The unitary paint brush comprises a paint brush body attached to a handle. The body defines a cavity adapted for receiving a group of bristles inserted therein. A pair of hinged releasable flaps project over the cavity to abut the bristles when moved to a closed position. The bristles are released by moving the flaps into an open position. A pair of springs are urging the flaps into the closed position.

A longstanding problem with paint brushes that are used for industrial and domestic painting applications is that they are typically formed of several parts. Another longstanding problem is that, with time and repeated use, paint tends to build up within the bristles of the brush in the region where the bristles are held by the ferrule clamp that joins the bristles with the paint brush handle and base. The collected paint is difficult to clean away. Usually, some residual paint is left in the bristles even after the used brush has been cleaned. The dried paint collects and builds up over time with repeated use of the paint brush. This causes the bristles of the brush to spread and thereby reduces the efficiency of the brush. Also, the dried paint build up tends to cause the bristles to wear and break at the location of the dried paint. This reduces the life of the paint brush.
Proper cleaning of a paint brush requires a considerable amount of solvent, if the person cleaning the brush is meticulous. This constitutes a waste of costly solvent and at the same time creates an environmental pollutant. Most commercial painters will tend to minimize costs by balancing the amount of the solvent used with the number of times the paint brush is used. It may be economic, for instance, to only expect a paint brush to be used a half-dozen times before it must be discarded, rather than waste a considerable amount of solvent attempting to meticulously clean the brush after each use, and prolong the life of the paint brush.
It would be advantageous if a paint brush could be designed with a minimum of separate components. It would also be advantageous if some means could be developed which would minimize or eliminate the build up of paint in the location where the bristles are set or meet the paint brush handle. It would also be useful if a mechanism could be developed to reduce the amount of solvent which is required to clean a paint brush. It would also be beneficial if a mechanism could be developed which would reduce or eliminate bristle flare as it occurs over time when a paint brush is repeatedly used.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,129,918, granted Dec. 19, 1978, to Robert Lee, discloses an adjustable sleeve for an artist's paint brush adapted to adjust the effective length of the bristles of the brush. The adjustable sleeve is tubular at its tip to contain the hair or bristles. The sleeve is split above the tip to provide a spring biased grip upon the brush ferrule. The adjustable sleeve is tapered in substantial conformity with the taper of the ferrule and it is longitudinally adjustable relative to the ferrule to vary the effective length of the hair or bristles. The sleeve is designed for use with an artist's brush, which has bristles arranged in a taper column form. The sleeve does not fit over the base of the brush at the location where the bristles meet the base.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,237,579, issued Dec. 9, 1980, to Johnathan H. Salmon, discloses a tool for applying a liquid stain to a flat surface to impart a timber grain effect to the surface. The tool comprises a paint brush, a bristle retaining slidable plate on one side of the brush and a slidable comb plate on the other side of the brush. Both of the plates have an elongated slot which engages a bolt which passes through the paint brush. The comb adjustably separates the brush bristles into discrete bunches to permit the application of stain to impart a wood grain pattern to the surface. This tool does not disclose a holder which fits on both sides of the paint brush base where the bristles are secured to the base. The tool is not designed to prevent paint from migrating down the bristles in the direction of the base.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,339,837, granted Jul. 20, 1982, to Christiaan Reeberg, discloses a sliding box-like girdle which fits over a paint brush to confine the bristles. The girdle acts as a hanger so that the paint brush can be hung on a wall. The girdle also protects the brush bristles while on display, or during storage. Further, the girdle is used to control the effective length of the bristle ends for specific painting jobs. The girdle also serves to squeeze excess paint from the bristles after each dip into a can of paint. The girdle does not serve to encircle the base of the paint brush, where the bristles meet the paint base, and thereby prevent paint from migrating along the bristles to the base, and thereby collecting at the base-bristle ended face.


The present disclosure is directed to a safety circuit for use in textile heating devices, such as heating pads, heating blankets, and the like. The safety circuit provides a system for checking/verifying the integrity of the controller, which can shut off power to the textile heating device if the controller has lost integrity.

Textile heating devices, such as heating pads, heating blanket and the like, can be used to keep individuals or certain muscles of an individual warm. A heating pad general includes opposing layers of cloth material having a heating element disposed there between. The heating element is connectable to an electrical power source through a controller which controls the amount of heat output from the heating element.
The heating element may, for example, be heated by resistance via electricity, and may be provided as one or more metallic wires threaded throughout the pad. The shape and size of the metallic wires may vary, and in some cases the wires may actually be small metallic threads. The heating element may includes a wire construction which is made of a center conductor which has Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) characteristics. Around the center PTC wireis a layer of Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) material. An electric heating pad is typically plugged into a power outlet so that power may be supplied to the heating element, causing the production of heat. In this manner, the heating pad may be used to warm a desired area of the body.


A nonwoven fabric according to the present invention is formed so that constituent fibers of the nonwoven fabric have an average fiber diameter of less than 1 μm and the number of fibers having fiber diameters ranging from 2 times up to 10 times the average fiber diameter of the constituent fibers is in a range of 2 to 20% of a total number of the constituent fibers. When the nonwoven fabric according to the present invention is used as a filter layer constituting an air filter, for example, it is possible to achieve high collection efficiency while reducing clogging (packing) between fibers to solve problems that may occur in using the conventional nanofiber nonwoven fabric (such as an increase in pressure loss and a decrease in service life).

Recently, air pollution due to PM 2.5 (particulate matter with diameters of 2.5 μm or less) and the like, has become a problem, and air filters for collecting them have been developed to an increasing extent. As a material used for such air filters, a nonwoven fabric made of nanofibers having fiber diameters of less than 1 μm (nanofiber nonwoven fabric) has been focused on.
Nanofibers are a unique material that has functions due to nanoscale diameter and is easy to handle due to length on a large scale. Representative characteristics of nanofibers include: (1) large specific surface area (super-specific surface area effect); (2) nanoscale size (nanosize effect); and (3) molecules aligning in fiber (molecular orientation effect), and the like.
Because nanofibers have the characteristics (1) and (2), a nanofiber nonwoven fabric is considered to be suitable as a material for an air filter. That is, (1) since the specific surface area of fibers constituting a nonwoven fabric is large, the contact probability of fine particles and the fibers increases. In addition, the collection efficiency can be greatly improved by electret processing or the like. (2) Since the size is nanoscale, interfiber space formed by intersection of nanofibers is small, and it is possible to trap even smaller particles.
An electrospinning method is known as a method for manufacturing a nanofiber nonwoven fabric. In the electrospinning method, a high voltage is applied between a polymer solution and a collector, so that the electric field causes the solution to be ejected, and at this time, a solvent volatilizes, to generate nanofibers. The generated nanofibers are collected on the collector to form a nanofiber nonwoven fabric (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Nonwoven fabric and air filter including same


A training device to assist a player in maintaining proper head position and visual contact with a ball, during a swing of a club, racket, or bat, for example. In the preferred embodiment, the present invention includes a mouth piece which is secured by a person's teeth and a spring loaded attachable mechanism clamped to the person's jersey. A cord connects the mouth piece to the attachable mechanism and provides resistance to any head movements which place the cord in tension. Accordingly, the person maintains better head positioning during the swing.

There are many situations when it is desirable for a person to maintain a particular head position when attempting to make contact with an object. Maintaining a desirable head position increases visual contact with an object and, therefore, increases a person's overall performance when participating in a sporting activity. For example, it is well recognized in the game of baseball that it is very important for the player to make eye contact with a ball from the time the ball is thrown by the pitcher to the time the ball reaches the zone or area where the batter swings to hit the ball. A baseball player can experience great difficulty in hitting a ball, especially when the player's head is moved to an undesirable position where the player's head faces away from the contact point. As a consequence of the undesirable head position, the player many times is unable to make proper visual contact and, therefore, engage the ball during the swing.
A prior art device, U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,765 of Stringham, discloses a batting aide comprising a shoulder piece and a jaw piece. These two pieces are inter-connected and located between the batter's chin and shoulder. The relative pressure exerted by the device during a swing by the batter indicates whether or not the batter's head and shoulder are in the proper position. Another prior art patent, U.S. Pat. No. 3,697,065 of Socci, discloses another prior art training device for hitting a baseball. The device comprises a shoulder harness with a chin holder connected thereto. This device also connects a player's chin and shoulder and causes the player's head to move from the front shoulder to the back shoulder during the course of the swing.
These prior art devices suffer from various deficiencies and inadequacies that are not present in this invention. For example, the devices in both Stringham and Socci connect the head to the shoulders or upper torso and do not hold the head in the best ball striking position. In this regard, the head should rotate relative to the shoulders during the swing to attain the proper ball striking position. However, the devices disclosed in both Stringham and Socci impede this type of motion. In addition, the aforementioned devices do not prevent the player from the undesirable head movement associated with pulling up and/or pulling backwards during the swing.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry for a simple and inexpensive device that aids substantially in overcoming the above mentioned deficiencies to achieve the desired result.

Head movement restraining device for baseball batters


The disclosed computer-implemented method for anticipating file-security queries may include (1) monitoring queries from client devices for information that describes the security of files, (2) determining that a threshold number of the client devices are querying for information describing the security of a file within a threshold amount of time, (3) anticipating, based on the determination, that at least one client device that did not query for the information will query for the information, and (4) delivering, in response to anticipating that the client device that did not query for the information will query for the information, the information to the client device that did not query for the information. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Security service providers may maintain a database of information describing the security of files. A user who has downloaded a file, or is considering downloading the file, may query the security service provider to obtain information about the security of the file from the database. It is increasingly common for colossal numbers of users to request a same file or a same set of files within a short period of time. This phenomena may be triggered by a software distributor releasing a new application or a new patch update. In some instances, millions of users may query for an indication of the security of each file included in a new application or patch update within a few hours. Thus, security service providers resort to scaling backend telemetry architecture to handle such staggering spikes in query volume. If the backend telemetry architecture is insufficient, a large spike in query volume may saturate the servers of security service providers such that the servers are unable to respond to new queries. Accordingly, the instant disclosure identifies a need for improved systems and methods for anticipating and responding to spikes in query volume.

Systems and methods for anticipating file-security queries


A carrier device includes a supporting base having one or more columns, a mounting seat for supporting an object and having an arm, and a linkage for adjustably coupling and supporting the mounting seat to the supporting base to the selected angular positions without spring members. Two or more fastener each include a non-circular shank engaged through one or more discs, and a pair of levers are disposed parallel to each other and pivotally coupled between the fasteners for forming a parallelogrammic structure and for adjustably and stably supporting the mounting seat to the columns of the supporting base at selected angular position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a carrier device for supporting various objects, such as monitors, keyboards, or the like and more particularly to a carrier device including an improved structure for stably supporting the objects or the like at the selected or suitable angular position and for preventing the carrier device from being collapsed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typical carrier devices for supporting such as monitors or keyboards comprise a mounting seat for attaching or coupling to the monitors or the keyboards, and a movable seat and an engaging plate pivotally coupling the mounting seat to a carrier plate for pivotally coupling and supporting the monitors or the keyboards to the carrier plate and for adjustably supporting the monitors or the keyboards at the selected or suitable or predetermined angular position relative to the carrier plate.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,666 to Liu discloses one of the typical carrier devices comprising a movable seat and an engaging plate disposed parallel to each other and pivotally coupled between a carrier plate and a mounting seat in which the mounting seat may be used for supporting the monitors or the keyboards, and thus for allowing the monitors or the keyboards and the carrier plate to be adjustably supported at the selected or suitable or predetermined angular position relative to the carrier plate.
However, the movable seat and the engaging plate are pivotally coupled between the carrier plate and the mounting seat with a spring member such that the spring member may sustain a great force or a great weight of the monitors or the keyboards and the carrier plate and such that the spring member may have a good chance to become failure after use.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,809 to Hung discloses another typical support device comprising a support for supporting the monitors or the keyboards or the like thereon, and a frame and a link disposed parallel to each other and pivotally coupled between a base and the support, and a spring biasing device coupled between the base and the support for adjustably supporting the monitors or the keyboards at the selected or suitable or predetermined angular position relative to the base.
However, the spring member or the spring biasing device is pivotally coupled between the base and the support and may sustain a great force or a great weight of the monitors or the keyboards and the support such that the spring member or the spring biasing device may have a good chance to become failure after use.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,478,275 to Huang discloses a further typical support device comprising a bracket and a frame for supporting the monitors or the displayers or the keyboards or the like thereon, and an arm and a lever disposed parallel to each other and pivotally coupled between the bracket and a base, and a spring coupled between the base and the bracket and/or the frame for adjustably supporting the monitors or the keyboards at the selected or suitable or predetermined angular position relative to the base.
However, the spring is pivotally coupled between the base and the bracket and/or the frame and may sustain a great force or a great weight of the monitors or the keyboards and the bracket and the frame such that the spring may have a good chance to become failure after use.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional carrier devices for supporting the monitors or the displayers or the keyboards or the like.


An addressable memory device for storing blocks of varying length, utilizes a write pointer (18) to indicate the address of the next location to which data are to be written and an erase pointer (16) to indicate the address of the next location from which data are to be erased. It has a sector header (20) appended to each group of data containing information (38) indicating the length of the corresponding sector of data, and the location stored by the write pointer (14), which is selected to ensure that there is always at least one erased block adjacent to the current write block.

This invention relates to electronic memory devices and, in particular, it relates to memory devices which are capable of storing data in variable length blocks.
Memory systems are used to store data. As data storage requirements increase memory device capacity must also increase. To avoid having to use memories that are physically large or contain a large number of cells, many memory systems incorporate data compression. Data compression is appealing because it has the advantage of increasing the amount of data that can be stored in a memory device without increasing the physical size of the memory device. A number of different data compression techniques exist. Some of these techniques are implemented by hardware others are implemented by software.
In European patent application No. EP 0436104 A2 (National Semiconductor) a data communications system with multiple ports using shared data has a transceiver with a FIFO data store. During data reception, a comparator compares a subset of the incoming data with a predetermined reference to decide whether the data should be stored or aborted. This operation sets a memory address value for a commit pointer. The first subset of data behind the commit pointer is selectively stored and the subset after the point is selectively aborted. The reason for this operation is to select data appropriate for the particular port.
In European patent application No. EP 0509722 A2 (NEC) a multiple processor system has an I/O buffer with a predetermined number of buffer areas. An external pointer stores an address corresponding to the initial position of one of the buffer areas. The address is calculated with reference to the ratio of the length of a data block to be transferred and the total length of the buffer areas.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,297,567 (Philips) a content addressable FIFO memory in which the stored signal is addressed in a mode determined by the content of the stored signal. Instructions for processing the signal are stored in a the same memory as a contiguous signal.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,760 (ATandT) a FIFO memory system has an addressable cyclic store, a write pointer, a read pointer and a last-word pointer for identifying the end of a multiword message. Before a write operation a comparator checks that the write and read pointers are not at the same setting. Before reading a comparator checks that the read pointer and the last-word pointer are not at the same setting. The contents of the write pointer are copied to the last-word pointer register on receipt of an end-of-message signal. On identification of an error in a new memory word, the last word pointer is copied to the write pointer register.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,410,308 (Deutsche Thomson-Brandt) a video signal storage system encodes pixels into variable length data words dependent on discrete cosine transformation of DC and AC components of a pixel. The encoder has an address flag to indicate whether or not a transport block contains data from segmented data blocks having a length greater than a predetermined average length and makes provision for storing such data elsewhere.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,552 (Mitsubishi) an audio signal is encoded into several hierarchical levels of data corresponding to increasing levels of fidelity. After the available memory is full, recording continues by over-writing successively lower hierarchical level levels. At the conclusion a code is recorded indicating the number of hierarchical levels to be reproduced.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,942,553 (Silo) discloses that, in a FIFO memory device controlling data transfer between a microprocessor and peripheral devices, memory over-runs, with consequent loss of data, and under-runs, with consequent transmission of garbage, are obviated by having two user programmable levels for generating a notification to the DMA or co-processor when action is required.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,480 (Honeywell-Bull) a FIFO store has an input and output interface with stores for input and output data words. Flags indicated when the input and FIFO stores are empty and ready to receive data. A controller sets the width of the output data words in response to an external signal.
In Japanese patent application No. 57033469 (Hitachi) increase of throughput and restriction of use of buffer memory is obtained by storing a pointer to the end of stored data. The system employs read, write and data end pointers. Writing is inhibited after the write pointer reaches the value stored in the end pointer. Erasure takes place asynchronously with reading and is controlled by the end pointer.
Implementing efficient data compression in memory systems is not simple because the files are split into a number of fixed data block sizes called sectors. If files are compressed before they are split into sectors then there is no problem because each sector except the final sector is full of compressed data. If, however, files are split into sectors before data compression is applied then the compressed sectors will not be of a standard length, they will be of variable length. That is, one sector may compress to half its original size, whereas another sector may compress to a quarter of its original size. Sectors do not all compress to a common size.
Consider the following case. A sector is compressed and stored at a memory location, a second sector is then compressed and stored in the memory location immediately adjacent to it. If the first sector is then altered it might not be compressed to the same size as before. If it is larger than it was before then it will not fit into the memory space it previously occupied; if it is smaller than it was before then there will be wasted memory space causing disk fragmentation. Disk fragmentation reduces the storage efficiency of the memory device which may offset the benefits gained by data compression.
The invention is concerned with a memory device which stores variable length data blocks such as the blocks produced by data compression of fixed length sectors.
Accordingly, the present invention provides an addressable memory device for storing data arranged in groups, said groups of data not being of a fixed length, comprising a memory, a write pointer adapted to indicate an address of the next set of locations to which data are to be written and an erase pointer adapted to indicate the address of the next location from which data are to be erased wherein a sector header is appended to each group of stored data, the location stored by the write pointer being selected to ensure that there is always at least one set of erased memory location adjacent to the set of locations indicated by said write pointer.
An embodiment of the present invention will now be particularly described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:
FIG. 1 shows a diagram of a block-erasable memory; and
FIG. 2 shows a diagram of a sector header.


A split loom includes securing elements which can be affixed to a removable loom part to receive the harnesses before separating the removable loom part from a stationary loom part, thereby retaining the harnesses in predetermined positions until re-assembly of the removable loom part to the stationary loom part.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a weaving loom which includes a stationary loom part containing a harness drive, and a removable loom part containing a warp-beam bearing and holders for harnesses, the holders being detachable from the harness drive and removable along with the removable loom part.
2. Description of Related Art
A weaving loom which includes a stationary loom part containing a harness drive, and a removable loom part containing a warp-beam bearing and holders for harnesses, the holders being detachable from the harness drive and removable along with the removable loom part is disclosed in Swiss patent publication No. CH 668 608 A5. In the machine disclosed in the Swiss publication, the harness guides are components of the removable loom part. The Swiss document does not, however, disclose any means for, following detachment of the harness drive, keeping the harnesses in the harness guides.

Split loom having a removable loom part including detachable harness holding apparatus


A system for testing the effectiveness of webpage configurations is disclosed. Tags indicating dependency between sections of a webpage may be associated with the sections. In response to a version of a first section of a webpage being tested, an associated tag may indicate that the content or behavior of a second section is dependent on the first section. A webpage configuration including content of the first section, and corresponding behavior and content of the second section, may be transmitted to a web client. Data may be collected indicating the effectiveness of the webpage configuration.

1. Field
The disclosure generally relates to testing systems for web page configurations, and more particularly, to an advanced targeting system for selecting and transmitting effective web configurations to users.
2. Related Art
Organizations depend on their websites for various business purposes. Website operators face challenges in maximizing the conversion rates and the effectiveness of the website, such as the number of consumers that make a purchase from the website, the number of people converting into card members with the organization, or the number that signup for newsletters etc. A website's conversion rate and/or the effectiveness is a measure of how successfully the website persuades users to act on what is offered by the website.
In order to determine an effectiveness of a website, the website is first tested amongst different users by presenting multiple versions of the website content and determining the most effective website version to be transmitted to the users when the website goes live. There are various methods for determining the effectiveness of the website content. One way to do so is by defining a plurality of sections within the web page and presenting specific sections only based on a user's profile or history with the website. Conventional systems and methods control one or more sections independently on the web page. However, none of the existing methods check for dependencies amongst the content and the sections of the web page. Therefore, the various webpage configurations are not effectively tested.
Thus, there is a need for a method, system and/or program for advanced targeting and providing the most relevant information to the user, in order to increase the conversion rate and the effectiveness of the website. Also, there is a need for a system that is able to test webpage content where the content of two sections may be dependent on each other.

Systems and methods for advanced targeting

AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL RELATED SEVICES COMPANY, INC.


The present invention presents a plasma processing system for etching a layer on a substrate comprising a process chamber, a diagnostic system coupled to the process chamber and configured to measure at least one endpoint signal, and a controller coupled to the diagnostic system and configured to determine in-situ at least one of an etch rate and an etch rate uniformity of the etching from the endpoint signal. Furthermore, an in-situ method of determining an etch property for etching a layer on a substrate in a plasma processing system is presented comprising the steps: providing a thickness of the layer; etching the layer on the substrate; measuring at least one endpoint signal using a diagnostic system coupled to the plasma processing system, wherein the endpoint signal comprises an endpoint transition; and determining the etch rate from a ratio of the thickness to a difference between a time during the endpoint transition and a starting time of the etching.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for plasma processing a substrate, and more particularly to an in-situ method and apparatus for determining an etch property of a layer on a substrate during a plasma etch process.
2. Discussion of the Background
The fabrication of integrated circuits (IC) in the semiconductor device manufacturing industry typically employs plasma to create and assist surface chemistry necessary to remove material from and to deposit material to a substrate. In general, plasma is formed within a plasma processing system under vacuum conditions by heating electrons to energies sufficient to sustain ionizing collisions with a supplied process gas. Moreover, the heated electrons can have energy sufficient to sustain dissociative collisions and, therefore, a specific set of gases under predetermined conditions (e.g., chamber pressure, gas flow rate, etc.) are chosen to produce a population of charged species and chemically reactive species suitable to the particular process being performed within the processing system (e.g., etching processes during which materials are removed from the substrate or deposition processes during which materials are added to the substrate). During, for example, an etch process, monitoring the etch rate and the spatial uniformity of the etch rate can be very important when determining the state of a plasma processing system and for qualifying such a system following a maintenance interval. In current manufacturing practice, system qualification is usually performed by executing a series of qualification substrates and measuring the resultant etch rate and etch rate uniformity to determine whether to continue production or to perform system maintenance such as a wet clean of the process chamber. Furthermore, the method of determining the etch rate and the uniformity of the etch rate involves substrate cleaving (i.e. sacrifice of the substrate), and SEM (scanning electron microscope) analysis. Using SEM micrographs, feature etch depths can be measured at different locations on the qualification substrates and, when combined with the etch time, information for etch rate and etch rate uniformity can be acquired.
Consequently, significant system production time is expended and qualification substrates are consumed, hence, leading to greater production costs during the tedious qualification process. Moreover, production substrates and qualification substrates can differ substantially and, therefore, lead to erroneous conclusions regarding system qualification. For example, the measured etch rate on qualification substrates does not necessarily reflect the real etch rate on the production wafer.

Method and apparatus for determining an etch property using an endpoint signal


A method of building a set of experimental prediction model that requires fewer experimental frequency, shorter prediction time and higher prediction accuracy by using the advantages of combining the experimental data of Taguchi method and neural network learning is disclosed. The error between the experimentally measured result of photolithography and the simulated result of the theoretical model of near field photolithography is set as an objective function of an inverse method for back calculating fiber probe aperture size, which is adopted in the following Taguchi experiment. The analytical result of Taguchi neural network model of the present invention proves that the Taguchi neural network model can provide more accurate prediction result than the conventional Taguchi network model, and at the same time, improve the demerit of requiring massive training examples of the conventional neural network.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a prediction method of photolithography line fabrication, in particular, to a prediction method of near field photolithography line fabrication by using the combination of Taguchi method and neural network to build a Taguchi neural network that requires fewer experimental frequency, shorter prediction time and higher prediction accuracy.
2. Description of Related Art
The core technique and process parameters of near field photolithography line fabrication are very complicated and its experiment consumes considerable time and cost. Furthermore, the theoretical model of near field photolithography line fabrication is also very complicated. Therefore, the conventional technique often makes use of the parameter design method developed by Professor Genichi Taguchi to find the optimal conditions for setting the parameters and perform analysis with the disposition of orthogonal arrays, smaller the better (STB), larger the better (LTB) and signal-to-noise (SN) ratio. However, the experimental frequency is high and the simulation time is long. Hence, the method has few industrial applications.

Prediction method of near field photolithography line fabrication using by the combination of taguchi method and neural network

National Taiwan University of Science and Technology


Disclosed are polymer compositions comprising: (A) a first component comprising about 1 to 99 percent by weight at least one polyester (A) comprising: (1) diacid residues selected from the group consisting of terephthalic acid residues, isophthalic acid residues and mixtures thereof, and (2) diol residues selected from the group consisting of 1,4 -cyclohexanedimethanol residues, ethylene glycol residues and mixtures thereof; wherein the molar ratio of 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol to ethylene glycol is less than 0.50; (B) a second component comprising about 99 to 1 percent by weight of a miscible blend of: (1) at least one polycarbonate (B) of bisphenol A (2) at least one polyester (C) comprising (a) diacid residues selected from the group consisting of terephthalic acid residues, isophthalic acid residues and mixture thereof, and (b) diol residues selected from the group consisting of 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol residues, ethylene glycol residues, and mixtures thereof; wherein the molar ratio of 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol to ethylene glycol is 0.50 or greater; and, wherein the total weight percent for the first component and for the second component is equal to 100 weight percent; and wherein the total weight percent for the second component of polycarbonate (B) and polyester (C) is equal to 100 weight percent; and wherein the first component and second component have refractive indices which differ in absolute value by 0.008 or less; and wherein the total mole percent of the diacid residues of each of polyesters (A) and polyester (C) individually is equal to 100 mole percent; and wherein the total mole percent of the diol residues of each of polyesters (A) and polyester (C) individually is equal to 100 mole percent.

The polycarbonate of 4,4′-isopropylidenediphenol (bisphenol A polycarbonate) is a well known engineering molding plastic. Bisphenol A polycarbonate is a clear high-performance plastic having good physical properties such as dimensional stability, high heat resistance, and good impact strength. Although bisphenol A polycarbonate has many good physical properties, its relatively high melt viscosity leads to poor melt processability and the polycarbonate exhibits poor chemical resistance.
Blends of the polycarbonates of bisphenol A and various dihydroxydiphenyl cycloalkanes have been used in making plastic films, molded articles, and extruded articles. These polycarbonate blends are especially useful in the performance plastics industry because they tend to have good heat resistance, high melt viscosities suitable for injection molding and extrusion, toughness, and good chemical resistance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,034,457 discloses blends of dihydroxydiphenyl cycloalkane polycarbonates with a mixture of amorphous thermoplastics, partly crystalline thermoplastics, and rubber used for injection molding. U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,723 discloses blends of dihydroxydiphenyl cycloalkane polycarbonates with amorphous thermoplastics, partially crystalline thermoplastics, and elastomers for the production of films.
However, there has been no disclosure of miscible blends of dihydroxydiphenyl cycloalkane polycarbonates with other materials. Immiscible blend compositions are inadequate for many uses because they are opaque, and generally result in an unacceptable reduction in impact strength and tensile strength.
There have been very few clear polycarbonate/polyester blends developed. These polyester blends do have improved chemical resistance and melt processability, when compared to unblended bisphenol A polycarbonate. However, the presence of the bisphenol A polycarbonate in these miscible blend reduces the chemical resistance of the polyester.
The vast majority of two-phase polymer blends form articles, which are visually opaque and thus, cannot be used in applications where clarity is useful. It is unusual to find blends of two polymers which form two-phase materials in the solid state and which are also visually clear.
Refractive indices of polymers vary over a broad range. For instance, many polymers have refractive indices in the range of 1.35 to 1.65 It is exceptional to find a pair of polymers where the refractive index difference is similar so that visually clear blends of the two immiscible components are formed.
It is known that the matching of refractive indices of polymer pairs can result in visually clear articles of the blends of the two polymers. L. Bohn, Polymer Handbook, 2nd ed., pp. 111-211, Wiley Interscience, New York ((1975); J. MacKnight et al., Polymer Blends, Vol. I, p. 185, Academic Press, New York (1978). Biangardi et al., Die Angew. Makromole. Chemie, 183, 221 (1990), have developed model calculations which quantify this phenomena and evaluate the light scattering of certain blends as a function of particle diameter, refractive index, wavelength, and particle structure.
There is a need in the art for visually clear or miscible, two-phase blends, which are particularly useful in applications requiring rigid high temperature resistant materials and chemical resistance.


An internetwork relay system and method for transmitting IP traffic including an edge and a core. The edge includes an ingress and egress routers and the core includes a switch network. The ingress router communicates with and receives an IP packet from a source network. The ingress router attaches to each IP packet, a globally unique label which is used to forward the IP packet across the network. The relay switch network communicates with the ingress router, receives the IP packet from the ingress router and forwards the IP packet along its transmission path based on destination information included in its attached label. The egress router receives the IP packet from the switch network and forwards it to a destination network. Once received, the destination network forwards the IP packet to its intended destination.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communication systems and more particularly to an internetwork protocol relay network that allows for the transmission of Internet protocol traffic faster and/or more efficiently than existing schemes.
2. Description of Related Art
In a data communication network, such as the internetwork ("Internet"), information in the form of Internet Protocol ("IP") datagrams or packets are sent from a source to a destination. These datagrams are sent over the Internet by way of an "IP backbone" which is a high-speed, high performance network that links other networks together. The source and destination of a datagram can be, for example, the personal computers of two different users. Typically, a datagram, traverses many different routers on its transmission path from a source to its intended destination. A router is simply a host computer that forwards network traffic from one connected network to another regardless of whether or not the source and destination networks are of the same type. When a router receives a datagram, it reads the address of the destination host to determine to which router the datagram should be forwarded. It then replaces the address of the present router with the address of the next router in the datagram's address header before forwarding the datagram along its transmission path. This is generally known as "Layer 3" processing which refers to the network layer of either the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) seven-layer model or to the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) model. This router-to-router "hop", also known as a "hop by hop" process, continues until the datagram reaches the router to which its destination is connected and the datagram is successfully delivered. The path of an IP datagram across the Internet traverses many routers until it reaches its destination, each of these routers performing Layer-3 processing on the datagram. This processing scheme is generally referred to as the "Classical IP" system or model. A disadvantage associated with this system is that the hop-by-hop transmission process and the associated Layer-3 processing at each router contributes to significant and unpredictable delays in the transmission of IP packets across a network.
Another network protocol system known as "Classical IP Over ATM" is the most commonly known processing model to support IP traffic over ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) networks and was recently defined by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic view of this type of network. By way of example, source host 10 wishes to send a packet to destination host 20 which is outside the local IP subnet ("LIS") of the source host 10. First, the source host 10 sends the packet to router 11 across ATM switch 12 designated in FIG. 1 as path-1. Establishment of path-1 over the ATM network is accomplished by source host 10 translating the IP address of router 11 to an ATM address in order to build a virtual path to router 11. The Classical IP Over ATM model provides ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) server 13 which performs an IP to ATM address translation for all registered hosts and routers within a logical IP Subnet (LIS). In this example, source 10 sends an address resolution request to ARP server 13 for the ATM address corresponding to the IP address of router 11 in the same LIS. In turn, ARP server 13 sends an address resolution response with information associated with the ATM address corresponding to router 11. Thereafter, source 10 builds path-1 across the ATM network to the ATM address of router 11. In turn, router 11 makes a determination that the next hop for transmission of the packet is router 14 and forwards the packet to router 14, across ATM switches 12 and 15, designated as path-2, discovering router 14's ATM address using ARP server 16. Similarly, router 14 forwards the packet through ATM switches 15 and 17, designated as path-3 in FIG. 1, to router 17 using ARP server 19. Router 17 in turn makes a determination that it is the last hop router on the path to destination 20. Router 17 sends the packet to destination 20 across ATM switch 18 designated as path-4 in FIG. 1 using ARP server 21.
Although this type of network maintains traditional IP switching on top of an ATM network, it views the underlying ATM network as just another OSI Layer-2 technology, and thus does not fully capitalize on the benefits of ATM. In addition, the IP routers 11, 14, and 17 and the ATM switches 12, 15, and 18 run separate protocols to determine the address of the next hop making this type of network configuration less efficient. Moreover, each router along the packet's transmission path determines the next hop router toward its destination. This requires each router to perform Layer-3 processing on the packet to inspect the destination IP address and derive the next hop router from routing tables determined by a routing protocol and stored in each router. Furthermore, this system also includes IP to ATM address mapping steps, one in each ARP server, and four ATM switched virtual path (SVC) establishment steps along the path between the source host 10 and destination host 20, thereby adding more processing steps to the routing scheme.
A number of additional network protocol software schemes have attempted to speed-up and increase the efficiency of Internet transmissions. These systems can generally be classified into two groups; the systems in the first group attempt to reduce the amount of Layer-3 processing at intermediate routers; and the systems in the second group attempt to reduce or eliminate the number of router hops in a datagram's path. A brief overview of the types of systems in each group follows.
A network processing scheme, known as the "Classical IP Model-Cut Through Routing", attempts to completely eliminate router hops, however this system is only available in situations where there is a large IP data flow from one particular end point to another. This type of processing system is schematically shown in FIG. 2. In this system for example, source host 30 determines the ATM address corresponding to the IP address of destination host 40 and establishes a cut-through path, or a virtual circuit from the source host 30 to the destination host 40 thereby avoiding routers 41, 42 and 43. Thus, the cut-through path for a datagram is defined from source host 30 through ATM switch 31 through ATM switch 32 through ATM switch 33 to destination host 40.
In order to establish the cut-through path from source 30 to destination 40, the source 30 must have acquired the address for destination 40 by sending a packet via the Classical Hop-by-Hop Network. Presently, IETF is studying a new address resolution protocol called Next Hop Routing Protocol (NHRP) which allows IP to ATM address mapping across LISs so that cut-through paths across ATM networks can be established. In the NHRP model, Next Hop Servers (NHS) 34, 35, and 36 are employed per LIS, or per multiple LISs, similar to the ARP servers in the Classical Hop-By-Hop network. The key difference between an ARP server and an NHS is that an ARP server only communicates to its clients in a LIS, but an NHS may communicate with its own hosts as well as its neighbor NHSs supporting other LISs.
In this configuration source host 30 connected to ATM switch 31 becomes an NHRP client when it registers its IP-ATM address with its specified NHS 34, similar to the ARP server in the classical Hop-by-Hop network. NHS 34 can be stored in Router 41 or in ATM switch 31. When an NHRP client, such as source host 30, desires to switch its data traffic from the default (hop-by-hop) routed path to a cut-through path, it must first acquire the address of destination host 40 by way of a request/response process. This process begins by source host 30 sending an NHRP request to NHS 34 stored in router 41 via path-1a to obtain the mapping of the IP address of destination 40 to its corresponding ATM address. NHS 34 receives the request and either has the address mapping in its database because destination 40 is in the same LIS, or because it learned the address mapping from a previous address resolution request/response process and cached the address of destination host 40. However, if NHS 34 does not have the address of destination 40, it must forward the NHRP request to NHS 35 stored in router 42 via path-2a. This process continues to NHS 36 stored in router 43 via path-3a which is the last NHS on the transmission path to the destination 40 via path-4a. The NHRP response which carries the ATM address of destination 40 follows the reverse path back to source 30 and gets forwarded to source host 30 by NHS 34. Thereafter, source host 30 builds a virtual path to the destination without going through routers 41, 42 and 43 along the transmission path between source 30 and destination 40. Thus, to establish the address mapping for a cut-through path between source 30 and destination 40, a request/response process using Layer-3 processing at each router, substantially similar to the hop-by-hop process, must be performed at least once.
Although the NHRP process, once established, avoids router hopping and the associated Layer-3 packet processing, there are only a limited number of cut-through virtual circuits that can be established over an ATM switching network. This disadvantage is known as Virtual Circuit Explosion which occurs when the number of simultaneous virtual circuits through an ATM switching network becomes unmanageably large due to IP traffic. Moreover, because the typical datagram is relatively small, this request/response process needed to establish the path between source 30 and destination 40 usually satisfies the transmission requirements between a source and destination for that particular communication sequence making a cut-through path between them no longer necessary. Moreover, NHRP has applicability only to ATM networks and is more suited for large data transmissions rather than the standard IP packet size.
Another software routing scheme known as IP Navigator combines Wide Area Network (WAN) switching and IP routing to store the end destination switch, the switch which communicates with an egress router, for each IP packet sent over the network. In this manner, switches within the network function as IP routers. Once the end destination switch is determined, the IP packet is forwarded through a pre-established "multipoint-to-point tunnel" to that switch. Multipoint-to-point tunneling is a method by which once a virtual circuit or cut-through is established, the address information is broadcast to all other nodes in the network. Once at the end destination switch, a routing table lookup is performed to determine the proper egress port of the end switch to forward the IP packet. Similar to the cut-through routing scheme, this software model has applicability only to ATM networks and suffers from the Virtual Circuit Explosion problem.
The Classical IP with Cut-Through Routing and the IP Navigator schemes attempt to reduce, or sometimes eliminate the number of router hops for the transmission of an IP packet across a network. However, Layer-3 processing remains a substantial part of these networks. Thus, a need exists to reduce the number of router hops along a datagram's transmission path while also reducing the amount of Layer-3 processing at each hop.
Tag-switching and IP-switching are examples of two network schemes that attempt to reduce the amount of Layer-3 processing at intermediate routers. However, each of these network systems do not reduce the number of router hops in the path of an IP datagram. Tag-switching is an IETF proposal that inserts a so called "tag" or a shim layer between the Layer-2 (Data Link Layer) and the Layer-3 (Network Layer) of the OSI model. If the data link layer is ATM, tag switching proposes to use some portion of the Virtual Path Identifier (VPI) and Virtual Circuit Identifier (VCI) of the 53 byte ATM cell header as the tag. Each IP router between the source and destination inspects the inserted tag and makes a determination, based on local look-up tables, which port to forward the IP datagram. Each router establishes a table entry in its database indicating that for a particular tag, the datagram originates from a first router and should be forwarded onto a particular port to a second router. In addition, the first router performs a call setup function where the first router informs the second router on the path, by a "tag distribution protocol," that the incoming IP traffic to be forwarded to the second router has a particular tag identifier. This process continues with each router inspecting the tag, determining which downstream router to forward the datagram to, replacing the existing tag with another tag that denotes the address of the next downstream router, and forwarding the datagram accordingly until it reaches its destination. Again if the data link layer is ATM, each router inspects the VPI/VCI value at the packet's header to make a forwarding decision. The tag switching involves swapping VPI/VCI values between incoming and outgoing ports of each router on an IP packet's transmission path. Although Tag-switching illustrates a network that attempts to reduce the amount of Layer-3 processing on an IP datagram, the number of router hops on a transmission path remains unchanged.
Another system known as IP-switching, used only in ATM networks, also attempts to limit the amount of Layer-3 processing performed on an IP packet during transmission. The general concept of IP-switching is similar to Tag-switching, however IP-switching does not use the ATM signaling and call set-up process used in Tag-switching. The ATM switches are used simply to relay the IP datagrams in 53 octet chunks with a short tag attached to each packet which includes various VPI/VCI values, the use of which are determined locally by each router. Both Tag and IP-switching schemes reduce the amount of processing on each IP datagram by manipulating the tags, however the number of router hops is not reduced. Although in both IP and Tag-switching each intermediate hop is a router, the router does not make the appropriate layer-3 header modifications such as incrementing the hop count and changing the originator's IP address. Furthermore, even though the Layer-3 processing is eliminated in some if not all the routers, the tag swapping still requires each router to parse the header of the IP packet to identify the tag and to write on the packet header to swap the tag.
As an alternative to the above referenced models, a variant of IP switching can be used in conjunction with NHRP. Such a system has been proposed by the inventors of the present application in their copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/728,276 entitled "Internet NCP-Over ATM" filed on Oct. 8, 1996 incorporated herein by reference now U.S. Pat. No. 5,828,866.
None of the above described systems both reduces the number of router hops an IP packet experiences as it traverses a network while also reducing the amount of Layer-3 processing in each hop. As many more routers and Web servers are being deployed, a high-speed Internet backbone is needed more than ever to allow network growth and to improve data transmission performance.

Internet protocol relay network for directly routing datagram from ingress router to egress router


A method for detecting a channel occupancy time declared by an interfering device in a wireless communication system includes (a) receiving a first radio frequency (RF) transmission from a base station at a user equipment (UE) device, (b) detecting failure to receive a second RF transmission from the base station at the UE device, and (c) in response to detecting the failure to receive the second RF transmission from the base station, causing the UE device to operate in a sleep mode. Another method for detecting a channel occupancy time declared by an interfering device in a wireless communication system includes (a) receiving a first RF transmission from a base station at a UE device, (b) detecting, at the UE device, an interfering RF transmission, and (c) in response to detecting the interfering RF transmission, causing the UE device to operate in a sleep mode.

Radio frequency (RF) spectra may be grouped into licensed spectra and unlicensed spectra. Licensed spectra require permission for use, such as permission for use from a government authority. Unlicensed spectra typically do not require permission for use, although use of unlicensed spectra may be conditioned on following certain rules. An example of licensed spectra includes spectra licensed by government authorities to mobile, portable or fixed applications. An use case example for unlicensed spectra is represented by Wi-Fi devices operating in these spectra. Some communication systems operate solely with licensed spectra, some communication systems operate solely with unlicensed spectra. Additionally, some communication systems are capable of operating with both licensed spectra and unlicensed spectra, such to help achieve large communication bandwidth.

Methods and devices for detecting a channel occupancy time declared by an interfering device in a wireless communication system


An automatic logic synthesis method wherein lower-rank descriptions defining a logic device in terms of expressions of lower abstraction are synthesized from higher-rank descriptions defining the logic device in terms of expressions of higher abstraction, comprising: providing first identifiers each of which indicates the presence of a description change of the corresponding description unit data of the higher-rank description, and providing second identifiers each of which indicates the presence of a description change of the corresponding description unit data of the lower-rank description; setting the first identifier of changed description unit data at the change of the higher-rank description, and setting the second identifier of changed description unit at the change of the lower-rank description directly made without any synthesis process from the higher-rank description; originating new lower-rank description unit data from the higher-rank description unit whose first identifier is set; and registering the new lower-rank description unit data as lower-rank description unit data on condition that the second identifier of the current lower-rank description unit data corresponding to the new lower-rank description unit data is not set, and merging the new lower-rank description unit data and the current lower-rank description unit data and then registering a merged result as lower-rank description unit data on condition that the second identifier of the current lower-rank description unit data is set.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the design automation of logic devices, and more particularly to techniques for a logic change process in the design automation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, in the automatic design of a logic device, gate logic descriptions which define the logic device in terms of expressions of lower abstraction are automatically synthesized from function logic descriptions which define the logic device in terms of expressions of higher abstraction.
In such an automatic logic device design, a design change at the level of function logic is sometimes made after the origination of the gate logic descriptions has been followed by the addition of information (for example, cell placement information for an LSI) as required for the design. In such a case, the automatic logic synthesis process needs to be executed again so as to reflect the design change at the function logic level on the gate logic descriptions.
A technique for the automatic logic synthesis at the occurrence of the design change as stated above, has been known from the official gazette of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 72070/1987.
According to this technique, steps for finding out which parts of the logic have changed at the level of gate logic are comprised, and only the changed part is renewed, whereby the design change can be reflected on the gate logic level without losing the additional information of the other part at the gate logic level.
With the prior-art method, however, the logic changed part of the logic is found out in such a way that the gate logic description being a lower-rank or minor description is once synthesized from the function logic description being a higher-rank or major description, and that the description synthesized anew is compared with the current gate logic descriptions over the whole of logic device. Therefore, the method has had the problem that a very long time is expended on the logic change process in the application thereof to large scale object to be-designed.
In addition, as work stations have had their performances enhanced and have come into wide use, a computer environment for aid in the logic design has been turned into a distributed processing system configured of a plurality of processors. Therefore, the prior-art technique has posed the problem that the amount of information items which are transmitted among the processors becomes enormous.

Method and system for logic change in an automatic logic synthesis system


A device for mounting and/or dismounting a bearing on a shaft incorporating a tapered clamping sleeve between bearing and shaft and an arrangement for mutual axial displacement of the bearing and clamping sleeve in at least one axial direction, which arrangement incorporates at least one wedge-pointed screw arranged, when being screwed in towards the shaft to cause a mutual displacement in axial direction between the clamping sleeve and the bearing by wedge action. The bearing is situated in a surrounding sleeve-shaped member significant axial space beside the bearing at least on one side. The arrangement for displacement of bearing incorporates at least one radial flange, axially affixed to the clamping sleeve. The wedge-pointed screw is arranged to be screwed in substantially radially through holes in the bearing housing, for exerting the axial wedge force between the flange and an inner race ring of the bearings.

Conventionally, bearing housings generally have been divided into two halves, which are interconnected upon mounting of the bearing on the shaft. This causes, i.e., the positioning of seals and lubricant to take place in situ at the mounting, which from many aspects, is not desirable. For this reason complete bearing units have been developed, wherein the bearing, clamping sleeve, seals and lubricant can be introduced in the bearing housing at the supplier's shop. The complete bearing unit then can be slid onto the intended shaft and the bearing is clamped to the shaft by tightening the clamping sleeve. Consequently, this construction requires use of a clamping sleeve. The clamping of the clamping sleeve acts, in a known manner, by wedge action between one or more taper surfaces at the clamping sleeve and the corresponding surfaces of the bearing. The wedge effect is created by the bearing and the clamping sleeve being displaced in axial direction relative to each other.
In Swedish Patent Application 8600310-0, an embodiment of such a solution is shown. The axial movement between the clamping sleeve and the bearing in that application is created by flanges equipped with axially extending screws, which act against the inner race ring of the bearing or against an intermediate washer. A mounting flange then is used at the small end of the tapering clamping sleeve, and a dismounting flange is used at the larger end thereof. In the embodiment of the prior application, it is possible to use an undivided bearing housing.
When the bearing unit is mounted to the shaft, screws are tightened which are parallel to the shaft and positioned at a somewhat larger diameter than the outer diameter thereof. The reverse procedure occurs at release of the bearing unit from the shaft. This means that axial space is required on both sides of the bearing unit for manipulating tools for mounting and dismounting. In many cases this can mean problems, and particularly on one side of the bearing unit. Several members are often positioned on the shaft between a first and a second bearing housing, whereas on the other hand a smaller number of components generally are positioned on the other side of the bearing housing toward the free side of the shaft end. At the initial mounting these components are not positioned as it must be possible to mount the bearing unit. There are however cases when components are hampering access also on this side. An example is when re-tightening of the mounting screws may be necessary.
Described in GB,A,2 163 523 is a locking sleeve having an extended portion, which on a shaft is positioned against the side face of a bearing race ring. The locking sleeve is provided with grub screws, which can be screwed in at an angle towards the shaft on which the bearing shall be fitted, or perpendicularly to the shaft when the screws are provided with tapering tips, and which screws with their ends can be screwed into a circumferential, angularly machined groove in the shaft. The tightening of the screws give an axial force displacing the bearing axially against a shoulder on the shaft, whereas at the same time the locking sleeve is locked to the shaft by the screws entering into the groove. This locking arrangement gives no loosening forces for releasing a wedge joint or a clamping sleeve, it requires a substantial space at least on one side of the bearing at the mounting and furthermore the deep groove machined in the shaft means a serious weakening of the shaft.
A purpose of the invention is to reduce the above-mentioned problems substantially by providing a device wherein dismounting and also mounting of a bearing unit can be accomplished without space being available at each side of the bearing unit.

Apparatus for mounting and dismounting bearings


A method of manufacturing an optical element, the method comprising: growing a first layer of single crystal diamond material via a chemical vapor deposition technique using a gas phase having a first nitrogen concentration; growing a second layer of single crystal diamond material over said first layer via a chemical vapor deposition technique using a gas phase having a second nitrogen concentration, wherein the second nitrogen concentration is lower than the first nitrogen concentration; forming an optical element from at least a portion of the second layer of single crystal diamond material; and forming an out-coupling structure at a surface of the optical element for increasing out-coupling of light.

Over the last 20 years there has been substantial interest in the use and manipulation of single photon sources for quantum information processing.
Over the last decade, optically-active defects in diamond have been demonstrated as efficient and robust solid-state single photons sources owing to long decoherence times and strong optical dipole coupling at room temperature. Many optically active defects have been studied in diamond including silicon-vacancy (SiV), nickel and chromium-related defects, and the negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV−) defect. The NV− defect in particular has attracted a lot of interest because its spin state can be coherently manipulated with high fidelity owing to an extremely long coherence time (which may be quantified and compared using the transverse relaxation time T2), because of its specific electronic structure, and because of the availability of optical pumping. Moreover, the electron spin states of NV− defects can be read out through photons, which is a key ingredient towards using the NV− defects as qubits for long-distance quantum communications and scalable quantum computation. Such results make the NV− defect a competitive candidate for solid-state quantum information processing (QIP).
One major problem in producing materials suitable for quantum applications is preventing the qubits from decohering, or at least lengthening the time a system takes to decohere (i.e. lengthening the "decoherence time"). A long T2 time is desirable in applications such as quantum computing as it allows more time for the operation of an array of quantum gates and thus allows more complex quantum computations to be performed.
WO 2010010344 discloses that single crystal diamond material which has a high chemical purity, i.e. a low nitrogen content, and wherein a surface of the diamond material has been processed to minimise the presence of crystal defects, can be used to form a solid state system comprising a quantum spin defect. Where such materials are used as a host for quantum spin defects, long T2 times are obtained at room temperature and the frequency of the optical transitions used to read/write to devices are stable.
WO 2010010352 discloses that by carefully controlling the conditions under which diamond material is prepared using chemical vapour deposition (CVD) methods, it is possible to provide diamond material which combines a very high chemical purity with a very high isotopic purity. By controlling both the chemical purity and the isotopic purity of the materials used in the CVD process, it is possible to obtain synthetic diamond material which is particularly suitable for use as a host for a quantum spin defect. Where such materials are used as a host for quantum spin defects, long T2 times are obtained at room temperature and the frequency of the optical transitions used to read/write to the devices are stable. A layer of synthetic diamond material is disclosed which has a low nitrogen concentration and a low concentration of 13C. The layer of synthetic diamond material has very low impurity levels and very low associated point defect levels. In addition, the layer of synthetic diamond material has a low dislocation density, low strain, and vacancy and self-interstitial concentrations which are sufficiently close to thermodynamic values associated with the growth temperature that its optical absorption is essentially that of a perfect diamond lattice.
In light of the above, it is evident that WO 2010010344 and WO 2010010352 disclose methods of manufacturing high quality "quantum grade" single crystal diamond material. The term "quantum grade" diamond is used herein for diamond material which is suitable for use in applications that utilize the material's quantum spin properties. Specifically, the quantum grade diamond material's high purity makes it possible to isolate single defect centres using optical techniques known to the person skilled in the art.
One problem is that the single photon emission from defects in such materials can be very weak. For example, NV− defects in diamond exhibit a broad spectral emission associated with a Debye-Waller factor of the order of 0.05, even at low temperature. Emission of single photons in the Zero-Phonon Line (ZPL) is then extremely weak, typically of the order of a few thousands of photons per second. Such counting rates might be insufficient for the realization of advanced QIP protocols based on coupling between spin states and optical transitions within reasonable data acquisition times. This problem is also evident for other photon emitting defects within diamond.
In addition to the problem of weak emission, it is evident that the high refractive index of diamond means that due to total internal reflection very few photons can be collected within a small solid angle. Accordingly, there is a need to increase the light collection from single photon emitters in diamond for applications that include magnetometry and quantum information processing. In this regard, both WO 2010010344 and WO 2010010352 disclose that the quantum grade diamond material discussed therein may have a surface which has a macroscopic curvature, e.g. a lens with a radius of curvature of between about 10 μm and about 100 μm to collect and focus the light output from a quantum defect centre. It is suggested that an isotropic etch may be used to form macroscopic curved features, such as a lens, whilst controlling or reducing the surface roughness.
However, single crystal quantum grade diamond material can be difficult, time consuming, and expensive to manufacture, particular for large single crystals, when compared with lower grades of diamond. As such, it is difficult, time consuming, and costly to form a single crystal quantum grade diamond of sufficient size to incorporate an optical out-coupling structure such as a lens therein.
It is an aim of certain embodiments of the present invention to solve the aforementioned problem.


The invention relates to a support structure (17) for a laminated core (9) of a stator segment (13) of a dynamoelectric machine having an external rotor, the support structure (17) having two joint plates (6) and two curved pressure plates (1), the respective longitudinal faces of which are in each case mutually opposed, and which encompass a predefinable space and can be connected at their abutting edges. The support structure also has substantially radial bars or ribs (3) between the pressure plates (1) and at least one element having polygonal cut-outs, which element is connected to a longitudinal face of the ribs (3) and forms a base plate of the support structure (17).

The invention relates to a support structure for a laminated core, for a stator segment, for an external rotor generator, to a stator segment, to a stator, to an external rotor generator, to a wind turbine, and also to the manufacturing process for a stator segment and stator.
In the case of very large dynamoelectric machines, in particular slow running torque motors and generators, it is advantageous not to produce laminated cores of the stator as a whole unit. Consequently the laminated core of the stator is built with windings in a segmented construction, i.e. in segments that are later installed on the stator to form a closed ring.
In the case of directly driven wind turbine generators with an external rotor, the installation of the individual stator segments is carded out by screwing these stator segments onto flanges that are connected to the machine installation space of the nacelle of the wind turbine. A segmented construction in the case of stators with internal rotors is known for example from US 2012/0133145 or also from WO 2014/000757 A1.
The disadvantage in the case of these embodiments however is the enormous mechanical effort required to achieve a stable fastening of the stator segments and stator in the nacelle. Because adequate fastening is only achievable with corresponding mechanical effort and therefore additional weight, this is disadvantageous especially in the case of wind turbine nacelles.
On this basis the object underlying the invention is to create a support structure for the stator segments of a stator, which is particularly lightweight but which tolerates and can absorb the forces occurring during the operation of the wind turbine.

Support structure for a laminated core of a stator segment


A medical device and method for manipulating movement of a micro-catheter, the device comprising an elongated tubular member having at least one lumen therein, wherein the lumen is proximally coupled to a pressurized fluid control system configured to regulate fluid flow through the elongated tubular member. An aperture is disposed near a distal end of the elongated tubular member, the aperture being in fluid communication with the at least one lumen. In one aspect, the aperture is oriented at an angle which is non parallel to the longitudinal axis of the elongated tubular member. A nozzle is coupled to the aperture, wherein the nozzle is configured to regulate pressurized flow out of the catheter to manipulate movement of the distal end of the elongated tubular member.

Catheters have been in use for medical procedures for many years to examine, diagnose, and treat patients. The movement of a catheter through the vasculature of a patient to probe deeply for a considerable depth or through branching vessels requires that the tip of the catheter be steerable (e.g., bendable or deflectable to travel at an angle when a secondary branch of the vasculature is reached).
One presently known form of a catheter having a steerable tip at the distal end comprises a plurality of control wires running from the steerable tip to the proximal end at which steering means are provided for operating the control wires to bend the steerable tip.

Method and apparatus for manipulating movement of a micro-catheter


A raised solder-mask-defined (SMD) pad configured for receiving a solder ball on a laminate electronic circuit board and a method of creating the raised SMD pad on a laminate electronic circuit board. The method may comprise forming a base bump, covering the base bump with a conductive bump layer and layering a surrounding material over an extended edge of the conductive bump layer. The surrounding material is patterned to expose a pad face and of a portion of the sides of the conductive bump layer, such that the pad face is disposed above the surface of the surrounding material. The surrounding material may be patterned by a photolithography operation or alternatively, a laser-drill operation.

Integrated circuits are fabricated on the surface of a semiconductor wafer in layers and later singulated into individual dies. Since the material of a semiconductor wafer—commonly silicon—tends to be relatively fragile and brittle, dies are often assembled into a protective housing, or package, before they are interconnected with a printed circuit board (PCB). Referring now to FIG. 1, a cross-sectional view is shown of a packaged semiconductor device 100. A semiconductor die 110 is shown attached to a package substrate 120, a structure comprising alternating layers of conductive material 122 and insulating material 124. The die 110 is electrically interconnected to the package substrate 120 by a plurality of bond wires 130. The top surface 126 and bottom surface 128 of the package substrate 120 may be covered with a photo-definable solder mask material 132, in which openings can be created, exposing a portion of the metal 122 below.
The die 110 and bond wires 130 may be encapsulated by a solid mold compound 140 (e.g., an epoxy), protecting the bond wires from physical damage and/or environmental effects. Solder balls 150, spheres of conductive material (e.g., tin-lead), may be attached to solder ball pads 170. Solder ball pads 170 are typically circular areas of conductive material 122 exposed by openings in the solder mask layer 132 on the bottom surface 128 of the substrate 120. When mounted to a PCB 180, the conductive material 122 forms a pathway of electrical communication between the die 110 and the PCB, as well as to the electrical device (not shown) in which the PCB is eventually installed. The package substrate 120 and PCB 180 may both be laminate electronic circuit boards with similar constructions, which will be discussed in more detail herein.
Referring now to FIG. 2A, a cross-sectional view of a solder joint 200 is shown, in which a solder ball 150 is mounted between a standard solder-mask-defined (SMD) solder ball pad 170 and a PCB 180. The standard SMD pad 170 is so named because the pad 170 is "defined" by the solder mask 132, such that only the central portion of the pad is exposed for attachment to a solder ball 150. FIG. 2B shows a perspective view of the standard SMD pad 170. The opening 210 in the solder mask 132 defines the pad area exposed for attachment to a solder ball (not shown in FIG. 2B). The insulating material 124 used in a package substrate 120 may be bismaleimide triazine (BT), with a center insulating layer, or core, of BT or another organic material, such as glass-fiber-reinforced epoxy (FR4). The conductive material 122 may be copper, which may tend to delaminate, or peel away, from the BT when subjected to temperature cycling used in semiconductor package reliability testing. Adhesion between the insulating material 124 and the solder mask 132, another non-metal, may be greater than adhesion between an organic insulating material and a metal pad 170. As such, the overhanging lip 212 of solder mask 132 covering the outer edge 172 of pad 170 may serve to hold the pad onto the insulating material 124, lessening the chance for delamination.
As the solder ball 150 does not adhere to the solder mask 132, when the solder ball is attached, a neck 230 of reduced diameter may form in the solder ball near the interface between the solder ball and pad 170. This interface may have the highest stress concentrations within the solder joint under temperature cycling, bending, vibration or drop-impact conditions. Packaged semiconductor devices often undergo board-level reliability (BLR) testing, reliability stress tests that may subject a PCB-mounted packaged semiconductor device to temperature cycling, elevated humidity and/or pressure. This analysis may give an indication on how the packaged semiconductor device will perform in the field once the package is assembled into an electronic device.
Solder joint reliability is a significant area of concern with ball grid array (BGA) packages, such as that shown in FIG. 1. BGA packages are so named due to the array of pads for mounting solder balls to on the bottom surface of the substrate. A PCB 180 and a package substrate 120 may have considerably different coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE), a value associated with the amount a material expands per degree of temperature increase. As the packaged semiconductor device 100 may collectively expand at a different rate than the PCB 180 to which it is attached, significant material stresses may occur within the solder balls 150 attaching the two. As structures tend to fail at areas of reduced diameter or along simple, planar interfaces, the neck area 230 of solder ball 150 is particularly susceptible to cracking under material stresses. Temperature cycling is a common BLR test, in which a PCB-mounted package is cycled through temperature extremes, with periods of sustained exposure (or soaks) to either of the extremes.
A typical temperature cycle test may comprise a temperature increase from room temperature (i.e., about 25 C) to 125 C, a temperature decrease to −40 C, a cold-soak, a temperature increase back up to 125 C, a hot-soak, and a temperature decrease to room temperature again. With each added material or thermal stress, the amount of plastic work density—a measure of material damage within solder ball 150—increases. The higher the plastic work density value, the higher the chance of crack propagation if a defect is present in the solder ball 150. While the standard SMD design addresses delamination concerns by pinning down the edge 172 of the pad 170, a crack may easily propagate across neck 230, possibly along linear path 232.
Referring now to FIG. 3A, a cross-sectional view of a solder joint 300 is shown, in which a solder ball 150 is mounted between a non-solder-mask-defined (NSMD) solder ball pad 270 and a PCB 180. The NSMD pad 270 is so named because the pad is not defined by an opening 310 in the solder mask 132. Instead, the opening 310 may be larger than the pad 270, such that a portion of the insulating material 124 around the pad is exposed, as shown in the perspective view of FIG. 3B. As shown in the cross-section of FIG. 3A, there is no reduced-diameter neck in a solder ball 150 attached to a NSMD pad 270. A crack originating near the interface between the ball 150 and pad 270 may have to travel a non-planar path around the pad edge 272, such as that reflected by nonlinear path 234. While it may be more difficult for the ball 150 to separate from a NSMD pad 270, the solder mask 132 does not extend over the pad 270, pinning it to the insulating layer 124. As such, the potential for delamination at the interface between the insulating material 124 and NSMD pad 270 may be greater than for the standard SMD pad 170 shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B.
An octant model, or one-eighth portion, of a semiconductor package may be used to analyze the plastic work density within a package, as packages may tend to have similar characteristic at points radially disposed from the center. Referring now to FIG. 4, an octant model 500 is shown of the plastic work density within a BGA substrate 502, shown in outline, having SMD pads (not shown). Exemplary plastic work density values 504, indicated by the relative sizes of the bubbles, are shown centered over the locations of their respective solder balls (also not shown). Plastic work density values 504 may be higher over the edge of a die 520 (shown in outline) due to material stresses that may be present in the area. It is therefore desired to devise a solder ball pad for a laminate electronic circuit board with reduced plastic work density values. It is further desired to devise a solder ball pad with the pad-adhesion benefits of a standard SMD pad and the pad geometry and associated crack-propagation protection of an NSMD pad.

Raised solder-mask-defined (SMD) solder ball pads for a laminate electronic circuit board


The invention relates to a method for storing analysis data, especially digit analysis data in a telephone exchange (21). The data is stored as a tree-like hierarchical data structure that returns the desired result on the basis of given initial data, said data structure comprising records (11; 31; A . . . F) located in several different levels, each record comprising a predetermined number of fields (0 . . . 9, a . . . f), the uppermost level composing the root level of the structure and a single field of a record either being empty or comprising a pointer that points to the destination that may be either a record or a result in a lower level. For enabling new services of a telephone network, such as free numbering, without a continuously increasing need for memory capacity or purchases of devices, stored data is compressed by searching in a single level of the structure all the records the corresponding fields of which are pointing to the same destination, by deleting all except one of the found records and by changing the pointers of upper levels that have pointed to the deleted records so that they point to said one record, whereby said measures are started from the lowest level of the structure, after which they are repeated in the following level if necessary, until the root level is reached.

The invention relates to a method in accordance with the preamble of the attached claim 1 for storing analysis data in a telephone exchange. The method of the invention is intended especially for storing data structures used in the digit analyses of telephone exchanges, but as the following more detailed description will show, the same principle may also be utilized for storing in a telephone exchange data which is intended for carrying out other analyses.
When a subscriber of a telephone network makes a call, the destination (subscriber B) of the call is determined on the basis of the dialled digit combination (i.e. telephone number). Each node of the telephone network finds out the destination of incoming calls by analysing these digits. This procedure, in the following referred to as digit analysis, is a functional part of a telephone exchange, which, in response to a given telephone number, returns the corresponding destination.
Digit analysis is based in a telephone exchange (e.g. in a DX 200 of the applicant) on a data structure in which records form a hierarchical tree structure. Each record contains e.g. 16 fields, each corresponding to a certain button of the telephone (0, 1, 2, . . . 9, *, #, etc.). A single field is either empty (i.e. it is not in use and thus contains nothing), or it contains a pointer. The pointer (which in practice is some binary digit) may point either to the following record or to a destination that is the result of the digit analysis. An empty field means in practice that no digit analysis is carried out for the corresponding button of the telephone.
FIG. 1 illustrates the principle described above. A data structure is composed of several records 11, each containing 16 fields, which are marked with reference symbols 0 . . . 9, a, . . . f. For instance, an analysis carried out for telephone number 408178 returns destination D and an analysis carried out for telephone number 504178 returns destination E. The analysis is carried out by proceeding in the tree structure one dialled digit at a time and examining the content of the field corresponding to the dialled digit, and by proceeding to the record pointed to by the pointer included in said field, in which record the content of the field corresponding to the following digit is examined etc. The field corresponding to the digit to be examined last provides the result of the analysis (destination).
A problem in the present situation is that the size of the data structure to be used for digit analyses tends to grow very large and demands plenty of memory capacity in the exchange. Reasons for this are e.g. the growth of the capacity of the telephone exchanges, new services offered by the telephone exchanges, particularly the willingness of the telephone operators to employ free (i.e. non-hierarchical) numbering.
In prior art, a hierarchical structure has been used in numbering, whereby in each node of the telephone network the destination may be determined by using only a part of the whole telephone number. This prior art way of numbering and the problem arising from free numbering are illustrated in FIGS. 2 . . . 4. FIG. 2 shows a transit exchange 21, which is connected via interconnecting lines to local exchanges 22 and 23, to which subscriber devices SD are connected via subscriber lines. This example contains a total number of 1000 subscriber lines. Let us assume that the telephone numbers of the subscribers located within the area of the transit exchange 21 are in the range 0. . . 999 and that the subscribers whose telephone numbers are within the range 000 . . . 199 are connected to local exchange 22, and the subscribers whose telephone numbers are within the range 200 . . . 999 are connected to local exchange 23. Thus, the data structure to be used for digit analyses in the transit exchange 21 is similar to that shown in FIG. 3, comprising one record 31, the first two fields of which point to local exchange 22, fields 2 . . . 9 point to local exchange 23 and fields a . . . f are empty. In this case, the data structure is thus very simple; in order that a call could be routed in the transit exchange correctly, only the first digit of the telephone number must be analyzed there.
Let us now assume that a subscriber whose telephone number is 000 moves from the area of local exchange 22 to the area of local exchange 23, and his telephone number remains the same. Thus, the situation is similar to that shown in FIG. 4, i.e. subscribers having telephone numbers 000 and 200 . . . 999 are located in the area of local exchange 23. The tree-like data structure of the transit exchange grows in this case a new branch (records 32 and 33), as shown in FIG. 5. If some other subscriber moves from the area of one local exchange to another and his telephone number remains the same, another new branch will grow to the tree. If the subscriber numbers are randomly distributed between the local exchanges, each digit of the telephone number must be analyzed separately. In that case, a data structure contains (in the case of this example) 111 records, i.e. 111 times as many as in the hierarchical case corresponding to FIGS. 2 and 3.
As appears from the above, changing over to free (non-hierarchical) numbering causes a strong expansion of the data structures to be used for digit analyses, and accordingly, a significantly greater demand for memory than before in the node (exchange) of the network. An attempt could be made for solving the problem in a straightforward way by increasing the memory, but in the long run, however, this is not a practical solution.
Another possible solution would be to build a centralized database (e.g. one similar to HLR (Home Location Register) of the GSM mobile communication network), to which the nodes of the network send queries via a high speed signalling link. However, a centralized data base of this kind requires lots of modifications to the network, and is thus a costly solution. Due to this, it is not a suitable solution e.g. for telephone companies, which wish to offer new services, such as free numbering without making any large purchases of devices. Introducing a centralized database does not eliminate the actual problem either, but only shifts it to another (centralized) place, where it is more easily handled.

Method for storing analysis data in a telephone exchange


A back surface of a wafer is formed with a ring-shaped projecting portion. The wafer is cut with a blade from a side of a front surface of the wafer in a state where the projecting portion of the wafer with a back surface facing upward is supported.

Thinning of a wafer used in manufacturing of a power semiconductor used for electric power has been advancing. Generally, the thinner the wafer is, the more easily a warp of the wafer occurs. If any warp exists in the wafer, there is a possibility that processing of the wafer cannot be normally performed
Patent Document 1 discloses a configuration for reducing a warp of a wafer (hereinafter, also referred to as a "related configuration A"). In the related configuration A, only a region corresponding to a device region in a back surface of the wafer is grinded. Thereby, a recessed portion is formed in the back surface of the wafer, and a ring-shaped reinforcement portion is formed in the back surface of the wafer. Note that it is necessary that the ring-shaped reinforcement portion is cut off from the wafer before dicing processing is performed to the wafer.

Semiconductor manufacturing method for cutting a wafer