An on-board vehicle system including: an electronic computing and control unit connected to vehicle internal sensors and to a vehicle main computer, which in turn is connected to crash sensing related sensors and vehicle driving sensors, and the electronic computing and control unit is also operatively connected to an occupant weighing devices of the on-board vehicle system connected to seats of passengers which are operatively connected to inflators through controllers which are connected to electronic computing and control unit by using a method of occupant weighing, and wherein a restraint power line of an air bag of a child seat is connected to a low pressure air bag source which is connected to and controlled by the electronic computing and control unit.

Practically all American cars are equipped by safety systems such as Supplemental Restraint System (SRS) comprising an air bag. For example, a front air bag restraint system has an air bag, which is deployable between an instrument panel and an occupant seat within an automotive vehicle. When the vehicle includes an occupant safety restraint device arranged to protect the occupant during a crash involving the vehicle, it can be coupled to the weight measuring system and arranged to provide a variable deployment depending on the determined weight of the occupant. During a crash event, the vehicle's crash sensor and other sensors provide crucial information to the air bag Electronic Computing and Control Unit (ECU), including weight and position of an occupant, usage of the seat belt, severity of impact, etc. Using this information, the air bag ECU's crash algorithm determines if the crash event meets the criteria for air bag deployment and triggers various firing circuits to deploy one or more air bag modules within the vehicle. Working as a supplemental restraint system to the vehicle's seat belt system, air bag module deployments are triggered through a pyrotechnic process that is designed to be used once. The signals from the various sensors are fed into the air bag ECU, which determines from them the position of the vehicle occupant, the severity or force of the crash, along with other variables.
To improve safety of passengers in case of a possible crash, adaptive and advanced duel-depth air bag systems and according to them the Passenger Classification Systems were designed. Adaptive air bag systems may utilize multi-stage air bags to adjust the pressure within the air bag. The greater the pressure within the air bag, the more force the air bag will exert on the occupants as they come in contact with it. These adjustments allow the system to deploy the air bag with a moderate force for most collisions, reserving the maximum force air bag only for the severest of collisions. Additional sensors to determine the location, weight or relative size of the occupants may also be used.
Information regarding the occupants and the severity of the crash are used by the air bag control unit, to determine whether air bags should be suppressed or deployed, and if so, at various calculated output levels.
In the advanced duel-depth air bag, the first and second chambers of the air bag are selectively pressurized with a gaseous fluid. The valve member is operable to distribute the pressurized fluid to one chamber, both of the chambers of the air bag, or to the atmosphere. The design of the advanced duel-depth air bag system shows that the car manufacturers try to improve the vehicle occupant safety employing the Passenger Classification System [1] by multiplying the number of chambers of an air bag.
As an example, according to Passenger Classification System, the air bag in the advanced duel-depth air bag system is deployed at either at a high force level, a less forceful level, or not at all, as following:
45 pounds or less was relayed as an infant or toddler. In this category, the air bag was automatically shut off and would not deploy. 46-108 pounds was relayed as a child or small adult. In this category, depending on the severity of the crash, the low side of the air bag may have been deployed.
109 pounds and above was considered a full size adult. In this category, depending on all other factors, the high side of the air bag may have been deployed.
The present invention relates to methods and apparatuses to prevent and mitigate the results of an imminent vehicle collision on the road by preventing fatalities as well as injuries that may be caused by the extra force applied to the occupant's body or other reason explained further in the event of a collision. More particularly, the present invention relates to new methods of accurate weighing occupants of vehicle that provides elimination of obstacles to improve safety of the vehicles' occupants in the event of a collision.
The problem of vehicle occupant safety has now become a nation-wide problem for the USA and other countries.
The air bag by itself may cause injuries if doesn't work properly. From 1990 to 2000, the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) identified 175 fatalities caused by air bags. Most of these (104) have been children, while the rest were adults. 262 deaths from 1990 to 2006 reportedly have been caused by air bags inflating in low severity crashes, most of them in older model vehicles. These deaths include 87 drivers, 13 adult passengers, 138 children, and 24 infants. In 2016 alone, 37,461 people died in motor vehicle crashes. In 2016 publication [2], NHTSA provided overall crash population for a period of 2010-2013.
Today's cars and trucks come with driver assistance technologies. For several years, vehicles have come with cameras and sensors that help drivers and warn of a possible collision. The present disclosure relates to the field of the vehicles of both types in which drivers have or not have assistance from different on-board devices that help safety driving. Such devices as the backup camera provide the driver with a better view behind the vehicle or automatically park a vehicle. Another one warns a driver when a vehicle is drifting out of its lane and will automatically steer the vehicle back into its lane if the driver will not react. These and other driver assistance technologies that include sensors, radars, cameras, GPS will help support Automated Driving Systems (ADS),
TABLE 12010-2013 Annually2010-2013 total costs1-5PropertyCosts forCrashesFatalitiesInjuriesdamagesocietyTotal costs1Registered crashes for all vehicles5.5M33,0202.7M6.3M$195 B$721 B2Related to the V2V technology (2 cars crashes - 69%)3.8M13,3292.1M5.2M3For LV2LV vehicles only (62% of all crashes) - that a new technology may save3.4M 7,3251.8M4.7M$109 B$319 B4Crashes and their results that will be not covered by the V2V technology2.1M25,6950.9M1.6M $86 B$402 Bmore commonly referred to as "self-driving" [3] (SDV) or autonomous vehicles. These 2 type of vehicles in contrast to the contemporary vehicles might be able to take over all aspects of driving and may predict imminent crashes on the road and reduce vehicle crashes and resulting fatalities and injuries. The Table 1 was generated by this data.
In the row 1 of the Table 1, is given the data published by NHTSA. Based on 2010-2013 General Estimates System (GES) and Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), of the 5.5 million annually crashes, which would translate to 33,020 fatalities, 2.7 million Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale (MAIS) 1-5 injuries, and 6.3 million property damage only vehicles (PDOVs). NHTSA estimated that safety applications enabled by self-driving technology could eliminate or mitigate the severity of up to 80 percent of crashes, including crashes at intersections or while changing lanes. Most of the automobile companies, technology companies, component makers, and organizations have begun developing or forming partnerships around self-driving technology to decrease the number of crashes, fatalities, and injuries on the roads A handful have invested sizable resources as they try to become leaders in autonomous driving. For example, Google, one of the early attention-getters [4], spun off its autonomous car project into the new company called Waymo, signaling that it's close to being commercialized.
General Motors [5]invested $500 million in the start-up company Lyft and has announced that it would test self-driving electric taxis on public roads within a year. It bought Cruise Automation for about $1 billion, and planned to build a development center in San Francisco.
Several large automakers, including Ford and Toyota, have announced big plans for moving attention and resources towards the development of Artificial Intelligent (A) Project, which is used to enable autonomous driving.
Volvo company [6] started a pilot project to trial autonomous SUV in Sweden and expand a trial later to London and China.
Autoliv, the world's largest airbag supplier [7] is in a joint venture with Volvo to develop self-driving cars.
Qualcomm company [8] has been working on systems that allow cars to automatically communicate location information. It is acquiring NXP Semiconductors, a maker of automotive microelectronic equipment, for a deal valued at $47 billion.
At CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2018, [9] Ford launched a cloud-based platform for mobility services and announced collaboration with Qualcomm on C-V2X. Ford is focusing on improving mobility in cities and has a new model for autonomous vehicles as well as a new open platform to facilitate information flow between vehicles.
Some states currently have specific laws that would ban autonomous driving—New York State, for instance, does not allow any hands-free driving. Without clear regulations, testing self-driving cars is a challenge. Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Vermont and Washington D.C. have all passed legislation related to autonomous vehicles, as of August 2017.
At this point, there are some proposed or/and realized technologies employed in the SDV to make driving vehicles safer. Let us discuss several of them.
NHTSA issued [10] an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) and a research report, "Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications: Readiness of V2V Technology for Application," which explores technical, legal, and policy issues associated with V2V communication system for use in the self-driving or automatic/autonomous vehicles
V2V use the dedicated short range communications (DSRC) to transmit data, such as location, direction and speed to nearby vehicles. That data would be updated and broadcast up to 10 times per second to nearby vehicles. Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications will allow vehicles to "talk" to roadway infrastructure such as traffic lights, stop signs, and work zones.
DSRC-based devices can be installed directly in vehicles when originally manufactured, after initial manufacture via an "aftermarket" installation, or could potentially be carried into vehicles by drivers in the form of a handheld device (and perhaps eventually, even as a function on a smart phone).
V2V messages have a range of approximately 300 meters. NHTSA's analysis of two potential applications, "intersection movement assist" (IMA) and "left turn assist" (LTA), indicated there could be a 50-percent reduction, on average, in crashes, injuries, and fatalities for just these two applications.
A basic safety message (BSM) is exchanged between vehicles and contains vehicle dynamics information such as heading, speed, location. The BSM is updated and broadcast up to 10 times per second to surrounding vehicles. The information is received by the other vehicles equipped with V2V devices and processed to determine collision threats.
In the row 1 of the Table 1, some vehicle crashes involve only one vehicle that would not be covered by the V2V technology, and therefore the saved crash population (see row 2) by the V2V technology encompasses approximately 3.8 million (69 percent of all crashes) vehicle-to-vehicle crashes, which would translate to 13,329 fatalities, 2.1 million MAIS 1-5 injuries, and 5.2 million PDOVs. As the V2V technology is currently limited only to light vehicles, the crash population (see row 3) encompasses approximately 3.4 million (62 percent of all crashes) light-vehicle to light-vehicle (LV2LV) saved crashes. It would translate to 7,325 fatalities, 1.8 million MAIS 1-5 injuries, and 4.7 million PDOVs. The economic and comprehensive total costs for these crashes amount to approximately $109 billion and $319 billion, respectively.
As we can see from row 4 of the Table 1 by comparing it to rows 1-3, the driver of a contemporary vehicle will be responsible during the next 8 years for 2.1 million crashes, 25,695 fatalities, and 0.9 million injuries annually because the V2V technology will save only 7,325 people annually in the possible 3.4 million crashes. This technology should also cover the crashes caused by poor weather conditions and condition of the vehicle parts. The V2V vehicles will be more complicated mechanically and electronically than the regular vehicles, and they may possibly contribute to some crashes. As evidenced by the above, the safety systems in the V2V vehicles has to be more advanced to satisfy the V2V technology.
Another proposed and realized Communication Technology employed in the SDV to make driving vehicles safer is the Tesla's hardware for self-driving model S electrical car. All Tesla vehicles Model 3 [11] have the hardware needed for self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver. It has active safety technologies, including automatic emergency braking. It has 8 air bags for driver and passenger heads, knees, and pelvis, plus two side curtain air bags. Tesla has an autonomous driving feature, called Autopilot that aims to assist drivers on highways through a system of radar, cameras, sensors, and GPS. Autopilot does not turn a Tesla into a driverless car. It is Tesla's autonomous driving feature that is designed to assist drivers on highways. Autopilot-enabled vehicles can automatically steer, change lanes, and apply brakes. For now, they still require a human behind the wheel. When used, Autopilot-enabled vehicles can self-steer, adjust speed, detect nearby obstacles, apply brakes, and park. Enhanced Autopilot 8.1, is applied to all Teslas made after Oct. 19, 2016. The GPS can detect the car's position. Additionally, the processor uses a Tesla-created AI (Artificial Intelligent) system for vision, sonar, and radar. Tesla's Automated Driving System (ADS) consists the Automatic Emergency Steering and Side Collision Warning: Side Collision Warning further enhances the active safety capabilities by sensing range and alerting drivers to objects, such as cars, that are too close to the side of the Tesla.
Another proposed and realized technology employed in the SDV to make driving vehicles safer is the Google based self-driving and automatic/autonomous vehicles technology. This technology is used by Waymo, the Google's parent company, in fully self-driving vehicles [12]. Waymo is a self-driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to move around. Waymo's self-driving system is designed to perform the entire dynamic driving task within a geographic area, without the need for a human driver. Before their cars drive in any location, their team builds their own detailed three-dimensional maps that highlight information such as road profiles, curbs and sidewalks, lane markers, crosswalks, traffic lights, stop signs, and other road features. Waymo's vehicles cross-reference their pre-built maps with real time sensor data to precisely determine their location on the road. For every dynamic object on the road, software predicts future movements based on current speed and trajectory. It understands that a vehicle will move differently than a cyclist or pedestrian. The software then uses that information to predict the many possible paths that other road users may take. The software also takes into account how changing road conditions (such as a blocked lane up ahead) may impact the behavior of others around it. Because their vehicles are constantly monitoring the environment, and predicting the future behavior of other road users in 360 degrees around the vehicles, they're able to respond quickly and safely to any changes on the road. Waymo's self-driving system uses LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) System, Vision (Camera) System, Radar System, GPS, and Supplemental Sensors. LiDAR works by beaming of laser pulses in 360 degrees and measuring how long it takes to reflect off a surface and return to the vehicle and can see up to 300 meters away. The vision system includes cameras designed to see with a simultaneous 360-degree field of view. Because high-resolution vision system detects color, it can help spot traffic lights, construction zones, school buses, and the flashing lights of emergency vehicles. For crash safety of the passengers inside the vehicles there are airbags that mitigate injury or prevent death. Waymo's self-driving software makes sense of the information coming from the sensors, and uses that information to make the best driving decisions for each situation. Their self-driving software doesn't just detect the presence of other objects; it actually understands what an object is, how it's likely to behave, and how that should affect their vehicle's own behavior on the road. This is how their vehicles safely navigate roads in fully autonomous mode.
Another proposed possible technology to employ in the SDV to make driving vehicles safer is the cellular communication technology. The Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) technology concept is briefly described in [13]. It involves the use of developing cellular standards for a wide range of vehicle connectivity use cases and applications. The C-V2X will facilitate vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2) and vehicle-to-network (V2N) communications, leveraging traditional cellular infrastructure. Messages can be broadcast from V2X servers to a number of vehicles simultaneously, while individual vehicles can send messages back to the server. Enabling V2I and V2N communications is beneficial because that makes possible a wide range of applications, such as the vehicle receiving alerts about accidents a few miles ahead up the road, or connecting to smart parking systems to find open available parking spaces automatically. On Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2017 in Las Vegas, the companies AUDI, Ericsson, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, and SWARCO Traffic Systems, announced the formation of Connected Vehicle to Everything of Tomorrow (ConVeX)—a consortium to carry out the first announced Cellular-V2X (C-V2X) trial based upon the 3rd Generation Partnership Project's (3GPP) Release 14, which includes Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication [14].
As we may see, all proposed and realized self-driving and autonomous vehicle technologies have some the same and some different basic qualities and characteristics. All of them might be able to take over all aspects of driving, which could reduce vehicle crashes and resulting fatalities and injuries. All of them have driver assistance technologies and might be able to take over all aspects of driving, which could reduce vehicle crashes and resulting fatalities and injuries. All of them are supported by Automated Driving Systems (ADS) that include such units as backup camera, system for preventing forward collision, a system that automatically steers the vehicle back into its lane, and a lot of sensors and equipment outside of the vehicle. The hardware of these units is well supported by the powerful and reserved software. As a result of their self-driving and/or autonomous nature, all such vehicles have a pre-crash sensitivity [15] feature. All such vehicles have or will have information about and/or communication with different objects or subjects on the nearby part of the road such as other vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, animals, traffic lights and signs, roadside infrastructure, construction zones, debris, and other obstacles.
From the other side, a protocol and technology of communication of the self-driving and autonomous vehicles may be different. To get information about the situation on the road, some self-driving and autonomous vehicles sense the area surrounding the vehicle by sending 360° signals around the vehicle and analyzing these signals reflected from any substance on the road [11]. Other vehicles sense the area surrounding the vehicle by not only sending signals-messages around the vehicle to the nearby vehicles, but also receiving and analyzing such signals-messages sent from any nearby vehicles on the road. For example, the V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) communication technology [2].
At the same time, Ford [9] and AUDI [14] announced collaboration with Qualcomm on the Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) technology concept involving the use of developing cellular standards for a wide range of vehicle connectivity instead of DSRC radio communication Standard.
Despite described differences, all proposed and realized self-driving and autonomous vehicles have basic qualities and characteristics that allow all of them to reduce vehicle crashes and, as it will be shown later, they have a good prospective for further decreasing fatalities and injuries in case of a crash.
As was shown previously, a vehicle may obtain its self-driving or autonomous feature by constantly measuring and controlling its own position and driving characteristics on a road and a dynamic of location of any nearby objects on the road.
As was mentioned previously, the Basic Safety Message (BSM) is used for vehicles communication in V2V communication system proposed by NHTSA for self-driving vehicles. Such vehicles use for safety purposes [3] Automated Driving Systems, for example, backup camera, system for preventing forward collision, a system that automatically steers the vehicle back into its lane, and a lot of sensors and equipment outside of the vehicle, for example, radar, camera, GPS for sensing the location. By constantly monitoring these sensors and analyzing the sensed data by their fast computers, self-driving or autonomous vehicles calculate their own position (longitude & latitude), speed, heading, acceleration, path prediction and receive information about and calculate location, speed, heading, acceleration, path history, path prediction, vehicle size of any other objects on the road. For crash safety of the passengers inside the vehicles there are air bags.
Here is a Summary of the mentioned above DSRC-based Basic Safety Message (BSM) Transmission Parameters:
Proposed Basic Safety Message (BSM) Communication Frequency (F)—10 times per second;
Position (P)—The location information of the host vehicle and surrounding objects enables a safety application on a vehicle to know whether a crash imminent situation exists or is likely to exist in the near future; Because a safety application V2V is generally concerned with a current location and the potential future locations of any entity on the road, vehicles have to provide their own driving data and get from surrounding objects (by messages as in this V2V or by pre-crash sensing [15. 16] and further calculation in other types of communication technologies) following characteristics of the movement during every communication period:
Speed (S);
Heading (H);
Acceleration (A);
Path History (PH);
Path Prediction (PP)
Vehicle Size(V) For a safety application's determination, it is necessary to know how large an object is on the road in order to know how severe a crash may be.                Detailed information about DSRC-based V2V vehicle communication system see in [2].
The statistics show that the number of the victims is indirectly proportional to their weight. It means that to significantly improve safety of the vehicle occupants it is necessary to put stress on controlling the forces applied to the occupants' bodies by more accurately measuring their weights. The sensors also have to measure weight of a vehicle occupant, but not the size of the occupant. because the energy accumulated by the occupant's body in the moving vehicle and which a restraint system has compensated during the crash, is proportional to the mass, but not to the size of the body. That is very important in safety systems.
As we may see from mentioned above contemporary Passenger Classification System, the force applied by an air bag to the adult occupant, especially to the driver, in the air bag system is the same as applied to the person whose weight is 102 Lb and applied to the person whose weight is even 215 Lb or higher. A light occupant in such situation may be injured and heavy occupant may be not protected enough. This is the reason that it is necessary to provide more classes in the Passenger Classification System to differentiate the forces applied to children and adult occupants in case of collision according to their weight.
It noted in [17, 18] that the weight of an occupant measured by the air bag system is not the entire weight of the occupant since some of the occupant's weight will be supported by his or her feet which are resting on the floor or pedals. This is a problem that does not allow to accurately weigh a vehicle occupant in on-board vehicle supplemental restraint system to provide the possibility of an accurate control of the air bag inflation force depending on the real value of the occupant's weight (mass) and eliminate extra force applied to the occupant's body at the time of collision. So, to accurately weigh a vehicle occupant, it is necessary to weigh the whole body of a vehicle occupant including the weight of a foot part of his/her body. NHTSA in [2] addressed this problem to improve the security of the air bags for children and light passengers.
In [19], is provided by age groups and restraint devices use, the number of passenger vehicles occupants that have been killed in crashes in 2016. The relative number of killed in the younger age groups is 2-3 times higher than in other age group.
So, the younger children group needs a more gentle restraint support during a possible crash. To provide this feature, the younger children safety seat needs a lower pressure, not a pyrotechnical type source of gas, as for older children and adults.
All this is not made in the on-board vehicle safety system yet.

Adaptive multi-force safety system (ADMUS)


An RF MEMS switch and a method for fabricating the same are disclosed, in which the RF MEMS device is down driven at a low voltage using a piezoelectric effect. The RF MEMS switch includes a substrate provided with RF signal lines and a cavity, a cantilever positioned on the cavity, having one end fixed to the substrate, and a contact pad connecting the RF signal lines with the cantilever in contact with the RF signal lines when the cantilever is down driven.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radio frequency Microelectromechanical System (RF MEMS) switch. More particularly, the present invention relates to an RF MEMS switch and a method for fabricating the same, in which the RF MEMS device is down bent at a low voltage.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an RF MEMS switch is used in various fields. For example, an RF MEMS device is used as a band selector, a multi-function switch, or a phase shifter in mobile products.
Various kinds of RF MEMS switches have been developed. Examples of an RF MEMS switch include an electrostatic RF MEMS switch based on electrostatic phenomenon and a piezoelectric RF MEMS switch based on piezoelectric effect. FIGS. 1 and 2 respectively show these RF MEMS switches.
FIG. 1 is a front sectional view illustrating an electrostatic RF MEMS switch. Referring to FIG. 1, the electrostatic RF MEMS switch 10 includes a substrate 1 provided with an RF signal line 12a, an anchor 13, and a driving line 14, a cantilever 11 fixed to the anchor 13 at an interval of 1 μm from the RF signal line 12a, and a contact pad 12 formed at an end of the cantilever 11 to be switched on/off in contact with the RF signal line 12a in accordance with driving of the cantilever 11. If an external voltage is applied to the RF MEMS switch 10 through the driving line 14, electrostatic force occurs between the driving line 14 and the cantilever 11, so that the cantilever 11 is down driven to allow the contact pad 12 to transmit an RF signal in contact with the RF signal line 12a. However, the electrostatic RF MEMS switch 10 has a high driving voltage of 3V or greater and a high volume. Because of this, the general trend is to substitute the electrostatic RF MEMS device with a piezoelectric RF MEMS switch shown in FIG. 2.
FIG. 2 is a plan view illustrating a piezoelectric RF MEMS switch. Referring to FIG. 2, an RF MEMS switch 20 of lead zirconate titanate (PZT, Pb(Zr,Ti)O3), which is up driven, is shown. The piezoelectric RF MEMS switch 20 includes a substrate 1 plated with an RF input signal line 22a and an RF output signal line 22b, and a plurality of cantilevers 21a to 21d that support a contact pad 22 positioned below the RF signal lines 22a and 22b and spaced apart from the RF signal lines 22a and 22b. The cantilevers 21a to 21d comprise an upper electrode layer, a piezoelectric layer, a lower electrode layer, and a membrane. If a DC voltage is applied to the electrode layers of the cantilevers 21a to 21d through driving lines 24a and 24b, the cantilevers 21a to 21d are up bent in a cavity 23a. Then, the contact pad 22 formed at an end of the cantilevers 21a to 21d contacts the RF signal lines 22a and 22b so that the RF signal lines 22a and 22b are connected with each other to transmit an RF signal. The piezoelectric RF MEMS switch 20 can be driven at a voltage less than 3V, generates displacement of about 1.8 μm when the cantilever has a length of 100 μm, and has little power consumption.
However, there occurs some difficulty in fabricating the aforementioned piezoelectric RF MEMS switch 20. Particularly, the fabricating process of the piezoelectric RF MEMS switch 20 is not simple. In the piezoelectric RF MEMS switch 20, the piezoelectric layer or the membrane of the cantilevers is fabricated at a high temperature. For this reason, the piezoelectric layer or the membrane should be formed prior to a coplanar waveguide (CPW) line including the RF signal lines. If the CPW line is formed on the substrate and a piezoelectric thin film material is fabricated on the CPW line, diffusion of metal occurs at a high temperature or silicide is formed. Therefore, in the piezoelectric RF MEMS switch, as shown in FIG. 2, the cantilevers 21a to 21d are up bent and a separate wafer or substrate 1 is prepared on the cantilevers 21a to 21d so as to form the CPW line. In this case, a rear surface (bottom) of the substrate is excessively etched. In the piezoelectric RF MEMS switch 20 shown in FIG. 2, after the RF signal lines 22a and 22b are formed on the upper surface of the substrate 1 through plating, an opposite surface of the substrate 1 is fully etched so as to form the cantilevers 21a to 21d.
To solve the difficulty in fabricating the RF MEMS switch, Korean Laid-Open Patent Nos. 2005-86629 and 2005-0076149 disclose a piezoelectric RF MEMS switch in which cantilevers are formed on a cavity so that they can be down driven. However, this piezoelectric RF MEMS switch separately requires a substrate provided with cantilevers and a substrate provided with an RF signal line. In this respect, if a CPW line and cantilevers are provided on one substrate in the piezoelectric RF MEMS switch, it is possible to provide a simple fabricating process of the piezoelectric RF MEMS switch. In such case, it is easy to form the CPW line, and switching operation of the RF MEMS switch would exactly be performed.

RF MEMS switch and method for fabricating the same


Techniques to automate the management of investor relations are disclosed herein. A vertical domain query language is introduced, specifically for investor relations. Graphical query builder tools to create queries in the vertical domain query language are described. Reports specific to investor relations, in particular reports to assess the efficacy of investor relations activities, are also described. Investor relations client applications that make use of user state, such as identity, date time stamp and geolocation are described.

Companies fund operations from capital obtained from investors. If a company fails to satisfy its investors, the company becomes at risk of having investors withdraw their investments, the company losing valuation, and the company not having enough capital to fund operations.
Investor relations is the practice of managing all aspects of a relationship with investors including, but not limited to communications with investors via activities and events, measuring the effect of those communications by monitoring investor holding positions, evaluating the measured results and planning future activities and events. An investor relations officer ("IRO") is an individual who performs investor relations.
In large companies and publicly traded companies, the number of investors, and the complexity of the relationships with investors, in particular with institutional investors, have given rise to the need of bringing modern project management and customer relations management ("CRM") techniques to bear in investor relations, as well as advanced analysis techniques made possible with present advances in computing. Accordingly, those techniques are reliant on automation.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An apparatus is described for increasing a range of height adjustment of a strut suspension system. The apparatus includes multiple spacers that together allow for increased range of adjustment and ease of installation.

Over the years vehicle manufacturers have added complexity, components, and reduced size to vehicles which has often made it challenging to replace or modify certain portions of a vehicle suspension without disassembling other components of the vehicle. For example, after complete assembly of the vehicle, it may be desirable to raise the height of the vehicle's body by adding a conventional lift kit to the vehicle suspension between the strut assemblies and other portions of the suspension. However, addition of the conventional lift kit may require disassembly or removal of portions of the suspension before the conventional lift kit may be installed. Also, after installing conventional lift kit, the user may desire to either remove the kit or add other kits, which may also require disconnecting other vehicle components. For example, elevating a shock absorber of a strut above a control arm a sufficient distance to allow installation of conventional spacers below a lower mount may prove difficult without first removing other components of the vehicle.
By way of further example, although bolts attaching the strut assembly to a lower control arm of a wishbone style suspension may be initially installed with a bolt head underneath the control arm, it may be preferred to reposition the bolt to attach the strut assembly to the control arm having the bolt head above the control arm and strut lower mount. When the bolt head is positioned above the lower mount and after the strut suspension is installed, the spacing between the drive shaft and the top portion of the lower mount of the strut assembly may not be sufficient to allow removal of the bolt positioned under the drive shaft without requiring disassembly of portions of the suspension and repositioning of the drive shaft or steering column. Further, other suspension designs may not allow for adding conventional spacers between the strut and lower mount without removal or disassembly of portions of suspension components. There is accordingly a need for a spacer system that may be added or removed below the lower mount without requiring disassembly of portions of the suspensions assembly or repositioning of the drive shaft.


A load bearing and/or suspension system, having a harness element; harness straps extending from the harness element; a pair of suspension members, wherein each suspension member extends from a pair of harness straps; a ladder lock buckle attached or coupled to each suspension member; a pair of webbing segments, wherein a free end of each webbing segment interacts with one of the ladder lock buckles such that when the free end of the webbing segment is urged away from the ladder lock buckle, a second end of the webbing segment is drawn toward the ladder lock buckle; and a belt attachment element attached or coupled to the second end of the webbing segment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to load bearing and/or suspension systems. In particular, the present disclosure relates to an ergonomic load bearing and/or suspension system.
2. Description of Related Art
Military personnel, law enforcement officers, and other workers have traditionally carried most of the essential tools of their trade on their belts. Duty/tool belts, and the weight and shape of the equipment carried on them, not only cause discomfort and fatigue to the wearers wearing them, but over the years of the wearer's career often cause chronic physical problems, including serious back, leg, hip, and nerve ailments.
The duty/tool belt that provides the foundation on which the wearer's tools are supported has traditionally been a heavy, rigid, leather belt, with a large metal buckle. The better leather belts are made of two layers of leather, glued, and stitched tightly together, to increase the belt's stiffness for the purpose of supporting the items it must carry.
In order to provide some support for the weight of the equipment, duty/tool belts are often attached to the wearer's trousers belt beneath it by several "keepers" spaced at intervals around the belt. These keepers are leather or synthetic straps, typically ½″ to ¾″ wide, that are placed around both the duty/tool belt and the trousers belt beneath it, after which the keeper is fastened into a closed loop either with two metal snaps or with Velcro to hold the two belts together and thus restrict the duty/tool belt's movement on the wearer's waist.
Alternatively, duty/tool belts are sometimes made with hook-and-loop ("Velcro") material on their underside, to attach them, without keepers, to a trousers belt faced with corresponding Velcro material.
The paramount purpose of the duty/tool belt is, of course, to allow the wearer to carry his or her most important items of equipment in a manner that will make them both secure, and readily accessible when needed.
As an example, a typical police officer's "duty belt," as it is called, often supports from 10 to as much as 20 pounds or more of equipment, typically including a semi-automatic pistol in a heavily-constructed, rigid duty/tool holster, a magazine pouch with two spare pistol magazines containing 12-18 rounds of ammunition each, one or sometimes two pairs of handcuffs, a radio with batteries, a baton (solid or expandable), a flashlight, pepper spray, rubber gloves in a glove case, and possibly a Taser, spare Taser cartridges, a cell phone, a duty/tool knife with glass breaker and seat-belt cutter, a citation book (at least for the foot patrol wearer), keys, and other items.
The result of having a significant amount of equipment and/or weighty tools suspended or attached to a duty/tool belt is that all of the considerable weight of the duty/tool belt presses downward on the wearer's hips. Depending on the wearer's physique, physical condition, the material and construction of the belt itself, the equipment carried on it, and the nature of the wearer's job description, the heavy duty/tool belt presses down hard on the wearer's hips, and, as it does, it constricts the wearer's lower back and presses on sensitive nerves. Some wearers find their belts constantly sliding downward over their hips, requiring them to tug the belt back up again and again throughout their work day.
Tightening the belt in an attempt to keep it from sliding down increases the discomfort to the wearer's back, hips, and nerves. The tight belt sometimes causes equipment or equipment pouches to bite into the wearer's hip, or to aggravate the nerves running over the hip.
Typically, the military and law enforcement communities place a high value on tradition and radical changes in uniform design are slow in coming. Generally, the sharp, neat appearance of uniformed personnel and officers is of great importance, and even a minor deviation from the unit's or agency's dress code can subject the wearer to reprimand or discipline. In the past, at least some agencies were so insistent on the uniform appearance of their uniformed officers that they went so far as to require all officers to wear their holsters on the same side, regardless of whether the wearer was right-handed or left-handed.
While such an extreme demand for consistency may now be largely a thing of the past, it is evident that any major deviation from a traditional uniformed military, law enforcement, and other appearance, such as wearing externally-visible suspenders, an equipment vest, or a uniform shirt with equipment pouches sewn into it, would be unacceptable to most military, law enforcement, and other agencies, and thus would not offer a practical solution to the duty/tool belt's physical problems for the majority of wearers who suffer-or will sooner or later suffer-from physical problems as a result of wearing a traditional duty/tool belt.
Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles, or the like, which has been included in the present specification is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present disclosure as it existed before the priority date of each claim of this application.


A power converter includes an energy transfer element, a switched element, a secondary control circuit, a primary switching, and a primary control circuit. The secondary control circuit generates a voltage pulse across a secondary winding of the energy transfer element while the secondary winding provides current to an output. The secondary control circuit is coupled to vary a voltage across the switched element to generate the voltage pulse across the secondary winding in response to an output of the power converter. The primary control circuit is coupled to the primary switch and a third winding of the energy transfer element. The primary control circuit is coupled to switch the primary switch to regulate the output in response to the voltage pulse. The secondary winding is coupled to reflect the voltage pulse onto the third winding which is on the same side of the energy transfer element as a primary winding.

Many electrical devices, such as cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDA's), laptops, etc., use power to operate. Because power is generally delivered through a wall socket as high voltage alternating current (ac), a device, typically referred to as a power converter, can be used to transform the high voltage ac input to a well regulated direct current (dc) output through an energy transfer element. Switched mode power converters are commonly used due to their high efficiency, small size, and low weight to power many of today's electronics. In a typical operation, a switched mode power converter uses a switch to provide the desired output quantity by either varying the duty ratio (typically the ratio of the on-time of the switch to the total switching period) or by varying the switching frequency of the switch. Among the various switched mode power converter topologies, a flyback converter is a commonly used topology for low-cost power converters. In a typical application, the ac-dc power converter receives an input from an ordinary ac electrical outlet. The output of the power converter is typically a dc voltage, but may be a regulated dc current for applications such as charging batteries.
Safety agencies generally require the power converter to provide galvanic isolation between input and output. Galvanic isolation prevents dc current between input and output of the power converter. In other words, a dc voltage applied between an input terminal and an output terminal of the power converter will produce no substantial dc current between the input terminal and the output terminal of the power converter. The requirement for galvanic isolation may be a complication that contributes to the cost of the power converter.
A power converter with galvanic isolation maintains an isolation barrier that electrically separates the input from the output. Energy is transferred across the isolation barrier to provide power to the output, and information in the form of signals is transferred across the isolation barrier to regulate the output. Galvanic isolation is typically achieved with electromagnetic and electro-optical devices. Electromagnetic devices such as transformers and coupled inductors are generally used to transfer energy from input to output to provide output power, whereas electro-optical devices are generally used to transfer signals from output to input to control the transfer of energy from input to output.
Efforts to reduce the cost of the power converter have focused on the elimination of electro-optical devices and their associated circuits. Alternative solutions generally use an energy transfer element such as a transformer or a coupled inductor to provide energy to the output and also to obtain the information necessary to control the output. One low cost configuration places the control circuit and a high voltage switch on the input side of the isolation barrier. The controller obtains information about the output indirectly from observation of a voltage at a winding of the energy transfer element. The winding that provides the information is also on the input side of the isolation barrier.
The information about the output received in an indirect manner as described above is based substantially on the magnetic coupling between the windings placed on the input and the output sides of the energy transfer element. The magnetic coupling between the windings may not be perfect due to physical and mechanical limitations associated with the placement of the windings of the energy transfer element. This may lead to inaccurate information about the output which may further lead to poor regulation of the output. Therefore, generating more reliable information about the output would improve regulation of power converter outputs.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding components throughout the several views of the drawings. Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention.

Power converter with winding communication


The present invention relates to a circuit for restoring bits transmitted by an asynchronous signal, including a comparator of the signal level with a discrimination threshold; a sampling circuit taking several samples from the comparator output for each time interval corresponding to a bit; a circuit for generating an analysis signal at a frequency substantially equal to the bit transmission speed; and an analysis circuit to correct the discrimination threshold according to the difference between two phase values corresponding to the phase relationships with respect to the analysis signal of two consecutive sample transitions, and/or correct the phase of the analysis signal with respect to the bit transmission depending on the sum of the two said phase values.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circuit for restoring logic levels of bits transmitted asynchronously and serially in a signal. The present invention relates more particularly to a circuit that properly restores bits even when a transmission signal undergoes phase and amplitude variations.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows an example of a transmission signal 9. The transmission signal 9 is used to transmit teletext information 11. Each line of teletext information begins with a synchronization burst 10.
Depending on the conditions at a receiving circuit, a teletext signal may include noise, and be of variable amplitude and phase. However, using the synchronization burst 10 at the beginning of each line of teletext information 11, the circuit receiving the transmission signal 9 can periodically readjust its receive phase and a discrimination threshold used to distinguish the high logic levels from the low logic levels in the lines of teletext information.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,382 describes a circuit for receiving lines of teletext information included in a transmission signal. The frequency and the discrimination threshold found at the beginning of each line are maintained for the entire duration of the line, until the next synchronization pulse burst. Thus, the circuit does not compensate for possible amplitude and phase fluctuations in a line of the teletext information, which could result in many errors if the conditions at the receiving circuit are not optimal.

Circuit for restoring bits transmitted by a series signal


An intake manifold system for an internal combustion engine includes inlet runners attached to a mounting flange. The inlet runners may be one piece with the mounting flange. A charge air control is mounted within the mounting flange, with the charge air control including a control shaft passage formed in the mounting flange, and a control shaft extending the length of the control shaft passage. The control shaft is journaled within the control shaft passage and carries a number of charge air control elements mounted for rotation with the control shaft.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to an intake manifold for an internal combustion engine. The inventive intake manifold has the ability to control the motion of charge air passing through the manifold.
2. Related Art
The ability to control pre-combustion charge motion of air entering the cylinders of an internal combustion engine has grown appreciably more important as emissions standards and fuel economy requirements have become increasingly more stringent. Although it is known to employ charge motion control devices and intake runner control valves with internal combustion engines, such devices typically increase the complexity and package volume of an engine by necessitating their placement within a spacer located between the upper and lower intake manifolds, for example. This type of construction is shown in FIG. 4, in which a spacer, 102, containing airflow control elements 103, is mounted between an upper intake manifold, 104, and a cylinder head or lower intake manifold (not shown). Other known charge motion control devices include a control shaft journaled within an oversized mounting flange. In this construction, a separate retainer plate, secured in place with threaded fasteners, maintains the control shaft in place. This construction, too, is characterized by undesirable expanded package volume and complexity, as well as excessive cost.
It would be desirable to provide charge air motion control with an intake manifold that does not require either an additional component such as a spacer having a built-in charge motion control device, or added package volume which increases the installed space required by the intake system of an engine.

Intake manifold system for internal combustion engine


Quality of service is provided to prioritized VMs and applications, based on the varied quality of different shared computing resources. Each VM or application has an associated priority. A quality rating is dynamically assigned to each shared computing resource. Requests for shared computing resources made by specific VMs or applications are received. For each specific received request, the current priority of the requesting VM or application is identified. In response to each received request, a specific shared computing resource is assigned to the specific requesting VM or application. This assignment is made based on the current priority of the requesting VM or application and the current quality rating of the shared computing resource, thereby providing quality of service to the requesting VM or application corresponding to its current priority.

Clusters are groups of computers that use groups of redundant computing resources in order to provide continued service when individual system components fail. More specifically, clusters eliminate single points of failure by providing multiple servers, multiple network connections, redundant data storage, etc. Clustering systems are often combined with storage management products that provide additional useful features, such as journaling file systems, logical volume management, multipath input/output (I/O) functionality, etc. For example, some storage management products such as Veritas Volume Manager and Dynamic Multipathing support multipathed storage devices, in which a virtual disk device is made available to initiators of I/O, wherein multiple physical paths exist between the virtual disk and the underlying physical storage.
In a high-availability clustering system, the failure of a server (or of a specific computing resource used thereby such as a network adapter, storage device, etc.) is detected, and the application that was being run on the failed server is automatically restarted on another computing system. This process is called "failover." The high availability clustering system can also detect the failure of the application itself, and failover the application to another node. In effect, the high availability clustering system monitors applications, the servers the applications run on, and the resources used by the applications, to ensure that the applications remain highly available. Clusters can be used to provide applications to customers according to service level agreements guaranteeing varying levels of availability.
Virtualization of computing devices can be employed in high availability clustering and in other contexts. One or more virtual machines (VMs or guests) can be instantiated at a software level on physical computers (host computers or hosts), such that each VM runs its own operating system instance. Just as software applications, including server applications such as databases, enterprise management solutions and e-commerce websites, can be run on physical computers, so too can these applications be run on virtual machines. A high availability cluster of VMs can be built, in which the applications being monitored by the high availability clustering system run on and are failed over between VMs, as opposed to physical servers.
In some virtualization scenarios, a software component often called a hypervisor can act as an interface between the guests and the host operating system for some or all of the functions of the guests. In other virtualization implementations, there is no underlying host operating system running on the physical, host computer. In those situations, the hypervisor acts as an interface between the guests and the hardware of the host computer, in effect functioning as the host operating system, on top of which the guests run. Even where a host operating system is present, the hypervisor sometimes interfaces directly with the hardware for certain services. In some virtualization scenarios, the host itself is in the form of a guest (i.e., a virtual host) running on another host.
A hypervisor receives requests for resources from VMs, and allocates shared resources such as CPU, memory, I/O bandwidth, I/O channels, storage, performance boosting cache, replication links, etc. In a storage management environment, multipathed storage can also be shared between VMs or hosts. Although conventional hypervisors can allocate different shares of the resources to different VMs, conventional hypervisors treat all available resources of a given type (e.g., CPU, memory and I/O channels) as being similar and operating in essentially the same way. This limits the extent to which varying quality of service can be provided to different VMs and applications based on their priority or the underlying service level agreements with customers.
It would be desirable to address this issue.

System and method for providing preferential I/O treatment to devices that host a critical virtual machine


Disclosed is a blood pump apparatus for blood components, comprising a housing forming a substantially cylindrical liquid chamber, an inlet port formed at an upper central portion of the housing and communicating with a source of blood component and the chamber, an outlet port formed in a peripheral portion of the housing and communicating with the chamber, a rotator arranged in the chamber and having an upper cover and a lower shroud, a lower surface of the upper cover being inclined such that an angle .theta. formed by the lower surface of the cover and a central axis of the inlet port is an obtuse angle, and a plurality of grooves being formed radially in the upper surface of the shroud, a projection formed at an upper central portion of the shroud and located immediately below the inlet port, bearing rotatably supporting the rotator with respect to the housing, motor for applying a rotational force to the rotator, and a plurality of liquid paths radially formed between the upper cover and the shroud to substantially uniformly distribute blood from a central portion of the rotator to a peripheral portion thereof. Each of the paths has a cross sectional area substantially constant over the entire length region or gradually diminishing in one direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mainly a blood pump apparatus for transporting a physiological fluid such as blood and, more particularly, to a blood pump apparatus capable of suppressing turbulence of a blood component to be transported and enhancing good pump characteristics at a low speed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known turbo pump apparatuses for transporting a physiological fluid such as blood or plasma are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,589,822 and 3,864,055. These pumps are turbo pumps for feeding blood using centrifugal forces. The former turbo pump generates the centrifugal force upon rotation of a general open type multi-blade vane assembly, while the latter turbo pump generates the centrifugal force by utilizing a friction force between a plurality of conical rotators.
The most important things for blood transportation are to prevent solid components such as erythrocytes and platelets in the blood from being destroyed and to prevent the blood from coagulating as a result of contact with foreign materials. The most important cause for destruction of the above Solid components is blood turbulence during transpiration. The blood pump disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,864,055 is a pump for applying the centrifugal force to the fluid by the friction force between the plurality of conical rotators. This pump is known as a pump for minimizing turbulence in a blood path between the rotators and hence destruction of solid components (Hydrodynamical and Hemodynamical Evaluation of Rotary Blood Pumps: Inter. Workshop on Rotary Blood Pumps: Vienna. 1988 pp. 76-81).
This blood pump, however, has pump efficiency lower than that of a general pump using vanes. In order to obtain a given pump head, the above blood pump requires a higher speed than that of a vane pump having the same size. For this reason, local heating occurs in a seal portion of a rotating shaft, and the blood around the rotating shaft is denatured and coagulated. In order to obtain the same flow rate as the vane pump having the same size, the blood pump requires a plurality of rotators. Since these plural rotators are housed in the pump housing, the volume of the housing is increased, leading to an increased priming volume, i.e., the amount of blood loaded in the pump housing.
On the other hand, the blood pump described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,822 uses an open type multi-blade vane assembly having a large opening at its center to reduce local heating at the seal portion of the shaft, so that the blood speed near the seal portion is increased. In addition, a heat sink structure is added to this pump. In the open type vane pump of this type, however, the blood flow tends to be separated from the vanes, vortex and a counter flow tends to occur between the vanes. So, the blood flow tend to be turbulent, and solid components (e.g., erythrocytes) in the blood tend to be destroyed.
In the conventional pump of this type, erythrocytes are likely to be destroyed (so called hemolysis). Also, the function of the blood platelet tends to be lowered. It follows that the conventional pump of this type is not adapted for use over a long period of time. Incidentally, a high pump head can be obtained in general with a low rotation speed in the case of enlarging the pump housing. However, the enlargement of the pump housing gives rise to an inconvenience that the priming volume of the pump is increased.


A myocardial infarction patch for placement over a myocardial infarction includes an electroactive polymer (EAP) structure. Varying electricity supplied to the EAP structure causes the patch to expand and contract over the myocardial infarction. The expansion and contraction of the patch can be coordinated with the expansion and contraction of the heart. The electricity is provided to the EAP via a pacemaker, defibrillator, ICD or similar pulse-generating device. Causing the patch to expand and contract against the myocardial infarction can improve the ejection fraction of the heart.

Placing a surgical patch over a myocardial infarction ("MI") is being researched as a possible route for preventing an infarcted region from rapidly progressing towards heart failure ("HF"). Specifically, it has been suggested that placement of a surgical patch over a MI to contain left ventricle ("LV") mechanical remodeling causes reasonable benefit and possible improvement in ejection fraction ("EF"). The patch reinforces the MI and distresses the entire MI region, thereby allowing the LV to maintain its shape and size and reducing the likelihood of HF.
Tissue in the region of an MI is damaged and has a reduced ability to contract as necessary to take part in the heart's pumping process. Thus, the MI region of the heart has a reduced ability to contribute to the heart's pumping process. Simply placing a surgical patch over a MI does not rectify the loss of pumping force caused by the MI.
There is a need in the art for a MI patch that at least in part rectifies the loss of pumping force caused by a MI. There is also a need in the art for a method of rectifying the loss of pumping force caused by a MI.

Implantable myocardial infarction patch having electroactive polymer


An electrically driven vehicle comprises a motor; a power storage device; a first power supply device connected with a power line; a charging device configured to charge the power storage device by using electric power from an external power source; and a second power supply device configured to supply part of the electric power from the external power source to auxiliary machinery via the charging device. The electrically driven vehicle performs a charging efficiency determination process that calculates a charging efficiency as a ratio of a charging power of the power storage device to an input power of the charging device, and that determines whether the charging efficiency is lower than a predetermined efficiency. When the charging efficiency determination process determines that the charging efficiency is lower than the predetermined efficiency, the electrically driven vehicle stops the second power supply device and performs the charging efficiency determination process again.

A proposed electrically driven vehicle includes a battery configured to supply electric power to a motor for driving; a main DC/DC converter connected with a power line from the battery to the motor and configured to supply electric power to auxiliary machinery; a charging device configured to charge the battery by using electric power from an external power source; and a sub DC/DC converter connected with the charging device and configured to supply electric power to the auxiliary machinery (as described in, for example, JP 2017-175723A). In response to a start request during external charging, this vehicle drives only the sub DC/DC converter when power consumption of the auxiliary machinery is lower than a predetermined value, while driving only the main DC/DC converter when the power consumption of the auxiliary machinery is equal to or higher than the predetermined value.


Methods and apparatus for temperature modification of selected body regions including an induced state of local hypothermia of the brain region for neuroprotection. A heat exchange catheter is provided with heat transfer fins projecting or extending outward from the catheter which may be inserted into selected blood vessels or body regions to transfer heat with blood or fluid in the selected blood vessels or body regions. Another aspect of the invention further provides methods and apparatus for controlling the internal body temperature of a patient. By selectively heating or cooling a portion of the catheter lying within a blood vessel, heat may be transferred to or from blood flowing within the vessel to increase or decrease whole body temperature or the temperature of a target region. Feed back from temperature sensors located within the patient""s body allow for control of the heat transfer from the catheter to automatically control the temperature of the patient or of the target region within the patient. The apparatus may include a blood channeling sleeve that directs body fluid over a heat exchanger where the body fluid""s temperature is altered, and then is discharged out the distal end of the sleeve to a desired location, for example, cooled blood to the brain for neuroprotection. The catheter may be used alone or in conjunction with other heat exchangers to cool one region of a patient""s body while heating another.

The present invention generally relates to the selective modification and control of a patient""s body temperature, and to the regulation of the temperature of a fluid that is to be delivered to a specific target location within a body structure. More particularly, the invention provides methods and apparatus for treating or inducing hypothermia or hyperthermia by inserting a catheter into a blood vessel of the patient and selectively transferring heat to or from blood flowing through the vessel, and for altering the temperature of a fluid that is to be delivered to the target location while the fluid is within the patient.
The present invention further relates to the selective modification and control of whole body temperature and the temperature of selected target regions of the body such as the brain. More particularly, the invention is directed to methods and apparatus for lowering the temperature of the brain by using heat transfer regions of a heat transfer catheter to cool fluids in contact with, or circulating in, around, or leading to the brain region to provide regional hypothermia and temperature control.
Under ordinary circumstances, the thermal regulatory system of the human body maintains a near constant temperature of about 37xc2x0 C. (98.6xc2x0 F.). Heat lost to the environment is precisely balanced by internal heat produced within the body.
Hypothermia is a condition of abnormally low body temperature generally characterized by a core body temperature of 35xc2x0 C. or less, and may be further clinically defined according to its severity. For example, a body core temperature within the range of 32xc2x0 C. to 35xc2x0 C. may be described as mild hypothermia, 30xc2x0 C. to 32xc2x0 C. as moderate, 24xc2x0 C. to 30xc2x0 C. as severe, and a body temperature of less than 24xc2x0 C. may constitute profound hypothermia. Although the above ranges may provide a useful basis for discussion, they are not absolutes and definitions vary widely as indicated in the medical literature.
Hyperthermia may be defined as a condition of abnormally high body temperature, and may be the result from exposure to a hot environment or surroundings, overexertion, or fever. Body core temperatures may range from 38xc2x0 C. to 41xc2x0 C. due to conditions such as fever, and may be substantially higher in cases of exposure and overexertion. Like hypothermia, hyperthermia is a serious condition that can be fatal.
Although both hypothermia and hyperthermia may be harmful and require treatment in some case, in other cases hyperthermia or hypothermia, and particularly hypothermia, may be therapeutic or otherwise advantageous, and therefore may be intentionally induced. For example, periods of cardiac arrest in the setting of myocardial infarction and heart surgery can produce brain damage or other nerve damage. Hypothermia is recognized in the medical community as an accepted neuroprotectant during cardiovascular surgery and therefore a patient is often kept in a state of induced hypothermia during cardiovascular surgery. Likewise, hypothermia is sometimes induced as a neuroprotectant during neurosurgery. Hypothermia may also be beneficial in other situations, for example, for victims of head trauma, spinal trauma, brain attack (also sometimes called stroke), spinal surgery or surgery where blood flow may be interrupted or compromised to the brain or spinal cord such as aneurysm repair, as well as other types of surgery where neuroprotection is desirable.
Neural tissue, that is all tissue of the nervous system such as the brain or spinal cord, is particularly subject to damage by vascular disease processes including, but not limited to ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, blood deprivation for any reason, including cardiac arrest, intracerebral hemorrhage and head trauma In each of these instances, damage to brain tissue may occur because of ischemia, pressure, edema or other processes resulting in a loss of cerebral function and permanent neurological deficits. Lowering the brain temperature may confer neuroprotection through several mechanisms including the blunting of post-insult elevation of neurotransmitters such as glutamate, reduction of cerebral metabolic rate, moderation of intracellular calcium, prevention of intracellular protein synthesis inhibition, and reduction of free radical formation as well as other enzymatic cascades and even genetic responses. Thus intentionally induced hypothermia may prevent some of the damage to brain or other neurological tissue during surgery or as a result of stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage and trauma.
Treatment of stroke in particular is a possibly therapeutic use of intentionally induced hypothermia. Stroke (sometimes called brain attack) is a severely debilitating and complex disease that results from the blockage (ischemic stroke) or rupture (hemorrhagic stroke) of a blood vessel within or leading to the brain region. During a stroke, brain cells are damaged either by a lack of oxygen or by increased pressure. These events can eventually result in death and necrosis of brain tissue. In general, at least one goal in the therapeutic intervention for stroke is to preserve the function of as much brain tissue as possible. However, current medical treatment for stroke is largely supportive in nature. Newer treatments, for example clot-dissolving drugs, are available but may be only suitable for treatment of ischemic strokes and must generally be used shortly (within several hours) of the initial stroke symptoms to avoid side effects related to bleeding within the brain. In practice, it has been difficult to treat strokes within this time window since patients often do not arrive at a medical facility until several hours after the onset of a stroke. As a result, most strokes are not aggressively treated with medical therapy. A treatment to prolong this time window, and to protect brain cells from death, would have a profound impact on patient care.
Experimental studies of ischemia have shown reduction in infarcted brain tissue volume in animals treated with hypothermia during or shortly after a stroke or ischemic insult. It is therefore believed that the application of hypothermia to a patient who is suffering or has recently suffered a stroke may be beneficial.
Despite the acceptance of hypothermia as a neuroprotectant, it has not been widely used outside of the surgical setting. Additionally, most current practices attempt to provide hypothermia to the brain by inducing whole body hypothermia through systemic treatment. However, whole body hypothermia presents numerous difficulties and is cumbersome to implement in a patient who is not under general anesthesia. Lowering the systemic temperature of a patient not only takes a significant amount of time, but also subjects the patient to deleterious effects of hypothermia including cardiac arrhythmias, coagulation problems, increased susceptibility to infections, and problems of discomfort such as profound shivering.
Control of the body""s temperature, for example, to maintain normothermia (usually 37xc2x0 C.), is often desirable. For example, in a patient under general anesthesia, the body""s normal temperature regulating mechanisms may not be fully functioning, and the anesthesiologist may be required to artificially control the patient""s body temperature. Similarly, a patient may lose an extraordinary amount of heat to the environment, for example, during major surgery, and the patient""s unaided body may not be able to generate sufficient heat to compensate for the heat lost. A device and method for controlling body temperature, for example by adding heat to maintain normothermia, would be desirable.
Particularly in the surgical setting, it has sometimes been the case that blood or other fluid was heated or cooled outside a patient""s body and introduced into the body to heat or cool the body or some target location within the body. However, heating or cooling fluids outside of the patient may be cumbersome and require elaborate equipment. For example, in surgery, the temperature of a patient may be controlled by a bypass machine where a significant amount of the patient""s blood is removed, heated or cooled outside the body in a by-pass machine, and reintroduced to the patient""s blood stream. One particular application of this procedure is whole body hypothermia sometimes induced during heart surgery. Other examples include hypothermia induced during neurosurgery or aortic or other vascular surgery.
The use of an external method for inducing hypothermia, such as a bypass machine, is an extremely invasive procedure that subjects vast quantities of the patientsxe2x80x2 blood to pumping for an extended length of time. External pumping of blood may be harmful to the blood, and continued pumping of blood into a patient for extensive periods of time, for example, more than one or two hours, is generally avoided. Additionally, such a procedure may require systemic treatment of the patient, for example, with heparin to prevent clotting which may present other undesirable consequences in a stroke victim.
Means of imparting heat to the blood of a patient, or removing heat from the patient, which do not require external pumping have been proposed. For example, one particular catheter structure which has been developed to treat patients suffering from either hypothermia or hyperthermia is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,208, to Ginsburg, the complete disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference. That patent issued from one of the applications from which this application claims priority. A catheter disclosed in that patent was inserted into a blood vessel and a portion of the catheter heated or cooled, transferring heat to the patient""s blood and thereby affecting the overall body temperature of the patient. However, while such devices and methods may avoid the problems associated with external pumping of blood, they do not eliminate the difficulties that arise when the entire body is subjected to hypothermia.
There have been attempts to achieve regional cerebral hypothermia, for example by placing the head in a cooled helmet or shroud, or even injecting a cold solution into the head region. Attempts to achieve brain cooling by directly cooling the surface of the head have proven impractical or ineffective because of factors such as the insulating qualities of the skull, which make it difficult to effectively lower brain core temperature, and the blood flow that may fail to provide sufficient heat transfer circulation to the brain itself when the surface of the head is cooled. Patients, especially patients not under general anesthesia, may also find it difficult to tolerate immersion or direct exposure of the head to a cold solution or cooling surface.
An apparatus to facilitate transfer of heat to or from a target location by means of internally applied heating or cooling would be advantageous. It has been known in the art to impart heat by direct contact with specific tissue by means of a balloon catheter. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,075 to Spears, a heated balloon was described to apply heat directly from the surface of the balloon to the wall of an artery dilated during percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) to fuse together disrupted tissue. This device, however, operated by direct contact between the vessel wall in question and a greatly heated balloon surface.
Balloons capable of acting as ongoing heat transfer balloons by the continual flow of heat transfer medium through the balloon have also been shown. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,392 to Saab, a concentric inflow and outflow lumen each terminate within the heat transfer balloon so that a continual flow of heat transfer liquid can be maintained within the balloon for controlled heat transfer to the adjacent tissue.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,758 to Taheri, discloses a balloon in which heated fluid such as heated saline solution is circulated through a balloon that pulses. The heat from the heat transfer liquid may then be imparted to the blood as it flows past the balloon to treat hypothermia in a patient. The flow of the affected blood is not otherwise generally directed nor is the temperature of a target region disclosed to be altered by the heated balloon of Tahari.
The configuration of balloons to provide channels for the flow of blood from the proximal side to the distal side of a balloon blocking a blood vessel, such as a balloon used for PTCA has also been shown. For example, such an autoperfusion balloon angioplasty catheter is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,017 to Sahota, and the multi-lumen balloon shown in U.S. Pat. No 5,342,301 to Saab as discussed for use in angioplasty discloses a multi-lumen balloon catheter configured to allow blood to perfuse from the proximal side to the distal side of a balloon angioplasty catheter when the balloon is inflated to apply angioplastic pressure against the blood vessel walls and otherwise fully obstruct blood passage.
It would be desirable to devise an apparatus capable of heating or cooling liquid such as blood within the body and directing that liquid after it is heated or cooled, to a target location. It would be particularly advantageous if a device could be devised where the liquid could be directed to a desired location using only the patient""s own heart as a pump. It would also be particularly advantageous if a method could be devised for directing heated or cooled blood to a target region of a patient""s body for a sufficient length of time to affect the temperature of that target region.
A method of treating a patient to protect tissue, and particularly neural tissue, by inducing hypothermia is desirable. Protecting particular target tissue by inducing hypothermia in that tissue by means of in situ cooling of body fluid directed to that tissue would be particularly advantageous.
It would also be desirable to provide a system to control such a device to perform the method of treatment in a simple and predictable manner. It would be particularly desirable if such a system could control the device in conjunction with feedback data from a patient to control the device to predictably and selectively affect the temperature of a target region in the patient.
The present invention provides heat exchange catheter devices which generally comprise an elongate flexible catheter having a heat exchanger which is operative to exchange heat between blood or other body fluid which flows in heat exchanging proximity thereto. Also, the present invention provides methods for utilizing such heat exchange catheter devices to selectively heat or cool a particular region (e.g., the brain, a selected portion of the brain, the spinal cord, an organ, an intra-abdominal organ, the spleen, the liver, the heart, a portion of the heart, a lung, a kidney, a muscle, a tumor, a site where trauma has occurred, a site where hemorrhage has occurred, etc.) of the body of a mammalian patient.
In accordance with the devices of the present invention; there is provided a heat exchange catheter device which may generally comprise: i) an elongate catheter having a proximal end and a distal end, the entire length of said flexible catheter being defined as the distance from its proximal end to its distal end; ii) at least one fluid lumen through which a thermal exchange fluid may be circulated, and, iii) a heat exchanger with heat exchange fins located at a first location on the catheter, and a working lumen extending from outside the patient through at least part of the catheter that is inserted into the patient. The heat exchanger is operative to exchange heat between blood which flows in heat exchanging proximity to the heat exchanger and a thermal exchange fluid which is circulated through the catheter. The xe2x80x9cfirst locationxe2x80x9d at which the heat exchanger is located may constitute less than the entire length of the catheter, and is typically at or near the distal end of the catheter. The heat exchanger may specifically comprise a balloon or other structure through which the thermal exchange fluid may circulate, and the heat exchange fins may be a plurality of lobes of the balloon or may be surface area increasing projections (e.g., outwardly extending protuberances, ribs, etc.) to enhance the efficiency with which heat exchange occurs. Also, in some embodiments of the catheter device, a body fluid channeling sleeve may be formed about the portion of the catheter whereupon the heat exchanger is located (and may extend some distance proximal to the heat exchanger) to channel a flow of blood or other body fluid in heat exchanging proximity to the heat exchanger. Such body fluid channeling sleeve may thus be utilized to channel available body fluid (e.g., blood) form one anatomical conduit (e.g., the descending aorta) in which the proximal end of the sleeve is located, into a second anatomical conduit (e.g., a carotid artery) in which the distal end of the sleeve is located. The sleeve may be sized and configured to form a shoulder that forms a snug seal between the outside of the sleeve and the second anatomical conduit.
The catheter device may further be provided in combination with a device (such as a guide wire, or embolectomy catheter) or medicament (such as a thrombolytic agent or barbiturate) for insertion through the working lumen.
The catheter device of the invention may also comprise a curved heat exchange balloon with an insulated side and a thermoconductive side, and may be placed in the anatomy such that blood flowing to the brain flows past the thermoconductive side and blood flowing to the rest of the body flows past the insulated side.
Finally, another aspect of the invention is the catheter device in combination with a control system that senses body conditions such as temperature and controls the catheter in response to the body conditions sensed, such as turning off the heat exchanger when the patient""s target region reaches a pre-selected temperature, or reactivating the heat exchanger when the temperature strays from that pre-selected temperature.
In accordance with the methods of the present invention, there is provided a procedure for modulating or changing the temperature of a selected region of the body of a mammalian patient. Such method comprises the steps of:
a. inserting a catheter device of the foregoing character into an anatomical conduit of the patient""s body through which a body fluid flows to the selected region of the patient""s body, and positioning the catheter such that body fluid flowing through the anatomical conduit to the selected region will pass in heat exchanging proximity to the heat exchanger before reaching said selected region; and,
b. utilizing the heat exchanger of the catheter device to change the temperature of body fluid which passes in heat exchanging proximity to the heat exchanger, such that said body fluid will subsequently change the temperature of said selected region of the patient""s body.
Still further in accordance with the methods of the present invention, the catheter device may be positioned in a blood vessel which leads to the brain (e.g., the right common carotid artery, left common carotid artery, innominate artery, right internal carotid artery, left internal carotid artery, etc.) and used to cool the brain or a portion thereof to deter neural damage following a stroke or other insult (e.g., period of ischemia, period of hypoxia, hemorrhage, trauma, etc.).
Still further in accordance with the methods of the present invention, two or more catheter devices of the foregoing character may be simultaneously positioned at different sites within the patient""s body so as to selectively heat or cool body fluid (e.g., blood) which is flowing to the selected body region, and to subsequently return such body fluid to or close to its original temperature as it flows from the selected body region. In this regard, one heat exchange catheter device may be positioned in an artery which perfuses the brain to cause cooling of the brain following a stroke or other insult, and a second catheter may be positioned in the inferior vena cava or other suitable vein to re-Warm blood after it circulates through the brain, or to generally add heat to blood going to the trunk of a patient""s body to maintain normothermia in the body at locations other than the cooled region.
Another aspect of the invention provides a method of controlling the heat exchange with the body fluid such that a predetermined temperature may be established at a target tissue, and may be maintained. As an additional aspect, a predetermined temperature may be established for the target tissue, for example a particular hypothermic temperature for the brain, and another temperature may be selected for another region, for example the core body temperature being normothermic, and two catheters may be simultaneously controlled to maintain both pre-selected temperatures.
Further aspects and details of the present invention will become apparent to those of skill in the relevant art upon reading and understanding of the detailed description of preferred embodiments set forth here below. Each of the embodiments disclosed below may be considered individually or in combination with any of the other variations and aspects of the invention.

Method and apparatus for regional and whole body temperature modification


The present invention relates to a method for the multiple access use of bit-transparent ISDN links by any subscribers and a device for carrying out the method. Normally in ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), a dial connection is established individually between subscribers, said connection carrying 64 kbps even over longdistances. That bit rate would be sufficient for the simultaneous transmission of several digitally coded voice signals. In local areas (LSA), devices such as ISDN private branch exchanges are connected to ISDN local exchanges for the purpose of carrying out the method. These devices form what is called an ISDN Link Sharing System (ILSS), reflecting their function. The ILSS elements are connected via bit-transparent dedicated lines which carry the basic traffic. For peak traffic, bit-transparent dial connections are established. All these bit-transparent links are used simultaneously for several links thanks to the use of signal processors to reduce the signal bit rate. Signalling which is also used for forwarding dialing data is exchanged between the ILSS devices, which capture charge data and carry out authorization checks. The ILSS devices can also be connected between different user networks and indirectly formed into a network via network nodes.

The invention relates to a method for the multiple access use of bit-transparent dial connections and dedicated connections in the ISDN by any subscribers and to a device for carrying out the method. Normally, in the ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), a dial connection is established always individually between subscribers, said connection transmitting 64 kbps also over long distances, if the subscriber so signals. At the present time, there is no possibility in ISDN to utilize the bit rate of these bit-transparent dial connections or dedicated connections simultaneously for several mutually independent voice connections. The inventive method shall make low-cost long-distance calls possible for all subscribers over the existing network owing to the fact that a trunk link can be used simultaneously by several subscribers. This leads to a reduction in connection costs. In accordance with its function, the device for carrying out this method hereinafter is named ISDN Link Sharing System (ILSS). A telephone service with advantageous fees can be realized with this ILSS device.
Functions and services of the ISDN, as well as the interfaces to dedicated lines are known and largely fixed in international standards. Furthermore, the interfaces for digital trunk groups between telephone exchanges, such as the ISDN Primary Access (PA) and the ISDN No. 7 are known. Furthermore, there is also very efficient signaling over the network between subscribers and ISDN private branch exchanges. With that, it is also possible to build up virtual private networks. Several channels can also be combined to hyperchannels, the "bit sequence integrity" being maintained. At the present time, the ISDN network interfaces, available for private facilities, are the basic access (BA) and the PA.
Numerous methods and facilities for bit rate reduction for voice and data are known, including those with statistical multiplexes for utilizing voice pauses. It is irrelevant for the invention which of these methods is used for the aimed for service.
In the private utilization of the telephone service, it is already possible at the present time in some countries that, for trunk links between regions close to one another (Local Service Area=LSA), the subscriber number of a private long-distance operator is dialed. In some cases, these operators utilize devices, which also carry out voice compression on transmission paths. Devices for bit rate reduction are also used by network operators in long-distance networks. The possibility of multiple access use of dedicated lines by means of bit rate reduction is also known for connections between private branch exchanges.
There are numerous examples of the multiple access use of dedicated lines, even for the common transmission of voice and data: patent WO91/03901, patent EP 504757 A2, cl. HO4Q-011/04. WO92/21216 is an example of the interlining of computers over the ISDN. Devices for the multiple access use of bit-transparent dedicated lines, the subscriber end points of which can be reached over switched lines from the PSTN, are also known (see, for example, ntz, volume 47 (1994), No. 11 page 791).
Furthermore, virtual private networks are realized over the ISDN and known (see "elektrisches Nachrichtenwesen", volume 64, (1990), number 1, pages 65 to 70 and "ntz", volume 47 (1994), number 11, pages 782 to 785. Subscribers, which are not subscribers of the virtual private network, can at the same time reach any long-distance subscriber.
Functions of the ISDN, used by the invention described below, are the sending of the calling subscriber number to the called subscriber (Calling Line Identification=CLI), user-specific signaling (service 1 according to ETSI) while the call is being set up and the subscriber-subscriber signaling s', all of which are transmitted in the D channel.
The possibilities of using the ISDN and digital voice compression also for dial connections between private branch exchanges is described in the Austrian patent AT 400,652 (AT30373/93). Dedicated lines between private branch exchanges, so equipped, are generally superfluous: In this last-mentioned patent application, the mode of operation of the signal converter for the bit rate reduction, for example, depends on the ISDN signaling of the remote subscriber.
With the known solutions, an independent operator of a telecommunication service cannot enable arbitrary subscribers to have multiple access use of ISDN switched lines and dedicated lines. These devices, for example, do not collect data for the billing of charges to individual subscribers and do not check the authorization. It is this in particular, however, which would be required in order to build up a cost-effective telephone service, which does not require its own trunk network. Furthermore, it is also not possible with the known solutions that arbitrary subscribers, over multiple access use of ISDN lines, can reach other subscribers directly over at a remote ISDN private branch exchange over a device for the multiple access use of bit-transparent connections, that is, without detouring over a remote ILSS device or over a local private branch exchange of a virtual private network.

Public communications service with multiple access use of trunk links


A signal analysis method extracts transient target signals of known type from a raw data source signal that contains an unknown number of target signals. The method can enhance the analysis of data obtained from in-line oil-debris sensors. The method comprises steps of: defining signatures of the known target signal, and of at least one of the intrinsic noise and interfering signals; performing a mathematical transform that decomposes the raw data into distinct data sets; using the signal signatures to identify and nullify the data sets containing noise and interfering signal signatures; using the target signal signatures to identify the data sets containing target signal components, or may further use a thresholding rule to remove intrinsic noise from said data sets, and finally applying the inverse transform to the processed data sets in order to reconstruct an enhanced output signal.

Early detection of mechanical damage by continuously monitoring the metallic debris in lubrication oil of various mechanical systems such as aircraft engines, is extremely important for fault diagnosis, maintenance decision-making, and accident prevention. In-line oil debris detection sensors have attracted attention recently because of the advantage of monitoring machine conditions continuously and eliminating some of the laboratory work required in off-line oil sample analysis. However, most oil debris sensors are not only sensitive to metal particles but also susceptible to various noises and vibrations. Therefore, there are two major issues to be addressed in real time oil debris detection. The first issue is how to use an existing sensor to detect the weakest possible debris or particle signals that are concealed in noise, such that quick responses to incipient failures can be achieved. The second is how to eliminate spurious signals caused by vibrations in the sensor working environment such that reliable maintenance decisions can be made.
The size of a particle that can be detected is mainly limited by background noise, while the challenge of eliminating spurious signals lies in their similarity to particle signals. This calls for an effective de-noising approach to address the two issues simultaneously.
Many de-noising techniques have been reported in the literature. Though de-noising has been studied by many researchers in various fields, work on purification of oil debris signal from the collected noisy data with the effects of vibration has not yet been reported in the accessible literature.
A collected oil debris signal is a mixture of several components including intrinsic noise, interfering vibration signals, and possible target oil-debris signals. However, most of the existing de-noising methods focus on the reduction of background Gaussian noise only, and thus cannot be directly applied to purify the collected oil debris signals.
Therefore there is a need for an improved data processing technique, particularly for enhancing in-line oil debris sensor capability.

Method to extract target signals of a known type from raw data containing an unknown number of target signals, interference, and noise