A plasma processing system configured for use in processing a substrate after metal etching. The substrate includes a layer of photoresist disposed thereon. The plasma processing system includes a plasma generating region and a baffle plate disposed between the plasma generating region and the substrate. The baffle plate includes a central blocked portion disposed in a center region of the baffle plate. The baffle plate further includes an annular porous portion surrounding the central blocked portion. The annular porous portion includes a plurality of through holes configured for permitting a H.sub.2 O plasma generated in the plasma generating region to pass through the holes to reach a surface of the substrate. The plasma processing system also includes a chuck disposed below the baffle plate to support the substrate during the processing.

The invention relates to the fabrication of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs). More particularly, the invention relates to apparatus and methods for passivating a semiconductor substrate after metal etching.
In semiconductor IC fabrication, devices such as component transistors are formed on a substrate, which is typically made of silicon. Uses for the substrate may include, for example, the fabrication of ICs or flat panel displays. Successive layers of various materials are deposited on the substrate to form a layer stack. Metallic interconnect lines may then be employed to couple the devices of the IC together to form the desired circuit.
To form the aforementioned metallic interconnect lines, a portion of the layers of the layer stack, including the metallization layer, may be etched after a suitable lithography technique. By way of example, one such lithography technique involves the patterning of a photoresist layer by exposing the photoresist material in a contact or stepper lithography system, and the development of the photoresist material to form a mask to facilitate subsequent etching. Using an appropriate etchant, the areas of the metallization layer unprotected by the mask may be etched away, leaving behind metallization interconnect lines or features.
Etching of the substrate may, in some cases, create volatile byproducts, which may include chloride compounds. These byproducts, including chloride compounds, may be adsorbed into the substrate during the etching process. After the etching has been completed, an ashing step may be employed to remove the photoresist layer as well as some of the chloride compounds adsorbed by the substrate during etching. In the prior art, ashing is typically accomplished in a plasma reactor system using O.sub.2 /N.sub.2 as ashing source gases. The prior art plasma reactor is typically configured specifically for ashing using the aforementioned O.sub.2 /N.sub.2 as ashing source gases.
The prior art ashing system may be better understood with reference to FIG. 1. In FIG. 1, there is shown a highly simplified ashing system 100 which may be suitable for stripping, for example, the photoresist layer from a wafer. A microwave source 130 generates microwaves that typically pass through a waveguide 118 and excite O.sub.2 /N.sub.2 source gas input through port 102, thereby producing O.sub.2 /N.sub.2 plasma and UV light.
The O.sub.2 /N.sub.2 plasma and UV light pass into ashing chamber 108 and are deflected by a deflector plate 104. Deflector plate 104 typically blocks the UV light from line of sight exposure to wafer 112. As is known, the plasma's contact with deflector plate 104 may cause some of the plasma's charged species, electrons, and reactive neutral species to be recombined. Recombination may change the reactive characteristics of the plasma. By way of example, reactive neutral species that are recombined may become less reactive, thereby affecting the efficiency with which the ashing process is conducted.
After being deflected, the O.sub.2 /N.sub.2 plasma continues downward into ashing chamber 108 and contacts baffle plate 110, which may cause further recombination of the reactive neutral species as well as recombination of the charged species and electrons. The remaining O.sub.2 /N.sub.2 plasma diffuses through holes in baffle plate 110 and contacts wafer 112 (shown disposed on chuck 114) to ash the photoresist thereon as well as to remove some of the adsorbed chloride compounds. Any remaining O.sub.2 /N.sub.2 plasma and ashing byproducts exit ashing chamber 108 through exhaust port 116.
Baffle plate 110 and deflector plate 104 in ashing chamber 108 are typically configured to evenly distribute O.sub.2 /N.sub.2 plasma across the wafer 112. Deflector plate 104 may be better understood with reference to FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, there is shown a prior art deflector plate 104 which may be made of quartz or a similarly suitable material that is not readily susceptible to etching by O.sub.2 /N.sub.2 plasma. In one prior art example, solid deflector plate 104 may be substantially disk shaped with a thickness of about 0.13 inch and an outer diameter of about 2 inches. Deflector plate 104 is typically sized to protect the wafer from line of sight exposure to UV light produced during O.sub.2 /N.sub.2 plasma energization.
Baffle plate 110 may be better understood with reference to FIG. 3. In FIG. 3, there is shown an exemplary prior art baffle plate 110, which may be substantially disk shaped with an outer diameter of about 8.4 inches and a thickness of about 0.13 inch. Baffle plate 110 may also be made of quartz or another suitable material which is also not readily susceptible to etching by the O.sub.2 /N.sub.2 plasma. The center portion of baffle plate 110 typically includes a porous region 204 having a uniform distribution of holes. In one exemplary prior art baffle plate, a typical hole 206 in porous region 204 may have an inner diameter of about 0.13 inch and may be spaced apart from other holes in porous region 204 by about 0.5 inch. The porous region may extend all the way to the periphery of baffle plate 110 or may terminate at an annular region 208. As shown in FIG. 3, annular region 208 surrounding porous region 204 may be solid and may be used to support baffle plate 110 in ashing chamber 108.
Although prior art ashing systems, e.g., ashing system 100 of FIG. 1, has proved useful in the past in removing the photoresist material and some of the adsorbed chloride compounds, they have proven to be inadequate for ashing some modem substrates. By way of example, it has been found that prior art ashing systems are inadequate in addressing corrosion problems in substrates that employ Cu as part of their metallization layer. This is because a high Cu concentration in the metallization layer tends to generate galvanic effects, which may exacerbates the interconnect line corrosion problem after etching is completed. If the adsorbed chloride compounds are inadequately removed, as has been found in substrates ashed in prior art ashing systems, the resulting IC may be rendered defective during use.
The inability of prior art ashing systems to adequately remove the absorbed Cl.sub.2 also causes problems in ICs that employ fairly narrow design rules. If the interconnect lines are wide enough, some corrosion may not unduly affect the IC performance. However, modem IC circuits are scaled with increasingly narrower design rules to achieve greater circuit density. As a result, the width of the interconnect lines or the spacings between adjacent interconnect lines, have steadily decreased. By way of example, while a line width of approximately 0.8 microns (.mu.) is considered acceptable in a 4 megabit (Mb) dynamic random access memory (DRAM) IC, 256 Mb DRAM IC's preferably employ interconnect lines as thin as 0.25 microns or even thinner. Because interconnect line widths are becoming narrower, there is less of a safety margin to deal with corrosion problems, since the thinner interconnect lines may be more easily damaged by corrosion. This is doubly true if Cu is also used in the metallization layer, for the reasons discussed earlier.
To remove more of the adsorbed chloride compounds, there is provided in the prior art a separate passivation step that may be performed before the ashing process. The passivation step removes much of the adsorbed chloride compounds to minimize the corrosion damage. To passivate the substrate, a H.sub.2 O plasma is typically employed. The reaction between the reactive neutral species of the H.sub.2 O plasma and the substrate removes more of the chloride compounds adsorbed by the substrate during etching, thereby minimizing corrosion damage. Passivation has been found to be useful when Cu is present in the metallization layer or when metallization lines are thin.
In the prior art, the same chamber employed for ashing is typically also employed for passivation. When prior art ashing chamber 108 is used for H.sub.2 O passivation, however, it has been found that a relatively long passivation process time may be required. This is because prior art ashing chamber 108 is optimized for O.sub.2 /N.sub.2 ashing, and the dual plate configuration of the prior art ashing chamber 108 results in a high degree of reactive neutral species recombination. As discussed earlier, this reduces the density of the reactive neutral species as well as the effectiveness with which the substrate may be passivated. Among other reasons, a high degree of recombination occurs because many of the reactive neutral species are recombined upon contact with the large interior surfaces of the two plates, i.e., of deflector plate 104 and baffle plate 110.
In view of the foregoing, there are desired improved apparatus and methods therefor which passivate and ash the substrate with a higher degree of efficiency. The improved apparatus and methods preferably remove a high percentage of the adsorbed Cl.sub.2 to reduce the metal corrosion problem while minimizing the time required for such passivation and ashing.

Methods and apparatus for passivating a substrate in a plasma reactor


A new cultivar of Colocasia plant named ‘Black Ripple’, that is characterized by its leaves that are very dark black-purple in color with a surface that is corrugated (puckered), iridescent and shiny, its dwarf and compact plant habit, its petioles that are deep purple in color, its clump forming growth habit, and its vigorous growth habit.

The present invention, Colocasia 'Black Ripple', relates to a new and distinct interspecific hybrid of Colocasia, hereinafter referred to by its cultivar name, 'Black Ripple'. 'Black Ripple' is a new tropical plant used as a landscape and container plant in tropical and subtropical areas.
The new cultivar was derived from a controlled breeding program conducted by the Inventor at his nursery in Louisville, Ky. The overall purpose of the breeding program is to make selections of Colocasia plants that are unique with large leaves and vigorous growth habits. 'Black Ripple' arose from a cross made in July of 2009 between unnamed plants of a Colocasia of hybrid origin from the Inventor's breeding programs as the female and male parents. 'Black Ripple' was selected as a single unique plant in June of 2011 from amongst the seedlings derived from the above cross.
Asexual propagation of the new cultivar was first accomplished by in vitro propagation under the direction of the Inventor in Eustis, Fla. in May of 2012. Asexual propagation by in vitro propagation has shown that the characteristics of the new cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.


A device for estimating a factor of one-side pull to be generated at a vehicle includes one or more sensors, a calculator, and an estimator. The one or more sensors are configured to detect an acting force on one or more sensors wheels. The calculator is configured to calculate a position of a center of a ground contact load based on information outputted by the one or more sensors. The estimator is configured to estimate the factor based on a lateral displacement of the center of the ground contact load.

The disclosure relates to a device for estimating a one-side pull factor of a vehicle that causes one-side pull in the vehicle such as an automobile, and a steering device of a vehicle.
One-side pull of a vehicle is one of phenomena related to the straight line vehicle stability. When the one side pull occurs in the vehicle, the vehicle is pulled to one side due to, for example, a lateral inclination (slope angle and cant angle) of a road surface or a crosswind.
For example, when a road has a slope angle, a driver in manual driving can drive the vehicle so as to maintain the vehicle at a lane center by keeping steering based on information obtained from a steering reaction force or the like.
Meanwhile, when a steering assist control or an self-driving control is performed, for example, a lateral position in a lane of a host vehicle is detected using an environment recognition unit such as a stereo camera, and steering is corrected in response to detection of displacement due to the one-side pull. There has been a demand for estimating a factor which causes the one-side pull such as the slope angle of the road surface and reflecting the estimated factor to steering control before the one-side pull actually occurs.
For example, as a technique of the related art for estimating a slope angle of a road surface, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2007-210412 discloses detecting a lateral gradient (cant) of the road surface using (i) how much a vehicle deviates from a lane which is recognized from an image captured by a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera and (ii) a lateral acceleration acting on a vehicle.

Device for estimating vehicle one-side pull factor and steering device


The dynamic range is changed by switching a current applied to an amplifying circuit to obtain the minimum ICP required to keep linearity with the number of multiplexes even when the number of multiplexes of data is changed by switching the operation current of the amplifying circuits of the transmission system and also supplying the information about number of multiplexes of data to be transmitted to the amplifying circuits of the transmission system from the baseband circuit. Thereby, the signal can be transmitted without distortion even when the number of multiplexes increases and the current of the amplifying circuit may be reduced when the number of multiplexes is small in order to reduce the current consumption in the communication semiconductor integrated circuit device which can form a wireless communication system of the code division multiplex system such as W-CDMA system.

The present invention relates to a wireless communication technology, more specifically to a technology which may be effectively applied, while increase of power consumption is controlled, for improving linearity of a semiconductor integrated circuit device comprising an amplifying circuit to amplify the code division multiplexed transmitting signal. Moreover, the present invention relates to a technology which may be effectively applied to a semiconductor integrated circuit device for communication constituting a wireless communication device, for example, of W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) system and to a wireless communication device such as a mobile telephone or the like comprising the same semiconductor integrated circuit device.
In the wireless communication device such as a mobile telephone (mobile communication device), a multiplex system is employed to increase the amount of data to be transmitted. The present multiplex system used for the mobile telephone includes a TDMA system (time division multiplex system) and a CDMA system (code division multiplex system) or the like. The CDMA system is a communication system where a plurality of diffused codes having orthogonality in the same frequency space are used for spectrum diffusion of carrier and the diffused carriers are assigned to a plurality of channels. The CDMA system is employed for the mobile telephone of the W-CDMA system. In the mobile telephone of the PDC (Personal Digital Cellular) system and GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) system, the TDMA system is employed.
In the mobile telephone of W-CDMA system, the I, Q signals generated based on the transmission data in a baseband circuit are supplied to a transmitting circuit including a modulation circuit, the signals obtained by modulating a local oscillation signal with the I, Q signals are supplied to a power amplifier for the power amplification and finally the amplified signals are outputted from an antenna. For the mobile telephone of the W-CDMA system, there is provided a system where level and accuracy of an average output power corresponding to the output request level transmitted from a base station are determined by the specification, gain of a power amplifier is controlled with an output control signal supplied from the baseband circuit, and signals are transmitted in the specified output power.

Semiconductor integrated circuit device and wireless communication system


A bag protects apparel. The bag is of a sheer woven fabric comprised of nylon threads. The fabric has a circular cross section with a diameter of about 0.004 inches plus or minus 10 percent and a thread count of between about 80 and 160 threads per inch. The fabric includes rectangular openings. The openings form between about 40 percent and 70 percent of the surface area of the fabric. The woven fabric of the primary bag has front and rear panels. The fabric has peripheral coupling seams. An opening above the side seams provides for the passage of a hook of a hanger there through. Horizontal shoulder seams between the side seams and the neck seams are supported by a garment on a hanger. The primary bag has an open bottom for the introduction of a garment on a hanger thereto or the removal there from the front panel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a breathable garment bag system and more particularly pertains to protecting covered garments from environmental damage while abating unpleasant odors in such covered garments.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of garment bags of known designs and configurations is known in the prior art. More specifically, garment bags of known designs and configurations previously devised and utilized for the purpose of protecting/carrying garments through known methods and apparatuses are known to consist basically of familiar, expected, and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which has been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,330,321 issued Jul. 11, 1967 to Wels relates to an infant's wardrobe enclosing and carrying bag. U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,559 issued Feb. 25, 1992 to Gendreau relates to reusable garment bags for dry-cleaning. Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,364 issued Aug. 13, 1996 to Weber relates to a nursing apron.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe breathable garment bag system that allows protecting covered garments from environmental damage while abating unpleasant odors in such covered garments.
In this respect, the breathable garment bag system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of protecting covered garments from environmental damage while abating unpleasant odors in such covered garments.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved breathable garment bag system which can be used for protecting covered garments from environmental damage while abating unpleasant odors in such covered garments. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.


The invention relates to a Solanum lycopersicum plant that is resistant to TBRFV, which plant comprises a QTL on chromosome 11 between SEQ ID NO: 1 and 53. The presence of the QTL on chromosome 11 is identified by use of at least one of the markers selected from the group comprising SEQ ID NOS: 4 to 52. The QTL is as comprised in the genome of a Solanum lycopersicum plant representative seed of which was deposited with the NCIMB under deposit number NCIMB 42882, NCIMB 42885, NCIMB 42887, or NCIMB 42890.

One of the problems that is encountered when growing a tomato crop (Solanum lycopersicum) is the occurrence of various viruses. Resistance against many known viruses has been identified, which resistances are incorporated in suitable tomato varieties through breeding. This allows the growers to obtain a good yield even when a certain virus is present during production. Regularly however new viruses or strains of known viruses are identified, that in certain instances can break the available resistance.
In 2015 the occurrence of a new tobamovirus in tomato was published (Salem et al: A new tobamovirus infecting tomato crops in Jordan. Arch Virol. 2016 February; 161(2):503-6. Epub 2015 Nov. 19). This virus was shown to be related to the known tobamoviruses Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), Tomato mosaic virus (ToMV), and Tomato mild mottle virus (ToMMV), with sequence identities of around 80% to 90% for the closest related sequences of ToMMV and ToMV. Symptoms were rather mild on the plant, but very severe brown rugose symptoms were present on almost all fruits. The virus was observed to break the resistance of the commonly used resistance genes against ToMV: Tm-1, Tm-2, and Tm-22, which is also known as Tm-2a. A later publication showed that the virus was also found in Israel, and it was established that the virus can also infect pepper (Capsicum annuum) plants (Luria et al (2017): A new Israeli tobamovirus isolate infects tomato plants harboring Tm-22 resistance genes. PLoS ONE 12(1):e0170429. Doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0170429). Symptoms appeared to vary based on the affected variety, and in certain instances symptoms were mainly found on the vegetative parts in the form of severe or mild mosaic, necrosis, leaf distortion, or other symptoms. As the virus was clearly different from the known tobamoviruses it was described with a new designation: Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (TBRFV).
Because of the severity of the symptoms on the fruits the impact of the presence of TBRFV on tomato growers is very high, since it leaves the fruits basically unmarketable. No resistance against the virus has been identified so far. The virus is at least transmitted mechanically, which makes the spread easy and rapid, and difficult to control. Transmission of the virus is also likely to occur through infected seed.
Citation or identification of any document in this application is not an admission that such document is available as prior art to the present invention.


A footrest for a bicycle includes a tube having a closed end and an open end, and a sheath removably mounted around the tube and engaged with a rim of the closed end. The closed end has a through-hole defined therein for allowing a wheel axle of the bicycle to extend therethrough. The sheath has a knurled outer periphery and is not rotatable with respect to the tube. A cap is detachably attached to the tube at the open end for retaining the sheath around the tube between the rim of the closed end and the cap. Furthermore, a fastening is adapted to be threadedly connected with the wheel axle to fasten the tube to the bicycle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a footrest for a bicycle and, more particularly, to such a footrest which has prolonged service life.
2. Description of Related Art
It can be found that some bicycles are provided with footrests for users to put their feet thereon, especially for acrobats to stand thereon during a show. As shown in FIG. 6, a footrest of a conventional type generally includes a tube. (50) having a closed end and an open end, with the closed end defining a through-hole for allowing a wheel axle (32) at a fork (30) of a bicycle to extend therethrough. The tube (50) is fastened to the bicycle, by means of a nut (52) that tightly engages the wheel axle (32) and hence presses the closed end of the tube (50) against the fork (30), through a washer (54).
The tube (50) is typically formed with a knurled outer periphery, in order to provide the user with enough friction to avoid the sliding of his/her foot over it. However, the knurled outer periphery will be worn out quickly, because the tube (50) is commonly made of aluminum, rather than a wear-resistant material.
As shown in FIG. 7, another footrest for such use includes a tube (60) covered with a sheath (62) of steel. Because the sheath (62) is so tightly fitted around the tube (60), this footrest would be discarded as a whole when a knurled outer periphery of the sheath (62) is eventually worn out, which is wasteful in terms of money and resources.
In addition, the two footrests share a common problem in that the way they are connected to the bicycles might bring the user into particular risk of slipping and falling. This is because the nuts might be loosened accidentally and hence the tube (50, 60) might be rotatable with respect to the bicycle.
Therefore, it is an objective of the invention to provide a footrest for a bicycle to mitigate and/or obviate the aforementioned problems.
The object of the present invention is to provide a footrest for a bicycle which has a prolonged service life.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a footrest for a bicycle which brings no risk of slipping to a user thereon.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


The power of an input signal is amplified and the power-amplified input signal forms an output signal whose power shall be in agreement with a reference level. The power of the signal is amplified with a power amplification circuit that includes a power amplifier and a control unit. The power amplification circuit also measures the power of the output signal. The control unit generates supply voltages for the transistors of the power amplifier in relation to said reference level, so as to obtain an efficient power amplifier. The control unit regulates the power of the output signal in relation to the reference level and in relation to the power of the output signal, so that the power of the output signal will be in general agreement with said reference level. The power amplifier also includes controllable matching circuits that are controlled by controlled signals generated in relation to said reference level, so as to further improve the efficiency of the power amplifier.

The need of being able to amplify the power level of a signal to a given reference level is found in several technical applications, said reference level conceivably varying with time.
A power amplifier in a mobile radio transmitter is an example of one such technical amplification. The base station receiving the signal from the mobile radio transmitter will order the transmitter to transmit with different powers, depending on where the transmitter is located in relation to the base station. In the case of a mobile radio transmitter, which is normally battery powered, it is also important to ensure that the signal is amplified to each given reference level with the highest possible efficiency--with the intention that the amplifier will amplify the signal to the desired level with the lowest possible total power and current consumption. The smaller the power consumption, the less heat developed, while the smaller the current consumption, the longer the mobile radio transmitter can be used without needing to recharge the battery.
Efficiency can be measured in several ways. A typical measurement of efficiency is the so-called power added efficiency, wherewith the power difference between the signal whose power is to be amplified and the power-amplified signal is related to the total DC-power delivered to the power amplifier. This method of measuring efficiency results in high efficiency even at low current consumptions. By efficiency is meant power added efficiency in the following text, unless otherwise stated.
The efficiency of a power amplifier is normally improved by providing special matching circuits at the input and output of the power amplifier and between the amplifying stages, in order to match input and output impedances between the different stages, so that as much power as possible will be transferred from one stage to the next stage. The matching criterion is that the output impedance from one stage shall correspond to the complex conjugate of the input impedance to the following stage.
One method of obtaining regulated power amplification of a power amplifier is to dimension the power amplifier so that it will have good efficiency for the highest value of the reference level and then measuring the power output and, on the basis of this measurement, attenuating the input signal or controlling either the supply voltages or the bias voltages of the transistors in the power amplifier, so that the output power will correspond to the reference level.
One drawback with this method is that one or more of the amplifying stages will operate ineffectively for reference-level values that are lower than the highest reference-level value. The efficiency will thus be unnecessarily low for these reference-level values.
Patent Specification SE-A 8900860 teaches a power amplifying circuit which amplifies power to a predetermined number of reference-level values, where measurements and steps are taken to obtain high efficiency for all reference-level values. The circuitry includes output power measuring means. The supply voltages to some of the transistors included in the amplifier are adjusted until the measured output power coincides with the reference value in question. The bias voltages for these transistors are set to predetermined values for each reference level, said values being chosen so that the amplifier will nominally have a higher efficiency. The construction can thus be said to provide closed adjustment or regulation of the output power by adjusting the supply voltages and setting the bias voltages in relation to the reference level in question, therewith improving efficiency.
This construction is encumbered with a number of drawbacks, however. Firstly, the bias-voltage setting must be sensitive to parameter variations of the transistors in the power amplifier, for instance knee-voltage variations. This means that the same bias-voltage settings cannot be used reliably for different circuits, even when the circuits have the same construction and the same nominal parameter and component values. Consequently, in order to reliably obtain a good efficiency, it is necessary to determine suitable bias-voltage settings for each circuit per se which can, of course, be very time-consuming, especially when the circuits shall be mass produced. Secondly, the bias voltages are set to the same value for all transistors involved in the control, which is generally not optimal from the aspect of manufacture. Thirdly, the changes in supply voltages and bias voltages result in changes in the input and output impedances of the amplifying stages of the power amplifier. Impedance matching between the amplifying stages and the power amplifier input and output respectively will not therefore always be satisfactory, which results in unnecessarily low efficiency.

Arrangement and method relating to signal power amplification


The present invention relates to polymer composite materials containing carbon nanotubes, particularly to those containing singled-walled nanotubes. The invention provides a polymer composite comprising one or more base polymers, one or more functionalized m-phenylenevinylene-2,5-disubstituted-p-phenylenevinylene polymers and carbon nanotubes. The invention also relates to functionalized m-phenylenevinylene-2,5-disubstituted-p-phenylenevinylene polymers, particularly to m-phenylenevinylene-2,5-disubstituted-p-phenylenevinylene polymers having side chain functionalization, and more particularly to m-phenylenevinylene-2,5-disubstituted-p-phenylenevinylene polymers having olefin side chains and alkyl epoxy side chains. The invention further relates to methods of making polymer composites comprising carbon nanotubes.

The present invention relates to polymer composite materials containing carbon nanotubes, particularly to composites containing singled-walled nanotubes, in which the nanotube is solubilized or dispersed in a polymer by contacting the nanotube with a m-phenylenevinylene-2,5-disubstituted-p-phenylenevinylene.
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were first discovered in 1991 as a result of research on fullerenes. [S. Iijima (1991)]. Several years later single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were discovered. [S. Iijima and T. Ichihashiy (1993)]. A SWNT can be described as a giant molecule made from a single sheet of graphite wrapped around and joined with itself to form a cylinder whose two ends are each capped with the hemisphere of a fullerene. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes are made up of several of these tubes, where smaller diameter tubes are concentrically contained within larger diameter tubes. SWNTs are known to self-aggregate to form ropes [A. Thess et al. (1996)]. Carbon nanotubes have been found to possess a wide variety of extraordinarily useful properties, encouraging interest, especially within the past few years, in development of the technology required to exploit these properties. (See: Ebbesen (ed.) "Carbon Nanotubes, Preparation and Properties" CRC Press (1996); Saito R. et al. "Physical Properties of Carbon Nanotubes" World Scientific (1998); Dresselhaus et al. "Carbon Nanotubes: Synthesis, Structure, Properties and Applications" (2000) Springer-Verlag.) Their potential for use as composite reinforcements comes from their remarkable mechanical properties. Carbon nanotubes potentially have excellent fiber reinforcement properties in part because of their exceptionally high aspect ratios (the length of the tubes relative to their diameter) which can be as great as or greater than one million. Their theoretical strength has been calculated to be more than one hundred times that of steel, and yet they are only one sixth the density of steel. They have also been found to be much stiffer than other reinforcement materials, such as carbon fibers, but are much less brittle. Their potential to produce materials with a high strength to weight ratio make them ideal reinforcement candidates for incorporation into advanced structural composites for the various applications, particularly in the aerospace industry. These materials have potential application in many consumer products from automobiles to sports equipment.
In addition to extraordinary mechanical properties, carbon nanotubes are predicted to have useful electronic, thermal and magnetic properties. Some of these other properties are capable of being tuned by varying the diameter and/or the chirality of the tubes. [M. S. Dresselhaus, et al. (1996)]
The difficulty in realizing the potential carbon nanotubes have for providing enhanced mechanical strength to polymer based composites has been their inability to homogeneously or uniformly disperse, either in the polymer precursors or in the polymers themselves. Carbon nanotubes, and particularly single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), can be micrometers or even longer in length. While their extremely long length relative to their width means that they should have good fiber properties, it also means that they are not readily soluble in solvents. While there has been some success at dispersing shorter nanotubes in polymers, composites made with these short nanotubes having low aspect ratios have not realized the anticipated increases in the strength of the final composite.
Recently, Curran et al. (1998) reported that MWNTs (500 nm to 1.5 micron in length) were dissolved in a toluene solution using the polymer poly (m phenylenevinylene co-2,5-dioctoxy-p-phenylenevinylene) [abbreviated as co-2,5-dioctyl-PmPV]. They authors indicated that they were able to get the nanotubes to dissolve in organic solvents, such as toluene, because the co-2,5-dioctyl-PmPV polymer wrapped around the nanotube and held it in suspension in the polymer/toluene solution. In part, it was believed that the polymer employed separated ropes of SWNTs. The authors reported mixing nanotube powder and the co-2,5-dioctyl-PmPV polymer in toluene and briefly sonicating the mixture to obtain dissolution. The structure of co-2,5-dioctyl-PmPV is a variation of the more common light-emitting polymer polyphenylenevinylene (PPV). The bonds between the two alternating moieties making up the polymer backbone in co-2,5-dioctyl-PmPV, however leads to dihedral angles in the chain causing the chain to coil, thereby forming a helical structure along the polymer backbone. The diameter of this helix in a vacuum has been calculated to be 2 nm with a pitch of 0.6 nm. The size of the helix, as pointed out by the authors "fits nicely around a nanotube."
U.S. Pat. No. 6,576,341 and EP patent 094919B1 relate to the use of an organic material, particularly a polymer, to purify nanotube soot by forming a nanotube/polymer composite suspension in a solvent. The composite is then separated from the solvent. Preferred embodiment of the invention the organic material is a polymer. A preferred polymer is poly(m-phenylene-co-2,5-dioctoxy-p-phenylenevinylene). Other organic materials said to be useful in the invention are poly(dioctyl fluorene), poly(sulphonic acid), polyacetylene and DNA.
Published PCT application WO/02/16257 (published Feb. 28, 2002) reports polymer wrapped or coated SWNTs. Amphiphilic polymers, such as polymer surfactants, were said to be useful in the invention. Specific polymers said to be useful in the invention were polyvinyl pyrrolidone, polystyrene sulfonate, poly(1-vinyl pyrrolidone-co-vinyl acetate), poly(1-vinyl pyrrolidone-co-acrylic acid), poly(1-vinyl pyrrolidone-co-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate), polyvinyl sulfate, poly(sodium styrene sulfonic acid-co-maleic acid), dextran, dextran sulfate, bovine serum albumin, poly(methyl methacrylate-co-ethyl acrylate), polyvinyl alcohol, polyethylene glycol, polyallyl amine, and mixtures thereof. SWNTs wrapped or coated with PVP are exemplified. The polymer-wrapped or coated SWNTs are said to be useful in mechanical and structural applications. The polymer-wrapped or coated SWNTs are said to be useful in the preparation of electrically-insulating material having wrapped or coated SWNTs suspended in them. Electrically insulating materials including poly(methyl methacrylate), polystyrene, polypropylene, nylon, polycarbonate, polyolefin, polyethylene, polyester, polyimide, polyamide, epoxy, and phenolic resin are reported to be useful in materials of the invention. SWNTs are reported to be successfully solubilized by wrapping with PVP polymers, polystyrene sulfonate (PSS), poly(1-vinyl pyrrolidone-co-vinyl acetate) (PVPNA), poly(1-vinyl pyrrolidone-co-acrylic acid), poly(1-vinyl pyrrolidone-co-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate), polyvinyl sulfate, poly(sodium styrene sulfonic acid-co-maleic acid), dextran, dextran sulfate, bovine serum albumin, poly(methyl methacrylate-co-ethyl acrylate), polyvinyl alcohol, polyethylene glycol, and polyallyl amine. The published application provides the following explanation "the examples indicate that the wrapping of the SWNTs by water-soluble polymers is a general phenomenon, driven largely by a thermodynamic drive to eliminate the hydrophobic interface between the tubes and their aqueous medium." Several US patent applications are related to this PCT published application: US 200020046872, US 20020048632 and US 200020068170 (all filed Aug. 23, 2001). This reference does not however report functionalization of polymers used for solubilizing carbon nanotubes and does not teach or suggest selection of functionalization of the wrapping polymer for compatibility with the electrically insulating materials into which the carbon nanotubes are to be introduced.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,331,265 relates to reinforced polymers containing carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are reported to be introduced into a polymer, followed by stretching the mixture at or above the melting temperature of the polymer to orient the nanotubes. The patent discusses problems associated with orienting carbon nanotubes in polymers. Specifically disclosed polymers are polyolefins, such as a polyethylene or a polypropylene or blends thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,265,466 relates to a composite having oriented nanotubes to provide electromagnetic shielding. The composite is made by adding nanotubes to a polymer and imparting a shearing force to the polymer and nanotubes to orient the nanotubes. Polymeric material said to be useful in the invention include thermoplastics, thermosets, and elastomers and more specifically polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, styrenics, polyurethanes, polyimides, polycarbonate, polyethylene terephthalate, acrylics, phenolics, unsaturated polyesters, as well as the natural polymers cellulose, gelatin, chitin, polypeptides, polysaccharides, or other polymeric materials of plant, animal, or microbial origin.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,746,627 relates to an electrically conductive composite comprising a polyvinylidene fluoride polymer or copolymer and carbon nanotubes. The composites are prepared by mixing or dispersing carbon nanotubes in polymer emulsion using an energy source (e.g., a blender) followed by removal of the liquid to obtain the composite.


A substrate treating apparatus includes a pod storage unit 9 between a substrate treating unit 11 and a pod storage and transport unit 7, with a transport robot 19 transporting FOUPs 3 between a load port 5 and a rack array 33. A transport robot 31 transports the FOUPs 3 between the rack array 33, a rack array 69 and a receiver 27. The transportation between the load port 5 and rack array 33 and the transportation between the rack array 69, rack array 33 and receiver 27 can be carried out substantially in parallel. As a result, the efficiency of transporting the FOUPs 3 can be improved to improve throughput. Moreover, an increase in apparatus size can be inhibited since only the pod storage unit 9 is disposed between the pod storage and transport unit 7 and substrate treating unit 11. The capacity for storing the FOUPs 3 can be increased to make effective use of the high throughput of the apparatus.

(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a substrate treating apparatus for treating semiconductor wafers, substrates for liquid crystal displays, substrates for plasma displays, substrates for organic EL devices, substrates for FEDs (Field Emission Displays), substrates for optical displays, substrates for magnetic disks, substrates for magnetic optical disks, substrates for photomasks or substrates for solar cells (hereinafter called simply substrates). The apparatus takes in the substrates along with pods thereof, takes the substrates out of the pods, carries out various types of treatment such as cleaning treatment and etching treatment for the substrates, and puts the substrates back into the pods for delivery.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a first apparatus of this type includes a substrate treating unit, a pod storage and transport unit and a load port. The pod storage and transport unit has a plurality of racks, an internal receiver, a first transport device and a second transport device (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-237559, for example).
The substrate treating unit carries out various types of treatment for substrates. The pod storage and transport unit is juxtaposed to the substrate treating unit for storing and transporting FOUPs (Front Opening Unified Pods) containing the substrates. The load port is juxtaposed to the pod storage and transport unit for receiving the FOUPs. The FOUPS are transferred to and from the load port by automatic guided vehicles (AGV), which constitute an automated material handling system, or an overhead hoist transfer. The plurality of (e.g. 16) racks in the pod storage and transport unit are provided for storing the FOUPs. The internal receiver is disposed between the pod storage and transport unit and the plurality of racks for receiving the FOUPs. The first transport device transports the FOUPs between the load port and racks. The second transport device transports the FOUPs between the racks and internal receiver.
In the first apparatus constructed as described above, the first transport device transports the FOUPs between the load port and the racks, and the second transport device transports the FOUPs between the internal receiver and racks. Therefore, these transport operations can be carried out substantially in parallel. This improves the efficiency of transporting the FOUPs to improve the throughput of the substrate treating apparatus.
Generally, the automated material handling system is not stable due to variations in transporting time. This impedes improvement in the throughput of the substrate treating apparatus. Then, a second apparatus has been proposed, which includes an increased number of load ports in order to absorb the variations (see Japanese Patent No. 3521330, for example). A third apparatus proposed has overhead hoist transfers in two lanes (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-192855, for example).
However, the conventional examples with such constructions have the following problems.
Since, generally, the substrate treating unit carries out treatment based on chemical reactions, and it is impossible to shorten treating time in the substrate treating unit. Therefore, in order to improve throughput, the number of treating tanks arranged in the substrate treating unit has to be increased to increase the number of treatments carried out in parallel. This will increase the number of empty FOUPs having contained substrates under treatment now, which will increase also repositories for the FOUPs. The first conventional apparatus has to be increased in width or height in order to increase the number of racks while allowing access thereto by both the first transport device and second transport device. However, an increased width of the apparatus will result in a reduced number of apparatus that can be arranged in a clean room. An increased height of the apparatus will impose restrictions on arrangement in connection with the ceiling height of the clean room. Thus, there is a problem that performance of high throughput cannot be maximized.
The second apparatus, with the increased load ports, has an enlarged frontage which is a disadvantage in the number of apparatus that can be arranged in a clean room.
The third apparatus has a disadvantage in terms of cost since the overhead hoist transfer vehicles are expensive. Further, the two lanes require an increased width between the load ports and an increased length of the apparatus. Thus, the third apparatus also has a disadvantage in the number of apparatus installed.


A portable radio telephone set comprises a telephone number generating apparatus and a telephone number transmitting apparatus which are preferably contained in a pencil shaped body. The telephone number generating means generates a telephone number signal, for instance, by sensing the motion of a ball provided on a lower end of the body. The ball is moved to draw a telephone number on a surface of an article. The telephone number signal is modulated in the telephone number transmitting apparatus to be transmitted to air by an antenna which is provided on an upper end of the body.

In general, a portable radio telephone set comprises a dial operation unit having a plurality of push buttons for generating a calling signal and a telephone number signal of a called party. In this portable radio telephone set, a calling party presses the selected push buttons in turn to generate a telephone number signal which is supplied to a control unit of the telephone set, so that the telephone set of the calling party is connected through a communication channel to a telephone set of the called party.
A portable radio telephone set having a voice recognition apparatus has also been proposed. In this portable radio telephone set, a calling party voices a telephone number of a called party by facing the telephone set, so that the voice recognition apparatus recognizes the voice of the calling party and generates a telephone number signal of the called party. Consequently, the telephone set of the calling party is connected through a communication channel to a telephone set of the called party.
However, the former portable radio telephone set has a disadvantage in that a limitation occurs in the amount the size of the telephone set can be reduced, because the plural push buttons must be provided on a main body of the telephone set to generate a telephone number signal.
In addition, the latter portable radio telephone set has a disadvantage in that it is difficult to dial a telephone number of the called party in a confidential manner, because the telephone number is voiced at a predetermined voice level by the calling party.

Portable radio telephone set for generating pattern signals representative of alphanumeric letters indicative of a telephone number


A wireless transmitted electrocardiogram monitoring device is disclosed. A conductive fabric of the device features on that it is used to be a sensing component with characters of comfort, air permeability, softness, and stretchability thus achieves long-term signal measurement. The processing and transmission method of electrocardiogram signals is characterized in the wireless transmission of the electrocardiogram signals being detected. The signal receiving component (part) is for collecting data, displaying, storage, output and calculation of values. Therefore, a wireless transmitted electrocardiogram monitoring device is applied for long-term monitoring of the physical status of users.

The present invention relates to a wireless transmitted electrocardiogram monitoring device which uses conductive fabric as electrodes in combination with wireless transmission for monitoring human electrocardiogram.
Refer to European Patent No. 0375440A1—"An electrode for use on living tissue", filed on 1990, an electrode for use in electrocardiography is disclosed. The device comprises a moisture vapour permeable porous material and an electrically conductive powder. The electrode may have an adhesive on one surface to facilitate attachment to a patient. As to another World Intellectual Property Organization patent No. 3094717A1—"TEXTILE ARTICLE HAVING ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTIVE PORTIONS AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING THE SAME", filed on 2003, a textile garment in the form of a bra or ladies top produced by circular knitting technique for detecting electrocardiogram is disclosed. The knitted construction includes electrically conductive yarn (fiber coated with metal) to form electrodes. The electrode is arranged in the inner layer, while the outer layer is an electrically insulated layer.
Moreover, in a Japanese patent publication No. 2000000221A2 named "SHEET FOR ELECTRODE", electrodes disposed inside a sheet for detecting electrocardiogram waveform and heart beat rate is disclosed. The electrodes are arranged near user's head and feet. The weft of the fabric is conductive yarn while the warp is non-conductive yarn. As to another Japanese Patent No. 60079957A2—"ENERGIZATION HEAD", applied on 1985, a fabric electrode made by fiber with diameter of 70 μm that is made of stainless filaments with diameter of 30 μm intertwisted with polyester (PET) fiber with diameter of 20 μm. The mixture of epoxy resin and aluminum hydroxide is heated to coat the fabric electrode. Refer to a further Japanese Patent No. 06070897A2—"ELECTRODES MOUNTING STRUCTURE IN VEST FOR ELECTROCARDIOGRAM MEASUREMENT", a vest for long-term detection of electrocardiogram is disclosed. The positions for measuring are around the front side of the chest and the belly. The vest is washable and with a slot for installation and disassembling of the external electrodes.
Moreover, refer to U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,987—"Apparatus for transmitting ECG data", A vest-like garment is provided. The device includes a front fabric panel with a plurality of apertures adapted for receiving associated electrodes, a horizontally stretchable rear panel, and a pair of vertically stretchable shoulder straps. Each of the electrodes is biased against the front panel for better electrical engagement with the skin of the user. Leads from each electrode may carry signals to a telephonic transmission unit, which is also equipped with emergency electrode handles. As to the U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,278 named "Electrode positioning and retaining belt", an electrode positioning belt for electrocardiogram is disclosed. An electrode positioning belt has Velcro loop fabric along the inner surface. Velcro hook fabric may be affixed to the back of the electrodes so they may be removable secured to the belt. The belt is wrapped around a body member. The ends of the belt overlap and a tab of hook fabric at one end of the belt on the outer surface is used to secure the belt. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,729,377 and 4,580,572—"Garment apparatus for delivering or receiving electric impulses" disclosed a garment containing multiple conductive paths made of conductive cloth is used to connect an external electrical apparatus to various points on the skin of the wearer. The garment can be designed for electrical monitoring of physical status. A fabric, in the form of a woven or knitted fabric or garment disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,381,482—"Fabric or garment with integrated flexible information infrastructure" is used for collecting, processing, transmitting and receiving information. The fabric allows a new way for information processing by selecting and plugging in (or removing) components from the fabric. The fabric can also be provided with sensors for monitoring physical aspects of the wearer. U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,551—"Full-fashioned weaving process for production of a woven garment with intelligence capability" discloses a woven garment made of only one single integrated fabric with armholes includes intelligence capability to monitor one or more body vital signs by including a selected sensing component or components.
Refer to Taiwanese patent publication No. 150548, a monitoring device for human heart beat, blood pressure, respiration and body temperature is disclosed. The monitoring device has a screen for displaying, voice and video signals for alarm and electrodes for detecting and amplifying weak signals from user's chest. As to Taiwanese patent publication No. 333445, a long-term monitoring method for cardiac activities is disclosed. The method includes pre-processing, reducing noise, and measuring threshold value of heart beating signals or noise in a dynamic way. Then the electrocardiogram waveforms are classified according to respective features of waves. Refer to Taiwanese patent publication No. 286538, it relates to a monitoring system for people in motion. The device, having a portable power supply and a microprocessor, measures and stores electrocardiogram and blood pressure data for diagnosis reference. A wireless measuring device for physical parameters is disclosed in Taiwanese patent publication No. 243179. The device includes a detector for body temperature and pulse, connected to a conversion circuitry for converting detected signals into physical parameters such as body temperature and pulse. Taiwanese patent publication No. 241002 named earphone-type detector for physical status discloses a detector composed by a detecting unit, in combination with a detecting module and a signal conversion module for receiving signals of physical status, and a beeper with warning voices for reminding users that the detected value is higher than normal range. Taiwanese patent publication No. 567831 discloses a Bluetooth® body temperature monitor consists of a Bluetooth® host and a Bluetooth® detect for body temperature detection. Taiwanese patent publication No. 526649 discloses a personal health monitor system using mobile phone for monitoring user's physical status. The users' data of physical status is collected and processed by monitoring program inside a portable information processor, then a corresponding message is produced to inform user about his/her health situation. Taiwanese patent publication No. 454502 discloses a monitor for detecting physical status with function of mobile phone. A mobile phone receiving physical signals displays values of signal on the phone screen in dot matrix way. Taiwanese patent publication No. 448761 discloses an underwear for monitoring heart beat arranged on chest. A contact point is attached on user's chest for detecting pulse from heart beats and then transmitted to the host in wireless way. Taiwanese patent publication No. 366796 discloses a wireless transmitter with infrared sensor for heat beat composed by a circuitry for reducing noise, heart heat sensor, and an amplifier transmitter. Taiwanese patent publication No. 275790 discloses a conductive piece attached on front side of the chest. By detecting electrical activity of heart form conductive piece placed on the surface of the skin, the detected signal is amplified and filtered through circuitry, then estimate heart rate by a heart beat detector. In Taiwanese patent No. M243180, strap structure for heat beat detector is disclosed. Two sheets of electrodes penetrate through air-permeable fabric and fixed on circuitry by metal rivets to form a strap tied on chest or other positions of body. Then the heart beat is estimated according to potential difference of pulse measured by the electrode contacted with the skin.
However, Taiwanese patents No. 150548, 333445, 286538, 243179, 241002, 567831, 526649, 454502, 448761, 366796, 275790, and M243180 has following shortcomings: 1. Most detectors of detecting devices or systems for physical status disclosed in above patents are portable or wearable for attaching on clothes or easy carrying. They are somewhat inconvenient for use. 2. The detectors of the above devices are made by hard material. Thus when they contact the skin of users, they can't adsorb moisture and eject sweat and they may cause problems of skin such as allergy. 3. The design of detectors on above sensing devices or systems has no softness and comfort so that they are not suitable for long-term or nonstop monitoring because they may cause skin discomfort. 4. The appearance of above monitoring devices or systems is easily be seen or attended and the devices are not minimized. Thus there must be some space for accommodating the devices or held by users. Thus the wearing of the devices causes some interference for users and can't be used without being feeling of devices.
Furthermore, the disadvantages of U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,987, U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,572, European patent No. 375440A1, Japanese patent No. 6070897A2, and Japanese patent No. 60079957A2 are: (1) The detecting component in the soft goods of above patents is made of cold and hard metal. When the detecting component touches user's skin, it may cause uncomfortable feelings. (2) The detector and the controller are connected by external wires (nonconductive fiber) so that the storage and breakage of these external wirings cause inconvenience of users. (3) The electrodes or detecting component composed by fibered porous material is not popular on the market. And the features (such as strength, elasticity, and absorption) of the material are far more less than the yarn. (4) The fabric electrodes on above soft goods are processed and hardened. When being applied to a polarized electrode, it is durable and thus is not suitable for long-term use. (5) The above soft goods with detection function need to be assembled with external electrodes through complicated steps for detection. Thus they can't be applied frequently on daily lives.
In addition, the shortcomings of the Japanese patent publication No. 2000000221A2, U.S. Pat. No. 6,381,482, U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,551 and WO patent No. 3094717A1 are:
(1) The soft goods mentioned in above patents are not portable or without the convenience of wear. (2) The detectors inside above soft goods need to combine with large area of fabric for achieving substantial effect.
Thus there is a need to provide a device having electrodes with features of comfort, air permeability, softness, and stretchability and signals being detected are transmitted in wireless way so as to avoid feelings of being tied and suitable for long-term monitoring of users' physical status.

Wireless transmitted electrocardiogram monitoring device


A portable net holding assembly for volley ball and the like comprises two identical halves. Each half of the assembly includes a substantially planar base member having (i) at least one downwardly depending spike adaptable for insertion into the ground adjacent the playing area in order to secure or hold the base to the ground when in a deployed position or playing position, and (ii) an upwardly depending, centrally located male stud. An end pole has a longitudinal recess at one end for accommodating the male stud of the base. A plurality of elongated stakes, preferably two, are adaptable to be inserted into the ground at spaced apart points remote from the base member and outwardly from the playing area. A set of lines extend from the pole to each of the stakes and are releasably connected thereto in a deployed position, and the pole has longitudinally spaced connecting elements for releasably connecting a net thereto.

The prior art shows a number of net support assemblies for such games as tennis, volley ball, badminton, etc., and many of these are portable so that the assembly can be deployed at a selected location such as a park or playground. With any net-game, it is essential that the net remain taut, and be set to the correct playing height and maintain that height or be re-adjusted to the correct height when in play. Further, the supports for the net must remain sturdy and durable, and not lean under the rigors of the game. Moreover, a portable assembly should not be unduly complicated to assemble, especially when the net-game is frequently assembled in a public area for a relatively short period of use such as for a day or a fraction of a day.
The prior art includes, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,980,299 to Brown which describes a kit for constructing a tennis court, having a net support means comprising two end poles for holding the net at the ends strung at midcourt and a center pole for holding the net upright, which are threadedly engaged with disc-shaped bases anchored to the ground. No accessory parts or equipment is used to sturdy the net and to hold it taut, and therefore the poles and base must be firmly anchored, which manifests a difficult assembly and one that is not readily transportable. Furthermore, a center pole used as an auxiliary support can be an interference with the game, and can be hazardous to the players. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,101 to McKay discloses a game-net support of essentially a permanent mounting comprising a hollow post welded to base having a downwardly depending spike for insertion into the ground.
A portable net-game assembly is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,754 to Eisenhart. Each net-support unit, positioned mid-court, comprises a hollow base and post, which can be filled with sand or water to provide weight and support to the units. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,968 to Peterson, the end posts for holding the net are screw-threaded to the base, which complicates the assembly. U.S. Pat. No. 4,093,224 to Hale discloses a stanchion assembly for holding a net, comprising a base of spaced apart, parallel ground engaging support members, and spaced apart, parallel cross members, and the stanchion is anchored to the ground with a spike.
This invention has as its object to provide a portable net support assembly, which can be readily assembled for temporary use on the ground or sand, as at a playground, park, or beach, and includes quick adjustment means for retaining the net taut and the poles upright as play continues.
It is another object of the invention to provide such a portable net support assembly which can be re-adjusted at anytime during play.
It is still another object of the invention to provide such an net support which is light weight and can be easily assembled by a single person.


A metallic effect pigment comprising at least three layers:    A) a layer A which comprises at least one metal MA and has an average oxygen content OA, based on the total amount of MA and OA in the layer A,    B) a layer B comprising at least one metal MB and having an average oxygen content OB of 0 to 77 atom %, more particularly of 0 to 58 atom %, based on the total amount of MB and OB in the layer B,    C) a layer C which comprises at least one metal MC and has an average oxygen content OC, based on the total amount of MC and OC in the layer C,    the average oxygen content OAC in layers A and C being determined in accordance with the formula (I)

Metallic effect pigments have been used for many years in coatings in order to generate a metallic effect.
Conventional metallic effect pigments consist of platelet-shaped metallic pigments whose effect derives from the directed reflection of incident light from metal particles of planar form which are oriented in parallel in the respective application medium.
Typical fields of application of metallic effect pigments are the coatings industry, especially the automotive industry, the printing industry, and the plastics industry.
The metallic effect is described by certain parameters. These parameters include the brilliance (sparkle and metallic luster), the lightness, and the flop (change in lightness as a function of incident angle and/or viewing angle), and the covering power. In the case of colored metallic coatings, further parameters are the chroma and the color flop ("two-tone").
The gloss is determined according to the proportion of reflected to scattered light in relation to a standard.
Key factors influencing the metallic effect include the particle morphology and the form factor (ratio of average particle diameter to average particle thickness) of the pigments, the thickness of the particles and also their surface roughness, the particle size, the particle-size distribution, and the orientation of the pigment parallel to the surface of the coating material or plastic.
In relatively large-diameter pigment particles of uniform morphology the reflection is relatively high, this being manifested in high metallic brilliance, improved lightness, and strong flop, whereas, for relatively low-particle-diameter pigments, the scattering fraction is very high, resulting in good covering power.
The covering power is determined above all, however, by the thickness of the metallic pigments. The thinner the metallic pigments, the better their specific covering power, i.e., the covering power per unit weight.
On the part of the printing, coatings, plastics, and cosmetics industries there is great interest in colored metallic pigments, and particularly in metallic pigments with a golden luster. Products resembling gold possess a high esthetic quality and give the materials thus coated, printed or colored a valuable appearance.
In recent times, however, black metallic effects as well have been enjoying increasing popularity. For instance, the color black has presently become the fashion color in the automobile sector. These effects are based on mixtures of black pigments with conventional aluminum pigments. Metallic pigments which are inherently black and also have a high gloss have not so far made a commercial entrance.
Very well established are the pigments known as gold bronze powders, which consist predominantly of copper/zinc alloys and which depending on composition may have different hues from red gold to rich gold (Pigment Handbook, vol. 1, 1973, p. 807 ff., Wiley-Interscience). Gold bronze pigments are produced by atomization of a liquid copper/zinc alloy melt and subsequent milling of the powder formed during atomization. In the course of the milling operation, the alloy particles are deformed to a platelet shape and comminuted. In the art, gold bronze pigments are obtained predominantly by dry milling. In order to avoid instances of cold welding, lubricant such as stearic acid, for example, is added to the atomized powder employed. Irregularities on the surface and edges of the metal platelets have the effect of reducing luster. These conventionally manufactured metallic effect pigments possess not only a pronounced particle-size distribution but also particle thicknesses of well above 100 nm.
For higher-value applications, particularly thin aluminum pigments have been developed, which are produced via PVD techniques.
Metallic pigments produced by PVD techniques have been known for some considerable time. They are notable for extremely high gloss, an enormous covering power, and unique optical properties. Owing to their low thickness of around 30 to 70 nm and their extremely smooth surfaces, they have a tendency, following application, to conform very closely to the substrate. If the substrate itself is very smooth, the result is virtually a mirrorlike appearance.
Of the pure metallic pigments, only aluminum pigments have made a commercial entrance to date. Examples thereof are Metalure® (manufactured by Avery Dennison, sold by ECKART), Decomet® (Schlenk) or Metasheen® (Ciba). Such pigments represent the "silver" hue in its highest embodiment.
High-value colored metallic effects are generally obtained by blending PVD aluminum pigments with dyes and/or color pigments. In this way, for example, it is possible to generate high-value gold hues by blending the PVD aluminum pigments with yellow dyes or color pigments. Such blends, however, have disadvantages: for instance, these blends cannot be applied in particular to absorbent substrates, owing to the separation there of metallic pigment from dye. In applications requiring high light fastnesses, these systems often fail because of the deficient light fastness of the colored pigment or of the dye.
Pigments based on metallic layers and produced via PVD techniques are described in more detail in U.S. Pat. No. 2,839,378.
Described therein is the manufacture of mirrorlike pigments with extremely thin layer thicknesses, which are applied by vapor deposition to a substrate provided with a "release layer". After the metal layers have been applied and the film detached, the pigments are comminuted to the desired particle size by means of mechanical action.
The application of pigments manufactured in this way in coating formulations is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 2,941,894. That patent emphasizes the high reflectivities, the low level of pigmentation, and the high hiding power or covering power of the pigments.
The operation of producing metallic pigments by means of vapor deposition processes with a thickness of 35 to 45 nm is described with greater precision in U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,087, and involves the application of a release coat, the metallizing operation, the detachment operation in a solvent bath, the concentrating of the particles, and their ultrasonic comminution to the desired pigment size.
These one-layer metallic pigments have a limited diversity of hue. There is a need for new color effects with optically high-grade metallic pigments.
WO2004/026971 and WO2004/026972 relate to one-layer, high-luster, golden metallic effect pigments which are composed of a copper-based alloy and other metallic alloying constituents and are manufactured by detachment and comminution of metal films deposited under vacuum. The disadvantages of such pigments are the limited diversity of hue. The manufacture of pigments using Cu or Zn as heavy metal leads to pigments which have a high density and, in association therewith, a relatively low covering power, and also leads to sedimentation problems in certain formulations. Another disadvantage lies in the high sensibility of these alloy pigments to corrosion.
Multilayer effect pigments manufactured by PVD techniques (Physical Vapor Deposition) have also been known for a long time. They were first described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,438,796. Claimed therein are five-layer interference pigments having a central, reflecting aluminum layer, flanked on either side by an SiO2 layer with a thickness of 100 to 600 nm and, lastly, by semitransparent absorber layers comprising aluminum. The central aluminum layer is to have a reflecting effect, i.e., layer thicknesses of more than 60 nm are needed for this purpose. The external aluminum absorber layers, in contrast, must possess layer thicknesses of below 40 nm in order to have semitransparency properties. In that patent, furthermore, an interference pigment having a three-layer construction was described, in which a central SiO2 layer is flanked by two thin, semitransparent aluminum layers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,571,624 claims a paint which comprises multicolor interference pigments. These pigments possess a central metallic reflecting layer, flanked on either side by layer stacks composed in turn of a dielectric and a semiopaque metal layer, the dielectric layer facing the reflector core. Here again, in order to be truly opaque, the central metallic reflecting layer is required to have a minimum thickness of 35 to 40 nm. The dielectric layers ought to possess at least an optical layer thickness of two quarters of a selected wavelength of 400 nm. For an SiO2 layer, for example, with a refractive index of 1.55, this corresponds to a geometric minimum layer thickness of 310 nm.
Golden metallic pigments of high quality are disclosed in DE 10 2004 063433 A1. Described therein are multilayer PVD pigments which have a central metal layer so thin that it no longer has an opaquely reflecting effect. On either side this layer is coated with dielectric layers. The manufacture of these kind of pigments is inevitably expensive, since producing a pigment layer on the detachment foil requires the latter to be coated three or five times. The production of the absorbing central layer cannot easily be reproduced under production conditions.
Similar pigments are disclosed in WO 2004/052999 A2. They have the same disadvantages.
These multilayer effect pigments all have the disadvantage that the dielectric layers, in comparison to metal layers, can be applied by vapor deposition only at very slow rates. Consequently, multilayer effect pigments produced by vaporization techniques, in which dielectrics are vaporized or vapor-deposited, can be produced only very cost-intensively. Furthermore, a foil has to be vapor-coated a plurality of times in order for the multilayer structure to be realizable, and this pushes the manufacturing costs up further.
EP 1 522 606 A1 describes the production of a foil with black aluminum oxide. Neither effect pigments nor multilayer structures are disclosed therein. The films disclosed there have no notable metallic effect with luster and flop.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,430,366 describes the production of films which comprise a mixture of metal and metal oxide. Here again, no effect pigments are mentioned. The films possess an inhomogeneous composition with a gradient of metal and metal oxide over the layer thickness, the metal concentration gradient and the metal oxide gradient being contrary to one another.

Multi-layer metallic effect pigments, process for their preparation and use

Abstract: O          AC                =                              1            2                                          (                                                            O                  A                                                                      M                    A                                    +                                      O                    A                                                              +                                                O                  C                                                                      M                    C                                    +                                      O                    C                                                                        )                                              (        I        )            and being situated within a range from 2 to 77 atom %, more particularly from 25 to 58 atom %. The disclosure further relates to processes for preparing this effect pigment and also to its use.


A disc cartridge that can provide various driving modes for a disc received within the cartridge and allows a user to select the driving modes efficiently. A disc recording/reproducing method and apparatus employing the disc cartridge is disclosed. In the disc cartridge, a recording prohibition mode, a verification preceding recording mode and a direct recording mode are used. A mode selector can select each mode. The disc cartridge can provide various driving modes at a user""s request and permits a user to select the driving modes efficiently by a single selector.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a disc cartridge, and more particularly to a disc cartridge that is capable of providing various driving modes for a disc received within the cartridge and selecting the driving modes efficiently. Also, the present invention is directed to a disc recording/reproducing method and apparatus making use of the disc cartridge providing various recording modes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a disc is classified as a read-only type disc such as CD-ROM and DVD-ROM, etc., a WORM(write once read many) type disc such as CD-R and DVD-R, etc., and a rewritable disc such as CD-RW, DVD-RAM and optical magnetic disc, etc. The read-only type disc in such discs has been usually propagated in a shape of bare disc. On the other hand, the rewritable disc has been received within the cartridge for the purpose of protecting an information recording face from contamination or impact. This is a concern since the information recording face of the rewritable disc is subject to be contaminated and damaged by fingerprints, dust, scratches and so forth. When an information is recorded or reproduced to or from a disc received within such a disc cartridge, a disc driver moves a shutter provided in the cartridge to expose an opening, thereby assuring access to the disc.
Nowadays, there has been suggested an open-close structure by which a disc can be removed from its cartridge, so as to meet various needs of a user. Accordingly, a disc cartridge may be classified into a sealed type and an open-close type depending on whether it can be opened and closed. The open-close type cartridge has a structure that enables a user to insert or release a disc. In this case, when a disc has been released from the cartridge, a defect area caused by an external contamination or impact may occur on the information recording face of the disc, so that an error occurs at the time of recording or reproducing an information. More specifically, a user is usually intended to compatibly drive a disc by a disc driver having a different driving condition, that is, a disc driver installed to a portable information equipment or a stationary information equipment. For instance, an information can be recorded onto a disc received within a cartridge by a first disc driver installed to a camcorder and an information can be reproduced and edited from the disc by a second disc driver installed to the stationary information equipment. In this case, since the second disc driver can be loaded only in a state of bare disc when it corresponds to a read-only type disc driver, a user must take the disc from the cartridge and load it into the second disc driver. However, since a disc may be contaminated or damaged when it has been released into the outside of a cartridge at a user""s request, an error can occur at the time of recording or reproducing an information to or from the disc having a release experience. In order to prevent this, it is necessary to for the disc driver to confirm a release experience of the disc, that is, an opened and closed experience of the cartridge at the time of recording or reproducing to or from the disc received within the open-close type cartridge and to precede a verifying operation for the purpose of assuring an information responsibility when the disc has a release experience. Accordingly, the disc cartridge is usually provided with a hole for confirming the opened and closed experience of the cartridge. Also, the disc cartridge is provided with a number of functional holes including a functional hole for indicating a recording prohibition.
The disc driver is mounted with a sensor for sensing a disc state depending on whether or not there has been an opening and closing of the functional holes provided in the cartridge. In other words, when a disc cartridge is loaded, the disc driver senses an opening and closing of the functional holes provided in the disc cartridge by means of the sensor and judges a driving mode of a disc received within the disc cartridge. For instance, when it is sensed by the sensor that the opened and closed experience confirming hole of the loaded disc cartridge is opened, since a disc received within the cartridge has been released from the cartridge at least once, the disc driver regards as a contamination or a damage of the disc to operate a drive mode preceding a verification operation for the disc.
However, the disc verification process has a disadvantage in that, although it is requisite for an assurance of information responsibility, it requires more time than a usual recording process. In other words, a case where a recording process is performed after a verification process for the disc was preceded requires twice the time when compared with a case where a recording process is just performed without a verification process, which is hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cdirect recording modexe2x80x9d. In particular, even when a user receives a bare disc released from the disc cartridge again within the cartridge after polishing an information recording face thereof, the disc driver precedes a verification process for the disc because the opened and closed experience confirming hole is in a state of being opened. In this case, a problem exists in that a user wastes the time associated with an unnecessary verification process. This is caused by a fact that a conventional cartridge fails to allow a user to perform a recording process directly without a verification process for a disc having a release experience. As described above, the functional holes configuration installed in a conventional disc cartridge has a drawback in that it provides only a limited function. Also, the conventional cartridge has a problem in that a user may be confused by the co-existence of a number of functional holes.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a disc cartridge that is capable of providing various drive modes for a disc and permits a user to select from among the drive modes efficiently.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a disc cartridge wherein an opening or closing of functional holes indicating various drive mode can be selected by a single selecting device.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a disc cartridge wherein a recording prohibition mode and a direct recording mode only are applied when a disc does not have a release experience while a verification preceding recording mode can be selected by a user when a disc has a release experience, thereby preventing a user""s error in advance.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a disc recording/reproducing method and apparatus for performing recording and reproducing operations for a disc making use of a disc cartridge providing various operation modes.
In order to achieve these and other objects of the invention, a disc cartridge according to one aspect of the present invention has mode selecting means for selecting any one of a recording prohibition mode, a verification preceding recording mode and a direct recording mode.
A disc recording/reproducing method according to another aspect of the present invention includes the steps of confirming a current mode when a disc cartridge including a recording prohibition mode, a verification preceding recording mode and a direct recording mode is loaded; and driving a disc received within the disc cartridge in accordance with a mode confirmed in the confirming step.
A disc recording/reproducing apparatus according to still another aspect of the present invention includes sensing means for sensing a current mode when a disc cartridge including a recording prohibition mode, a verification preceding recording mode and a direct recording mode is loaded; recording/reproducing means for performing a recording and reproducing operation of the disc received within the disc cartridge; mode discriminating means for judging a disc driving mode in accordance with a sensing signal inputted from the sensing means; and control means for controlling the recording/reproducing means in a driving mode determined at the mode discriminating means.

Disc cartridge with mode selecting means


A turbine engine stator vane is provided that rotates about an axis, and includes an airfoil, a flange and a shaft. The airfoil extends axially between a first airfoil end and a second airfoil end. The airfoil includes a concave side surface, a convex side surface and a cavity. The concave and the convex side surfaces extend between an airfoil leading edge and an airfoil trailing edge. The cavity extends axially into the airfoil from a cavity inlet in an end surface at the second airfoil end. The flange is connected to the second airfoil end. The flange extends circumferentially around at least a portion of the cavity inlet, and radially away from the concave and the convex side surfaces to a distal flange edge. The shaft extends along the axis, and is connected to the second airfoil end.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a turbine engine and, more particularly, to a variable area vane arrangement for a turbine engine.
2. Background Information
A typical turbine engine includes a plurality of engine sections such as, for example, a fan section, a compressor section, a combustor section and a turbine section. One or more of the engine sections may include a variable area vane arrangement. Such a vane arrangement may be configured to guide and/or adjust flow of core gas between adjacent rotor stages within the respective engine section. Alternatively, the vane arrangement may be configured to guide and/or adjust flow of core gas between the respective engine section and an adjacent (e.g., downstream) engine section.
A typical variable area vane arrangement includes a plurality of rotatable stator vanes extending between an outer radial stator vane platform and an inner radial stator vane platform. Outer radial ends of the stator vanes are rotatably connected to the outer radial stator vane platform with an outer shaft and a bearing. Inner radial ends of the stator vanes are rotatably connected to the inner radial stator vane platform with an inner shaft and a bearing. The outer shaft may include a bore that directs cooling air from a plenum, adjacent the outer radial stator vane platform, into a cavity within an airfoil of the respective stator vane. Airfoil cooling apertures may subsequently direct the cooling air out of the cavity to film cool the outer surfaces of the airfoil that are exposed to the core gas. To provide a sufficient quantity of the cooling air, the outer shaft bore typically has a relatively large diameter. As the diameter of the outer shaft bore increases, however, the size of the bearing also increases, which may significantly increase the weight, cost and complexity of the vane arrangement.


An ink-jet recording film capable of exhibiting excellent ink fixing behavior in ink-jet printing with a water-base ink along with good water resistance of the recording layer, which has a double-layered structure, as formed on the surface of a plastic substrate film, consisting of (A) an ink-receptive layer comprising a water-soluble resin, e.g., polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl acetal and/or polyvinyl pyrrolidone, a surface-roughening agent which is a combination of two different silica powders distinguishable in the low and high values of oil absorption in a specified weight proportion and a crosslinking agent for the water-soluble resin and (B) an overcoating layer for dot-profile control consisting of an acrylic resin of the quaternary ammonium salt type.

The present invention relates to a novel ink-jet recording film or, more particularly, to an ink-jet recording film capable of exhibiting good fixing behavior for water-base inks or, in particular, pigment-containing water-base ink and also exhibiting excellent water resistance.
Along with the remarkable prevalence of the application technology of computers in recent years, it is now widely and frequently practiced to make a print-out record of the computerized data by using a printer. Various types of printers are now under use for this purpose including dot-impact printers, laser printers, thermal printers and ink-jet printers, of which ink-jet printers are employed most widely by virtue of the outstandingly low machine noises and the low operation costs. While the sheet material on which the ink-jet recording is made by using an ink-jet printer can be a plain paper sheet or coated paper sheet for most purposes, it is also frequently the case with a special purpose that ink-jet recording is made on a specific ink-jet recording film prepared by coating a surface of a plastic film as a substrate film with a specifically formulated coating composition comprising a hydrophilic polymeric resin to form an ink-receptive layer.
Various proposals and attempts are made relating to the formation of the above mentioned ink-receptive layer on the substrate surface for an ink-jet recording film. For example, Japanese Patent Publication 6-4247 proposes an ink-jet recording film having an ink-receptive layer containing polyvinyl alcohol and polyvinyl pyrrolidone. Japanese Patent Kokai 5-262028 discloses an ink-jet recording film consisting of a substrate film and a multi-layered ink-receptive layer composed of at least two layers, of which the outermost layer is formed from a coating composition containing a polyvinyl acetal resin and the undercoating layer to the outermost layer contains a water-soluble resin. Further, Japanese Patent Kokai 5-286228 proposes a double-coated ink-jet recording film, of which a substrate film is provided, on one surface, with a dye-absorbing layer and, on the other surface, with a layer of a water-swellable resinous material such as a mixture of polyvinyl alcohol and polyvinyl pyrrolidone. Thus, it is the prior art in the technology of ink-jet recording films to use polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl acetal, polyvinyl pyrrolidone or a combination thereof as the resinous constituent in the ink-receptive layer.
When the ink-receptive layer of an ink-jet recording film is formed from a combination of these hydrophilic resins, however, serious defects are unavoidable of the recording film including the low water resistance of the ink-receptive layer and tackiness of the surface of the ink-receptive layer if not to mention the relatively poor performance not to fully satisfy the requirements for ink-jet recording films that the ink droplets formed by the jet of ink do not unduly spread to have an increased diameter of the ink dots, that each of the ink dots has a profile as close to a true circle as possible and that the profile of the ink dot is generally circular without rugged contour not to show a polygonal or asteriated pattern resulting in a decrease in the pattern resolution and sharpness of the image lines.
With an object to overcome these defects, a proposal is made in Japanese Patent Kokai 8-156396 for an ink-jet recording film having, on the surface of a substrate film, successively laminated layers including (A) an ink-receptive layer formed from a composition comprising, as the principal ingredients, polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl acetal or a combination thereof and a fine particulate material and (B) an overcoating layer containing a dot profile controlling agent but this recording film is still not quite satisfactory in respect of fixing of the ink.

Ink-jet recording film of improved ink fixing comprising a combination of silica powders