A face/dust mask constructed from differently-shaped filter media parts, each part having a different function, and each part interconnected so as to form a fitted air filter. Dual filters assist in eliminating from the intake air a substantial amount of the dust and debris encountered by riders of dirt bikes, manual bicycles, All-Terrain Vehicles, and other machines operated over unimproved, dusty terrain. By the nature of the materials and contours of the component parts, the mask fits comfortably and effectively for both adult and child users. The invention is highly resilient so as to adapt itself to the interior shape of a protective helmet or the mouthpiece section of a motorcycle helmet or similar safety helmet which is placed into position over the mask. The mask is of versatile design so as to enable a variety of embodiments with different filtering capabilities.

(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a face mask which is particularly adapted for use by motorbike riders, drivers of All-Terrain-Vehicles and operators of other equipment driven over dusty, un-improved terrain.
Various face protectors and face masks have been invented over the years for different purposes and applications. For example, respiratory system masks are used in medical or hospital environments. Gas masks were developed over a century ago to give some degree of safety to military personnel who might potentially be exposed to chemical or toxic gasses in combat zones. Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) is equipped with a specially designed watertight mask by means of which the wearer can breathe compressed air from a tank while maneuvering under water. Military fighter pilots are required to wear pressure-sealed masks connected to supplies of compressed oxygen, which is normally mixed with ambient air when the pilot inhales through the mask.
Carpenters and painters routinely use rather tight-fitting, uncomfortable masks to provide some degree of filtration during work involving sanding of wood or gypsum board building materials. These types of masks, however, clog easily. Further, they do not effectively permit the escape of exhaled air.
An important key to the effective use of the majority of masks is to ensure a tight seal around the perimeter of the mask as it presses against the wearer's face. For improving sealing characteristics the mask material in contact with the face is usually composed of a flexible material such as rubber, polyvinyl, or plastic compounds. A flexible or elastic material also allows for a fairly tight seal by persons of differing facial contours who may have occasion to use the same mask in an emergency situation.
Many mask designs also utilize various means of attaching the mask to the wearer's face, such as straps extending from each side of the mask, past the ears of the user, and fastening in some manner around the back of the wearer's head. A full face mask may also include a set of goggles or an integral visor, and fit over the entire head of the user. The present inventive concept is fabricated from materials, particularly open cell foam and filter media which have resilient qualities, permitting the mask to fit to the contour of a motorcycle helmet and snugly fit against the wearer's face without the use of straps or other attachment means.
(2) Description of the Related Art
An important feature of masks of the type disclosed in this invention is the inclusion of a filtration media to separate or cleanse harmful particles or contaminants from the ambient air as the air is inhaled by the wearer. One of the earlier generation of masks, featured in U.S. Pat. No. 2,201,315, was a compact respirator which contained a filter within the walls of the mask. The filter was interposed between two expandable walls of the mask and the mask body and the entire assembly fits over the mouth and the nose of the wearer.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,521,630 discloses a lightweight, disposable respirator face mask for filtering toxic dusts and mists. The filter material is a non-woven fibrous padding adhesively attached to a soft rubber sealing band which, in turn, fits against the face.
A protective breathing mask in U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,052 is designed to cover the mouth and nose of the wearer. The mask filter is composed of multiple layers of material; an outer layer, an inner layer, and between these two layers, a filter element comprising a particle filter and an adsorber filter. The adsorber material may be of electret material or any one of a variety of metallic compounds proven to be suitable for catalytically decomposing a wide range of noxious substances.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,639 is a combination of a helmet, a protective mask, and a respirator, designed to be worn by motorbike riders. The respirator, which functions most effectively when ram air is forced into it, comprises an inhalation valve and selected filter material. The respirator, as a whole, is made an integral part of the helmet. Also featured is an adjusting lever to reposition the respirator so as to enhance air flow under circumstances where the motorbike is stopped in traffic or for other purposes.
Disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,086,400 is a mask consisting of a main body and face seal which are bonded together. The face seal is composed of a soft resin (such as polyurethane resin) which is laminated onto a surface consisting of an elastic fabric made of nylon or polyester fibers. The contour of the mask is variably shaped by a flexible frame, thereby allowing the mask to fit snugly against the wearer's face. The mask is held in place by a flexible cord on each side, which cords fit around the ears of the user.
A supplied air helmet is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,197,774. Air flow is initiated or enhanced by the action of differential pressures created by the use of filter-type materials of different permeabilities. The most effective air flow sections of the helmet are measured in order to attach the most effective materials at different pre-determined "zones" of the helmet's structure. Due to the different elasticities of the varied materials, pressure drops are generated in the appropriate zone or zones, thereby contributing to a supplied air flow.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2008/0006268 discloses a protective helmet for motorbike riders. The invention includes one or more removable filters placed behind air intake ports, the said ports built into the helmet. Each filter is further coated with a benign adsorption fluid, such as vegetable oil, which helps capture dust particles, yet does not clog the pores of the filter.

Universal dust mask/filter for ATV and dirt bike riders, method of making and method of using


An improved circle drawing tool is equipped with a doughnut-shaped outer board, a circular slide track mounted onto the outer board and an inner circular board provided with rolling balls in a plurality of receiving cavities thereof and having such a diameter that it can be rotarily engaged with the slide track as well as the doughnut-shaped outer board in assembly. On the doughnut shaped outer board are disposed a plurality of round holes distributed one by one consecutively according to their diameters. The are 4 straight lines separated apart at 90 degrees in angle. There are a number of small pen insertion holes consecutively spaced by 4 mm on each line and each starting point of the four lines is 1 mm farther away from the center of the outer board. There are 10 radial lines equally divided on the inner circular board. On each radial line there are a plurality of consecutive pen insertion holes defined thereon with every two neighboring points 10 mm spaced apart. Each starting point of all the 10 lines is 1 mm farther away consecutively from the center of the circular board so as to make the pen insertion holes distributed within a certain range in 1 mm divisional level. An extension arm having a plurality of pen insertion holes can be connected to the rotary outer board so as to permit circles larger than the diameter of the outer board can be drawn.

The present invention relates to an improved circle drawing tool which is equipped with a doughnut-shaped outer board, a circular slide track mounted onto the outer board and an inner circular board provided with rolling balls in a plurality of receiving cavities thereof and having such a diameter that it can be rotarily engaged with the slide track as well as the doughnut-shaped outer board in assembly. On the doughnut shaped outer board are disposed a plurality of round holes distributed closely one by one consecutively according to their diameters. There are 4 straight lines separated apart at 90 degrees in angle. There are a number of small pen insertion holes consecutively spaced by 4 mm on each line and each starting point of the four lines is 1 mm farther away from the center of the outer board one after the other. There are 10 radial lines equally divided on the inner circular board. On each radial line there are a plurality of consecutive pen insertion holes defined thereon with every two neighboring points 10 mm spaced apart. Each starting point of all the 10 lines is 1 mm farther away in a consecutive order from the center of the circular board so as to make the pen insertion holes distributed in a certain range in 1 mm division level. An extension arm having a plurality of pen insertion holes can be removably connected to the rotary outer board so as to permit circles larger than the diameter of the outer board to be drawn.
A compass is the most common tool used by people to draw circles, but there are different auxiliary instruments developed to facilitate the drawing of circles of various diameters, such as a standard circle board on which circles of various sizes are orderly distributed with their diameters marked beside each hole so as to permit people to make circle drawings with ease. However, such prior art circle boards are limited in the size of the circles to be drawn and the number of holes on each board is also limited. There are other various prior art auxiliary circle drawing boards which are complex in structure and relatively expensive to produce.


The output bits of a binary ripple counter are used to control the sampling of those output bits, thereby ensuring accurate sampling. A sampler is provided with adjustable delay elements that permit accurate sampling regardless of: delay mismatch between the sampler and a data path of the counter; the length of the counter; operating speed; or PVT variations.

FIG. 1 diagrammatically illustrates a conventional arrangement including a binary ripple counter 12 coupled to a sampler 11 that samples the output bits D0, D1, D2, etc. from respective count stages of the binary ripple counter. Such an arrangement is useful in many applications. One example is determining the phase of a digitally controlled oscillator (DCO). The structure and operation of the binary ripple counter 12 and the sampler 11 shown in FIG. 1 are known in the art. (See, e.g., US Patent Publication No. 2005/0195917, and U.S. Ser. No. 12/134,081 entitled "A Low Power All Digital PLL Architecture", filed Jun. 5, 2008, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.) A series configuration of delay elements 13, 14, etc. functions as a sampling controller that produces respectively delayed versions, C1, C2, etc., of a base sample clock signal CO, which is in turn a delayed version of an input clock signal denoted as Clock 2. The clock signals C0, C1, C2, etc. are sample control signals used to clock respective latch stages of sampler 11 that sample the respective output bits D0, D1, D2, etc. A count clock signal, denoted as Clock 1, drives the binary ripple counter 12.
The sampling operations performed by the arrangement of FIG. 1 can be challenging at high operating speeds, due to skew among the output bits D0, D1, D2, etc. Ideally, the delays between the clock signals C0, C1, C2, etc. in the sampling clock path should be matched to the respectively corresponding delays in the data path through the binary ripple counter 12. In that case, if bit D0 can be sampled correctly at PHV(0), then bit D1 can also be sampled correctly at PHV(1), etc. This ideal situation is shown in FIG. 2, wherein each of the sample clock signals C0, C1, C2, etc. becomes active to sample the corresponding output bit D0, D1, D2, etc. after a common delay interval has elapsed since the transition of the corresponding output bit.
However, the required resolution of the delay matching between the clock path and the data path increases with increases in the operating speed. The error tolerance associated with the sampling points for more significant bits is the same as the error tolerance associated with the least significant bit D0, but larger delay mismatches can be expected for the more significant bits due to the accumulation of delay mismatches at each additional count stage of the counter. Consequently, the sampler 11 of FIG. 1 may not function suitably as the frequency of Clock 2 increases.
It is therefore desirable to provide for accurately sampling a binary ripple counter even at high operating frequencies.

Binary ripple counter sampling with adjustable delays


Provided are a wireless communication system, communication apparatus, communication method, and communication program able to more reliably decode transmit signals at a receiver without more complex processing, even when resource blocks are overloaded. A communication apparatus configured to decode data received on each of at least two streams comprises: a resource block allocation determiner configured to determine an allocation of resource blocks for each stream; and a control information determiner configured to determine control information regarding data transmission on at least one stream, on the basis of the overload ratio of resource blocks among at least one group of streams.

With wireless communication, there is demand to effectively utilize the wireless frequency bands used as the propagation channel. For this reason, methods that multiplex streams for communicating among multiple users in a frequency domain are widely used. NPL 1 describes a spectrum-overlapped resource management (SORM) scheme that allows partial overlapping (hereinafter referred to as overloading) of a frequency band used by multiple streams. Consequently, the SORM scheme has superior spectral efficiency over frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), which controls the frequency bands to be used in a complete exclusive manner.
However, with wireless communication, errors may occur in transmitted information due to thermal noise in the receiver and frequency-selective phasing, and the spectral efficiency may drop. In order to correct errors in information, the application of turbo coding and decoding has been proposed (see PTL 1 and NPL 1).
In turbo coding, two recursive systematic convolutional (RSC) coders having the same connection are used, and the information bits constituting a receive signal are input as-is into one of the coders. The information bits are permutated by an interleaver and input into the other coder. Thus, information bits convoluted with two independent constraint parameters are generated. The turbo decoder decodes the information bits using two maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) estimators. The transmit bits may be detected by exchanging reliability information regarding the information bits obtained by decoding. In this way, by applying two independent constraint parameters and repeating the process, the reliability of the information bits gradually improves, and the transmit bits are detected.

Wireless communication system, communication apparatus, communication method, and communication program


Methods and systems are described for determining a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) and coding rate for an intercell signal in an LTE network. In one aspect, a plurality of potential RNTIs (that is a subset of all available RNTIs) associated with a received intercell signal is determined. A first signal based on a first potential combination of a one of the plurality of RNTIs and a coding rate is processed by a first decoder. Whether the first potential combination includes a correct RNTI and coding rate combination for the received intercell signal is determined based on at least one metric for the processed first signal. A second signal based on a second potential combination of a one of the plurality of RNTIs and a coding rate is processed by a second decoder if the first potential combination does not include the correct RNTI and coding rate combination.

Intercell interference is a common problem in cellular communication systems. For example, in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, mobile devices in other cells cause intercell interference by transmitting on the LTE uplink at the same time and frequency. Intercell interference is partially mitigated by spatially combining multiple receive antennas. Since direct knowledge of the interfering signals is not known, these spatial techniques rely on techniques that do not model the interference directly. Modeling the interference directly can yield a significant improvement in suppressing intercell interference.
One method of suppressing intercell interference is to explicitly have knowledge of the transmit parameters of the intercell users and thereby have knowledge of a reference signal in the interfering transmission. With this knowledge, multi-user parameter estimation and multi-user detection algorithms can jointly model the intracell and intercell users, providing significant improvement in intercell interference rejection.
Conventional methods for directly modelling intercell signals requires the explicit sharing of all information so that the transmit parameters for an interfering signal are known ahead of time. However, explicitly sharing this much information requires a high throughput, low latency link between cells, making it impractical and too expensive to deploy in many cases.
Accordingly, there exists a need for improved methods, systems, and computer program products for determining a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) and coding rate for an intercell signal in an LTE communications network.

Methods, systems, and computer program products for determining a radio network temporary identifier and coding rate for an intercell signal in a long term evolution communications network


The invention provides phoh polypeptides and DNA (RNA) encoding phoh polypeptides and methods for producing such polypeptides by recombinant techniques. Also provided are methods for utilizing phoH polypeptides to screen for antibacterial compounds.

The Streptococci make up a medically important genera of microbes known to cause several types of disease in humans, including, for example, otitis media, conjunctivitis, pneumonia, bacteremia, meningitis, sinusitis, pleural empyema and endocarditis, and most particularly meningitis, such as for example infection of cerebrospinal fluid. Since its isolation more than 100 years ago, Streptococcus pneumoniae has been one of the more intensively studied microbes. For example, much of our early understanding that DNA is, in fact, the genetic material was predicated on the work of Griffith and of Avery, Macleod and McCarty using this microbe. Despite the vast amount of research with S. pneumoniae, many questions concerning the virulence of this microbe remain. It is particularly preferred to employ Streptococcal genes and gene products as targets for the development of antibiotics.
The frequency of Streptococcus pneumoniae infections has risen dramatically in the past 20 years. This has been attributed to the emergence of multiply antibiotic resistant strains and an increasing population of people with weakened immune systems. It is no longer uncommon to isolate Streptococcus pneumnoniae strains which are resistant to some or all of the standard antibiotics. This has created a demand for both new anti-microbial agents and diagnostic tests for this organism.
While certain Streptococcal factors associated with pathogenicity have been identified, e.g., capsule polysaccharides, peptidoglycans, pneumolysins, PspA Complement factor H binding component, autolysin, neuraminidase, peptide permeases, hydrogen peroxide, IgA1 protease, the list is certainly not complete. Moreover, very little is known concerning the temporal expression of such genes during infection and disease progression in a mammalian host. Discovering the sets of genes the bacterium is likely to be expressing at the different stages of infection, particularly when an infection is established, provides critical information for the screening and characterization of novel antibacterials which can interrupt pathogenesis. In addition to providing a fuller understanding of known proteins, such an approach will identify previously unrecognised targets.
PhoH is a phosphate starvation-inducible gene that, in at least one or more species, belongs to the phosphate (pho) regulon and has ATP-binding activity (Kim, S. K., Makino, K., Amemura, M., Shinagawa, H. and Nakata, A. (1993) J. Bacteriol. 175 (5), 1316-1324. (See also, Metcalf, W. W., Steed, P. M. and Wanner, B. L. (1990) J. Bacteriol. 172 (6), 3191-3200.) Two transcriptional initiation sites (P1 and P2) have been identified. The upstream P1 promoter contains a pho box, the conserved sequence shared by the pho regulon genes.
In terms of cellular content, phosphate (P) is the third most abundant element. P compounds serve as major building blocks of innumerable biomolecules and it is incorporated into many proteins posttranslationally. P compounds are also especially important in energy metabolism because of the biological role of high-energy phosphoanhydride bonds. Therefore, P metabolism involves numerous metabolic pathways, in addition to those that may have a specific role of assimilating P from the environment and has a vital role in bacterial survival. Inhibitors of proteins involved in phosphate metabolism and its regulation could prevent the bacterium from establishing and maintaining infection of the host and thereby have utility in anti-bacterial therapy.
Clearly, there is a need for factors, such as the novel compounds of the invention, that have a present benefit of being useful to screen compounds for antibiotic activity. Such factors are also useful to determine their role in pathogenesis of infection, dysfunction and disease. There is also a need for identification and characterization of such factors and their antagonists and agonists which can play a role in preventing, ameliorating or correcting infections, dysfunctions or diseases.
The polypeptides of the invention have amino acid sequence homology to a known B. subtilis phoH protein.


A two-switch device is used for an electric nail gun. The electric nail gun includes a safety member movable to press against an article to thereby move in the gun body, a kinetic power unit for generating kinetic energy, an impact unit for outputting kinetic energy to perform a nail-striking operation, and a transmission unit for transmitting the kinetic energy. The two-switch device includes a first electrical control unit controlled by a trigger and the safety member for driving the kinetic power unit, and a second electrical control unit controlled by an inner plate for driving the transmission unit. By controlling actuation order of the safety member and the trigger, the electric nail gun can be changed between a single shot mode and a continuous shooting mode.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a switch device, and more particularly to a two-switch device for an electric nail gun.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional electric nail gun typically includes a trigger and a control circuit. The trigger can be actuated to activate the control circuit to generate an electrical control signal for performing a nail-driving operation.
However, the operation mode of the electric nail gun is based on the electrical control signal. To change between a signal shot mode and a continuous shooting mode, there is a need for providing a change-over switch, which leads easily to complication of the control circuit, an increase in the cost, and an electrical failure caused by the surrounding interference.

Two-switch device for an electric nail gun


The selection of a keyboard on a computer system can automatically be achieved. If any externally provided keyboard which transmits transmission data upon the turning on of a computer system is connected to an external keyboard controller, a selection circuit selects that external keyboard controller for controlling the externally provided keyboard. If, on the other hand, no externally provided keyboard is connected to the external keyboard controller, the selection circuit selects an incorporated keyboard controller for controlling an incorporated keyboard which is incorporated in the computer system. When the externally provided keyboard is connected to the external keyboard controller, the selection of a keyboard by the selection circuit is achieved depending upon whether or not the computer system receives transmission data from the externally provided keyboard.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for selecting one keyboard in a lap-top type computer and apparatus for implementing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In place of the conventional desk-top computer, a lap-top type computer has increasingly been employed which is compact, lightweight and convenient to carry with the user. The lap-top type computer includes, for example, a keyboard, display and floppy disk drive.
The keyboard incorporated into the lap-top type computer is made compact, but is different from a full keyboard of the aforementioned desk-top type computer in terms of the layout of keys, total number of keys and touching of the keys. Thus the keyboard of the lap-top type computer is very not user-friendly in the operation of keys.
The lap-top type computer may be used by connecting it to an externally provided full keyboard. In this case, some device will be necessary to select one of the externally provided full keyboard and that keyboard incorporated into the computer.
Thus a demand is grown for an automatic keyboard selection device.

Method and apparatus for selecting a keyboard on a computer system


Methods of medical treatment and diagnosis using mediators released by endothelial cells stimulated by external addition of pulses to the circulation are disclosed. The external pulses produce circumferential shear stress in body fluid channels that subsequently stimulates the endothelial cells to produce mediators that become available for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. The preferred means of adding external pulses is the mechanical inducement of periodic acceleration of the body or parts of the body by a reciprocating motion platform.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods of medical treatment that use an external addition of pulses to body fluid channels in order to stimulate endothelial cells to release beneficial mediators. The circumferential shear stress within body fluid channels caused by these pulses stimulate the endothelial cells to produce mediators that become available for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has become clear that the endothelial inner lining layer of the circulatory system, heart, lymphatics, interstitial spaces and bones of the body play a major role in health and disease through responses to shear stress from circulating fluids flowing across it or pulsating upon it. The recognition that vascular endothelium is a highly active metabolic organ came with the discovery that it actively liberated nitric oxide, a powerful relaxant of vascular smooth muscle as a function of shear stress and pulse frequency across the endothelial surface.
Nitric oxide is synthesized in many cell types by the conversion of L-arginine, a naturally occurring amino acid, to L-citrulline by three distinct nitric oxide synthases (NOSs) enzymes. Sustained high levels of nitric oxide are produced by macrophage or smooth muscle inducible NOS (iNOS) only after induction by certain cytokinines. Both neuronal (nNOS) and endothelial (eNOS) are calcium-dependent and produce low levels of nitric oxide constitutively. eNOS acts in the presence of nicotinamide-adenine-dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH), Ca++2/calmodulin and tetrahydrobiopterin to oxidize the L-arginine and form nitric oxide and L-citrulline. Nitric oxide stimulates soluble guanylate cyclase in the underlying vascular smooth muscle that leads to elevation of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) with consequent vascular relaxation.
Release of nitric oxide causes endothelium dependent vasodilation. The wrapping of a tourniquet around the upper arm for a few minutes followed by quick removal allows increased blood to flow into the lower arm, a maneuver termed reactive hyperemia; this causes local increase in flow shear stress. Increased pulse frequency acting upon the endothelium is achieved during exercise (also accompanied by increased flow shear stress) or with electrical pacing of the heart.
On the other hand, endothelin-1, a powerful vasoconstrictor substance, is released in higher amounts when shear stress diminishes. Increase of nitric oxide release suppresses endothelin-1. This interplay between these two mediators helps stabilize blood pressure levels. L-arginine, a naturally occurring amino acid, is the substrate for the enzyme in endothelium, eNOS, which converts it to nitric oxide where it acts on smooth muscle and is metabolized into serum nitrite and other NO-compounds within 5 to 10 seconds. Circulating nitrosylated compounds are agents that take up nitric oxide to a lesser extent and slowly release nitric oxide over prolonged time periods.
Prostacyclin is liberated from endothelium by shear stress and relaxes vascular smooth muscle as an endothelium independent vasodilator. In most blood vessels, the contribution of prostacyclin to endothelial-dependent vasodilation is small and its effect is additive to nitric oxide. However, in terms of preventing platelet aggregation, leukocyte adhesion to endothelium, and susceptibility to thrombosis, the action of prostacyclin and nitric oxide are synergistic. Nitric oxide has an inhibitory effect on prostacyclin production under shear stress but vessel homeostasis is maintained through an increase in prostacyclin production when nitric oxide synthesis is impaired in endothelial cells as in atherosclerosis.
Shear stress independent of perfusion pressure increases gene expression of prostacyclin synthesis-related enzymes cyclooxygenases (COX-1 and COX-2), prostacyclin synthase (PGS), and thromboxane synthase (TXS) and their metabolites prostaglandin (PGI(2)) and thromboxane A(2) (TXA(2)) in endothelium of intact conduit vessels.
In the epicardial coronary arteries, shear stress causes release of endothelial-dependent hyperpolarizing factor (EDHF). Here, its formation plays a much greater role than either nitric oxide or prostacyclin, since in this vascular bed, endothelium-dependent vasodilation is only marginally attenuated by combined inhibition of nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase. In the coronary circulation, EDHF displays the characteristics of a cytochrome P450-dependent arachnoidonic acid metabolite. Ultimately, EDHF acts through the nitric oxide-L-arginine pathway. Sinusoidal pressure oscillations (from 40 to 50 mm Hg, 4 minutes, 1.5 Hz) leads to simultaneous oscillations in the external diameter of isolated coronary artery segments, the amplitude of which were decreased by iberiotoxin and apamin and also by endothelial denudation. Thus, continuous release of EDHF may contribute to the adjustment of an adequate vascular compliance and to the control of coronary blood flow.
Tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) is released from vascular endothelium through shear stress. Further, shear stress is a potent fluid mechanical stimulus for upregulation of the intracellular storage pool of t-PA in the vascular wall. Shear stress effect is associated with an increased t-PA gene expression. t-PA is measurable in plasma and therefore also is a marker of endothelial function. Muscarinic agents such as acetylcholine and methacholine release tissue plasminogen activator in the forearm circulation of normal subjects. In patients with hypertension, acetylcholine does not change flow and net release and concentration gradients of t-PA, but increases blood flow in normal subjects indicating that vasodilatation by increasing fluid shear stress induces t-PA release with normally functioning vascular endothelium. Marked t-PA release occurs in response to isoproterenol, a beta-adrenergic agonist that acts through the nitric oxide-L-arginine pathway. This effect is independent of the effects of shear stress due to increased blood flow because nitroprusside, an endothelium-independent vasodilator induces similar increases in blood flow without causing t-PA release. Possibly, circumferential shear stress is a more potent stimulus to t-PA release than tangential shear stress.
Elevated intraluminal pressure downregulates t-PA gene and protein expression and inhibits its release from the endothelium independently of shear stress. The defective capacity for stimulated t-PA release that is demonstrable in patients with systemic essential hypertension might thus be an effect of the elevated intraluminal pressure per se.
Activator protein-1 (AP-1) is composed of c-fos/c-jun hererodimers or c-jun/c-jun homodiamers. This is released from the vascular endothelium with shear stress and/or circumferential pulses. The AP-1 transcription factor family is important in the transcription of several genes, e.g., monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) and the vascular cell adhesion molecule-1. Endothelial cells subjected to disturbed laminar shear stress exhibit increased levels of nuclear localized NF-kappaB, Egr-1, c-Jun, and c-Fos, compared with cells exposed to uniform laminar shear stress or maintained under static conditions. In addition, individual cells display a heterogeneity in responsiveness to disturbed flow, as measured by the amount of NF-kappaB, Egr-1, c-Jun, and c-Fos in their nuclei. This differential regulation of transcription factor expression by disturbed versus uniform laminar shear stress indicates that regional differences in blood flow patterns in vivo-in particular, the occurrence of spatial shear stress gradients-may represent important local modulators of endothelial gene expression at anatomic sites predisposed for atherosclerotic development.
Shear stress acts at the apical cell surface to deform cells in the direction of blood flow; wall distention from cycical strain tends to deform cells in all directions. The shear stress response differs, at least partly, from the cyclical strain response, suggesting that cytoskeletal strain alone cannot explain it. Acute shear stress in vitro elicits rapid cytoskeletal remodeling and activates signaling cascades in endothelial cells, with the consequent acute release of nitric oxide, prostacyclin, t-PA and EDHF; activation of transcription factors nuclear factor (NF), kappaB, c-fos, c-jun and SP-1; and transcriptional activation of genes, including ICAM-1, MCP-1, tissue factor, platelet-derived growth factor-B (PDGF-B), transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1, cyclooxygenase-II, and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). Thus, the forces acting upon the vascular endothelium from laminar shear stress and pulsations cause release of a myriad of active agents.
However beneficial the effects of these mediators may be, it is difficult to dose a patient with them. For example, nitric oxide is currently administered as a gas in concentrations from 20 to 80 ppm. Since nitric oxide rapidly combines with hemoglobin competing for oxygenation, it can be considered a toxic gas. Its concentration must be carefully monitored. It undergoes rapid degradation in the pulmonary circulation and has no systemic effects. There are some benefits to inhaled nitric oxide: the pulmonary vascular hypertensive response to acute hypoxia is abolished by NO inhalation therapy. However, the pulmonary hypertensive response to aspirated meconium is only partially reversed by inhaled nitric oxide therapy despite improvements in oxygenation.
Besides inhaled nitric oxide, there are nitric oxide donors. There are substantial differences among the diverse classes of nitric oxide donors including relative importance of nonenzymatic versus enzymatic pathways for NO release, existence of competing metabolic events and the identity of the actual NO-generating enzyme systems. For example, organic nitrates are predominantly venodilators that selectively reduce cardiac preload whereas sodium nitroprusside relaxes arteries and veins equally. The sensitivity of soluble guanylate cyclase to NO donors might be regulated by the ambient concentration of NO, with increased local nitric oxide downregulation of the dilator response to NO donors.
Compounds such as nitroglycerin, nitroprusside and other organic nitrate compounds release nitric oxide through enzymatic degradation and act directly on vascular smooth muscle to cause vasodilation. These compounds are designated endothelium independent vasodilators since they relax vascular smooth muscle even though vascular endothelium may be dysfunctional or destroyed at a given site of action. However, enzymatic conversion may be incomplete at different sites or other vasoactive compounds may be formed leading to different actions on different vascular beds. This may cause drug tolerance, less effectiveness for a given dose of an organic nitrate. Tolerance to continuously administered transdermal nitroglycerin can develop with 48 hours.
Thus, there is a need for a method of providing beneficial mediators (such as nitric oxide, prostacyclin, endothelial dependent hyperpolarizing factor (EDHF), and tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA)) that are released by the endothelium, in order to aid in the treatment and diagnosis of various diseases, conditions, and injuries. Furthermore, the method must avoid the dosing problems of previous treatments.

External addition of pulses to fluid channels of body to release or suppress endothelial mediators and to determine effectiveness of such intervention


A compressor including a prime mover having an output element which supplies a motive force produced by the prime mover; a compression module having an input element; a tensioned belt connecting the prime mover output element and the compression module input element to transmit the motive force from the prime mover to the compression module, and a self-adjusting belt tensioning member for applying a substantially constant tensioning force to the belt to maintain substantially constant the predetermined required belt tension. The compressor also includes an anchor bracket connected to the compression module, and a locator plate connected to the anchor bracket, the locator plate being movable relative to the anchor bracket, the anchor bracket having a stop member for limiting movement of the locator plate.

The invention relates to a belt driven fluid compressor and more particularly to a belt driven fluid compressor having a self-adjusting belt tensioning device that automatically maintains the required tension in the drive belt during compressor operation.
Rotary screw compressors traditionally include male and female rotors having interengaging, axially extending screw profiles. The rotors compress a fluid such as air, as the fluid is conveyed axially between the profiles during rotation of the rotors by a prime mover such as an electric motor. Typically, the male rotor includes an input element or shaft connected in motive force receiving relation with the output element or shaft of the prime mover by a drive belt tensioned with a predetermined required belt tension force.
Over time, the drive belt may stretch, or the distance between the output element and input element may change. Belt stretching and varying the distance between the input and output elements will cause the tension in the belt to deviate from the predetermined required tension. When the tension in the belt is not equal to the predetermined required tension value, the operation of the compressor is negatively affected. Therefore it is vital for efficient compressor operation that the predetermined required belt tension be maintained.
Helical springs have been included in prior art compressors to try to maintain the required drive belt tension. There are at least two shortcomings associated with using helical springs to maintain the required belt tension. First, by their design, the force exerted by any helical spring varies with its change in length. Therefore, the force exerted by each helical spring is dependent on its location relative to the belt. The helical springs are located in positions along the compressor that compress the springs the required amount to produce the total spring force necessary to achieve the required belt tension. However, as the belt stretches, and the springs decompress, the belt tensioning forces produced by the springs decrease resulting in a belt tension that is below the requisite tension force. When the drive belt is tensioned at less than the required tension force the belt is prone to slipping which reduces the efficiency of the compressor. Thus, during compressor operation the helical springs are not self-adjusting and do not continuously maintain the required belt tension in the drive belt.
A second shortcoming associated with the use of helical springs to maintain the required drive belt tension relates to the damping characteristics of helical springs. A helical spring has very little damping capacity and use of helical springs in fluid compressors can cause compressor components to oscillate or "bounce" under certain conditions, such as during compressor start up. Additionally, the helical springs do dissipate kinetic energy of the compressor components when a drive belt breaks.
Other known mechanisms for maintaining the required drive belt tension require periodic manual adjustment to maintain a constant belt tension over time. Such known systems frequently include an extendable and retractable member connected to a pulley, sprocket or other belt support member. When required, the length of the member is altered to move the belt support member and affect the belt tension. Such manually adjustable tension mechanisms are by their very nature not self-adjusting and do not automatically maintain the predetermined required belt tension.
Other known belt tensioning systems achieve the required belt tension through the use of complicated, expensive systems which frequently incorporate electronic controls to extend or retract hydraulic or pneumatic pistons to increase or decrease the belt tension to produce the desired tension in the drive belt.
The foregoing illustrates limitations known to exist in present devices and methods. Thus, it is apparent that it would be advantageous to provide an alternative directed to overcoming one or more of the limitations set forth above. Accordingly, a suitable alternative is provided including features more fully disclosed hereinafter.

Belt driven fluid compressor with self-adjusting belt tensioning device


A sternotomy closure technique is suitably carried out with a cerclage mechanism which is capable of maintaining proper bony compression (within a desired range) across the sternum cut, in spite of a range of external forces and significant lateral distraction due to these external forces. The sternum fragments are aligned in apposition disposed around a longitudinal seam and secured with a resilient element. The resilient element is tensioned to a desired tension to compress the sternum to a desired compression range. The resilient element is then elongated and contracted while accepting multiple cycles of physiological distracting forces across the sternum while maintaining contact pressure across the longitudinal seam within a desired range for a length of time sufficient for bony healing. The resilient element is preferably a polymer cable comprising an elongated elastic polymeric core coaxially surrounded by a sheath woven from ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene strands.

Many surgeries involving the heart and other thoracic structures require full access to areas inside the chest. Generally, this access is obtained by splitting the sternum by a full length osteotomy: using a saw to divide the sternum from its superior pole to its inferior pole. This osteotomy of the sternum is commonly referred to as a median sternotomy. In the US, approximately 700,000 sternal osteotomies (i.e. sternotomies) are performed every year.
Upon completion of open heart surgery (or other surgery requiring access to the chest cavity, such as a lung transplant for example), the sternum must be closed. Usually this involves binding the two divided halves of the sternum together using a cerclage technique. The objective is to bring the two bone segments into proper apposition so that they may heal and again provide the normal function of the sternum in the musculo-skeletal system. The desired outcome is full bony union so that the sternum is restored as nearly as possible to its pre-surgical condition. In order to achieve this goal, the closure must be sufficiently robust so that full bone formation and healing can occur across the sternotomy.
Most sternotomy closures are performed using stainless steel or other metallic alloy wire, with the aid of instruments such as a wire tightener and wire cutters. Braided metallic cable may be used, either alone or in conjunction with bone fixation devices such as plates, screws, or the like.
Conventional methods often fail to achieve high-quality bony union. Reliable bone healing requires good bone fragment stability and close approximation of fragments with minimum gap extension. Poor stability and excessive gap extension can lead to non-union, fibro-osseous-union, or partial bony union. Poor stability and bone healing after median sternotomy contribute to a number of potential complications ranging from long-term patient discomfort to acute dehiscence and deep sternal wound infection (mediastinitis), with very high treatment costs, and high patient morbidity and mortality rates.
A number of factors negatively influence the success of sternal closure. These factors include the failure to accurately quantify and apply a controlled tightening force (load) across the divided bone, failure to maintain bony apposition in the correct position, allowance of too much motion (or too little), and failure to transmit load across the osteotomy during the healing period. Further factors include a tendency of wire or metallic cable to cut through bone and soft tissue due to movement and/or force, loss of fixation due to fatigue of the metallic wire or cable, or breakage of the metallic wire or cable itself due to fatigue. Furthermore, wound healing or the systemic health of the patient may be impacted by metal ions released from metal wires, cables, plates and screws.
For best healing, three factors must be present: bony apposition, restricted movement, and force transmission across the osteotomy plane. In all cases, adequate blood supply must be present for healing.
In order to stabilize the reassembled (divided) sternum, forces must be applied to the bone sections so that they are held together during the normal activities that occur during the healing process. This is particularly challenging as the sternum experiences variable and often transient forces transmitted through the ribs or other tissues, during activities such as breathing, coughing, moving, lying down, rising, and other activities of daily living. For example, sneezing has been shown to generate as much as 814 Newtons of lateral distraction force on the sternum.

Sternotomy closure technique using polymeric cable


A double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet for fixing a touch panel to a display device wherein one surface of the double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet is stuck to the surface of the touch panel while the other surface of the double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet is stuck to a display surface of the display device, the double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet including: a transparent base; a first transparent pressure-sensitive adhesive layer formed on one surface of the transparent base; and a second transparent pressure-sensitive adhesive layer formed on the other surface of the transparent base; wherein the double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet is releasable and re-stickable to the display surface while being stuck to the touch panel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet used for sticking and fixing a touch panel to a display surface of a display device, and a method for sticking and fixing a touch panel to a display device.
2. Related Art
A large market for mobile communication terminals (e.g., mobile telephone terminals such as cellular phones and PHS machines, and PDA terminals) have been formed in recent years. The main technical streams for the mobile communication terminals are directed to reduction in thickness, reduction in weight, reduction in power consumption, increase in definition, increase in luminance, and so on. Particularly from the point of view of reduction in weight and breaking prevention, a touch panel used as an input device in a PDA has begun to shift from a touch panel having a configuration (F/G type) in which a transparent electrically conductive plastic film [e.g., a transparent electrically conductive plastic film such as a transparent electrically conductive polyethylene terephthalate film (electrically conductive PET film) having a polyethylene terephthalate film as a base and an electrically conductive layer such as ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) formed on one surface of the polyethylene terephthalate film] is stuck to an electrically conductive glass sheet by a pressure-sensitive adhesive agent as shown in FIG. 3 to a touch panel having a configuration (F/F/P type) in which two transparent electrically conductive plastic films (such as electrically conductive PET films) having electrically conductive layer-forming surfaces disposed opposite to each other are stuck to a transparent substrate of polycarbonate or the like as a reinforcing member through a transparent pressure-sensitive adhesive agent as shown in FIG. 4. Incidentally, the touch panel is stuck and fixed to an LCD module through a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer shaped like a picture frame on the LCD module.
FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view showing an example of the related-art F/G type touch panel. FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view showing an example of the related-art F/F/P type touch panel. In FIGS. 3 and 4, the reference numeral 11 designates a double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive tape; 51, an F/G type touch panel; 51a, an electrically conductive PET film on the upper side; 51b, an electrically conductive glass sheet on the lower side; 51c, an adhesive layer; 51d, a silver paste layer; 52, an F/F/P type touch panel; 52a, an upper electrically conductive PET film; 52b, a lower electrically conductive PET film; 52c, an adhesive layer; 52d, a silver paste layer; 52e, a double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive tape; 52f, a reinforcing plate; 6, an LCD module; 7, a backlight unit; and 7a, a double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive tape.
In the F/F/P type configuration as shown in FIG. 4, however, two air interfaces are formed between the electrically conductive plastic films 52a and 52b of the touch panel 52 and between the touch panel 52 and the LCD module 6. For this reason, there arises a problem that light loss due to reflection is large. There also arises a problem that the touch panel 52 is thick. These problems are considerably serious against the stream of reduction in power consumption, increase in luminance, reduction in thickness, and so on.
A touch panel having a configuration (F/F type configuration) in which electrically conductive layer-forming surfaces of two transparent electrically conductive plastic films are disposed opposite to each-other as shown in FIG. 5 has been proposed newly on such circumstances. FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view showing an example of the related-art F/F type touch panel. In FIG. 5, the reference numeral 12 designates a double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet; 5, a touch panel; 5a, an upper electrically conductive PET film; 5b, a lower electrically conductive PET film; 5c, an adhesive layer; and 5d, a silver paste layer. Incidentally, the reference numerals 6, 7 and 7a designate an LCD module, a backlight unit and a double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive tape respectively like FIG. 3 and FIG. 4.
In the F/F type configuration, air interfaces can be reduced more greatly, so that the thickness of the touch panel 5 can be reduced. When the related-art double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet 12 (such as a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape) is used, the touch panel 5 and the LCD module 6 are, however, bonded to each other so firmly that they cannot be mended after they have been bonded to each other once. Hence, the LCD module 6 and the touch panel 5 cannot be discarded if they are stuck to each other improperly. In addition, transparency is low. Hence, there is a problem that light transmittance as a whole is reduced even in the case where reflection loss is reduced due to reduction in the air interfaces.

Double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet and method for sticking and fixing touch panel to display device


A nonvolatile memory device includes a semiconductor substrate, a device isolation layer, a tunnel insulation layer, a floating gate, a buried floating gate, and a control gate. A trench is in the substrate that defines an active region of the substrate adjacent to the trench. A device isolation layer is on the substrate along the trench. A tunnel insulation layer is on the active region of the substrate. A floating gate is on the tunnel insulation layer opposite to the active region of the substrate. A buried floating gate is on the device isolation layer in the trench. An intergate dielectric layer is on and extends across the floating gate and the buried floating gate. A control gate is on the intergate dielectric layer and extends across the floating gate and the buried floating gate.

Fabrication of more highly integrated nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices can be made more difficult by a corresponding reduction that can occur in available memory cell current and coupling ratio of the memory cell structures as their integration density is increased. Reduction of memory cell current can become particularly severe in NAND type nonvolatile memory devices in which a plurality of memory cells are connected in series. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a NAND type nonvolatile memory device includes a select transistor and a plurality of memory cells that are connected in series. Gate electrodes of the memory cell are connected to a word line WL. Gate electrodes of the select transistor are connected to either a ground select line GSL or a string select line SSL. A plurality of strings of series connected memory cells are connected to a common source line CSL. Each string of series connected memory cells are connected to a different bit line BL.
To perform a write operation to a selected memory cell "A", a program voltage is applied to a gate electrode of the memory cell "A" and a voltage of 0V is applied to a channel of the memory cell "A", which results in FN tunneling. Through FN tunneling, a logical value of "0" is stored in the selected memory cell "A" while a channel of an unselected memory cell "B" connected to a selected word line WL is floated. A voltage at least as large as that applied to a corresponding string select line SSL is applied to a selected bit line BL, and a voltage of 0V is applied to an unselected bit line BL. A program voltage is applied to a selected word line WL, and a pass voltage is applied to an unselected word line WL.
In order to prevent an unselected memory cell from being written by applied program voltages and pass voltages, a channel of an unselected memory cell connected to a selected word line WL must be floated and boosted to a predetermined voltage. However, the channel voltage of an unselected memory cell may not be sufficiently boosted due to variation in a threshold voltage of the unselected memory cell and/or the select transistor coupled to the unselected memory cell. Variation of the threshold voltage may be caused by, for example, variation in the coupling ratio and available channel voltage of the unselected memory cell and/or the select transistor. Consequently, the program and pass voltages can be constrained below a level that is sufficient for some programming speeds.
To perform a read operation, a voltage of 0V is applied to a selected word line WL and a pass voltage is applied to an unselected word line WL. A current flowing on a selected bit line BL is measured to sense data stored in the selected memory cell as a logical value of '0' or '1'. Reading of data on the selected BL line can be facilitated by a larger sensed change in the current from the selected memory cell. However, the current that can flow through the series connected selected and unselected cells decreases with a reduction in size of the cells, which can limit higher integration of the memory device.
A nonvolatile storage device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,222,796 entitled "NONVOLATILE SEMICONDUCTOR STORAGE DEVICE HAVING BURIED ELECTRODE WITHIN SHALLOW TRENCH", in which a voltage is applied to an electrode buried in a trench to prevent erroneous writing. This nonvolatile storage device will now be described with reference to FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B.
As illustrated in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, an insulation layer 16 is in a lower portion of a shallow trench 14 in a substrate 11. A buried electrode 18 is on the insulation layer 16. A floating gate 17 is formed on an active region between the shallow trenches 14. An intergate dielectric 20 is on the floating gate 17 and the buried electrode 18. A control gate electrode 21 is on the intergate dielectric 20 and crosses over the floating gate 17 and the buried electrode 18. The buried electrode 18 extends parallel to and partially within the shallow trench 14. In the illustrated storage device, during a write operation a high-level voltage is applied to the buried electrode 18 of a memory cell that is connected to an unselect bit line to avoid writing. A thick insulation layer 19 is between the buried electrode 18 and the control gate electrode 21 to insulate the buried electrode 18 from the control gate electrode 21.
With reference to FIG. 2A, forming the buried electrodes 18 in such memory cells and providing the necessary voltages thereto can be difficult. The memory device includes source contacts 42 and bit line contacts 43 formed in an active region 41. The source contacts 42 are configured to conduct a voltage to a source region of the memory cells. The bit line contacts 43 are electrically coupled to bit lines BL. The storage device uses polysilicon contacts 44 to apply a voltage to a buried electrode 18. The regions that are used to form these various contacts can increase the area used by the cell arrays, and a peripheral circuitry is needed to supply the various voltages through the contacts further increases the area of the memory device.

Nonvolatile memory devices with trenched side-wall transistors and method of fabricating the same


Software expressed in an intermediate level language is stored into a database and interpreted in a virtual machine in a database management system. A dynamic compilation process in the database management system asynchronously converts the software into native code when predetermined conditions are met. Thereafter, the compilation process persists the native code into the database. At the time of persisting the native code, the compilation process also stores in the database, an indication of any properties that are used in compilation of the native code. At run time, when the native code needs to be executed, the virtual machine checks if the indication stored in the database matches a new indication of the constants, and if they do the persisted code is executed or else the persisted code is invalidated. The persisted code is also invalidated when a new version of ILL software is stored into the database.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,854,114 granted to Harlan Sexton et al is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, as background. In this patent, Sexton describes multiple VM instances accessing a shared area. Referring to FIG. 1 attached hereto, three clients have established three sessions through a server. In session 1, a call that involves services provided by the virtual machine is currently being processed by a system thread using VM instance 1. In session 3, a call that involves services provided by the virtual machine is currently being processed by a system thread using VM instance 3. Both VM instance 1 and VM instance 3 share access to the shared state area, which in the illustrated embodiment includes data for Java class X. In session 2, no call is currently active. The call memory associated with any previous call has been discarded. Only the session memory of VM instance 2 remains allocated. Because session 2 is not currently processing a call that makes use of VM instance 2, VM instance 2 is not currently assigned to any system thread. The various VM instances instantiated within the server may actually be created and run in either separate processes, or using system threads.
VM instances of the type described above typically use a Java virtual machine interpreter (such as interpreter 110 in FIG. 2) which is responsible for interpreting Java byte codes. FIG. 2 is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,032,216 granted to Dmitry Nizhegorodov, which patent is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, as background. In this patent, Nizhegorodov states that, in addition to the byte codes, a native compiler produces translated code 120, which is also loaded in the virtual machine. Preferably, the translated code 120 is configured to interact with interpreter 110 to support an execution model that mixes byte-interpreted and natively compiled classes. Thus, routines in translated code 120 may call routines that are interpreted, and interpreted routines may call translated code 120 routines, thereby providing call interoperability. Virtual machine services 130 are provided for supplying such services as dynamic memory management and garbage collection. Translated code 120 is generated to use the API of virtual machine services 130 (which is used by interpreter 110) by passing the context parameter or handle to the routines of the virtual machine services 130.
Run-time environment 140 of FIG. 2 provides base functionality of the virtual machine, interfacing with the underlying operating system and relational database system. Run-time environment 140 may also include a meta-object system such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,782,532 granted to Sexton, et al., which patent is also hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, as background. Accordingly, translated code 140 is configured to interact with run-time environment 140 in the same way as virtual machine services 130, for example by laying out objects in the same way and using the same meta-object system. Runtime environment 140 of the type described above is normally responsible for managing memory for objects that are created and destroyed during the execution of a program.
One technology employed by several Java Virtual Machines (JVMs) to run Java code is dynamic compilation, which is also called Just-in-Time (JIT) compilation. In such a scenario, Java bytecodes are compiled into native machine code, on demand. This allows Java bytecodes to be interpreted by the JVM until they are found to be heavily used at which time they are compiled by the JIT compiler. However, to the inventors knowledge, a JIT compiler normally discards any native code that has been dynamically created, when an instantiation of the virtual machine (VM) ends. Although discarding the native code is simpler, it does require at least some of the same code to be recompiled in a new instantiation that may start up at a later time. To share compiled code across temporally-spaced apart VM instantiations, the inventors note that it is necessary to persist the compiled code.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,973,646 granted to Bordawekar et al. is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety as background. Bordawekar describes generating "persistent code images" prior to program execution based on static compilation or dynamic compilation from a previous run, and then, adapting those images during program execution. According to Bordawekar, the code images are stored a file system in files of extension ".qnx". Note that, Bordawekar requires generation of adaptation annotations and their use in adapting the persisted code images to an execution context, followed by generating executable (i.e. native) code prior to its execution. See Bordawekar's Abstract. Bordawekar's adaptation is further described in column 10, wherein a sample instruction to load "stats.count" is adapted to yield six instructions shown at lines 40-50 in column 10 of Bordawekar's patent. The current inventors find that such adaptation of instructions from a code image by Bordawekar has the benefit of generating more optimal code in some situations (e.g. inserting extra code only for class initialization), but has the drawback of being slow to start execution.

Code persistence and dependency management for dynamic compilation in a database management system


Beveled clamp fingers (48) are used in an etching system. The beveled top surfaces (40) of the clamp fingers allow etching species to attack more readily the layer being etched at locations near the beveled clamp fingers (48), thereby reducing the size of halo regions (622). In other embodiments, triangular clamp fingers (78) or clamp fingers (88) with rounded top surfaces can be used.

Etching systems typically have a physical mechanism, such as a clamp ring, a clamp ring with clamp fingers, and the like, to retain a wafer on a chuck during an etching step. An etching system (not fully illustrated in FIG. 1) includes a clamp ring 16 with prior art clamp fingers 18 that extend onto portions of a semiconductor device substrate 10 as shown in FIG. 1. As used in this specification, a semiconductor device substrate includes a monocrystalline semiconductor wafer, a semiconductor-on-insulator wafer, or any other substrate used to form a semiconductor device. The semiconductor device substrate 10 includes a plurality of stepping fields 12, where each stepping field 12 includes one or more semiconductor devices (not identified within FIG. 1). Each clamp finger 18 has a single top surface 20 that slopes down at an angle away from the top of the clamp ring 16 and toward the semiconductor device substrate 10 as shown in FIG. 2. The fingers also have sides 22 and a distal end 24.
When etching a layer of material, such as polysilicon, with the clamp ring 16 in place, a residual amount of the polysilicon remains on the semiconductor device substrate 10 in areas near the clamp fingers 18. The clamp fingers 18 cover a portion of the polysilicon layer during the etching step, such that the polysilicon beneath the clamp fingers is unetched. Referring to FIG. 3, a polysilicon member 30 has a covered region 32 corresponding to an area beneath a clamp finger during the etching step and halo regions 34 that are near the sides of region 32. Halo regions 34 are typically only a fraction of the covered region 32. Portions of an insulating layer 60 are exposed after the etching step.
During subsequent processing, these halo regions 34 cause processing problems. More particularly, in a logic process flow, the halo regions 34 can delaminate from the substrate 10 and cause particle problems that spread over the substrate surface. These particles can cause electrical shorts and other problems that make the devices defective.
One attempt to solve the problem is to increase the overetch time to etch away most or all the halo region. This process does not work well when the polysilicon layer lies on a gate dielectric layer because the gate dielectric layer is relatively thin. During the overetch, pin holes are formed in the gate dielectric. After the pin holes are formed, the etching species used to etch the polysilicon layer attacks the semiconductor device substrate underlying the pin holes and forms pits within the substrate. Adding overetch time also increases cycle time which is undesired.
A need exists to form a semiconductor device on a semiconductor device substrate where delamination of polysilicon or other conductive materials will not occur and cause problems. A need further exists for finding a solution to the problem without having to add processing steps or use unusual or exotic materials.

Process for forming semiconductor device using beveled clamp fingers in an etching system


A dual path planetary transmission includes two planetary gearsets each having a sun gear member, a ring gear member, and a planet carrier assembly member. Each of the members of the planetary gearsets are selectively connectible between an input shaft, an output drive mechanism, and a stationary member. Each of the planetary gearsets is effective to provide a reverse ratio and five forward gear ratios. The output mechanism of each of the planetary gearsets includes a different gear ratio between the output mechanism and the transmission output shaft.

Dual path power transmissions have been suggested for a number of years. Initially, the dual path power transmissions were countershaft-type transmissions having two input clutches and separate countershafts having gears meshing with gears on a main or output shaft. The speed ratios through the transmission were alternated between one input clutch that transmitted engine torque to one of the countershafts and a second input clutch transmitting engine torque to another of the countershafts. The countershaft not currently transmitting torque could have the gear ratio thereon preselected for the next on-coming ratio, whether it be an upshift or a downshift. Likewise, when that ratio interchange had been accomplished, the first countershaft or the outgoing gear ratio countershaft would be preselected to the next oncoming ratio. The swapping of ratios for the ratio interchange is accomplished by the alternate action of the dual input clutches.
It has also been suggested to employ planetary transmissions in dual input clutch power transmissions. In dual input planetary transmissions, an input clutch is connected to a first planetary gearset either through a synchronizer or directly to one member. The reaction and output members are controlled by synchronizers, which complete the gear ratio or speed ratio through the individual gearsets. These dual input planetary-type transmissions employing synchronizers do not make use of the full range of ratios that are available in these planetary gearsets.

Planetary dual power path transmission with electric motors


Virtual Network Interface Connection (VNIC) is a client-server protocol that virtualizes access to a single physical Ethernet network adapter. “Dedicated VNIC” describes a configuration where a VNIC server is connected to a single VNIC client via a command/response queue (CRQ), allowing minimal overhead when communicating between the client and the Ethernet network adapter. A VNIC server failover mechanism includes multiple VNIC servers on a prioritized list. The top VNIC server on the prioritized list is selected to serve a VNIC client when a CRQ is opened by the client. When the selected VNIC server stops working, the VNIC server failover mechanism selects the next VNIC client in the prioritized list as the active VNIC server, and establishes a connection to the VNIC client's CRQ. In this manner, recovery of a failure in a VNIC server is done in a way that does not require any changes to the VNIC client.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure generally relates to virtualization in computer systems, and more specifically relates to failover in virtualized network communications.
2. Background Art
A physical server computer system can be configured into multiple logical partitions that provide the appearance of separate computer systems. A logically partitioned computer system can thus serve many different clients through separate logical partitions. A logically partitioned computer system typically includes a partition manager, known as a hypervisor in IBM parlance, which allocates and manages hardware resources such as processors, memory, disk, and I/O adapters in the various logical partitions. Once the logical partitions are created with the allocated hardware, an operating system is then installed in each logical partition, which provides the appearance of separate computer systems for all practical purposes.
The concept of virtualization supports logically partitioning a computer system. A physical CPU can thus be allocated to a logical partition as a virtual CPU. Similarly, other hardware resources, such as memory and I/O adapters, can be virtualized to a logical partition, thus giving the appearance to the operating system that is has physical hardware for these resources. The hypervisor sets up and manages the virtualized resources in a way that the operating system within a logical partition can't tell the difference between running on a stand-alone computer system and running on a virtual partition.
Network adapters are resources that are typically virtualized in a logically partitioned computer system. Many virtual network adapters in different logical partitions can be virtualized to a single hardware network adapter. Virtual network adapters are also an important part of communicating between logical partitions. Because an operating system can communicate with other computer systems over a network, an operating system in a logical partition can use a virtual network adapter to communicate with other logical partitions over a virtual local area network (VLAN).
An IBM product known as Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA) is a specific instance of an Ethernet layer-2 bridge that allows sharing a physical Ethernet adapter between logical partitions. A server partition has a connection to a physical network adapter that has a connection to a physical network, and creates a virtual Ethernet adapter which communicates with a virtual Ethernet adapter in a client partition. When an application in the client partition needs to communicate to the physical network, the application sends network packets to the virtual network adapter in the client partition, which sends the network packets to the virtual network adapter in the virtual I/O server (VIOS) partition. Bridging code in the VIOS partition inspects the packets, then determines they are intended for the physical network, so the bridging code copies the packets to the physical Ethernet adapter. The copying of packets by the bridging code requires considerable overhead in the server partition, which adds delay to virtualized network connections that use SEA.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Server-side failover between dedicated VNIC servers

International Business Machines Corporation


Disclosed is a semiconductor device of n-type MOSFET structure, which comprises a semiconductor substrate having a device isolation region, diffusion regions formed in the semiconductor substrate, gate electrodes formed above the semiconductor substrate, and a F-containing NiSi layer formed on the diffusion regions and containing F atoms at a concentration of 3.0×1013 cm−2 or more in areal density, wherein a depth from the junction position formed between the diffusion region and the semiconductor substrate to the bottom of the F-containing NiSi layer is confined within the range of 20 to 100 nm, and the concentration of F atoms at an interface between the F-containing NiSi layer and the semiconductor substrate is 8.0×1018 cm−3 or more.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention related to a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device and to a semiconductor device. In particular, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a high-speed low-power field effect transistor having silicide source and drain electrodes (hereinafter referred to as MOSFET).
2. Description of the Related Art
To minimize the electrical resistance of the source and drain electrodes of a MOSFET, a method has been proposed wherein an upper portion of source/drain region is reacted with a metal such as Co, Ti or Ni (to form silicides thereof). However, these metal atoms are prone to rapidly diffuse into a silicon substrate during the silicide formation or in a subsequent step of heat treatment. Accordingly, when a shallow junction is formed in the source/drain region, the metals thus diffused can reach the junction, thus giving rise to leakage at the junction.
To suppress junction leakage associated with Co silicidation, N2 implantation prior to CoSi2 formation is proposed. However, in order to achieve sufficient leakage suppression, high dose N2 implantation more than 1×1015 cm−2 is required. Since N (nitrogen) is an n-type impurity in a silicon substrate, if such a high dose of N2 is implanted, the impurity concentration of the source/drain region of a p-type MOSFET will be compensated or disrupted by the n-type impurity thus ion-implanted. Therefore, pre-silicide ion-implantation of N2 is not suited for manufacturing a CMOS circuit.
There has been also proposed the measures wherein F (fluorine) is ion-implanted in order to selectively reduce the reaction speed of TiSi2 formation on the source/drain region where F is implanted exclusively, thereby resulting in a thin TiSi2 on the source/drain region compared to TiSi2 formed on a gate electrode, thus, suppressing the generation of junction leakage, while maintaining thick TiSi2 on the gate electrode. Also, regarding to the F implantation prior to TiSi2 formation, creation of a gettering region by presilicide F implantation is proposed to trap Ti-containing metal impurities that might be released in the process of TiSi2 formation, thereby suppressing junction leakage.
Besides CoSi2 and TiSi2, regarding to NiSi, it has been found out by the present inventor that thermal instability of NiSi induces substantial leakage current even after a heat treatment as low as 500° C. It has been also found out that, unless the annealing temperature is lowered below 450° C., the leakage generation cannot be avoided. Notably, however, LSI fabrication below such a low temperature of 450° C. may significantly reduce the throughput of the production and, thus, impair manufacturability of the devices and impose cost disadvantage.
As explained above, no one has yet succeeded in finding a stable and cost-efficient method for NiSi formation, which is capable of fully securing the advantages of silicide formation without suffering associated disadvantages such as junction leakage generation or severe restriction on the fabrication temperature.

Method of manufacturing semiconductor device and semiconductor device


A data communication system has a first communication equipment having a first transmitter, a first receiver, and a first controller. A second communication equipment has a second transmitter, a second receiver, and a second controller. The first transmitter transmits a first signal to the second receiver. The first receiver receives a second signal transmitted from the second transmitter. The second signal indicates whether or not the second receiver received the first signal or indicates a condition in which the second receiver received the first signal. The first controller controls the first transmitter to reduce its transmitting power either until when the second signal indicates that the condition of the reception of the first signal received by the second communication equipment is poor or until when the first receiver does not receive any signal from the second transmitter. The second controller generates the second signal in accordance with the first signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a data communication system and, more specifically, to a the radio communication system for exchanging data, such as movie pictures, still pictures, and voice composite with the pictures, by modulation of radio frequencies.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When linking two or more data communication equipments, in general, each equipment has a link interface for communication with other equipment, and connecting the link interface of each equipment to opposite ends of a cable results in wire link of the equipments.
On the other hand, a contemporary data communication system between two communication equipments that perform bi-directional communication through radio communication circuit confirms the copy ability of a signal by increasing signal strength of the transmitter when there is no reply to the signal transmitted from the transmitter. (E.g. laid-open disclosure public patent bulletin 2001-17417)
For the case of linking through a cable, for example connection of a personal computer (PC) to a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Projector, a cable connecting a PC and an LCD projector has a fixed length so that the position of the LCD projector defines that of the PC. Especially, a LCD projector will be set away from a projection screen, and then, the PC has to be set away from the projection screen when high magnification is employed during display.
For the case of Current Radio Link between a PC and a LCD projector, increasing a signal strength may help readability of the signal while no reply is received for the transmitted signals. Increasing the signal strength may cause inadequate radio power shown a reply is received. Excess signal strength causes the reach of a radio wave in excess of what the reach should be, and the problem of concealing confidential information arises if a person copies the transmitted information by catching the radio wave far and out of the room of transmission. The sophisticated signal treatment of adding scramble signals has to be employed in order to avoid copy of the information.


A sheet processing apparatus includes a pressing unit including a first pressing member and a second pressing member. The pressing unit is configured to press a fold in a folded sheet bundle by holding the fold between the first pressing member and the second pressing member. The sheet processing apparatus also includes a moving unit configured to move a pressing position of the pressing unit in a direction of the fold in the sheet bundle; and a position changing unit configured to change relative positions of the first pressing member and the second pressing member in the direction of the fold in the sheet bundle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet processing apparatus, an image forming system, and a sheet-bundle additional folding method, and more particularly, to a sheet processing apparatus having a function of folding a sheet-like recording medium such as paper, recording paper, and transfer paper (hereinafter, referred to simply as a "sheet" in the present specification), an image forming system including the sheet processing apparatus, and a sheet-bundle additional folding method implemented by the sheet processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in post-processing apparatuses used in combination with an image forming apparatus such as a copier, there are ones that bind a bundle of one or more sheets into a saddle-stitched booklet by saddle-stitching and folding the center of the sheet bundle with use of a pair of folding rollers installed parallel to each other in a sheet folding direction.
Furthermore, there is already known an additional folding technique for enhancing a fold in a folded saddle-stitched booklet by moving an additional folding roller along the fold after saddle-stitching and center-folding are performed on a sheet bundle.
As one of such additional folding techniques, for example, a technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2012-153530 is well known.
A sheet processing apparatus according to this technology includes a folding roller unit, an additional folding roller unit, and a drive unit. The folding roller unit makes a fold in a sheet while the sheet is passing through a nip between a pair of rollers. The additional folding roller unit includes first to third rollers: the first roller installed on the side of a first plane perpendicular to a direction of conveying a sheet bundle folded by the folding roller unit and the second and third rollers installed on the side of a second plane perpendicular to the sheet-bundle conveying direction; the second and third rollers each form a nip with the first roller. The drive unit drives the additional folding roller unit to move along the fold in a state where the sheet bundle is held in the nip between the first and second rollers and the nip between the first and third rollers. This configuration enables the sheet processing apparatus to perform additional folding sufficiently when performing the additional folding on a sheet bundle.
Specifically, the additional folding roller unit described in Patent document 1 includes three additional folding rollers, and is driven to move along a fold in a sheet bundle in a state where the fold is held between the rollers. In this regard, a roller having a larger diameter than those of the second and third rollers is used as the first roller.
In a case of using three folding rollers in this way, two nips are formed, and respective tangential angles of the nips are not parallel. Therefore, a direction of force applied to a staple differs between the nips, and therefore the staple may be deformed.
There is a method for enhancing a fold by shifting an angle between a direction of the tangent to a pair of additional folding rollers and a thickness direction of a sheet bundle from 90 degrees; however, in this enhancing method, a staple may be deformed depending on the position of the staple in the additional folding.
Namely, if we focus on enhancing a fold, a staple may be deformed; on the other hand, if we focus on preventing deformation of a staple, enhancement of a fold may be insufficient.
Therefore, there is a need for a sheet processing apparatus to enable a user to make a choice between emphasis on enhancement of a fold and emphasis on suppression of staple deformation in accordance with user's intention.

Sheet processing apparatus, image forming system, and sheet-bundle additional folding method


A device for use in a shoe includes a first foot, a second foot, a third foot, a fourth foot, a first flexible leg, a second flexible leg, a third flexible leg, and a fourth flexible leg. The first flexible leg extends from the first foot and is curved. The second flexible leg extends from the second foot and is curved. The third flexible leg extends from the third foot and is curved. The fourth flexible leg extends from the fourth foot and is curved. The first flexible leg, second flexible leg, third flexible leg, and fourth flexible leg are joined together with each other at a common area. The first flexible leg, second flexible leg, third flexible leg, and fourth flexible leg are configured to store energy when a force is applied to the common area, and to return energy when the force is removed from the common area.

In prior U.S. Pat. No. 10,085,514, filed May 6, 2014, by Goldston et al., which issued on Oct. 2, 2018, a discussion was provided of the desirability of providing for energy shock absorption and energy return by shoes. The entire contents of U.S. Pat. No. 10,085,514 are incorporated by reference herein.

Shoes, devices for shoes, and methods of using shoes


An arbitration unit contains a method of arbitration which includes distributed arbitration, a priority mechanism to support different classes of traffic, a unique arbitration ID bits for each module, a round robin arbitration within a given priority level to produce fair access to a bus 36, an arbitration timeout, and a bandwidth allocation between priority levels. The method of round robin bus arbitration includes the steps of providing a plurality of modules, providing a bus having a plurality of data lines, the bus connecting the plurality of modules, the bus having an arbitration unit, setting the bus to a wait state, signaling a first bus request to the bus by a first module needing to transmit a first plurality of data packets on to the bus, the first module having a first module priority level and a first unique arbitration number, signaling a second bus request to the bus by a second module needing to transmit a second plurality of data packets on to the bus, the second module having a second module priority level and a second unique arbitration number, establishing a bus priority according to a comparison of the first module priority level and the second module priority level, asserting the first unique arbitration number on the bus by the first module, asserting the second unique arbitration number on the bus by the second module, determining whether the first module and the second module have been waiting for the bus, comparing the first unique arbitration number and the second unique arbitration number, scheduling transmission of data packets in response to the steps of determining and comparing, and repeating the steps of setting, signaling, establishing, asserting, determining, comparing, and scheduling.

The present invention relates to the field of digital data processing systems, and more particularly, to the field of networks wherein units of the network are connected to a high speed bus requiring arbitration for access and data transfer.
As is well know in the art, as computer networks have grown in size and complexity, the need for high speed data transfer has increased. Among the types of data transfer devices which provide high speed transport between shared resources, such as bridges or switches, is the use of a high speed shared channel or bus. With such an arrangement, network efficiency and utilization is strongly affected by the procedure for controlling access to the high speed bus or channel.
As is also known, in general a transmission of data between two units over a high speed bus or channel requires two steps, since more than one unit has the capability of originating a transmission. The first step is for the transmitting unit to obtain control of the bus for some more or less defined interval. Once the selection step is completed, a second (or transfer) step is used to complete the transfer that is controlled by the selected transmitting unit.
Obtaining control of the bus requires contending with other units desiring bus access, to arbitrate and determine which one will be selected. As is known in the art, there are two principal generic approaches to arbitration. These are central arbitration and distributed arbitration approaches. In the central arbitration, a single, central priority circuit or device receives all the requests for bus access and determines which requesting unit at any given time should be accorded the greatest priority and allowed to use the bus. Once the unit is selected, it is allowed to control the bus and effect the transfer. By contrast, in distributed arbitration, each unit connected to a bus is assigned a specific priority and each unit individually determines whether it has sufficient priority to obtain control of the bus when it desires to do so. If a unit of higher priority simultaneously seeks bus access, a device of lower priority must wait until some later time when it is the highest priority requester.
As is also known, in choosing a method of arbitration, fairness is assured when each unit connected to the bus has substantially equal average priority for obtaining bus access. One such approach to guaranteeing fairness is a primitive round robin method. With such a method, for each unit, two delay interval possibilities exist; the delay selection for each unit is switched from time to time, on a round-robin basis, such that all units are given equal average priority.
In today's networks, data of more than one protocol may also coexist and be transferred from unit to unit in the network via the high speed bus. Examples of different protocols are Ethernet, FDDI, and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). Therefore, a method of arbitration is required that will not only guarantee fairness, but one that can handle data of both similar and different protocols.


There is provided an information processing apparatus including, a track list generation unit that generates a track list that is a list of track groups including at least a movement trajectory track generated from movement trajectory information containing position information and time information corresponding to the position information, and a display control unit that causes a display device to display a list screen including the track list.

Car navigation devices that show a path to a destination based on position information acquired using the GPS (Global Positioning System) or the like are currently being proliferated. For example, a navigation system that records movement trajectory information and uses the movement trajectory information as reference information for navigational path search has been discussed in Patent Literature 1.
Meanwhile, in recent years, a function of acquiring position information has been mounted on a number of portable electronic devices, such as a mobile phone, a portable game device, a notebook PC (Personal Computer), and a camera. As a result, the position information may be used in various formats.

Information processing apparatus, information processing method, program, and recording medium


A method is provided for a three-dimensional (3D) user interface (UI) display system. The method includes providing a 3D image containing a plurality of objects and having at least a first image and a second image and displaying the 3D image as a 3D display scene. The method also includes determining a UI in the 3D display scene to be configured, determining individual parallax of the plurality of the objects in the 3D display scene, and configuring the UI based on the parallax of the plurality of objects in the 3D display scene.

Using 3D technologies, a user interface (UI) can create a link between the real world and the virtual three-dimensional space and allows the user to interact directly with the displayed contents. Thus, when the user is using a device equipped with a 3D UI, the user can have a 3D viewing experience closer to the real-world experience.
However, with existing 3D technologies, most UIs in the scene of displayed contents are limited by their spatial locations, therefore affecting the presentation of the 3D contents. The user may often have an undesired viewing experience. The disclosed methods and systems are directed to solve one or more problems set forth above and other problems.

Three-dimensional (3D) user interface method and system


The present invention relates to the unexpected discovery of novel methods of preparing nanodevices and/or microdevices with predetermined patterns. In one aspect, the methods of the invention allow for engineering structures and films with continuous thickness equal to or less than 50 nm.

Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) devices comprise components between about 1-100 μm in size (i.e., 0.001-0.1 mm), and MEMS devices generally range in size from 20 μm to 1.0 mm. Such devices can be prepared using modified semiconductor device fabrication technologies, which are commonly used to make electronics. Patterning of the device is usually achieved using techniques such as lithography, photolithography, etching processes (e.g., wet etching using, for example, potassium hydroxide, tetramethylammonium hydroxide, or hydrogen fluoride; dry etching using, for example, vapor etching with xenon difluoride or hydrogen fluoride, or plasma etching), electrodischarge machining, and other technologies capable of manufacturing small devices.
Nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS) devices comprise components that have at least one dimension less than about 1 μm in size. Many of these devices have been carbon based, specifically diamond, carbon nanotubes and graphene. Key problems preventing the commercial application of nano-electromechanical devices have included low-yields, high device quality variability and general difficulties in material compatibility with current nanofabrication methods.
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) uses automated cycling of component gases to deposit solid materials conformally on solid surfaces. The growth of individual layers is a self-limiting reaction, resulting in linear growth of material, which is dependent upon the number of cycles to which a substrate is exposed. ALD allows thickness control and conformality unmatched by any other available industrial process. Moreover, ALD processes generally employ low temperatures, with typical deposition temperatures below 200° C. ALD materials currently available include ceramics (Al2O3, TaN, SiO2, HfO2, MgO, MnO), metals (W, Pt, Ru), semiconductors (ZnO, AlN), and various other inorganic materials. In the case where ALD processes generate amorphous polymer structures through sequential reactions that include organic molecules, this process is called molecular layer deposition (MLD), and allows controlled conformal deposition of an additional range of materials. In many cases, ALD forms smooth, continuous films only after a number of nucleation cycles. This "nucleation period" varies from substrate to substrate, each of which having a minimum thickness for the formation of a continuous film layer. In many cases, ALD forms continuous films only after tens of cycles, thus precluding engineering of conformal films thinner than a few nanometers. For example, W ALD requires about 10 cycles of nucleation on SiO2, but only a few cycles on Al2O3 to start growing. It shows linear growth, and should be pinhole free at about 2 nm (about 10 cycles) on Al2O3. On H-passivated Si, metal oxide films can take tens of cycles before reaching a linear growth regime (ZrO2: 50-60 cycles, HfO2: 25-30 cycles).
There is a need in the art for novel methods of preparing nanodevices and/or microdevices. Such methods should allow for preparation of devices with specific structures and/or predetermined patterns. The present invention meets this need.

Atomic layer etching on microdevices and nanodevices

The Regents of the University of Colorado