A method of monitoring, in real time, the depth to which a process sample is etched by an etching procedure involving investigating a sample substrate that has a patterned surface which, when electromagnetic radiation in an appropriate wavelength range is caused to reflect from, demonstrates lateral interference effects, such that when a frequency transform is applied to spectroscopic reflection data, three distinguishable peaks occur, at least for some range of pattern depth in the sample surface.

It is known to etch patterns in process substrates using, for instance, plasmas. Typically a pattern is delineated on a process substrate surface by a photoresist procedure. It can be difficult, however, to monitor the depth to which a process substrate is etched in real time.
For instance, as described in a Patent to Branagh et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,381,008, the etching of silicon dioxide can be accomplished in an etching chamber which contains fluorine or chlorine in the presence of a plasma. A reduced pressure, (eg. 10−5 Torr), ambient into which is introduced CF4, or more commonly, C2F6 or C4F8, gas is often utilized in industrial settings. While silicon dioxide is being etched in such a setting, certain etch products are formed, and if a beam of electromagnetic radiation is caused to pass through them, said products relatively strongly absorb energy at specific wavelengths, while energy present at other wavelengths is less strongly affected. Alternatively, energy provided by a present plasma serves to excite etch products and emissive electromagnetic radiation therefrom can be monitored. Careful monitoring of such intensity vs. wavelength spectra as a function of time can provide insight as to when silicon dioxide available for etching has been etched away, and when underlying silicon is reached. For instance, upon reaching silicon, the products of etching silicon dioxide are greatly reduced, (some small amount of said silicon dioxide etch products can still be produced as a result of typically undesirable over-etching laterally under photoresist defined boundaries, however). And it is possible that new products due to interaction of plasma and etching gas with silicon will appear and affect monitored intensity vs. wavelength spectra. This is particularly true where some oxygen is present and the underlying silicon is etched. However, the products of said interaction of plasma and etching gas with silicon, it is to be understood, typically demonstrate very different electromagnetic spectrum absorbence and/or emission characteristics. It is to be understood that the procedure comprising detection of products of an etch procedure as an indication of etch end point, can be practiced where other than silicon dioxide is etched, (eg. Al, SiN and W).
Said Patent to Branagh et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,381,008 describes a method of identifying semiconductor etch end points comprising:
A. providing a semiconductor etch end-point detecting system comprising a spectrometer system which sequentially comprises, as encountered by entered electromagnetic radiation:                a. at least one means for receiving electromagnetic radiation;        b. a first reflecting means with a focal length less than two-hundred-fifty (250) millimeters;        c. at least one diffracting means;        d. a second reflecting means with a focal length less than two-hundred-fifty (250) millimeters; and        e. at least one detector means consisting of centrally located active detectors and laterally disposed packaging;said diffracting means being mounted on a stage which is positioned physically between said detector means on one side thereof, and said first and second reflecting means on a second side thereof; such that, in use, electromagnetic radiation is caused to enter said means for receiving electromagnetic radiation and reflect from said first reflecting means, then interact with said diffracting means such that a diffracted spectrum of electromagnetic radiation is caused to reflect from said second reflecting means and enter said detector, means, in which spectrometer system the first reflecting means has a focal length which is less than that of said second reflecting means and in which spectrometer system at least part of the detector means laterally disposed packaging is positioned behind said diffracting means in the sense that electromagnetic radiation reflecting from said second reflecting means is blocked direct access thereto by said diffracting means;said semiconductor etch end-point detecting system further including, in function combination with said spectrometer system, a means for effecting plasma etching of semiconductor comprising:        a. at least one vacuum chamber in which a semiconductor system to be etched is present during use;        b. at least one means for entering etching gas to said vacuum chamber;        c. at least one means for applying electrical energy to said etching gas;        d. at least one means for accessing electromagnetic radiation present in said vacuum chamber during a semiconductor etching process; and        e. at least one means for guiding said accessed electromagnetic radiation into said spectrometer system means for receiving a electromagnetic radiation;said method of identifying semiconductor etch end points further comprising chronologically repeatedly performing steps B. through F. in an evolving windowed factor analysis sequence until detecting semiconductor etch end point; said steps B. through F. being:
B. during a semiconductor etch procedure in said vacuum chamber, obtaining a chronological sequence of electromagnetic radiation intensity vs. wavelength spectra from said spectrometer system detector means, said spectrometer system detector means being caused to access electromagnetic radiation present in said vacuum chamber during a semiconductor etching process;
C. selecting some number of electromagnetic radiation intensity vs. wavelength spectra from said chronological sequence of electromagnetic radiation intensity vs. wavelength spectra and forming them into a data matrix;
D. optionally selecting and deleting some set-off number of rows (columns) in said data matrix;
E. by applying mathematical matrix decomposition techniques to said data matrix determining value(s) of at least one representative parameter(s), each said representative parameter(s) being selected from the group consisting of: (members of a diagonal matrix and eigenvalues);
F. detecting semiconductor etch end point based upon change in said repeatedly calculated at least one representative parameter value(s) resulting from said chronologically repeated performance of steps B. through F.
A recent paper which describes the use of low pressure high density plasma etching of silicon dioxide is titled "Chemical Challenge of Submicron Oxide Etching", by McNevin et al., J. Vac. Technol. B 15(2) (March/April 1997).
References cited in the Branagh et al. Patent are:
                U.S. Pat. No. 5,026,160 to Dorain et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,991,023 to Morawski et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,088,096 to Aoki et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,181,418 to Palumbo et al.;and Articles cited therein are:        "An Integrated System of Optical Sensors For Plasma Monitoring And Plasma Control", Anderson & Splichal, SPIE Vo. 2091, (1994). Real-time plasma etching utilizing sensors which measure plasma properties directly related to desired wafer features are discussed.        "Application of Chemometrics to Optical Emission Spectroscopy For Plasma Monitoring", Splichal & Anderson, SPUE Vol. 1595, (1992) is also identified as monitoring of real-time plasma etching processes, based upon sensors which measure plasma properties that relate directly to desired etch features, is discussed.        "Sensor Systems For Real-time Feedback Control Of Reactive Ion Etching", Benson et al. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 14(1), (January/February 1996), is identified as it describes use of an optical emission spectroscopy system sensor utilized in multivariant feedback control of plasma etching of wafers.        "Etching—.35 m Polysilicon Gates On A High-Density Helicon Etcher", Kroft et al., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 14(1) (January/February 1996), is disclosed as it describes an example of application plasmas in selective polysilicon-to-oxide plasma etching procedures.        "In Situ Diode Laser Absorbtion Measurements Of Plasma Species In A Gaseous Electronics Conference Reference Cell Reactor", Oh, Stanton, Anderson & Splichal, J. Vac. Sci. Technol B 13(3) (May/June 1995). is identified as it discusses monitoring of electromagnetic absorption during etching procedures.        "Optical Emission Spectroscopy of H2—CO and H2O—CH3OH Plasmas For Diamond Growth", Manukonda & Dillon, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 13(3) (May/June 1995), is identified as it describes monitoring of electromagnetic emissions during a procedure in which diamond was grown.        "End Point Control Via Optical Emission Spectroscopy", Litvak, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 14(1) (January/February 1996) describes the use of optical emission spectroscopy in identifying oxide etch end points, utilizing a conventional monochromator/photomultiplier system in conjunction with an end-point detecting algorithm.Many additional papers which describe plasma etching in the semiconductor fabrication area exist.
Known papers which utilize Reflected Electromagnetic Radiation Intensity and Ellipsometry to investigate Etching of semiconductor systems are:                "Optical Etch-Rate Monitoring Using Active Device Areas: Lateral Interference Effects", by Heimann, J. Electrochem. Soc., Vol. 132, No. 8, (1985), (note, this paper defines the terminology "lateral interference" as used herein);        "Ultraviolet-Visible Ellipsometry For Process Control During The Etching Of Submicron Features", by Blayo et al., J. Op. Soc. Am., Vol. 12, No. 3, (1995);        "Multiwavelength Ellipsometry For Real-Time Process Control Of The Plasma Etching Of Patterned Samples", Maynard et al., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 15(1) (1997);        "Thin Film Interferometry of Patterned Films"; Maynard et al., J. Vac. Sci., Technol. B, Vol. 13, (May/June 1995);        "Spectral Ellipsometry on Patterned Wafers", Duncan, SPIE, Vol. 2637, (April 1995);        "Optical Analysis of Complex Multilayer Structures . . . " Johs et al.; SPIE, Vol. 2253, (1994);        "Sample Depolarization Effects From Thin Films of ZnS . . . "; Appl. Phys. Lett. 61(5), August (1994);        "Optical Etch Rate Monitoring: Computer Simulation Of Reflectance", Heimann et al., J. Electrochem. Soc., Vol 131, No. 4, (1984).
Known Patents are:                U.S. Pat. No. 5,929,993 to Johs, is disclosed as it describes application of Fourier Transforms in the determination of total film retardence in birefringent films.
Patents identified in said 993 Patent are:                Patent to Krieger et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,274,882;        Patent to Simila, U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,868;        Patent to. Gorman et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,848;        Patent to Colombotto et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,584,476;        Patent to Gawrisch et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,630;        Patent to Johnson, U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,392.        Patent to Johs et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,936,735 is disclosed as it describes an approach to analyzing data obtained by monitoring both coherent and incoherent addition of beam components which result from interaction with a patterned substrate.
Patents identified in the 735 Patent are:                Patent to Woollam et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,373,359;        Patent to Ducharme et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,426,588;        Patent to Johs et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,582; and        Patent to Green et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,521,706.
Another Patent, by Blayo et al. is U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,697.
A Search of Patents using key words "Substrate Etch" and "Fourier Transform provided:                U.S. Pat. No. 6,895,136 to Deliwala;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,891,685 to Deliwala et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,869,881 to Deliwala;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,826,320 to Deliwala;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,823,112 to Deliwala;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,671,443 to Deliwala;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,633,076 to Krishnaraj et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,611,636 to Deliwala;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,541,400 to Tian et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,522,794 to Bischel et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 6,303,518 to Tian et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,169 to Brinkman et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,141,465 to Bischel et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,118,908 to Bischel et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,078,704 to Bischel et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,524 to Bischel et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,912,997 to Bischel et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,911,018 to Bischel et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,458 to Bischel Pet al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,463 to Deacon et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,032 to Bischel et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,036 to Deacon et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,268 to Bischel et al.
Also disclosed is a book titled "Numerical Recipes in C", Cambridge Press, Press et al. Said book provides insight to application of Fourier and Lomb Transforms.
Need exists for improved, simple to practice methodology for accurately tracking the results of a process substrate etching procedure in real time.

Method of determining substrate etch depth


An energy efficient fume incinerator and method for eliminating fumes from a process gas stream while avoiding or minimizing the problem of build-up of organic or other constituents of the fume-laden process gas stream on the surfaces of the heat exchanger in which the fume-laden process gas stream is preheated. The fume incinerator and method are characterized by a first stage reaction chamber for preheating the process gas to a first temperature for preoxidizing organic constituents in the process gas, a second stage reaction chamber for heating the preheated process gas to a second temperature higher than said first temperature for incinerating the fumes; and a first stage heat exchanger for exchanging heat from the process gas exiting from the second stage reaction chamber to the preheated process gas passing from the first stage reaction chamber to the second stage reaction chamber.

Fume incinerators heretofore have been used for eliminating combustible fumes from the off gases of various industrial processes. In one type of fume incinerator utilized for this purpose, commonly referred to as a thermal oxidizer, the process gas stream is oxygen bearing and serves as the source of oxygen for combusting an auxiliary fuel to establish a flame in which the combustible fumes are incinerated. Typically, the process gas stream is first preheated by being passed in heat exchange relationship with the combustion products of the thermal oxidizer as the process gas stream is being passed to the burner or burners of the thermal oxidizer. By preheating the process gas stream prior to combustion, the overall efficiency of the combustion process is increased and the amount of fuel consumed in the combustion of the process gas stream is reduced.
The fume-laden gases given off by some industrial processes contain volatile organic compounds (VOC's) and other organic constituents that tend to build up on the surfaces of the heat exchanger through which the fume-laden gases are passed before being passed to the burner or burners of the thermal oxidizer. This build-up progressively reduces the efficiency of the heat exchanger. Moreover, the heat exchanger passages may become clogged to a point that significantly restricts the flow of fume-laden gases. In the past this problem was solved by periodically removing the build-up from the heat exchanger passages. This not only was a tedious and time consuming task, but the thermal oxidizer necessarily had to be taken out of service to permit such cleaning operation. Unless a redundant thermal oxidizer was provided, shut down of the thermal oxidizer would normally necessitate shut down of the entire processing line, with obvious negative economic consequences.

Multiple chamber fume incinerator with heat recovery


A device for ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection of a circuit of a semiconductor device comprises a field effect transistor based varistor with gate, source and drain regions, wherein one of the source and drain regions is connected to an input/output pad of the semiconductor device, and the other one of the source and drain regions is connected to an input/output terminal of the circuit. A biasing circuit is connected to the gate region of the varistor to create an accumulation region below the gate of the varistor at normal operating voltages of said semiconductor device. The semiconductor device is preferably an integrated device on a single substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of integrated circuit technology, and more specifically the invention relates to a monolithically integrated device for ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection of an integrated circuit.
2. Description of Prior Art
Integrated electrostatic discharges may damage electronic devices, particularly electronic semiconductor devices fabricated on insulating or semi-insulating substrates, such as integrated circuits. Devices for protecting against ESD are conventionally incorporated in the input/output paths of most semiconductor devices in order to shunt excessive charge away from the sensitive circuits of the semiconductor devices.
Semiconductor devices are often provided with some protection against high input currents, such as e.g. electrical resistors connected in their input paths, thereby limiting the input current. These resistors are conventionally located outside the bonding pads of the semiconductor devices, thereby occupying valuable chip area.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,806,999 an integrated circuit is disclosed, which has an input pad protected from electrostatic discharge by two diodes located under the periphery of the pad. One of the diodes is typically formed in an n-tub, and the other in a p-tub. In one embodiment the boundary between the tubs is located in a region not overlaid by the exposed portion of the pad. An input resistor is optionally included between the pad and the input circuitry for additional ESD protection.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,584 an integrated circuit is disclosed, which has a terminal pad protected by a diode directly connected between the pad and a power supply, a transistor directly connected to another power supply, and a resistive path connecting the pad to the remainder of the integrated circuit.
A similar ESD protection structure is disclosed in EP 0 371 663 A1, where the resistor is formed as a metal silicide link located horizontally outside the pad.
Other ESD protection structures including a resistor in an input and/or output path are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,808,343, 5,615,073, 5,196,913, 4,730,208 and 4,710,791.
For high frequency applications at gigahertz frequencies, however, the mentioned resistor creates several problems. The RC product of the circuit input capacitance and the ESD resistor set the limit of the highest operation frequency. Furthermore, the resistance itself creates noise, which is deleterious in low noise applications. It would be highly advantageous for high frequency circuits if the resistor could assume a low value during normal operation and high value during the ESD protection.
A solution to this problem is to provide a varistor in the ESD protection circuit, see WO03/021737. The varistor has a low resistance value while operating in the voltage regime normal for the circuit function and a high resistance value while subject to the voltage exceeding this normal voltage, e.g. during an ESD event. Diodes are connected as current shunting devices. Another similar varistor-based ESD protection circuit is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,331,726 B1.
While a prior art varistor solution as disclosed in WO03/021737 may provide an increase in the resistance of the varistor of four times when the voltage is increased from 0.5 to 7 V, and may have a capacitance as low as 70 fF, thereby fulfilling high frequency circuit requirements, the series resistance at normal operating voltages may be too high. Calculations have indicated a series resistance of 28 ohm, which may be considered too high for some applications.
One manner to reduce the series resistance is to increase the size of the varistor, but then the parasitic capacitance will increase in turn, which is deleterious for high frequency circuits.

Device for ESD protection of an integrated circuit


An IC tag unit has an IC unit for storing unique identification information, a first coil operable to produce a first induction current by electromagnetic induction resulting from movement relative to a magnetic field in which north and south poles are separated by a specific distance, a first rectifier operable to produce a first rectified current by rectifying the first induction current, and a regulator operable to generate a specific voltage from the first rectified current and supplying the voltage to the IC unit.

1. Field of Technology
The present invention relates to a product identification system using IC tag units, and relates more particularly to an identification system for optical discs having an affixed IC tag unit. The invention also relates to a digital content management system for using IC tag units to manage digital content recorded to optical discs.
2. Description of Related Art
Technologies enabling on-line management of products using small electronic circuit units called RF tags or IC tags affixed to individual products are known from the literature. As the cost of these IC tag units has dropped, however, the range of potential applications has increased significantly, leading to a rapid rise in demand.
These IC tag units have a loop antenna, and power sufficient to drive the IC unit is supplied from the antenna as taught in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. H11-59040. Power is typically supplied to the IC tag unit by means of electromagnetic induction of strong electromagnetic waves emitted from an external source to the antenna as taught in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. H10-242893. The dc voltage required for IC operation is acquired by rectifying and smoothing the ac current output from the antenna as taught, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. H11-215026.
IC tags are primarily used to identify the products to which they are affixed, and the IC tag unit contains ROM for storing information enabling this identification (that is, ID information). When power is supplied to the IC tag this ID information is read and output from the antenna after passing through a modulation and transmission circuit also disposed in the IC tag. Modulation methods include phase shift keying (PSK) as taught in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2000-332842.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2002-163613 and Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2003-317048 also teach using this IC tag technology for identifying and managing individual optical discs. This technology enables encrypting commercial content downloaded for a fee to an optical disc using this ID information as the encryption key, and can thus prevent unauthorized duplication of the downloaded content to another optical disc.
A problem with the foregoing prior art is that cost is a major obstacle to actually using IC tags to individually manage optical discs. More specifically, while the cost of the IC tag units continues to drop, a separate device is needed to produce the strong electromagnetic waves needed to supply power to the IC tag units, and these devices are expensive and large. On the other hand, the cost of the CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives that are typical optical disc drives is also dropping, and adding such a device for producing electromagnetic waves is completely unrealistic considering current trends in the optical disc drive market.
In addition to this problem of cost, generating strong electromagnetic waves means that an electromagnetic shield is also required, thus creating structural design problems.
DVD drives have also become small enough to fit inside a notebook computer, and further increasing the size of the DVD drive is thus also not practical.
A further problem is that DVD drives with a recording function (such as DVD-RAM drives) are typically used as recorders for recording TV programs, and the electromagnetic waves needed for IC tag unit operation can easily affect reception of TV programs.
An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a product identification system for identifying products bearing an IC tag unit by supplying power to the IC tag unit without using an expensive electromagnetic wave generator requiring measures for protection against electromagnetic interference.

Product identification system using IC tag units, and a digital content management system

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


An electronic apparatus having an optical communication capability of the present invention has a casing 10 and optical filters 12 and 13 for screening an infrared beam emitting/receiving device 25. The optical filters 12 and 13 each has a particular screening characteristic. The filters 12 and 13 are selectively removably fitted in a beam input/output window 11 formed in the casing 10. With these filters 12 and 13, it is possible to use one of the filters 12 and 13 matching the varying environment, and therefore to intercept optical noise lying in a broad wavelength range.

The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus having an optical communication capability and, more particularly, to an electronic apparatus with an optical communication capability and having an optical filter capable of screening an infrared beam emitting/receiving device with a variable characteristic.
Some modern portable electronic apparatuses, e.g., electronic pocketbooks and note type word processors are capable of performing optical communication with other electronic apparatuses by interchanging data via their infrared beam emitting/receiving devices.
A conventional electronic apparatus has a casing formed with a beam input/output window in one side wall thereof. An infrared beam emitting/receiving device is disposed in the casing and faces the window.
Generally, light incident to the above apparatus includes components lying in the wavelength range adversely affecting the emitting/receiving device (optical noise). An optical filter having a preselected screening characteristic is fitted in the window in order to intercept the optical noise otherwise reaching the device and causing the apparatus to malfunction.
However, the problem with the conventional apparatus is that the optical filter fitted in the window cannot be replaced with another optical filter having a different screening characteristic in accordance with the varying environment. Specifically, the amount of needless infrared rays incident to the electronic apparatus differs from a dark place to a light place, e.g., from the indoor to the outdoor. When the screening amount of the filter is small, the filter cannot intercept the optical noise and causes the apparatus to malfunction.
To intercept optical noise of various wavelengths, use may be made of an optical filter having a great screening amount. This, however, brings about another drawback that the infrared beam for optical communication cannot be easily transmitted through the filter. Therefore, optical communication fails unless the distance over which the infrared beam is to be propagated is reduced.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 4-161831 proposes a detector using an infrared beam although it is different from an electronic apparatus with an optical communication capability. The detector is formed with a beam output window and a beam input window. Slidable restriction plates are mounted on the detector, and each is assigned to one of the windows. One of the restriction plates is slidable to reduce an infrared beam to be output via the associated window, and therefore the beam to be diffused around the detector. The other restriction plate is slidable to prevent the beam diffused around the detector from being incident to the associated window. These plates prevent the detector from malfunctioning. However, this kind of configuration cannot implement stable optical communication because such restriction plates would reduce even the amount of the infrared beam for communication.

Electronic apparatus with optical communication capability


A placket sewing machine is provided for attaching a placket patch to a fabric part of a garment. The placket patch and fabric part are positioned in overlying relation to form a multiple layer placket assembly. The placket patch has a leading end for being fed together with the fabric part through the sewing machine, and a trailing end. A sewing head is mounted above the base of the machine, and includes at least one reciprocating sewing needle. The sewing head is operatively connected to a motor for actuating the sewing needle. A controller controls operation of the sewing motor. A throat plate supports the overlaid placket patch and fabric part on the working surface of the machine base in an area of the sewing needle. The throat plate includes a side extension located outside of the area of the sewing needle. A ply-sensing assembly including a transmitter and receiver is operatively connected to the controller for automatically stopping operation of the sewing motor and needle upon sensing the trailing end of the placket patch. The extension of the throat plate defines a port therein for holding the receiver in signal passage alignment with the transmitter during placket sewing operations.

This invention relates to a placket sewing machine, and method of forming a placket assembly. The invention has particular application in the assembly of Alley Solley shirt plackets, such as that common in golf and other casual knit shirts. The invention utilizes automatic ply-sensing with a light transmitter mounted adjacent to the sewing head, and a fiber optic cable housed within the base of the machine in alignment with the transmitter. The transmitter and fiber optic cable cooperate to determine the trailing end of the placket, and to automatically stop sewing and cutting of the placket patch and shirt front at an exact location.
The process of forming a shirt placket requires relatively precise sewing and cutting of the overlaid placket patch and shirt front. The placket patch is typically sewn to the shirt front using a conventional double needle sewing machine with a center cutter located between or slightly to the rear of the needles. The double needles sew parallel lines of stitch in the placket patch and shirt front while the cutter cuts the fabric parts at a center point between the stitch lines. Ideally, the stitch lines terminate at the trailing edge of the placket patch such that the entire length of patch is sewn to the shirt front, and is properly cut.
Prior to the invention, the machine operator would manually feed and guide the overlaid placket patch and shirt front through the sewing machine, and attempt to stop the sewing motor at the exact moment the trailing edge of the placket patch was reached. This manual technique was generally slow, and often produced rejects due primarily to human error.
In an effort to overcome this problem, some prior art machines employed an electronic motor with stitch counting capability. The machine automatically stopped sewing after a predetermined stitch count at a point intended to correspond to the trailing edge of the placket patch. Although this machine was far more effective than the manual technique, it nevertheless suffered from many drawbacks and limitations. For example, stitch counting was unable to compensate for different size patches, placement variations, different stitch lengths, cloth puckering, and poor handling of the cloth by the machine operator.
The present invention overcomes these and other problems of the prior art by utilizing a light transmitter and fiber optic cable for sensing the end of the placket patch, and automatically stopping operation of the sewing motor to produce a consistently accurate stitch and cut. The signal receiving end of the fiber optic cable is secured in an opening formed in the throat plate of the sewing machine in an area outside of the sewing and cutting elements of the machine. The fiber optic cable will not interfere with or be damaged by the sewing needles or cutter, yet is positioned sufficiently close to these elements to accurately determine the trailing edge of the placket patch and relay this information to a programmable motor controller to stop the machine at the desired point. Moreover, by modifying the throat plate to hold the fiber optic cable, the cable is easily routed from the relatively open area beneath the throat plate to the motor controller. Alternative positioning of the cable would likely require expensive and difficult modifications to generally solid areas of the machine base.


An electric storage device includes: electric storage elements including external terminals; and bus bars connected to the external terminals, wherein the bus bars include thin-walled portions, and the thin-walled portions and the external terminals are welded together.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric storage device, which includes an electric storage element having an external terminal and a bus bar connected to the external terminal, and a manufacturing method of the electric storage device. The present invention also relates to a bus bar to be connected to the external terminal of the electric storage element having the external terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an electric storage element such as a battery (a lithium ion battery, a nickel-metal hydride battery, and the like) and a capacitor (an electric double layer capacitor and the like) which can be charged and discharged is employed as a power source of a vehicle (an automobile, a motorcycle, and the like) or various devices (a personal digital assistance, a notebook computer, and the like).
When high-volume electric power is required, an electric storage device including a plurality of electric storage elements and bus bars for electrically connecting the plurality of electric storage elements (see paragraph 0025 in JP-A-2010-160931) is employed as a power source.
Each of the electric storage elements includes a power generating element, a case for housing the power generating element, and external terminals disposed outside the case. The external terminals are electrically connected to the power generating element by shaft-shaped connecting bodies formed integrally with or separately from the external terminals. The electric storage element has gaskets disposed along an inner face and an outer face of the case. In this type of electric storage element, the connecting bodies pass through the case and the gaskets to electrically connect the power generating element in the case and the external terminals outside the case. The gaskets seal the holes which are formed in the case and through which the connecting bodies pass. Thus, an inside of the case is maintained airtight and liquid-tight.
There are various types of bus bars. An example of bus bars is welded to the external terminal(s) of the electric storage element(s). The bus bar has a main body portion and (a) connection portion(s) and is connected to the external terminal(s) through the connection portion(s).
More specifically, the bus bar is formed by a metal plate member having a substantially uniform thickness. The bus bar has the connection portion at least at one of its end portions. In other words, the bus bar having the main body portion and the connection portion(s) may have the connection portion connected to one end of the main body portion or may have the connection portions connected to both ends of the main body portion. The bus bar having the connection portion connected to the one end of the main body portion connects the external terminal of the electric storage element and an external electric load. The bus bar having the connection portions connected to the both ends of the main body portion connect external terminals of two electric storage elements.
In any case, the connection portion(s) is/are placed on (an) upper face(s) of the external terminal(s) of the electric storage element(s), and the connection portion(s) and the external terminal(s) (upper face(s)) are welded together. Thus, the bus bar is mechanically and electrically connected to the external terminal(s) of the electric storage element(s).
When the bus bar (connection portion(s)) and the external terminal(s) are welded together, a large amount of heat for melting the entire thickness of the bus bar is required. Therefore, in the conventional electric storage device, the gaskets may be softened or melted when the bus bar is welded. As a result, the gaskets cannot sufficiently seal the case, and the inside of the case cannot be maintained airtight and liquid-tight. Each of the external terminals is connected to the power generating element with a connecting conductor interposed therebetween. Therefore, the heat in welding the bus bar may be transferred to the inside of the case (e.g., to the power generating element or the like) through the external terminal. Therefore, the power generating element or the like in the case may be affected by the heat and its performance may deteriorate.

Electric storage device, manufacturing method of electric storage device, and bus bar used for electric storage device


A method for vehicle path tracking with error correction comprises steps of: acquiring vehicle instant information and a target path; developing a predictive path in accordance with the vehicle instant information; determining a vehicle yaw rate threshold value in accordance with the vehicle instant information; calculating a steering angle corresponding to the vehicle yaw rate threshold value; estimating a lateral error correction value corresponding to the steering angle; determining whether the lateral error correction value is not greater than an error value between the target path and the predictive path; controlling a vehicle to turn the steering angle corresponding to the lateral error correction value when the lateral error correction value is less than the error value; and controlling the vehicle to turn the steering angle corresponding to the error value when the lateral error correction value is greater than the error value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for vehicle path tracking and more particularly relates to a method and apparatus for vehicle path tracking with error correction.
2. Description of Related Art
Advanced-Driver Assistance System (ADAS) is a significant foundation of autonomous vehicles. For example, obstacle detection, assistant driving determination, and communication between vehicles or within the vehicle are significant sub-systems in the ADAS. Many different sensors are used to gather information within the vehicle itself, traffic information, and so on. An electronic controlling unit is used to analyze the information to generate corresponding signals.
With reference to FIG. 9, a conventional control flow diagram for vehicle path tracking is disclosed. As shown in FIG. 9, a controller 100 in the ADAS may obtain a real vehicle driving path in accordance with a known target path 200 and a feedback. The controller 100 compares the target path 200 with the real driving path to obtain an error between the target path 200 and the real driving path, and calculates a turning angle according to the error so as to control the vehicle to adjust a moving path appropriately by the turning angle. The goal to perform the aforementioned adjustment is to keep the vehicle following the target path 200 to move.
With reference to FIG. 10, when the vehicle automatically adjusts its driving path in accordance with the conventional control flow diagram in FIG. 9, a moving path in a first correction path 310 or a second correction path 320 may happen in reality. In one condition, the first correction path 310 represents that the vehicle is obviously away from the target path 200 when the vehicle changes the path during the correction procedure and the correction procedure is too late. In another condition, the second correction path 320 represents that the vehicle changes the path too much during the correction procedure and the vehicle has to perform the correction procedure one more time to move back to the target path 200.
The reason of the occurrence of the problems shown as the first correction path 310 or the second correction path 320 in FIG. 10 is that the controller 100 only compares the error between the target path 200 and the real path without considering dynamic variation of the vehicle during the correction procedure. When the moving path of the vehicle is as shown in the first correction path 310 or the second correction path 320, the movement of the vehicle occurs obviously and frequently in a short time. The passengers in the car may feel uncomfortable and the risk of the rollover of the vehicle may happen.

Method and apparatus for vehicle path tracking with error correction


The present invention discloses a wireless device. The wireless device includes a housing, formed by a metal material, a wireless module disposed inside the housing, and an antenna, disposed outside the housing, coupled to the wireless module via a external socket interface disposed on the housing, for transmitting and receiving signals corresponding to the wireless module.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless device, and more particularly, to a wireless device capable of transmitting and receiving signals corresponding to a built-in wireless module via an externally coupled antenna to reduce shielding effect.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Current trends in consumer electronics demand more elegant and stylish product appearances in addition to functional requirements, resulting in a rising usage of aluminum alloy housings for consumer electronic products (e.g. MP3 players, cell phones, tablet and notebook computers). However, while adding a sense of elegance and stylishness to products, such aluminum alloy housings can cause signal transmission and reception problems for antennas inside the product.
For instance, please refer to FIG. 1A, which is a schematic diagram of a conventional notebook computer 10. To implement wireless communication functionalities, the notebook computer 10 includes an antenna 102, for transmitting and receiving wireless signals corresponding to a built-in wireless module. Generally, for suitable protection, the antenna 102 is disposed inside a housing 100 of the notebook computer 10. As a result, the material used for the housing 100 can greatly affect radiation efficiency of the antenna 102. For example, please refer to FIG. 1B and FIG. 1C, which are schematic diagrams of the antenna 102 transmitting and receiving wireless signals when non-metallic and metallic materials are used for the housing 100, respectively. As shown in FIG. 1B, when the housing 100 is formed by a non-metallic material, the wireless signals can penetrate the housing 100 without shielding effect, allowing normal wireless communication. However, as shown in FIG. 1C, when the housing 100 is formed by a metallic material (e.g. aluminum alloy or other materials that generate shielding effect), the wireless signals from the antenna 102 cannot penetrate the metal housing due to metal shielding effect, causing a faulty wireless transmission. Solutions employing external wireless modules for the shielding effect suffer from an excessive increased volume. Hence, it is necessary to improve upon prior art techniques.


An underwater remote inspection device is provided with an etching device and a magnifying observation device mounted to a supporting member. A chamber of the etching device is provided with a negative electrode, a positive electrode and a sealing device, and is connected to an etchant supply pipe and an etchant exhaust pipe. A single pair of annular sealing members of the sealing device is provided to a distal end portion of the chamber. A suction passage formed in the side wall of the chamber communicates to a sealing region formed between the sealing members. The magnifying observation device is provided with a magnifying camera in a waterproof container and a plurality of LED lights are installed to the waterproof container. The underwater remote inspection apparatus can prevent leakage of an etchant and reduce execution time of etching.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an underwater remote inspection device and a method for underwater remote inspection, and more particularly, to an underwater remote inspection device and a method for underwater remote inspection suitable for inspecting a surface condition of a reactor internal of a boiling water reactor and a pressurized water reactor.
2. Background Art
As a device for inspecting the presence of a crack on a surface of a reactor internal installed in a nuclear reactor of a nuclear plant, an underwater remote inspection device has been known. Some examples of the underwater remote inspection device are described in Japanese Patent No. 3890239 and Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2003-255074. The underwater remote inspection devices described in these publications have an etching device and a replica sampling device. The etching device includes electrode members and an electrolytic etchant supply device. An electrolytic etchant (oxalic acid) comes in contact with a surface to be inspected of a reactor internal, and the surface is etched by applying electricity to the electrode members. By etching the inspection surface of the reactor internal, the surface is corroded, making the grain boundaries of the metal structure of the surface easier to see. After the etching is completed, the replica sampling device is used to sample a replica of the etched surface.
Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 9(1997)-89786 discloses an underwater remote inspection device in which, an etchant (oxalic acid) soaked into a sponge is applied to a surface to be inspected of a reactor internal and the surface is etched. Using a magnifying camera provided to the underwater remote inspection device, an image is taken of the metal structure of the etched surface to be inspected of the reactor internal. The magnifying camera has a magnifying lens capable of enlarging the image to a few hundreds of times the standard, allowing the enlarged image of the metal structure to be taken. The image of the metal structure taken by the magnifying camera is displayed on a monitor so that any over sensitization in the inspection surface can be checked.

Underwater remote inspection device and method for underwater remote inspection


The invention relates to a binding member that binds the Extra Domain-A (ED-A) isoform of fibronectin for the detection and treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory and destructive joint disease that affects 0.5-1% of the population in the industrialized world and commonly leads to significant disability and a consequent reduction in quality of life.
Angiogenesis in the synovial membrane of patients with RA is considered to be an important early step in pathogenesis and in the perpetuation of disease (Taylor, 2002). As in neoplastic disease, angiogenesis feeds the expanding synovium (Walsh et al., 1998). Blood vessel growth probably contributes to the proliferation of the inflammatory synovial pannus as well as to the ingress of inflammatory leukocytes into the synovial tissue. Synovium of patients with RA contained increased amounts of fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) and of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) (Koch, 2003). Serum VEGF concentrations correlate with disease activity and fall, when synovitis is successfully suppressed by therapy (Taylor, 2002).
Fibronectin (FN) is a glycoprotein and is widely expressed in a variety of normal tissues and body fluids. It is a component of the extracellular matrix (ECM), and plays a role in many biological processes, including cellular adhesion, cellular migration, haemostasis, thrombosis, wound healing, tissue differentiation and oncogenic transformation.
Different FN isoforms are generated by alternative splicing of three regions (ED-A, ED-B, IIICS) of the primary transcript FN pre-mRNA, a process that is modulated by cytokines and extracellular pH (Balza 1988; Carnemolla 1989; Borsi 1990; Borsi 1995). Fibronectin contains two type-III globular extra-domains which may undergo alternative splicing: ED-A and ED-B (ffrench-Constant 1995, Hynes 1990, Kaspar et al. 2006). The ED-As of mouse fibronectin and human fibronectin are 96.7% identical (only 3 amino acids differ between the two 90 amino acid sequences, see FIG. 2).
Expression of the ED-A of fibronectin has been reported in tumour cells and in solid tumours at the mRNA level in breast cancer (Jacobs et al. 2002, Matsumoto et al. 1999) and liver cancer (Oyama et al. 1989, Tavian et al. 1994) and at the level of isolated protein in fibrosarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma and melanoma (Borsi et al. 1987).
At the immunohistochemical level, the presence of ED-A has been detected in the extracellular matrix (ECM) of odontogenic tumours (Heikinheimo et al. 1991) and hepatocellular carcinoma (Koukoulis et al. 1995). In contrast, ED-A has been detected in the stroma of malignant breast neoplasms (Koukoulis et al. 1993), and in the blood vessels and basement membranes of well-differentiated renal cell carcinoma (Lohi et al. 1995). However, in less-differentiated renal cell carcinoma (Lohi et al. 1995) and papillary carcinoma of the thyroid (Scarpino et al. 1999) ED-A has been detected in the blood vessels, basement membranes and tumour stroma. The presence of ED-A in the vasculature of gliomas has also been reported (Borsi et al. 1998). Thus, the pattern of ED-A expression reported for different types of tumours is highly variable.
Antibody-based targeted delivery of bioactive agents to sites of angiogenesis is an attractive therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment, but is largely unexplored for chronic inflammatory diseases. We have previously demonstrated that the ED-B domain of fibronectin, a marker of angiogenesis, is expressed in psoriatic lesions in patients and in a mouse model of psoriasis as well as in arthritic paws in the collagen-induced mouse model of rheumatoid arthritis. Using both radioactive and fluorescent techniques, the human monoclonal antibody L19, specific to EDB, was found to selectively localize at sites of inflammation in vivo, following intravenous administration. These results suggest a therapeutic potential for the L19-based selective delivery of bioactive compounds to sites of inflammation (Trachsel, 2007; PCT/EP2007/004044).
It has been shown before by in-situ-hybridisation that other than ED-B also the ED-A domain of fibronectin can be present in human arthritic specimens (Berndt et al., 1998; Kriegsmann et al., 2004).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Antigen associated with rheumatoid arthritis


The present invention provides silicon nitride ceramics having high thermal conductivity and a method for production thereof. This invention relates to a method for producing a silicon nitride sintered body having a microstructure with silicon nitride crystals oriented uniaxially and exhibiting high thermal conductivity of 100 to 150 W/mK in the direction parallel to the orientation direction of the crystals, which comprises of preparing a slurry by mixing a mixed powder of a sintering auxiliary, beta-silicon nitride single crystals as seed crystals and a silicon nitride raw powder with a dispersing medium, forming the slurry by tape casting or extrusion forming, calcining the formed silicon nitride body with beta-silicon nitride single crystals oriented parallel to the casting plane to remove the organic components, densifying it by hot pressing and the like if required, and further annealing it at 1700 to 2000.degree. C. under the nitrogen pressure of 1 to 100 atmospheres.

Generally, a silicon nitride sintered body is produced by adding a sintering auxiliary selected from MgO, CaO, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, Y.sub.2 O.sub.3, Yb.sub.2 O.sub.3, HfO.sub.2, Sc.sub.2 O.sub.3, Ce.sub.2, ZrO.sub.2, SiO.sub.2, Cr.sub.2 O.sub.3 and AlN to an alpha-type or beta-type silicon nitride powder, forming the obtained mixed powder and sintering it at 1600 to 2100.degree. C. under a nitrogen pressure of 1 to 100 atmospheres. Further, the silicon nitride sintered body is produced by sealing such a mixed powder in a glass capsule and sintering it by HIP (hot isostatic pressing) under a gas pressure of about 1000 atmospheres, or sintering it by HP (hot pressing) under a pressure of about 20 to 40 MPa at 1600 to 1800.degree. C. under a nitrogen pressure of 1 atmosphere.
However, the thermal conductivity of the silicon nitride sintered bodies obtained according to these prior arts is not so high of 10 to 70 W/mK.
Hereunder, the thermal conductivities of silicon nitride sintered bodies obtained according to the prior arts are exemplified.
Example 1) Am. Ceram. Soc. Bull., Vol. 57 No. 12, pp. 119-1122 (1978)
The thermal conductivity of a sintered body obtained by adding 15.4 mol % of MgO to an alpha-silicon nitride ponder and sintering it by hot pressing at 1750.degree. C. for 30 minutes under a pressure of 20 MPa is 55 W/mK.
The thermal conductivity of a sintered body obtained by adding 31 mol % of Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 to an alpha-silicon nitride powder and sintering it by hot pressing at 1750.degree. C. for 30 minutes under a pressure of 20 MPa is 10 W/mK.
Example 2) J. Ceram. Soc. Jpn., 92 2!, pp. 174-81 (1989)
The thermal conductivity of a sintered body obtained by adding 6 mol % of Y.sub.2 O.sub.3 to an alpha-silicon nitride powder and sintering it by HIP at 1850.degree. C. for one hour under a pressure of 60 MPa is 70 W/mK.
Example 3) J. Mater. Sci., 3!, pp 915-16 (1984)
The thermal conductivity of a sintered body obtained by adding 5 weight % of MgO to an alpha-silicon nitride powder and sintering it by hot pressing at 1700.degree. C. for one hour under a pressure of 14.7 MPa is 56 W/mK.
Example 4) Test Example by the Present Inventors
The thermal conductivity of a sintered body obtained by adding 5 weight % of Y.sub.2 O.sub.3 and 2 % weight of Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 to an alpha-silicon nitride powder, forming the mixture by a mold, further forming it by CIP under a pressure of 5 tons/cm.sup.2 and sintering it at 1850.degree. C. for 6 hours under the nitrogen pleasure of 9 atmospheres is 25 W/mK.
As described above, all silicon nitride sintered bodies obtained according to the prior arts have low thermal conductivity and leave the door open further improvements, and hence the development of a new sintered body having high thermal conductivity has been demanded fairly in the field concerned.
In addition, in the case of metal materials to be used widely (copper, stainless steel, etc.), it is impossible to use them without performing cooling, since strength, oxidation-proof property and corrosion resistance of them are reduced remarkably under the condition beyond 500.degree. C.; on the other hand, it becomes quite difficult to use them for a heat-radiation substrate material of an IC and the like to be used below 100.degree. C., since it requires insulation of it. In addition, in the case of ceramics having high thermal conductivity like aluminum nitride and silicon carbide, it has been difficult to employ them fog practical use since they are lacking in mechanical strength.

Method of producing silicon nitride ceramics having thermal high conductivity

Japan as represented by Director General of Agency of Industrial Science and Technology


A method and an apparatus are for forming open-edge V-shaped notches (32) in a binding margin (42) of large-format sheets (11) such as shop drawings or construction plans for example, so that after the sheets have been folded the notches (32) are aligned in registration with binding holes (46) also provided in the binding margin. A cutting and crosswise folding table (20) is provided at the top of a folding machine, and stamping tools (22) are provided at an edge of the table. The large-format sheets are continuously, sequentially output from a device such as a plotter, and fed to the folding machine, where the sheets are folded lengthwise and transported onto the table (20). There, the notches are cut in the binding margin by the stamping tools. The binding holes may be simultaneously formed. Thereafter, a crosswise folding beam (65) folds the sheet in a crosswise direction. The sheets that have been provided with notches and holes, and have been folded in this manner, may be bound in a ring binder in such a manner that the sheet can be completely unfolded without being removed from the binder.

In order to conveniently store and handle large-format sheets of paper, film materials, or the like, such as engineering shop drawings or architectural construction plans or the like, it is generally desired to fold these large sheet goods into a smaller format, preferably a standardized format such as DIN size A4 (297.times.210 mm) for example. The folded sheets are then provided with binding holes near an edge thereof, so that the folded sheets can be bound in a ring binder. In this context, the sheets must be folded in such a manner that the legend block, or parts list, or other descriptive information typically provided on such drawings appears on the top face or section of the folded sheet when it is arranged in the binder, so that the folded drawing sheet can be conveniently recognized and identified.
Machines and methods for folding such large-format drawings or the like in a zig-zag fashion, and for properly orienting the drawing sheets so that the descriptive legend information appears on the top folded face are already known, for example as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,045,039 (Bay) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,340 (Bay) of the present inventor. The entire disclosures of U.S. Pat. No. 5,045,039 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,340 are incorporated herein by reference.
However, it has been difficult in the prior art to provide holes in a binding margin of the folded sheets in such a manner that the sheets can be unfolded while they remain bound in a ring binder. For example, a conventional method involves gluing or otherwise adhering a protruding binding margin onto an edge of the folded sheet, whereby the binding holes could be provided in this added, protruding binding margin. However, such a procedure is inconvenient and involves manual operations that are time-consuming, costly, and prone to inconsistency and misalignments, for adhering the protruding binding margin onto the sheet.
German Patent Publication 2,618,257 discloses a method by which large-format sheet materials are first folded lengthwise in a zig-zag fashion in such a manner that a protruding binding margin remains along the left edge of the lengthwise folded sheet. In other words, the sheet is not uniformly folded edge-to-edge, but rather is folded with an offset so that one edge of the folded sheet protrudes from the other folded plies or sections of the sheet. Next, the sheet is folded one or more times in a crosswise direction, and binding holes are provided only in the lowest fold ply or section of the protruding binding margin. If binding holes are provided in all of the folded layers or sections of the binding margin, then the sheet could not be folded while it remains bound in the ring binder.
However, the plies of the binding margin not having holes therein would tend to interfere with the rings of the binder. Thus, as a next step, notches or cut-outs that are open at the edge of the sheet must be provided along the binding margin in the folded layers above the bottom layer in alignment or registration with the binding holes provided in the bottom layer. These open-edge notches are necessary so that the upper folded layers of the folded sheet do not interfere with the binder rings, and so that the folded sheet can be unfolded without being removed from the binder, while the lowest folded layer remains bound with the binding holes engaged on the binder rings.
The above mentioned open-edge notches have typically in the past been formed in large sheet materials, such as blueprints, or photostat prints, or electrostatic copy prints for example, by manually laying out the sheets in a flat, non-folded condition on a large separate cutting table. On this table, the open-edge notches are cut out, for example by using a rotating circular knife. Thereafter, the sheet was then folded either by hand or by being fed into a folding machine. Such manual operations are relatively slow, labor intensive, and prone to errors, and cause an interruption in the continuous automated production of numerous folded large-format sheets, i.e. the manual operation forms a bottle-neck between a plotter or copying machine which outputs the sheets, and the folding machine. In systems in which large-format drawings or the like are continuously output by a plotter or other image producing apparatus, and then the flat sheets are fed directly to an adjacent or connected folding machine, it is no longer possible to carry out a manual operation for providing the open-edge notches in the typical manner.

Method and apparatus for punch-cutting notches in the edge of the binding margin of folded sheet goods


A maxillary, mandibular, or dual concussion orthotic that substantially reduces concussion resulting from forces applied to the lower jaw, and a method of producing the orthotic. The orthotic device produced according to the method described herein is objectively measured and produced to physiological parameters for an individual user. The orthotic is constructed so that the mandibular teeth are firmly indexed into the orthotic to hold the mandible in a specific position relative to the maxilla. The upper and lower jaws are positioned by the orthotic to act as a unit, and cooperate with the orthotic to effectively dissipate concussive forces and provide spacing of the temporomandibular joint, resulting in the decompression of the joint to mitigate transmission of concussive forces from the condyles of the mandible to the temporal bones of the skull.

Concussions are a problem associated with physical activities. Athletes, soldiers and others involved in strenuous activities, and particularly activities that involve physical contact, are subject to concussions and associated traumatic brain injury. A concussive force as low as 40 Gs may result in concussive force to even healthy, normally developed persons.
According to a study, 90% of concussions resulting in unconsciousness are the result of blows to the lower jaw. Collapsed bite caused by temporomandibular disorders (TMD) is a risk associated with concussion. It has been estimated that 65% of American adults have TMD, and that an even higher percentage adult athletes have TMD. These disorders place such persons at a higher risk for concussion resulting from forces introduced through the lower jaw.
There is a need for an orthotic that will substantially reduce the likelihood of concussion caused by forces introduced to the lower jaw. The orthotic should be effective in environments experienced by persons subjected to concussive forces to the lower jaw, such as forces encountered by football players and soldiers. Previously known and used mouth guards do not physiologically relate the mandible to the cranium, do not adequately protect the mandible from forces, and do not minimize the transfer of forces from the mandible to the head and neck, which reduces the ability of such devices to dissipate concussive forces.

Concussion retarding orthotic and method of producing the orthotic


A method and apparatus for the excision and removal of tissue, such as the lens of the eye includes a pencil-like handpiece having a cannula probe extending from the distal end thereof. The probe includes an inner jet tube to direct a high pressure jet of fluid toward a tissue target, and an outer concentric aspiration tube to aspirate and remove fluid and tissue. The jet tube is recessed proximally within the concentric aspiration tube, and the aspiration tube has an end area significantly larger than the end area of the jet tube. These factors cooperate so that the negative pressure exerted by the aspiration tube creates a suction force that offsets and exceeds the force of the fluid jet. The jet tube is connected to a fluid pressure system including a positive displacement pump, a pressure regulator, safety release, control valve, and a pulse former. The jet tube emits pulses of high pressure fluid that impinge reiteratively on the target, creating shock waves that fracture and emulsify the lens tissue, and the fluid also acts as a solvent to transport the emulsified tissue into the aspiration tube. The handpiece also includes a vacuum bypass port disposed to be selectively occluded by a finger of the surgeon, so that vacuum pressure may be released immediately when needed.

The present invention generally relates to excision and removal of tissue in surgical procedures, and more specifically to the use of fluid jet means for excising and removing tissue. In particular, the invention is directed toward the emulsification and removal of the lens of the eye to treat cataracts and similar disorders.
In recent years the treatment of cataracts through surgical techniques has become routine and highly successful. Generally, the affected lens of the eye is removed from its capsule within the eye, and a lens prosthesis is installed within the capsule. Through prudent choice of prosthesis and refractive power, it is often possible to provide normal vision to a patient who would otherwise be sightless.
The step of removing the cataract-beating lens was originally found to be difficult when performed by traditional surgical techniques. An incision sufficiently large to permit removal of the hard lens as a unitary object creates trauma to the delicate ocular structures, and results in prolonged recovery and patient discomfort. Moreover, it is generally considered vital to maintain the integrity of the posterior wall of the lens capsule to prevent the fibrous vitreous humour of the posterior chamber from invading the anterior chamber of the eye and affecting the iris and other important structures. The capsule is easily damaged by traditional surgical techniques.
As a result of these constraints, new techniques such as micro-cutters and acoustic emulsification have been introduced to increase the safety of the cataract removal procedure and decrease the trauma to the eye. In the former technique an inner needle reciprocates within an outer sheath that includes an intake port; vacuum pressure applied to the inner needle pulls tissue into the port, the end of the needle shears it off, and it is drawn away by the vacuum-induced flow through the needle. In this manner a hard object such as the ocular lens may be cut away incrementally and removed through a small puncture hole. In the latter technique ultrasound energy is directed toward the lens via an acoustic probe to fracture and emulsify the lens, and a vacuum channel then removes the lens detritus.
Although these techniques are generally successful, they also have limitations. Micro-cutters may fail to remove all of the lens tissue, and the instrument itself may puncture the posterior wall of the lens capsule. Likewise, the acoustic probe used in acoustic emulsification is limited in the amplitude of energy it can direct to the lens, and may fail to emulsify all of the lens tissue.

Method and apparatus for tissue excision and removal by fluid jet


A voltage regulator coupled between a batteryless alternator and a ground includes an under-voltage detection circuit and an exciting current regulating unit. The under-voltage protection circuit includes a voltage detection unit, a plurality of switching circuits, and a power switch. The voltage detection unit generates a first control signal according to an output voltage of the batteryless alternator. The switching circuits are connected in series and controlled by the first control signal. The power switch is coupled to one of the switching circuits and a rotor coil of the batteryless alternator. The exciting current regulating unit controls the operation of the power switch according to the output voltage of the batteryless alternator. The voltage detection unit detects whether the output voltage is lower than a threshold and selectively cuts off the power switch by sequentially controlling the operations of the switching circuits according to the detection result.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a protection circuit, in particular, to a voltage regulator, an under-voltage protection circuit thereof, and a voltage regulation system for a batteryless voltage regulation system of an air conditioning alternator.
2. Description of Related Art
Nowadays, a mobile vehicle (such as an automobile, a bus, and etc.) generally equipped with a voltage regulation system having an air conditioning alternator and a battery-powered alternator, wherein the battery-powered alternator is electrically connected to a battery. The battery-powered alternator is capable of charging the battery and powering other electrical equipment equipped on the mobile vehicle with the electrical power generated therefrom. The air conditioning alternator is mainly used for regulating the operation of the air conditioning system. Moreover, the air conditioning alternator itself does not connect to the battery and instead the air conditioning alternator is operatively driven by an engine. Specifically, the air conditioning alternator utilizes a capacitor box in replace of the battery. That is, the voltage regulation system of the air conditioning alternator is a batteryless voltage regulation system.
However, whenever the air conditioning alternator operates abnormally, for example, when air conditioning alternator operates in an under-voltage condition as a result of the power cord being worn out forming short circuit, the warning lamp of the battery would not be alerted and triggered on to warn the driver as the air conditioning alternator is not coupled to the battery. Consequently, the operation of the air conditioning system might be severely impacted or even causing the batteryless alternator to burst into flame due to overheating when the air conditioning alternator continuously running abnormally, thereby increases the chance of mobile vehicle accident.

Voltage regulator, under-voltage protection circuit thereof and voltage regulation system

UNIVERSAL SCIENTIFIC INDUSTRIAL (SHANGHAI) CO., LTD.

UNIVERSAL GLOBAL SCIENTIFIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD.


A wet-type solar battery including a support composed of a light transmissive material and a stack in which a conductive layer, a photoelectric conversion layer containing a porous semiconductor, a porous insulating layer, and a counter electrode conductive layer are stacked in this order is provided. The conductive layer is divided into a first region including a portion where the photoelectric conversion layer is to be formed on a surface thereof and a second region where the photoelectric conversion layer is not to be formed. A protection film for preventing internal short-circuiting, which is not greater in film thickness than the photoelectric conversion layer, is formed in at least a part around the photoelectric conversion layer on the surface of the first region.

A solar battery capable of converting sunlight to electric power has attracted attention as a source of energy replacing fossil fuel. Some solar batteries including a crystalline silicon substrate and some thin-film silicon solar batteries have currently been put into practical use. The former, however, is disadvantageous in high cost for manufacturing a silicon substrate, and the latter is disadvantageous in high manufacturing cost because of necessity for use of various semiconductor manufacturing gases or a complicated apparatus. Therefore, though efforts for reducing cost per generated power output have been continued by enhancing efficiency in photoelectric conversion in any solar batteries, the problems above have not yet been solved.
PTL 1 (Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 1-220380) has proposed as a solar battery of a new type, a wet-type solar battery to which photoinduced electron transfer of a metal complex has been applied.
In this wet-type solar battery, a photoelectric conversion layer composed of an electrolytic material and a photoelectric conversion material having an absorption spectrum in a visible light region by adsorbing a photosensitizing dye is sandwiched between electrodes of two glass substrates each having the electrode on a surface thereof.
As the wet-type solar battery above is irradiated with light, electrons are generated in the photoelectric conversion layer, generated electrons are transferred to the electrode through an external electric circuit, transferred electrons are carried to the opposing electrode by ions in the electrolyte, and they return to the photoelectric conversion layer. Electric energy is taken out through such a series of flows of electrons.
PTL 2 (WO97/16838) has proposed a dye sensitized solar battery module in which a plurality of dye sensitized solar batteries are arranged as being connected in series on a glass substrate with single transparent conductive film.
An individual dye sensitized solar battery in this dye sensitized solar battery module has such a structure that a porous semiconductor layer (a porous titanium oxide layer) serving as the photoelectric conversion layer, a porous insulating layer (an intermediate porous insulating layer), and a counter electrode (a catalyst layer) are successively stacked on a transparent substrate (a glass substrate) where a transparent conductive film (an electrode) is patterned in strips. Among the dye sensitized solar batteries, adjacent dye sensitized solar batteries are connected in series to each other in such a manner that a transparent conductive film of a single dye sensitized solar battery and a counter electrode of a dye sensitized solar battery adjacent thereto are arranged to be in contact with each other.
PTL 3 (Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-367686) has proposed a dye sensitized solar battery module having such an integrated structure as having a transparent conductive film, a porous semiconductor layer, a separator, and a counter electrode conductive layer on a transparent substrate. This dye sensitized solar battery module has adopted a porous semiconductor layer constituted of a first photoelectrode composed of a dense material and a second photoelectrode composed of a porous material. By forming the first photoelectrode composed of the dense material directly under the second photoelectrode, contact of a material for the counter electrode conductive layer with the transparent conductive film is suppressed, and by providing the first photoelectrode composed of fine particles smaller in average particle size than fine particles in the material for the counter electrode conductive layer, fine particles in the counter electrode conductive layer are prevented from passing through a photoelectrode layer to reach the transparent conductive film.

Wet-type solar battery and wet-type solar battery module


It is aimed at providing a data processor capable of suppressing a sudden current change from the viewpoint of a synchronization clock. A data processor 1 comprises a clock pulse generation circuit and a circuit module operating on input clock signal CLKi output from the clock pulse generation circuit. In case of restoration from a power-on reset period or a standby state, the clock pulse generation circuit stepwise changes frequencies of the clock signal from low to high frequencies. This makes it possible to prevent a power supply current from suddenly increasing in case of restoration from the power-on reset period or the standby state.

The present invention relates to a technology effectively applicable to a data processor having a clock pulse generation circuit and particularly to a data processor which operates at low voltages and consumes relatively large power.
Patent document 1 describes the microcomputer's power-on reset technology in accordance with a power-on sequence. Patent document 2 describes the microcomputer's clock generation circuit having variable frequencies. There is considered a case of changing a frequency and an operating voltage. When the clock signal frequency and the operating voltage are increased, an attempt is made to prevent malfunction by avoiding an instance of increasing the frequency before increasing the operating voltage. Patent document 3 describes that the microprocessor and the peripheral circuit completely operate on the time-sharing basis in consideration for an increase in the power consumption when clocks are simultaneously supplied to the microprocessor and the peripheral circuit.
[Patent document 1]
    Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 5 (1993)-333963[Patent document 2]    Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 7 (1995)-287699[Patent document 3]    Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 9 (1997)-231195


A manufacturing method of metal and plastic composite bodies integrated by etching a surface of a metal member and forming a thermoplastic resin on an etching surface may include forming a printing layer which prints a pattern or a character on an exposed surface of a metal member and a protective layer for protecting the printed pattern thereon, grease-removing and cleaning to remove a passivation oxidized film at a rear side of the metal member to be integrally coupled with a plastic portion, surface-treating a surface by using and etching a ferric chloride solution in a range of pH 3 to 4.5 so as to form a minute unevenness at the rear side, removing a smut generated in the surface-treating process, and molding for integrally forming the plastic portion with the metal member.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manufacturing method of a composite body which is integrally formed with metal and plastic materials, and more particularly, to a manufacturing method of a composite body in which a plastic material is physically coupled and integrated on an aluminum substrate with improved coupling structure without discharging environmental pollutants.
Description of Related Art
Generally, in a component such as a case of an electronic device or household appliance or an interior material of a vehicle, and a side mirror, a beautiful appearance in addition to durability and corrosion resistance is very important, and the component is formed of a composite body of a metal material such as aluminum or magnesium and plastic.
In a composite body of metal and plastic in the related art, generally, a plastic material adheres to the metal material by an adhesive, but there are problems in that a thickness is increased by an adhesive layer and adhesion of the adhesive is decreased according to a use environment or the plastic material may be easily separated from the metal material by impact, and an adhesive interface thereof is exposed and it is poor in appearance.
As another method of forming the metal and plastic composite body in the related art, there is an insert-injection method of inserting the metal material into the mold and injecting the plastic material, but it is difficult to configure a structural shape for stronger coupling between the metal and plastic portions so as not to be exposed outside.
As such, a method of configuring metal and plastic as a composite body without using the adhesive has been required.
The related art discloses a manufacturing method of an aluminum and resin injection integrated molding product in which has an aluminum shaped body made of an aluminum alloy having a plurality of concave shaped portions due to an uneven portion formed on a surface and a resin molding body which is integrally installed by injection-molding a thermoplastic resin on the surface of the aluminum shaped body and formed with an inserting portion of the resin molding body solidified by inserting the thermoplastic resin into the concave shaped portions, in which the aluminum shaped body and the resin molding body are hooked to each other by the concave shaped portion and the inserting portion.
Further, related art discloses a manufacturing method of an anti-corrosion composite body configured by shaping a magnesium alloy component form a casting material or an intermediate material, immersing and chemical-etching the shaped component in an acidic aqueous solution, attaching and forming a thin layer having manganese oxide as a main component on the surface by immersing the chemical-etched component in the aqueous solution including potassium permanganate, inserting the component forming the thin layer into the injection mold, injecting one kind selected from a resin composition using polyphenylene sulfide as a main component, a resin composition using polybutylene terephthalate as a main component, and a resin composition an aromatic polyamide resin as a main component, and integrally fixing the magnesium alloy component and the resin composition, and re-immersing and chemical-treating the integrally fixed composite body in a chemical-treating liquid for a magnesium alloy.
However, in the manufacturing method of the composite body in the related art, in order to form the unevenness on the metal surface, etching is performed by using an acidic aqueous solution, and in this case, acidic waste water is discharged and an environmental pollution problem is caused, and a working environment is poor, and a lot of costs in waste water treatment are required.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.

Manufacturing method for metal and plastic composite bodies


An organic light emitting device includes an anti-reflection film including a polarizer and a compensation film positioned on the polarizer and including a liquid crystal layer which includes liquid crystals having oriented direction tilting obliquely with respect to a surface of the liquid crystal layer extending in a horizontal direction in a cross sectional view.

1. Field
An anti-reflection film and an organic light emitting device including the same are disclosed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as lightness and thinness of a display device such as a monitor, a television, or the like have been desired, an organic light emitting device ("OLED") has drawn attention. The OLED is a self light-emitting display device, which does not need a separate backlight, and thus may realize a thin and flexible display device.
The OLED may reflect external light by a metal electrode and a metal line of the organic light emitting panel, and the visibility and the contrast ratio may be deteriorated by reflection of the exterior light, thereby reducing display quality. In order to reduce the deterioration, a circular polarizing plate is attached to one surface of an organic light emitting panel and thus leakage of the reflected external light to the outside may be reduced.

Antireflection film and organic light emitting device including the same


A pulmonary resuscitator is set forth of the type having a compressible bladder to be depressed to supply air to a mask. Both the compressible bladder and mask have integral therewith a network of inflatable tubes which when pressurized resiliently rigidify the bladder and mask to establish nominal erected bladder and mask shapes. The bladder has an inlet check valve and the mask has an outlet check valve where the outlet check valve utilizes a flapper valve for permitting flow of fluid into the mask upon depression of the bladder. Exhaust ports are located adjacent the flapper valve and are closed by the flapper valve when the bladder is depressed. The exhaust ports are opened when the flapper valve closes as the bladder returns to its nominal shape after being depressed. An air spring contained within the bladder chamber which is in fluid communication with the network of inflatable tubes through limiting orifices controls the rate at which the bladder returns to its nominal shape after depression.

In emergency cardio-pulmonary resuscitation mouth-to-mouth respiration is employed to restore cardiac output and pulmonary ventilation following cardiac arrest and apnea. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is a method of artificial ventilation involving an overlap of the patient's mouth with the operator's mouth to inflate the patient's lungs by blowing, followed by an unassisted expiratory phase brought about by elastic recoil of the patient's chest and lungs. Emergency mouth-to-mouth resuscitation requires this procedure to be repeated twelve to sixteen times a minute and therefore exposes a person administering the artificial respiration to disease. Thus, mouth-to-mouth cardio-pulumonary resuscitation which generally is the first emergency aid available to a patient suffering from cardiac arrest exposes the person performing the mouth-to-mouth respiration to high risk of disease and therefore substantially inhibits the willingness of the person to administer such aid. Medical teams called to such emergencies have resuscitator apparatus which force gas, usually oxygen, into the lungs to produce the artificial ventilation; however, such devices are expensive and not generally available.
Mask devices have also been developed which may be placed over the nose and mouth of the patient; this permitted the administrator of the artificial respiration to blow air into the patient's lungs without mouth-to-mouth contact. Such masks, however, cannot be stored in a relatively small space such as a shirt or jacket pocket and thus are inconvenient to carry. Similarly, resuscitation apparatus comprising a ventilator mask and a manually collapsible gas receptacle such as the resuscitator disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,487, likewise, cannot be carried easily in a shirt or jacket pocket because of the limitations inherent in the materials used in the construction of the apparatus.


A method for forming a high-voltage drain metal-oxide-semiconductor (HVD-MOS) device includes providing a semiconductor substrate; forming a well region of a first conductivity type; and forming an embedded well region in the semiconductor substrate and only on a drain side of the HVD-MOS device, wherein the embedded region is of a second conductivity type opposite the first conductivity type. The step of forming the embedded well region includes simultaneously doping the embedded well region and a well region of a core regular MOS device, and simultaneously doping the embedded well region and a well region of an I/O regular MOS device, wherein the core and I/O regular MOS devices are of the first conductivity type. The method further includes forming a gate stack extending from over the embedded well region to over the well region.

In integrated circuits there is often the need to have a number of different operating voltages. MOS devices are typically operated at nominal voltages Vdd. In some instances, such as power management circuits, the circuits might need to be operated at voltages in excess of Vdd of the circuits. In these cases, high-voltage drain metal-oxide-semiconductor (HVD-MOS) devices capable of operating at high voltages on the drain side are required.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional HVD-MOS device, which includes a source region 4, a drain region 6 and a very lightly-doped drain extension region 8. Drain extension region 8 preferably extends under gate 10. Typically, drain extension region 8 has an impurity concentration several orders lower than typical lightly-doped source/drain (LDD) regions. The depth of the drain extension region 8 is also greater. Source region 4, drain region 6 and drain extension region 8 are formed in substrate 2. A well region 14, which has a different conductivity type than source and drain regions 4 and 6, may be formed adjacent to drain extension region 8 and extending toward the source side.
HVD-MOS devices may be used in applications where the voltage on the drain exceeds the normal voltage rating of the gate oxide. HVD-MOS devices differ from regular self-aligned MOS devices in that they use a very lightly-doped extension region, which depletes at high drain voltages. This allows much of voltage to be dropped across the extension region, and thus reduces the electric field across the gate oxide to a safe level. HVD-MOS devices are suitable for power amplifiers and power conditioning circuits, and are generally more robust than conventional MOS devices having the same thickness of gate dielectric. In particular, it is not necessary to add extra drain implants to control channel hot carrier (CHC) effects, and the higher breakdown voltage simplifies circuit design if HVD-MOS devices are used for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection. For example, with HVD-MOS devices being used, it is normally unnecessary to include resistors in series with application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) outputs.
Typically, to incorporate HVD-MOS devices into a CMOS integrated circuit, additional and special processes are required. These processes add cost and complexity to the manufacturing process of the integrated circuit. Further processes with lower cost and less complexity are thus needed.

Method for forming high-drain-voltage tolerance MOSFET transistor in a CMOS process flow with double well dose approach

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A self-adjusting supporting head comprises a vehicle body lifting column (10) and a load-bearing detection device arranged on the vehicle body lifting column (10). The load-bearing detection device comprises a spring supporting plate (5), a spring (6), a limiting switch tip (8), a load limiting switch (9) and a floating load-bearing adjusting device. The floating load-bearing adjusting device comprises a floating load-bearing block (1), a floating load-bearing block mounting base (2) and a floating connector. The floating load-bearing block is in spherical fit with the floating load-bearing block mounting base.

When a pit-type lifting jack is used in maintenance operation of non-disintegrated rack car of motor train unit and urban rail vehicles, it is necessary to lift the vehicle to a certain height with the supporting wheel of bogie lifting unit, and then support four lifting points of track car using four supporting heads of the pit-type lifting jack, so as to replace the vehicle bogie and carry out the maintenance and replacement operations for the electrical facilities at the lower part and the top of vehicle.
With the extensive operation of motor train units in China, there are more and more cities that have started the urban rail transportation. In order to ensure the operation safety and reliability of above vehicles, it is necessary to carry out regular repair and maintenance on the wheel sets of the vehicle bogie and underbody. The pit-type lifting jack plays an important role in the vehicle repair and maintenance process. Currently, there are two kinds of structure of supporting heads of pit-type lifting jack; one is the supporting head with weighing function, and the other is the basic type supporting head. The basic type supporting head has a simple structure, and it is inconvenient to adjust a variety of supporting heads simultaneously. At present, most supporting heads used are the traditional supporting heads with the weighing function, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. Chinese patent (Publication No. CN102060027A) discloses a detection type supporting head of lifting system with weighing function. This kind of supporting head comprises a supporting head body and a load-bearing detection device arranged on the supporting head body. By adjusting the lifting positions of the mandril, the distance between the load-bearing plate and the baffle can be adjusted. It can achieve adjustment conveniently and display the weight of the whole vehicle, but when adjusting a variety of supporting heads, it is necessary to adjust them one by one repeatedly, with poor precision and heavy workload. During lifting maintenance operation, the size error of four steel plates welded on the side beam of vehicles can not be avoided, with a certain height difference between the four steel plates, thus, they can not be on the same plane. For the above supporting heads with weighing functions and basic type supporting heads, it is inconvenient to adjust a variety of supporting heads simultaneously, and when the load-bearing surface of the existing supporting head and the lifting column are an integral structure, the upper surface of supporting head can not form a state of line contact or point contact with four steel plates on the side beam completely when lifting, which easily causes damage to the vehicle.

CRRC QINGDAO SIFANG ROLLING STOCK RESEARCH INSTITUTE CO., LTD.


A method and an apparatus for reducing a read latency are provided. The method includes: when one or more flash chips corresponding to a read command are in a busy state, setting data read from the one or more flash chips in a busy state to wrong data; obtaining, according to the wrong data and data read from other flash chips, reconstructed correct data, and reporting the correct data. By using the present invention, data read from a flash chip is set to wrong data, and reconstructed correct data is obtained according to the wrong data and data read from other flash chips. In this way, when the flash chip is in a busy state, it can be avoided that a read operation is blocked by an erase operation or a write operation, thereby effectively reducing latency and improving a performance of a storage system.

Common data carriers in a storage field are a mechanical hard disk and a solid-state drive (SSD). Because the SSD has such advantages as high performance, a low delay, low power consumption, and powerful environmental adaptability and also costs of the SSD are on the decrease, the SSD is applied more widely at present.
The SSD is generally formed by an NAND flash chip. It has inherent problems such as bit transition and read interference, which causes errors of read data, and also has a limitation of erase and write times. Therefore, measures are taken to ensure reliability of the structure of the NAND flash chip and the SSD design. For example, the NAND flash chip includes one or more wafers inside, where each wafer includes multiple planes; each plane includes multiple blocks, and each block includes multiple pages.
A page is a basic unit of reading and writing data, and includes multiple bytes (for example, 2048+64 bytes), where every 512 bytes+16 bytes represent one error detection/error correction unit, where 512 bytes are used to store data and 16 bytes are used to store error detection/error correction codes. When data is read, each unit of 512+16 bytes performs check; if only few bits have errors, the errors may be corrected; if too many bits have errors and the errors cannot be corrected, an upper layer error correction mechanism, for example, a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) algorithm needs to be used to solve the errors.
A block of the NAND flash chip is a basic erasing unit, and each block includes multiple pages (for example, 64 pages). To modify data that has already been written to the flash chip, a block where the data is located must be first erased before new data is written to the flash chip. This is a basic feature of the flash chip.
During the working process, the SSD needs to execute an erase or write operation constantly, while the flash chip is in a busy state (which is represented by using a hardware pin R/B# of the chip; a high level represents a ready state, and a low level represents a busy state) when these two operations are executed, and therefore cannot further respond to the read operation. The read operation can be continued only after the erase or write operation is completed. Erasing a block of the NAND flash chip generally requires 3 milliseconds (ms), a write operation generally requires 900 microseconds (us), while a read operation generally requires only 50 us. In this way, the erase and write operations block the read operation, which causes a large read latency and affects performance of the storage system. This phenomenon is more obvious in a scenario where there are extremely frequent erase or write operations.

Method and apparatus for reducing read latency