A diversity reception apparatus having a simple configuration which includes only one AD conversion unit and receives analog modulated signals is provided. The diversity reception apparatus includes a switching unit that analog-multiplexes signals received by two antennas using time-division method and is placed in front of an AD conversion unit. The apparatus also includes a time-division separation unit that (i) obtains time-division multiplexed signals digitized by driving at the same frequency as driving frequency of the AD conversion unit and (ii) separates the time-divided signals into a signal per antenna. Moreover, the apparatus includes signal quality judgment units that judge each signal quality of the time-divided signals and a composition unit that executes composition processing based on the signal quality.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a diversity reception apparatus which uses two or more antennas to improve the reception quality. In particular, the present invention relates to a diversity reception apparatus which receives analog modulated signals.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Conventionally a diversity reception apparatus has been widely used regardless of broadcast and communication, the diversity reception apparatus using two or more antennas and attempting to improve the reception quality. And, the usefulness of such diversity reception apparatus is widely known.
On the other hand, there is a universal problem with the diversity reception apparatus. The diversity reception apparatus must have a plurality of reception processing systems associated with the plurality of antennas. In particular, a diversity reception apparatus called phase composing diversity has a complex configuration, adjusting each phase of signals received respectively by a plurality of antennas and additively synthesizing the signals. Thus, there is a problem that the implementation cost is substantial.
Also, in the case where later described demodulation processing is realized using digital method, there is a significant problem that a plurality of analog/digital conversion units (hereinafter, referred to as AD conversion unit) are required, but the AD conversion unit is expensive for a single component, and occupies a large space when incorporated in a Large Scale Integration (LSI) chip.
Conventionally, there have been suggested various solutions for the above mentioned problems. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent application No. 05-175942 discloses realizing synthetic diversity processing using a simple configuration which includes (i) a means for executing switching processing with an interval that is half a symbol period and (ii) only one AD conversion unit that has been conventionally required as many as two or more in a diversity reception apparatus which receives digital demodulated signal waves having relatively long symbol lengths.
In addition, Japanese Laid-Open Patent application No. 2001-267988 discloses a well-known technique executed by a diversity reception apparatus which receives analog modulated signals, the diversity reception apparatus having a configuration in which (i) a phase adjustment processing is executed, using a phase shifter, by executing analog processing on one or all of signals received by a plurality of antennas, (ii) the one or all of signals are additively composed and (iii) the composed signals are outputted to a demodulation processing unit executing analog or digital processing.
However, in such conventional diversity reception apparatus as described above, according to the technique disclosed in the Japanese Laid-Open Patent application No. 05-175942, the signal in the symbol period which is a relatively long time is fixed to a constant pattern, using a characteristic of a digital modulation method. Thereby, there is a problem that the above mentioned technique can only be applied to a diversity reception apparatus which receives digital modulated signals, and cannot be applied to a diversity reception apparatus which receives analog modulated signal.
On the other hand, in the case where phase composition is executed by analog processing such as the technique disclosed in the Japanese Laid-Open Patent application No. 2001-267988, there is a problem in implementation cost that control by analog signal is required, therefore a component of high precision is required, and adjustment after implementation is required.
An object of the present invention, in view of the above mentioned problems, is to provide a diversity reception apparatus executing phase composition using a digital method, which (i) can be realized by a simple configuration that only requires one AD conversion unit and (ii) can be applied to receiving analog modulated signals.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A cellular phone having a telephone communication unit and a data communication unit is provided with the function of notifying a user of emergency data communication immediately even when the emergency data communication was received while a call was in progress. There is provided a communication terminal equipment according to the present invention, which includes a data communication unit which receives emergency data communication, a display unit which displays the contents of the received data communication thereon, and a communication unit which communicates with a base station by phone or the like. The communication unit establishes a call link through a cellular phone network, and the data communication unit allows received data to interrupt a call upon emergency, displays it on the display unit and notifies a user that emergency data has been received.

The present invention relates to communications devices and more particularly to the handling of urgent situations using a communications device.
As an emergency communication interrupting method employed in a cellular phone capable of data communication, there has been proposed a method of notifying a phone call made from other person by a catch phone or call waiting where interrupt is made between calls of the two (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-164224 (patent document 1)).
As a method of identifying emergency communication, there has been proposed a technique wherein an emergency communication identification signal is provided in control data so that emergency communication can be received even while a voice call is in progress, the emergency communication is notified to a user by a sound or light when the emergency communication is received, and the type of emergency communication is displayed on the screen on the basis of data registered in advance (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-258070 (patent document 2)).
In the method described in the patent document 1, however, an emergency call is assumed to be interrupted during calling, and an interruption of emergency data communication cannot be made while a call is in progress. Therefore, when emergency information is transmitted by data communication, its reception is delayed and hence the information cannot be obtained promptly.
In the technique described in the patent document 2, it is assumed that emergency communications transmitted to an unspecified number of cellular phones that belong to within the same area are received. It is not possible to handle emergency communication intended for individual. That is, since the technique is based on the premise that emergency communication is embedded in each of communication control data transmitted to an unspecified number of cellular phones that belong to within the same area, it is not possible to transmit emergency communication intended for individual. Since one emergency communication outgoing source and another emergency communication outgoing source are not able to establish communication in a one-to-one form, the emergency communication outgoing source having received emergency communication is not able to effect processing on the corresponding emergency communication outgoing source either. Further, the communication control data intended for the unspecified number of cellular phones belonging to within the same area are used, there is a need to add the capacity of control data for emergency communication to the existing control data.
Thus, the present invention provides a communication terminal equipment which notifies a user of emergency information even if a call thereof is in progress when the emergency information is received, thereby making it possible to improve safety.


The present invention generally relates to devices for energy storage technologies, and more particularly to electrochemical flow capacitor systems and applications. In some aspects, these flow capacitors have at least one electrode comprising a non-stationary solid or semi-solid composition comprising supercapacitive particles and an electrolytic solvent in electrical communication with at least one current collector, and energy is stored and/or released by charging and/or discharging the electrode(s).

Energy storage is one of the largest challenges of modern society. This applies to all amounts of stored energy, ranging from small devices (e.g., watches, cell phones or portable communication devices, and laptop computers) to large power-consuming entities, such as cities or factories. For large scale storage, a common method to harvest energy is to pump water into an elevated reservoir and use its released potential when flowing back to a deeper level. The main drawback of this technique is its relatively low storage energy capacity, which dates back to the first power plants built over a century ago.
Conventional batteries operate by converting chemical to electrical energy. In operation, the electronic current can be used to drive an external device. Unfortunately, such batteries are not easily scalable and suffer from degradation over time, with less and less energy being stored on continuous use.
Flow batteries emerged in the 1970s and offer scalable energy storage. These types of batteries are based on an electrolyte that is pumped through a system. Two separate flow routes meet at a point where electrons are transferred from one electrolyte to the other as a result of applied voltage (i.e., the electrical energy is transformed and stored as chemical energy). The two electrolytes (now charged positively and negatively, respectively) are stored in separate containers, or reservoirs. Having them flow back to a juncture point where electron transfer is possible, the chemically stored energy is harvested as electrical energy. While they can be built to almost any value of total charge capacity by increasing the size of the catholyte and anolyte reservoirs, one of their limitations is that their energy density, being in large part determined by the solubility of the metal ion redox couples in liquid solvents, is relatively low. Although an intriguing method of energy storage, such a system requires electrically conductive electrolytes which are often toxic or extremely acidic and corrosive.
Chiang, et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication 2010/0047671, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, has recently disclosed an extension to the concept of flow batteries wherein slurries of electro-active materials distributed in ion-storing liquids which are themselves redox-active, are passed through so-called electro-active zones, providing one or two streams of chemically oxidized or reduced slurries. These separate slurries can be separated and stored until the need to recover the chemical energy, at which point the separate slurries are brought back together and the chemical energy is harvested, much like the process in the redox flow batteries. The stated advantage of this method is the ability to achieve much higher storage battery storage. The unstated disadvantage is that the method may suffer from many of the same problems of stationary batteries—i.e., discharging on storage, limited speed of electrical charge/discharge, and limited lifetime/cycle-ability. Other disadvantages include environmental hazards associated with redox reactive materials used in battery electrodes and electrolytes.
Thus, there remains a need for scalable high energy-density and high power-density energy storage devices.


The invention relates to a synchronous power controller for a generation system based on static power converters, said controller comprising two main blocks referred to as: block 1 (electric block) (10) and block 2 (electromechanical block) (20), electric block 1 (10) being, in turn, formed by a virtual electrical characteristic controller (11) and a virtual admittance controller (12) and the electromechanical block 2 (20) being formed by a virtual electromechanical characteristic controller (21) and an inertia and damping factor controller (22).

The sources of renewable energy, mainly wind power plants (WIN) and photovoltaic (PH) power plants, have ceased to be a marginal resource in the generation of electricity.
The generators of PH plants use power converters to connect to the electric grid. These power converters, also known as inverters, inject current to the voltage of the grid to supply power to the same.
In normal operating conditions, the PH inverters inject single-phase or tri-phase sinusoidal currents to the grid, depending on the power range of the generator. Normally, the currents injected to the grid tend to be sinusoidal and are in phase with the voltages of the coupling point to maximize the amount of active power being generated. There are no PH inverters in the market, at least in on a generalized basis, that inject currents to the quadrature with the grid voltages, which allows controlling the reactive power injected to the grid with the purpose of regulating the voltage level at the coupling point. When the grid voltage is affected by a perturbation, such as imbalances, transients, or harmonics, which is usual in electric grids, conventional PH inverters experience problems to remain appropriately synchronized with the grid voltage, which leads to uncontrolled power flows that cause the PH inverter to worsen the situation of the failure of the grid. With more serious grid perturbations, such as voltage dips, short-circuits, or power oscillations, conventional PH inverters cannot offer an appropriate support to the electric grid to help maintain the generation system active. In fact, these serious transient perturbations usually cause the disconnection of the grid in the majority of the commercial PH inverters due to the triggering of some of its overcurrent or overvoltage protections. The problem caused by this type of errant behavior in conventional PH generation systems is more marked in weak grids or in grids with a high percentage of PH plants installed, which renders them unstable.
A scenario as the one described above does not offer reliability to power system operators—internationally known as TSO (Transmission System Operator), which forces them to plan and provide active and reactive power reserves to the grid by means of conventional synchronous generation or other mechanisms, to decrease the risk of the collapse of the electric system.
For obvious reasons, these power reserves are not free, which implies an additional economic burden associated with the increase in the penetration of PH generation plants.
In order to face this situation of instability, TSOs worldwide are increasingly becoming more demanding with respect to the features offered by renewable energy-based distributed generation plants. These requirements are materialized in the so-called grid codes. These types of codes are usually applied to generation technologies with a significant presence in the electric system. A clear example is the strict grid connection codes applied to wind generation systems, the PH systems being the next candidates to be regulated by these types of codes. By means of the strict requirements stipulated in the grid codes, TSOs intend for PH plants to increase their functionality and reliability with the purpose of avoiding having to pay third parties for auxiliary services that allow guaranteeing the stability of the electric system. In this case, the manufacturers and developers of PH systems are in charge of modernizing their technology to contribute the required systems, which will ultimately allow increasing the penetration of the PH energy systems in the electric grids in the following decade.
Part of the research lines found in the state of the art to improve the connection of static power converters to the grid, by authors such as Qing-Chang Zhong and Lenart Harnefors, are based on observing the operating principle of a synchronous generator and replicating it by means of the use of a static power converter.
A series of selected articles from these authors is listed below:                Zhong, Q; Weiss, G; "Synchronverters: Inverters that Mimic Synchronous Generators," Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on, vol. PP, no. 99, pp. 1, 2010.        Weiss, G.; Qing-Chang Zhong; "Static synchronous generators"; Patent, PCT/GB20091051460; WO 20101055322 A2. International Filing Date: 12 Nov. 2008.        Harnefors, L.; "Control of a voltage source converter using synchronous machine emulation"; Patent, PCT/EP20081061147; WO 20101022766 A1. International Filing Date: 26 Aug. 2008.        Lidong Zhang; Harnefors, L.; Nee, H.-P.; "Power-Synchronization Control of Grid-Connected Voltage-Source Converters," Power Systems, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 809-820, May 2010.
Other authors, such as Josep M. Guerrero or Karel de Brabandere implement active and reactive power controllers for applications wherein the distributed power converters constitute small low-voltage grids, such as the case of micro-grids supplied by multiple uninterrupted supply systems. These controllers are characterized in that they establish the voltage reference of the power converters. Some representative articles by these authors are the following:                J. M. Guerrero, J. C. Vasquez, J. Matas, L. Garcia de Vicuña, and M. Castilla, "Hierarchical Control of Droop—Controlled AC and DC Microgrids—A General Approach Towards Standardization," IEEE Trans Ind Electronics, 2010.        De Brabandere, K.; "Voltage and frequency droop control in low voltage grids by distributed generators with inverter front-end"; Doctoral Thesis, Leuven, België, October 2006, ISBN 90-5682-745-6.
In terms of the patents applied for, international application WO2010055322(A2) by Weiss George [IL]; Zhong Qing-Chang [GB], can be considered as the closest to the invention object of this patent, given that it relates to a controller that faithfully emulates the behavior of a conventional synchronous generator.
The majority of the research papers mentioned above detect a series of problems derived from the attempt to faithfully replicate the operation of a conventional synchronous generator, without intending to solve its inherent inconveniences, among which we have the instability inherent to the synchronous generator, the difficulty in maintaining the synchronism during failures, or the appearance of resonance with other elements of the grid.
In this sense, the invention object of this patent supposes a solution to the problems represented by commercial inverters and conventional renewable power plants when they operate under generic conditions in the electric grid by offering the following:                Optimized response in the case of a drop/rise in the frequency of the grid, by controlling the delivered/received active power such that it limits said variation.        Optimized response in the case of a drop/rise in the effective voltage, by controlling the inductive/capacitive reactive power such that it limits said variation.        Optimized response in the case of the perturbation generated by the increase/reduction of nearby charges, supporting their supply by means of a point increase/reduction of the current injected to the grid.        Optimized response in the case of a distortion in the form of a voltage wave, affected by harmonics, transients, or imbalances, offering voltage/current conditioning functions that minimize and damp said perturbations.        Optimized response in the case of oscillations in the frequency and active power of the system, offering damping functions that minimize said oscillations in the electric system.

Synchronous power controller for a generating system based on static power converters


Provided are a method of performing a random access process and wireless device using same in a wireless communication system. A first random access process and a second random access process are triggered in one subframe, and a wireless device selects one of the first random access process and the second random access process. The wireless device transmits a random access preamble on the selected random access process from the one subframe to a base station.

Long term evolution (LTE) based on 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) technical specification (TS) release 8 is a promising next-generation mobile communication standard. Recently, LTE-advanced (LTE-A) based on 3GPP TS release 10 supporting multiple carriers is under standardization.
Multiple carriers are supported starting from 3GPP LTE-A, and such a technique is called a carrier aggregation. One carrier corresponds to one cell, and as a result, a user equipment can receive a service from a plurality of serving cells in a multiple-carrier system.
A random access procedure is used to maintain an uplink time alignment between a base station and a user equipment or to deliver a scheduling request. In general, the random access procedure includes transmission of a random access preamble and reception of a random access response.
It has been conventionally considered that the random access procedure is performed only in one cell. However, with the introduction of a plurality of serving cells, there is a need to design a random access procedure performed in the plurality of serving cells.

Method of performing a random access process and wireless device using same


A scanning optical microscope includes a light source, a light converging optical system, a stage, a scanning unit which displaces an illumination light and the stage relatively, a detecting optical system, and a photodetector. A light modulation element and a relay optical system are disposed on the light converging optical system side of the light source, and a modulated signal having only amplitude changed is input to the light modulation element, and the light modulation element is positioned such that the illumination light emerged from the light modulation element with respect to the modulated signal of a predetermined amplitude coincides with an optical axis of the light converging optical system, and a position of a pupil of the light converging optical system and a position of the light modulation element are conjugate through at least the relay optical system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scanning optical microscope.
2. Description of the Related Art
A scanning laser microscope in which, an acoustic optical element is used has hitherto been known. The acoustic optical element is an element in which, an acoustic optical effect is used. When an acoustic wave is propagate through a solid or a liquid, a periodic fluctuation in a refractive index occurs in that medium due to a photoelastic effect. This periodic fluctuation occurs in parallel to a direction of propagation of the acoustic wave. Moreover, in this periodic fluctuation, a cycle of fluctuation is a wavelength of the acoustic wave. As light is incident on the medium, apart of the light incident is diffracted by an ultrasonic sound wave. This phenomenon is called as the acoustic optical effect.
A principle of operation of the acoustic optical element (such as AOM (acoustic optical modulator), AOTF (acoustic optical tunable filter, and AOD (acoustic optical deflector)) is shown in FIG. 7. In the acoustic optical element, optical crystal such as LiNbO3, PbMoO4, or TeO2 is used as a medium. A transducer that transmits ultrasonic sound waves is attached to the optical crystal. A piezoelectric body is used as the transducer. As a high-frequency voltage (RF (radio frequency) voltage) is applied to the transducer, acoustic waves of high frequency are generated in the crystal. Incident light is caused to be diffracted by using a periodic change of the refractive index due to the acoustic waves, and accordingly, light is caused to be deflected.
The entire incident light that is incident on the acoustic optical element is not diffracted, and first-order diffracted light and transmitted light (non-diffracted light) emerge from the acoustic optical element. By changing the frequency of the high-frequency voltage applied to the acoustic optical element, a direction of deflection of the first-order diffracted light is changed, and by changing amplitude of the high-frequency voltage, a light intensity of the first-order diffracted light changes.
As a scanning laser microscope in which such acoustic optical element is used, a scanning laser microscope disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 4729269 is available.
In the scanning laser microscope disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 4729269, the acoustic optical element is used for modulation of the light intensity. In this scanning laser microscope, the acoustic optical element is disposed between a laser light source and a laser scanning section.
As one of applications in the scanning laser microscope, light stimulus is applied to an observed object (generally, a living cell or a tissue), and a reaction with respect to the light stimulus is subjected to imaging, or an electric potential of the cell is measured. In light stimulus, light of various intensities is irradiated to the observed object.
Moreover, as another application, a portion from a surface to an interior of the observed object is subjected to imaging continuously, and a three-dimensional image is generated from continuous images acquired. In a case of acquiring continuous images, deeper the position in the interior portion of the observed object, at which an image is to be acquired, more is the attenuation of laser light. In order to be able to acquire images of uniform brightness at any position at which the image is acquired, it is necessary to change the light intensity of laser light according to the position at which the image is to be acquired. In view of such circumstances, in the application in which, the light stimulus is to be applied or in the application in which, the three-dimensional image is to be generated, the light intensity is changed, or in other words, modulation of the light intensity is carried out.
In a scanning laser microscope to be used in such applications, an acoustic optical element is used for carrying out modulation of the light intensity as in Japanese Patent Publication No. 4729269. An example of a conventional scanning laser microscope is shown in FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B. FIG. 8A is a diagram showing an arrangement of the scanning laser microscope, and FIG. 8B is a diagram showing laser light at a position of a pupil of an objective.
As shown in FIG. 8A, the scanning laser microscope includes a laser light source 101, an acoustic optical element 102, an optical scanner 103, a pupil projection lens 104, an image forming lens 105, a dichroic mirror 106, a microscope objective 107, and a photodetector 109. If necessary, an excitation filter may be disposed in an optical path from the laser light source 101 up to the optical scanner 103, and a barrier filter (absorption filter) may be disposed in an optical path from the dichroic mirror 106 up to the photodetector 109. Broken-line arrow marks will be described later.
The laser light source 101 is an ultrashort pulse laser for instance. Near-infrared laser light is emitted from the ultrashort pulse laser. Laser light emitted from the laser light source 101 is incident on the acoustic optical element 102. Laser light (first-order diffracted light) emerged from the acoustic optical element 102 is incident on the optical scanner 103. The optical scanner 103 includes two light deflecting elements. The light deflecting element is a galvano scanner for instance. The laser light is deflected in X-direction at a mirror of one of the galvano scanners, and is deflected in Y-direction at a mirror of the other galvano scanner.
The laser light emerged from the optical scanner 103 is incident on the dichroic mirror 106 through the pupil projection lens 104 and the image forming lens 105. The laser light is reflected at the dichroic mirror 106, and is incident on the microscope objective 107 (hereinafter, appropriately called as 'objective 107'). The laser light is converged by the objective 107, and a laser spot is formed on a specimen 108.
The laser spot moves two-dimensionally on the specimen 108 according to the movement of mirrors of the galvano scanners. Accordingly, scanning of the specimen 108 is carried out. Positions of the mirrors of the galvano scanners and a position of a pupil 107a of the objective 107 are substantially conjugate through the pupil projection lens 104 and the image forming lens 105.
In a case in which, the specimen 108 is a fluorescent specimen, fluorescent light is emitted from the specimen 108. The fluorescent light passes through the objective 107 and the dichroic mirror 107, and is incident on the photodetector 109. The fluorescent light incident on the photodetector 109 is converted to an electric signal by the photodetector 109. By performing a sampling of the electric signal output from the photodetector 109 in synchronization with scanning, a fluorescence image of the specimen 108 is acquired.
An illustration of as to how the light stimulus is applied is shown in FIG. 9A, FIG. 9B, and FIG. 9C. FIG. 9A is a diagram showing an appearance of an actual field of view, FIG. 9B is a diagram showing a relationship of a position of a cell, a timing of changing the light intensity, and the light intensity, and FIG. 9C shows an image of an observed object when the light intensity has been changed.
In FIG. 9A, a rectangular area 221 in an actual field of view 220 of a microscope is a scanning area. Cells in the rectangular area 221 are scanned and subjected to imaging. A plurality of cells exists in the rectangular area 221, and here, light stimulus is to be applied to two cells namely a cell A and a cell B.
In FIG. 9B, a cross-sectional view of the cells along a line XX′ in FIG. 9A is shown. Moreover, beneath the cross-sectional view, a graph indicating a change in the light intensity in scanning of one line is shown. A vertical axis of the graph is a light intensity I and a horizontal axis of the graph is a scanning time t. As shown in FIG. 9B, the light intensity of laser light irradiated to the cell A and cell B is, 50% of the maximum light intensity for the cell A, and 10% of the maximum light intensity for the cell B. Moreover, scanning of one line is carried out in 1 msec. Therefore, the light intensity is to be changed to 10% or 50% in 1 msec.
In the acoustic optical element 102, the amplitude of the high-frequency voltage applied is changed according to the time elapsed from a start point of scanning of one line (scanning position). Accordingly, an arrangement is made such that laser light of various light intensities are irradiated to the cell A and the cell B.


The present invention relates to a system and method of skin detection of a human subject using a textile product. The textile product (10, 31, 43) is made from or comprising textile including near-infrared, NIR, absorbing pigments. It supports and/or partially covers the human subject while skin detection and/or detection/monitoring vital signs of the human subject is carried out. A increased contrast between the textile product and skin in the NIR wavelength range is thus achieved.

Health monitoring is traditionally present in the hospital, particularly the ICU and includes the monitoring of vital signs like EEG, ECG, pulse-rate, respiratory rate, blood-oxygenation level, blood pressure, etc. Also sleep laboratories acquire information about sleeping subjects using actigraphy and electromyography, additionally to some of the other vital signs. These application areas often involve multiple sensors attached to the body of the patient, some of which may be wireless and others wired, restricting the freedom to move or the quality of sleep of the patient, in addition to causing discomfort and possible skin-damage.
Video Health Monitoring is recently emerging as a promising unobtrusive alternative for an increasing number of the above health indicators, not the least driven by the strong wish to reduce the burden caused by current techniques to (pre-term) neonates and patients with extensive skin damage, e.g. due to burns.
Clearly, Video Health Monitoring, due to its unobtrusive character, adds to patient comfort even in cases where no real damage is done by the current technology. However, also new application fields emerge in the consumer domain, as simpler derived methods may run on consumer platforms like laptops, tablets and mobile phones, or on embedded platforms inside equipment used for exercise in the gym.
Video Health Monitoring is also emerging for use in analyzing the human skin, in particular with relevance for cosmetic industry (e.g. moisturizers advice) and dermatology (e.g. melanoma detection). Various diseases may be diagnosed from motion in video sequences, like Periodic Leg Movements, Delirium, while video analysis may reveal information about body posture with relevance in baby monitors to prevent Sudden Infant Death. Such motions that can be analyzed in order to extract the health condition of a patient are also understood as vital signs.
Consequently, there is a very broad application domain for Video Health Monitoring ranging from beauty product, the gym, consumer home-healthcare including baby-monitoring, sleep-center, the General Ward, the Intensive Care Unit, to the highly specialized Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and burn-center.
While a promising new field, many challenges have to be overcome. For instance, in camera based monitoring of vital signs, e.g. using remote photo-plethysmography (rPPG) important for a reliable measurement is a correct detection of a skin region of the subject to be monitored.
Textile products comprising NIR absorbing properties are e.g. disclosed in US 2012/286177 A1, US 2011/167572 A1 and US 2008/102724 A1.

System and method for skin detection of a human subject


The invention relates to a coaxial connector element capable of coupling by translation along a coupling direction (23) with an associated coaxial electric connector element and comprising an electrically conductive outer body (8) intended to serve as outer conductor, a central conductor (11), fixed with respect to the outer body and located within the body and insulated from it and, on a face known as the coupling face of the connector element, a coaxial contact element comprising an outer contact (14) connected to the outer conductor, which is constituted by the body, and a central contact (12) connected to the central conductor. It comprises, between the outer contact (14) and the body (8) or between the central contact and the central conductor, an articulation, which permits the contact in question (14) to orient itself without being deformed in different directions forming an angle other than zero with the direction of coupling (23) of the connector element.

It is known that the prior-art coaxial electric connectors of the type shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 comprise two connector elements, each formed by an electrically conductive body 41, 42, a central conductor 43, 44 located within the body and insulated from it and, on one face 45, 46, known as the coupling face, of the connector element, a coaxial contact element comprising an outer contact 47, 48 connected to the body, or forming an integral part of the body, and a central contact 49, 50 connected to the central conductor 43, 44, both the outer contact and the central contact being coaxial, centered on the axis 51, 52 of the connector element and making it possible to assure the connection with the associated electrical connector element.
In the known connectors, the connecting of the two connector elements can take place only if the two connector elements are brought together with their coupling faces 45, 46 facing each other and with their axes 51, 52 correctly merged along a coupling direction, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
However, under certain circumstances, the two connector elements cannot be brought close to each other with their coupling axes 51, 52 strictly on-line.
In particular, this is true of basket-end connectors, which serve to connect electric devices mounted in slide-shaped housings to electric cables or other electric devices.
Basket-end connectors comprise in each case a connector element mounted on the rear wall of the housing and a connector element mounted on the end wall of a recess intended to receive this housing.
Upon the insertion of the housing into the recess, these two parallel walls come into the vicinity of each other, and the two connector elements are coupled to each other.
It will be understood that this coupling is effected without it being possible to see the connector elements nor to intervene on them, which is referred to by the expression "blind coupling".
Due to this "blind" coupling, it is not possible to note that the two connector elements are out of line at the time that they are brought together, either due to their mounting or by reason of a slight shift resulting from play between the housing and the recess.
When there are only slight angular variations between the axes of the connector elements, the elasticity of the outer and central contacts of each connector element is sufficient to tolerate the lack of alignment.
On the other hand, when the angular variations are greater, for instance, on the order of 5 degrees, as is shown in FIG. 3, it is not possible to couple the two connector elements without the danger of irreversibly deforming them or breaking them.
EP-A-0159116 describes a floating coaxial connector element intended to be mounted on the end of the basket. This connector element comprises a movable central contact and a rigid outer contact, which are fixed with respect to each other and mounted floating via a coil spring in a fastening cup secured to an end panel.
Such a connector element solves the alignment problem described above, but it can only be mounted on a cable, the end of which can move in order to follow along in the movements of the floating connector element upon the coupling.
Furthermore, this connector element is expensive and bulky.
The present invention is directed at providing a coaxial connector element, which solves the alignment problem described above in a different manner, so as to be compatible not only with a cable, but also with a fixed, rigid coaxial conductor, while not taking up much space and being as simple and economical to produce.

Coaxial electric connector element with movable contact and coaxial electrical connector comprising such a connector


A write driver output circuit having a programmable output impedance. A plurality of amplifiers are disposed in parallel between an input and an output of an impedance matching section of the write driver circuit and can be selectively enabled to correspondingly set the output impedance of the write driver circuit. The amplifiers may be Class AB amplifiers, each of which have a smaller size than an conventional AB used in a single amplifier write driver circuit. Each of the Class AB amplifiers has a corresponding matching resistor, and a current source, each being selectively enabled and disabled by enabling and disabling, respectively, the corresponding current sources, such as through the use of serial interface bits.

Hard disk drives are mass storage devices that include a magnetic storage media, e.g. rotating disks or platters, a spindle motor, read/write heads, an actuator, a pre-amplifier, a read channel, a write channel, a servo circuit, and control circuitry to control the operation of hard disk drive and to properly interface the hard disk drive to a host system or bus. FIG. 1 shows an example of a prior art disk drive mass storage system 10. Disk drive system 10 interfaces with and exchanges data with a host 32 during read and write operations. Disk drive system 40 includes a number of rotating platters 12 mounted on a base 14. The platters 12 are used to store data that is represented as magnetic transitions on the magnetic platters, with each platter 12 coupleable to a head 16 which transfers data to and from a preamplifier 26. The preamp 26 is coupled to a synchronously sampled data (SSD) channel 28 comprising a read channel and a write channel, and a control circuit 30. SSD channel 28 and control circuit 30 are used to process data being read from and written to platters 12, and to control the various operations of disk drive mass storage system 10. Host 32 exchanges digital data with control circuit 30.
Data is stored and retrieved from each side of the magnetic platters 12 by the arm and interconnect 16 which comprise a read head 18 and a write head 20 at the tip thereof. The conventional read head 18 and write head 20 comprise magneto-resistive read head and thin-film inductive write head adapted to read or write data from/to platters 12 when current is passed through them. Arm and interconnect 16 are coupled to preamplifier 26 that serves as an interface between read/write heads 18/20 of disk/head assembly 10 and SSD channel 28. The preamp 26 provides amplification to the waveform data signals as needed for both read and write operations. A preamp 26 may comprise a single chip or may comprise separate components rather than residing on a single chip.
The magnetic flux transitions on the magnetic platter 42 are created by switching the write current polarity through the write head 20. The faster the write current switches polarity, the faster the change of the magnetic flux, and consequently more bits per inch can be stored in the media. To decrease the transition time of the media, an overshoot current is employed with the write driver signal.
To achieve the best high-speed performance in a preamplifier system, impedance matching techniques much be employed. One aspect of this is that the output impedance of the preamplifier write driver must match the interconnect which it drives. Currently, this may be done by customizing the write driver output impedance for each customer application since each application has its own unique interconnect characteristics. With an established write driver, this may be the only change between different applications. Furthermore, the interconnect may change during the lifetime of a customer application.
It would be very desirable and beneficial to have a write driver output impedance that can be programmable through the serial interface. This would save engineering work, reduce silicon tape-outs, mask costs, and increase chances of success in a customer application.

Programmable output impedance for hard drive preamplifier write driver


A graphene electronic device includes: a first conductive layer and a semiconductor layer on a first region of an intermediate layer; a second conductive layer on a second region of the intermediate layer; a graphene layer on the intermediate layer, the semiconductor layer, and the second conductive layer; and a first gate structure and a second gate structure on the graphene layer.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to graphene electronic devices and methods of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Rapidly, semiconductor devices formed on silicon substrates have become more highly integrated to have a relatively high performance. However, there is a limitation in improving the performance of semiconductor devices due to characteristics of silicon itself and in manufacturing processes. Accordingly, research has been conducted into next generation devices that may overcome the limitations of conventional semiconductor devices having silicon substrates.
Graphene, a graphite monoatomic layer, is being considered as a next generation material due to its superior electrical and mechanical properties. Graphene is a material in which carbon atoms are connected as a hexagon in a plane, and has a relatively small thickness corresponding to a monoatomic layer. Thus, graphene conducts electricity about a hundred times faster than polycrystalline silicon that is mainly used as a semiconductor, and theoretically has an electron mobility of about 200,000 cm2/Vs. In addition, it is known that graphene may conduct electricity about a hundred times more than copper, and thus, graphene is considered as a basic material of electronic devices.
In particular, graphene is a zero gap semiconductor material, and thus, if a graphene nanoribbon (GNR) is manufactured to have a channel width of about 10 nm or less, a band gap is generated due to a size effect. Thus, a field effect transistor (FET) capable of operating at about room temperature may be manufactured.
Conventionally, graphene is grown on a metal thin film formed of copper (Cu) or nickel (Ni) by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, and then, may be transferred onto an insulating thin film.

Graphene electronic devices and methods of manufacturing the same


A method is provided for forming a printed circuit board (PCB) assembly. The method may include drilling a first plurality of vias having a first diameter in a PCB and filling the first plurality of vias to form a first plurality of plated or filled vias. The method may also include drilling a second plurality of vias having a second diameter in the PCB, and filling the second plurality of vias to form a second plurality of plated or filled vias. The first plurality of plated or filled vias is mixed with the second plurality of plated or filled vias such that the spacing between the first plurality of plated or filled vias and the second plurality of plated or filled vias is less than the first diameter and the second diameter.

Printed Circuit Board Assemblies (PCBAs) are formed of a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) with Surface Mount Technology (SMT) Components soldered to the surface of the PCB. The SMT Components dissipate power. With integrated circuits (ICs) becoming more power hungry with the trend of miniaturization, thermal management on the PCB becomes a bigger challenge.
The PCB has a thermal conductivity ranging from 0.25 W/mK to 3 W/mK, which results in a high thermal resistance through the PCB and consequently a large temperature variation in the PCB. The thermal conductivity is a material property that measures the ability to conduct heat.
For applications that dissipate significant power, a coin approach may be used. Specifically, copper coins are inserted into a PCB to help conduct the heat away from heat sources, such as IC, die, or components, to a heat sink underneath the PCB. In the coin process, a hole is cut in the PCB and a thermally conductive coin, such as a copper coin, is inserted into the hole. However, the manufacturing of PCBs using copper coins is labor intensive and thus expensive. Usually, the coin approach is used for low volume and high performance PCB assemblies.
A conventional PCB process replaces the copper coins with a plurality of vertical interconnect accesses (vias of PTHs), which can be cost saving. PTHs are typically filled with 1 mil thick copper. However, in the conventional PCB process, via density is limited. The thermal conductivity of the vias is not as good as a copper coins. Often, the vias are not adequate enough to achieve the desired thermal management for the PCBAs.
There still remains a need for developing a cost effective solution to provide the thermal performance similar to a copper coin approach for the PCBAs.

Methods for fabricating printed circuit board assemblies with high density via array


A chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) system includes multiple workpiece processing elements arranged in a vertically staggered configuration. The polishing elements are positioned such that an outer edge of a first polishing element overlaps the inner edge of a second polishing element. The overlapping arrangement enables the CMP system to utilize additional polishing elements without substantially increasing the footprint of the CMP system. Each of the polishing elements exhibit different polishing characteristics to enable multiple-step workpiece processing.

The production of integrated circuits begins with the creation of high-quality semiconductor wafers. During the wafer fabrication process, the wafers may undergo multiple masking, etching, and dielectric and conductor deposition processes. Because of the high precision required in the production of these integrated circuits, an extremely flat surface is generally needed on at least one side of the semiconductor wafer to ensure proper accuracy and performance of the microelectronic structures being created on the wafer surface. As the size of integrated circuits continues to decrease and the number of microstructures per integrated circuit increases, the need for precise wafer surfaces becomes more important. Therefore, between each processing step, it is usually necessary to polish or planarize the surface of the wafer to obtain the flattest surface possible.
For a discussion of chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) processes and apparatus, see, for example, Arai, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,348, issued February, 1989; Arai, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,614, issued March, 1992; Karlsrud, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,732, issued July, 1994; Karlsrud et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,196, issued March, 1996; and Karlsrud, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,199, issued March, 1996.
Such polishing is well known in the art and generally includes attaching one side of the wafer to a flat surface of a wafer carrier or chuck and pressing the other side of the wafer against a flat polishing surface. In general, the polishing surface includes a polishing pad that has an exposed abrasive surface of, for example, cerium oxide, aluminum oxide, fumed/precipitated silica or other particulate abrasives. During the polishing or planarization process, the workpiece or wafer is typically pressed against the polishing pad surface while the pad rotates about its vertical axis. In addition, to improve the polishing effectiveness, the wafer may also be rotated about its vertical axis and oscillated back and forth over the surface of the polishing pad.
Many semiconductor workpieces require multiple polishing steps, e.g., an aggressive material removal step followed by one or more buffing or final polishing steps. Due to the different layers that may be present in the workpiece and the different goals of the various processing steps, a number of different polishing pads and/or polishing slurries may be utilized during a CMP procedure. Consequently, many conventional CMP systems utilize a number of distinct polishing pads, each respectively mounted to a separate rotatable polishing table. To accommodate a plurality of polishing tables, such CMP systems often require an undesirably large operating area. Unfortunately, many semiconductor manufacturing facilities lack the large amount of free floor space required for large CMP machines. In addition, the footprint of such machines should be kept to a minimum because floor space is expensive within the clean room environment.
The need for compact CMP machines may increase with the demand for large semiconductor wafers (e.g., twelve inches in diameter or larger). To achieve effective planarization and polishing of twelve-inch wafers, the CMP polishing pads should be appropriately sized. Accordingly, any footprint restrictions will become increasingly difficult to meet with a CMP machine that utilizes a plurality of unstacked and distinct polishing pads.
Clover, U. S. Pat. No. 5,554,065, issued Sept. 10, 1996, discloses a vertically stacked planarization machine that is intended to provide a physically compact system capable of processing semiconductor wafers. Unfortunately, this machine requires a complex control system that employs an elevator assembly and an intricate cam mechanism for rotating the stacked polishing pads. Thus, while the vertically stacked arrangement may conserve some space otherwise reserved for polishing pads arranged in a horizontal configuration, vertical and horizontal space is sacrificed to accommodate the elevator assembly, control elements, and rotating mechanism. Furthermore, the use of many individual polishing pads to accommodate a higher throughput may yield undesirably nonuniform results from wafer to wafer, and the complex control system may not otherwise function in a sufficiently robust and consistent manner.
The prior art lacks a practical space-saving solution for existing CMP systems that utilize a plurality of horizontally disposed polishing pads. High quality CMP systems can cost millions of dollars; it may not be economical to replace an existing system with an entirely new system or to retrofit an existing system with complicated hardware upgrades. It may also be uneconomical to modify an existing CMP machine to accommodate one or more additional polishing pads without increasing the footprint of the machine.

Method and apparatus for processing workpieces with multiple polishing elements


A method of controlling one or more operating pressures within a subterranean borehole that includes a choke assembly is disclosed. The choke assembly may include a housing having an inlet passage, an axial bore, and a chamber, wherein a portion of the axial bore forms an outlet passage, and a choke member adapted for movement in the housing to control the flow of a fluid from the inlet passage to the outlet passage. The method may include applying a closing force to move the choke member toward a closed position, and applying a bias force to the choke member when in the closed position to reduce an overpressure required to initiate movement of the choke member from the closed position.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments disclosed herein relate generally to subterranean boreholes, and in particular, to systems for controlling the operating pressures within subterranean boreholes.
2. Background
There are many applications in which there is a need to control the back pressure of a fluid flowing in a system. For example, in the drilling of oil wells it is customary to suspend a drill pipe in the wellbore with a bit on the lower end thereof and, as the bit is rotated, to circulate a drilling fluid, such as a drilling mud, down through the interior of the drill string, out through the bit, and up the annulus of the wellbore to the surface. This fluid circulation is maintained for the purpose of removing cuttings from the wellbore, for cooling the bit, and for maintaining hydrostatic pressure in the wellbore to control formation gases and prevent blowouts, and the like. In those cases where the weight of the drilling mud is not sufficient to contain the bottom hole pressure in the well, it becomes necessary to apply additional back pressure on the drilling mud at the surface to compensate for the lack of hydrostatic head and thereby keep the well under control. Thus, in some instances, a back pressure control device is mounted in the return flow line for the drilling fluid.
Back pressure control devices are also necessary for controlling "kicks" in the system caused by the intrusion of salt water or formation gases into the drilling fluid which may lead to a blowout condition. In these situations, sufficient additional back pressure must be imposed on the drilling fluid such that the formation fluid is contained and the well controlled until heavier fluid or mud can be circulated down the drill string and up the annulus to kill the well. It is also desirable to avoid the creation of excessive back pressures which could cause the drill string to stick or cause damage to the formation, the well casing, or the well head equipment.
Referring to FIG. 1, a typical oil or gas well 10 may include a wellbore 12 that has a wellbore casing 16. During operation of the well 10, a drill pipe 18 may be positioned within the wellbore 12. As will be recognized by persons having ordinary skill in the art, the end of the drill pipe 18 may include a drill bit and drilling mud may be injected through drill pipe 18 to cool the drill bit and remove particles drilled by the drill bit. A mud tank 20 containing a supply of drilling mud may be operably coupled to a mud pump 22 for injecting the drilling mud into the drill pipe 18. The annulus 24 between the wellbore casing 16 and the drill pipe 18 may be sealed in a conventional manner using, for example, a rotary seal 26.
In order to control the operating pressures within the well 10 within acceptable ranges, a choke 28 may be operably coupled to the annulus 24 in order to controllably bleed pressurized fluidic materials out of the annulus 24 back into the mud tank 20 to thereby create back pressure within the wellbore 12.
The choke 28, in some well systems, may be manually controlled by a human operator 30 to maintain one or more of the following operating pressures within the well 10 within acceptable ranges: (1) the operating pressure within the annulus 24 between the wellbore casing 16 and the drill pipe 18, commonly referred to as the casing pressure (CSP); (2) the operating pressure within the drill pipe 18, commonly referred to as the drill pipe pressure (DPP); and (3) the operating pressure within the bottom of the wellbore 12, commonly referred to as the bottom hole pressure (BHP). In order to facilitate the manual human control 30 of the CSP, the DPP, and the BHP, sensors, 32a, 32b, and 32c, respectively, may be positioned within the well 10 that provide signals representative of the actual values for CSP, DPP, and/or BHP for display on a conventional display panel 34. Typically, the sensors, 32a and 32b, for sensing the CSP and DPP, respectively, are positioned within the annulus 24 and drill pipe 18, respectively, adjacent to a surface location. The operator 30 may visually observe one or more of the operating pressures, CSP, DPP, and/or BHP, using the display panel 34 and may manually maintain the operating pressures within predetermined acceptable limits by manually adjusting the choke 28. If the CSP, DPP, and/or the BHP are not maintained within acceptable ranges, an underground blowout can occur, thereby potentially damaging the production zones within the subterranean formation 14. The manual operator control 30 of the CSP, DPP, and/or the BHP may be imprecise, unreliable, and unpredictable. As a result, underground blowouts occur, thereby diminishing the commercial value of many oil and gas wells.
Alternatives to manual control may include balanced fluid control and automatic choke control. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,784 discloses an apparatus and method for controlling back pressure of drilling fluid. A balanced choke device moves in a housing to control the flow and back pressure of the drilling fluid. One end of the choke device is exposed to the pressure of the drilling fluid and its other end is exposed to the pressure of a control fluid.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,253,787 discloses a system and method where the movement of the choke member from a fully closed position to an open position is dampened. An inlet passage and an outlet passage are formed in a housing, and a choke member is movable in the housing to control the flow of fluid from the inlet passage to the outlet passage and to exert a back pressure on the fluid, thus dampening the movement of the choke member. The choke device may operate automatically to maintain a predetermined back pressure on the flowing fluid despite changes in fluid conditions.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,575,244 discloses a system and method to monitor and control the operating pressure within tubular members (drill pipe, casing, etc.). The difference between actual and desired operating pressure is used to control the operation of an automatic choke to controllably bleed pressurized fluidic materials out of the annulus.
During low pressure operations and pump startup, for example, choke systems may encounter mechanical "sticktion." Sticktion as used herein refers to the temporary adhesion that prevents movement of choke system components, or the slothful reaction in the movement of the choke system components due to the need for an overpressure to initiate movement. This delay may negatively affect borehole operations.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a system capable of tighter control of system pressure (CSP, BHP, and/or DPP) in maintaining the user set point pressure (the desired pressure to be maintained in the casing, drillpipe, or borehole). There also exists a need to improve the operation of choke systems during low pressure operations.


A plurality of data sequences having patterns distinguishable from informational data are recorded as a servo mark portion of servo information on a disk. Upon decoding a predetermined number of these data sequences, a determination is made as to whether an accurately located servo mark has been detected. The detected servo mark provides a reference from which the beginning of recorded servo burst data can be located, thereby enabling all of the servo burst data to be read. The presence of defects does not inhibit the detection of the servo mark.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for generating and detecting servo marks and, more particularly, to a technique for detecting a servo mark pattern as a unique pattern of data sequences and for generating a timing reference therefrom.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, a magnetic disk having so-called sectored or embedded servo information contains servo information which is utilized for positioning or re-aligning a recording-reproducing head or heads, on the same disk surface as data information. More specifically, the magnetic disk typically contains a plurality of tracks each of which is divided into a plurality of sectors. Each sector in the embedded servo system contains servo, informational, address and synchronization data and may, for example, be formatted as shown in FIG. 1. That is, each sector includes a recovery area, a servo information section and a read/write section.
The recovery portion provides the time needed for the circuitry contained within the associated disk drive unit to change modes as, for example, between a write mode in a preceding sector and a read mode for reading servo information in the current sector. As is to be appreciated, while the circuitry is changing modes, data are not properly read and processed. Therefore, since the disk is continuously rotating, the sector portion which occurs during the time required for the mode change is unavailable for data transfer. As a result, the recovery portion does not contain any servo or read/write data and, as an example, may just contain a pre-recorded high frequency signal.
The servo information section of the sector includes a DC erase portion, a track address portion and a servo positioning burst portion. The DC erase portion typically includes a series of blanks or "0" bits which exceed the number of consecutive "0" bits permitted to occur in other areas of the sector. As a result, when this number of "0" bits is detected by a servo control circuit contained within the disk drive unit, the servo system is conditioned for locating the servo burst data as hereinafter described. The track address portion contains data representing the current track number which, for example, may be expressed in Gray code. The servo positioning burst portion 19 contains servo burst data as, for example, shown in FIG. 2, which are utilized for detecting tracking errors and for re-aligning the recording/reproducing head or heads. That is, any positional misalignment relative to the track being scanned is determined upon reading the servo burst data. The misalignment information is supplied in a closed loop feedback path to the servo control circuit, whereupon the position of the head or heads is appropriately re-adjusted or corrected.
The read/write section of a sector includes an address mark, a synchronization portion, an identifying number and an informational data portion. The synchronization portion contains synchronization data which when provided to a phase locked loop circuit contained in the disk drive unit enables an internal clock or voltage controlled oscillator to be synchronized to the rate at which data are transferred to and from the disk. The identifying portion includes data which represents a sector identifying number. Thus, by utilizing data from the track address and the identifying portions, a desired information data portion can be located. The informational data portion is utilized for writing and reading therefrom user generated data.
It is seen that, in the prior art embedded servo system, upon completing the writing of data into an informational data portion of a preceding sector, a change-over delay in the form of the recovery area allows the disk drive circuitry to change from a write mode to a read mode. Afterwards, if the DC erase portion is properly detected, a timing reference is established from which the servo burst data may be located in either a synchronous or an asynchronous manner. A typical synchronous approach utilizes a phase locked loop data field recorded in the servo information section for synchronizing a voltage controlled oscillator to the rate at which data are read from the phase locked loop data field. As is to be appreciated, the area required for the phase locked loop data field reduces the area available in the sector for informational data. Further, the use of a phase locked loop circuit increases the overall circuit complexity and cost. Moreover, since during seek operations (i.e. the locating of a desired track or sector) the read data may have a relatively large variation in amplitude and phasing, obtaining a proper phase locking may be difficult.
On the other hand, in a conventional asynchronous approach, upon the detection of the DC erase portion, a trigger signal is generated from which a predetermined number of clock pulses is counted so as to locate the servo burst data. However, due to defects which may be present in the DC erase portion, the detection of the DC erase portion and the establishing of the timing reference may not always occur at the same relative location in each sector. Therefore, since the number of clock pulses which are counted after the timing reference is fixed, the reading of the servo burst data may not always start at the beginning of the burst portion. As a result, the length of the servo burst portion may be made longer than necessary so as to insure that sufficient servo burst data are always available.
As is to be appreciated, proper detection of the DC erase portion is required to insure the proper subsequent transfer of data. However, the occurrence of defects known as drop-ins (i.e. erroneous extra data pulses which occur during either the recording or reproducing processing of the DC erase portion) may interrupt the uniquely long sequence of "0" bits so that the DC erase portion may appear to contain several shorter sequences of "0" bits and, as such, may prevent the detection of the DC erase portion. If this occurs, a timing reference is not established and, as a result, the servo control circuit does not properly locate the servo burst data and the head or heads may not be properly re-aligned as previously described. In this situation, the servo burst data may be interpreted incorrectly and may, for example, be mistaken for informational data. Further, defects known as drop-outs (i.e. data pulses which drop-out or are "lost" due to defects occurring during either the recording or reproducing processing) which occur in the sector, for example, in the informational data portion, could cause an area within the informational data portion to be mis-interpreted as a DC erase portion. As a result, the servo control circuit attempts to initiate the above-described procedure for locating servo burst data and, instead of servo burst data, receives the remaining informational data, whereupon the servo control circuit attempts to re-align the head or heads based on this incorrect data. Moreover, in this situation, the remaining informational data is not transferred and processed as informational data.
Thus, the prior art has failed to provide a technique for generating a timing reference from which the beginning of the servo burst portion can be readily located, even if defects are present within the sector, while using a minimal amount of sector area and being relatively inexpensive to implement.

Method for generating a reference signal from unique servo mark pattern detection


A piston having an offset piston bowl for use in an engine having a correspondingly offset fuel injector, wherein the piston bowl has a non-circular or non-annular shape. The non-annular bowl shape is contoured to permit increased spray plume length, avoiding impingement. The bowl is especially useful in a diesel engine having two-valves per cylinder, wherein the injector must be mounted in an offset location because a central region of the cylinder head is occupied by two proximal valve ports. The bowl has a raised inner portion surrounded by a concave outer portion. A peak or apex of the raised inner portion is located closer to a peripheral wall of the concave outer portion at a "short" side of the bowl than at a "long" side of the bowl.

The present invention generally relates to pistons for internal combustion engines and more particularly relates to a piston bowl formed in the head of a piston for a diesel engine having offset-mounted fuel injectors.
In diesel engines, high compression ratios are reached in the cylinders during a piston compression stroke. Fuel injected into the cylinder during this compression atomizes and combusts, creating a spray plume. Spray plume impingement (contact with a surface of the combustion chamber) is undesirable because it causes improper combustion, resulting in black smoke exhaust. Also, impingement creates extraordinarily high thermal stresses and fatigue on the region of impinged piston material, ultimately causing piston failure. Accordingly, adjacent a fuel injector, a compressed cylinder must provide a volume having suitable size and shape to accommodate the spray plume without impingement. An appropriately designed cylinder volume facilitates complete atomization and combustion of the injected fuel during compression by providing an adequate distance for spray plume travel to prevent impingement.
To provide a suitably shaped combustion volume, a diesel engine piston is conventionally provided with an annular piston bowl or recessed cavity in the piston head. The position and depth of the piston bowl is dictated by factors including the position of the corresponding fuel injector, injection pressures, nozzle configuration, and resulting spray plume size and shape. At the same time, the total volume of a piston bowl is desirably minimized in order to permit high compression.
Piston bowls are conventionally formed by machining the piston with a lathe. By nature, the conventional process of "turning" a piston on a lathe results in a bowl surface which is symmetrical and uniformly shaped around an axis of rotation, thereby resulting in a circular bowl shape described herein as an "annular." A conventional piston bowl is "annular" or circular in cross-section as intersected by a plane parallel to a top of the piston.
A typical fuel injector nozzle tip is configured to inject a plurality of fuel streams which are directed radially-outwardly from the tip. Therefore, a conventional piston bowl is typically formed to include a raised central portion or "apex" or "pip" which fills in space directly under the injector that is not needed to accommodate the spray plumes. The bowl apex is desirably centered on an axis under the fuel injector nozzle because a fuel injector tip injects the fuel (and spray plumes) in a more radial than downward direction.
The development of sophisticated, electronically-controlled, high-pressure fuel injection systems for modern diesel engines has been motivated by increasingly stringent emissions regulations. In order to achieve lower emission levels, fuel system developments have led to higher peak injection pressures as well as a wider range of injection timings. Higher injection pressures result in higher fuel spray velocities within an engine cylinder and, accordingly, increased spray plume penetration distance.
In order to avoid impingement of larger spray plumes on piston surfaces, pistons have been designed with increasingly large piston bowl diameters. By increasing bowl diameter, a greater distance is available to accommodate the larger spray plumes. Ideally, as a result of the increased bowl diameter, a sufficient space is provided for the injected fuel to atomize completely combust before reaching a surface of the combustion chamber, i.e., the piston head.
"Offset" piston bowls are known for use in engines having offset fuel injectors. For example, special bowl design difficulties arise in engines utilizing two-valve cylinder head designs (i.e., one intake valve, and one exhaust valve). In order to desirably maximize valve port areas in a two-valve cylinder head, geometry constraints dictate that the intake and exhaust ports extend closely toward each other, substantially occupying the center of the cylinder bore. The fuel injector must, therefore, be mounted in an offset-from-center location. Because the piston bowl is ideally centered under the offset injector nozzle tip, the piston bowl is correspondingly offset as well. Known "offset" piston bowls are annular in shape, and offset bowls are typically formed by "turning" the piston on a lathe along an offset axis.
In engines with offset injectors, a diameter of the annular offset piston bowl has been increased to accommodate increasing spray plume distances for the reasons explained above. Unfortunately, the proximity of the bowl surface to a side of the piston is limited by the structural limits of the piston, restricting the size of a possible annular bowl diameter. Too thin of a piston structure at some point near the bowl could result in piston failure from stress and fatigue. Thus, the diameter of a conventional offset piston bowl is limited so that the piston limits are not exceeded.
In an attempt to accommodate greater spray plume distances, "partially offset" bowl designs have been attempted in an offset piston bowl has an increased diameter, but wherein the bowl position is compromised as being offset relative to the center of the piston, but not optimally centered under the injector either. This unfortunately results in an position of the bowl apex which is offset relative to the injector (the apex is not centrally aligned with the aim of the injector), resulting in impingement on the apex.

Non-annular piston bowl for two-valve engines using offset injectors


A collision warning system for a host vehicle includes a false warning reduction arrangement. A collision sensor senses a presence of a target object within a forward path of a vehicle and a navigation system senses the global position of the vehicle. The collision warning system receives the location information and the target object to provide a collision warning to a vehicle operator. To avoid false alerts, the collision warning system compares target object and location to target objects and locations stored in a false alert database. When the target object is provided in the database, a warning is delayed or suppressed. The collision warning system also senses driver reactions to a warning. When a warning results in no reaction by a vehicle operator, the warning is considered a false alert, and the target object and location are stored in the false alert database.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus to reduce false alerts by a collision warning system.
Forward Collision Warning (FCW) systems are available in the market today. FCW systems use information from the outside world through radar, laser based sensors, or cameras to detect if a target object is obstructing the path of the host vehicle and alert the driver if there is danger of a collision.
In addition to the FCW function, there are now more advanced features in the market that will go the additional step and apply some level of autonomous braking. These operations are called Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) functions.
The objective of the forward collision warning function is to warn the driver if the time to collision is past a certain threshold. This functionality is dependent on the classification of objects in front of the vehicle in a field of view of a sensor.
At times, the radar signals may reflect from traffic signs or large metallic objects in the roadway on the ground with a signal strong enough to falsely classify the detected object as a target object.
If this occurs, a false positive warning will alert the driver when no vehicle is directly in front of the host vehicle. This false alert may be confusing or annoying to the driver, causing a loss of trust in the FCW system. In some cases, the function may even trigger an autonomous emergency braking that will reduce the speed of the vehicle. An escalation may put the driver in danger if it is a false event and other vehicles are tailgating behind. Eventually, the driver may be annoyed to a point of turning the FCW system off entirely or to ignore future warnings.

False warning reduction using location data


A grating (18) couples the waveguide region (36) of a semiconductor laser (11) to a dielectric waveguide (26). The waveguide region of the laser includes a mirror (15) at one end thereof and an absorber (19) at the other end thereof. The dielectric waveguide includes a reflector (24) therein to reflect a portion of the light coupled from the laser to the dielectric waveguide back into the laser waveguide region.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a single wavelength laser with grating-assisted dielectric waveguide coupler.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Optical communication systems typically employ semiconductor laser sources and glass optical fiber communication channels. There are many configurations of semiconductor lasers including various material compositions and various dimensions of the grown layers that form the active region and an associated optical waveguide in the laser structure. The material composition of the active region determines the wavelength of operation. For example, at lasing wavelengths of about 0.9 xcexcm, the group III-V materials of the ternary compound AlxGa(1-x)As with GaAs quantum wells provide a compact and rugged source of infrared light which can be easily modulated by varying the diode current. Communications systems of this type are discussed in Ser. No. 08/248,937, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,064,783, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Light from a laser can be extracted by abutting an optical fiber thereto in known manner, however, devices fabricated in this manner do not lend themselves to semiconductor fabrication. Lasers can be abutted to optical fibers, however the indices of refraction between optical fibers and semiconductor material are so dissimilar that the amount of coupling is very low, leading to an inefficient device. Furthermore, the alignment of the source with an optical fiber is quite tedious when high coupling efficiency is desired. This mismatch of the light field of the laser and that of the optical fiber also affects the amount of light coupled to the fiber.
In the device described in the above noted application, the direct coupling of the semiconductor laser output into an optical fiber was improved over the prior art by providing a semiconductor laser integrated with a silicon dioxide based waveguide having high efficiency coupling of the laser output into the waveguide by an integrated grating to permit the laser output to be coupled into an optical fiber by butt coupling of the optical fiber to the silicon dioxide based waveguide. The grating, when appropriately designed as discussed in the above noted application, provides a matching of the propagation in the laser with the propagation in the glass. The period of the grating determines the wavelength of that portion of the light in the laser waveguide that will be passed through the grating to the optical fiber. Multiple lasers with different wavelengths could be integrated and their outputs coupled and combined into a single waveguide for wavelength division multiplexed operation. A problem with the device of the above-mentioned application is that the narrow bandwidth of grating assisted directional couplers makes it difficult to match them with an integrated single wavelength laser source whose lasing wavelength must lie within the bandwidth of the coupler. The architecture of grating assisted directional couplers typically consists of two waveguides and an optical grating whose period is dictated by the geometry of the two waveguides. The geometrical properties include the waveguide dimensions as well as the refractive index profiles. Generally, the lasing wavelength is governed by an optical grating that produces the necessary feedback to the laser. Precise machining of both gratings must be made to allow for satisfactory operation.
The above noted problems of the prior art are minimized in accordance with the present invention.
Briefly, there is provided a semiconductor laser, preferably of the type set forth in the above noted copending application, coupled on one side of the anode/cathode structure of the laser to a dielectric waveguide via a grating as in the above noted application. The semiconductor laser is formed from either group III-V compound materials or from group II-VI compound materials (the material system determines the wavelength of operation), and preferably includes various hetero-junctions and thin layers that form quantum well regions. Generally, there are two hetero-junctions that form the boundary between a central, high refractive index (relative to the central region). The light generated from the active region (generally part of the central region) is then confined by the high refractive index layer (central region). The coupling grating is formed at the interface of the laser cladding layer and the cladding layer of the dielectric waveguide. The dielectric waveguide is formed from silicon dioxide based materials and preferably phosphosilicate glass which is deployed p-type having from about 8 to about 10 percent by weight of dopant. The dielectric waveguide is preferably phosphosilicate glass with the dopant being phosphorous. The dielectric waveguide includes a reflector, such as, for example, a mirror at an end region formed by high reflection coating the dielectric waveguide facet thereof to reflect a portion of the light therein back through the grating and into the laser to provide the required feedback of the desired light frequency as determined by the grating while all other frequencies which are not passed through the grating are absorbed by the absorber and are not reflected back into the laser active region. The light fed back through the grating will be at the same wavelength as the light initially transmitted through the grating. It follows that the grating is performing the function of both reflection and wavelength selection. In this manner, the desired lasing wavelength is enhanced by the light being fed back whereas all other light wavelengths are rejected or minimized by being absorbed by the absorber.
In operation, broad band light (stimulated emission) is generated in the laser active region. The generated light from the active region propagates to both the front (right direction) and to the rear (left direction). Light traveling in the left (backward direction) is reflected by a broad band reflector (mirror) that may be located at either the edge of the active region or at a distance from the edge. The backward propagating light beam is reflected back into the active region and produces the total beam that is propagating to the right (forward direction). In the absence of the grating coupler, the light traveling out of the front of the active region continues in the semiconductor waveguide section and enters into an absorbing region. As a result, light is not fed back into the active region and, accordingly, the stimulated emission spectrum will not become narrow (i.e., non lasing condition). In the presence of the grating and an auxiliary waveguide that is parallel to the semiconductor waveguide (co-planar geometry), the broad band light within the laser waveguide is coupled (and filtered) to the auxiliary waveguide. The filtered-out wavelength coupled to the auxiliary waveguide is determined by the grating period, grating depth, relative location, and the geometrical and dielectric characteristics of both the semiconductor and auxiliary waveguide. A reflector, which is formed by a high reflection coating on the dielectric facet in the auxiliary waveguide, such as, for example, a mirror, is provided to reflect a portion of the light in the auxiliary waveguide back into the semiconductor waveguide. Since the light reflected by the mirror in the auxiliary waveguide has the specific wavelength (or narrow-band spectrum that was initially filtered by the grating), the light will naturally couple back to the semiconductor waveguide and, accordingly, be fed back into the laser active region. The result is that the stimulated emission within the laser is enhanced only at the wavelength transmitted through and fed back by the grating. All other wavelengths generated from the active region of the laser are absorbed by the absorber at the terminal region of the laser. p While only a single laser is discussed herein, it should be understood that the device in accordance with the present invention can replace one or all of the devices 410, 420, 430 or 440 in FIG. 4a of the above noted application with the grating in each device being adjusted to the desired wavelength.

Single wavelength semiconductor laser with grating-assisted dielectric waveguide coupler


A system for preventing unauthorized access to a network can include a secure container having an access portal for controlling access to contents of the secure container and a security checkpoint configured to determine a state of the access portal and to receive an authorization code for opening the access portal. The security checkpoint can also include a logical lock module that switches to a breach mode of operation in response to a signal from the security checkpoint indicating that the access portal has been opened without receipt of the authorization code within a predetermined amount of time. The system can also include a network switch disposed within the secure container. The network switch is configured to communicate on a network and disable outgoing network communications to the network in response to a breach signal indicating that the logical lock module has switched to the breach mode.

A network switch (also called a switching hub, bridging hub, officially media access control (MAC) bridge) is networking hardware that connects devices on a computer network by using packet switching to receive, and forward data to the destination device. A network switch can be implemented as a multiport network bridge that uses MAC addresses to forward data at the data link layer (layer 2) and/or the network layer (layer 3) of the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) reference model. In the electric power grid, such switches can facilitate Critical Infrastructure network access in remotely located and generally unmanned facilities such as substations or wind turbines.
A magnetic reed switch (or simply a reed switch) is an electrical switch operated by an applied magnetic field. In the simplest and most common form, a magnetic reed switch has of a pair of ferromagnetic flexible metal contacts in a hermetically sealed glass envelope. The contacts are usually normally open, closing when a magnetic field is present, or they may be normally closed and open when a magnetic field is applied. The switch may be actuated by an electromagnetic coil, making a reed relay, or by bringing a permanent magnet near the magnetic reed switch. When the magnetic field is removed, the contacts in the reed switch return to their original position. A magnetic reed switch can be employed to detect the opening of a door, when used as a proximity switch for a security alarm.
An electronic lock (or electric lock) is a locking device that is actuated with electric current. Electronic locks are sometimes stand-alone with an electronic control assembly mounted directly to the lock. Electronic locks may be connected to an access control system, the advantages of which include: key control, where keys can be added and removed without re-keying the lock cylinder; fine access control, where time and place are factors; and transaction logging, where activity is recorded. Electronic locks can also be remotely monitored and controlled, both to lock and to unlock.
An electromagnetic lock, magnetic lock or maglock is a type of electronic lock, and more particularly, a locking device that include an electromagnet and an armature plate. Maglocks can be either "fail safe" or "fail secure". A fail-secure locking device remains locked when power is lost. Fail-safe locking devices are unlocked when de-energized. Typically the electromagnet portion of the lock is attached to the door frame and a mating armature plate is attached to the door. The two components are in contact when the door is closed. When the electromagnet is energized, a current passing through the electromagnet creates a magnetic flux that causes the armature plate to attract to the electromagnet, creating a locking action. Because the mating area of the electromagnet and armature is relatively large, the force created by the magnetic flux is strong enough to keep the door locked even under stress.

Impeding unauthorized network infiltration at remote critical infrastructure facilities


The present disclosure outlines various systems and methods for detecting an optical fault injection within an electronic device and/or preventing the optical fault injection from introducing an exploitable abnormality within the electronic device. These various systems and methods can include systems and methods that can detect or prevent laser injection attacks, which can include one or more small footprint complementary metal oxide silicon (CMOS) light detection circuits, or structures that can shield one or more transistors from a bottom side laser injection attack.

Field of Disclosure
The present disclosure generally relates to securing sensitive information stored in an electronic device and specifically to detecting an optical fault injection within the electronic device and/or preventing the optical fault injection from introducing an exploitable abnormality within the electronic device.
Related Art
In the digital economy of today, consumers are placing an ever increasing an amount of sensitive information onto their electronic devices. The electronic devices include various types of security modules, such as bank chip cards, subscriber identification units, and/or secure contactless cards to provide some examples, which are specialized to restrict and/or prevent access to sensitive information stored within. The sensitive information can include financial information such as bank account information and/or credit card information, personal information such as social security identification numbers, login information for various websites, and/or contact information and/or other types of sensitive information such as encryption algorithm keys, authentication or identification codes, and/or algorithms implemented for the encryption, the authentication, or the identification.
The increasing speed and density of electronic devices, as well as their reduced power consumption, have made the electronic devices increasingly sensitive to a fault-injection attack. The fault-injection attack is an attempt by an attacker to cause an error within an electronic device to cause it to behave abnormally. Thereafter, the attacker can exploit these abnormalities to identify or create a security weakness which can either expose the sensitive information or allow the attacker to simply bypass security measures within the electronic device.
The present disclosure will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the reference number.

Systems and methods for detecting and preventing optical attacks


A toothbrush for use by wearers of orthodontic appliances comprises an elongated handle, a neck and a head. The bristles are designed so that the outermost rows are relatively soft and of long length, the bristles in the pattern gradually shortening in length and becoming stiffer, with the shortest and stiffest bristles being positioned along the center rows of the brush's longitudinal centerline axis. Also, the center rows of bristles are formed to be angled at their ends to reduce the pressure required to deflect the bristles beneath brace elements thus reducing undue pressure against the gums. Furthermore, a flexible member compressibly supports the center rows of bristles. The toothbrush also comprises an outer bumper protectively surrounding the toothbrush head. Moreover, a further embodiment of the invention has a lower tuft of bristles projecting from the lower portion of the handle.

This invention relates generally to toothbrushes, and specifically to toothbrushes for use by wearers of various orthodontic devices such as braces.
Considerable difficulty has been encountered by wearers of orthodontic devices in keeping the teeth clean and free from plaque by brushing with conventional toothbrushes. It is difficult to apply enough pressure to overcome the impeding effect of the braces without injuring the gums and to obtain thorough access to all of the exposed tooth surfaces with the conventional toothbrush bristles. Sufficient pressure must be applied to the bristles so as to reach behind the brace elements. Furthermore, the presence of braces require a back and forth brushing motion which creates undue pressure, thus tending to result in pyorrhea.