The present invention relates to electrospray ionization (ESI) at atmospheric pressure coupled with a mass spectrometer, in particular to a special kind of micro-electrospray with liquid flows in the range of 0.1 to 100 microliters per minute. The invention describes the use of an off-axis pre-entrance channel in an ESI ion source to prevent particulate matter with higher inertia than the (charged) gas molecules, such as droplets, from entering the mass spectrometer. The elimination of the particulate matter improves the quantitative precision of an LC/MS bioassay, minimizes the contamination of the mass spectrometer and improves the robustness for high throughput assays.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrospray ionization (ESI) devices at atmospheric pressure coupled with a mass spectrometer, in particular to a special kind of micro-electrospray with spray flows in the range of 0.1 to 100 microliters per minute.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrospray ionization devices for use in LC/MS (liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry) can be used to isolate, identify, characterize and quantify a wide range of sample molecules, particularly molecules with high masses, such as peptides and proteins.
Over the past two decades, a number of means and methods of electrospray useful to LC/MS have been developed. Today, LC/MS assays are predominantly run using LC flows of 50 to 5000 microliters per minute feeding the ESI source on the mass spectrometer. For these higher LC flow rates, pneumatically assisted electrospray has become the technique of choice. This technique uses a heated sheath gas sharply blown concentrically around the ESI spray tip to assist in the formation, desolvation and finally evaporation of the charged droplets to get an as pure as possible flow of ions of the analyte molecules. The ions are partly highly-charged. Although the gas greatly helps in the formation of the spray and makes the operation of the electrospray ionization easier and more robust, the excess gas dilutes the sample ions, resulting in lower ion transfer efficiency and loss of sensitivity.
In electrospray ionization, the high electric field first draws a consistent and highly charged jet of the spray solution out of the liquid surface at the tip of the spray capillary. This jet of spray solution decays after a few tenths of a millimeter into numerous (roughly 107 to 108 droplets per second) fine highly charged drops with diameters in the range of 1.0 to 2.0 micrometers. The droplets form a cloud quickly undergoing a space-charge driven lateral expansion. In so doing, the droplets become smaller and smaller by a number of effects: ejection-like evaporation of charged solvent molecules (like hydronium ions) and charged analyte molecules, expelling of smaller highly charged droplets, or splitting of droplets, initiated by charge imbalance. All these processes are accompanied by an evaporation cooling of the droplets which has to be compensated by collision heating within the heated sheath gas. In most cases, the droplets finally completely evaporate, leaving behind charged molecules including the charged analyte molecules.
The process, however, does not always end by complete evaporation. If the droplets are too large in the beginning, or the concentration of heavy molecules in a droplet of the spray fluid is too high, the droplet may not evaporate completely in a distance comparable with the diameter of the ion source. The evaporation may stop because droplets may become too cold for further evaporation. At high concentrations within a droplet, multimers of the molecules may be formed which no longer fall to pieces. Gel-like structures may be formed inside the droplet. Some droplets may even become oversaturated, and a sudden crystallization of molecules occurs, so that a further diminishing of the droplet is no longer possible. All these droplets can be made to pass the entrance of the mass spectrometer without going through by not directing the spray towards this entrance but arranging it off-axis. The inertia of the comparatively heavy droplets lets them fly by.
Most of these ESI sources use this off-axis spray to minimize contamination of the mass spectrometer from tiny droplets which do not completely evaporate in the LC effluent. Though highly charged, the droplets with their high inertia fly past the electrically attracting entrance hole to the mass spectrometer. Some ESI sources utilize special temperature controls and gas flows to further reduce contamination of the mass spectrometer and to increase robustness for LC/MS assays, for instance by the use of a sheath gas around the spray beam and a curtain gas shielding the entrance.
Any LC/ESI-MS assay works best, if the droplets contain a maximum number of one molecule with higher molecular weight only. But this rule is quite often broken because it limits the lowest level of detection.
Although increasingly lower limits of detection can be achieved using larger sample sizes in conjunction with the current high flow LC-ESI/MS systems, sample sizes are becoming more limited as more tests need to be run on a limited amount of a patient's biological fluid, such as blood, urine, sputum, etc. With the increasing need for higher sensitivity in these assays, researchers have explored the use of microESI (˜0.1 to 100 microliters per minute) or nanoESI (˜10 to 1000 nanoliters per minute) to achieve the desired lower limits of detection, but these attempts have at least partially failed to provide the precision and robustness required for quantitative bioanalysis.
For lowest flow LC/MS, nanospray ionization (nanoESI) has become the technique of choice (M. S. Wilm and M. Mann, Int. J. Mass Spectrom. Ion Processes, 136-167, 1994; and M. Mann and M. S. Wilm, U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,329). NanoESI utilizes extremely low liquid flows of 10 to 1000 nanoliters per minute only and a very narrow spray tip outlet placed very close to the entrance of the mass spectrometer, which results in the formation of very small spray droplets with diameters in the range of 200 nanometers only. These tiny droplets can, in the overwhelming number of cases, completely evaporate inside the entrance capillary of the mass spectrometer without the assistance of additional gas flows. Although the ion signal provided by nanoESI in conjunction with mass spectrometry is essentially the same as with conventional ESI, mass spectrometry is a concentration sensitive detection technique which makes nanoESI the best technique for high sensitivity applications. Since no additional gas is used in nanoESI, high ion transfer efficiency can be achieved, but at a cost of ease of use and robustness relative to pneumatically assisted electrospray.
When using nanoESI-MS, the liquid flow rate, solvent composition, spray tip voltage, spray tip design, spray tip integrity and the position of the spray tip outlet relative to the entrance hole of the mass spectrometer are all critical for good spray stability which is needed for a proper ionization by droplet generation and droplet evaporation, and stable ion transfer efficiency. NanoESI spray tips are generally fabricated by pulling and cutting fused silica tubing to make the very small ID/OD tips required for stable spray at nanoliter per minute flow rates, but these tips are difficult to reproduce, fragile to handle and easy to clog. Because of these limitations, nanoESI can be difficult to set up and maintain, making it poorly suited for analyses requiring robust operation. Since nanoESI is generally limited to flow rates below 1 μL/min, samples must be separated using nanoLC which has its own share of problems and limitations. NanoLC requires specialized instrumentation and careful attention to details to insure optimal performance. NanoLC columns (<150 μm ID) have limited sample capacity, require specialized sample injection protocols to load large sample volumes and lack the robustness of larger LC columns. Finally, the low flow rates used in nanoLC/nanoESI-MS typically result in longer sample analysis time, making this technique poorly suited to high throughput applications like biomarker validation and pharmaceutical development.
Several attempts have been made to develop commercially viable microESI sources (sometimes called microspray ionization μSI) in an effort to overcome the limitations imposed by nanoESI, but these microESI sources have not been very well accepted. These microESI sources are basically miniaturized versions of pneumatically assisted ESI and operate with 0.1 to 100 microliters per minute. They offer increased stability and work at higher LC flow rates compared with nanoESI, but the added gas flow results in lower ion transfer efficiency and a loss in sensitivity unacceptable for most researchers. The applicants, therefore, have developed a special microESI/MS electrospray apparatus and method that can overcome the limitations imposed by classical ESI, microESI and nanoESI, without compromising the ion transfer efficiency critical to high sensitivity applications. The apparatus is described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,227,750 B1, and introduced into the market under the trade mark "CaptiveSpray™" The gas flow inside the spray chamber of the CaptiveSpray™ ion source is solely governed by the drawing force of the gas flow through the inlet capillary into the vacuum system of the mass spectrometer; there is no additional gas pumping of any kind. This apparatus and method provide simple, robust operation over a wide dynamic flow range and maintain high ion transfer efficiency independent of the LC flow. The aforementioned patent document (U.S. Pat. No. 8,227,750) is fully incorporated herein by reference.
FIG. 4 shows an illustration adapted from U.S. Pat. No. 8,227,750 from which it is evident that the spray capillary 401 and the transfer capillary 407 that leads directly into the vacuum stage of the mass spectrometer (not shown) are aligned coaxially.
The CaptiveSpray™ ion source has proven to be a great alternative to nanoESI sources for high sensitivity proteomics LC/MS applications where all sample components are of interest. In many LC/MS applications, such as bioanalysis, the components of interest are usually present in low concentrations only and represent only a small fraction of the total sample. To detect the components of lowest concentrations, the solution of the sample is used in a rather high concentration, much higher than those for classic ESI. The high concentration in the spray liquid results in the effect that some droplets, containing many molecules of the main components (sometimes called "matrix" components), do not completely disappear by the usual solvent ion evaporation, droplet splitting and final evaporation. By the evaporation process of the solvent, the droplets may become oversaturated, and a kind of crystallization may occur.
The mass spectrometers used for LC/ESI-MS generally are easily contaminated by particulate matter, such as droplets, diminishing the sensitivity of the mass spectrometer. It has been the experience that even CaptiveSpray™ ion sources lead to contamination of the mass spectrometer if spray liquids with higher analyte concentrations are used.

Off-axis channel in electrospray ionization for removal of particulate matter


A system for producing oil and/or gas from an underground formation comprising a well above the formation; a mechanism to inject an enhanced oil recovery formulation into the formation, the enhanced oil recovery formulation comprising water and a solvent; a mechanism to produce the water, solvent, oil, and gas from the formation; a separator to separate the oil, water, and a first portion of the solvent from the gas and a second portion of the solvent; and an absorption tower to expose the gas and the second portion of the solvent to water to remove the second portion of the solvent from the gas.

Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) may be used to increase oil recovery in fields worldwide. There are three main types of EOR, thermal, chemical/polymer and gas injection, which may be used to increase oil recovery from a reservoir, beyond what can be achieved by conventional means—possibly extending the life of a field and boosting the oil recovery factor.
Thermal enhanced recovery works by adding heat to the reservoir. The most widely practiced form is a steam drive, which reduces oil viscosity so that it can flow to the producing wells. Chemical flooding increases recovery by reducing the capillary forces that trap residual oil. Polymer flooding improves the sweep efficiency of injected water. Miscible injection works in a similar way as chemical flooding. By injecting a fluid that is miscible with the oil, trapped residual oil can be recovered.
Referring to FIG. 1, there is illustrated prior art system 100. System 100 includes underground formation 102, underground formation 104, underground formation 106, and underground formation 108. Production facility 110 is provided at the surface. Well 112 traverses formations 102 and 104, and terminates in formation 106. The portion of formation 106 is shown at 114. Oil and gas are produced from formation 106 through well 112, to production facility 110. Gas and liquid are separated from each other, gas is stored in gas storage 116 and liquid is stored in liquid storage 118.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,859,818 discloses a method for recovering petroleum from a formation by injecting a solvent. The solvent may be a hydrocarbon solvent such as alcohols, gasoline, kerosene, dimethyl ether, other hydrocarbons having from 2 to 5 carbon atoms, or mixtures. U.S. Pat. No. 2,859,818 is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,910,123 discloses a method for recovering petroleum from a formation by injecting a solvent. The solvent may be a hydrocarbon solvent such as alcohols, gasoline, kerosene, dimethyl ether, other hydrocarbons having from 2 to 5 carbon atoms, or mixtures.
PCT Patent Application Publication WO 2010/02693 discloses a method comprising recovering a carbon source from a formation; converting at least a portion of the carbon source to a synthesis gas; converting at least a portion of the synthesis gas to an ether; and injecting at least a portion of the ether into the formation.
PCT Patent Application Publication WO 2008/141051 discloses a system for producing oil and/or gas from an underground formation including a well above the formation; a mechanism to inject an enhanced oil recovery formulation into the formation, the enhanced oil recovery formulation including dimethyl ether; and a mechanism to produce oil and/or gas from the formation.
PCT Patent Application Publication WO2011/140180 discloses a system for producing oil and/or gas from an underground formation comprising a well above the formation; a mechanism to inject an enhanced oil recovery formulation into the formation, the enhanced oil recovery formulation comprising water and an additive; and a mechanism to produce oil and/or gas from the formation.
There is a need in the art for improved systems and methods for enhanced oil recovery. There is a further need in the art for improved systems and methods for enhanced oil recovery using a solvent enhanced water flood. There is a further need in the art for improved systems and methods for improving the recovery and recycling of a solvent from a EOR flooding operation.

Systems and methods for separating oil and/or gas mixtures


The present invention discloses a scanned document auto-detecting apparatus for detecting the presence of a scanned document without additional control circuit. Based on the decision result, a scanning procedure starts to degrade cost by removing the additional control circuit, and furthermore, the scanned document auto-detecting apparatus can prevent users from running the scanning procedure wastefully when there is no scanned document. The scanned document auto-detecting apparatus sets a specific pattern at inner side of the cover. This specific pattern is first scanned before the scanning procedure starts as to decide the presence of the scanned document.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates a scanned document auto-detecting apparatus of detecting the presence of a scanned document without additional control circuit. Based on the decision result, a scanning procedure starts to degrade cost by removing the additional control circuit. The scanned document auto-detecting apparatus prevents users from running the scanning procedure wastefully when there is no scanned document.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As science goes on getting progress, many kinds of products are produced and modified each day, and a similar progress also occurs in optical systems such as scanners. There is a trend of mounting a scanner with higher resolution inside the case of a computer as a standard equipment.
Rollers are conventionally used to feed the scanned document into the scanner, wherein the rollers damage the surfaces of the scanned document when the scanned document is being fed. However, the roller-feeding scanner can not scan transparent documents such as lantern slides, and the rollers are easily dirtied by dust that will generate black or unusual color lines in images. In addition, the sizes of the mechanical and optical elements are not effectively degraded for achieving the purpose of mounting inside the case.
Another common scanning scheme is to put the scanned document inside a tray (or a cassette), and then feeds the scanned document for scanning. The tray (or the cassette) prevents the surface of the scanned document from being damaged by directly contacting. Paper jam that usually appears in the roller-feeding scanner is also overcome. In addition, the scheme does not need to clean dust frequently as the roller-feeding scanner does, and the convenience of operation is apparently upgrading.
There is an important function that a decision procedure is first applied to decide the presence of a scanned document. If the decision result indicates that the scanned document is absent then the scanning procedure will be terminated. Because a user may fail to put the scanned document inside the tray and start the scanning procedure, it is thus necessary for a scanner to avoid this situation.
An additional control circuit is conventionally applied as to perform a decision procedure, such as detecting the weight of the scanned document or checking existence indicating parameters for deciding the presence of the scanned document. Because the additional control circuit is completely irrelevant with the scanning procedure, which will require additional cost and spaces and thus increase the layout difficulty. Therefore, a detecting apparatus is needed as to automatically detect the presence of the scanned document.

Apparatus and method for automatically detecting presence of a scanned document


Various embodiments of the present technology may provide methods and apparatus for a battery. The apparatus may be configured to prevent leakage current from the battery to a number of sub-systems by selectively operating switches that connect the battery to the sub-systems. Operation of the switches may be based on whether the battery is charging or discharging and the capacity of the battery.

Battery-powered devices typically provide a rechargeable battery to power a number of sub-systems. Excessive discharge (over-discharge) of the rechargeable battery may lead to dangerous operating conditions, such as fire and explosion. Even if the device and battery are not in active use, over time, if the battery is not being charged, current may leak from the battery to the other sub-systems resulting in an over-discharge condition.

SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC


A wheel spoiler apparatus encompassing a flow impingement body, a displacement drive system, and a displacement guidance system, the flow impingement body being displaceable between a retracted inactive position and an extended active position, the displacement guidance system comprising a vehicle connection region in which it is connectable to a vehicle body, and comprising a flow impingement body connection region in which it is connected to the flow impingement body, the displacement guidance system encompasses two four-joint linkages coupled to one another via a common pivot joint.

Wheel spoiler apparatuses on vehicles are known, and are used thereon in order to advantageously influence flow conditions of air flow that impinges during driving operation in the region of the wheels, in particular the front wheels. A distinction is made between static, passive, and active wheel spoilers.
Static wheel spoiler apparatuses are connected in permanent and stationary fashion to the vehicle body. As a rule, they do not change their shape or location relative to the remainder of the vehicle body during driving operation. A static wheel spoiler apparatus is known, for example, from EP 1 674 381 B1.
Passive wheel spoiler apparatuses are those wheel spoiler apparatuses whose shape and/or relative location with respect to the remainder of the vehicle body is modifiable as a function of the particular vehicle operating mode that exists, in particular as a function of vehicle speed. Passive wheel spoiler apparatuses do not have any actuators, but instead are modified, in terms of their shape and/or location relative to the remainder of the vehicle body, by the forces that occur during driving operation, in particular wind loads. A passive wheel spoiler apparatus is known, for example, from DE 10 2010 036 442 A1.
The flow impingement body of active wheel spoiler apparatuses (which are the only ones discussed in the present Application) is displaced in actuator-based fashion, between a retracted inactive position and an extended active position, by a displacement drive system. This displacement movement is guided by a displacement guidance system. The flow impingement body projects more greatly into the wind blast in the active position than in the inactive position. Preferably, in the inactive position the flow impingement body is retracted completely out of the wind blast of the vehicle carrying the wheel spoiler apparatus, and no flow impinges upon it.
Active wheel spoiler apparatuses are advantageous because the flow impingement body can be retracted into the vehicle body at low driving speeds at which optimization of the flow conditions around the vehicle wheel located behind the flow impingement body in an impingement flow direction is not so important, with the result that at low driving speeds, the vehicle's ground clearance in the region in front of its wheels is not decreased by the flow impingement body or bodies. In regions, for example built-up areas, with low driving speeds but a high occurrence of obstacles close to the ground, for example curbs and speed bumps, the risk of collision with the active wheel spoiler apparatus can thereby be minimized. Where driving occurs at higher speeds and where few or no ground obstacles are accordingly present, the flow impingement body can be displaced into the active position and the flow of wind blast around wheels of the vehicle can be positively influenced down toward lower flow resistance values. The flow resistance of an object increases as the square of the speed of the air flow impinging upon it.
An active wheel spoiler apparatus of the kind recited initially is known, for example, from FR 2 897 038 A1. This document discloses a shell-shaped flow impingement body having a U-shaped cross section whose base limb comprises a flow impingement surface, facing oppositely to the flow impingement direction, upon which the flow of wind blast impinges during driving operation. A respective further limb stands out from the base limb on both sides in a flow impingement direction. In order to improve flow conditions, the known flow impingement body can be pivoted, concentrically with the front wheel associated with it, out of an inactive position concealed in the wheel well toward a roadway surface on which the vehicle carrying the wheel spoiler apparatus is standing, and into an active position in the impinging wind blast. The known flow impingement body can be pivoted back in the opposite direction, concentrically with the front wheel associated with it, back into the wheel well.
A further active wheel spoiler apparatus is known from DE 10 2009 057 656 A1.


A toothbrush that provides enhanced cleaning and oral care to a user. The toothbrush has a head with cleaning elements that create a contoured cleaning profile. The cleaning elements have different depths of insertion relative to a reference plane to define a contoured cleaning profile without post-fixing trimming of the cleaning elements. Accordingly, tapered bristles can be used to define a contoured cleaning profile. Alternatively, tapered bristles of different lengths can also be used to form a contoured cleaning profile.

A toothbrush is used to clean teeth by removing plaque and debris from tooth surfaces, the gums, the interproximal areas between adjoining teeth, and the marginal areas between the teeth and gums. Toothbrushes have been provided with a myriad of cleaning elements and profiles in an effort to provide comfort and enhanced cleaning. For example, toothbrushes with bristle tufts presenting a contoured profile have long been provided for more effective cleaning of the teeth and gums. Additionally, tapered bristles have been used for increased comfort and better cleaning of the interproximal areas.
However, the combined beneficial effect of tapered bristles and a contoured profile has not been realized. Typically, bristles are fixed into the head of a toothbrush and then trimmed to obtain the desired profile. This conventional process of trimming the bristles has hindered the adoption of tapered bristles into toothbrushes; i.e., tapered bristles have heretofore been limited to flat profiles to avoid trimming off of the tapered ends.
Further, the conventional manufacturing process for toothbrushes requires multiple steps to obtain a contoured profile, including the fixing of bristles into the head and one or more steps of trimming and endrounding of the fixed bristles.

Toothbrush and method of making the same


A thermally activated delayed fluorescent molecular material, a synthesizing method therefor, and an electroluminescent device are provided. The thermally activated delayed fluorescent molecular containing an indenobenzoselenoheteroaromatic ring donor is synthesized, so that an electron donating ability of the donor is increased, and an non-radiative transition rate is effectively inhibited, thereby increasing photo-luminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of the molecule; and increasing the twist angle between the electron donor and the electron acceptor. Meanwhile, electron cloud overlapping between highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) is reduced, thereby obtaining a smaller ΔEST value. The organic electroluminescent device adopts the thermally activated delayed fluorescent molecular material prepared according to the synthesizing method, and thus has high luminous efficiency and long service life.

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have advantages, such as self-illumination, wide viewing angles, fast response times, wide operation temperature ranges, low driving voltage, low power consumption, high brightness, simple manufacturing process, thinness, lightness, and flexible display, etc., there are great application prospects in OLED display and illumination field and attracting the attention of researchers and companies. Currently, SAMSUNG and LG have implemented OLEDs on mobile phones. In OLED, luminescent layer material quality is a decisive factor of OLED industrialization. Generally, a luminescent layer material is made of a main luminescent material and a subordinate luminescent material, and the luminescent efficiency and lifetime of the luminescent materials are two important indicators of the luminescent materials. Early OLED luminescent materials are traditional fluorescent materials. Because a ratio of singlet state and triplet state excitons in the OLED is 1:3, the traditional fluorescent materials can only use singlet state excitons luminescence. Therefore, a theoretical quantum efficiency of the traditional OLED fluorescent material is 25%. A metal complex phosphorescent material enables 100% utilization of singlet state excitons and triplet state excitons due to the spin-orbit coupling effect of heavy atoms; and it has also been used in green OLED displays. However, the phosphorescent materials usually use precious metals, such as heavy metals iridium(Ir), platinum (Pt), and osmium (Os), which are not only costly but also highly toxic. In addition, high efficient, long-life phosphorescent metal complex materials remain a significant challenge. In year 2012, Adachi et al. proposed a pure organic luminescent molecule with a "thermally activated delayed fluorescence" (TADF) mechanism. The molecule has a smaller energy level difference (ΔEST) of minimum singlet state and triplet state by rational D(donor)-A(acceptor) structure molecular design. Such triplet state excitons can return to the singlet state through the reverse intersystem crossing (RISC), and then illuminate by radiation transition to the ground state, so that the singlet state and triplet state excitons can be simultaneously utilized, so that 100% excitons utilization can be achieved without the involvement of heavy metals. Moreover, TADF material structures are rich in design, and most of their physical properties are easily adjusted to obtain efficient, long-life organic luminescent materials that meet the requirements.
TECHNICAL PROBLEM: Most of TADF molecular designs are D (donor)-A(acceptor) type structures. Furthermore, the donors are usually diphenylamine, carbazole and acridine or a derivative structure thereof. The torsion angle of carbazole and the acceptor A is suitable, but the electron donating ability of carbazole is too weak; the electron donating ability of diphenylamine is moderate, but the torsion angle of diphenylamine and the acceptor A is too small; the electron donating ability of acridine is very strong, but the torsion angle of acridine and the acceptor is too large. Although the large torsion angle may make the RISC rate high, the photoluminescence quantum efficiency (PLQY) of the material may decrease; If the electron donating ability is too weak, which may make the electric charge transfer between D and A poor. The degree of overlap between highest occupied molecular orbit (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) between the donor and the acceptor is too large, resulting in a larger ΔEST.

Thermally activated delayed fluorescent molecular material, a synthesizing method therefor, and an electroluminescent device

WUHAN CHINA STAR OPTOELECTRONICS SEMICONDUCTOR DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


An automatically-modulated breast pump system for connection to a fixed-suction central vacuum system is disclosed. The breast pump system comprises a regulator adapted to be connected to the fixed-suction central vacuum system and adapted to generate a modulated-suction output. The breast pump system further comprises a reservoir adapted to be coupled to the modulated-suction output, and a breast pump flange adapted to be coupled to both the reservoir and a breast of a woman. The modulated-suction output from the regulator is applied to the breast pump flange on the breast to stimulate the breast to generate milk.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to breast pumps and, more particularly, to vacuum-driven breast pumps.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of breast pump devices have existed in the prior art. Prior art breast pump devices have included non-electric, hand operated suction devices, A/C electrically powered suction devices, battery powered suction devices, and water driven suction devices. Most if not all of these devices have been portable. In a hospital setting where multiple patients typically use the same breast pump, cross-contamination of breast milk can result. Additionally, portable breast pump devices are often transported on trolleys from one patient room to another, further increasing the possibility of cross-contamination of patients at the hospital.
Wall suction systems are commonly built into hospital rooms. Each wall suction system is regulated by a device located at the head of the patient's bed, which is referred to as a regulator. Regulators are traditionally used for purposes of respiratory procedures, wound drainage procedures, and other surgical procedures.
A breast pump system which is adapted to be connected to a valved pipe projecting from a wall is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,670,610. The device incorporates a rigid cone for accommodating the breast of a user. Use of such a rigid cone, however, has been determined by the present inventor to be painful and less effective in generating the milk-making hormone, prolactin. The suction of this prior art device must be manually modulated by the hand of the user and, accordingly, is limited in efficiency and effectiveness by the skill of the operator. A number of prior art devices have automatically modulated a suction applied to a breast pump device, but these devices have modulated the actual source of the suction (the motor). A device capable of being connected to a fixed-suction source, and capable of automatically modulating a suction from the source, would be useful. No structure is included in the device of the patent for automatically providing modulation of the suction. Nor does the prior art device disclose any means for accurately controlling and monitoring a suction level being applied to the breast of the user. The prior art patent further does not implement any safety relief valves for preventing an accidental application of full-line suction to a woman's breast.

Breast pump system using wall vacuum source


An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for improving engine development. Engine development is improved by equipping a vehicle with a data logger to collect engine performance data, automatically retrieving the data via a secure local wireless network, uploading the data to an enterprise communication server via a secure wide area network, and analyzing the data. The vehicles and vehicle depot may be equipped with WAPs. The wide area network may comprise a VPN over the internet. In certain embodiments, the secure local wireless network is only accessible to wireless devices with registered MAC addresses.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to engine development and more particularly relates to the long-distance, automated, and secure development of engines.
2. Description of the Related Art
Effective engine development strategies are becoming increasingly important, under a growing demand for safe, reliable, and environmentally friendly transportation. Generally, engine development includes modeling a proposed design, building an engine according to the design, running the engine to collect engine performance data, and analyzing the data to remedy existing flaws and produce superior engine designs. Though the general concept of gathering and analyzing engine performance data is pervasive in engine development strategies, it is becoming more and more apparent that the current strategies are inadequate.
One engine development strategy involves equipping an engine with a data logger to record engine performance data, manually connecting a computer (or other recording device) to the data logger to download the engine data, manually transporting and connecting the computer to a primary network, and uploading the data to the network for analysis. Having to manually connect and transport a costly device such as a computer, involves time, training, and labor, in addition to risking human errors and accidents.
Another engine development strategy enables real-time data analysis, but includes similar flaws as the previous strategy. The strategy involves running an engine equipped with a standard data logger and manually connecting a computer to display the engine data as it becomes available to the data logger. With such a configuration, both the computer and engine developer must be physically present to analyze the real-time data. If the data is later to be entered into a principle network for further analysis or record keeping purposes, it must undergo similar manual transportation and connection difficulties as the previous strategy.
Additionally, current engine development strategies often fail to provide adequate security. For example, some strategies fail to encrypt engine performance data, provide firewalls, require passwords, or implement other networking protocols designed to ensure secure data transfer. Such strategies expose engine developers to data theft or misappropriation that could result in significant detriment to the engine developer, especially in scenarios involving competing engine developers or unscrupulous investors.
From the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that a need exists for an apparatus, system, and method that improve engine development. Beneficially, such an apparatus, system, and method would eliminate the risks and costs associated with more manual engine development strategies by simultaneously providing a potentially long-distance, completely automated, and secure system for improving engine development.

Apparatus, system, and method for improving engine development


An air filter cartridge arrangement, an air cleaner assembly, and components therefor, are provided. The air filter cartridge generally has perimeter shape with an arched side. The filter cartridge may include a media pack comprising strips of single facer material, each strip comprising fluted sheet secured to a facing sheet. In an example depicted, arch-shaped sections of single facer material are nested within one another, to form media pack having a perimeter D-shape. An air cleaner assembly configured for receipt of filter cartridge is described. A particular assembly, convenient for mounting on the cowl, cowling or engine cover of an over-the-highway truck, is provided.

Gas streams often carry particulate material therein. In many instances it is desirable to remove some or all of the particulate material from the gas flow stream. For example, air intake streams to engines for motorized vehicles or power generation equipment often include particulate material therein. The particulate material, should it reach the internal workings of the mechanisms involved, can cause substantial damage. It is therefore preferred, for such systems, to remove the particulate material from the gas flow upstream of the engine or other equipment involved. A variety of air cleaner arrangements have been developed for particulate removal.
There has been a general trend for the utilization of air cleaner arrangements that utilize, as a media pack, z-filter media constructions. In general, z-filter media constructions can be characterized as comprising fluted media sheet material secured to a facing media sheet material, formed into a media pack configuration. Examples of z-filter arrangements are described in PCT Publication WO 97/40918, published Nov. 6, 1997; U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,190,432 and 6,350,291; PCT application US 04/07927, filed Mar. 17, 2004; U.S. Provisional application 60/532,783, filed Dec. 22, 2003; PCT Publication 03/095068, published Nov. 20, 2003; PCT publication WO 04/007054, published Jan. 22, 2004 and; PCT publication WO 03/084641, published Oct. 16, 2003. The complete disclosures of each of these cited references is incorporated herein by reference.
As advantages related to z-filter media constructions are more widely recognized, applications of the technology in a variety of alternate configurations for alternate applications are desired.

Air filter assembly; components thereof; and, methods


Described is a device and method that makes it possible to acquire image information required for displaying a three-dimensional image of an object in a space with a simple configuration and to achieve display of a stereoscopic dynamic image in a true sense with a simple configuration. Light from an object (10) impinges upon a deflecting plate (11). Among the incident beams of light, the deflecting plate (11) allows beams of light at a predetermined angle to the plane of the deflecting plate (11) to pass, the beams exiting as parallel beams of light perpendicular to the plane of the deflecting plate (11). The light passes through a converging lens (12), a pinhole member (13), and a converging lens (14) to impinge upon a CCD (15). An angle of incident light selected by the deflecting plate (11) is sequentially changed as time passes. Therefore, image information output by the CCD (15) becomes plural pieces of two-dimensional image information for which the photographing direction changes as time passes and which serve as image information required for displaying a three-dimensional image of the object in a space.

Various proposals have recently been made on techniques for displaying a stereoscopic image as a result of the progress of optical technologies. One of such techniques is two-glass type three-dimensional viewers such as IMAX THEATER (trademark) capable of presenting stereoscopic display to a user who wears dedicated eyeglasses to see an image formed by an image for the left eye and an image for the right eye in an overlapping relationship. This apparatus enables to present stereoscopic display in the form of a stereogram utilizing parallax between left and right eyes.
Stereoscopic display is also performed with holography utilizing coherent light from a laser or the like. This technique is to display a stereoscopic image by forming a hologram on a dry plate or the like using object light and reference light in advance and by irradiating the hologram with the original reference light to obtain reproduction light.
Techniques for displaying a stereoscopic image without any need for dedicated eyeglasses include the so-called IP (integral photography) method, and the parallax method.
The IP method was proposed by Lippmann. A photographic dry plate is provided on a focal surface of a lens plate called "fly-eye lens" constituted by a multiplicity of small convex lenses; the photographic dry plate is exposed to object light through the lens plate to record a multiplicity of small object images thereon; and the photographic dry plate is thereafter developed, placed in exactly the same position as its initial position and irradiated with light on the back surface thereof.
The parallax method is a method in which strip-shaped images respectively associated with left and right eyes are separately viewed through apertures in the form of vertical grills placed in front of the strip-shaped images.
Among the above techniques, the above-described stereoscopic viewers are inconvenient for a viewer because he or she must wear dedicated eyeglasses and are not suitable for observation for a long time because they present unnatural images which are likely to give fatigue.
The above-described technique for presenting stereoscopic display utilizing holography involves a large scale apparatus at a high manufacturing cost because of the requirement for coherent light from a laser or the like and also results in a reduction of image quality attributable to speckle interference patterns which are characteristic of lasers. Further, holography is suitable for still images but unsuitable for three-dimensional display of dynamic images because it presents stereoscopic display of an object utilizing a hologram formed on a photographic dry plate in advance. This equally applies to the above-described IP method in that it is unsuitable for dynamic images because it involves a step of recording a multiplicity of small object images on a photographic dry plate in advance.
The parallax method that requires no dedicated eyeglasses only presents pseudo-stereoscopic display utilizing parallax between left and right eyes and does not allow three-dimensional display in a true sense. Therefore, although an image can be represented with a stereoscopic sense in the horizontal direction of a screen, it cannot be represented with a stereoscopic sense in the vertical direction and, for example, cannot be viewed by a person who is lying down. Further, since it is a technique utilizing parallax, a change of a view point only results in a view of the same image with a stereographic sense (a sense of depth), and a side of an object will not appear even if the viewer moves the head to look at the object from left and right sides thereof.
Further, in order to implement the parallax method, an object must be photographed in different directions with a plurality of cameras; the films photographed by the cameras must be developed; and the films must be printed on photographic paper through apertures with a plurality of image projectors to form strip-shaped images. Therefore, a large scale apparatus is required to implement the parallax method.
As thus described, according to conventional techniques it is difficult to achieve display of a stereoscopic dynamic image in a true sense with a simple configuration.
Any of the conventional techniques for stereoscopic display only allows a three-dimensional image to be displayed in a predetermined position. Therefore, the conventional techniques for stereoscopic display have low rendering capability in that it is difficult to achieve a representation in which a three-dimensional image is moved toward or away from the viewer, for example.

Apparatus and method for photographing three-dimensional image, apparatus and method for displaying three-dimensional image, and apparatus and method for converting three-dimensional image display position


A method of manufacturing a photoelectric conversion device includes: forming a first electrode on a first surface side of a substrate that has two opposing surfaces; forming an electrode section on a second surface side of the substrate, the electrode section being used for external connection; and after forming the first electrode and the electrode section, forming an organic photoelectric conversion layer and a second electrode on the first electrode.

Many methods of manufacturing a solid-state imaging unit with the use of an organic photoelectric conversion material have been proposed (for example, Patent Literatures 1 to 4). In Patent Literatures 1 and 2, a solid-state imaging unit that does not require any color filter (a solid-state imaging unit without a color filter) is achieved by using a plurality of types of organic photoelectric conversion films. Further, Patent Literatures 3 and 4 propose a technique to use both organic and inorganic photoelectric conversion films.

Photoelectric conversion device, method of manufacturing photoelectric conversion device, solid-state imaging unit, and electronic apparatus


A process of producing expandable styrene resin particles, wherein in suspension polymerization of styrene monomers, the concentration of oxygen in a reaction vessel is kept low at least in a late stage of the polymerization, and the resulting styrene resin particles are impregnated with an expanding agent before or after completion of the polymerization. Preferably, at a polymerization rate of 60% or higher, the concentration of oxygen in the reaction vessel is kept at 7 volt % or lower. When additional styrene monomers are added during the polymerization, they are added and adsorbed to styrene resin particles in the course of polymerization while the concentration of oxygen is kept low. By this method, the particles whose internal portion has a low molecular weight and surface portion has a high molecular weight are obtained. A foamed article produced from the particles has high strength and a good appearance.

(i) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to expandable styrene resin particles and a production process thereof, expandable styrene beads, and a foamed article.
(ii) Description of the Related Art
An expandable styrene resin is used for a number of food containers, packing materials, cushioning materials and others by taking advantage of its excellent heat insulation properties, economy and sanitation. A foamed article thereof is produced by heating particles of the expandable styrene resin by steam or the like to be pre-foamed to a desired bulk density, subjecting the particles to an aging step, and filling the resulting particles into a mold to be foamed under heating again. The expandable styrene resin particles are required to have excellent expandability in the pre-expanding step or the expand-molding step in the mold under heating and to have high strength or an excellent appearance when molded into an article.
Heretofore, to enhance the strength of the foamed article, some methods has been investigated, for example, increasing of the density of a molded article, or increasing of the thickness of the molded article itself. However, any of these methods can be hardly considered to be economical since the weight of the molded article increases and also have problems from an environmental standpoint. As for the expandable styrene resin particles, some methods has been investigated, for example, increasing the molecular weight, or controlling or reducing a kind or an amount of plasticizer for plasticizing the resin particles.
On the other hand, to improve the expandability of the expandable styrene resin particles, a method of decreasing the molecular weight, a method of plasticizing the resin particles, a method of changing a composition ratio of expanding agents and other methods have been investigated.
Such methods of enhancing the strength of the foamed article and such methods of improving the expandability are generally contradictory to each other, and hence, it has been difficult to simultaneously satisfy both the methods.
For solving these problems, resin particles, whose outermost layer portion and central portion have a low molecular weight and middle portion has a high molecular weight, are proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 295756/1996.
However, the above particles have a problem that since the molecular weight of the outermost layer portion is low like the central portion, thermal fusion is promoted excessively at the time of heat-expand-molding, thereby degrading a surface finish of a molded article.
Further, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 188454/1995, resin particles whose surface layer portion has a higher molecular weight than that of the whole particle are disclosed.
It is described in this publication that when the surface layer portion has an excessively high molecular weight, the expandability deteriorates and the appearance of the resulting molded article is degraded with a lower strength. This is assumed to be because the molecular weight of the central portion of the particles disclosed therein also becomes high as the molecular weight of the surface layer portion becomes high. That is, the above resin particles have a problem that the molecular weight of the surface layers cannot be sufficiently increased.
Further, heretofore, to obtain the foamed articles having a good appearance, it was essential to eliminate gaps among beads completely when styrene beads filled in a mold are foamed under heating. However, it was difficult to eliminate all gaps among the beads. Under the circumstances, to eliminate as many voids as possible, the properties of expandable styrene resin particles themselves and molding techniques including the functions of molding machines and the like have been improved.
For example, to improve the properties of the expandable styrene resin particles themselves, efforts were made to control the type and amount of plasticizer for plasticizing the resin particles, or to render the molecular weight lower. However, these methods lead to a reduction in the heat resistance of the resin particles and have a problem that the surface of a molded article is molten by heat-expanding at the time of molding, thereby increasing voids.
Further, to improve molding techniques including the functions of molding machines and the like, the following have been studied. As for the molding machines, a control method in a heating step has been studied, and a method of using steam more efficiently was employed. As for molds, a method of using steam more effectively by, for instance, increasing the number of slits has been studied. However, these methods have problems that additional costs including costs for improving the machines and the molds are so large and it is difficult to improve all of these at once.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Expandable styrene resin particles, expandable beads, and foamed article


A delivery device for delivering an active substance to a patient at a predetermined time after administration comprises a male hydrogel plug engaged in the neck of a female body. An expandable excipient such as a hydrogel powder or a pharmaceutical disintegrant in powder, slug or tablet form is provided beneath the active substance. In contact with an aqueous medium, the excipient absorbs water and swells such as to rapidly expel the active substance and effectively deliver it from the device.

International patent specification WO 90/09168 discloses a controlled release device for delivering a substance to a patient at a chosen time following administration. The device comprises a water-swellable male plug engaged within the female body. A pharmaceutically active material is contained within the device. When the device is exposed to water, the male hydrogel plug swells and eventually disengages itself from the female body, thereby allowing the pharmaceutically active material contained within the device to be released. It has been found that the time taken to disengage the hydrogel plug (e.g. 0.5 to 12 hours) is predictable and reproducible, so that the device may be used to release pharmaceutically active materials within the body of a patient after a predetermined time interval. This may be useful in the treatment of medical conditions where it is desirable to administer a pharmaceutically active material to the patient sometime through the night while the patient is asleep, so as to provide a desired level of the drug in the patient in accordance with his needs during the night or when he awakes. It may also be useful to allow administration of materials at a predetermined point as the device passes through the gastro-intestinal tract, for example in the colon.
Patent specification WO92/13521 (Alza Corporation) describes fluid-imbibing dispensing devices for delayed delivery of an active agent, which include an expansion means which absorbs fluid from a surrounding environment. The dispensing device comprises a housing having first and second wall sections telescopically engaged with each other, particularly a capsule having a hollow cap and a hollow body; either the cap or the body is in the form of a male section fitted inside the open end of the other female section. The expansion means is contained within the device and expands as it absorbs fluid, forcing apart the two sections of the device. The expansion means may be a swellable polymer or an osmotic formulation which swells as it absorbs fluid. In order to allow fluid to come into contact with the expansion means contained within the device, one of the wall sections adjacent to the expansion means is fluid-permeable. After the sections are disengaged, fluid enters the device and comes into contact with the active agent contained within the device, thereby dispensing the active agent into the fluid.
In order for the device to function correctly, the active material contained within the female body should be released promptly after the male member has become disengaged. This is dependent on the active material dissolving rapidly in the aqueous medium whilst the active agent is still within the female body, or depends on the material being quickly flushed out of the hollow female body. This in turn requires an active agent which has good solubility in water and/or an adequate supply of aqueous medium. However, there may be instances where the supply of aqueous medium in the patient's body is limited. For example, in the colon insufficient aqueous medium may be present for the device to operate as desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,494 discloses a dispenser for use in a fluid environment which is intended to release pulses of active agent over a long time period. The construction comprises a housing containing a plurality of layers of active material which are driven towards an outlet of the housing by a fluid actuated driving means. The driving means may include a fluid-swellable polymer, and the portion of the housing next to the driving means has a controlled permeability to fluid i.e. water, such that the rate of swelling of the polymer is controlled by the rate of ingress of water. However, the arrangement is complex and is intended to release the active agent very slowly over an extended period (e.g. at least 21-30 days) rather than to provide a very rapid release of active material.
It is an object of the present invention to mitigate these problems, by providing a system which rapidly positively expels the contents from the body.

Expulsion of material from a delivery device


A device with a touch-sensitive display may be unlocked via gestures performed on the touch-sensitive display. The device is unlocked if contact with the display corresponds to a predefined gesture for unlocking the device. The device displays one or more unlock images with respect to which the predefined gesture is to be performed in order to unlock the device. The performance of the predefined gesture with respect to the unlock image may include moving the unlock image to a predefined location and/or moving the unlock image along a predefined path. The device may also display visual cues of the predefined gesture on the touch screen to remind a user of the gesture.

Touch-sensitive displays (also known as "touch screens" or "touchscreens") are well known in the art. Touch screens are used in many electronic devices to display graphics and text, and to provide a user interface through which a user may interact with the devices. A touch screen detects and responds to contact on the touch screen. A device may display one or more soft keys, menus, and other user-interface objects on the touch screen. A user may interact with the device by contacting the touch screen at locations corresponding to the user-interface objects with which she wishes to interact.
Touch screens are becoming more popular for use as displays and as user input devices on portable devices, such as mobile telephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). One problem associated with using touch screens on portable devices is the unintentional activation or deactivation of functions due to unintentional contact with the touch screen. Thus, portable devices, touch screens on such devices, and/or applications running on such devices may be locked upon satisfaction of predefined lock conditions, such as upon entering an active call, after a predetermined time of idleness has elapsed, or upon manual locking by a user.
Devices with touch screens and/or applications running on such devices may be unlocked by any of several well-known unlocking procedures, such as pressing a predefined set of buttons (simultaneously or sequentially) or entering a code or password. These unlock procedures, however, have drawbacks. The button combinations may be hard to perform. Creating, memorizing, and recalling passwords, codes, and the like can be quite burdensome. These drawbacks may reduce the ease of use of the unlocking process and, as a consequence, the ease of use of the device in general.
Accordingly, there is a need for more efficient, user-friendly procedures for unlocking such devices, touch screens, and/or applications. More generally, there is a need for more efficient, user-friendly procedures for transitioning such devices, touch screens, and/or applications between user interface states (e.g., from a user interface state for a first application to a user interface state for a second application, between user interface states in the same application, or between locked and unlocked states). In addition, there is a need for sensory feedback to the user regarding progress towards satisfaction of a user input condition that is required for the transition to occur.

Unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image


A method of making electronic packages includes providing a leadframe strip that includes a plurality of leadframes, wherein the leadframes comprise a plurality of leads, etching a surface of each of the leadframes to form an opening, wherein each of the leads has a lead tip that connects to a die paddle within the opening, isolating each of the leads from the die paddle, adhering a tape to a bottom side of the leadframe strips, leads, and die paddle, attaching a die to the die paddle, placing ball bumps on each of the lead tips, and connecting the die to the ball bumps. The electronic package includes a leadframe having a plurality of leads, wherein each of the leads has a lead tip, an opening formed within the leadframe, a die paddle that is disposed within the opening and is isolated from each of the lead tips, a tape that is adhered to a back side of the leadframe, leads, and die paddle, and a die, wherein the die is attached to the die paddle and is connected by wires to a bump disposed on each of the lead tips.

As electronic devices become smaller, the electronic packages that make up the electronic devices have become smaller. As such, manufacturers are constantly searching for ways to make thinner packages. They often try to reduce the size or thickness of the packaging components. To this end, manufacturers also may try to eliminate packaging components by modifying and utilizing other components more efficiently. Currently manufacturers have developed package designs and corresponding manufacturing methods, in which the package thickness has reached 0.3 mm.
However, to produce smaller and thinner packages is challenging because there are components that are deemed to be essential for packaging and cannot be eliminated. In addition, to manufacture smaller packages the packaging technology and process may need to be altered substantially, thereby adding to the manufacturing costs. As such, there is a need for a smaller and thinner package design and a method to manufacture the same, especially to achieve a package thickness of 0.2 mm or less.

Thin plastic leadless package with exposed metal die paddle


An extruded plastic article includes an extruded elongated plastic frame member which has a front surface that is formed with a longitudinally extending convex projection, and a decorative plastic strip which has a rear face and a decorated front face with a metallic luster. The rear face of the decorative plastic strip is bonded to the plastic frame member at the convex projection.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an extruded plastic article with a decorative plastic strip, more particularly to such a plastic article which is inexpensive and which can be conveniently manufactured at a relatively fast rate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most articles, which were previously made of wood, are now made of plastic due to the depleting supply of lumber. Examples of such articles, which were previously made of wood but are now made of plastic, include door frames, window frames and the like.
A conventional elongated plastic frame member is usually provided with a decorative metal strip in order to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the. Referring to FIG. 1, the front surface of an extruded elongated plastic frame member (11) is formed with a longitudinally extending groove (111). A decorative metal strip (12) is secured to the frame member (11) in the groove (111). The decorative metal strip (12) is formed with an axial opening (121) which receives an elastic filler (13) therein, thereby reducing the material cost of the decorative metal strip (12) and preventing deformation of the strip.
Referring to FIG. 2, the decorative metal strip (12) is seen as an elongated convex projection relative to the front surface of the frame member (11) when the decorative metal strip (12) is secured in the groove (111) of the frame member (11), thus enhancing the aesthetic appeal of the frame member (11).
Although the decorative metal strip (12) enhances the aesthetic appeal of the frame member (11), the following drawbacks are encountered:
1. The above described decorative plastic article cannot be manufactured at a relatively fast rate, thereby resulting in higher manufacturing costs. This drawback results from the fact that several process steps are required when manufacturing the elongated plastic frame member with the decorative metal strip. Note that the plastic frame member (11) and the decorative metal strip (12) are fabricated separately. In order to make the decorative metal strip (12) less susceptible to deformation, the decorative metal strip (12) should be formed with the axial opening (121) that receives the resilient filler (13) therein. The decorative metal strip (12) is secured to the plastic frame member (11) only after the resilient filler (13) has been inserted into the axial opening (121).
2. The material cost of the decorative strip is still relatively high because of its metal content.

Extruded plastic article with a decorative plastic strip


An expandable structure comprising: a first shape memory (SM) portion which is in a strain-induced state; and a second portion which resists expansion of said structure due to said first portion, over a plurality of different expansion states of said first portion. Optionally, wherein said SM portion resists contraction of said structure due to forces applied by said second portion. Optionally or alternatively, said strain induced state is characterized by a SM portion expanding force decreasing as a function of strain of said SM portion, so as to have a difference of at least 10% in force between two strain states said structure is usable at.

The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to an expandable structure and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to an expandable structure for deployment in a lumen.
Expandable structures, for example, stents, are used in the body for a various applications. Common stents include self-expanding stents formed of elastic or shape-memory materials and balloon expanding stents formed of plastically deformable materials.
Stents of the art include composite stents, U.S. Pat. No. 5,964,770, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes "A medical device such as a stent, surgical staple, bone anchoring device or bone fixation device, intended to be deployed within the body, composes a shape memory alloy (SMA) portion with an austenitic and unaustenitic state with different memorized configurations in each of these states. The SMA which is initially in an initial configuration in which it can be placed into position within the body, can be mechanically deformed into an operational configuration in which it remains deployed within the body."
U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,434, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes "A medical device which comprises a shape memory alloy (SMA) portion which is deformable from an undeformed first configuration assumed by it in an austenitic state of the SMA to a deformed second configuration, whereby the SMA is converted into a strain-induced martensite or partial martensite. This conversion increases the temperature of transformation (As) from an initial transformation temperature As° to a temperature As′. When the SMA, once in the second configuration, is heated to a temperature higher than As′, it transforms to an at least partial austenite and it transforms towards the undeformed first configuration with a decrease of As from As′ to As°. As° is below body temperature such that when the device is deployed in the body, after placing it in its target location with the SMA portion in the second configuration and then heating it to assume its first configuration, the SMA is stable in the at least partial austenite at body temperature."
Additional background art includes U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,610, International Patent Application No. WO0032136, International Patent Application No. WO05053576, International Patent Application No. WO06014699, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2008188924, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2008300668, International Patent Application No. WO10107681, International Patent Application No. WO11127452, International Patent Application No. WO9526695, U.S. Pat. No. 5,637,113, International Patent Application No. WO0024338, International Patent Application No. WO0101888, International Patent Application No. WO12011269, International Patent Application No. WO13032494, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2005004647 U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,515, International Patent Application No. WO10120532, International Patent Application No. WO9920205, U.S. Pat. No. 5,899,935, International Patent Application No. WO03034940, DE10226734, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2008147164, International Patent Application No. WO03020175, International Patent Application No. WO05096992, CN102973340, International Patent Application No. WO12173995, International Patent Application No. WO07054014, International Patent Application No. WO0185064, International Patent Application No. WO9531945, U.S. Pat. No. 6,083,259, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2001056296, and International Patent Application No. WO0010485, the disclosures of all of which are herein incorporated in their entirety by reference into the specification, to the same extent as if each individual publication, patent or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated herein by reference.


A container assembly including a container and a cap disposed on the container. The cap is moveable between a closed condition and an open condition. The cap has two opposing side wall regions and an end region disposed between the two opposing side wall regions. At least one of the side wall regions has a container-engaging portion moveable between a closed position where the container-engaging portion engages the container to resist opening of the cap, and a second position where the container-engaging portion is disengaged from the container to allow opening of the cap. The end region of the cap is in a snap-fit relationship with the container. Also included is a cap having these features.

Containers for products which could be harmful to children (such as medicines, pharmaceuticals, nutriceuticals, etc.) have been designed to make it difficult for children to open them, while allowing access by adults. These containers are often referred to as "child-resistant" containers. A challenge in the past, however, is that many such products are used by older adults, or adults with disabilities. The extent of dexterity loss, through age or disability or otherwise, makes the use of these child-resistant containers difficult for some.
Various attempts have been made, therefore, to provide a child-resistant container which is difficult for a child to open but easy for an adult to open, even where the adult has diminished dexterity for any reason. Many of these designs, however, can be difficult to manufacture cheaply, and some require multiple parts or difficult molding techniques.
There exists a need to provide a child-resistant container that can be easily and cheaply manufactured, while remaining difficult for a child to open but easy for an adult to open.

Child-resistant container and container cap


An angular image of a scene may be displayed using a light field display. The light field display may comprise a plurality of projection units. Each of the projections units may comprise an imaging system and an optical system. The imaging system may illuminate pixels of a planar image of the scene. Light corresponding to each of the pixels may be directed towards the optical system. The optical system may comprise first and second lenses for redirecting each light beam corresponding to a pixel in different directions. In some embodiments the first and second lenses form a globe lens. A diffusion system may conceal the optical systems. Additionally, or alternatively, the diffusion system may produce a uniform distribution of light at a plurality of different viewing angles.

As human populations grow across the world, humans are moving into increasingly dense interior spaces. As population density increases, an availability of distant and/or open views that may be visible decreases. For example, interior spaces (e.g. rooms that are not adjacent to an outer wall of a building) may not have windows. Even if a room adjacent to an outer wall provides a window, the window may face nearby opposing buildings or the like. A lack of perceived openness may have adverse psychological impacts.
For example, an occupant's mood may decrease if the occupant perceives themselves as being confined in an interior space. As another example, the occupant's productivity may decrease. Simulating distant and/or open views may therefore assist with improving an occupant's mental health, mood, productivity and/or the like.
Human's may, for example, perceive openness by perceiving a scene comprising objects or elements at a plurality of depth planes.
A principle depth cue in perceiving depth (e.g. when a human looks through a window) is known as motion parallax. For example, a more distant object will appear to move less, or remain in a fixed position (or direction), as a viewer moves around compared to an object that is relatively close to the viewer. If a blue sky with a few clouds is viewed, the direction of the clouds and sun remain steady as the viewer views the sky from varying positions. The viewer may subconsciously therefore interpret this as a distant view. In contrast, an object that is very close to the viewer changes its relative orientation much more than a relatively more distant object, causing the closer object to be perceived as being nearby.
Another principle in perceiving depth is that portions of a scene may become visible or occluded by objects of different depths (e.g. a window frame or other objects within a scene) as viewing positions change.
Reducing a number of windows and/or sizes of windows that may enclose an interior space may also reduce an amount of natural light that may illuminate the interior space. Thus, the overall luminance of a lighting system for the interior space may need to be increased to compensate for the loss of natural light. This may, for example, increase energy consumption of the lighting system. The quality, intensity, position, color and/or directionality of the lighting are also known to influence the mood of the occupant.
There is a general desire for practical systems and methods that can be applied to simulate a perception of openness within an interior space. There is also a general desire for practical systems and methods that can be applied to increase energy efficiency, and/or to provide a provide a more configurable arrangement of light sources, of lighting systems that may be used to illuminate an interior space.


Presented is an etching method capable of easily etching an oxide containing an alkaline-earth metal. One method is to etch the oxide by using an etching gas containing a halogen gas except for fluorine, an interhalogen compound consisting of only a halogen element except for fluorine, or a halogen hydride consisting of a halogen element except for fluorine and hydrogen. Particularly chlorides, bromides, and iodides of alkaline-earth metals have relatively high vapor pressures, so a thin film containing an alkaline-earth metal can be etched by using chlorine gas, bromine gas, or iodine gas. When a halogen gas containing fluorine is used, damages to SiO2 portions used in a film formation apparatus are prevented by coating these SiO2 portions with a fluoride of an alkaline-earth metal.

The present invention relates to an etching method of etching an oxide containing alkaline-earth metals as constituent elements, a chemical vapor growth apparatus for forming an oxide film containing alkaline-earth metals as constituent elements, and a cleaning method of the apparatus.
New materials that have not been conventionally used are beginning to be used in new semiconductor devices represented by very-large-scale semiconductor integrated circuits. So, chemical vapor deposition is beginning to be demanded to deposit thin films of these new materials. One of these new materials is barium strontium titanate ((Ba,Sr)TiO3):BST) which is a high-dielectric constant material used in a charge storage film (capacitive film) of a DRAM.
In the semiconductor device fabrication processes, dry etching superior in micro fabrication properties is widely used. However, alkali-earth metals such as Sr and Ba constructing the above material are not etched because the vapor pressure of a compound formed by a conventional etching gas is low.
Meanwhile, the semiconductor device fabrication processes extensively employ the formation of thin films by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) having high step coverage and capable of depositing in large areas. When a thin film is deposited by this CVD, a deposit sticks not only to a substrate for deposition but also to a reaction chamber exposed to a deposition gas or to jigs installed in the chamber. This deposit peels off owing to stress or mechanical stimulus, and the peeled dust particles fall on the substrate during deposition or during transfer of the substrate, thereby causing particle contamination of the formed thin film. Therefore, it is necessary to clean and remove the deposit, other than the objective deposit, sticking to the interior of the apparatus.
This cleaning method is desirably performed without disassembling the apparatus in order to raise the throughput. As this method of cleaning without disassembling the apparatus, a cleaning gas for changing the deposit into a substance having high vapor pressure is supplied into the apparatus to remove the deposit.
Unfortunately, alkaline-earth metals such as Sr and Ba constructing the aforementioned material cannot be removed because the vapor pressure of the compound formed by this conventional cleaning method is low.
A thin film containing alkaline-earth metals cannot be dry-etched and a chemical vapor deposition apparatus for depositing a thin film containing alkaline-earth metals cannot be cleaned with gas for the same reason: none of conventional etching gases and cleaning gases can form an alkaline-earth metal compound having high vapor pressure.
It is narrowly possible to etch a thin film containing alkaline-earth metals such as Ba and Sr by using chlorine trifluoride (ClF3) gas. However, a high temperature of 800xc2x0 C. or more is necessary for the etching, and yet the etching rate of Ba and Sr is lower than that of Ti.
Additionally, under severe conditions in which ClF3 is used at high temperatures, the corrosiveness of ClF3 increases. The most serious problem is that SiO2 is also etched when ClF3 is used at high temperatures. SiO2 is frequently used as interlayer dielectrics and a surface protective film in semiconductor devices. These SiO2-based films already formed are destroyed when a thin film containing alkaline-earth metals is dry-etched.
Also, a reaction chamber of a chemical vapor deposition apparatus is often made of quartz, and most jigs such as a substrate holder and a gas supply nozzle installed in the reaction chamber are made of quartz. Therefore, when a chemical vapor deposition apparatus for depositing a thin film containing alkaline-earth metals is cleaned by using a gas such as ClF3, quartz is eroded especially at high temperatures, resulting in destruction of the apparatus.
As described above, when a gas containing a halogen such as fluorine is used as an etching gas or a cleaning gas, no alkaline-earth metal compound having high vapor pressure is formed. Consequently, etching or cleaning takes a long time and hence is difficult to perform.
Also, when a fluorine-containing gas is used to etch or clean a chemical vapor growth apparatus, SiO2 is corroded, and this destroys an interlayer insulating film or the apparatus.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an etching method capable of easily etching an oxide of an alkaline-earth metal.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an etching method which does not etch SiO2-containing layers in a semiconductor device, or an etching method which etches a thin film containing an oxide film of an alkaline-earth metal without etching quartz members of a chemical vapor growth apparatus, and to provide a chemical vapor growth apparatus, and a cleaning method of the chemical vapor growth apparatus.
To achieve the above objects, an etching method of the present invention comprises the steps of preparing an oxide layer containing at least one type of alkaline-earth metal; and etching the oxide layer containing at least one type of alkaline-earth metal by using, as an etching gas, either a halogen gas other than fluorine gas, or a gas containing at least one material selected from the group consisting of an interhalogen compound consisting of halogen elements other than fluorine, and a halogen hydride consisting of a halogen element other than fluorine and hydrogen.
The step of etching the oxide layer desirably includes a step of etching in an ambient at not less than 500xc2x0 C.
The step of etching the oxide layer desirably includes a step of etching the oxide layer while changing an etching temperature.
The step of etching the oxide layer may includes:
a first etching step having a first etching condition; and
a second etching step having a second etching condition, and
the etching temperature in the first etching step is different from the etching temperature in the second etching step.
The second etching step is preferably successively performed after the first etching step, and the etching temperature in the first etching step is lower than the etching temperature in the second etching step.
The etching method may further comprise a step of repeating a plurality of times the step of successively performing the first and the second step.
The step of etching the oxide layer above-mentioned preferably includes a step of etching using chlorine gas as the etching gas.
The step of etching the oxide layer preferably includes a step of using a gas activated by plasma excitation as the etching gas.
The oxide layer above-mentioned is preferably a (Ba,Sr)TiO3 layer.
Chlorides, bromides, and iodides of alkaline-earth metals have relatively high vapor pressures. So, a thin film containing an alkaline-earth metal can be etched by using chlorine, bromine, or iodine. Also, since F highly corrosive for SiO2 is not contained, SiO2 portions used in a semiconductor device or in a film formation apparatus are not damaged. Therefore, dry etching using chlorine, bromine, and iodine gases can be effectively used as a cleaning means of a film formation apparatus. Additionally, the etching temperature can be lowered when active halogen radicals are formed by activating a halogen.
Particularly chlorides of alkaline-earth metals have relatively high vapor pressures, so alkaline-earth metals contained in a thin film can be etched at a high temperature of 700xc2x0 C. or more. However, in the temperature range of 700xc2x0 C. or more within which alkaline-earth metals can be etched, chlorides of metals such as titanium and tantalum evaporate and at the same time redeposit by thermal decomposition. This makes etching difficult to perform. A thin film containing a plurality of metals including alkaline-earth metals can be dry-etched by dividing the dry etching step into: a step of preferentially dry-etching metals whose chlorides thermally decompose to redeposit at high temperatures, and a step of preferentially dry-etching the alkaline-earth metals.
Also, by etching at a high temperature of about 800xc2x0 C. after etching is performed using chlorine gas at a low temperature of about 500xc2x0 C., metals other than alkaline-earth metals can be previously etched. This facilitates the etching at a high temperature of about 800xc2x0 C., since the residual film contains only oxides of the alkaline-earth metals.
In particular, metals such as titanium, tantalum, and ruthenium whose chlorides decompose and redeposit at a temperature of 700xc2x0 C. or more at which alkaline-earth metals can be etched are etched as fluorides in this temperature range by using an etching gas such as chlorine trifluoride. This makes two-stage etching feasible. Since etching of alkaline-earth metals and etching of metals other than the alkaline-earth metals can be performed at the same etching temperature, the etching can be performed within a short time period, and the etching gas consumption amount can be reduced. It is also possible to suppress film peeling caused by abrupt temperature changes during etching.
Furthermore, a thick film containing alkaline-earth metals can be etched by repeating an etching step of primarily etching alkaline-earth metals and an etching step of etching metals other than alkaline-earth metals. Since etching is done in stages, no perfect etching needs to be performed in the individual etching steps. This allows close temperatures such as 850xc2x0 C. and 700xc2x0 C. to be set as different etching temperatures. Accordingly, time loss resulting from etching temperature change can be reduced, and this shortens the etching time. By this shortening of the etching time, it is possible to suppress deterioration of an apparatus exposed to high-temperature exhaust gases and reduce the etching gas consumption amount.
Also, when etching is performed while the etching temperature is changed, a formed film containing alkaline-earth metals can be etched even in an apparatus having a reaction chamber whose etching temperature is difficult to abruptly change.
An etching method according to the second aspect of the present invention comprises the steps of preparing an oxide layer containing at least one type of alkaline-earth metal, and etching the oxide layer containing at least one type of alkaline-earth metal by using an etching gas composed of a gas containing a halogen element and a gas consisting of a halide of Ti.
The etching step desirably comprises the step of etching by using a gas containing at least fluorine as the gas containing a halogen element.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, even when Ti is selectively removed and no longer exists in an object to be cleaned, Ti is supplied from a gas. This produces halides such as Baxe2x80x94Ti and Srxe2x80x94Ti necessary to remove Ba and Sr. Consequently, perfect cleaning is possible.
Also, since halides of Ti have high vapor pressures, a gas amount containing Ti necessary for cleaning can be readily supplied. Additionally, since a halogen is also used as an etching gas, it does not interfere with etching.
A chemical vapor growth apparatus according to the third aspect of the present invention comprises a reaction chamber, a heating mechanism for heating the reaction chamber, a reaction gas supply unit connected to the reaction chamber to supply a reaction gas, a reaction gas exhaust unit connected to the reaction chamber to exhaust the reaction gas from the reaction chamber, and a member installed in the reaction chamber, wherein one of the reaction chamber and the member has a portion made of quartz, and at least a part of a surface of the quartz portion, which is exposed to the reaction gas, is coated with a fluoride of an alkaline-earth metal.
The portion of the quartz member, which is coated with a fluoride of an alkaline-earth metal is a portion to be exposed to a cleaning gas during cleaning of the apparatus.
Since fluorides of alkaline-earth metals have high resistance to a highly corrosive gas at high temperatures, damages to quartz members by a cleaning gas during cleaning can be suppressed.
Gas cleaning done by a CVD apparatus for a thin film containing alkaline-earth metals as constituent elements must be performed at high temperatures by using a highly corrosive gas. A protective film made from a fluoride of an alkaline-earth metal is particularly effective in cleaning.
Damages to quartz caused by a cleaning gas are especially remarkable when a cleaning gas containing fluorine is used. Hence, protection using a fluoride of an alkaline-earth metal is effective.
A cleaning method of a chemical vapor growth apparatus according to the fourth aspect of the present invention is a cleaning method of a hot wall type chemical vapor growth apparatus which uses a quartz member and deposits an oxide containing at least one type of alkaline-earth metal, comprising the steps of depositing a fluoride of an alkaline-earth metal at least on a surface of the quartz member, depositing the oxide on a substrate for deposition once or more, and etching the oxide by using an etching gas containing a fluorine compound.
The etching step desirably comprises the step of using a gas further containing a halide of Ti as the etching gas.
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, a protective film is formed by using a gas as in normal CVD, so the apparatus need not be disassembled in the formation of the protective film. Since the protective film is formed, an etching gas containing, e.g., ClF3 can be used. Even when the protective film deteriorates by repeated BST film formation and ClF3 cleaning, the protective film can be re-formed without immediately disassembling the apparatus. This increases the availability and throughput of the apparatus.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.

Etching method and cleaning method of chemical vapor growth apparatus


An embodiment of a photomask for forming gate lines and a method of manufacturing semiconductor devices using the photomask is disclosed. The photomask includes a photomask substrate, gate line mask patterns that define gate lines that cross at least one active region on a semiconductor substrate, and that are arranged in parallel, gate tab mask patterns formed on both sides of each gate line mask pattern, and joints formed between adjacent gate tab mask patterns, and that include a separation region. A relatively large gate tab mask pattern can be formed using the photomask. And a short channel effect at the boundary of the active region can be improved with the large gate tab mask pattern, so the characteristics and reliability of the semiconductor devices can be improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photomask, such as a photomask for forming gate lines on a semiconductor substrate, and a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device using the photomask.
2. Description of the Related Art
Photomasks include pattern information used for transferring shapes of various patterns onto a silicon wafer for fabricating semiconductor devices. Therefore, the most fundamental task of forming fine patterns of semiconductor devices is dependent upon photomasks. Typically all patterns of semiconductor devices are formed by photolithography processes that use photomasks.
FIG. 1A is a conventional photomask for forming gate lines. Referring to FIG. 1A, the conventional photomask 10 for forming the gate lines includes gate line mask patterns 21 and gate tab mask patterns 23 on a substrate 11. An active region 15 is illustrated as an example of where the mask patterns may be situated while forming the gate lines. The gate line mask patterns 21 cross the active region 15, and are parallel to each other. The gate tab mask patterns 23 are located on both sides of the gate line mask patterns 21, and cover the boundary of the active region 15 and an adjacent isolation region. Due to increasing integration of semiconductor devices, active region sizes and channel lengths continue to decrease to a point where hot electron induced punch-through (HEIP) may occur between the active region 15 and the isolation region. Therefore, the gate tab mask patterns 23 are formed to increase the width of the gate lines on the active/isolation region boundary to help prevent HEIP.
Although gate lines 31 are formed using the photomask 21 illustrated in FIG. 1A, the actual pattern formed on a semiconductor device by the technique illustrated above would appear as illustrated in FIG. 1B. Due to optical proximity effects, pattern lengths of gate tabs 33 actually formed on the semiconductor substrate 11 are reduced from the length of the original gate mask patterns 23 and the corners of gate tabs 33 are rounded. As a result, semiconductor device characteristics may suffer from a reduced channel length. Furthermore, and as shown in FIG. 1B, because the gate tabs are in the shape of curve with a peak, the channel length will be further decreased if a misalignment occurs, further deteriorating the semiconductor device characteristics.


A method for purifying a crude acetone raw material containing low molecular weight impurities using three columns in sequence is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of feeding the crude acetone raw material into a first column; adding an alkaline reagent and an oxidative reagent into the first column; feeding the first bottom fraction to a second rectification column; optionally adding an alkaline reagent to the second column above the charge point of the bottom fraction; separating a purified acetone from the high molecular weight impurities and removing the purified acetone as a top fraction by distillation in the second column, thereby forming a second bottom fraction comprising an acetone mixture comprising high molecular weight impurities; feeding the second bottom fraction comprising the acetone mixture to a third rectification column; removing a top fraction from the third column; and returning the top fraction removed from the third column to the first column, wherein the second rectification column is operated at atmospheric pressure, and wherein the purified acetone has an acetaldehyde level of less than 5 ppm and a KT-Test time of greater than 11 hours, as measured by the SABIC KT-Test method.

The present invention relates to the field of chemistry and, specifically, to the technology of organic synthesis; namely to the production of acetone obtained together with phenol during the decomposition of cumene hydroperoxide.
In addition to the basic products, which are acetone and phenol, an entire series of impurities having an adverse effect on the quality of the end product forms during the oxidation of cumene and subsequent decomposition of cumene hydroperoxide. After neutralization, acetone and phenol, the decomposition products of cumene hydroperoxide are fed to a fractionation column, in which they are separated into acetone raw material and phenol raw material fractions. Then, depending on the purification system used, the acetone raw material and phenol raw material fractions enter the appropriate stages of isolation and purification.
A method is known for purifying acetone raw material comprising subjecting the decomposition product to purification in two rectification columns wherein the acetone treated in the first rectification column is sent to the second rectification column, and purified acetone is discharged from the top of the second rectification column as a commercial product (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,215,745).
It is known, however, that use of simple distillation methods alone to purify acetone raw material is not completely effective since impurities, specifically, aliphatic aldehydes, olefins and a whole series of other impurities, remain in the treated acetone product, reducing its purity and quality.
A number of chemical treatment methods involving alkali metal hydroxides are known that are effective in causing low-boiling aldehydes to condense to high-boiling aldols that are then removed from the acetone by ordinary distillation (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,722,769 and 4,340,447). These references each disclose different processes for purifying acetone in the presence of an alkaline agent. The aldol derivatives formed are thermally unstable and decompose in the reboiler of the distillation column, thus producing low-boiling aldehydes. Both methods produce product (commercial) acetone having KT-Test values that are lower than desired.
A method for purifying acetone in which distillation of acetone raw material is carried out in three rectification columns in sequence is also known (see, for example, Canadian Patent No. 1016100). In this process, the second column is operated under reduced pressure, which increases operating costs and decreases operating capacity.
There is a need to provide a simple and flexible method for further purifying acetone (to reduce the levels of impurities) without regard to the quality of the acetone raw material.