A transmission apparatus includes: a frame transmitter configured to receive an asynchronous first frame transmitted via a first transmission network and arrange the received first frame to a second frame to transmit the arranged second frame to a second transmission network; a congestion detector configured to detect congestion that has occurred in an asynchronous transmission apparatus that receives the first frame via the first transmission network; and a band controller configured to control a transmission band of a path so as to reduce the transmission band of a path on the second transmission network corresponding to a path on which the congestion has occurred.

There has been known a transmission apparatus configured to receive an asynchronous frame as a first frame, arrange the asynchronous frame in a second frame which is different from the first frame, and transmit the first frame via a second transmission network which is different from an asynchronous transmission network as a first transmission network via which the first frame has been transmitted. Example of the transmission apparatus includes a synchronous optical network/synchronous digital hierarchy (SONET/SDH) add/drop multiplexer (ADM) unit that arranges an asynchronous frame in a synchronous frame on a synchronous transmission network. Also, an ADM unit that arranges an asynchronous frame in an optical transport network (OTN) frame and transmits the asynchronous frame on the OTN has been known. The transmission apparatus arranges a frame received from the first transmission network to a time-sharing multiplexed frame on the second transmission network. Examples of the first transmission network (the asynchronous network) include a layer 2 (L2) network and an Internet protocol (IP) network. Also, the transmission apparatus extracts the frame on the asynchronous transmission network from the time-sharing multiplexed frame received from the second transmission network.
An optical channel data unit, flexible (ODUflex), is recommended by International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) recommendation G.709. The ODUflex is an optical channel data unit (ODU) signal which may give a variable-speed payload.
As an example of the related art, a technology of allocating an Ethernet (registered trademark) as a logic interface and arranging the Ethernet (registered trademark) to a virtual container (VC) of the SDH, a virtual concatenation (VCAT) of the ODU of the OTN or the ODUflex has been known. Also, a technology is known in which, by arranging an Ethernet (registered trademark) to a VC group or an ODU group corresponding to a rate of the Ethernet using the VCAT or the ODUflex, Ethernets (registered trademark) with different rates are allocated as logic interfaces.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2011-223144 is an example of the related art.

Transmission apparatus and method for controlling transmission band


A novel liquid crystal display device is disclosed. The device comprises a first polarizing element and a second polarizing element which are disposed with their transmission axes perpendicular to each other, a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first and the second polarizing elements, and a first optically anisotropic layer disposed between the first or the second polarizing element and the liquid crystal layer, showing a positive in-plane retardation (Re) at λ1 and a negative Re at λ2, both of λ1 and λ2 (λ1≠λ2) are within a visible wavelength range, and its absolute value of a thickness-direction retardation at 550 nm, |Rth(550)|, is equal to or more than 50 nm.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device having excellent viewing angle characteristics.
2. Related Art
Liquid crystal display devices are widely used in various applications of personal computer and mobile monitors and televisions, as having various advantages that they may be driven at low voltage and are power-saving and they may be small-sized and their bodies may be thinned. Various modes have been proposed for such liquid crystal display devices, depending on the alignment state of the liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal cell therein. Heretofore, a TN mode has been the mainstream for the devices, in which the crystal molecules are aligned as twisted by about 90° from the lower substrate toward the upper substrate of the liquid crystal cell.
In general, a liquid crystal display device comprises a liquid crystal cell, an optically-compensatory sheet and a polarizing element. The optically-compensatory sheet is for canceling image coloration and for enlarging viewing angle, for which used are a stretched birefringent film and a transparent film coated with liquid crystal. For example, Patent Reference 1 discloses a technique of applying an optically-compensatory sheet, which is prepared by applying a discotic liquid crystal onto a triacetyl cellulose film followed by aligning and fixing it, to a TN-mode liquid crystal cell thereby enlarging the viewing angle of the device. However, in liquid crystal display devices for application to televisions that are expected to watch at various angles on a large-size screen, the requirement for viewing angle dependency is serious; and even by the above-mentioned method, the serious requirement for them could not still be satisfied. Accordingly, liquid crystal display devices of other modes than the TN mode, such as an IPS (in-plane switching) mode, an OCB (optically-compensatory bent) mode or a VA (vertically-aligned) mode have been studied. In particular, a VA mode is specifically noted for liquid crystal display devices for TVs, as its contrast is high and its producibility is relatively high.
However, the VA mode enables a nearly completely black display in the normal line direction of panel, but has a problem in that, when the panel is observed in the oblique direction thereof, then it causes light leakage and the viewing angle is thereby narrowed. To solve the problem, proposed is use of an optically-biaxial retardation plate of which the refractive index differs all in the three-dimensional direction of the film, thereby to improve the viewing angle characteristics of the VA-mode device (for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-344856).
However, the light leakage is reduced only within a specific wavelength range (for example, green light at about 550 nm), and nothing is taken into consideration for the light leakage in any other wavelength range (for example, blue light at about 450 nm, red light at about 650 nm). Accordingly, for example, when the panel is observed obliquely in a black state, then the problem of color shift in blue or red coloration is not as yet solved.


A novel treatment method, for improving fatigue life, is provided that aims to resolve problems associated with conventional treatment methods for improving fatigue life of metal by reduction of stress concentration and conventional treatment methods for improving fatigue life of metal by introduction of compressive stress, that is, problems of poor efficiency in work execution, required level of skill of workers, and the impossibility of quality control due to lack of means for measuring the effect after treatment, characterized in that, for locations in metal for which fatigue is a problem, after pre-treatment is performed, ultrasonic impact treatment is performed, and thereafter, a quality assurance test is performed so as to improve the fatigue life of the metal.

The durability of a metal product is often determined by the fatigue strength of the product. In order to increase the fatigue strength, a general practice is to increase the design cross-section to thereby reduce stress. However, various other treatment methods may be employed to improve fatigue characteristics.
Treatment methods for improving fatigue characteristics may be broadly divided into two types. One type includes those methods, such as grinding and TIG dressing, which aim to reduce stress concentration by modifying the shape of the parts likely to be affected by fatigue. The other type includes those methods, such as hammer peening, needle peening, shot peening, welding using low temperature transformation material, etc., which aim to reduce the effective range of repeated stress by imparting compressive residual stress to the parts likely to be affected by fatigue. The above-mentioned hammer peening is considered to have both effects, that is, reduction of stress concentration and introduction of compressive residual stress.
Among the above-described treatment methods for improving fatigue characteristics, the methods that aim to reduce stress concentration have an effect that is evidently visible to the eye. In practice, however, when there is a minute flaw in the spot likely to be affected by fatigue, it may degrade the fatigue strength. Therefore, in order to be effective, the grinding treatment requires high skill and the execution of the treatment work may require much time. These factors result in a considerable increase in the cost.
Also, with respect to TIG dressing, highly skilled workers are required for the execution of the treatment work. As heat is applied to the treated site, in the case where this method is applied to repair a bridge beam, traffic must be stopped while the treatment work is being executed in order to avoid the occurrence of hot cracking of welding material due to stress variation. This is also a considerable cost factor.
On the other hand, in those methods which aim to introduce compressive residual stress, the compressive residual stress is not visible to the naked eye, and the effect of the treatment is difficult to measure and cannot be readily assured by inspection. Thus, in view of quality control, this type of treatment is usually not adopted unless an engineer competent in diagnosis and judgement can attend to the treatment work at the site.
In case of hammer peening, large plastic deformation can be imparted to the treated part, and since a large treatment mark is left, treatment can be identified after the work. A surface flaw that is produced at the time of treatment, however, may bring about stress concentration and result in degradation of fatigue strength. In addition, as workability is poor due to the large reaction produced when the plastic deformation is imparted, fine control is difficult and quality control becomes very difficult.
Especially when the treatment method for improving fatigue characteristics by introducing compressive residual stress as described above is applied, if there are cracks of 1 mm or less in length, which represent an early stage of occurrence of fatigue cracks and which cannot be detected by current examination methods such as liquid penetrant examination, magnetic particle examination, eddy current examination, or the like, application of the above-described treatment method for improving fatigue life in the presence of such cracks cannot stop the propagation of the cracks. Thus, it is considered that the introduction of compressive residual stress has little or no effect in improving fatigue life.
Also in the case of introducing compressive residual stress to a toe portion by welding using low temperature transformation material, although this treatment has large effect in high strength steel, it has little or no effect in low strength steel. In addition, as heat is applied in welding, it has the same problem in execution of work as in TIG dressing and is difficult to use in practice. Also, as in other treatment methods, effect of the introduced compressive residual stress is difficult to measure.
As has been described above, in the case of treatment methods for improving fatigue characteristics that aim to reduce stress concentration, there are problems mainly in efficiency of work execution and the skill required of workers. On the other hand, in the case of treatment methods for improving fatigue characteristics that introduce compressive residual stress, there are problems that effect of the treatment cannot be measured and quality control is not possible. Therefore, these treatment methods for improving fatigue characteristics are generally difficult to use.

Treatment method for improving fatigue life and long-life metal material treated by using same treatment


A method for welding a dummy tube to a quartz glass tube for use as an optical fiber preform, comprising chamfering the inner edge portion of the dummy tube and/or the quartz glass tube for use as the optical fiber preform before welding the quartz glass tube for use as the optical fiber preform with the dummy tube, and then melt welding them together.

The present invention relates to a welding method for welding a quartz glass tube for use as an optical fiber preform with a dummy tube; in further detail, it relates to a welding method for welding a large quartz glass tube for use as an optical fiber preform with a dummy tube.
Recently, a larger amount of optical fibers, particularly, the single mode optical fibers, are being used with increasing practical use of optical fibers. However, it is expected that a still larger amount of optical fibers will be necessary with the expansion in its field of usage ranging from long distance main communication lines to domestic lines. To meet with such a demand in the expansion of usage, it is indispensable to realize mass production and cost reduction in the production of optical fibers. This can be accomplished most simply by forming a large optical fiber preform and by then drawing it. In the conventional practical method for producing optical fibers such as the vapor-phase axial deposition process (VAD process) or the outer vapor-phase deposition process (OVD process), the core portion and the clad portion are all produced by VAD or OVD process. Thus, in case of scaling up, there was a disadvantage that the productivity of the fiber optical preform may be lowered. Furthermore, if it is tried to form a larger porous body before vitrification into a transparent body (that is, a soot body obtained by depositing fine silica glass particles, and is referred to hereinafter as ,a porous soot body), there may generate troubles such as the generation of cracks or the drop off of the porous soot body, resulting in great reduction of the productivity. As a method for producing an optical fiber which overcomes the above problems, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 109141/1995 and the like is proposed a production method, i.e., the so-called rod-in-tube method, which comprises forming the quartz glass tube for use as the clad portion accounting for 80% or more of the cross section area by a method capable of producing a high performance quartz glass tube and yet of reducing cost, and then monolithically integrating the resulting quartz glass tube with the core glass rod formed by, for example, the VAD process or the OVD method.
In the production method described in the above Laid-Open Japanese patent application, in order to lower the production cost of the optical fiber, for instance, as shown in the Example described therein, a low cost dummy tube is welded in the front end of the expensive quartz glass tube for use in the optical fiber preform, and transportation, melt welding into a monolithic body, etc., are conducted by clamping the dummy tube. This welding method comprises heating and melting both tubes and then directly pressing the edges thereof against each other without using a welding rod, and, after welding, if necessary, the outer surface was shaped by pressing the outer circumferential surface by use of a graphite trowel and the like. In case of using such a welding method, the shortcomings were ignored even if the welding before pressing was insufficient, and hence, there was a danger of causing accidents such as the falling off of the welded portion.
Under such circumstances, it has been thought of sufficiently melting the welding edges of the quartz glass tube for use as the preform and the dummy tube, and then pressing against each other by a sufficiently strong force. However, in case where it was sufficiently melted and pressed against each other with a sufficiently strong force, there occurred deformation at the welded portion, such that the quartz glass tube for use as the preform and the dummy were mutually intruded into each other, or the edges were rounded, thereby leading to the contraction of the inner diameter while expanding the outer diameter. The expansion of the outer diameter is not problematic unless the degree is extreme, but when the contraction of the inner diameter occurs, the scheduled difference between the outer diameter of the core glass rod for use as the preform and the inner diameter of the quartz glass tube for the preform (that is, the clearance between the core glass rod and the quartz glass tube, which hereinafter is referred to as xe2x80x9cclearancexe2x80x9d) causes difficulty in inserting the core glass rod for use as the preform, and forms flaws on the inner circumferential surface of the quartz glass tube for use as the preform. As a result, bubbles were included in the welded interface of the preforms for use as the optical fiber, or, at worst, it was sometimes impossible to insert the core glass rod for use of the preform, and this made the production of the preforms for use as the optical fiber unfeasible. It is thinkable to use a quartz glass tube for use as the preform having a sufficiently large inner diameter which matches with the clearance taking the contraction of the inner diameter into account However, taking such a large clearance makes it difficult to realize a uniform monolithic body upon melt welding together, thereby leading to disadvantages such as a large eccentricity of the preform for use as the optical fiber obtained as the product, or an increase in the probability of increasing the elliptical degree of the preform and/or the core.
Accordingly, the present inventors have extensively continued studies, and, as a result, found that a welding resulting in high welding strength and free from contraction in inner diameter can be realized by chamfering the inner edge portion of the dummy tube and/or the quartz glass tube for use as the optical fiber preform before welding the quartz glass tube for use as the preform with the dummy tube, and then heat melting them to join them together. The present invention has been accomplished based on these findings.
An object of the present invention is to provide a welding method which results in a high welding strength and which does not cause contraction of the inner diameter of the welded portion.
To accomplish the above object, the present invention relates to a welding method wherein a dummy tube is welded to a quartz glass tube for use as an optical fiber preform, characterized by comprising chamfering the inner edge portion of the dummy tube and/or the quartz glass tube for use as the optical fiber preform before welding said quartz glass tube for use as the preform with the dummy tube, and then heat melting them to melt welding them together.
The aforementioned quartz glass tube for use as the preform can be produced by a method comprising, for instance, forming a porous soot body (the porous soot body formed from fine particles of silica glass is hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9ca porous soot bodyxe2x80x9d) by depositing fine silica glass particles generated by flame hydrolysis of a high-purity silicon tetrachloride or a siloxane compound such as an organic silicon compound in an oxyhydrogen flame, and obtaining a quartz glass tube by subjecting to mechanical grinding, the quartz glass ingot obtained by vitrifying the thus obtained porous soot body into a transparent body, or the quartz glass ingot obtained by subjecting a quartz powder prepared by crushing a naturally occurring quartz to chemical treatment to obtain a purified quartz powder, and then subjecting the resulting powder to Verneuil""s process using an oxyhydrogen flame. Because a quartz glass tube for use as the preform is expensive, it should be effectively used, and, in general, a dummy tube is connected in case of inserting the core glass rod for optical fiber preforms into the quartz glass tube for use as the preform and heating them together to obtain a melt welded monolithic body. As the dummy tube, used are the lower quality cheaper quartz glass tubes such as those containing a larger amount of impurities, bubbles, etc., as. compared with the above described quartz glass tube, and these dummy tubes are thinner in thickness and have an inner diameter equal to or larger than the quartz glass tube for use as the preform. The above described dummy tubes are provided to both ends of the quartz glass tube for use as the preform, and the supporting side of the dummy tube is called as the handling tube, end dummy, etc., whereas that on the opposite side thereof is called as the start dummy, etc. In the present invention, these tubes are collectively denoted as xe2x80x9cdummy tubesxe2x80x9d. In joining the dummy tube with the quartz glass tube for use as the preform, no welding rod is used, and the edge portions of the dummy tube and/or the quartz glass tube for use as the preforms are heated and molten by using an oxygen/hydrogen burner, a propane/oxygen burner, or an electric furnace to melt weld them together. In the welding method according to the present invention, prior to the welding of the dummy tube and the quartz tube, the inner edge portion on the welding surface side of the dummy tube and/or the quartz glass tube for use as the optical fiber is chamfered, and then fused for melt welding. In this case, preferably, the quartz glass tube for use as the preform and the dummy tube are both chamfered. In particular, when the inner diameter of both tubes is equivalent to or close the inner diameter of the quartz glass tube for use as the preform, it is necessary to chamfer the inner edge portions of both tubes, as shown in FIG. 1, but in case the difference between the inner diameter of the tubes is large, chamfering of either one is sufficient. In this case, as is shown in FIG. 2, preferably, the inner edge portion of the tube having a smaller inner diameter is chamfered. More specifically, in case where the difference in inner diameter of the tubes is 20% or more of the wall thickness of the tube having the smaller inner diameter, it is preferred to chamfer the edge portion of only the tube having the smaller inner diameter, because the operation load attributed to processing and the like can be reduced. By thus chamfering, no contraction of inner diameter results even if there occurs an expansion attributed to the pressing applied during welding. Although depending on the inner diameter, the wall thickness, etc., of the quartz glass tube for use as the preform and the dummy tube, the amount to be chamfered is preferably 2 mm or more but not more than 30% of the wall thickness. If the chamfering should be performed at an amount less than the aforementioned range, there is no effect of chamfering but leads to the contraction of the inner diameter. If the amount of chamfering should exceed the range above, the wall thickness of the chamfered portion becomes too small as to lower the strength. For the chamfering of the edge portions of the glass tube and the like, a linear chamfering known as the so-called xe2x80x9cC-type chamferingxe2x80x9d is mostly employed; in the present invention, although a similar effect can be obtained by a non-linear chamfering known as the so-called xe2x80x9cR-type chamferingxe2x80x9d, it is preferred to employ the C-type chamfering from the viewpoint of reducing the operational load such as processing.
Preferred embodiments according to the present invention are described below by way of examples, but it should be understood that the present invention is by no means limited thereto.

Method for welding a quartz glass tube for use as an optical fiber preform


A method of providing electrically conductive bumps on electrode pads of a microelectronic substrate. The method includes: providing a microelectronic substrate including electrode pads exhibiting an electrode pad pattern; providing solder portions onto respective ones of the electrode pads according to the electrode pad pattern; reflowing the solder portions to form solder bumps therefrom, reflowing comprising applying localized heating to each of the solder portions to reflow the same.

There are a number of solder bump forming methods according to the prior art. According to a plating method, metal is deposited on electrode pads of a microelectronic substrate through plating to form bumps. In another method typically referred to as a stencil printing method, solder paste, typically including flux, is printed onto electrode pads of a microelectronic substrate through a patterned stencil, and then, after stencil removal, the device is heated to melt the solder to form bumps therefrom. However, stencil printing sometimes results in solder paste lift-up by the stencil during stencil removal, causing significant fluctuations between solder paste amounts, on electrode pads of a substrate, which in turn lead to low volume solder bumps. The phenomenon of solder lift-up has been observed to become prevalent as solder resist opening (SRO) sizes and bump itches shrink. Solder lift-up poses problems such as missing bumps, and bum height variation in the substrate being processed for bumping, but also tends to contaminate the stencil, thus aggravating lift-up in subsequent printing processes using that same stencil. As a result of the above, it has been observed that the stencil printing method is not suited for high density interconnection structures, typically leading to high missing bump rates, and bump height variation, thus negatively affecting die attachment yields.
Different techniques have been introduced to address ever growing demands for pitch and SRO size reductions, such as pitches of about 160 microns and SRO sizes of about 80 to 90 microns. One such method involves the placement of micro balls or micro spheres of solder onto the electrode pads of a microelectronic substrate. According to an attachment mounting micro ball placement method, solder balls are sucked into a jig by vacuum suction and the solder balls then mounted onto flux-coated electrode pads of a microelectronic substrate. Another micro ball placement method involves the use of a stencil mask. According to the latter methods, solder balls are dispensed onto a ball alignment plate or stencil mask including openings therein in registration with electrode pads of a microelectronic substrate. A squeegee brush is then used to disperse the balls and press them into the mask openings. The electrode pads include flux thereon, which allows the balls to adhere thereto. The stencil mask is removed after ball placement. The solder balls are then heated and melted to form bumps.
Conventional micro ball placement poses problems however, among others where bumps are to be provided on a substrate having electrode pads and/or solder resist openings of differing sizes. A micro ball placement method, such as the attachment mounting method or the stencil mask method described above, typically results in solder bumps exhibiting significant bump height variations from bump to bump depending on the size of the electrode pad and/or solder resist opening used.
The prior art fails to provide a reliable method of providing solder bumps that do not exhibit problems typically associated with solder lift-up, such as, for example, missing bumps, bump voiding, and bump height variation. In addition, the prior art fails to provide a reliable method of providing solder bumps on electrode pads and/or solder resist openings of differing sizes on a microelectronic substrate.
For simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements in the drawings have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Where considered appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the drawings to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.

Method of providing solder bumps on a substrate using localized heating


A system and method for verifying that a particular fluid supply is connected to an infusion pump or pump channel. An upstream pressure sensor coupled to a fluid conduit associated with the fluid supply is used to provide pressure signals in response to pressure sensed in the conduit to a processor. In a connection verification mode, the processor is configured to receive the pressure signals and delay the flow control device of the infusion pump from moving fluid through the conduit until the processor detects a pressure change in the conduit indicated by the pressure signals to thereby verify that the particular fluid supply is connected to the infusion pump.

The invention is generally related to fluid infusion, and more particularly, to a fluid infusion system and method that verifies that the correct fluid supply is connected to the correct infusion pump.
Physicians and other medical personnel apply intravenous (IV) infusion therapy to treat various medical complications in patients. IV infusion therapy typically involves infusing medical fluids, such as drugs or nutrients, from a fluid supply, such as a bag, bottle or other container, through the tube of a fluid administration set to a cannula inserted into a patient's blood vessel. In a typical facility, a physician enters an order for medication for a particular patient. This order may be handled either as a simple prescription slip, or it may be entered into an automated system, such as a physician order entry ("POE") system. The prescription slip or the electronic prescription from the POE system is routed to the pharmacy, where the order is filled. Typically, the prescribed medication is prepared by a pharmacist and added to a bag or bottle at a pharmacy. A pharmacist also typically identifies the contents of the bag and the patient for whom the bag is intended with a paper label that is attached to the bag and in some cases by other means, such as a bar code or magnetic device, or by use of a radio frequency (RF) signal interactive device such as an RFID tag, as examples. The prepared medication is then delivered to a nurse's station for subsequent administration to the patient.
For safety reasons and in order to achieve optimal results, the medical fluid is often administered in accurate amounts as prescribed by the doctor and in a controlled fashion by using an infusion pump. Infusion pumps operate by displacing the fluid from a fluid administration set to force fluid from the fluid supply through the tube and into the patient. The infusion pump is programmed by an operator such as a nurse or other medical personnel, with operating parameters to achieve the administration of the drug as prescribed by the physician. Such operating, or pumping, parameters are drug and patient specific. That is, the pumping parameters are selected based on the particular drug prescribed and the specific patient for whom they are intended. It is the nurse's responsibility to match the prescribed drug with the correct patient and with the properly programmed pump.
Hospitals and other institutions continually strive to provide quality patent care. Medical errors, such as when a patient receives the wrong drug or receives the correct drug at the wrong time or in the wrong dosage, are significant problems for all health care facilities. In the administration of medication, focus is typically directed to the following five "rights" or factors: the right patient, the right drug, the right route, the right amount, and the right time. The nurse aims to ensure that these "rights" are accomplished. Systems and methods seeking to reduce medical errors should also take these five rights into consideration.
Medical infusion pumps have advanced greatly over the years and permit more precise infusion control resulting in much better treatment for patients. Doctors are more assured that the doses and infusion rates that they prescribe for their patients can be delivered to the patients accurately by infusion pumps. However, there remains a continuing concern that the right drug is matched to the right pump.
In some cases, a single patient may be prescribed multiple simultaneous infusions for different drugs, sometimes four or more, which requires multiple infusion pumps that may all be programmed differently. In such cases, there will also be multiple administration sets each with its own fluid conduit to be connected with the patient. Where there are multiple infusion conduits present, there is a concern that a fluid conduit may be mounted to the wrong infusion pump and the drug delivered under incorrect pumping parameters. As an example, where multiple infusion pumps are located side by side, there is a concern that a fluid infusion line may be installed in the wrong pump channel. Where a more dense infusion pump environment exists, it is important to be sure that the correct medical fluid conduits are being mounted to the correct pump or "channel." The four fluid sources for all four pump channels may be suspended immediately above all four pump channels and the conduits of the four administration sets may become intertwined, thus making it more difficult to select the correct tube for the particular channel of the pump.
Prior attempts have been made to assure that the right drug is administered to the right patient through the right pump. In one example, a bar code label identifying the drug and patient is applied to the bag at the pharmacy. After an operator such as a nurse manually programs the pump, a bar code scanner connected to the pump is used to read the bar code label on the bag to verify that it identifies the same medication as that programmed into the pump. In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,683 to Sancoff et al. discloses a bar code label applied to the bag that is read with a bar code scanner to automatically program the pump, thus avoiding manual programming entirely.
Even though the foregoing have provided significant advances in the art to avoid medication errors and have reduced the likelihood of such medication errors, there still exists some risk that an incorrect bag may become mounted to a pump or pump channel. Stated differently, there still exists some risk that a bag may become connected to the wrong pump or pump channel. For example, the nurse could possibly scan the bar code label of the correct bag, but become distracted and mount the conduit of the administration set connected to the bag to the wrong pump channel. Even if the nurse does not become distracted, the various fluid conduits in a multiple fluid infusion may be difficult to distinguish from one another and tracing the fluid conduit associated with the right bag may become burdensome, especially where the fluid conduits have become tangled with each other. In such a case, the nurse may inadvertently choose the wrong fluid conduit to install in the pump even after identifying the correct fluid supply.
Hence, those skilled in the art have recognized that a need still exists for a system and method to more accurately ensure that the correct fluids are infused into the patient at the correct pumping parameters. Further, those skilled in the art have recognized a need for a system and method that can more reliably determine that the correct fluid source is connected to the correct infusion pump or pump channel so that the fluid is infused into the patient in accordance with the correct pumping parameters. The present invention fulfills these needs and others.

System and method for verifying connection of correct fluid supply to an infusion pump


A prosthetic joint and a method of controlling dorsiflexion and plantarflexion of the hydraulic prosthetic ankle joint. The method includes generating ground reaction forces with a hydraulic prosthetic ankle, wherein the prosthetic hydraulic ankle comprises a first chamber and a second chamber, and the ankle is connected to a prosthetic foot; rotating the prosthetic foot in response to the ground reaction force; transferring fluid between the forward and rear chambers in response to rotation of the foot; providing a feature to occlude or partially occlude the fluid transfer between chambers; providing a non-electronic mechanism for controlling the flow responsive to both a position of the joint and a rate of change of position of the joint, and wherein the mechanism is arranged such that a dwell at a particular joint location or locations will occlude the flow path.

The field of prosthetics has seen many advances to enhance quality of life by improving mobility and returning functionality to persons suffering from injured or missing limbs. Prostheses attempt to mimic the movements of the limb that they replace. For example, a healthy functioning ankle will go through a series of plantarflexion and dorsiflexion motions during gait without the person having to consciously control the ankle movement. See FIG. 8. Therefore, improvements have been sought to produce prosthetic ankle joints that can mimic the movements of a healthy ankle to improve the patient's comfort and functionality.
A prosthetic ankle joint must exhibit sufficient, but also controlled dorsalflexion and plantarflexion when the patient walks to permit the most natural gait possible. On the other hand, when the prosthesis user is standing, sufficient stability and support must be achieved to permit a stable stance. It is therefore necessary that the prosthesis is operated in two different states, namely for walking on the one hand and for standing on the other hand. To build the prosthesis light-weight, with little susceptibility to faults, low costs and energy-savingly, the prosthesis should be able to work without electronic control elements. It is also of benefit if the wearer of the prosthesis does not need to perform any unnatural movements to switch the prosthesis from one state into the other state, such as to switch the prosthetic joint, and particularly the prosthetic ankle joint, from the state "walking" to the state "standing" or vice versa. Even if the corresponding movements or movement patterns meet the purpose assigned to them, they appear unnatural in daily life and the user of the prosthesis may thereby be recognizable to bystanders as a prosthesis user in a potentially unpleasant manner.

Prosthetic joint with a mechanical response system to position and rate of change


For application to analog, mixed-signal, and custom digital circuits, a system and method to do: global statistical optimization (GSO), global statistical characterization (GSC), global statistical design (GSD), and block-specific design. GSO can perform global yield optimization on hundreds of variables, with no simplifying assumptions. GSC can capture and display mappings from design variables to performance, across the whole design space. GSC can handle hundreds of design variables in a reasonable time frame, e.g., in less than a day, for a reasonable number of simulations, e.g., less than 100,000. GSC can capture design variable interactions and other possible nonlinearities, explicitly capture uncertainties, and intuitively display them. GSD can support the user's exploration of design-to-performance mappings with fast feedback, thoroughly capturing design variable interactions in the whole space, and allow for more efficiently created, more optimal designs. Block-specific design should make it simple to design small circuit blocks, in less time and with lower overhead than optimization through optimization.

Software tools are frequently used in the design of analog, mixed-signal and custom digital circuits. In front-end design-for-yield, designers must choose device sizes such that the maximum possible percentage of manufactured chips meet all specifications such as, e.g., gain greater than 60 B and a power consumption less than 1 mW. As such, the designers strive to maximize the yield of ECDs.
The design-for-yield problem of an ECD can easily include thousands of variables because there may be any number of devices in the ECD, each device having features of adjustable sizes, and being subject to any number of process variables, which are random in nature. The space of possible designs is very high as well, because there may be any number of design variables (variable dimensions or sizes) per device. Environmental variables such as, e.g., temperature and load conditions must be considered as well. Many of these effects can be simulated simultaneously in any suitable electronic circuit simulator such as, e.g., a Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis (SPICE) software. However, the design problem is hard to decompose into simpler problems because the variables often have nonlinear interactions. All these variables impede a designer's ability to understand the issues affecting yield early in the design stage, and therefore his ability to choose device sizes that maximize yield.
In front-end design of ECDs, designers aim to choose a topology, i.e., devices such as transistors, and their associated sizes, according to pre-determined goals. In front-end design for yield, designers aim to set device sizes such that the maximum possible percentage of manufactured chips meets all performance specifications (i.e., maximize yield). Designers may even wish to further improve the ECD by increasing the margin of performance from specifications, e.g., by maximizing process capability (Cpk). A variety of tools can help the designer in achieving these goals. Such tools include simulators, schematic editors, optimizers, characterizers, and design environments.
Circuit simulators such as, e.g., a SPICE program, are typically used to estimate a design's performances, yield, and/or Cpk. Schematic editors offer a means for the designer to enter the topology into SPICE with visual feedback. Optimization tools, also known as optimizers, can automatically try out different device sizes and obtain feedback from estimations of circuit performance and yield from, for example, circuit simulation runs, and report the best designs to the user. Characterization tools, also known as characterizers, can gather and present, through a display module, ECD information to the user to aid his insight into the problem and, as such, allow the designer to seize opportunities for the design. Such characterization information can calculate the relative impact of design variables on yield, performance metrics as a function of design variable, or any other suitable characteristic value of the ECD. A design environment is a tool that can incorporates together other design tools, but its core characteristic is that it provides the designer a means to manage and try out different designs as efficiently and effectively as possible. The design environment thus serves, among other things, as a designer feedback and input tool. One way for the designer to choose circuit device sizes is to use a software-based optimization tool such as, for example, those described in Computer-Aided Design of Analog Integrated Circuits and Systems, R. Rutenbar, G. Gielen, and B. Antao, eds., IEEE Press, Piscataway, 2002. With feedback from a display module, the user sets up the optimization problem, invokes an optimization run, and monitors progress and results that get reported back via a database. Such a tool, whether applied ECDs or to multi-parameter designs (MPDs), incorporates an optimization algorithm that traverses the space of possible designs, obtains feedback about a cost function associated to candidate designs of the ECD (or MPD) through one or more simulators, or physical measurements, and returns the lowest-possible cost designs within finite time (e.g., overnight) and computer resource constraints (e.g., 5 CPUs available).
Optimization of ECDs can be challenging. The time required to simulate a single design point (also referred to as a candidate design, which includes a set of sizes attributable to devices of the ECD) at a single process corner/environmental point can take minutes or more. To estimate yield for a single design using Monte Carlo simulation can involve hundreds or more random samples from a process joint probability distribution function (jpdf). Further, simulations at several environmental points for each process point can be required. Therefore simulation can extend beyond several hours. This hinders the applicability of yield optimization using naïve Monte Carlo sampling (e.g., where the optimizer's cost function is −1.0*yield) because it would allow only a highly limited number of candidate designs to actually be examined within a reasonable time period. There are other challenges too: the cost function is generally a blackbox, which means that it is possibly nonconvex, possibly non-differentiable (and without easy access to derivatives), and possibly non-continuous. Such characteristics preclude the use of existing optimization algorithms that could otherwise take advantage of those properties. In other word, it is not possible to use algorithms that exploit numerous simplifying assumptions.
Similarly problems in yield optimization, or robust design, or stochastic optimization, exist in many technical fields beyond that of ECDs. In fact, such problems exist in almost any engineering field in which parameterizable design problems exist, for which simplifying assumptions cannot be made, and which have means of estimating a design's cost functions such as with a dynamical systems simulator. Such technical fields include, amongst others, automotive design, airfoil design, chemical process design, and robotics design.
A locally optimal design is one that has lower cost than all its immediate neighbors in design space. By contrast, a globally optimal design is one in which no other designs in the whole space are better. A robust optimization problem can be classified into global or local optimization, depending on whether a globally optimal solution is desired (or at least targeted) or, a locally optimal solution is sufficient. A convex mapping is one in which there is only one locally optimal design in the whole space, and therefore it is also the globally optimal design. Conversely, a nonconvex mapping means that there are more than one locally optimal designs in design space. The present disclosure is more related to problems in which convex mappings cannot be assumed, because they need more than local search algorithms to solve. Over the years, a wide variety of global blackbox algorithms have been developed, such as, for example, simulated annealing algorithms, evolutionary algorithms, tabu search, branch & bound algorithm, iterated local search, particle swarm optimization, and variants thereof. Local search algorithms are very numerous too and include, for example, Newton-method derivatives, gradient descent, derivative-free pattern search methods, etc.
In the field of yield optimization for transistor-precision circuits, most approaches make simplifying assumptions (e.g., by assuming linearity of constraints, or by modeling circuit performances with manually-set equations rather than simulation), or reduce the scope of the problem (e.g., by doing only local yield optimization rather than full global yield optimization, or by optimizing only on a few design variables rather than potentially hundreds). There is no approach that can do full global yield optimization on hundreds of variables with no simplifying assumptions.
With respect to ECD characterizers, there are just a few approaches that allow, but only in part, to capture and display mappings of design variables to performance metrics across the whole design space. One approach is merely to specify a center design point (center candidate design), and then to do a sweep of one or more design variables about that center design point, followed by simulating at each swept point. This is followed by displaying a circuit response as a function of a given variable's value, such as power versus w1 (width of transistor 1). This can be done for one or several corners, which have values for process and environmental points, e.g., nominal process point at a typical temperature and power supply setting, or for 50 Monte Carlo samples of process points on 3 environmental corners each. As an example, with Monte Carlo samples, a graph can show as the ordinate, statistical estimators such as yield, Cpk, or average value of a response (e.g. average power) with abscissa showing on of the circuit's variable. Of course, the ordinate can include several responses at once too.
A simplified version of this approach is merely perturbation analysis, in which for each design variable there are just one or two swept values with small perturbations from the center design variable point. These sweep approaches are good in that they give the user intuition of the circuit's response as a variable is changed. However, a major issue is that variable interactions are not captured. This can be a problem since interaction between design variables often matter in circuit design (i.e., circuit design problems are not linearly separable). A related approach is to sweep two design variables in all their combinations, to obtain a grid of candidate designs, then to simulate and display the response such as with a surface or contour plot. This can capture interactions of two variables at a time and give interesting insights. However, if there are N variables then there would be an order N2 interactions to simulate on a grid and plot, which can be prohibitively expensive. Furthermore, such a method ignores interactions of more than two variables. Additionally, the resolution of the grid would have a large effect on the number of simulations. For example, 5 values per variable would imply 25 samples (probably reasonable) for each two-variable interaction but is not enough resolution to be interesting, but a higher resolution of 10 samples per variable means 100 samples (probably unreasonable) for each two-variable interaction.
A third approach is to do space-filling sampling in the design variable range of interest, to simulate at those samples, build regression models which map design variables to performances (or yield, Cpk, etc) then, for two-dimensional and three-dimensional plots, to simulate off the model itself. The benefit of this latter approach is that it can capture interactions between design variables. It can also handle a large number of variables (hundreds or more) if the range of each variable is very small, or it can handle a broad ranges of design variables if there are few design variables (e.g. <10). However, the approach performs abysmally when the number of design variables is large and the range of each design variable is large. That is, the regression models capture the true mapping poorly because the mapping is highly nonlinear. More training samples are limited in the help they can provide because simulation time is not negligible. There is an upper bound on the number of simulation samples, typically 10,000 to 100,000, that can be for a larger circuit.
Another approach which tries to make better use of the simulation samples is called an active-learning approach in which only some samples and simulations are taken to start with, models are built in accordance with the samples and simulation, and then more samples and simulations are taken from the models' regions of highest uncertainty. The loop is then repeated. Unfortunately, these approaches introduce massive overhead in continual rebuilding of models, and the final models are often inaccurate. Finally, it is unclear how to incorporate statistical awareness into these characterization approaches in a general way. For example, for model-building approaches, adding process variables can imply a ten-time increase in the number of variables, which can be prohibitive when the number of input variables for a model has a strong impact on its ability to predict. The challenge that remains for characterization of MPD's, and ECD's in particular, is to capture and display mappings from design variables to performance, across the whole design space (where there can be hundreds of design variables), in reasonable time (e.g., in less than one day), in reasonable number of simulations (e.g., in less than 100,000 simulations), and including capturing design variable interactions, and other possible nonlinearities. Ideally, if the characterizer has uncertainties in its mappings, it would report these explicitly (and as intuitively as possible).
Existing circuit design environments have means for the user (designer) to invoke single-variable sweeps, perturbation analysis, two-variable grid sweeps, model-building characterization runs, optimization runs, and to get corresponding plots out. In communication with the design environments, are one or more circuit simulators. There is also, typically means to manually change design variable values, e.g. by typing new design variable values into a dialog box. Such circuit design environments have issues because the user cannot quickly get insight into the whole design at once. That is, if the user wants to understand the effect of sweeping one or more variables he has to invoke simulations, and wait for the responses. There is also the risk of obtaining candidate designs for local optima during design because the user may inadvertently focus on locally optimal regions, not knowing that better design regions of design variables space. In sum, current design environments' functionality for trying new designs has feedback, and the feedback offered is partial at best, causing inefficient and possibly suboptimal design.
In ECDs, there are many sorts of circuit types that are commonly reused, from differential pairs and current mirrors up to operational amplifiers, to name a few. Especially in the smallest blocks (also referred to as sub-blocks), designers find themselves spending considerable time finding the right sizes for the design, despite having designed such blocks possibly dozens or even hundreds of times before. The reason they keep redesigning these smallest blocks is that there can be slight variations in the ECD design problem. For example, different manufacturing processes can give rise to different transistor models; there can be different environmental conditions such as lowering power supply voltages; and there can be different specifications such as lowering power consumption targets. Furthermore, each block has a context within an ECD that can give rise to slightly different DC operating points. As such, continually redesigning such trivial circuits takes time, which could be better spent on more challenging design tasks if there were a means to design such sub-blocks more quickly. Optimizers can be used but the designer typically doesn't know exactly what specifications they want for each tiny block, and there is a tradeoff that can be explored before the user knows what he wants. Additionally, setting up an optimization (single- or multi-objective) can be more time-consuming than it would take the designer to just size the block or sub-block manually.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide four tools: global statistical optimization (GSO), global statistical characterization (GSC), global statistical design (GSD), and block-specific design. GSO should do global yield optimization on hundreds of variables with no simplifying assumptions. GSC should capture and display mappings from design variables to performance: across the whole design space, handle hundreds of design variables, in reasonable time (say <1 day), in reasonable number of simulations (say <100,000), capture design variable interactions and other possible nonlinearities, explicitly capture uncertainties and intuitively display them. GSD should support the user's exploration of design-to-performance mappings with fast feedback, thoroughly capturing design variable interactions in the whole space, and allow for more efficiently created, more optimal designs. Block-specific design should make it trivial to design small circuit blocks, in a fashion that is palatable for designers (e.g. with less time & overhead than optimization).

Global statistical optimization, characterization, and design


A variable transmittance optical filter comprising: a first layer comprising a first substantially transparent substrate with a substantially co-planar (SC) electrode system disposed thereon, the SC electrode system made of transparent electrically conductive material and comprising at least one pair of electrically separate electrodes arranged in a substantially co-planar manner on the first substantially transparent substrate, each pair of electrically separate electrodes comprising a first electrode and a second electrode, a second layer proximate to the first layer and comprising a transition material that darkens in response to a non-electrical stimulus and lightens in response to application of an electric voltage; and an electrical connection system for electrically connecting the SC electrode system to a source of electric voltage.

Optical filters are widely used to control visible and solar energy. Most notably, optical filters have been used as glazings in window technology (e.g. windows of buildings, vehicles, aircraft, spacecraft, ships or the lie) to control the flow of light and heat into and out of the glazing, for glare reduction and energy load management. Improving the energy efficiency of buildings is a key aspect of reducing energy use and reducing CO2 emissions. Buildings consume about 39% of all energy and 68% of the electricity used in the United States, and are responsible for about 38% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Windows are responsible for about 30% of a building's energy loss. As such, windows with improved technology for reducing heat loss and solar heat gain can offer significant benefits and cost savings.
Optical filters ("tinted windows") may be used in vehicle windows to provide privacy for occupants, prevent glare and/or reduce solar heat gain without sacrificing visibility. Static tints generally cannot be altered, and if further 'darkening' is desired, a blind may be drawn—eliminating any visibility for the occupants. 'Panoramic' sunroofs may be installed to provide visibility to occupants (e.g. for sightseeing—'dome roofs') and provide a feeling of 'being outside', a drawn blind does not accommodate this desire, and for a large roof or dome, may be difficult for a user to manipulate at will.
Optical filters have also found application in ophthalmic devices to control the light impacting the eye. Applications include, for example, prescription and nonprescription glasses, goggles, sunglasses, visors, and safety eyewear.
There are a number of technologies that have been used in optical filter applications for dynamically varying the degree of visible light transmittance, including photochromics, electrochromics, liquid crystals, thermochromics, and suspended particle displays.
Some optical filters used in window applications requiring the application of electrical voltage to vary the degree of visible light transmittance—such devices typically comprise two transparent conductive electrodes on opposing substrates to which the electrical voltage is applied. These transparent conductive electrodes can be formed using a conductive coating such as indium-tin oxide (ITO) on glass or polymeric film. A material that transitions from one state of visible light transmittance to another upon the application of electrical voltage is sandwiched between the two transparent conductive electrodes. For example, electrochromic technology involves applying thin coatings of electrochromic materials to two transparent conductive electrodes and sandwiching an electrolyte material in between. Electrochromic technology typically requires the user to apply external electrical power to darken. Electrochromic technology is used in auto-dimming automobile mirrors (for example, those made by Gentex Corporation of Zeeland Mo.).
Another example of electrochromics is in window applications (Sage Electrochromics Inc. of Faribault, Minn.) that incorporate thin coatings applied to one of the glass layers in a window. Application of electricity with the positive lead connected to one electrode causes the window to darken, and application of electricity with the positive lead connected to the other electrode causes the window to lighten. The electrochromic coating that is applied to the glass involves the use of specialized coating processes such as sputtering and chemical vapor deposition. This often requires a specialized factory or facility requiring the glass to be shipped to one central factory for the coating process to be performed, and then shipped out to wherever they will be used. As such, windows made using electrochromic technology can be quite expensive. This type of window system also employs an electrode system with two conductive transparent electrodes on opposing substrates.
Electrochromics have also been used in ophthalmic devices. For example, ChromoGenics of Uppsala, Sweden makes an "electrochromic foil" for use in motorcycle helmet visors and other products by making a multi-layer electrochromic device between two plastic films. Relatively low DC voltages are used for switching the electrochromics from one state to another but power is typically required to maintain the electrochromic device in the dark state. These electrochromic foils also utilize an electrode system with two conductive transparent electrodes on opposing substrates.
Patterning of ITO (indium tin oxide) has been used to prepare for liquid crystal displays and touch panels. The objective of patterning the ITO in these cases is to create an array of pixels such that each pixel can be uniquely addressed and either turned on or off or a touch detected, depending on the application.
Interdigitated electrodes have been described in the design of organic electrochromic devices with three-electrode dynamic operation for display technology (Galit Bar et al., "A new approach for design of organic electrochromic devices with interdigitated electrode structure," Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells (2009) 93:2118-2124)).
U.S. Pat. No. 7,323,634 describes a method of forming an electronic circuit component using the technique of drop on demand printing to deposit droplets of deposition material, the method comprising depositing a plurality of droplets on a surface to form a patterned electronic device comprising multiple discrete portions.
United States Patent Publication No. 20070128905 describes transparent electrical conductors comprising regions of high transparency and regions of lower transparency, but higher conductivity. This allows electrical connection through the conductor, while retaining its transparency for such applications as hand-held device display screens or transparent antennas, for example.
United States Patent Publication No. 20070153355 describes an electrochromic film and demonstrates the electrochromic effect of a single substrate film by applying electronic current to induce a reversible oxidation-reduction reaction of an organic electrochromic layer. The electrochromic film can attach to a surface of an object with the use of an adhesive layer.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,597,489 and 6,606,184 describe an electrode device for an electrochromic device, where the electrodes are disposed on a substrate in a substantially coplanar relation. An electrochromic medium comprising a cathodic and an anodic species, at a ratio within the electrochromic medium in relation to the surface areas of the positive and negative electrodes is described.

Variable transmittance optical filter with substantially co-planar electrode system


A self-propelled compaction roller comprises a drive system having a drive assembly, a hydrostatic/mechanical transmission arrangement with a hydraulic pump, which can be driven by a primary drive of the drive assembly, and with a hydraulic motor, further having a supporting drive arrangement having a charging/driving unit and an energy storage unit, wherein the charging/driving unit can be operated in a charging mode for storing energy in the energy storage unit and can be operated in a supporting mode by withdrawing energy from the energy storage unit in order to provide a supporting torque, wherein the charging/driving unit is coupled to a power take-off of the drive assembly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a self-propelled compaction roller of the kind used in road construction, for example, in order to compact the earth underneath a roadway and also to compact the construction material of a roadway. Compaction rollers of this kind generally comprise a drive system having a drive assembly designed as a diesel engine, for example. This drive assembly drives a hydrostatic/mechanical driving unit, the latter comprising a hydraulic pump and a hydraulic motor, for example. The energy fed into the hydraulic motor in this driving unit in the form of a flow of pressurized fluid is converted in said hydraulic motor into kinetic energy for the travel drive and, if appropriate, also for an oscillator or vibrator.
2. Background of the Related Art
DE 10 2006 060 014 B4 discloses a hydrostatic drive in which recovery of braking energy is provided in order to obtain efficient use of energy. For this purpose, an energy storage unit is integrated into the hydrostatic/mechanical transmission arrangement, i.e. into the circuit for the flow of pressurized fluid between the hydraulic pump and the hydraulic motor. In the overrun state, that is to say when a drive assembly driving the hydraulic pump is not being operated for the purpose of outputting a driving torque but is being used to support a braking torque, the hydraulic motor operates as a pump and charges a pressurized fluid accumulator of the energy storage unit. In the traction state, that is to say when a driving torque is being provided by a drive assembly in order to drive the hydraulic pump, the energy thus stored in the overrun state is fed into the pressurized fluid circuit between the hydraulic pump and the hydraulic motor in order to provide support.
DE 10 2006 046 127 A1 discloses a drive system having a hydrostatic/mechanical transmission arrangement, in which the drive shaft of a diesel internal combustion engine acting as a drive assembly drives both a hydraulic pump and, via a gear stage, the hydrostatic/mechanical transmission arrangement. Together with the hydraulic pump of the hydrostatic/mechanical transmission arrangement, a hydraulic pump/motor unit is driven, which can be varied between a pump mode and a motor mode and, in the pump mode, charges a pressurized fluid accumulator and, in the motor mode, drives the hydraulic pump of the hydraulic/mechanical transmission arrangement via a mechanical interface in parallel with the driving torque supplied by the diesel internal combustion engine.
DE 10 2008 015 729 A1 discloses a drive system in which the driving torque provided by a diesel engine is transmitted to driven wheels via a mechanical transmission. A hydraulic pump/motor unit for charging a pressurized fluid accumulator in the pumping mode is operated via a power takeoff shaft of the transmission. In the motor mode, a supporting torque can be introduced into the power takeoff shaft of the transmission by withdrawing energy stored in the pressurized fluid accumulator by means of the hydraulic pump/motor unit.

Self-propelled compaction roller and method for operating a self-propelled compaction roller


The present invention provides method and apparatus for automatically correcting aberrations in a charged-particle beam. The apparatus extracts line profiles from the probe profile of the charged-particle beam. Features indicative of the line profile, i.e., μ, σ, and ρ indicating left-and-right asymmetry, width, and unevenness around the center, respectively, are extracted. An aberration amount calculator calculates amounts of aberrations corresponding to aberrations, respectively, in the charged-particle beam from the amounts of features μ, σ, and ρ. An aberration corrector corrects the aberrations in the beam.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of automatically correcting aberrations in a charged-particle beam and to an apparatus therefor.
2. Description of Related Art
In scanning electron microscopes and transmission electron microscopes, an aberration corrector is built in the electron optical system to permit high-resolution imaging and to enhance the probe current density. A system consisting of an aberration corrector having four stages of multipole units has been proposed as the first-mentioned built-in aberration corrector. Each multipole unit has twelve pole elements. Chromatic aberration is corrected by a combination of an electrostatic quadrupole mode of operation and a magnetic quadrupole mode of operation. Spherical aberration is corrected by four stages of octopole mode of operation. The principle is introduced in detail in H. Rose, Optik 33, Heft 1, 1–24 (1971); and J. Zach, Optik 83, No. 1, 30–40 (1989); J. Zach and M. Haider, Nucl. Instru. and Meth. In Phys. Res. A 363, 316–325 (1995).
The principle of the above-described aberration corrector is described briefly with reference to FIG. 8. In FIG. 8, an aberration corrector C is disposed ahead of an objective lens 7 and equipped with four stages of multipole units 51, 52, 53, and 54. Each of the multipole units 51–54 has twelve pole elements. Electric potentials 1, 2, 3, and 4 are applied to the multipole elements 51–54, respectively, to activate the electrostatic quadrupole elements. Exciting currents 5 and 6 are supplied to the second and third stages of multipole units 52 and  53, respectively, to produce magnetic potential distribution analogous to the electric potential distribution created by the potentials 2 and 3 and to produce a magnetic field superimposed on the electric field. Furthermore, electric potentials 11, 12, 13, and 14 are applied to the multipole units 51–54, respectively, to activate an electrostatic octopole element for producing an electric field superimposed on the electric field produced by the potentials 1–4 that are used to activate the quadrupole.
In actual instrumentation, electric fields produced by dipole-activating potential (acting as a deflector for axial alignment) and hexapole-activating potential (acting to correct second-order aperture aberration) are superimposed on the electric fields produced by the quadrupole-activating and octopole-activating potentials. Since these superimposed fields are hardly related directly with aberration correction for which the present invention is intended, they will not be described in detail below.
In the configuration of FIG. 8, with respect to a charged-particle beam B entering from the left side as viewed in the figure, a reference orbit for the beam B is created by the four stages of multipole units 51–54 and objective lens 7. The beam B is focused onto a specimen surface 20. In FIG. 8, X-direction orbit Rx and Y-direction orbit Ry of the beam B are both schematically drawn on the same plane.
The reference orbit can be understood as a paraxial orbit that is assumed when there is no aberration. That is, the Y-direction orbit Ry is made to pass through the center of the multipole unit 52 by the multipole unit 51. The X-direction orbit Rx is made to pass through the center of the multipole unit 53 by the multipole unit 52. Finally, the charged-particle beam B is focused onto the specimen surface 20 by the multipole units 53, 54 and objective lens 7. In practice, these need to be adjusted mutually for complete focusing. At this time, the dipole-activating potentials applied to the four stages of multipole units 51–54 are used for axial alignment.
Referring more particularly to FIG. 8, the charged-particle beam B in the X-direction orbit Rx is diffused by the multipole unit 51 acting like a concave lens. Then, the beam is focused by the multipole unit 52 acting like a convex lens and made to pass through the center of the multipole unit 53. Then, the beam is focused by the multipole unit 54 and moves toward the objective lens 7. On the other hand, the beam B in the Y-direction orbit Ry is focused by the multipole unit 51 and made to pass through the center of the multipole unit 52. Then, the beam is focused by the multipole unit 53. Finally, the beam is diffused by the multipole unit 54 and moves toward the objective lens 7. By combining the diffusive action of the multipole unit 51 acting on the orbit Rx in the X-direction and the diffusive action of the multipole unit 54 acting on the orbit Ry in the Y-direction in this way, the electron optical system can be operated like a single concave or convex lens.
Correction of chromatic aberration in the charged-particle beam B using the aberration corrector C is next described. To correct chromatic aberration in the system shown in FIG. 8, electric potential φq2 [V] acting as an electrostatic quadrupole element and magnetic excitation J2 [AT] (or magnetic potential) acting as a magnetic quadrupole element are adjusted such that the reference orbit remains unchanged. The whole lens system acts to correct the X-direction chromatic aberration to zero. Similarly, electric potential φq3 [V] acting as an electrostatic quadrupole element and magnetic excitation J3 [AT] acting as a magnetic quadrupole element are adjusted such that the reference orbit is not affected. The whole lens system acts to correct the Y-direction chromatic aberration to zero.
Correction of spherical aberration (correction of the third-order aperture aberration) in the charged-particle beam B is next described. Spherical aberration is corrected after X- and Y-direction chromatic aberrations are corrected. The X-direction spherical aberration in the whole lens system is corrected to zero by electric potential φ02 [V] acting as an electrostatic octopole element. The Y-direction spherical aberration is corrected to zero by electric potential φ03 [V] acting as an electrostatic octopole element.
Then, the spherical aberration in the resultant direction of the X- and Y-directions is corrected to zero by the electric potentials 11 and 14 for activating the electrostatic octopole elements. In practice, repeated mutual adjustments are necessary. Superimposition of the potentials and magnetic excitations for activation of quadrupole and octopole elements has been put into practical use by using a single unit having twelve pole elements and varying the potential or magnetic excitation applied to each pole of the twelve pole elements so as to synthesize dipoles, quadrupoles, hexapoles, octopoles, etc. This method has been introduced, for example, in M. Haider et al., Optik 63, No. 1, 9–23 (1982).
In particular, in an electrostatic design, a final stage of power supplies An (n=1, 2, . . . , 12) capable of supplying a voltage to twelve electrodes Un (n=1, 2, . . . , 12) independently is connected as shown in FIG. 9. Where a quadrupole field is produced, output voltages from a quadrupole power supply 10 are supplied to the final-stage power supplies An to obtain a field close to an ideal quadrupole field. If it is assumed that the output voltages from the final-stage power supplies An are proportional to the output voltages from the quadrupole power supply 10, the ratio of the output voltages from the power supply 10 assumes a value as given in the M. Haider et al., Id. Where an octopole field is created to be superimposed on this quadrupole field, output voltages from an octopole power supply 18 are added to the output voltages from the quadrupole power supply 10 and supplied to the final-stage power supplies An to obtain a field close to an ideal octopole field. Subsequently, based on a similar concept, a field on which a multipole field produced by operation of a 2n-pole element (n=1, 2, . . . , 6) is superimposed is obtained by activating the twelve poles formed on a single unit.
In a magnetic design, a final stage of power supplies B, (n=1, 2, . . . , 12) capable of supplying excitation currents to the coils on twelve magnets Wn (n=1, 2, . . . , 12) independently is connected as shown in FIG. 10. Where a magnetic quadrupole field is created, output voltages from a magnetic quadrupole power supply 15 are supplied to the final stage of power supplies Bn to produce a field close to an ideal magnetic quadrupole field. If it is assumed that the output currents from the final-stage power supplies Bn are proportional to the output voltage from the magnetic quadrupole power supply 15, the ratio of the output voltages assumes an exciting magnetic force ratio as given in the above-quoted M. Haider et al. reference. Superimposition of multipole fields other than a magnetic quadrupole field is not explained herein. However, a magnetic multipole field can be superimposed in the same way as in the electrostatic design, by adding voltages for multipole fields to the input voltage to the final-stage power supplies Bn. A yoke for magnetically connecting the outside portions of the magnets Wn is omitted in FIG. 10.
When electrostatic and magnetic designs are superimposed, a conductive magnetic material may be used so that the magnets Wn can act also as the electrodes Un. In this case, the coils on the magnets are disposed so as to be electrically isolated from the electrodes.
In the description given below, the 2n-pole elements are treated as if they were stacked on top of each other to simplify the explanation. In practice, superimposition of plural multipole fields on a dodecapole (twelve-pole) element mounted on a single unit is achieved by adding voltage signals as mentioned previously.
After end of correction of chromatic aberration in the charged-particle beam B, it may be necessary to correct the second-order aperture aberration by means of three or four stages of hexapole elements before the correction of spherical aberration is performed. This correction is made in the same procedure as in the aforementioned correction of spherical aberration. This second-order aperture aberration occurs depending on the mechanical accuracy of the aberration corrector. Normally, the amount of correction is small, and this aberration affects higher-order aberrations only a little within the scope of the present aberration corrector. Furthermore, the second-order aperture aberration is corrected within the aberration corrector. If the resultant magnification (described later) of the aberration corrector and the objective lens is varied, higher-order aberrations are affected little, though the resultant magnification is important in aberration correction. For these reasons, description of the correction of the second-order aperture aberration is omitted in the description of the prior art.
A method of detecting geometric optics aberrations up to the third order using a probe, especially in a scanning microscope equipped with a point light source, lenses, an object, and a detector, is known, for example, as described in Unexamined Japan Patent Number P2003-521801 (paragraphs 0006–0008, FIG. 1).
The aforementioned procedure of the prior art correction of aberrations in a charged-particle beam is complex. There is the problem that it takes a considerable time for an ordinary operator to master the technique and obtain high-resolution images.

Method of automatically correcting aberrations in charged-particle beam and apparatus therefor


A safety lampholder is disclosed, comprising an insulating housing; an insulating or electrically conductive lamp socket placed within one end of the housing; an electrically shockproof means fully integrated within another end of the housing, wherein the shockproof means comprises two electrical connectors electrically coupled to a power supply; two electrical contactors in direct contact with a lamp body engagable with the lamp socket; a spring member fixed into the shockproof means; and a switching member having a lower part, an upper part which protrudes beyond a horizontal surface where at least one of the electrical contactors is located, and at least one protrusion with at least one side surface in slidable contact with one of the electrical contactors; and wherein the electrical contactors, electrical connectors and switching member are disposed in a spaced manner. A method for avoiding accidental electric shock during use of a lampholder is also disclosed.

Lampholders are widely used and generally have bayonet and screw types, the first one being matched with a bayonet bulb and the second one being matched with a screw bulb. There exists a potential risk of using such a lampholder in which metal parts are live when a bulb is not fixed into the lampholder and a power switch remains in the connected state. The lampholder is accessible to hands and fingers because it has a relatively large diameter, resulting in an electric shock accident.
Chinese Patent No. ZL91215869.7 provides a safety dual-purpose base for both screw and bayonet bulbs, which is provided with movable rods beneath positive and negative conducting pieces and with insulating washers above positive pole contact and bayonet negative pole contact. Chinese Patent No. ZL93225663.5 discloses a two-purpose anti-electroshock lamp base for screw and bayonet bulbs, which is fitted with an insulating washer between a conducting rod extending from the base and a spread spring so that the conducting rod is not in direct contact with positive and negative conducting pieces. Another safety dual-purpose base for both screw and bayonet bulbs is known from Chinese Patent No. ZL93226038.1, with an improvement in a bayonet slot of the base, the bayonet slot being formed as a rectangular slider capable of sliding within a bayonet trunk and having a lateral slot so that when a bayonet bulb is used, the bulb is fixedly inserted in the base. These lamp bases appear to achieve a safety purpose in light of the fact that the contacts are not live when bulbs are not fixed into these lamp bases. However, they still take a risk that an electric shock accident occurs. The accident will happen when a pressure generated by access to elastic metal parts or movable conducting rods with hands or fingers is high enough to cause downward movement of the metal parts or movable conducting rods to turn to an on-state.
International Application No. PCT/CN2003/000546 filed by the applicant relates to a kind of safety lampholder for avoiding accidental electric shock, comprising a screw or bayonet socket, a rooting plate, a conducting piece, an electrical contacting shaft with an round end, a pinpoint pole and a spring switch or a flexing member. The pinpoint pole is fixed in a center positioning base of the lampholder, and the spring switch or the flexing member causes the pinpoint pole to move up and down to form on/off state of a lamp circuit. When a bulb is fixed into the lampholder, the bulb makes the pinpoint pole downward till the spring contacts the pinpoint and the lamp circuit is conducting and the lamp works. When the bulb is removed from the lampholder, the pinpoint moves upward to be reset till the spring is depart from the pinpoint and the lamp circuit is disconnected. When people touch the pinpoint pole capable of moving down only if a given force is applied thereto, it can make people feel pain and stop pressing sequentially, whereby avoiding the accident. Obviously, this kind of safety lampholder is complicated in structure and a number of metal securing members are required for securing or holding the spring switch or flexing member and other parts. Further, a relatively large space is required because the spring moves the same distance as the pinpoint pole in the same direction. This results in complicated construction and high manufacturing costs of the lampholder. Also, the lampholder is of relatively large size and is thus not suitable for being fixed to a position where an ordinary type lampholder is fixed. Disadvantages of inconvenience of fixing the safety lampholder and high manufacturing cost of the safety lampholder make it difficult to be widely used in place of an ordinary type lampholder.

Safety lampholder and method for avoiding accidental electric shock caused by lampholder


A liquid crystal display device includes first and second substrates spaced apart from each other, and a display region, a non-display region and a seal pattern region are defined thereon, a black matrix on an inner surface of the second substrate, a color filter layer on the black matrix in the display region and the seal pattern region, plurality of patterned spacers on the color filter layer in the display region, a patterned seal on the color filter layer in the seal pattern region, a seal pattern surrounding the patterned seal in the seal pattern region, and a liquid crystal layer disposed in the patterned seal between the first and second substrates.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD) device having an improved seal pattern and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Background of the Related Art
Liquid crystal display (LCD) devices are image display devices that utilize the ability of liquid crystal molecules to align according to an applied voltage. LCD devices generally include an upper substrate upon which a color filter is formed, a lower substrate upon which plurality of thin film transistors are formed, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the upper and lower substrates. The LCD devices display images by controlling and changing the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules by applying voltage pulses to pixel and common electrodes.
A manufacturing process of the LCD devices includes a thin film transistor array process for forming the lower substrate, an upper substrate forming process, and a liquid crystal cell process. During the thin film transistor array process, a plurality of gate and data lines are formed on a substrate, and plurality of thin film transistors are formed at crossing portions of the gate and data lines. Then, a pixel electrode is formed in a pixel region of the lower substrate. During the upper substrate forming process, a color filter, a black matrix, and a common electrode are sequentially formed on the substrate. The liquid crystal cell process includes an alignment layer forming process, a rubbing process, a cleaning process subsequent to the rubbing process, an attachment process of the upper and lower substrates, and a liquid crystal material injection process. The aforementioned liquid crystal cell process will be described in greater detail hereinafter with reference to FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 shows a flow chart of a manufacturing process of an LCD device according to the related art.
Step ST1 includes the preparation of a first substrate, which has a thin film transistor and a pixel electrode, and a second substrate, which has a color filter layer and a common electrode.
Step ST2 includes the formation of first and second alignment layers on the pixel electrode and the common electrode, respectively. Step ST2 also includes coating a thin polymer film and rubbing the thin polymer film. The thin polymer film may be commonly referred to as an alignment layer. The thin polymer film must be uniformly formed, and the rubbing process must also be performed uniformly on the thin polymer film. The initial orientation of the liquid crystal molecules is determined by the rubbing. The liquid crystal molecules normally display a uniform picture due to the rubbing of the alignment layer. Polyimide is widely used as a material of the thin polymer film.
During step ST3, a seal pattern is formed on either the first substrate or the second substrate. The formation of the seal pattern includes forming a cell gap to allow for injection of liquid crystal material between the substrates. In addition, the seal pattern prevents the injected liquid crystal material from leaking outside the seal pattern. The seal pattern is commonly fabricated using a screen-printing method or a dispensing method of a mixing sealant formed from thermosetting resin and glass fiber.
During step ST4, spacers are sprayed on one of the first and second substrates to maintain a precise and uniform gap between the first and second substrates. The spacer spray method can be divided into two different types: a wet spray method that involves spraying a mixture of alcohol and spacer material and a dry spray method that involves spraying spacer material alone.
Here, the seal pattern and the spacers are formed on different substrates. For example, the seal pattern may be formed on the second substrate, which has a relatively even surface, and the spacers may be formed on the first substrate, which functions as a lower substrate of the liquid crystal display device.
During step ST5, the first and second substrates are aligned and then are attached to each other along the seal pattern. The alignment accuracy of the substrates is decided by a margin and an alignment accuracy of several micrometers is required because light leakage occurs if the substrates are misaligned beyond the margin.
During step ST6, the attached substrates are divided into unit cells. The cell cutting process includes a scribing process that forms cutting lines on a surface of the substrate using a diamond pen or a cutting wheel of tungsten carbide, the hardness of which is higher than the hardness of the glass substrate. A breaking process divides the unit cells by using force.
During step ST7, a liquid crystal material is injected between two substrates of the unit cells. Each unit cell has an area of several square centimeters and a gap of several micrometers. A vacuum injection method using the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the unit cells is commonly used as an effective injection method.
After finishing the liquid crystal material injection, the injection hole is sealed to prevent leakage of the liquid crystal material. Generally, an ultra violet (UV) curable resin is injected into the injection hole by use of a dispenser, and ultra violet light is then irradiated onto the resin to thereby harden the resin and seal the injection hole. Polarization films are attached on outer surfaces of the unit cell, and a driving circuit is connected to the unit cell using an attachment process.
FIGS. 2A and 2B show processes of forming a seal pattern according to the related art. FIG. 2A shows a seal pattern forming process using a screen-printing method, and FIG. 2B shows another seal pattern forming process using a dispensing method.
In FIG. 2A, a screen 12, which may include a pattern having a specific shape formed thereupon, and a squeegee 14, which may be used for scrubbing sealing material onto the screen 12, may be prepared to form a seal pattern. A seal pattern 16 may be formed on a substrate 10 by scrubbing the sealing material onto the screen 12 using the squeegee 14, for example. Accordingly, the seal pattern may include formation of a cell gap for subsequent injection of liquid crystal material to prevent the injected liquid crystal material from leaking out of the liquid crystal cell. The seal pattern 16 may be formed along edges of the substrate 10 and may include at least one injection hole 18 formed at one side thereof.
The seal pattern forming process may include at least two processes. The first process may include formation of the seal pattern 16 on the substrate 10 by scrubbing the sealing material onto the screen 12. The second process may include evaporating solvents contained in the sealing material to dry the sealing material.
Since the thickness of the seal pattern is closely associated with the cell gap of the liquid crystal display device, it is important to form a seal pattern having uniform thickness and height.
The screen-printing method is widely used due to its convenience, but it is difficult to use on a large substrate. Additionally, the dispensing method applies the sealing material onto the entire surface of the screen followed by scrubbing by the squeegee, and a large amount of sealing material may therefore be consumed.
To solve the above-mentioned problem, a dispensing method that can selectively form the seal pattern only at a desired region, has been gradually used. In FIG. 2B, an apparatus for the dispensing method may include a dispenser 24, a table 20, and a substrate 22 placed on the table 20. The method may use a syringe for dispensing the sealing material. For example, the seal pattern 26 can form by filling the sealing material into the dispenser 24, and then by dispensing the sealing material onto the substrate 22 by applying pressure to the syringe while moving the dispenser 24 or the table 20. Accordingly, a sealing material having a uniform width and thickness may be dispensed.
As described above, the seal pattern forms along edges of the substrate, and liquid crystal material is injected into the seal pattern through the injection hole of the seal pattern. Thus, the related art seal pattern directly contacts the liquid crystal material.
FIG. 3 shows a cross-sectional view of a liquid crystal display device according to the related art.
In FIG. 3, first and second substrates 30 and 50 are spaced apart from and face each other. A thin film transistor T, which is composed of a gate electrode 32, a semiconductor layer 34, a source electrode 36 and a drain electrode 38, is formed on an inner surface of the first substrate 30. A passivation layer 42 covers the thin film transistor T, and the passivation layer 42 has a drain contact hole 40 exposing a part of the drain electrode 38. A pixel electrode 44 is formed on the passivation layer 42, and the pixel electrode connects to the drain electrode 38 through the drain contact hole 40. A first alignment layer 46 is formed to cover the pixel electrode 44.
A black matrix 52 is formed on an inner surface of the second substrate 50 and corresponds to the thin film transistor T of the first substrate 30. A color filter layer 54 is formed on the black matrix 52. A common electrode 56 and a second alignment layer 58 are sequentially formed on the color filter layer 54.
The color filter layer 54, the common electrode 56 and the first and second alignment layers 46 and 58 are formed only in a display region A, which is defined as an area for displaying a picture. Although not shown in FIG. 3, the pixel electrode 44 and the common electrode 56 may extend into a non-display region C so as to electrically connect the substrates 30 and 50.
A seal pattern 60 is formed in the non-display region C outside the display region A to attach the substrates 30 and 50. A liquid crystal layer 70 is interposed in the seal pattern 60 between the substrates 30 and 50.
The seal pattern of the above structure according to the related art has many problems, some of which are discussed below.
First, the seal pattern directly contacts the liquid crystal layer, and impurities caused by the contact of the seal pattern and the liquid crystal layer inculcate into the liquid crystal panel to cause spots.
Second, the seal pattern is formed from an organic polymer material that adheres poorly to the substrate, and the seal pattern may break because of a lowered adhesion.
Third, the thickness difference between the spacer and the seal pattern may cause a non-uniform cell gap.
Fourth, if the seal pattern is formed by the dispensing method using a sealant mixed with glass fiber, then the life span of the dispenser shortens due to the glass fiber.

Liquid crystal display device and method of manufacturing the same


Disclosed are a virtual golf simulation apparatus in which any position of a hitting mat, on which a user places a ball, is recognized to easily and accurately find the position of the ball even when a slope is realized with respect to a swing plate and the swing plate is sloped at a predetermined angle, and it is possible to accurately sense when hitting has been performed by the user using a relatively inexpensive sensing device without an additional trigger sensor, thereby reducing costs and improving sensing accuracy and reliability, and a sensing device and method used for the same.

In recent years, various devices have been developed which allow users to enjoy popular sports games, such as baseball, soccer, basketball and golf, in rooms or in specific places through simulation in the form of interactive sports games.
Particularly, in recent years, a so-called screen golf system has been developed in which, when a user swings a golf club to hit a golf ball placed on a hitting mat, a sensing device senses the hit golf ball to extract physical information on the moving golf ball so that the trajectory of the golf ball can be simulated on a virtual golf course, thereby allowing the user to enjoy golf in virtual reality.
In order to simulate sports using balls, such as golf balls, in such interactive sports games, much research has been conducted into various sensing systems for accurately sensing physical information on a moving ball, i.e. movement of a ball.
For example, various sensing devices, such as a sensing device using an infrared sensor, a sensing device using a laser sensor, a sensing device using an acoustic sensor and a sensing device using a camera sensor, have come onto the market.

Virtual golf simulation apparatus and sensing device and method used for the same