A memory-cell array and peripheral circuit elements are formed together on a semiconductor substrate. A first interlayer insulating film is formed, covering the memory-cell array region and peripheral circuit region of the substrate. A first layer of wires is formed on the first interlayer insulating film. A second interlayer insulating film is formed on the first interlayer insulating film, covering the wires of the first layer. A second layer of wires is formed on the second interlayer insulating film. A third interlayer insulating film is formed on the second interlayer insulating film, covering the wires of the second layer. The third interlayer insulating film is processed to have a flat upper surface. A third layer of wires is formed on only that part of the third interlayer insulating film, which lies above the peripheral circuit region. Thereafter, a passivation film is deposited on the third interlayer insulating film. That part of the passivation film, which lies above the memory cell region, has a flat body.

The present invention relates to a one-chip semiconductor device in which circuit elements of a peripheral circuit such as a logic circuit are integrated on one chip together with a nonvolatile memory-cell array, and also relates to a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device.
In most one-chip semiconductor devices having a nonvolatile memory-cell array, the similar wiring structure is used in the memory-cell array region and the other region for circuits other than the memory-cell array (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cperipheral circuitsxe2x80x9d) such as cell array driver circuits formed around the memory-cell array, logic circuits and SRAMs both formed around the cell-array driver circuits.
In the nonvolatile memories developed hitherto, one metal wiring layer or two metal wiring layers are provided in the memory-cell array region. The wires of the uppermost layer provided on the memory-cell array region have been finely patterned in accordance with design rules. These wires cause stepped portions of a passivation film formed on the wires. Thus, so called step coverage of the passivation film, i.e., protection film formed on the wires of the uppermost layer, is inevitably diminished.
FIG. 11 is a sectional view of a conventional nonvolatile memory device in which a two-layer wiring structure is used in both the memory-cell array region MR and the peripheral circuit region PR. A memory-cell array having nonvolatile memory cells MC is formed in the memory-cell array region MR of the silicon substrate 1. Each of the memory cells MC has a floating gate FG and a control gate CG. Peripheral circuits are formed in the peripheral circuit region PR. Each peripheral circuit comprises MOS transistors Q of ordinary type, each having a source S, a drain D and a gate G.
As shown in FIG. 11, a first interlayer insulating film 2 is formed on the silicon substrate 1 and covers the memory cells MC and the MOS transistors Q. First-layer wires 3 are formed on the upper surface of the first interlayer insulating film 2. A second interlayer insulating film 4 is provided on the first interlayer insulating film 2 and covers the first-layer wires 3. Second-layer wires 5 are formed on the second interlayer insulating film 4. A passivation film 6 acting as a protection film is formed on the second interlayer insulating film 4 and covers the second-layer wires 5.
Contact metal such as tungsten are filled in via holes formed in the first interlayer insulating film 2 so that n+ regions formed in the surface of the silicon substrate 1 and the first-layer wires 3 are connected with each other by contacts 17. Further, via holes are formed to provide contacts 17 between the first-layer wires 3 and the second-layer wires 5 as shown in FIG. 11.
As in most nonvolatile memories, the passivation film 6 is a silicon nitride film (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cplasma nitride filmxe2x80x9d) formed by means of plasma CVD method. The plasma nitride film 6 hardly allows passage of moisture, hydrogen or impurities such as positive mobile ions. However, this nitride film 6 is inferior to TEOS (Tetraethyloxysilane) film and SOG (Spin-On-Glass) film in terms of the step coverage. If the second-layer wires 5 are arranged at a short pitch of, for example, 0.4 micron line and space, the passivation film 6 will have thin portions 7 and voids 8 at the step portions between second-layer wires 5 as is illustrated in FIG. 11. Each thin portion 7 formed at a step defined by a side of a wire 5 and the upper surface of the second interlayer insulating film 4 will fail to function as a passivation film perfectly. Mobile impurity ions such as sodium and humidity may pass through the thin portions 7 and first and second interlayer insulating films 2 and 4 from outside into the memory-cell array. This would lower the reliability of the memory-cell array, for example, endurance characteristics and data retention characteristics. The voids 8 are likely to hold contaminant including humidity and impurities during the manufacture of the nonvolatile memory device. If held in the voids 8, the impurities and humidity included in the contaminant will adversely influence the memory-cell array.
Mobile impurity ions, hydrogen and humidity may enter the memory-cell array, in such a small amount that they would make no problems in ordinary MOS transistor circuits. Even if they exist in so small an amount, they will likely destroy data in the memory-cell array after the nonvolatile memory device has delivered to the user.
The memory device shown in FIG. 11 may be a NOR-type flash memory device. If so, the first-layer wires 3 are used as bit lines in the memory-cell array region MR, while the second-layer wires 5 are used as wires backing word lines or bit lines or used as subsidiary wires for split signal lines of a word-line decoder or for the split bit lines.
If the second-layer wire 5 is used as word-line backing wire, each wire 5 may be used for one word line or a plurality of word lines. In the case where each wire 5 backs one word line, the wires 5 must be arranged at a short pitch. If so, the passivation film 6 will have many defects due to the degraded step coverage. Even if the pitch is relatively long, the step coverage of the passivation film 6 is insufficient at either side (i.e., step portion) of each wire 5. Consequently, mobile impurity ions and humidity will pass through the defects formed in the passivation film 6, eventually entering the memory-cell array.
As mentioned above, the similar wiring structure is used in the uppermost metal wiring layer of memory-cell array region MR and peripheral circuit region PR of the conventional nonvolatile memory device shown in FIG. 11. Therefore, the passivation film 6, i.e., the uppermost layer of the memory device, has defects, inevitably lowering the reliability of the memory-cell array. A decrease in the reliability of the cell array must be prevented. To this end, an insulating film may be formed on the second interlayer insulating film 4, covering the second-layer wires 5 and having a flat upper surface, and the passivation film 6 may be formed on the upper surface of the insulating film. This results, however, in an increase in the number of manufacturing steps and, hence, an increase in cost.
In the conventional nonvolatile memory device, metal wires are provided above the memory-cell array. The metal wires block the ultraviolet rays applied to neutralize the memory cells. The greater the number of layers of wires provided, and the shorter the pitch at which the wires of each layer are arranged, the longer the time required to neutralize the memory-cell array.
Further, the greater the number of wires provided above the memory-cell array, the greater the charging damage affected to the nonvolatile memory cells in the process of manufacturing the nonvolatile memory device. The charging damage results from discharge of high-voltage static electricity that is generated during the wire forming process. Hence, the greater the number of layers of wires provided above the memory-cell array, the larger the charging damage.
The present invention has been made in view of the above and has its object to provide a semiconductor device capable of being made at minimum cost and in which the wiring structure is improved to enhance the reliability of the memory-cell array. Another object of the invention is to provide a method of manufacturing the semiconductor memory device.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor memory device which comprises:
a semiconductor substrate having a first region and a second region located adjacent to the first region;
a memory-cell array including a plurality of nonvolatile memory cells provided in the first region of the semiconductor substrate;
a peripheral circuit formed of circuit elements other than the nonvolatile memory cells and provided in the second region of the semiconductor substrate; and
a multi-layered wiring structure including a plurality of interlayer insulating films, one located above another, for covering the memory-cell array and the circuit elements, and a plurality of layers of wires provided in the interlayer insulating films, wherein the layers of wires include an m number of layers of wires located in regions of the interlayer insulating films corresponding to the first region of the semiconductor substrate, and an n number of layers of wires located in regions of the interlayer insulating films corresponding to the second region of the semiconductor substrate, where n greater than m.
According to the second aspect of the invention, there is provided a semiconductor memory device which comprises:
a semiconductor substrate having a first region and a second region located adjacent to the first region;
a memory-cell array including a plurality of nonvolatile memory cells provided in the first region of the semiconductor substrate;
a peripheral circuit including circuit elements other than the nonvolatile memory cells and provided in the second region of the semiconductor substrate;
a multi-layered wiring structure including a plurality of interlayer insulating films, one located above another, for covering the memory-cell array and the circuit elements, and a plurality of layers of wires provided in the interlayer insulating films, wherein the layers of wires include an m number of layers of wires located in regions of the interlayer insulating films corresponding to the first region of the semiconductor substrate, and an n number of layers of wires located in regions of the interlayer insulating films corresponding to the second region of the semiconductor substrate, where n greater than m; and
a passivation film provided on an uppermost film of the interlayer insulating films, which has a part having a substantially flat body laying above the first region of the semiconductor substrate in which the m layers of the wires are located.
In the semiconductor memory device according to the second aspect of the present invention, the signal lines may be metal wires, and the passivation film may include a plurality of layers, at least the uppermost of the layers being a silicon nitride film formed by means of a plasma CVD method. Further, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a surface of the uppermost interlayer insulation film laying beneath the passivation film is provided with a SiH4 plasma CVD film having a flat surface with no contact hole.
The memory device according to the second aspect may further comprise a plate electrode located beneath a part of the passivation film which lies in the first region. The plate electrode is made of the same material as the signal lines of at least one layer provided in the second region and located above the m-th layer of signal lines, and covering the memory-cell array. In this case, the plate electrode may be connected to at least one terminal provided in the first region of the semiconductor substrate.
In the memory device according to the second aspect, the memory-cell array has a memory-cell array body storing data and a reference memory-cell array for imparting a threshold value to the memory cells included in the memory-cell array body. Further, the plate electrode is located above only a part of the memory-cell array in which the memory-cell array body is provided.
According to the third aspect of this invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a semiconductor memory device which comprises:
forming a memory-cell array and circuit elements other than the memory cells on a semiconductor substrate, the memory-cell array comprising a plurality of nonvolatile memory cells;
forming a plurality of interlayer insulating films, one located above another, each covering the memory-cell array and the circuit elements;
forming an m number of layers of signal lines, on the respective interlayer insulating films covering the memory-cell array;
forming an n number of layers of signal lines, on the respective interlayer insulating films covering the circuit elements other than the memory-cell array, where n greater than m; and
forming a passivation film on the uppermost of the interlayer insulating films, which has a substantially flat upper surface lying above the memory-cell array.
In the method, an interlayer insulating film having the substantially flat upper surface may be deposited on an m-th signal-line layer covering the memory-cell array and the circuit elements. Then, after at least one signal-line layer is deposited above the m-th signal-line layer, a part of the at least one signal-line layer which lies above the circuit elements is patterned to form an n-th layer signal lines, leaving the remaining part as a plate electrode which covers the memory-cell array.
The method may further comprise applying ultraviolet rays to the memory-cell array, thereby neutralizing the memory-cell array, before the at least one signal-line layer is deposited.
In the present invention, fewer layers of signal lines are provided in the memory-cell array region than in the peripheral circuit region. The interlayer insulating film, on which the signal lines of the uppermost layer are provided in the peripheral circuit region, is processed to have a flat upper surface. This interlayer insulating film covers the signal lines of the uppermost layer provided in the memory-cell array region. Hence, that part of the passivation film, which lies above the memory-cell array region, is deposited on a flat surface. As a result, this part of the passivation film is sufficiently thick and has no defects such as voids or the like, even if the passivation film is one having insufficient step coverage, such as a plasma nitride film. The passivation film can prevents the memory-cell array from deteriorating in terms of reliability. Since no signal wires of the uppermost layer are provided above the memory-cell array region, the memory cells can be initialized within a shorter time than otherwise, by application of ultraviolet rays.
Having more layers of signal lines than the memory-cell array, the peripheral circuit can have high integration density and can operate at high speed.
In the process of forming the signal lines of the uppermost layer, that part of a metal film, which lies above the memory-cell array region, is not patterned into signal wires. This part of the metal film is used as a plate electrode, which covers the memory-cell array and effectively prevents contaminant such as impurities and humidity from entering the memory-cell array. The plate electrode needs not be made of the same material as the signal lines of the uppermost layer, which are provided in the peripheral circuit region. It only needs to be located above the uppermost layer of signal lines provided in the region of the memory-cell array.
Once the plate electrode has been formed above the memory-cell array region, it is no longer easy to neutralize or initialize the memory-cell array by applying ultraviolet rays to the array. Nonetheless, if the memory cells are electrically erasable programmable ones, it suffices to apply ultraviolet rays to the reference memory-cell array which generates a threshold value for data programming. Hence, the plate electrode may be provided over the body region of the memory-cell array only, not above the reference memory-cell array.
As mentioned above, it no longer easy to apply ultraviolet rays to the memory-cell array once the plate electrode has been formed. To neutralize (or initialize) the memory-cell array, it is desired that ultraviolet rays be applied immediately before the film to be processed into the plate electrode and the signal lines, is deposited on the uppermost interlayer insulating film.
The plate electrode may be electrically connected to the substrate in which the memory cells are formed or to a terminal made of a diffusion layer provided in a well. The plate electrode therefore protects the memory cells from charging damage which will occurs when wires are formed.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.

Semiconductor device including a nonvolatile memory-cell array, and method of manufacturing the same


Various embodiments include methods for managing uplink timing advance configuration of wireless devices by a base station. A wireless device may send an initial access signal to a base station, receive from the base station an initial timing advance value responsive to the initial access signal, and send to the base station a next signal comprising a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) waveform via uplink (UL) receive (Rx) points over two or more beams. The base station may receive the next signal including the PRACH waveform via the two or more UL Rx points, select a refined timing advance value based on the signal, and send the refined timing advance value to the wireless device. The wireless device may receive the refined timing advance value and send a further signal to the base station via one of the UL Rx points using the refined timing advance.

Standards for Fifth Generation (5G) New Radio (NR) address using millimeter wave ("mmWave") communications to expand communication bandwidth. To use millimeter wave frequency bands to provide wireless communication services to wireless devices, a large number of small cells that communicate with a larger base station (such as a macro cell or node, or a central cell or node) via a backhaul communication link may be deployed within a given area. Deploying a large number of small cells within a given area is sometimes termed a "dense deployment." In such communication system deployments, the base station has sufficient transmit power to transmit signals to wireless devices within an area, but wireless devices may have relatively limited transmit power and stored energy in their batteries. So, some dense deployments may include uplink receive (UL Rx) points to receive signals from wireless devices and convey the received signals to a base station via a backhaul communication link. However, the asymmetrical nature of uplink and downlink signals in such dense deployments may create challenges in aligning the timing of the uplink and downlink signals.

Managing uplink timing advance configuration


A portable tree stand comprising a seat having a bottom surface, the bottom surface having a first sidewall and a second sidewall at least partially defining a cavity, a mount extending from the cavity for engagement with a tree, and wherein the mount is contained completely within the cavity when not in use.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates generally to hunting tree stands. More particularly, the invention relates to portable tree stands that a hunter can easily carry into the woods and quickly setup. Specifically, the invention relates to an ultra-light portable tree stand with a retractable support mechanism which is storable hidden from view within the tree stand body when not in use.
2. Background Information
Hunters have been using tree stands for several decades with a great deal of success. The use of a tree stand allows the hunter to avoid detection since s/he is above the sight and scent line of the animal and will not be stepping on debris such as leaves that may startle the animal. Further, the tree stand allows the hunter greater visibility due to the increased height and the ability to shoot over limbs and brush. In particular, bow hunters prefer tree stands because they generally need to be much closer to the animal than a hunter with a firearm and the features previously mentioned tend to allow the hunter a much closer shot.
Tree stands generally come in four varieties; tower stands, climbing stands, ladder stands, and hang on stands. The tower stand is not technically a tree stand because it is not attached to tree. However, in areas where there are no trees or trees which are not suitable to mount a tree stand, the tower stand is a promising alternative. The tower stand includes a plurality of legs which meet at the top to support a seat. This gives the hunter the ariel view advantages without having to climb a tree. Nevertheless, the extreme weight and size of the stand prevents any chance of portability.
Climbing stands generally include a pair of platforms that allow the hunter to maneuver up a tree to the desired height. The upper platform is moved up while standing on the lower platform. The hunter then puts weight on the upper platform, brings the lower platform upward, and then steps back down on the lower platform. This procedure continues until the hunter reaches the desired height. While the climbing stand is light and allows the hunter to hunt from a variety of trees, the intense physical requirements for climbing and potential for falling are severe.
The ladder stand is basically a ladder with a seat at the top. The entire assembly is then secured to the tree such that the hunter can climb the ladder to get into and out of the tree stand. While it is much easier to climb the ladder than the tree, the ladder stand is very heavy and not portable.
Hang on stands include a seat and a footrest that is attached to the tree. This type of tree stand is relatively lightweight and allows reasonable portability. However, the hunter is required to the climb the tree by installing climbing steps, using a climbing stick, or climbing up limbs.


A method of decommissioning a nuclear reactor is provided in which radiation exposure is minimized. The method includes the steps of encapsulating portions of the reactor vessel and reactor internals into a solid reactor capsule and then converting this reactor capsule into a plurality of decommissioned segments. The encapsulating step preferably includes the step of forming a matrix within the chamber which integrally attaches to the vessel and integrally embeds the reactor internals to create a solid reactor capsule. Such a reactor capsule has an outer shell which is formed from the vessel and which substantially encases the matrix and thus the reactor internals. More particularly, this encapsulating is preferably accomplished by providing a fluidized matrix-creating material, preferably concrete, which may be predictably solidified and which functions as a radioactive shield in its solid state. The conversion of the reactor capsule is preferably accomplished by cutting the reactor capsule into transportable-size segments and then encasing these transportable-size segments.

A nuclear power cycle may be viewed as originating with a nuclear reaction which occurs within a component commonly called a "nuclear reactor." A nuclear reactor typically comprises a vessel which defines a chamber and a fuel core which is situated within this chamber. In commercial reactors for utility applications, the fuel core consists of a number of fuel rods which are arranged so that a self-sustaining nuclear reaction will take place. This nuclear reaction releases an enormous amount of energy which is used to transfer heat to a circulating fluid.
In one type of nuclear reactor, a "boiling water reactor" (BWR), the circulating fluid is water which is converted to steam within the reactor vessel and then supplied to the turbine of the power cycle. In another type of nuclear reactor, a "pressurized water reactor" (PWR), the circulating fluid is heated within the reactor vessel and then supplied to a closed heat exchanger, or steam generator, wherein the circulating fluid converts water to steam which is then supplied to the turbine of the power system. In either case, the reactor vessel will include input/output nozzles for the circulating fluid which are connected to the appropriate plant lines. Additionally, both BWR units and PWR units will include reactor internals which interact with the circulating fluid and/or which are used to control the fuel core.
As was indicated above, an enormous amount of energy is released during a nuclear reaction. In fact the amount of energy released per atom exceeds by a factor of several million the amount of energy obtainable per atom in a chemical reaction, such as the burning of fossil fuels. Consequently, nuclear power has become a very attractive alternative for the utility industry and more than 500 nuclear reactors are now either on-line or under construction world-wide. However, the nuclear reaction also emits potentially harmful radiation thereby creating sometimes complex construction and operating challenges. Additionally, and of particular interest in the present application, this radiation produces certain obstacles when dismantling or decommissioning a nuclear reactor at the end of its operating life. More specifically, the inside of the vessel, along with the reactor internals, will be considered radioactively contaminated thereby placing certain restrictions on the decommissioning of the reactor.
It should be noted at this point that removal and disposal of a nuclear reactor's fuel core is not normally considered part of the decommissioning process. This is due to the fact that it is an accepted industry practice to replace one-third of the fuel rods of a nuclear reactor each operating year. Consequently, the removal/disposal of the fuel core during a decommissioning process will usually not present any problems above and beyond those encountered during annual replacements. However, the decommissioning of the remaining portions the nuclear reactor, i.e., the vessel and the reactor internals, presents challenges not normally confronted during the maintenance of an on-line nuclear reactor.
In the past, the decommissioning of nuclear reactors has been accomplished almost exclusively by a "water platform" method. In such a method, the top of the reactor vessel is removed and the vessel is filled with water which thereby functions as a radioactive shield relative to the reactor internals. A platform is placed on top of the water and underwater cutting is performed on the pieces of the reactor internals located immediately beneath the platform. These pieces are then loaded onto the platform and transferred to either a "wet cutting station" in which further underwater cutting is performed or a "dry cutting station" in which further cutting is performed in an air-controlled environment. The resulting pieces of the reactor internals are then placed in "casks" which comprise a casing made of a radioactively shielding material. The water level is then decreased, the platform lowered, and the cutting process is again initiated. This sequence of events is repeated until all of the reactor internals have been removed. Thereafter the cutting of the reactor vessel itself is initiated.
This "water platform" method of decommissioning a nuclear reactor, while acceptably effective, places many time, cost and safety constraints on a decommissioning project. For example, although water functions as a radioactive shield, some worker interaction with the sectioned reactor internals will usually be experienced in the transfer between the water platform and the wet/dry cutting stations. Additionally, the cutting process usually produces a significant amount of particles whereby respirators and HEPA ventilation are sometimes necessary to combat the effects of airborne contamination. Furthermore, the "shielding" water in the vessel will absorb particles produced during the cutting process whereby constant circulation and filtration of this fluid is necessary to remove liquid radioactive waste.
An alternate method of decommissioning a nuclear reactor was recently used on a retired nuclear reactor at the Shippingport Power Plant. The Shippingport nuclear reactor was an offspring of the Eisenhower presidency and thus its decommissioning was orchestrated by the United States Department of Energy. In decommissioning this unit, the reactor vessel was filled with concrete and then moved in one piece to a disposal site. The Shippingport reactor, which was rated at 72 megawatts, was significantly smaller than most of the commercial nuclear reactors in use or construction today. Nonetheless, the weight of the reactor when filled with concrete required the fabrication of special lifting equipment to lift the reactor from its underground housing. More particularly, the project required the erection of a gigantic frame, the construction of four huge hydraulic jacks, each having an approximately 6,000 ton lifting capacity, and the mounting of these jacks on the frame. In the transfer of the Shippingport reactor to the transport vehicle (a barge in this case), the jacks hoisted the reactor seventy-seven feet into the air, moved it approximately thirty-eight feet horizontally along a track and then lowered it onto a trailer.
The Energy Department's decision to decommission the Shippingport reactor in this manner, which avoided cutting apart the radioactive structure, saved an estimated seven million dollars and, perhaps more importantly, dramatically reduced worker exposure to radiation. However, such a procedure is probably not possible for most commercial reactors which possess an average rating of approximately 1000 megawatts, and would weigh over 2500 tons if filled with concrete. Moreover, even if larger reactors could be moved in one piece, the capital cost of fabricating the necessary lifting equipment would probably make such an approach economically unfeasible.
Applicant therefore believes that a need remains for a cost effective method of decommissioning a nuclear reactor in which radiation exposure is minimized.

Method of decommissioning a nuclear reactor


A system and method for effecting secure transactions over a computer network in a manner designed to foil identity theft perpetrated from an untrusted computer. A connection from a client computer to the network wherein the client computer provides a user interface for a user, a connection from a server computer to the network, and a connection from a portable secure computing device to the network provides for secure transmission of private confidential user information from the user to a server. The private information is transmitted directly from the secure computing device to the server over the secure connection without possibility of capture on the computer with which the user is interacting.

Commerce over computer networks has become very popular. Such commerce takes many forms, from purchasing books and merchandize from on-line vendors such as books from amazon.com and hockey equipment from epuck.com to conducting online banking and stock trading. Common to all such transactions is the need to communicate private secure information. Typically, the transactions are carried out over secure encrypted connections. However, there are still opportunities for the devious to contrive schemes to capture the private information that is used during online transactions, for example, to obtain passwords, personal identification numbers (PIN), Social Security Numbers, driver's license numbers and account numbers. Illegal procurement of such information and using such information in a fraudulent manner is commonly referred to as identity theft. According to the Federal Trade Commission, in the year 2002 alone, there were 9.9 million identity theft victims. The thefts cost businesses $47.6 billion and $5 billion in out-of-pocket expenses to individuals in 2002 (Federal Trade Commission, "Federal Trade Commission Identity Theft Survey Report," September, 2003,).
Transactions over the Internet will be used herein for exemplary purposes. While the Internet is by far the largest and most pervasive computer network, the problems and solutions discussed herein can occur and apply on other networks as well. For example, identity theft can occur entirely within the confines of a corporate network or a university network wherein a dishonest individual uses an across-network transaction to steal PIN's giving access to employee or student records. While it is convenient to discuss the identity theft problem in the context of the Internet, that should not be construed to limit the scope of this invention.
One form of conducting online identity theft is to use keystroke logger to log individual keystrokes and to extract information, such as password and credit card number, from the logs. Two known cases are the Kiniko's case in New York and the Boston College case (Jesdanun, A., "Thief captures every keystroke to access accounts," Seattle Post, July, 2003,
Poulsen, K., "Guilty Plea in Kinko's Keystroke Caper," SecurityFocus, Jul. 18, 2003). In both cases, the thieves installed keystroke logger software in public Internet computers, in Kinko's stores or in the college campus. They captured user ID's, user names, and passwords, using them to access or even open bank accounts online, making purchases, and entering buildings illegally.
The keystroke logger is either software that one installs on a computer, or a piece of hardware that one connects between the keyboard cable and the computer, or a hardware that is built into the keyboard. Online identity thieves typically use software keystroke logger because it is invisible to the user.
In a typical online transaction, creating a new account or accessing an existing account, a user does the online transaction through a graphical human interface on the computer screen and using a keyboard to enter information requested by the human interface. This graphical human interface typically represents an Internet client application of a bank or an online retailer. The user types in confidential personal information, such as name, password, social security number, credit card number, and so on, using the keyboard. This confidential information flows in clear text from the keyboard to the computer. The Internet client application may use the computer or the smart card connected to the computer to encrypt the information before sending to the remote server. But the keystroke logger or screen capturer could capture the confidential personal information before it is encrypted. Many of the current security mechanisms assume the computer and its keyboard or other input devices are secure, which might not be true.
FIG. 1 illustrates the identity theft problem that can be achieved using a keyboard logger or similar program or hardware. FIG. 1(a) is a schematic of the normal information from a keyboard 101. The information might be displayed on a screen 103 connected to a computer 105 used by a customer of an online service, e.g., a bank e-commerce site. A cryptographic processor 107 either in the computer 105 or in a smart card (not shown) might also encrypt the information before it is sent to the Internet 110. This cryptographic processor 107 can either be a hardware device or implemented entirely in software running on computer 105. FIG. 1(b) illustrates the information flow when keystroke logger software 109 is installed on the computer 105. The keystroke logger 109 captures the information typed in on the keyboard 101 by the user before the information goes anywhere else, and hence, before the existing security mechanism is applied, e.g., before the cryptographic processor 107 has a chance to even encrypt the information. FIG. 1(c) illustrates the configuration and the information flow when a hardware keystroke logger 111 is installed. The hardware keystroke logger 111 is between the keyboard 101 and the computer 105. Alternatively, the hardware keystroke logger 111 may be built into the keyboard 111. In both cases, the information is captured before it enters the computer 105.
A related problem to keyboard loggers is presented by various forms of malicious software (malware) or unwanted code that anti virus software is powerless to fight. These unwanted code, such as keystroke logger, spyware, snoopware, Trojan, and so on, are invisible and non-reproducible. This kind of software may be installed locally or distributed remotely. Some keystroke logger, for example, not only record keystrokes silently but also transmit the key logs to a remote Internet node silently. A variety of anti-non-virus malware programs, such as anti-keyloggers, fight against these unwanted code. Most these products detect and fight against known malicious programs. On the other hand, cleverly designed malicious programs may have anti-detection mechanisms to fight back. New malicious software comes out and requires the development of new anti-malicious software. The battle is similar to the fight between bacteria and antibiotics in medicine.
There are several prior art approaches for providing secure Internet commerce and other online transactions. One method is to ensure that all messages between two nodes involved in a transaction are encrypted. If one of the Internet nodes is compromised by malicious software, which captures the message before it is encrypted, the secure communication mechanism does not help because it is too late. For example, encryption does not solve the problem of identity theft that is perpetrated using keyboard loggers, screen capture and other techniques for capturing the information entered by a user of a computer because, as discussed above, the encryption is performed too late, namely, after the information has already been captured.
Another form of protecting the security of online commerce is the authentication of an individual involved in a transaction, for example, though identity federation or federation of authentication, such as Kerberos ("Kerberos: The Network Authentication Protocol,") and Microsoft Passport (Microsoft .Net Passport, Microsoft Cooperation,). However, these mechanisms also do not protect against keyboard loggers and similar schemes.
In an effort to stem the growth in credit card fraud and raise consumer confidence during online transactions, several credit card companies (e.g. Citibank) are providing virtual credit card numbers. These credit card numbers are for one-time use only and help protect the user's actual credit card number during an online transaction. Instead of using the actual number, the user enters the virtual number when shopping online. Even if the virtual number is stolen it is of little use since it cannot be reused after the first transaction.
Although this approach helps protect the user against malicious use of his actual credit card number, it has two drawbacks with respect to a broader identity theft prevention framework. First, the approach is limited to credit card numbers and cannot be extended to other confidential information. Secondly, in order to get a one-time use credit card number, the user still has to authenticate himself to the bank. This online authentication process itself can be a weak link because it is suspect to keyboard logger attacks. Malicious users can impersonate the user and get virtual credit card numbers on his behalf. In this scenario, user's actual credit card number is secure, but his identity is not.
Smart cards may also be used to improve online security. A smart card is a tamper resistant, secure, and portable microprocessor card. It has been used for security in a variety of applications (Jurgensen, T. M. and Guthery, S. B. Smart Cards, Pearson Education, Inc., 2002.). The smart card is a security token for computer and network access, and for secure communications. When using the smart card, the card is connected to a host computer. Using Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to secure communication, the card keeps the private key of its owner. To send a message from one user to another user through Internet, the computer of the sender generates a random shared key, encrypts the message using the shared key, and encrypts the shared key using the receiver's public key. Both the encrypted message and the encrypted key are sent to the receiver. The receiver's computer uses the receiver's private key stored in the receiver's smart card to decrypt the encrypted shared key. It then uses the shared key to decrypt the message. In this way, only the intended receiver can read the message. However, if a keystroke logger compromises the user's computer, the logger would capture the information before the smart card mechanism is applied.
Another existing method is to store user's confidential information on the smart card. For online transactions, the middleware running on the computer obtains the information from the smart card and fills in the appropriate fields in a web form. This approach requires special software on the computer. It does not provide any more security than manual entry of the web form because the confidential information is in an unencrypted form in the web browser. In this respect, it is a convenience feature instead of a security feature.
Thus, there is a need for further systems and methods for combating identity theft that can be achieved by employing a keyboard logger at a public workstation and thereby capturing a user's private information that the user used in carrying out secure transactions over the internet.

System and method for preventing identity theft using a secure computing device


The present invention relates to a wrinkle-removing apparatus. When the wrinkle removing apparatus of the present invention adopting a vacuum suction system is tightly applied to the shallow wrinkles on a forehead or to deep wrinkles, a vacuum is created by means of the elasticity of the wrinkle-removing apparatus, in order to strongly suck and pull wrinkles outwardly from the skin. Repeated use of the apparatus with the above-described condition enables a substance such as subcutaneous fat or collagen to replace the wrinkles at the back surface of the wrinkled skin when wrinkles are pulled outwardly from the skin, and finally, skin wrinkles are removed even when the apparatus is no longer used.

Several methods are being attempted to remove the wrinkles in numerous cosmetic centers. From among the methods, commercialized technology is a method of injecting collagen or BOTOX® (a registered trademark of Allergan, Inc.) into a portion under the wrinkles. This method is the most effective method of smoothing out the wrinkles. A variety of methods, such as a massage, are being attempted.


An electrolyte medium suitable for use as a separator for an electrochemical cell comprises a substantially solid, thermoset polyimide polymer matrix doped with a lithium salt. The lithium salt comprises lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LITFSI).

Electrochemical cells, which include battery cells (also characterized as "batteries"), are useful articles that provide stored electrical energy that can be used to energize a multitude of devices, particularly portable devices that require an electrical power source. The cell is an electrochemical apparatus typically formed of at least one electrolyte (also referred to as an "electrolytic conductor") disposed between a pair of spaced apart electrodes. The electrodes are the reactants for a chemical reaction that is facilitated by ion transport through the electrolyte that, in turn, causes an electric current to flow between the electrodes when electrical contact is made between non-electrolyte-contacting ends of the electrodes. Typically, the electric current flows through an electric circuit that is completed by an object or device (generally referred to as the "load") to be powered. The flow of electrons through the electric circuit is accompanied and caused by a flow of ions in and through the electrolyte.
In a rechargeable battery cell, which is often referred to as a "secondary battery," after the cell has partially or fully discharged its electrical potential, the chemical reaction may be reversed by applying an electric current to the cell that causes electrons to flow in a reverse direction through the electrodes which thereby causes ions to be conducted through the electrolyte in a reverse direction as well. Due to the chemical properties of lithium, secondary batteries that have lithium as the sole or predominant electrode material are very desirable because of the high energy density and high power density such batteries provide.
Two types of lithium cells/batteries that are desirable are so-called lithium metal batteries and lithium-ion batteries. They are distinguished from each other by the types of anode used. Lithium metal batteries employ lithium metal anodes whereas lithium-ion batteries employ lithium reactive (also called "active") anodes. An example of a lithium reactive anode is anode material such as graphite having interstices into which lithium ions are intercalated to await reaction. A separator is positioned between the anode and cathode to prevent electrical contact between the two. The separator is typically porous or a soft liquid polymer gel material configured to allow electrolyte to extend between the anode and cathode as a continuum for ion conduction.
Internal short circuits can occur in lithium metal and lithium-ion batteries. The main source of internal shorts has been mossy lithium growth that occurs during recharge. Low density dendritic lithium plated during recharge can grow through the separator resulting in a short circuit, particularly if the separator is porous or a soft solid such as a gelled polymer that can be easily penetrated by the growth.
Such shorts can result in high rate self-discharge which can cause overheating. Heat generated by an internal short can vaporize the electrolyte resulting in extreme pressure and rupture of the battery casing. Temperatures can be high enough to ignite escaping electrolyte vapors causing continuing degradation with lithium participating in the burning reaction releasing violent levels of energy and, ultimately, causing a fire.
Lithium-ion batteries were developed to eliminate mossy lithium growth at the anode by using an active material such as graphite or silicon to intercalate the lithium supplied to the anode during recharge.
Although lithium-ion batteries are much safer than earlier designs that employed lithium metal anodes, violent failures still occur.
As an approach to solving the dendrite-growth problem in lithium batteries efforts have been undertaken to provide a separator that effectively inhibits the passage of dendrites but that does not inhibit the conduct of lithium ions. Such efforts have met with limited success. Solid polymers that conduct lithium ions have been investigated for use as separators. One type of solid polymer that has been researched for development as a lithium-ion conductor is poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO). Related literature on the topic includes:                Jeffrey W. Fergus. "Ceramic and polymeric solid electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries." Journal of Power Sources 195 (2010): 4554-4569.        Felix B. Dias, Lambertus Plomp, and Jakobert B. J. Veldhuis. "Trends in polymer electrolytes for secondary lithium batteries." Journal of Power Sources 88 (2000): 169-191.        Hadar Mazor, Diana Golodnitsky, Yuri Rosenberg, Emanuel Peled, Wladek Wieczorek, and Bruno Scrosatid. "Solid Composite Polymer Electrolytes with High Cation Transference Number." Israel Journal of Chemistry Vol. 48 2008: 259-268.        Mary Ann B. Meador, Valerie A. Cubon, Daniel A. Scheiman, and William R. Bennett. "Effect of Branching on Rod-Coil Block Polyimides as Membrane Materials for Lithium Polymer Batteries." Chem. Mater. 2003, 15: 3018-3025.        Dean M. Tigelaar, Allyson E. Palker, Mary Ann B. Meador, and William R. Bennett. "Synthesis and Compatibility of Ionic Liquid Containing Rod-Coil Polyimide Gel Electrolytes with Lithium Metal Electrodes." Journal of The Electrochemical Society 155 (10) (2008): A768-A774.However, one inadequacy of the PEO polymer as a separator is that it performs best at low temperatures. This can be a problem because the temperature of a rechargeable cell will rise when it is cycled between discharge and charge. When the temperature of the cell increases, the temperature of the PEO separator likewise increases. An increase in temperature causes the PEO separator to soften and become less effective in inhibiting dendrite penetration. In addition, multiple recycling may cause the PEO separator to degrade for reasons other than an increase in temperature.
Another characteristic of PEO when used as a separator that is problematic relates to a structural change that occurs when the separator is wetted by liquid electrolyte solvents that are typically employed in rechargeable cells. When PEO is wetted with either a liquid electrolyte or the solvent that comprises the liquid electrolyte, the separator softens and swells as it becomes plasticized. The swelling mechanism is caused by the molecules of the separator structure moving further apart. The resulting softening and extended spacing of molecules promotes improved conductivity of lithium ions but also decreases the effectiveness of the PEO structure as a separator because it permits the extension of dendrites through the separator.
Kynar® brand of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is another polymer that has been investigated as a separator for lithium cells. Kynar® is a registered trademark owned by Arkema Inc., 900 First Avenue, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406. Kynar® PVDF polymer has been used as a separator in a manner similar to the use of PEO as a separator. As in the case of the PEO-liquid-electrolyte/solvent combination described above, a Kynar® PVDF polymer matrix that is infused with a liquid electrolyte or solvent also swells. And also as in the case of PEO, swelling promotes the passage of dendrites. Related literature on the use of Kynar® PVDF polymer as a separator includes:                Jeffrey W. Fergus. "Ceramic and polymeric solid electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries." Journal of Power Sources 195 (2010): 4554-4569.        Felix B. Dias, Lambertus Plomp, and Jakobert B. J. Veldhuis. "Trends in polymer electrolytes for secondary lithium batteries." Journal of Power Sources 88 (2000): 169-191.
Polyimides also have been investigated for use as separators. Polyimides are a group of polymers that are considered to be robust and high-performance polymers. These polymers are capable of operating at high temperatures and have high mechanical strength. Polyimide polymers have been considered as solid polymer electrolytes for batteries and fuel cells as conductors for both protons and lithium ions. Literature related to this topic includes:                Mary Ann B. Meador, Valerie A. Cubon, Daniel A. Scheiman, and William R. Bennett. "Effect of Branching on Rod-Coil Block Polyimides as Membrane Materials for Lithium Polymer Batteries." Chem. Mater. 2003, 15: 3018-3025.        Dean M. Tigelaar, Allyson E. Palker, Mary Ann B. Meador, and William R. Bennett. "Synthesis and Compatibility of Ionic Liquid Containing Rod-Coil Polyimide Gel Electrolytes with Lithium Metal Electrodes." Journal of The Electrochemical Society 155 (10) (2008): A768-A774.        Y. S. Pak and G. Xu. "Ionic transport measurements of LiCF3SO3 doped polyimide-diaminobenzenesulfonic acid copolymer." Solid States Ionics 67, (1993): 165-169.        S. B. Tian, Y. S. Pak, and G. Xu. "Polyimide-Polysiloxane-Segmented Copolymers as High-Temperature Polymer Electrolytes." Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics Vol. 32, (1994): 2019-2023.        Jang-Hoon Park, Jong-Su Kim, Eun-Gi Shim, Kyung-Won Park, Young Taik Hong, Yun-Sung Lee, and Sang-Young Lee. "Polyimide gel polymer electrolyte-nanoencapsulated LiCoO2 cathode materials for high-voltage Li-ion batteries", Electrochemistry Communications 12 (2010): 1099-1102.        U.S. Pat. No. 5,888,672 issued Mar. 30, 1999, to Scott Gustafson and Joseph T. Antonucci, for POLYIMIDE BATTERY.        U.S. Patent Application Publication Number 2004/0229127 published Nov. 18, 2004, filed by inventors C. Glen Wensley and Scott Gustafson, for POLYIMIDE MATRIX ELECTROLYTE.        U.S. Pat. No. 7,129,005 issued Oct. 31, 2006, to C. Glen Wensley, Scott Gustafson, Craig R. Nelson, Robert W. Singleton, Alain Vallee, and Dany Brouillette for POLYIMIDE MATRIX ELECTROLYTE AND IMPROVED BATTERIES THEREFROM.
Pak et al. studied the lithium ion transport of LiCF3SO3-doped polyimide-diaminobenzenesulfonic acid copolymer. See Y. S. Pak and G. Xu. "Ionic transport measurements of LiCF3SO3-doped polyimide-diaminobenzenesulfonic acid copolymer." Solid States Ionics 67, (1993): 165-169. They were able to improve the conductivity of the un-doped polymer by three orders of magnitude to a best conductivity of 10−9 S/cm at 300 degrees C. However, this conductivity is still low for practical use in lithium-ion or lithium metal batteries.
Tian et al. investigated doping another copolymer, namely, polyimide-polysiloxane, with the salt LiCF3SO3. See S. B. Tian, Y. S. Pak, and G. Xu. "Polyimide-Polysiloxane-Segmented Copolymers as High-Temperature Polymer Electrolytes." Journal of Polymer Science: Part B: Polymer Physics Vol. 32, (1994): 2019-2023. These researchers noted an improvement in ionic conductivity from 10−9 to 10−7 S/cm at 300° C., but noted that ion conductivity was much lower (10−10 S/cm) at room temperature.
Tigelaar and coworkers developed a rod-coil polyimide polymer-gel electrolyte that contains an ionic liquid. See Dean M. Tigelaar, Allyson E. Palker, Mary Ann B. Meador, and William R. Bennett. "Synthesis and Compatibility of Ionic Liquid Containing Rod-Coil Polyimide Gel Electrolytes with Lithium Metal Electrodes." Journal of The Electrochemical Society 155 (10) (2008): A768-A774. The researchers cross-linked polyimide and PEO to obtain a rod-coil structure, and then doped it with lithium trifluoromethanesulfonimide (LITFSI) salt. They were able to achieve high conductivity of 10−2 S/cm when the doped structure was soaked with an ionic liquid. The resulting gel-polymer that was formed was able to hold over 4 times its weight in ionic liquid. Even though this copolymer might be more thermally stable than PEO, the fact that it is a gel soaked with electrolyte still creates safety issues, namely, dendrites could be formed and the voltage (and current) at which the copolymer material will break down after repeated cycling is much lower than in a pure conductive polyimide.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,888,672 issued to Gustafson et al. discloses a battery wherein each of the anode, cathode and electrolyte layer is based upon soluble, amorphous, thermoplastic polyimide. The resulting electrolyte layer is a solid polyimide electrolyte. The inventors were able to obtain conductivity of 10−4 S/cm. The major problem with this polymer electrolyte is that the polymer used is a thermoplastic and is soluble in various solvents. Therefore, when used in a battery where liquid electrolyte is present the solvent from the electrolyte will dissolve or soften the polymer thus resulting in the formation of dendrites, which in turn results in short circuits.
There are other instances where a polyimide polymer is used to make a gel polymer electrolyte similar to the formation of a gel PEO polymer electrolyte described herein above. For example, in inventions disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication Number 2004/0229127 filed by inventors C. Glen Wensley and Scott Gustafson, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,129,005 issued to inventors C. Glen Wensley, Scott Gustafson, Craig R. Nelson, Robert W. Singleton, Alain Vallee, and Dany Brouillette, the inventors used various polyimides and doped them with LITFSI salt and a solvent. In these instances the polyimides are soluble in the solvent and the solvent remains a part of the electrolyte system. Therefore the polymer, salt and solvent all participate in the ionic conduction mechanism. If the solvent to polymer ratio is high, the electrolyte membrane will be soft and cannot be used as an effective barrier for separating electrodes in batteries.
Polymer gel electrolytes that have been developed represent safety improvements over liquid electrolytes. Although these electrolytes will suppress dendritic shorts longer, there still remain operability and safety issues that are of concern. Because these gel electrolytes have pores filled with salts and solvent, there is a restriction in the temperature range of operation. One aspect of the problem is that the gel may melt at high temperatures and freeze at low temperatures and thus become unsuitable for its intended purpose. Another aspect of the problem is that the polymer is soluble in the solvent and may not be able to cycle at high voltages without breaking down and thus becoming an ineffective barrier. Thus there still is a need for the development of improved solid polymer electrolytes that are not soluble in the solvent for the liquid electrolyte and that will not break down during cycling.

Solid, lithium-salt-doped, thermoset polyimide polymer electrolyte and electrochemical cell employing same


Treatment of normal, non-cancerous, animal cells with an agent that depletes polyamines within the cells results in an inhibition of apoptosis when the cells are exposed to an inducer of apoptosis. This inhibition of apoptosis is not observed, or is observed to a lesser extent, in similarly treated cancerous cells. The method of the invention is useful in obtaining preferential killing of cancer cells, as opposed to normal cells, due to anti-cancer therapy.

The invention pertains to the field of regulating apoptosis in cells. In particular, the invention relates to the field of regulating apoptosis in cancerous and in non-cancerous cells.
Apoptosis, also referred to as xe2x80x9cprogrammed cell deathxe2x80x9d (PCD) is a natural phenomenon in which a series of events occurs that leads to the death of the cell. PCD is essential in the development of organisms and bodily tissues. PCD is also important in the removal from the body of potentially deleterious cells, such as cancer cells, virally infected cells, and autoimmune effector cells.
Cancer cells are often treated with agents that induce apoptosis, such as radiation or antineoplastic chemicals. Unfortunately, these apoptosis-inducing agents also exert their effects to some degree on non-neoplastic cells. This may result in the death of normal tissue adjacent to a cancer that is treated by radiation, or in serious local or systemic side effects when treating cancers with antineoplastic drugs.
An ideal anti-cancer therapeutic agent is one which kills cancer cells but which spares normal, non-cancerous cells. Such a therapy would permit the aggressive treatment of cancers without the risk of serious side effects. Consequently, a significant need exists for a method that protects normal, non-cancerous cells from undergoing apoptosis when exposed to apoptosis-inducing agents but which does not protect cancer cells, or at least which protects cancer cells to a lesser degree.
The inventors have discovered that the depletion of polyamines within a cell inhibits apoptosis in non-cancerous cells, but has a much decreased effect, if any, on apoptosis in cancerous cells. This discovery has important implications for anti-cancer therapy, such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiation therapy, in which agents that induce apoptosis are delivered to cells within the body. Typically, non-cancerous cells, as well as the target cancerous cells, are exposed to the apoptosis-inducing agents. By inhibiting apoptosis within non-cancerous cells while not inhibiting, or inhibiting to a lesser degree, apoptosis in cancerous cells, normal tissue may be spared during such treatment to kill cancer cells.
The invention is applicable for in vitro and in vivo experimental and therapeutic purposes. Cells, both normal and cancerous, may be from any animal, such as humans and domestic animals like dogs and cats. Likewise, patients that may benefit from the method of the invention may be human or veterinary patients, such as dogs and cats.
In one embodiment, the invention is a method for inhibiting apoptosis in normal, that is non-cancerous, cells which method includes the steps of depleting the level of polyamines within the cell and inhibiting apoptosis in the cell. In a preferred embodiment, the depletion of the level of polyamines within the cell is by inhibiting the intracellular enzyme ornithine decarboxylase (ODC). In a particularly preferred embodiment, ODC is inhibited by administering DL-œ-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) to the cell. Preferably, the level of each of the polyamines; putrescine (PUT), spermidine (SPD), and spermine (SPM), are depleted, although in some situations in accordance with the method of the invention, PUT and SPD levels may be depleted and SPM levels may not be depleted.
In this specification, the term xe2x80x9cpolyaminexe2x80x9d refers to spermidine, spermine, and their diamine precursor, putrescine. For purposes of this specification the terms xe2x80x9cdepletedxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cdepletionxe2x80x9d, or xe2x80x9cdepletingxe2x80x9d, when referring to intracellular levels of any or all of the polyamines, PUT, SPD, and SPM, means that the level of the measurable polyamine within the non-cancerous cell is reduced sufficiently to inhibit apoptosis. Generally, intracellular PUT levels are reduced before SPD levels, which are reduced before SPM levels. In cell culture, PUT levels tend to become depleted within an hour, SPD within 2 days, and SPM after about 4 days following the initiation of treatment with an ODC inhibitor. The effect of depletion of polyamines in accordance with the invention to inhibit apoptosis in normal cells is usually observable within the first two days, even before the levels of SPM begin to drop. Similar patterns are observed with in vivo ODC inhibition therapy in live animals.
In accordance with the method of the invention, measurable PUT in the cell is generally reduced by 50% or more, preferably by 80% or more, and most preferably by 100% from the pre-treatment level. SPD levels are typically reduced by 30% or more, preferably by 50% or more, and most preferably by 80% or more from the pre-treatment level. SPM levels may not be reduced by the time that an inhibition of apoptosis in accordance with the method of the invention is observed. Generally, beginning several days, such as 2 to 4 days, following the initiation of therapy, SPM levels are reduced by 10% or more, preferably by 30% or more, and most preferably by 50% or more from the pretreatment level. However, the actual level of reduction of each or all of the polyamines is immaterial, so long as the level of polyamines is reduced sufficiently to inhibit apoptosis in normal cells, that is to achieve depletion of the polyamines.
In another embodiment, the invention is a method for selectively inhibiting apoptosis in normal, non-cancerous cells, while not inhibiting apoptosis, or inhibiting apoptosis to a lesser degree, in cancerous cells. The method of the invention according to this embodiment includes administering to a patient suffering from a cancer an effective amount of an agent that causes the depletion of the level of polyamines within the normal, non-cancerous cells, and inhibiting apoptosis in the normal cells, and which agent inhibits apoptosis to a lesser extent or not at all in the cancerous cells. In a preferred embodiment, the depletion of the level of polyamines is by inhibiting ODC. In a particularly preferred embodiment, ODC is inhibited by administering DFMO to the patient. Preferably, the level of each of the polyamines; putrescine (PUT), spermidine (SPD), and spermine (SPM), are depleted, although as stated above, levels of intracellular PUT are depleted before the levels of SPD, which are in turn depleted before the levels of SPM, and apoptosis in normal tissues may be inhibited before depletion of all the polyamines.
In accordance with the invention, the depletion of the polyamines typically occurs in cancerous cells, similarly to the depletion seen in normal cells. However, unlike what occurs with normal cells, the depletion of polyamines in cancerous cells does not result in an inhibition of apoptosis.
In another embodiment, the method of the invention is a method for treatment of a patient with cancer, which method includes administering to the patient an effective amount of an agent that causes the depletion of polyamines within cells, such as an inhibitor of ODC, depleting the polyamines in the patient""s cells, and exposing cancer cells and normal cells within the body of the patient to an apoptosis-causing agent, thereby killing the cancer cells and not killing the normal cells, or killing the normal cells at a reduced rate compared to the cancer cells. The patient may be any animal, such as a human or a veterinary patient, including dogs, cats, and ferrets, and livestock such as cattle, horses, goats, sheep, and pigs. The apoptosis-causing agent may be anything that induces apoptosis, such as a chemical agent, like an antineoplastic drug, an immunotherapeutic agent, or an electromagnetic or acoustic ray, such as an x-ray or gamma ray. Preferably, the ODC inhibitor is DFMO.

Prevention of apoptosis in non-cancerous cells

The University of Tennessee Research Corporation


A multi charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a beam forming member, where first openings for writing and second openings not for writing around the first openings are formed, to form multiple beams for writing and to form multiple beams for measurement, plural mark members on a blanking aperture member arranged close to the height position where crossover is formed, a measurement unit to measure positions of the multiple beams for measurement by the plural mark members, and a correction unit to correct a voltage for making a “beam on” state applied to one of the plural blankers, in order to correct a position deviation amount of a measured position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi charged particle beam writing apparatus and a multi charged particle beam writing method. More specifically, for example, the present invention relates to drift correction of multiple beams.
2. Description of Related Art
The lithography technique that advances miniaturization of semiconductor devices is extremely important as being a unique process whereby patterns are formed in the semiconductor manufacturing. In recent years, with high integration of LSI, the line width (critical dimension) required for semiconductor device circuits is decreasing year by year. The electron beam (EB) writing technique, which intrinsically has excellent resolution, is used for writing or "drawing" a pattern on a wafer and the like with electron beams.
In a variable shaping type (VSB) electron beam writing that uses a single electron beam for writing, the more the pattern shape is complicated, the more it becomes necessary to divide the pattern into fine shot figures, so that the writing time becomes long. In order to solve this problem, it could be thought to shorten the writing time by increasing a beam current density so as to compensate the increase in the number of shots. However, if this method is employed, since the influence of resist heating and the like becomes large, there is also a limit to this method.
Now, think of a writing apparatus using multiple beams (multi-beams). Compared with the case of writing a pattern by using a single electron beam, since it is possible to emit multiple beams at a time in multiple writing, the throughput can be greatly increased. In a writing apparatus employing a multi-beam system, for example, multiple beams are formed by letting an electron beam emitted from an electron gun assembly pass through a mask with a plurality of holes arranged in a matrix, blanking control is performed for each of the multiple beams, and each unblocked beam irradiates a desired position on a target object or "sample".
In the case of a conventional single beam writing apparatus, the number of shaping aperture opening portions for focusing a shot image (pattern) on the substrate used as a target object is one. By contrast, in the case of a multiple beam writing apparatus, a plurality of shaping aperture openings are needed. Consequently, the size of a shaping aperture plate is large. The blanker array for blanking-controlling each beam of multiple beams may be united with the shaping aperture plate. Therefore, the structure becomes complicated. Thus, since the shaping aperture portion is large and the structure is complicated, a multi charge particle beam writing apparatus is easily affected by adherent contamination and beam drift occurs easily compared with a single beam writing apparatus. For example, in the case of a single beam writing apparatus of a variable shaped beam system (VSB system), the position of a first shaping aperture image having passed the first shaping aperture can be adjusted on the second shaping aperture by a deflector. Therefore, the position accuracy of the first shaping aperture can be corrected. However, in the case of the multi-beam writing apparatus, since the beam shaping is performed once, the position of the shaping aperture opening greatly affects the position accuracy when written on a target object surface. Therefore, if beam drift occurs at the shaping section of multiple beams, the position accuracy of each beam is degraded. When beam drift occurs, in addition to that the position of each beam is displaced, another problem may be generated in that a beam in the "on" state is partially blocked by the blanking aperture, thereby changing the dose reaching the target object. Thus, it is important to perform measurement and correction of the drift at the shaping section of multiple beams.
Conventionally, in order to increase the position accuracy of multiple beams at the target object surface, there has been suggested a technique that a beam for measurement, namely a beam to be measured, is shaped and its middle image is detected near the target object surface to correct the beam position (refer to, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-open (JP-A) No. 2008-521221). However, with this technique, it is difficult to measure the amount of drift at the shaping section of the multiple beams, and thus correction cannot be performed sufficiently.

Multi charged particle beam writing method, and multi charged particle beam writing apparatus


A flow distribution technique associates probabilistic data structure with each processor of a multi-processor system that is used to determine whether a received packet is included in a flow assigned to the associated processor. A set of tuples of a received packet is processed by multiple hash functions to generate a set of values utilized as indices to search for hits of the probabilistic data structures. Only those flows having hashed indices that hit more than one probabilistic data structure are saved in a collision flow table. The probabilistic data structure require much less memory space than a flow table and can be designed so that the frequency of collisions is very low thereby requiring a small amount of memory for the collision flow table.

With the growing need for network bandwidth and increasing complexity of the services provided by a Routing and Services system, the demand for processing power in a networking system has grown to a point where a single processor can no longer support the full network load. To scale the throughput of the system, Routing and Services systems consisting of multiple processors generally use a packet distribution unit to load balance network traffic among the processors.
If the services provided by a networking system requires it to maintain state of a flow across packets, a flow state is created during the processing of the first packet of the flow and the state is saved in the RAM for subsequent packets. After the flow is terminated and no more packets are expected for this flow, the memory space occupied by the flow state in the RAM is freed up. A distributed memory multi-processor system that maintains per flow state often requires all packets in a flow to get processed by the same processor. A processor of the flow is chosen during the processing of the first packet of the flow and from there on all subsequent packets gets punted to this processor. For a system consisting of multiple processors, a flow distribution unit, as depicted in FIG. 1, is therefore required that can uniquely identify the processor of a network packet and direct this packet to the assigned processor in a flow preserving manner.
A flow is a sequence of packets being transferred between two endpoints, generally representing a single session using a known protocol. Accordingly, a flow is identified by a set of defined tuples and, for routing purpose, a flow is identified by the two tuples that identify the endpoints, i.e., the source and destination addresses. For content based services (Load balancer, firewall, Intrusion detection system etc.), flows can be discriminated at a finer granularity by using five or more tuples {Source address, destination address, IP protocol, transport layer source port, and destination port}. Each packet in a flow is expected to have the same set of tuples in the packet header.
Flows are further described in detail in the following patent applications:                U.S. Pat. No. 6,091,725, titled "Method For Traffic Management, Traffic Prioritization, Access Control, and Packet Forwarding in a Datagram Computer Network", filed Dec. 29, 1995, in the name of inventor David R. Cheriton and Andreas V. Bechtolsheim, assigned to Cisco Technology, Inc.;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,590,894, titled "Network Flow Switching and Flow Data Export", filed May 28, 1996, in the name of inventors Darren Kerr and Barry Bruins, and assigned to Cisco Technology, Inc.;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,308,148, titled "Network Flow Switching and Flow Data Export", filed Dec. 20, 1996, in the name of inventors Darren Kerr and Barry Bruins, assigned to Cisco Technology, Inc.; and        U.S. Pat. No. 6,243,677, titled "Network Flow Switching and Flow Data Export", filed Jul. 2, 1997, in the name of inventors Darren Kerr, and Barry Bruins, assigned to Cisco Technology, Inc.Each of these applications is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes.
To load balance multiple processors in a flow preserving manner, some existing flow distribution units maintain a flow table that is an aggregate of flows serviced by all the processors within the system. FIG. 2 is a diagram depicting this type of system. The tuple information for each flow and a processor ID of the processor handling the flow form an entry of the table. When a packet is received, the flow table is searched to match an entry of the flow table with the tuples of the received packet. If an entry is matched then the processor ID of the processor handling flow is output. Content Addressable Memories (CAMs) and Static Random Access Memories (SRAMs) are often utilized to maintain the flow tables. However, this approach does not scale well for systems with a large number of processors as with a large number of flows, the required memory size for this type of flow table becomes excessive. Also an excessive number of chips, high power dissipation, and high cost make the approach impractical.
Some other flow distribution unit uses a mechanism that performs a hashing function on some of the tuples of the packet to produce indicia. The complete hash range is divided into multiple segments and a processor is assigned to each segment. Based on the hash result, the segment is identified and the packet is punted to the processor tied to that segment. These type of systems are described in:                U.S. application Ser. No. 09/053,237 titled "Router/Service processor scalability via Flow-based distribution of traffic", filed Apr. 1, 1998, in the name of inventor Earl Cohen, assigned to Cisco technology, Inc.;        U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,111,877, filed Dec. 31, 1997 and 6,603,765, filed Jul. 21, 2000, each titled "Load Sharing Across Flows", in the name of inventors Bruce A. Wilford and Thomas Dejanovic, assigned to Cisco Technology, Inc.        U.S. Pat. No. 6,175,874 titled "Packet relay control method packet relay device and program memory medium", filed Feb. 9, 1998, in the name of Imai; Yuji (Kawasaki, JP); Kishimoto; Mitsuhiro (Shinjuku, JP); Katsuyama; Tsuneo (Machida, JP), assigned to Fujitsu Limited.Each of these applications is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes.
A stateless hash based mechanism has a few drawbacks. Since the indicia produced by applying hash function on the tuples of the packet solely determines the processor, if the tuples are different on the two network sides of this system, packets from the either sides may get processed by different processors. Having different set of tuples for the two network sides of the system is a common scenario for systems providing NAT and NAPT service, which is described in RFC 3022, located on the "rfc-archive.org" website with the extension "/getrfc.rfc=3022". A hash-based mechanism also fails to identify related flows of a flow as the tuple that form the hash key may be different for the related flows. A FTP control and FTP data flows are related flows, and some systems require such flows to get processed by the same processor.
Another type of flow distribution unit punts packets to processors in a daisy-chaining manner until the packets find its assigned processors. This approach is also not scalable for large number of processors.
Accordingly, improved techniques for routing flows between multiple processors that scale well as the number of processors is increased is required in the field.

Distribution of flows in a flow-based multi-processor system


A database system storing a data structure. The data structure includes a plurality of data nodes that each store a type and a value. None of the data nodes are linked directly to one another. The data structure also includes a plurality of context nodes that are each linked to at least two data nodes. The context nodes do not store data. Instead, each of the context nodes indicates a relationship exits between the data nodes connected to it.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to database systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Large-scale data management and analysis of data including complex relationships is not well supported by currently available database systems. Prior art database systems include a variety of different database designs, each having advantages over the others with respect to particular aspects of data management and analysis. Examples of prior art database systems include relational database systems, hierarchical database systems, network database systems, multidimensional database systems, graph database systems, and object database systems.
The various prior art databases may be understood with reference to the following simplistic example. In this example, a user desires to store the names of a portion of the actors in the movies "Apollo 13" and "Cast Away." The following Table 1 includes the sample data to be stored in this example.
TABLE 1Sample DataMovieActorCharacterApollo 13Tom HanksJim LovellApollo 13Bill PaxtonFred HaiseApollo 13Kevin BaconJack SwigertApollo 13Gary SiniseKen MattinglyCast AwayTom HanksChuck Noland
Referring to FIG. 1, an exemplary data model 10 for use with a relational database system is provided. The data model 10 includes a movies table 12, a characters table 14, an actors table 16, and a roles table 18.
The movies table 12 includes two fields, "MOVIE ID" and "TITLE." The characters table 14 includes three fields, "MOVIE ID," "CHARACTER ID" and "CHARACTER NAME." The actors table 16 includes two fields, "ACTOR ID" and "NAME." The roles table 18 includes two fields, "CHARACTER ID," and "ACTOR ID."
The letters "PK" next to the "MOVIE ID" field of the movies table 12, the "CHARACTER ID" field of the characters table 14, and the "ACTOR ID" field of the actors table 16 indicate these fields are the primary keys of their respective tables. In the roles table 18, the fields "ACTOR ID" and "CHARACTER ID" together form a compound primary key. The value stored within the primary key uniquely identifies each row of the table. In this example, each of the primary keys may be, for example, a unique integer value.
The letters "FK1" next to the "MOVIE ID" field of the characters table 14 indicate it is a foreign key. A foreign key links the values stored within the field to a value in the primary key of another table. In this case, as indicated by arrow 22, the "MOVIE ID" field of the characters table 14 is linked to the "MOVIE ID" field of the movies table 12.
The roles table 18 links actors to characters without duplicating the entry of either an actor or a character into the tables of the data model 10. In other words, the roles table 18 merely defines the relationship between the actors and characters without storing or providing any additional data. The letters "FK1" next to the "CHARACTER ID" field indicate it is a foreign key. As indicated by arrow 24, the foreign key "CHARACTER ID" of the roles table 18 is linked to the primary key "CHARACTER ID" of the characters table 14. The letters "FK2" next to the "ACTOR ID" field indicate it is a foreign key. As indicated by arrow 26, the foreign key "ACTOR ID" of the roles table 18 is linked to the primary key "ACTOR ID" of the actors table 16.
FIGS. 2-5 provide data views of the movies table 12, the characters table 14, the actors table 16, and the roles table 18, respectively, with the data of Table 1 stored therein. Specifically, table 30 of FIG. 2 provides a data view of the data stored in the movies table 12. Table 32 of FIG. 3 provides a data view of the data stored in the characters table 14. Table 34 of FIG. 4 provides a data view of the data stored in the actors table 16. Table 36 of FIG. 5 provides a data view of the data stored in the roles table 18.
Relational database systems are the most widely adopted standard for Online Transaction Processing (OLTP). They excel at processing tabular data and supporting pre-defined relationships between data elements stored within tables. Further, relational database systems are extremely efficient with locality on the storage layer when persisted to disk. However, structuring queries to extract the desired information for analysis using the pre-defined relationships requires a great deal of skill. For example, to determine the actors appearing in the movie "Apollo 13," a query would have to join all four of the tables within the data model 10. In some cases, the time required to execute complex queries may be substantial. Further, if the nature of the relationships within the database changes, the tables and the relationships between them may require a time consuming restructuring operation.
FIG. 6 provides a block diagram illustrating the sample movie data stored in a tree-like structure 100 of a hierarchical database system. Within a hierarchical database, each node 110, 114, 118, 122, 126, 130, 134, 138, 142, 146, and 150 stores a single data element and is linked to at most one parent node. However, each node may have multiple child nodes. For example, node 114 is linked to a child node 122 by link 120, a child node 126 by link 124, and a child node 130 by link 128. However, notice the data element "Tom Hanks" is duplicated at nodes 134 and 150. FIG. 7 provides a view of the data stored in the tree-like structure 100 extracted by a traversal of the tree. Because the nodes are organized into a well-known tree-like structure 100, many well-known algorithms for processing and traversing trees may be used to process the data.
Hierarchical database systems excel at processing structured data naturally falling into a hierarchy. Hierarchical database systems may also be extremely fast at traversing discrete data because the structure leverages well-known and optimized tree traversal algorithms. Hierarchical database systems may be used in time-critical high performance applications.
FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating the sample movie data stored in a network structure 200 of a network database system is provided. Network database systems are similar to hierarchical database systems; however, the child data elements of a network database system may be linked to multiple parent nodes. Because a node may be linked to multiple parent nodes, the network structure 200 avoids the duplication of the node storing the name "Tom Hanks." Specifically, the node 210, which stores the name "Tom Hanks," is linked to node 216 (character "Jim Lovell") by link 212 and node 218 (character "Chuck Noland") by link 214. Because the nodes are organized into a network structure 200, instead of the tree-like structure 100, well-known and optimized network algorithms may be used to analyze the data stored therein.
FIG. 9 provides a conceptual illustration of the sample movie data stored in a multi-dimensional structure 300 of a multidimensional database system system. The data elements are addressed according to their corresponding values along a first axis 310 labeled, in this case, "MOVIES" and a second axis 320 labeled, in this case, "Characters." For illustrative purposes, the first axis 310 has been labeled the x-axis and the second axis 320 the y-axis. The contents of each location 322 (i.e., unique pair of values along the x-axis and y-axis) is an actor who played a particular character selected along the y-axis in a particular movie selected along the x-axis.
Additional axes may be added to increase the number of dimensions of the multi-dimensional structure 300. For example, a third axis 330 labeled, in this case, "TIME" may be added to the multi-dimensional structure 300. The third axis 330 may be labeled the z-axis and may signify time or versions (e.g., remakes) of a particular movie and consequently the combination of a particular movie and a particular character may be used to index more than one actor along the z-axis. For example, the Shakespearean play "Hamlet" has been made into several movies. To determine which actors have played the lead character Hamlet, one need only select the movie "Hamlet," and the character "Hamlet" for all values of the z-axis. While the multidimensional database system depicted in FIG. 9 has three dimensions, any number of dimensions may be used to construct the multi-dimensional structure 300.
Obviously, not all movies have been remade or have alternate versions. Consequently, many multidimensional database systems suffer from a large number of vacant cells when the data is sparse. Further, a multidimensional database system does not provide a mechanism by which relationships within the data may be determined other than via indexing along each of the dimensions. While multidimensional databases are an excellent option for multidimensional analysis, they lack navigational associative search capabilities similar to those found in graph database systems. On the other hand, multidimensional database systems are extremely effective at Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) and related knowledge discovery mechanisms.
FIG. 10 provides block diagram illustrating the sample movie data stored in a graph structure 400 of a graph database system. A graph database system organizes data into a graph of linked nodes. Generally, the links are referred to as edges.
To create the graph structure 400, a head node 402 for the tables is created. A node is then created for each of the tables of the data model 10 of the relational database system (see FIG. 1) and each node is linked to the head node 402. Specifically, a node 412 is created to correspond to the movies table 12 of FIG. 1 and linked to the head node 402 by a link 413, a node 416 is created to correspond to the characters table 14 of FIG. 1 and linked to the head node 402 by a link 417, and a node 430 is created to correspond to the actors table 16 of FIG. 1 and linked to the head node 402 by a link 431. However, in this example, a node was not created for the roles table 18 of FIG. 1 because that table merely relates the actors table 16 and the characters table 14 which may be accomplished in the graph structure 400 with links.
A node is then created for each record within the movies table 12 (i.e., each instance of a movie within the table). In this example, a node 440 is created for the record corresponding to "Apollo 13" and linked by a link 442 to the "MOVIES" node 412. A node 444 is created for the record corresponding to "Cast Away" and linked by a link 446 to the "MOVIES" node 412. Each of these nodes may be linked to the underlying data, i.e., "MOVIE ID" and "TITLE" illustrated in the movies table 12 of FIG. 1.
A node is then created for each record within the characters table 14 of FIG. 1. For illustrative purposes, FIG. 10 includes only the characters played by Tom Hanks. Consequently, the graph structure 400 includes a node 450 corresponding to the character "Jim Lovell." The node 450 is linked to the "CHARACTERS" node 416 by a link 452. The graph structure 400 also includes a node 454 corresponding to the character "Chuck Noland," which is linked to the "CHARACTERS" node 416 by a link 456.
The foreign keys of the relational database system are replaced with links. For example, the foreign key linking the characters to the movies is replaced by a link 460 linking the node 450 ("Jim Lovell") to the node 440 ("Apollo 13") and a link 462 linking the node 454 ("Chuck Noland") to the node 444 ("Cast Away"). The links 460 and 462 are labeled with the term "MOVIE" because the nature of the relationship between linked nodes may be ambiguous. The label defines or specifies the relationship between the nodes. In this case, the label specifies the characters of nodes 450 and 454 appear within the movies of nodes 440 and 444, respectively.
Then, a node is created for each record within the actors table 16 of FIG. 1. In FIG. 10, for illustrative purposes, only the actor "Tom Hanks" has been included. Consequently, the graph structure 400 includes a node 470 corresponding to the actor "Tom Hanks." The node 470 is linked to the "ACTORS" node 430 by a link 472. The foreign key linking the characters to the actors in FIG. 1 is replaced by a link 476 linking the node 450 ("Jim Lovell") to the node 470 ("Tom Hanks") and a link 474 linking the node 454 ("Chuck Noland") to the node 470 ("Tom Hanks"). The label "ACTOR" on the links 474 and 476 specifies the actor of the node 470 plays the characters of nodes 450 and 454.
In this example, the graph structure 400 of the graph database system preserves both the original table structure, linking each record within a table with a context node (e.g., nodes 412, 416, and 430) and the original foreign key relationships (e.g., links 460, 462, 474, and 476).
Graph database systems excel at structural queries and identifying relationships between nodes using its associative search capabilities. Graph database systems are typically used in data mining applications, but suffer from ambiguous connections created in highly dimensional and interconnected data. Graph database systems also encounter locality problems at the storage layer when persisted to disk.
Finally, custom data structures may be used to construct object database systems. However, such object database systems are typically built for specialized uses and are ill suited for generalized applications.
While each of these database systems provides a partial solution, none of them can perform all data manipulation tasks with equal efficiency. For this reason, many users will use more than one database system to process the same source data thereby leveraging the benefits of each system to perform a desired analysis. For example, a relational database may be used to store the source data, a multidimensional database or object database may be used to analyze the source data, and a graph database may be used to discover how the individual data elements interrelate with one another. Consequently, a need exists for a database system that can efficiently address each of these needs. Prior art database systems are being pushed past their design limits as the demand for data mining of continuous data streams increases. Consequently, a need exists for database systems capable of analyzing source data to extract useful information for that source data in a timely and efficient manner. The present application provides these and other advantages as will be apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying figures.

Database system storing a data structure that includes data nodes connected by context nodes and related method


During the positioning of a control device for controlling an electromechanical drive, contact elements, which are connected to the control device in a fixed manner, are positioned in relation to one or more openings in a connector collar. To position the control device, the latter is displaced into a predetermined position. The predetermined position is defined, for example, by a guide or a stop. The contact elements are a component of an electric and/or optical junction which connects the drive device to other functional units, for example to a door control device or a motor vehicle battery. To position the contact elements in the connector collar of a connecting element which lies on the side of the drive device in the junction, the contact elements are positioned in relation to openings in the connector collar by being displaced together with the control device into the predetermined position. The positioning operation can be automated by a machine, for example by means of corresponding orientation indicators in the drive housing.

The invention relates to a method for manufacturing an electromechanical drive device for adjusting mechanisms of a motor vehicle, more particularly for a window lifter.
In order to raise and lower window panes of a vehicle, electro-motorized window lifters are known which are suitable for installation in motor vehicle doors and which have a drive device in the form of, for example, an electric motor with an attached gearing or gear motor which can be connected to a vehicle battery through a lead connection and a switch.
The window pane, which can be raised or lowered in the vehicle door through the electromotorized window lifter, is thereby fixed by its lower edge on a guide slide which can be moved up and down along a profiled rail by means of, for example, a closed cable loop. The cable loop loops around a cable drum which is driven, for example, through a worm gearing by the electric motor in a compact drive device which can have, in addition to the electric motor and worm gearing, the cable drum and which is fixed on the supporting parts of the inside of the vehicle door, for example, a support plate, like the profiled rail.
As an alternative to this, the drive device can be used to operate a cross arm window lifter or other adjusting devices of the vehicle, for example a length adjustment of a seat.
Since different forces are required for raising and lowering the window pane, the electric motor is connected to a control device, a control and regulating circuit which is connected to a sensor of a measuring system for determining the speed or position of the electric motor. The control device for raising or lowering the window pane is operated through an operating switch by the vehicle driver or passenger.
In DE 198 39 33 C1, a drive device is described for motor vehicles having separate housings for the gearing and the associated control electronics. The drawback with this drive device is that the modular construction requires additional assembly steps for making up the housing and that the plug connectors between the housings have to be additionally sealed from moisture.
From EP 0 482 040 B1 an electromechanical drive device is known in which a conventional plate with structural elements for a control and regulating electronics unit is mounted in a part of the gear housing. The insert module consists of the small plate, a side wall and a plug of a contact connection fixed on the plate. The insert module is provided with seals and is inserted until stopping in the part of the gear housing.
The drawback with this is the number of assembly steps required. First, the connector collar of the contact connection must be completed with contacts. Second, the connector collar is fixed in the side wall, and third, the connector contacts are soldered to the plate. In the fourth assembly stage, the side wall has to be provided with a circumferential seal, and in the fifth step, the insert module is inserted, aligned relative to the ring magnet, and then fixed.

Electromechanical drive device and method for manufacture thereof

Brose Fahrzeuqteile GmbH & Co. KG, Coburg