Structure and methods for reduced latency in calculating an error signal based on the output of a Viterbi detector. Certain partial terms of the error signal are precomputed before the final output of the Viterbi detector is determined. The precomputed terms are used to determine the error in fewer clock cycles once the Viterbi output is fully determined. In one exemplary embodiment, the final Viterbi output is used as an input to a multiplexer that selects a precomputed error. In addition to calculating an error signal, a level signal may be precomputed as well so that the level signal is available more quickly after the output of the Viterbi detector is fully determined.

The present invention relates generally to error detection in a read channel. More specifically, a system and method for precomputing an error signal from a Viterbi output is disclosed.
FIG. 1A is a block diagram of a magnetic disk reading system including circuitry for reading an analog signal from a magnetic storage disk. An analog signal is recovered from a detector and input to analog front end 202. Analog front end 202 includes various analog processing components that condition the signal from the detector for deriving a digital signal from the analog data. For example, analog front end 202 may include a boost filter for boosting the high frequency component of the signal from the detector. Analog front end 202 may also include an adjustable gain amplifier that amplifies the signal. In addition, analog front end 202 may include an adjustable timing loop that recovers a clock from the signal or adjusts a clock to be synchronized to the analog data signal read from the detector. Analog front end 202 may also include an adaptive equalizer for equalizing the analog signal.
Some or all of the above-mentioned analog components may be adaptable based on the signal that is being read. Different disk drive systems tend to have different channel transfer functions or responses when data is read from disk. In fact, a single disk or disk drive may change as the disk or disk drive ages and experiences wear. As a result, it is often necessary to adjust the parameters of the devices in the analog front end such as the boost filter, the gain, the amplifier, the timing recovery circuit, and the equalizer to adapt to changes in the disk. Also, these various components may need to be adapted to vary for changes that occur in reading different regions of a single disk.
The output from analog front end 202 is input to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 204. The output of analog-to-digital converter 204 in one embodiment is a six-bit output that forms part of a sequence, Z: z1, z2, . . . zn, zn+1. . . , Z is the data sequence that results from the data that was originally written to the disk being transformed by the data channel. The six-bit representation of the elements of the input sequence at the output has more precision than the input data itself because it has been transformed by intersymbol interference and other effects of the channel.
The digitized output of ADC 204 is input to a Viterbi detector 206. Viterbi detector 206 is configured to read the six-bit output from the analog-to-digital converter and to determine, based on the sequence of data, the most likely input sequence that produced the sequence. The Viterbi detector may do that by determining the Euclidean distance from a given output sequence to different possible output sequences that correspond to various input sequences. The possible output sequence that is the closest to the detected output sequence is determined to be the correct output sequence. In doing this, the Viterbi detector must look at more than one element of the output sequence of the analog-to-digital converter because the transfer function of the channel and analog front end 202 is generally a function of more than one element in the data sequence. For example, one type of coding, EPR4, has a transfer function that is 1+Dxe2x88x92D2xe2x88x92D3. Thus, Viterbi detector 206 operates on the raw digitized output from the ADC to produce a recovered data sequence corresponding to a most likely input sequence.
The performance of components in analog front end 202, such as the equalizer and the timing recovery circuit, can be improved by adapting their characteristics using feedback from the output. To that end, an error signal that describes the difference between the raw digitized output and the recovered data signal is computed. Accordingly, the output of Viterbi detector 206 is sent to error signal calculation circuitry 208. Error signal calculation circuitry 208 computes an error signal by subtracting the transformed output of Viterbi detector 206 from the corresponding output of ADC 204. In addition, error signal calculation circuitry 208 may calculate other parameters such as a level signal. A level signal indicates whether an output is positive, negative, or zero and can be used in conjunction with the error signal to improve the performance of components in analog front end 202.
The output of error signal calculation circuitry 208 is sent to a control parameter adjustment generator 210. Control parameter adjustment generator 210 uses the signals calculated by error signal calculation circuitry 208 to compute parameters that can be used to improve the performance of, for example, the timing loop, the gain loop, the offset loop, the MR amplitude asymmetry loop, and the filter boost loop in analog front end 202.
FIG. 1B is a block diagram of an implementation of error signal calculation circuitry 208. A recovered output signal 220, an, is received from Viterbi detector 206 and sent to circuitry 222 that applies a transfer function to the recovered output signal.
The transfer function applied by circuitry 222 typically relies on multiple terms in the sequence, A, of recovered output signals, a1, a2, . . . an, an+1. . . . Thus, circuitry 222 typically includes memory elements for storing a plurality of recovered output signals, anxe2x88x921, anxe2x88x922, anxe2x88x923, from Viterbi detector 206, and also includes a processor or logic for applying a transfer function to the sequence of recovered output signals.
Circuitry 222 operates on a sequence of recovered output signals, an, anxe2x88x921, anxe2x88x922, anxe2x88x923, to produce a transformed signal, xn. This transformed signal, xn, is used to compute an error signal, en, and a level signal, leveln. The error signal, en, is computed by subtracting the transformed output signal, xn, from the raw digitized output signal, zn, (224) where zn represents the output signal corresponding to the recovered data signal, an, from which the transformed signal, xn, was calculated. The level signal is calculated from the transformed output, xn, and simply indicates whether xnis positive, negative, or zero (226).
Because circuitry 222 uses a sequence of recovered output signals to calculate Xn xe2x80x94xe2x80x94for example, the EPR4 transfer function uses an, anxe2x88x921, anxe2x88x922, and anxe2x88x923xe2x80x94there is a delay of several clock cycles while circuitry 222 waits to receive this sequence. Moreover, because the calculation of xn is relatively complexxe2x80x94requiring several multi-bit additions and subtractionsxe2x80x94it typically requires multiple clock cycles to complete, even after the sequence of recovered output signals, an, anxe2x88x921, anxe2x88x922, anxe2x88x923, has been received.
Thus, to compute an error signal, en, circuitry 222 first waits several clock cycles to collect the sequence of recovered output signals, an, necessary to calculate xn. This is followed by additional delay while the transfer function is applied to yield xn. And finally, additional delay occurs when xn is subtracted from the raw digitized output signal zn to yield en.
Thus, while the above-described system is effective for disk reading schemes that utilize a simple read-channel target transfer function such as PRML or EPRML, it begins to lose its effectiveness as the complexity of the target transfer function increases, and each element of the read channel output sequence becomes a function of a greater number of input sequence elements. Computing the error from the input to the output in the manner described above for a system with a more complex transfer function, such as EPR4, requires the recovery of several output data points before the error can determined. This increases the latency of the system and reduces the effectiveness of the feedback loop.
Accordingly, a better method of calculating the error is needed to decrease the delay in the feedback loop and to increase the effectiveness of various adaptive elements in the read channel.
A reduced latency method of calculating an error signal based on the output of a Viterbi detector is disclosed. Certain terms of the error signal are precomputed before the final output of the Viterbi detector is determined. The precomputed terms are used to determine the error in fewer clock cycles once the Viterbi output is determined. In one embodiment, the final Viterbi output is used as an input to a multiplexer that selects a precomputed error. In addition to calculating an error signal, a level signal may be precomputed as well so that the level signal is available more quickly after the output of the Viterbi detector is determined.
In one embodiment, a system for determining an error signal from an output of a Viterbi detector includes an analog-to-digital converter for converting a raw output from a data channel into a raw digitized output. A Viterbi detector determines a recovered data sequence from the raw digitized output. An error signal preprocessor is operable to compute a partial error signal from a first portion of the recovered data sequence and the raw digitized output. An error signal processor is operable to compute a final error signal from the partial error signal and a second portion of the recovered data sequence.
In one embodiment, a method of determining one or more signals includes receiving a raw digitized output from a data channel. A first portion of a recovered data sequence determined from the raw digitized output is received. A partial error signal is precomputed from the first portion of the recovered data sequence and the raw digitized output. A second portion of a recovered data sequence determined from the raw digitized output is received. A final error signal is computed from the partial error signal and a second portion of the recovered data sequence.
In one embodiment, a method of determining a level signal includes receiving a recovered data sequence determined from the raw digitized output by a Viterbi detector. A partial level signal is precomputed from a first portion of the recovered data sequence and the raw digitized output. A final level signal is computed from the partial level signal and a second portion of the recovered data sequence.

Error signal calculation from a Viterbi output


The present invention is aimed at providing an optical disc device and a recording condition setting method which can automatically determine an optical recording condition to an optical disc, and the optical disc device comprises an optical pickup which records data on a disc; a data encoder which modulates data to be recorded; a recording timing setting means which sets a timing of recording the data on the disc; a phase error detection means which measures an error amount of a mark recorded on the disc from a position where the mark should be properly located; an error convergence means which calculates error information indicating an optimum position of the mark; a recording timing calculation means which calculates a correction value of the recording timing to be set on the recording timing setting means, based on the error information; and a control means which feedbacks an output of the recording timing calculation means to the recording timing setting means, thereby to optimize the recording timing.

When recording data in media requiring compatibility such as DVD and CD, it is desired that the recorded data can be reproduced by devices other than a device which has recorded the data. Such media have been produced by many makers, and there exist many inferior media to achieve cost reduction for extreme competition in the market.
Under such circumstances, device makers previously examine the affinity between a recording device and media every time the recording device is developed, and investigate the recording condition for each medium. The result is stored in a memory as a recording condition library in the recording device, and the recording device refers to the recording conditions of media from the library possessed by the recording device, based on the information of a medium inserted by an end user, to perform data recording with the recording condition that is most suitable for the inserted medium.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2003-30837

Optical disc device and recording condition setting method


A process for mounting the shaft to the rotor of an electric motor, comprising the steps of: positioning a cylinder block (3) and a rotor (7) relative to each other with a predetermined axial spacing therebetween and with the axes of a bearing bore of the cylinder block (3) and of a central bore of rotor (7) being aligned to each other inside a hermetic chamber (10) having an atmosphere inert at pressures higher than the atmospheric pressure; introducing a shaft (5) which has been diametrically contracted by refrigeration in the hermetic chamber (10) through both the bearing bore and the central bore of the rotor (7); maintaining the shaft (5)-cylinder block (3)-rotor (7) assembly inside the hermetic chamber (10) immobilized until the diametrical thermal dilatation of the shaft (5) causes said shaft to be secured to the wall of the central bore of rotor (7) and until a thermal balance between the parts has been achieved.

Reciprocating hermetic compressors comprise a cylinder block, which is mounted inside a hermetically closed shell and which is secured to said shell through an adequate dampening means, said cylinder block having a main bearing, which receives and supports a flange portion of a rotor shaft which is concentrically placed in a central bore provided in the main bearing of the cylinder block. A lower end portion of the rotor shaft, projecting from the main bearing, is rigidly mounted to the rotor of the electric motor of the compressor. In reciprocating compressors, said shaft moves parts of a connecting rod--piston subassembly during its rotation caused by the rotation of the rotor, said shaft providing at the same time the pumping of the lubricant oil to the movable parts of the compressor.
The mounting of the shaft to the rotor is achieved in order to avoid the formation of gaps between said parts, avoiding relative movements between the shaft and the rotor.
One of the known processes for mounting the electric motor shaft of the above cited type uses mechanical interference at room temperature or with rotor heating. In the mounting in which there is little or no rotor heating, the shaft is introduced with a great effort into the central bore of the rotor, causing mechanical wear of said shaft and rotor parts, which usually deforms the resilient components or fragile component parts of the assembly.
In the mounting under high temperature, the shaft is introduced into the rotor when said rotor is heated to a temperature enough to cause its dilatation and consequent diameter increase of the central bore. The fixation of the shaft to the rotor, after said shaft has been introduced in said rotor, occurs during cooling and consequent contraction of said rotor, which, by reducing the diameter of the bore, eliminates the mounting gap and adjusts the rotor to the shaft. This type of assembly damages the components which are delicate or susceptible to deterioration caused by heat in the rotor.
In order that the assembly with rotor heating does not require great efforts, it is necessary to increase the temperature of the rotor. Nevertheless, in ECM motors, in which the rotor carries magnets, such temperatures cause damages to the rotor, since it is still required a determined degree of mechanical interference, or because the high temperature, which is necessary to eliminate the mechanical interference, destroys the rotor magnets.
This effect is particularly important when the magnets are affixed around the rotor core.
These problems are intensified when part of the components involved are obtained, e.g. by sintering, such as the rotors formed with sinterized magnets, which besides being fragile do not resist to high temperatures or high thermal gradients, the characteristics of said rotors being impaired when the temperature is higher than 120.degree. C.
Moreover, high temperatures are also infeasible in solutions in which a rotor cover of the stainless steel type or a coiled cover is used. Although the stainless steel covers support high temperatures, in this solution the heating destroys the resin which retains the magnets on the rotor core. The coiled cover cannot withstand temperatures above 150.degree. C.
Another inconvenience of the known solutions comes from the need for high and costly dimensional precision of the shaft-rotor parts, in order to guarantee an acceptable degree of mechanical interference during the assembly, maintaining the heating temperature of the rotor within acceptable limits.

Process for mounting a shaft to the rotor of an electric motor

Empresa Brasileira de Compressores S/A Embraco


A method and apparatus for automatically configuring circuit cards used in a computer system. The present invention includes a method and apparatus that enables the circuit cards to be automatically configured during system boot up without any user intervention. The present invention also includes a method for the computer system software to detect resources requested by the circuit cards in order to resolve any system resource conflicts.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a computer system. More specifically, the field of the present invention is that of a computer system having bus and the ability to automatically configure circuit cards that are coupled to the bus.
2. Related Art
Computers and their associated bus architecture and protocol establish a framework upon which other items like integrated circuits and add-on circuit cards are based. The bus and bus controller provide a medium for the computer to communicate with the peripherals coupled to the bus. The Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus is an example of a bus architecture widely used in the computer industry as a standard bus expansion in most personal computers (PCs).
This bus architecture requires the allocation of system resources like memory, input/output (I/O) address spaces, Direct Memory Access (DMA) channels, and interrupt levels among multiple ISA cards. The ISA interface however, does not have any defined hardware or software mechanism for allocating these resources. As a result, configuration of ISA cards (circuit cards) is typically done with hardware jumpers. This procedure changes the decode maps for memory and I/O space and steers the DMA and interrupt signals to different pins on the bus. This procedure also requires that system configuration files are created and updated to reflect these configurations.
This prior art configuration procedure presents problems; because, the end-user must have a fair understanding of computer system configuration procedures to effect some of these configuration changes. The user typically must resolve any system resource conflicts that result from any configuration by referring to documentation provided by the system and card manufacturers. This procedure can sometimes be frustrating and unreliable.
Prior art bus standards, such as Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) and Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA), have both hardware and software implementations to identify system resources requested by a card. However, user intervention is still required for the resolution of conflicts that arise during any reconfiguration of the circuit cards. These implementations are also not compatible with the installed base of PCs with ISA card slots.
In order to relieve the burden of users reading manuals to configure circuit cards, many prior art system designers provide software to help in the configuration of these circuit cards. However, the responsibility of resolving resource conflicts that result after a manual reconfiguration of these circuit cards is still left to the user.
Prior art systems have been unable to provide any hardware and software mechanism that will automatically configure these ISA circuit cards when inserted into Personal Computer systems. Therefore, a method and apparatus is needed that will enable these cards to be configured into a bus architecture based computers system, without the need for any user intervention. The use of these circuit cards should be such that the user simply has to plug (insert) the cards in a computer system, without any manual configurations or resource conflict resolutions by the system user. The system should automatically resolve resource conflicts between add-on circuit cards. This automatic conflict resolution should optimally allocate system resources between the add-on cards and other devices in the system without any user intervention. Prior art systems have been unable to achieve this level of automatic configuration.

Method and apparatus for automatically configuring circuit cards in a computer system


A field effect transistor including: a gate insulating film; an oxide semiconductor layer that serves as an active layer and whose main structural elements are Sn, Zn and O, or Sn, Ga, Zn and O; and an oxide intermediate layer that is disposed between the gate insulating film and the oxide semiconductor layer, and whose resistivity is higher than that of the oxide semiconductor layer.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a field effect transistor, a display device, a sensor, and a method of fabricating a field effect transistor.
2. Related Art
Field effect transistors are widely used as unit elements of integrated circuits for semiconductor memories, high-frequency signal amplifying elements, elements for driving display elements such as liquid crystals, and the like. Field effect transistors that are made to be thin-filmed in particular are called thin film transistors (TFTs). Further, a silicon TFT, that has an active layer formed from amorphous silicon that can be formed over a large surface area, is used in flat panel displays.
The development of TFTs, that use an In—Ga—Zn—O (hereinafter abbreviated as "IGZO") oxide semiconductor thin film in the active layer (channel layer) instead of this amorphous silicon, has been carried out actively in recent years. An oxide semiconductor thin film can be formed at a low temperature and exhibits higher mobility that amorphous silicon, and further, because an oxide semiconductor thin film is transparent with respect to visible light, a flexible, transparent TFT can be formed on a substrate such as a plastic plate or a film or the like.
However, in order to fabricate a TFT that is IGZO and has high mobility, post-annealing at a high temperature (e.g., greater than or equal to 400° C. in the atmosphere) is needed, and it is difficult to form TFTs on flexible substrates that have low heat-resistance.
By the way, differently than an IGZO semiconductor thin film, an Sn—Ga—Zn—O (hereinafter abbreviated as "SGZO") oxide semiconductor thin film, that uses Sn instead of the In in IGZO, does not contain In that is a rare metal, and Sn4+ has the same electron arrangement as In3+. Therefore, SGZO semiconductor thin films are anticipated as novel oxide semiconductor thin films that replace IGZO semiconductor thin films. Note that, among the aforementioned "SGZO", the Ga does not have to be essential.
Thus, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-50165 discloses a TFT in which a first metal oxide layer, that is formed on a gate insulating film and contains at least one element among In, Sn and Zn and the like, is made to be the active region, and a second metal oxide layer, that does not contain In and whose sheet resistance is higher than the first metal oxide layer, is layered on the first metal oxide layer.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-16348 discloses a TFT having an interface stabilizing layer at at least one surface among the top surface and the bottom surface of an active layer that is structured by doping ZnO with ions of at least one among Ga, In, Sn or the like.
However, in the TFT disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-50165, Sn is not essential as a structural element of the first metal oxide layer (active layer) that becomes the active region. Further, in this transistor, the first metal oxide layer is disposed between the gate insulating film and the second metal oxide layer in order to aim for stabilization of the threshold voltage, but it is thought that an improvement in mobility is not devised by such an arrangement.
Further, the TFT disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-16348 has an interface stabilizing layer that can become an intermediate layer between the gate insulating film and the active layer, but Sn is not essential as a structural element of the active layer. Further, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-16348, the object is to aim for improvement of the interface characteristic, and improvement of the mobility of a TFT, that has an active layer structured by an SGZO oxide semiconductor, is not disclosed or suggested in any way.

High mobility field effect transistor with ZN containing active layer, display device, sensor, and method of manufacturing field effect transistor


A magnetically coupled reactor includes a coupled core member, a first coil, and a second coil. The coupled core member includes a first core and a second core made of a magnetic material and disposed to face each other, a coil channel, and a sheet-like magnetic body by which a coupling portion between cores is put between the first core and the second core at an outer portion of the first and second cores. Each coil is wound around a leg through the coil channel in a lap winding manner such that the coils are overlapped on top of each other in the coil channel when seen in an axial direction. The sheet-like magnetic body extends from the coupling portion between coils into the coil channel and includes a portion arranged between coils located between the coils in the axial direction.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to a magnetically coupled reactor and a power converter including the magnetically coupled reactor. The magnetically coupled reactor includes a coupled core member having a first core and a second core. The magnetically coupled reactor also includes a first coil and a second coil that are wound around legs of the coupled core member.
Related Art
There are cases where it is desired to decrease leakage magnetic flux in a magnetically coupled reactor by increasing the degree of magnetic coupling. To this end, a technique such as disclosed in JP 2009-284647 A has been conceived.
JP 2009-284647 A has disclosed a magnetically coupled reactor formed by two outer cores and an inner core disposed between the two outer cores. Two coils are wound around the outer cores and the inner core. One of the two coils is wound around one of the outer cores and the inner core, while the other coil is wound around the other of the two outer cores and the inner core. The coils are partly overlapped alternately to form a lap-winding portion, and the lap-winding portion is then disposed around the inner core.
During the use of the magnetically coupled reactor, a negative-phase-sequence current that flows in a reverse direction may flow through the two coils. In this case, magnetic flux is generated in both coils and becomes intensified at portions where the two coils face each other, which therefore may cause an increase of Joule loss. If the lap-winding portion is formed as in the structure of JP 2009-284647 A, the Joule loss could be decreased. However, such a structure may require new cores at both ends in a direction orthogonal to the axial direction of the coils, and extended windings to be wound around the two cores also become necessary. As a result of this, the size of the structure is increased. Therefore, in a power converter, improvement is desired from the view point of miniaturizing the structure in which a voltage converting operation can be performed using the leakage inductance without excessively suppressing the leakage inductance.

Magnetically coupled reactor and power converter


A computer network (10) is provided that includes first and second computer systems (12 and 14). The first computer system (12) includes a software application (24) having a function call (26). The second computer system (14) communicates with the first computer system (12) and includes a function (34) corresponding to the function call (26). A function importation engine (28) identifies the function call (26) and copies the function (34) from the second computer system (14) to the first computer system (12). The function importation engine (28) enables the first computer system (12) to operate in a stand-alone configuration.

In a computer network environment, it is often advantageous to implement a remote procedure call (RPC) which allows an application on one computer to execute a specific function on another computer in the network. This allows a commonly used function to be stored and executed on only one computer in the network.
However, one result of having remote procedure calls in an application is that the application will not function properly if the computer is disconnected from the network. Occasionally, a user may wish to operate the computer in a stand-alone configuration, for example when traveling, or when the network is down due to maintenance or system failures. In this situation, the user is not able to fully utilize the application because of the remote procedure calls.

Method and system for importing remote functions to a network computer


A parallax barrier type stereoscopic image display device comprises: an image panel that display a left-eye image and a right-eye image; a barrier panel that has a switchable barrier comprising a liquid crystal layer, a reference electrode positioned above the liquid crystal layer, and a plurality of driving electrode channels positioned below the liquid crystal layer, each of which is controlled independently, and selectively blocks light from the image panel; and a driver that supplies a reference voltage to the reference electrode and applies a channel driving voltage to the driving electrode channels to form a barrier area and an open area in the switchable barrier.

1. Field
This document relates to a parallax type stereoscopic image display device.
2. Related Art
Recently, with the increasing interest in three-dimensional stereoscopic images, there have been developed a variety of stereoscopic image display devices. Generally, a stereoscopic sense that a person perceives occurs from a complex effect of the degree of a change of thickness of the person's eye lens according to the location of an object to be observed, the angle difference of the object observed from both eyes, the differences of location and shape of the object observed from both eyes, the time difference due to a movement of the object, and other various psychological and memory effects. In particular, binocular disparity, caused by about a 6-7 cm lateral distance between the person's left eye and right eye, can be regarded as the main cause of the stereoscopic sense. Due to binocular disparity, the person perceives the object with an angle difference, which makes the left eye and the right eye receive different images, and when these two images are transmitted to the person's brain through retinas, the brain can perceive the original three-dimensional stereoscopic image by combining the two pieces of information.
Methods for displaying stereoscopic images using binocular disparity are classified into a glasses method and a non-glasses method. A glasses type stereoscopic image display device displays left and right parallax images each having a different polarization direction on a display panel, and displays a 3D image using polarization glasses or liquid crystal shutter glasses. On the other hand, a non-glasses type stereoscopic image display device includes a parallax barrier and a lenticular lens. Recently, research into these types of stereoscopic image display devices is actively under way.
As shown in FIG. 1, the parallax type stereoscopic image display spatially separates light incident from an image panel into light of a left-eye image and light of a right-eye image by using a barrier panel. The barrier panel and the image panel may be integrated into a display element. The barrier panel has a switchable barrier for selectively blocking the light incident from the image panel. As shown in FIG. 2, the switchable barrier panel comprises a liquid crystal layer LC and a first electrode pattern E1 and a second electrode pattern E2 which are formed to face each other, with the liquid crystal layer LC interposed therebetween. A driving voltage is applied to the first electrode pattern E1 to drive the liquid crystal layer LC, and a reference voltage is applied to the second electrode pattern E2. In the switchable barrier panel, when the liquid crystal layer LC is driven to block light by the driving voltage applied to the first electrode pattern E1, the liquid crystal layer LC functions as a barrier area, and when the liquid crystal layer LC is driven to cause light to pass therethrough, the liquid crystal layer LC functions as an open area.
In such a switchable barrier, the open area and the barrier area are fixed to the sizes given at design time. The size ratio between the open area and the barrier area is set to a constant value by taking viewing distance, viewing angle, etc. into account. In the parallax barrier type stereoscopic image display device, accordingly, the display quality of a 3D image varies according to viewing distance, and the viewing angle is very limited. Moreover, the concept of multi-view was introduced into the conventional parallax barrier type stereoscopic image display device to secure a viewing angle. In this case, degradation in the picture quality of stereoscopic images caused by resolution degradation is unavoidable.
Recently, a dynamic barrier technology has been introduced into the parallax barrier type stereoscopic image display device in order to compensate for viewing angle limitations and resolution degradation. The dynamic barrier technology, used in conjunction with an eye-tracking technology, is a method for compensating for a viewing angle by changing the position of the barrier as the viewer's eyes are diverted. In the dynamic barrier technology, for example, the position of the barrier is changed to the right by ΔX as shown in FIG. 3 as much as the position of the viewer's both eyes (left and right eyes) is shifted to the right from the first point P1 to the second point P2, thus securing a viewing angle enough not to cause 3D crosstalk.
To implement this dynamic barrier technology, the first electrode pattern ('E1' of FIG. 2) applied with the liquid crystal driving voltage needs to be finely controlled. To this end, it is inevitable to apply multiple layers (two or three layers) for multichannel configuration to the first electrode pattern. However, multilayer application may be accompanied by a luminance difference which occurs within the barrier, thereby degrading the quality of a stereoscopic image and causing visual fatigue. The main reasons for luminance difference include etch bias difference between layers, difference in effective dielectric constant, alignment tolerance, etc.

Parallax barrier type stereoscopic image display device


An electro-responsive elastomeric material comprising (A) an electrically insulating polymer having a specific modulus of elasticity and (B) a fine powder dispersed in the polymer which electrically polarizes under an electric field independent of water changes its viscoelasticity upon voltage application. The powder has a mean particle size of 0.5 to 500 .mu.m and is (1) a fine carbonaceous powder having a C/H atomic ratio of from 1.2 to 5, (2) composite particles having minute particulates of an insulating material dispersed in a matrix phase of a carbonaceous or carbide material, (3) composite particles having minute particulates of a carbonaceous or carbide material dispersed in a matrix phase of an insulating material, or (4) a fine composite powder of a stratum clay mineral having a two-dimensional stratum structure with a carbonaceous or carbide material incorporated between the strata.

In the prior art, research has been effected on vibration damping rubbers and dampers having electrorheological fluid sealed therein with a view toward developing practically acceptable devices having the excellent function of adjusting spring or loss properties by changing the applied electric field in response to an input. In order that vibration damping rubbers and dampers utilizing electrorheological fluid perform in practice, it is necessary to completely seal the electro-rheological fluid in a container and to develop a fully stable electrorheological fluid in which dispersed fine particles do not settle or coalesce over a long period of time. Because of the differential specific gravity between an insulating oil as the medium and the dispersed fine particles, none of the prior art electro-rheological fluids could meet these requirements.
One known material whose viscoelasticity varies with an electric field applied thereto is a field effect flexible polymer gel. This polymer gel finds a limited application since it can operate only in a special solvent.
Also, a material whose modulus of elasticity varies with an electric field was recently reported by Japanese Patent Application Kokai (JP-A) No. 91541/1991. This variable modulus material is comprised of an electrically insulating polymeric material having dispersed therein a fine powder which will electrically polarize in an electric field. The dispersed fine powder used in this material is hydrophilic fine particles which will polarize in the presence of water, conductive polymer fine particles, or fine particles which do not undergo sufficient electric polarization in an electric field. Thus, some variable modulus materials are difficult to adjust the water content during manufacture and lack the stability of their quality due to their increased temperature dependency. Some allow excessive current flow upon application of an electric field. And some fail to provide a satisfactory change of modulus of elasticity. For these reasons and other, the variable modulus materials are also limited in use.


A vertical transistor comprises a semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type having a first doped region (48) formed therein. A second doped region (50) is formed within the first doped region (48). A gate overlies the first doped region such that a low impedance path between the second doped region and the semiconductor layer may be created responsive to a voltage applied to the gate. Isolation regions (38 and 58) are formed through the semiconductor layer to isolate the transistor from other devices.

In power integrated circuits, there is frequently a need for several power devices to be formed on a single chip. One such application is an H-bridge driver circuit for motor control. In order to reduce the cost and increase the producibility of an integrated circuit having multiple power devices, the size of each power device must be minimized.
The size of a power device is dictated mainly by the need for a given low on-resistance (R.sub.on) The minimum onresistance per unit area is normally associated with a vertical MOS device, as opposed to a lateral device. In such devices, the gate is formed on a semiconductor surface, the source is formed in a doped region of an opposite conductivity type, and the drain contact is located at the bottom of the chip. Hence, the substrate acts as the drain. When a voltage is applied to the gate, a channel is formed through the doped region, and current may flow from surface source to substrate drain.
Vertical MOS devices provide several advantages over their lateral counterparts. First, the channel width per unit area, and hence, current handling capability is higher. Further, the drain contact is at the bottom in the vertical transistors and the metal scheme required to handle high currents is simplified.
Unfortunately, in a bulk process, if more than one device is integrated on a chip using bottom drains, all drains are inherently connected together. This fairly limits the complexity of a circuit using these devices. In one proposed device, vertical transistors are set in polysilicon. This structure somewhat reduces the coupling between drains, but does not isolate the drains to a desirable degree.
Therefore, a need has arisen to provide a vertical
transistor which may be isolated from other devices.


An application device for a screen protector and an application method thereof are provided for applying an adhesive film to a screen of an electronic device with ease and precision. The application device is formed as a frame-like structure having an internal hollow region. The screen protector includes, from top to bottom, a protective layer, an adhesive film layer, and a release layer sequentially bonded together. The protective layer is greater in area than the adhesive film layer or the release layer and has a peripheral portion extending outwardly beyond the adhesive film layer or the release layer. The peripheral portion of the protective layer is attached to a frame-shaped top surface of the application device while the adhesive film layer and the release layer bonded thereto are placed in, and lie adjacent to a top portion of, the internal hollow region of the application device.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an application device for a screen protector and an application method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a frame-like device which is integrated with a screen protector and by which the screen protector can be applied with precision.
2. Description of Related Art
It is now common practice to apply a protective plastic film to the display screen of a newly bought mobile phone, laptop computer, tablet computer, or the like. This kind of films, generally known as screen protectors, are transparent thin plastic films capable of protecting screens from damage by an external object without interfering with the display of contents on the screens.
While the advantages of screen protectors ell known, the operation of are applying such films can be a nightmare to many. This is simply because one who has little experience in film application must find it difficult to apply a thin film to the intended position on a screen, not to mention leaving no air bubbles in between the film and the screen after the application.
To enable an amateur to achieve professional film application results, a number of auxiliary tools were developed for the application of screen protectors, some examples of which tools are briefly described below.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,369,072 discloses a screen protector applicator including a cradle and a screen protector placed on the bottom surface of the cradle. Both the cradle and the screen protector are dimensioned and configured to conform to the portable electronic device to which the screen protector is to be applied. By placing the portable electronic device into the cradle, the screen protector is applied to the intended application surface of the portable electronic device. According to the design of U.S. Pat. No. 8,369,072, the screen protector is adhesively attached to the bottom surface of the cradle via a double-sided adhesive tape, and because of that, the following two scenarios may take place during the application process. In the first scenario, the screen protector, even though applied to the application surface of the electronic device with success, is peeled off, or displaced with respect to, the application surface when the electronic device is removed from the cradle. This tends to happen if the double-sided adhesive tape is too tacky, given the fact that the separation between the screen protector and the cradle is a separation between two surfaces. Should the screen protector be displaced, air bubbles may be formed as a result. In the second scenario, the screen protector is separated from the cradle prematurely by a downward pulling force applied to peel off the release film of the screen protector from below, and the second scenario tends to happen if the double-sided adhesive tape is not tacky enough. Therefore, the release film in U.S. Pat. No. 8,369,072 must be carefully peeled off upward to prevent the release film from separation from the cradle, but peeling off the release film upward will expose the screen protector to dust or other sources of contamination.
US20130020020 A1 also discloses a tool for screen protector application and includes a jig composed of a top-layer element, a middle-layer element, and a bottom-layer element which can be separated from one another. An inner portion of the middle-layer element is cut away from the middle-layer element according to the shape of the panel cell phone to which the screen protector is to be applied. Thus, a receiving space is formed in the middle-layer element, and the inner portion cut away from the middle-layer element functions as the bottom-layer element. Moreover, an inner portion of the top-layer element is cut away from the top-layer element according to the shape of the screen protector, thereby forming a space in the top-layer element. To apply the screen protector with the jig, the following steps are performed: removing the bottom-layer element from the jig; inserting the predetermined application surface of the panel cell phone into the receiving space of the middle-layer element from below; inserting an adhesive side of the screen protector into the space of the top-layer element; attaching the adhesive side of the screen protector to the predetermined application surface of the panel cell phone; and removing the panel cell phone from the receiving space of the middle-layer element from below. US20130020020 is flawed in that the thin screen protector is subject to misalignment when being inserted into the receiving space of the top-layer element, and such misalignment will prevent the screen protector from being precisely placed at the intended position on the panel cell phone. Another shortcoming of US20130020020 is that the periphery of the screen protector may inadvertently adhere to the sidewall of the space in the top-layer element, causing air bubbles between the screen protector and the intended application surface of the panel cell phone.

Application device for screen protector and application method thereof


A field effect transistor (FET) comprises a substrate; a buried oxide (BOX) layer over the substrate; a current channel region over the BOX layer; source/drain regions adjacent to the current channel region; a buried high-stress film in the BOX layer and regions of the substrate, wherein the high-stress film comprises any of a compressive film and a tensile film; an insulating layer covering the buried high-stress film; and a gate electrode over the current channel region, wherein the high-stress film is adapted to create mechanical stress in the current channel region, wherein the high-stress film is adapted to stretch the current channel region in order to create the mechanical stress in the current channel region; wherein the mechanical stress comprises any of compressive stress and tensile stress, and wherein the mechanical stress caused by the high-stress film causes an increased charge carrier mobility in the current channel region.

1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the invention generally relate to integrated circuits, and, more particularly, to complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) field effect transistors (FETs).
2. Description of the Related Art
Field effect transistors (FETs) are employed in almost every electronic circuit application, such as signal processing, computing, and wireless communications. It is desirable to improve FET performance including the switching speed and on-state current capability. Such an improvement in the performance of FETs stems from enhanced carrier mobility in the FET channel regions. Some conventional techniques deposit epitaxial silicon on relaxed silicon-germanium, which has a larger lattice constant than that of relaxed silicon. However, the presence of the silicon-germanium can cause process issues in the subsequent CMOS fabrication processes, including germanium diffusion into the channels, difficulty in silicide formation, and modified dopant diffusivities, etc. These effects tend to complicate the CMOS fabrication process and generally increase manufacturing cost. Therefore, there remains a need for a technique that increases the charge carrier mobility in the channel regions of FETs, thereby improving the performance of the FETS, and which is compatible with industry accepted FET manufacturing practices and packaging techniques.

Buried stress isolation for high-performance CMOS technology

International Business Machines Corporation


An extendable pivot shaft mechanism of a camera for pivoting a rotatable grip on a camera body is provided to allow the rotatable grip both to rotate about a rotational axis and to move along the rotational axis relative to the camera body,

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an extendable pivot shaft mechanism of a camera for pivoting a rotatable grip on a camera body, and also relates to an extendable pivot shaft mechanism incorporated in various apparatuses including a camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional mechanism (extendable pivot shaft mechanism) for connecting two devices with each other to allow the two devices both to rotate about a rotational axis relative to each other and to move along the rotational axis relative to each other is difficult to construct so as to operate smoothly without increasing the size of the mechanism. For instance, the assignee of the present invention has found that providing a camera body with a rotatable grip capable of both rotating about a rotational axis and moving along the rotational axis relative to the camera body via the extendable pivot shaft mechanism improves the operability of the camera. However, in precision apparatuses, especially in precision equipment such as a camera which is provided with an extendable pivot shaft mechanism for pivoting a rotatable grip on a camera body, smooth operation and miniaturization of the extendable pivot shaft mechanism are required. In addition, it is desirable that an electrical connecting elements (e.g., lead wires or a flexible PWB (printed-wiring board)), for electrically connecting two devices with each other such as a camera body and a rotatable grip pivoted on the camera body, be installed through the extendable pivot shaft mechanism for the purpose of reducing the space that the electrical connecting elements occupy. However, it is difficult to install such an electrical connecting elements through a conventional extendable pivot shaft mechanism, e.g., disclosed in Japanese laid-open patent publication H06-98210.

Extendable pivot shaft mechanism, and an extendable pivot shaft mechanism of a camera for pivoting a rotatable grip on a camera body

Abstract: the extendable pivot shaft mechanism includes an inner shaft, a middle cylinder and an outer cylinder which are concentrically arranged about the rotational axis. The inner shaft and the outer cylinder are fixed to one and the other of the grip and the camera body, respectively. One of the inner shaft and the outer cylinder serves as a rotatable shaft element which is rotatable about the rotational axis relative to the middle cylinder. The other of the inner shaft and the outer cylinder serves as a linearly movable shaft element which is linearly movable along the rotational axis relative to the middle cylinder.


A computer-implemented method for managing application program access to a protected resource residing on a mobile device is provided. The method includes receiving from an application program a request for a permission to access the protected resource, and receiving from a source external to the mobile device an authentication of the application program. An authorization to provide the permission to access the protected resource is received and permission to access the protected resource is provided to the application program in response to receiving the authorization. Data produced by the protected resource is cryptographically signed, and a notification is generated in response to at least one of the application program requesting the permission to access the protected resource and the application program accessing the protected resource. A system for managing application program access to a protected resource residing on a mobile device is further provided.

As telecommunication carriers continue to invest in location infrastructure, a proliferation of location-based services is developing ranging from consumer services such as local search and mobile social networking to enterprise services such as fleet management and asset tracking.
The location of a mobile device is typically considered a high-value asset. Accordingly, it would be desirable to protect the process of initiating a location fix of a mobile device, receiving the location details, and disseminating this information. This process typically begins with accessing an API within the device execution environment or operating system, which in turn accesses hardware location determining resources on the device. Hardware location determining resources typically include a dedicated chipset, for example a dedicated GPS/A-GPS chipset, or a part of a multi-function chipset.
Further, it would be desirable to protect other resources available on a mobile device. A data store including contents of user's address book, contents of a user's contact list, or contents of a user's electronic message inbox, such an SMS or MMS inbox, for example, are often considered private or confidential by a user and necessary to be protected from unauthorized access.

System and method for managing application program access to a protected resource residing on a mobile device


A chatbot server that manages context information between a chatbot and a user device includes a receiving unit that receives, from a messenger server, a question message input for a service selected from multiple services by the user device and service account information corresponding to the selected service; a derivation unit that derives an answer to the question message by using the chatbot corresponding to the service account information; and a context information management unit that manages context information of a chat between the user device and the chatbot based on the question message and/or the answer.

A chatbot is an artificial intelligence communication program that provides humans with right answers to questions or various relevant information through text chat with the humans based on artificial intelligence. Such a chatbot is provided as an interactive service using a messenger application according to preset rules or artificial intelligence technologies.
According to a conventional method for managing context information using a chatbot, context information has been managed by loading all existing context information from a DB and adding new context information to all the existing context information or deleting existing context information to update the context information and then overwriting all the updated context information on all existing context information stored in the DB.
In the conventional method for managing context information, a processor for storing context information is complicated. Therefore, when a botbuilder manager uses the conventional method, it is difficult to manage context information.

Managing context information between chatbot and user device


Methods, compositions and articles of manufacture for assaying a sample for a target polynucleotide and/or an amplification product therefrom are provided. The methods comprise contacting a sample suspected of containing the target polynucleotide with a polynucleotide that can bind specifically thereto; this polynucleotide is conjugated to a substrate, preferably an encoded bead conjugate. An amplification reaction can first be used to produce the amplification product from the target polynucleotide so that it can be used to indirectly assay for the target polynucleotide. An amplification product detection complex and method of forming the same are also provided. The methods are particularly useful in multiplex settings where a plurality of targets are present. Amplification product assay complexes and amplification product assay arrays are also provided, along with methods of forming the same. Kits comprising reagents for performing such methods are also provided.

This invention relates to methods, articles and compositions for the analysis of polynucleotides in a sample.
Michael Adams-Conroy died at the age of nine of the highest overdose of Prozac(copyright) on record, seven times higher than any previously known. His parents were investigated for homicide and his two siblings were removed from their custody by social welfare workers. Autopsy results, however, showed no pills in his stomach even though he would normally have had to ingest a huge number in order to reach the levels of drug found in his blood.
Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) affects thousands of children each year in the United States. Treatment with chemotherapeutic agents now leads to remission in over 90% of the cases. 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) is one agent used to treat ALL. However, the normal treatment dose of 6-MP is toxic for one in 300 patients and can kill rather than cure.
Adverse reactions to therapeutic drugs have been estimated to kill over 100,000 hospitalized patients in the U.S. each year (Lazarou et al., JAMA Apr. 15, 1998;279(15):1200-1205). This figure does not include intentional overdoses leading to hospitalization which ultimately prove fatal. An additional 2.2 million serious nonfatal adverse drug reactions have been estimated to occur.
The problem of the varied responses of individual patients to particular drug therapies is well known, but little progress has been made towards anticipating patients"" varied drug metabolisms prior to treatment. The standard approach in administering drugs has been to prescribe the recommended dosage for a given condition to an affected patient, in some cases adjusting for the patient""s weight. If the patient does not improve, the dosage is increased or an alternative drug is tried. Conversely, if adverse side effects occur, the dosage may be lowered or an alternative drug employed.
Drugs which exhibit serious side effects may never be approved by regulatory authorities or, if approved before such side effects are identified, can be withdrawn from the market if even a small percentage of treated patients are so affected. This can occur despite the fact that such drugs may have great therapeutic benefit in the majority of patients.
The 6-MP sensitivity exhibited by rare ALL patients has been linked to a deficiency in thiopurine S-methyltransferase (TPMT) activity (Krynetski et al., Pharm Res 1999 16(3):342-349). Patients deficient in this enzyme can be treated with lower doses of 6-MP to achieve the same therapeutic plasma levels while avoiding adverse toxicity if the prescribing physician is aware of the metabolic deficiency. Metabolism of similar drugs such as azathioprine and thioguanine used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, leukemia and Crohn""s disease is also affected in patients who are deficient in TPMT.
Cytochrome p-450 CYP2D6 (debrisoquin hydroxylase) is the primary enzyme responsible for human metabolism of fluoxetine (Prozac(copyright)), as well as codeine, amphetamines, methadone, and several antidepressants and neuroleptics. At least twenty variants of the CYP2D6 gene are now known to result in poor metabolism of Prozac(copyright) and other drugs (Wong et al., Ann Acad Med Singapore 2000 29(3):401-406). Approximately 7-10% of Caucasians are poor metabolizers of Prozac(copyright), and reach higher than expected plasma levels when treated with a standard dosage.
Michael Adams-Conroy was one such patient, but he was never tested to determine whether he harbored any of the CYP2D6 variants resulting in slow metabolism of Prozac. Instead, because of his diminished response to Prozac(copyright), as typically occurs with chronic use, his dosage was gradually increased to maintain control over his symptoms. Side effects associated with Prozac(copyright) toxicity such as nausea and dizziness were instead attributed to migraines. Only after Michael""s death were his tissues tested and shown to contain CYP2D6 variants which contributed to a toxic accumulation of Prozac(copyright) and its metabolites in his blood (Sallee et al., J. Child Adolesc. Psychopharmacol. 2000 Spring; 10(1):27-34).
Potentially fatal adverse drug reactions are now known to be associated with altered metabolism by patients harboring variants in a number of genes, including in the NAT2 gene affecting isoniazid metabolism, in the CYP2C9 gene affecting warfarin metabolism, in the DPD gene affecting 5-fluorouracil metabolism, and in the KCNE2 gene affecting clarithromycin metabolism (Grant et al., Pharmacology 2000 61(3):204-211; Taube et al., Blood 2000 96(5):1816-1819; Meinsma et al., DNA Cell Bio 1995 14(1):1-6; Sesti et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2000 97(19):10613-10618).
There is a need in the art for methods of analyzing samples for particular polynucleotides, and for devices, compositions and articles of manufacture useful in such methods.
Methods, compositions and articles for assaying a sample for a target polynucleotide or an amplification product therefrom are provided. The methods involve contacting a sample suspected of containing a target polynucleotide with an encoded bead conjugate comprising a probe polynucleotide and a spectral code comprising a semiconductor nanocrystal. The probe polynucleotide can be in a form suitable for performing a cleavase assay, or can be a molecular beacon, or can have an unlabeled stem-loop structure. Binding of the probe polynucleotide to the target polynucleotide results in a change in fluorescence characteristics of the encoded bead conjugate. Amplification reactions can be incorporated into the methods.
In one variation of the method, an unlabeled probe polynucleotide that can form a stem-loop structure is employed which can be conjugated to any form of substrate and used to assay for a labeled amplification product. Binding of the probe polynucleotide to the labeled amplification product unfolds the stem-loop structure and results in the production of an amplification product assay complex. Where a plurality of different unlabeled probe polynucleotides are attached to the substrate, binding of a plurality of corresponding different labeled amplification products results in the formation of an amplification product assay array.
Kits comprising reagents useful for performing the methods of the invention are also provided.
The methods are particularly useful in multiplex settings where a plurality of different conjugates are used to assay for a plurality of different target polynucleotides. The large number of distinguishable semiconductor nanocrystal labels allows for the simultaneous analysis of multiple labeled target polynucleotides, along with multiple different encoded bead conjugates.
Methods of the invention can optionally be implemented in a homogeneous format. This allows for higher assay throughput due to fewer manipulations of the sample, and decreased cross-contamination resulting in more reliable assays and less downtime from cross-contamination. If real time monitoring is used, the entire assay can be disposed of without opening a sealed assay chamber such as a sealed microplate, thus further decreasing the risk of cross-contamination.

Methods of using semiconductor nanocrystals in bead-based nucleic acid assays


Simulation equipment can be integrated into courseware presented to a student using technology which, based on the native output of a system running the courseware, can generate control signals for the simulation equipment. Such signals could then be sent to the simulation equipment without requiring the designer of the courseware to create low level programming code to communicate directly with the simulation equipment itself.

1. Field
The present invention generally relates to simulators and software-aided training. Specific embodiments can be used to facilitate the learning of various devices and of their applications in various contexts.
2. Related Art
Strictly computer-based training, including adaptive training, in which materials are presented to the learner using text, graphics, sound, and other multimedia has inherent limitations. For example, without hands-on experiential learning, students may not grasp the subtleties of the proper use of a particular device. This is especially true when the learner has never seen or used the device in full context before. For example, cardiac defibrillators mounted in public areas and radiation survey meters are rarely used, but when they are needed in real-life situations, proper, expert-level operation is critical.
An approach to training people on the use of specific devices beyond traditional courseware is to use stand-alone or integrated simulators of the devices and/or of the environment. For example, a weapon, aircraft, or measuring instrument can be simulated. A simulated radiation probe could indicate the presence of radiation when none is actually present, for example. Similarly, simulated and/or real devices can be used to examine a simulated or real patient.
Many simulators are proprietary with closed architectures. They are designed to operate and interface with specific software applications and hardware drivers. As such, they cannot be integrated with simulators or with courseware from other vendors without significant low-level programming or reprogramming. This requires developers who are willing and able to write low-level, hardware-specific calls from courseware to direct the operation of simulators. Moreover, without communications between adaptive courseware and simulators, educators are unable to share and leverage information about specific learners that may be part of a learning management system (LMS).
As a result, there is a need for technology which can be used for purposes such as facilitating the integration of simulation and courseware systems.

Systems and methods for distributed adaptive simulator training


A method of manufacturing a magnetic head suspension having a circuit wiring pattern member such that a circuit wiring pattern is formed integral with a suspension via a flexible insulating base member, comprising the steps of: preparing a laminated plate composed of a flexible insulating base member (2), a conductive layer (6 or 3) formed on one surface thereof, and an elastic metal layer (5 or 1) formed on the other surface thereof; forming a desired circuit wiring pattern (3) in the conductive layer (6) of the laminated plate and an elastic suspension (1) in the elastic metal layer (5) thereof simultaneously, in accordance with photo-fabrication method including both-side simultaneous exposure method; forming a bonding metal layer (10) on the circuit wiring pattern (3) by plating; forming a cover coat layer (11) so as to cover the bonding metal layer; further forming a metal mask (13 or 13A) by forming a surface metal layer (12) on the cover coat layer and by etching the surface metal layer (12) or else by forming a mask (14) on the cover coat layer (11) by thin film forming method; removing the cover coat layer (11) and the flexible insulating base member (2) by etching using the metal mask (13 or 13A); removing the metal mask by etching; and bending the elastic metal layer to a desired shape to form the magnetic head suspension.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a magnetic head suspension assembly used to drive a magnetic disk, for instance, and more specifically to a method of manufacturing a magnetic head suspension having a circuit wiring pattern member, in which the circuit wiring pattern member for electrically connecting a magnetic head element to a read-write amplifier circuit board is formed integral with the suspension.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The magnetic disk apparatus of the type as described above is usually composed of at least one rotary disk for recording data magnetically, a magnetic head element for reading or writing data from or to each track formed on the rotary disk, and a head locating actuator for moving the magnetic head element to any desired track position and for maintaining the same magnetic head element over the track of the rotary disk.
An example of prior art magnetic head suspension assembly is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication before examination (Kokai) No. 63-113917, in which the magnetic head element is mounted on a flexible member by use of an epoxy resin and further the flexible member is connected to a load beam by use of laser welding, for instance. Further, a gold-plated copper wire covered with polyurethane is connected to an electrode formed on the magnetic head element by use of ultrasonic welding or soldering, as a lead-out wiring portion. Further, after has been turned by a predetermined number of times, the wiring member is housed in a flexible insulating resin tube, and then mounted on the suspension by caulking a part of the suspension, for instance.
In the prior art magnetic head suspension assembly as described above, when the lead-out wire is connected to the electrode on the magnetic head element, since the connecting workability is severely restricted, the assembling work is not effective, so that the productivity cannot be improved. Further, recently, since there exists such a tendency that the magnetic head element is further small-sized and the number of terminals is further increased, this problem has become serious. In addition, since the rigidity of the lead-out wiring member exerts a harmful influence upon the floating characteristics of the magnetic head element, it has been difficult to obtain an optimum floating position or condition. In addition, since the lead-out wiring member is subjected to air pressure due to the air flow caused by the rotating recording medium, there exists another problem in that a harmful influence is exerted upon the floating position of the magnetic head element.
To overcome these problems, for instance, Japanese Patent Publication before examination (Kokai) No. 53-74414 discloses such a method that a flexible circuit board used in common for both the lead-out wiring member and the suspension is used as a supporting mechanism of the magnetic head element. In this method, however, since there are various problems with respect to the original requirements for the suspension mechanism such that the magnetic head element must be located accurately; an appropriate load must be applied; and a correct floating position must be secured, it is difficult to adopt this method in the recent high-density magnetic disk apparatus.
Therefore, in general, in order to solve the problem related to the lead-out wires, a method has been so far proposed such that the lead-out wires are connected together by use of a flexible circuit board and the circuit board is bonded onto the suspension spring by use of an adhesive for instance.
In this method, however, with increasing speed of the seek operation, in the case where the suspension is considered as having a function as a mechanical element of a servo-system, it is necessary to reduce the weight of the suspension as a composing member of the servo-system. Therefore, in the above-mentioned method such that the flexible circuit board is bonded onto the suspension spring, there arises a problem in that the weight of the suspension is inevitably increased to improve the connecting workability.
Therefore, recently, a suspension formed integral with a predetermined circuit wiring pattern via a flexible insulating base member has been proposed, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 6-193662.

Method of manufacturing magnetic head suspension having circuit wiring pattern


Decontamination formulations for neutralization of toxic industrial chemicals, and methods of making and using same. The formulations are effective for neutralizing malathion, hydrogen cyanide, sodium cyanide, butyl isocyanate, carbon disulfide, phosgene gas, capsaicin in commercial pepper spray, chlorine gas, anhydrous ammonia gas; and may be effective at neutralizing hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, formaldehyde, ethylene oxide, methyl bromide, boron trichloride, fluorine, tetraethyl pyrophosphate, phosphorous trichloride, arsine, and tungsten hexafluoride.

The present invention relates to decontamination formulations for neutralization of toxic industrial chemicals, and methods of making and using same.
Recent attention has focused on responding to terrorist events involving Chemical and Biological Warfare (CBW) agents. Our recent work on the development of DF-100 and DF-200 Sandia decontamination technologies (e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,566,574 and 6,273,890, which are herein incorporated by reference) has successfully addressed biological toxins (e.g., Ricin and botulism), biological pathogens (e.g., anthrax and plague) and chemical warfare agents that have been traditionally developed for military use (e.g., Sarin, VX, and Mustard). However, a more likely scenario would be for terrorists to steal readily available toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) such as anhydrous ammonia, phosgene, hydrogen cyanide, and chlorine gas for use as chemical agents. This avoids difficulties such as producing highly toxic chemical warfare agents in a safe manner, the acquisition of pre-cursors for chemical agents that are closely monitored, and the direct handling of the agents during dissemination. In fact, the FBI considers and the direct handling of the agents during dissemination. In fact, the FBI considers the use of TICs by terrorists to be more likely than the use of the traditional military-type CBW agents.
Rapid decontamination of toxic industrial chemicals (TICs), in both the liquid and gaseous phases, presents a considerable technical challenge because not all TICs are the same and therefore represent a set of chemicals that have vastly different properties. Some TICs, for example, are highly water-soluble (e.g., sulfur dioxide); while others are only sparingly soluble (e.g., malathion). Others must be neutralized by chemical oxidation (e.g., sulfur dioxide) or nucleophilic attack (e.g., malathion). Still others must be neutralized by chemical reduction (e.g., chlorine).
Development of a broad decontamination technology enhances the USA's ability for dealing with the top six terrorist WMD threats identified by the FBI. In order, these are: biological toxins, TICs, biological pathogens, radionuclides, chemical warfare agents, and nuclear weapons. The technology will have broad market appeal beyond anti-terrorism efforts since it could also be routinely used for non-terrorist events, such as accidental HazMat spills and releases, etc.
Against this background, the present invention was developed.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Reactive formulations for a neutralization of toxic industrial chemicals


A method for fabricating an array substrate for a liquid crystal display (LCD) is provided. A semiconductor layer and a transparent lower electrode formed on a substrate is provided and covered by a first dielectric layer serving as a gate dielectric layer and a capacitor dielectric layer. A gate electrode and an upper electrode comprising a transparent electrode portion and a metal electrode portion are formed on the first dielectric layer and covered by a second dielectric layer. A source/drain electrode, a planarization layer, and a pixel electrode are sequentially formed on the second dielectric layer, in which the source/drain electrode is electrically connected to the semiconductor layer through the first and second dielectric layers and the pixel electrode is electrically connected to the source/drain electrode through the planarization layer. An array substrate for an LCD is also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to liquid crystal display technology and in particular to an array substrate for a liquid crystal display (LCD) and a method for fabricating thereof, in which the array substrate comprises a pixel structure with high aperture ratio (AR).
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are widely employed as a flat panel display in electronic products, such as portable personal computers, digital cameras, projectors, and the like, due to thin profile and low power consumption characteristics of LCDs,
A typical LCD includes an array substrate, a color filter (CF) substrate, and a liquid crystal layer disposed therebetween. The array substrate contains a plurality of matrix pixels correspondingly connecting to a plurality of data lines and a plurality of scan lines, and a plurality of pixel driving circuits consisting of a plurality of electric devices, such as thin film transistors (TFTs) and storage capacitors. A TFT is employed for applying a voltage to a pixel. A storage capacitor is employed for maintaining pixel information during a nonselective period of voltage application. For conventional array substrate fabrication, the storage capacitor uses the common electrode as an upper or lower electrode, which is in the pixel region and parallel to the scan line. Moreover, the area of the common electrode is large to obtain a storage capacitor having a large capacity.
However, since the common electrode typically comprises opaque metal, the aperture ratio (AR) of the pixel is reduced when the area of the capacitor electrode is increased for increasing the capacity. Thus, the power of the backlight module must be increased to maintain the brightness of the LCD. As a result, power consumption is increased.
Therefore, there exists a need for an improved array substrate capable of increasing AR of the pixels while maintaining the capacity of the storage capacitors.

Array substrate for liquid crystal display and method for fabricating the same


Disclosed is an annular distributor having: an annular slit layer that is mounted on an inner circumferential surface of the annular distributor and has at least one slit discharging or introducing a fluid; at least one opening that is formed on an outer circumferential surface of the annular distributor and is connected with any one of a fluid supply duct and a fluid discharge duct; and at least one guide vane selected from three types of guide vanes that are installed in the annular distributor, and splits a flow rate of the fluid supplied from the duct or collects a flow rate of the fluid discharged to the duct. And disclosed are a reactor or heat exchanger has the annular distributor, and a method of producing unsaturated aldehyde or unsaturated acid from olefin by catalytic gas phase oxidation in the reactor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an annular distributor having a guide vane to improve flow rate distribution therein, and a reactor or a heat exchanger having the annular distributor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a multitubular catalytic reactor in the form of a heat exchanger is used for the purpose of efficiently removing heat produced in reaction. Such a reactor has solid catalyst filled in a plurality of reaction tubes, and supplies reaction gas into the reaction tubes to create chemical reaction in order to obtain a desired component. In addition, heat medium circulates through a reactor shell so that the chemical reaction can take place in an optimum condition.
The multitubular catalytic reactor tends to have hot spots at specific areas of the reaction tubes. Such a hot spot causes problems such as shortened lifetime and degraded selectivity for a target product owing to the deterioration of the catalyst. Thus, various approaches have been promoted to achieve efficient heat transfer to the reaction tubes inside the reactor in order to decrease the hot spots.
For example, Korean Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-0050267 discloses a multitubular reactor including a circulation unit for a heat medium and doughnut and disk-shaped baffle plates equipped in a shell. This approach attempts to maintain the flow rate of the heat medium in a specific area inside the reactor in order to improve heat transfer performance. In addition, openings, such as slits, are arranged intermittently along the periphery of a slit layer of an annular distributor so that an offset flow of the heat medium supplied (or discharged) through one duct can be supplied (or discharged) into the reactor uniformly in a circumferential direction. Such an annular distributor is designed to achieve a controlled flow of the heat medium to be uniformly supplied (or discharged) in a radial direction in order to lower hot spot temperature of the reaction tubes. Furthermore, a lot of openings are provided in rows and the number and sizes are adjusted in order to make the flow of the heat medium uniform.
However, by merely adjusting the number and size of the slit openings of the annular distributor in the reactor or heat exchanger, it is not possible to efficiently distribute the heat medium supplied into the annular distributor in order to enhance local heat transfer efficiency up to a desirable value.

Annular distributor having guide vane to improve flow rate distribution


A station wake-up method including: sending, by a radio access point, a work time extension indication message to wake-up modules of n stations in associated stations, where a station includes a wake-up module and a communications module, the wake-up modules of the n stations are in an awake state, n is an integer greater than or equal to 1, and the work time extension indication message is used for instructing the wake-up modules of the n stations to add a new awake window after a current awake window; and sending, by the radio access point, a wake-up message to a wake-up module of at least one of the n stations, where the wake-up message is used for instructing the station to wake up a corresponding communications module, and the wake-up message is sent in a current awake window or a new awake window of the at least one station.

A quantity of terminals supporting Wi-Fi is increasing as scale development of WLAN (Wireless Local Area Networks, wireless local area network, WLAN for short) networks. Due to mobility of the WLAN networks, a network designer and a terminal vendor have to consider a live time problem of a mobile terminal. To ensure that a wireless terminal can use a WLAN network for a long time, protocol designers have proposed a terminal power saving mode (also referred to as a sleep mode). In a wireless radio frequency system, to maintain a longest battery use time, an 802.11 terminal may turn off a radio wave transceiver, and enter a sleep state. A terminal that has entered the sleep state does not receive or send any data. If data is sent to this terminal, a radio access point caches the data of the terminal, and sends these data to the terminal after the terminal wakes up. This is a power saving mode of a wireless terminal. Corresponding to the power saving mode is an active mode of the terminal. In this case, a radio transceiver of the terminal normally works, and the radio access point directly sends data to the terminal.
In the existing IEEE 802.11 protocol, before a terminal goes to sleep, a listen interval listen interval is set for the terminal, and after the listen interval, the terminal needs to wake up to detect whether there is data sent to the terminal. The radio access point needs to cache a data frame sent to a sleeping terminal, and therefore cache duration is greater than or equal to the listen interval. If the terminal does not wake up, after the cache duration, to obtain the cached data, the radio access point directly discards these frames without notification. The listen interval is set by a driver of the terminal, and different terminals have different intervals.
If the radio access point caches a data frame of the sleeping terminal, the radio access point tells the terminal by using information indicating that data is to be transmitted (Traffic Indication Map, TIM for short), and the indication information is transmitted by using a beacon frame. The wireless terminal needs to periodically wake up to listen to the beacon frame, and determine, by checking a TIM field of the beacon frame, whether the radio access point has a data frame needing to be sent to the wireless terminal. If the wireless terminal determines that the radio access point has a data frame needing to be sent to the wireless terminal, the terminal obtains cached data by sending PS-Poll. However, a Listen Interval field of the terminal uses two bytes to indicate a quantity of beacon interval units, and Beacon Interval uses two bytes to indicate a quantity of TUs. Therefore, a maximum listen interval can be up to only over one hour. However, some devices with relatively small amounts of data, for example, sensor devices, may have no data for hours or even days, and need to wake up at intervals to listen to a beacon, wasting device power. IEEE 802.11ah proposes use of a TWT (Target Wake Time, target wake time, TWT for short) to negotiate a longer time. However, when the radio access point has data needing to be sent to the terminal, the radio access point needs to cache the data for a relatively long time until the terminal wakes up. On the one hand, this increases cache load of the radio access point. On the other hand, this causes downlink data of the radio access point to take a relatively long time to arrive at the terminal, and particularly some relatively urgent data cannot be transmitted to the terminal in time.

Station wake-up method, related device, and system


A system for embedding users' preferences and behaviors based on interactions with an array of devices.

A micro expression is a facial expression that only lasts for a short moment. It may be considered the innate result of a voluntary and an involuntary emotional response occurring simultaneously and conflicting with one another, and may occur when the amygdala (the emotion center of the brain) responds appropriately to the stimuli that the individual experiences. In some instances, the individual wishes to conceal this specific emotion. This may result in the individual very briefly displaying true emotions followed by a false emotional reaction.
Human emotions may be considered an unconscious biopsychosocial reaction that derives from the amygdala and typically last 0.5-4.0 seconds, although a micro expression will typically last less than 0.5 seconds. Unlike regular facial expressions it is very difficult to hide micro expression (e.g., unconscious) reactions. Micro expressions have a low probability of being controlled as they happen in a fraction of a second, but it is possible to capture someone's expressions with a high-speed camera and replay them at much slower speeds. Micro expressions commonly show the following emotions: disgust, anger, fear, sadness, happiness, contempt, and surprise, as well as a wide range of positive and negative emotions not all of which are encoded in facial muscles.
This background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art.

Cognitive persona embeddings for secure omni-channel personalized recommendations


A digital phase-locked loop (DPLL) may include a time-to-digital converter (TDC) to provide a phase error signal, a frequency-divider to perform frequency division on an output signal to generate a frequency-divided output signal, a delta-sigma-modulator (DSM) to provide a test signal that represents a quantization error of the DSM, and a digital-to-time converter (DTC) to at least partially remove the quantization error from the frequency-divided output signal based on the test signal to generate the feedback signal. The DPLL may include a circuit to cause the DTC to provide a percentage of the quantization error such that the percentage of the quantization error is in the phase error signal, and a TDC calibration component to calibrate the TDC by applying a gain adjustment factor to the TDC. The gain adjustment factor may be based on the test signal and the phase error signal including the percentage of the quantization error.

A phase-locked loop (PLL) is a device that generates a clock and synchronizes the clock with a reference signal. One application of a PLL is frequency synthesis. In a frequency synthesis application, a PLL can be used to generate a clock based on a reference clock (e.g., a reference signal provided by a reference oscillator). Notably, a frequency of the clock generated by the PLL can be a multiple of a frequency the original clock. A digital PLL (DPLL) is a type of PLL that can be used to synchronize digital signals. Components of a DPLL include a phase detector (e.g., a time-to-digital convertor (TDC)), a digital loop filter (DLF), an oscillator, and a divider. Notably, in the case of an all-digital PLL (ADPLL), the oscillator is a digitally-controlled oscillator (DCO) (rather than a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) as used in a conventional DPLL). In operation of a DPLL, the phase detector senses a phase difference between a reference signal and a feedback signal, with the feedback signal being generated by dividing an output signal of DCO. The phase detector converts the phase difference to a phase error signal in the digital domain, and the phase error signal is filtered by the DLF and is then used to control the DCO.


A timepiece movement comprises a first luminous element for emitting light, a second luminous element for emitting light, and a light-receiving element for receiving the light emitted by the first and second luminous elements. A second wheel has an aperture through which light from the first luminous element may pass and a reflecting portion. A first transmitting wheel transmits a rotational drive to the second wheel as a function of second time and has an aperture through which light from the first luminous element may pass and which is positioned to become aligned with the aperture of the second wheel. A rotational minute wheel has apertures disposed at equal angular intervals and through which light from the second luminous element may pass. A rotational hour wheel has apertures through which light from the second luminous element may pass. Each of the apertures of the hour wheel are positioned to become aligned with respective ones of the apertures of the minute wheel during rotation of the minute and hour wheels. A second transmitting wheel transmits a rotational drive to the minute wheel and the hour wheel as a function of minute time and hour time, respectively. The second transmitting wheel has a plurality of apertures disposed at equal angular intervals and through which light from the second luminous element may pass. The apertures of the minute wheel are positioned to become aligned with respective ones of the apertures of the second transmitting wheel during rotation thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a timepiece movement and, more particularly, to a timepiece movement in which a minute wheel and a second wheel are independently rotated and a standard position thereof can be detected.
2. Background Information
Conventionally, there is known a timepiece movement which is provided with a driving gear train for a second wheel and a driving gear train for a minute wheel having an aperture and a shading portion in a light path disposed between a light emitting diode and a light-receiving sensor opposite the light emitting diode. The timepiece movement automatically performs an initial position detection operation by driving the above gear trains in a state in which the light emitting diode is operated so as to detect a position in which an output of the light-receiving sensor is inverted from a level 0 to a level 1, and the determined position is set as an initial position of the second wheel, the minute wheel and an hour wheel.
In the foregoing conventional timepiece movement, a driving motor for driving the second wheel and a driving motor for driving the minute wheel and the hour wheel are provided, and a photo-diode or a photo-transistor is used as the light-receiving sensor. The driving motors for the second wheel and the hour and minute wheels are alternately rotated so that, at first, apertures of the second wheel and the hour and minute wheels coincide with each other so as to invert the output of the light-receiving sensor to the level 1, and thereafter the initial position detection operation is performed.
However, since there are a great number of combinations for which the aperture of the second wheel and the aperture of the hour and minute wheels coincide, there is a problem that a lot of time is necessary for bringing these apertures to coincide with each other. Further, the construction of the timepiece movement is such that most of the portions of the gears of the gear trains of the second wheel and the hour and minute wheels are defined by the apertures, thereby increasing a probability that infrared rays of the light emitting diode are transmitted therethrough. By this construction, the portions defined by the aperture hardly serve for detecting the position of the hour and minute wheels so that a time for detecting the position thereof increases. Further, since most of the portions of the gears are defined by the apertures, the strength thereof is greatly reduced.