is commonly performed with a free-floating screed towed behind a tractor. The free-floating screed may be secured to the tractor at one or more tow points. For example, a pair of tow arms may extend forward from the screed and along respective sides of the tractor. The tow arms may be pivotally secured to the tractor at respective tow points. In some cases, the tow points may be adjustable vertically along the tractor. In any case, the pivoting nature of the connection of the screed to the tractor provides for the free-floating nature of the screed.
The very nature of a free-floating screed can make it complicated to control. For example, an asphalt paving operator may consider several parameters and may make several respective adjustments to the asphalt paver before and/or during paving based on those parameters. For example, the operator may adjust the speed of the paver, the angle of attack of the screed, the rate of material delivery, and/or one of several other parameters. Due to the complicated and interrelated nature of the parameters and adjustments, some pavers may include automated systems for controlling the tow point in an effort to continually or periodically adjust the angle of the attack of the screed. In some situations, an operator's adjustment of paving parameters may cause the automated system to counteract or compensate for adjustments made by the paving operator. For example, where an operator increases the paver speed, the screed may create a thinner pavement depth/thickness and an automated tow point system may raise the tow point to compensate for the change in speed, thereby increasing the angle of attack of the screed and increasing the pavement thickness back to the thickness before the speed increase.
While the asphalt paver may provide this adjustment, the operator may not have visibility into the tow point position. That is, the machine may adjust the tow point to compensate for the speed increase, but the operator may not know whether the tow point changed or how much the tow point changed. Still other operator adjustments may cause an automated system to adjust the tow point position and the operator may not be able to witness the effect of the parameter adjustments on the tow point position.


System and methods are provided for performing color lens shading correction. A plurality of mesh points are generated. Mesh gain parameters associated with the mesh points are determined. The mesh gain parameters are applied to an input image for color lens shading correction. A color entropy related to color distribution of the corrected input image is obtained. The mesh gain parameters are adjusted to reduce the color entropy.

In an image, a particular pixel can be represented in a RGB color space as follows:R(x,y)=∫I(x,y,z)×CR(λ)dλG(x,y)=∫I(x,y,z)×CG(λ)dλB(x,y)=∫f(x,y,z)×CB(λ)dλ  (1)where R, G and B represent pixel values of the pixel, x and y represent horizontal and vertical position values of the pixel, and CR(λ), CG(λ), and CB(λ) represent transmission responses of R, G, B color filters in an image-capturing device (e.g., a camera).
Lens shading effects often occur in an image-capturing device (e.g., a camera). One common lens shading effect involves color non-uniformity in an image. That is, a same color in reality becomes different colors at a center of a captured image and at a corner of the captured image. The color lens shading effect is often caused by, for example, optical cross-talk, defective infrared filter, etc.
Considering the color lens shading (CLS) effects, the pixel values of the pixel can be determined as follows:R(x,y)=∫I(x,y,z)×CR(λ)×CLS(λ,α(x,y))dλG(x,y)=∫I(x,y,z)×CG(λ)×CLS(λ,α(x,y))dλB(x,y)=∫I(x,y,z)×CB(λ)×CLS(λ,α(x,y))dλ  (1)where CLS(λ, α(x, y)) represents a CLS gain function, and a represents an incident angle that is a function of pixel position.
A CLS gain is determined as follows:
                                          Gain            X                                          (                          x              ,              y                        )                          =                              ∫                                                            I                                                        (                                          x                      ,                      y                      ,                      λ                                        )                                                  ⨯                                                      C                    X                                                                          (                    λ                    )                                                  ⨯                                  CLS                                                        (                                          λ                      ,                                              α                                                                          (                                                      x                            ,                            y                                                    )                                                                                )                                                              ·                              ⅆ                λ                                                          ∫                                                            I                                                        (                                          x                      ,                      y                      ,                      λ                                        )                                                  ⨯                                                      C                    X                                                                          (                    λ                    )                                                              ·                              ⅆ                λ                                                                        (        2        )            where X represents a R channel, a G channel, or a B channel.

Systems and methods for color lens shading correction


The present invention relates generally to synthetic polymer compositions that form interpenetrating polymer networks. In a preferred embodiment, the compositions comprise two multifunctionally activated synthetic polymers, along with a tensile strength enhancer. Such compositions form matrices that exhibit superior cohesive strength and in many instances can serve as adequate replacements for surgical means of attaching tissues, such as sutures and medical staples.

This invention relates generally to synthetic polymer compositions that form interpenetrating polymer networks when administered to tissues. Such compositions are particularly well suited for use in a variety of medical applications when the physical strength of the administered material is important. For example, the compositions of the present invention that are designed to be used to attach tissues together are strong enough to provide an effective substitute for other surgical means of attachment, such as sutures and medical staples.
The use of polymer compositions in tissue engineering is now widely recognized, particularly those consisting of synthetic polymers. In contrast to many naturally derived compositions, synthetic polymer compositions can be formulated to exhibit predetermined physical characteristics such as gel strength, as well as biological characteristics such as degradability.
In a variety of tissue engineering applications, it is desirable to use compositions that can be administered as liquids, but subsequently form hydrogels at the site of administration. Such in situ hydrogel forming compositions are more convenient to use since they can be administered as liquids from a variety of different devices, and are more adaptable for administration to any site, since they are not preformed. Many different mechanisms have been described that can be used to promote hydrogel formation in situ. For example, photoactivatable mixtures of water-soluble co-polyester prepolymers and polyethylene glycol have been described to create hydrogel barriers, as well as drug release matrices. In another approach, block copolymers of Pluronic and Poloxamer have been designed that are soluble in cold water, but form insoluble hydrogels that adhere to tissues at body temperature (Leach, et al., Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 162:1317-1319 (1990)). Polymerizable cyanoacrylates have also been described for use as tissue adhesives (Ellis, et al., J. Otolaryngol. 19:68-72 (1990)). In yet another approach, two-part synthetic polymer compositions have been described that, when mixed together, form covalent bonds with one another, as well as with exposed tissue surfaces (PCT WO 97/22371) In a similar approach involving a two-part composition, a mixture of protein and a bifunctional crosslinking agent has been described for use as a tissue adhesive (U.S. Pat. No. 5,583,114.)
In other tissue engineering applications, it is not necessary or desired for the compositions to be in liquid form when administered. In fact, it may be advantageous in some circumstances to apply compositions that are gelatinous, paste-like, or even preformed solid implants, since these forms tend to stay in place after administration more readily than liquid formulations.
For many tissue engineering applications, it is important that the compositions be capable of forming a matrix after administration that is strong enough to withstand the biological and physical forces to which it will be subjected for a long enough period of time to fulfill its intended purpose. Strength is particularly important when the compositions are used as a partial or total replacement for sutures. In addition, for applications in which adherence to tissues is important, it is necessary for the formulations to have adequate adhesive strength. Cyanoacrylate is a highly effective adhesive that forms a strong matrix, but is too toxic to be used internally and is thus not approved for such uses. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide compositions that form high strength medical sealants that are not toxic.
The present invention relates to multifunctional polymer-containing compositions that are specifically designed to exhibit superior strength for one embodiment. The compositions comprise a first multifunctional synthetic polymer having m functional groups, X; a multifunctional crosslinking agent having n functional groups, Y; and a tensile strength enhancer, such that when all three components are mixed together, X and Y react to form a covalently bonded three-dimensional interpenetrating polymer network. In addition, the tensile strength enhancer may become covalently bonded in the network, or it may become physically entrapped therein.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the multifunctional crosslinking agent is a second multifunctional synthetic polymer.
An aspect of the present invention is inclusion of the tensile strength enhancer, which can be comprised of a variety of compounds capable of forming a structure with the appropriate characteristics as described elsewhere herein. Such compounds include, inter alia, Vicryl, glass wool, plastics, resins, and fibers.
The functional groups, X and Y can be any pair of reactive moieties that form a covalent bond, Z, under the appropriate conditions, such as sulfhydryl, succinimidyl, acrilate and amino, which form, in no particular order, ether, ester or disulfide.
In order to enhance or discourage biodegradation of the interpenetrating polymer network, the synthetic polymer core may additional comprise a chain extender. For example, alpha-hydroxy acid, poly(lactone), poly(orthocarbonate) and poly(phosphoester) moieties may serve to enhance biodegradability. In addition, the chain extender may be an enzyme substrate.
In another aspect of the present invention, the composition further comprises optional components, such as proteins, antibiotics, growth factors and hemostatic agents.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the optional component is present in the form of a rigid nanofiber, such as that formed by methylated collagen.
In yet another aspect of the invention, X and Y are each 4 or greater to provide for more efficient crosslinking.
In one embodiment, the composition of the present invention comprises a pair of reactive polyalkylene oxides, a rigid nanofiber, such as methylated collagen, and a tensile strength enhancer.
Other aspects of the present invention are described elsewhere herein.

Compositions and systems for forming high strength medical sealants, and associated methods of preparation and use


A multifunction vacuum cleaner, in which a main body is removably connected to a frame portion, comprises a nozzle assembly for suctioning in an air including dusts or dirt on a cleaning area, a main body having a cyclone dust collector for centrifugally separating the dusts or dirt from the sucked air, a dust receptacle for collecting the separated dusts or dirt, a main body frame having an upper casing and a lower casing, a button operation portion formed on an upper part of the main body frame, and a connecting projection integrally formed with the button operation portion and moving elastically, and a frame portion which is pivotably connected with the nozzle assembly, and having a connecting groove to correspond to the connecting projection. The main body of the vacuum cleaner is removably mounted in the frame portion. As a result, the main body can be conveniently connected with or separate from the frame portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a vacuum cleaner, and more particularly, to a vacuum cleaner for multi purpose use in which the main body of the cleaner is removably mounted in the frame portion.
2. Description of the Related Art
A general upright vacuum cleaner cleans a wide area such as a floor or a carpet, by forcibly suctioning dust and dirt entrained within air that is drawn in by suction force generated inside the main body of the vacuum cleaner.
As shown in FIG. 1, a general conventional vacuum cleaner comprises a nozzle assembly 12 mounted in the bottom part of the main body 11 of the vacuum cleaner to move along an area to be cleaned, such as a floor or carpet. Inside the main body 11, an upper part comprising a dust collecting chamber (not shown) includes a dust bag (not shown in FIG. 1), and a lower part includes a motor driving chamber 30 where a motor is mounted. The dust collecting chamber is shut by a dust cover 10, as shown.
Above the main body 11 is mounted a handle portion 13 for pushing or pulling the vacuum cleaner, including the nozzle assembly 12 over the surface to be cleaned. On one side of the main body 11, an on/off switch 15 is disposed.
In the above structure, when the motor is driven by manipulation of the on/off switch 15, a strong suction force is generated in the nozzle assembly 12, and thereby air, including entrained dust and dirt, is removed from the area to be cleaned around the nozzle assembly 12 and is suctioned into the main body 11.
The air drawn into the nozzle 12 passes through the dust bag in the dust collecting chamber of the main body 11 and the motor driving chamber 30, through a grill unit mounted between the dust collecting chamber and the motor driving chamber 30. Here, the dust entrained in the air is collected in the dust bag, and the air is discharged to the outside through a discharging grill 40, after passing through the motor driving chamber 30.
After the cleaning work has been completed, if the dust collecting chamber becomes filled with a predetermined amount of dust, a user can separate the dust cover 10 and replace the full dust bag with a new dust bag to continue use of the vacuum cleaner.
However, the above-described structure of a general upright vacuum cleaner has several problems, such as the following.
General upright vacuum cleaners are usually used for cleaning a wide area such as a floor or a carpet. Therefore, when the area to be cleaned is narrow or has obstacles, such as a projection or a doorsill, conventional upright vacuum cleaners are inefficient to use.
Further, the main body portion of general conventional upright vacuum cleaners is not removable. As a result, upright vacuum cleaners comprising an integral dust collector are somewhat bulky.
Still further, for cleaning a narrow area or an area having obstacles, a user needs to additionally prepare and have ready a variety of auxiliary brushes or accessories for a vacuum cleaner, or is required to buy a separate small vacuum cleaner, which becomes quite uneconomical.


An electronic device may include a display having an array of display pixels on a substrate. The display pixels may be organic light-emitting diode display pixels or display pixels in a liquid crystal display. In an organic light-emitting diode display, hybrid thin-film transistor structures may be formed that include semiconducting oxide thin-film transistors, silicon thin-film transistors, and capacitor structures. The capacitor structures may overlap the semiconducting oxide thin-film transistors. Organic light-emitting diode display pixels may have combinations of oxide and silicon transistors. In a liquid crystal display, display driver circuitry may include silicon thin-film transistor circuitry and display pixels may be based on oxide thin-film transistors. A single layer or two different layers of gate metal may be used in forming silicon transistor gates and oxide transistor gates. A silicon transistor may have a gate that overlaps a floating gate structure.

This relates generally to electronic devices and, more particularly, to electronic devices with displays that have thin-film transistors.
Electronic devices often include displays. For example, cellular telephones and portable computers include displays for presenting information to users.
Displays such as liquid crystal displays are formed from multiple layers. A liquid crystal display may, for example, have upper and lower polarizer layers, a color filter layer that contains an array of color filter elements, a thin-film transistor layer that includes thin-film transistors and display pixel electrodes, and a layer of liquid crystal material interposed between the color filter layer and the thin-film transistor layer. Each display pixel typically includes a thin-film transistor for controlling application of a signal to display pixel electrode structures in the display pixel.
Displays such as organic light-emitting diode displays have an array of display pixels based on light-emitting diodes. In this type of display, each display pixel includes a light-emitting diode and thin-film transistors for controlling application of a signal to the light-emitting diode.
Thin-film display driver circuitry is often included in displays. For example, gate driver circuitry and demultiplexer circuitry on a display may be formed from thin-film transistors.
If care is not taken, thin-film transistor circuitry in the display pixels and display driver circuitry of a display may exhibit non-uniformity, excessive leakage currents, insufficient drive strengths, poor area efficiency, hysteresis, and other issues. It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved electronic device displays.

Liquid crystal displays with oxide-based thin-film transistors


The invention relates to a method for permanently joining an essentially flat support material to a substrate, in particular for laminating a plastic film to a metal substrate, wherein the at least essentially flat support material and/or the substrate is/are initially impinged upon by a connecting agent, preferably, an adhesive and subsequently the support material and the substrate are brought together in such a manner that the support material is permanently connected to the substrate, in particular, the plastic film is laminated on the metal substrate, and optionally, measuring and/or shaping of the thus formed composite material is carried out.

The present invention relates to a method for permanently joining at least essentially flat support materials on substrates, in particular, for laminating plastic films onto metal substrates, and also to the products or composite materials produced in this way, in particular, metal substrates laminated with plastic film, and also to its use.
Various methods are known for the coating of metal substrates, especially plate-shaped metal substrates, with a printing or coating material visually and/or tactilely changing one or both sides of these substrates.
For example, in the field of producing coated or printed metal plates or metal sheets, coatings and printing inks are used that react to UV or which contain solvents. In particular, producers of, e.g., metal packages or screw plugs for jars and bottles, crown caps, technical cans, food or aerosol cans, and the like, as well as producers of a plurality of other products made from coated and printed metal (e.g., toys, decorations) are increasingly confronted with questions and problems, primarily in the fields of environmentally friendly solvents and food compatibility.
Color and/or printed metal products according to the current state of the art are predominantly produced with extremely high energy and investment-associated expenses and also with high environmental risks:
In a first work step, one side of the metal plate is coated with a base coating for later printing, with solvent coatings being dried thermally by means of technically very complicated, large-volume, and high-investment drying furnaces for metal plates transported in a nearly vertical arrangement. Equally, the so-called protective coating for the other plate side is applied in a second separate, but equally complicated work step. In turn, in a third separate, equally complicated work step, the one-sided printing of the metal plates is then performed, in turn, with subsequent complicated thermal drying. A protective or high-gloss coating on the printing inks is completed in another, separate, fourth work step with comparatively high expense like for the base coating.
In the use of UV-reactive coatings and inks, identical production steps are necessary, with merely the drying of these coatings and printing inks not being performed thermally, but instead by UV irradiation of the metal plates, which is similarly very expensive in terms of energy and requires high investment.
The emission of volatile organic compounds is an increasingly important problem for metal coatings particularly in the processing of solvent-containing coatings and printing inks. In addition, coating and printing methods used today command extremely high costs for investment, space, energy, and operation, as well as for meeting the increasingly production-restrictive legal emission regulations.
Producers of coated and/or printed metal products predominantly process metal plates according to the methods described above in widths or thicknesses of 0.05 to 1.0 mm and in many different dimensions of, in general, at least 200×200 mm—according to the end products to be produced. The end products are produced, for example, by means of stamping blanks from a coated and/or printed metal plate and then shaping these blanks according to the end product.
In addition, various methods for laminating metal surfaces are known from the state of the art.
For example, from DE 100 04 593 C1 a special method for producing blanks for motor vehicle license plates, wherein a fed sheet band with printed film is laminated by expanding the film printed undersized to a controllable laminate distance before and/or during the lamination. The method described there is suitable only for the special problem of producing blanks for motor vehicle license plates, but in general is not suitable for laminating arbitrary support materials on arbitrary substrates and thus is not usable universally.
DE 44 20 532 A1 describes a method for producing a metal can, a device for performing this method, and also the metal can produced according to this method. In the method described in DE 44 20 532 A1, a plastic film blank produced from a special plastic film is laminated onto a completed can body. This is relatively complicated and only slightly flexible in terms of application.
DE 692 19 041 T2 describes a device for laminating can blanks, wherein the bonding of thermoplastic films on a metal band is noted with reference to JP 63203324A.
Finally, from the state of the art, other plastic materials, especially films of a wide variety, are known, which have a thermal adhesive construction and in this way are suitable for lamination, preferably on metal bands. For example, DE 101 30 005 A1 describes a method for coating the surface of a metal band with a plastic film, wherein a special plastic film with thermal-adhesive properties is laminated onto the metal band such that the metal band is heated to a certain temperature exceeding the melting temperature of the plastic film to be laminated, in order to be able to be connected to the metal band. The method described there is limited to special plastic materials and consequently is not usable universally.

Method for laminating flat support materials on substrates


The present invention provides an electromagnetic wave shielding material including a three dimensionally knitted base material and a conductive metal layer formed on the three dimensionally knitted base material, which shielding material is characterized in that it comprises: a heat-fusing thread used at at least a portion of the three dimensionally knitted base material; and a portion in which connection thread is not present, wherein the amount of cutting debris generated at the time of cutting is decreased. According to the present invention, an electromagnetic wave shielding material, which is used for an electromagnetic wave shielding gasket for shielding electromagnetic wave, exhibits good workability if the thickness of the product is relatively thin, suppresses the metal separation and reduces the amount of cutting debris generated at the time of cutting, is obtained.

In intelligent buildings and FA factories, electronic appliances and communication devices such as personal computers, office-automation devices, factory-automation devices etc. have been generally introduced. As a result, erroneous operations of electronic devices, as well as electronic wave disturbance such as communication disturbance, which occur inside these buildings and factories due to the electromagnetic wave radiated from the electronic appliances and the communication devices as described above or undesirable electromagnetic wave coming from the outside of the environment, have now become a significant social problem.
In order to prevent such leakage of undesirable electromagnetic wave from the environment, as well as erroneous operations of electronic devices and electronic wave disturbance such as communication disturbance due to invasion of extrinsic electromagnetic wave, it has been considered that an information network using optical fibers, coaxial cables or the like is established inside an intelligent building or a FA factory so that information can be transmitted/received rapidly and accurately. However, there is a problem, in this method, that construction of such a network costs a lot of money. Therefore, there has been proposed another method in which the whole building is shielded from the outside environment and information exchange inside the building is carried out by wireless communication. In order to effect this method, it has conventionally been attempted that metal plates or metal foils of iron, copper, aluminum or the like as electromagnetic wave shielding materials are laminated to building materials such as board materials or a wall material which shields electromagnetic wave is employed.
Further, at opening/closing portions such as doors and windows, a gasket for shielding electromagnetic wave is generally provided, so that the undesirable electromagnetic wave radiated from outside of the environment, as well as the electromagnetic wave which leaks from inside of the environment, can be shielded.
Examples of such a gasket include a gasket produced by the steps of: slicing an elastic foam block such as polyurethane sponge by a predetermined thickness by a slicer; cutting each slice to pieces having a predetermined width, thereby to obtain short, strap-like structures each having a rectangular section; optionally connecting one structure with another at the ends thereof, thereby to obtain a long, strap-like structure; and laminating a conductive sheet around each strap-like structure by way of an adhesive agent layer, the conductive sheet being composed of an aluminum foil laminate film or a conductive woven cloth around which a film layer of copper, nickel or the like has been formed, and a gasket for shielding electromagnetic wave which is produced by providing a metal film on the strap-like structure itself.